Jiangxichildren : Jiangxi Province Children

I belong to several yahoo groups all for different reasons. Shortly after receiving Sophia's referral I joined a yahoo group that is for the Jiangxi Province. Jiangxi is where Sophia is from, Wanzai city to be exact. The Jiangxi yahoo group much like other province groups are very helpful to information starved families that are waiting to travel to get their children. They help to educate families about what to expect when they travel. They connect families to others that have adopted from the same area. Once home they help to keep you connected to what is going on in that province and with the children that have come home from there.

Below I have included the link to the group

Jiangxichildren : Jiangxi Province Children

Today I clicked on the group to see if there was anything new going on. Much to my delighted surprise up popped Sophia's pretty little face. A few weeks back the moderator of the group asked all of us to send a referral photo along with a current photo of our children so that they could be shared on the home page of the group. I was so excited and proud to see her on the home page. Here is the photo they used..

I am so proud of her and I swear she just keeps getting prettier everyday

Sophia at 6 months old and Sophia at 22 months old

10 months and 1 day

Today is 10 months and 1 day since we first held Sophia in our arms. I am sure you are wondering why I am writing today, instead of a few weeks from now when we celebrate the One year mark of our referral for Sophia or two months from now when we will be celebrating our 1 year mark as a "Forever Family". Well not to worry I will write then too, but I wanted to write today because today is the day that Sophia has Officially been with Riz and I longer then she was with her foster mother in China. I get emotional just thinking about it.I can't imagine caring for a Child for 10 months and then having to give that child away never knowing what happened to her or if she was OK. I have so much admiration for those who are able to foster children. I think about how much our lives have changed and been blessed because of Sophia. Her life is so different now then it would have been if she were still with her foster mother in China. I am not saying better just different then it was. I think of Sophia's Foster Mother every single day with a sense of overwhelming gratitude for this women I will never know. I have written about her before many times. I will never stop talking about her because she is the person that held my baby at night when she cried and feed her when she was hungry dried her tears witnessed her joy and nurtured her into the happy,smart,funny,intuitive,strong, beautiful girl she is today. We look at her pictures with Sophia frequently and she has learned to say "Cha N" (China). I want her to know about this women and the little bit of information we know about her. She is part of Sophia's story her beginning. So while I feel really happy about how far we have come in 10 months and 1 day I also feel a bit of sadness for this women. I wonder if she thinks about Sophia. I wonder if she knows that she was adopted internationally. I wonder has she seen our pictures. I wonder if she realizes how much we love this child. I wonder if she knows we will forever be grateful to her ............

You Know You're An Adoptive Parent When...
1. The fact that there are 143 million children without a parent to kiss them goodnight has made you lose sleep.
2. You realize DNA has nothing to do with love and family.
3. You can't watch Adoption Stories on TLC without sobbing.
4. The fact that, if 7% of Christians adopted 1 child there would be no orphans in the world, is convicting to you.
5. You spend free time surfing blogs about families who have experienced the blessing of adoption.
6. It drives you crazy when people ask you about adopted child's 'real' parents.
7. You have ever been 'pregnant' with your adoptive child longer than it takes an elephant to give birth.(2 years!)
8. You had no idea how you would afford to adopt but stepped out in faith anyway, knowing where God calls you He will provide.
9. You have ever taken an airplane ride half-way around the world with a child you just met.
10. You believe God's heart is for adoption.
11. You realize that welcoming a child into your heart and family is one of the most important legacies you could ever leave on this earth.
12. You know what the word 'Dossier' means, and you can actually pronounce it!
13. You have welcomed a social worker into the most private parts of your life.
14. You shudder when people say your child is so lucky that you adopted them, knowing full well you are the blessed one to have him or her in your life.

-Author unknown

Happy Spring

We just wanted to wish everyone a very Happy Spring. We have had beautiful weather here in Florida. This picture is from a photo shoot we did with Sophia on Saturday. I will post more of them in the next few days over on her blog Simply Sophia. We also have vacation pictures to post along with pictures from Easter. I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter Holiday. Ours was wonderful because we finally had Sophia with us. I will post more later about her first Easter Egg Hunt and Easter Baskets (yes that is plural... LOL). I have also not done Meal Plan Monday since we have been back from Vacation but I will get back to that next week. In the mean time I hope to catch up on all my blogging.

So much to post about

I have so much to post about..

Sophia turned 2 on March 31at and we hada birthday bash for her (pictures to come)
Riz turned 41 (no pictures of that LOL)

The three of us have been on Vacation in Savannah Visiting Wendy and the girls.Then we drove to Atlanta to see our friends and China travel mates the Loves. We took in the Terracotta warrior exhibit at the high Museum and the Atlanta Zoo while we were there. (Pictures to come) and now we are in Amelia Island because we got stuck in 3 hours of GA traffic on the way home. (Pictures to come)

Tomorrow our good friends are coming for a visit with their 2 beautiful kids. (I am sure there will be pictures of that too)

I had Starbucks at 5 so I am still awake at 1am and just entered a blog giveaway over on Maisie Eats Bentos. This is one of my new favorite blogs and is becoming an obsession of mine. Wish me luck... Check out Maisie Eats Bentos here......

Life is to short

I saw this on two of the blogs I follow and had to spread the message......get a tissue

Meal Plan Monday

Check out "I'm an Organizing Junkie" for her and many other meal plans for this week. I get a lot of good ideas from her readers, I'm sure you will too...

This weeks meal plan will actually be for two weeks because we are leaving for vacation on Sunday the 29th for a week. I am going to be super busy this week preparing for our trip. I hate to come home to a dirty house so I have to do that among other things. So the meal plan this week is full of not so healthy food but I will be working on that in the near future. I decide rather then try and do a meal plan while we are away I would just post the two weeks today..So here it is..

Meal plan for week of March 23rd- April 5th

Monday - Cheeseburger Hamburger helper

Tuesday - Chicken Tacos and all the fixings

Wednesday - Ziti, meat balls, salad and garlic bread

Thursday - Left overs (which usually means grilled cheese or some sort of take out in our house) We rarely have left overs and if we do have them and they are enough for an other whole meal we freeze it for a future nights meal...

Friday- Hot dogs and Macaroni and cheese

Saturday- Sophia's second Birthday Party so party food :)

Vacation begins

Sunday - We leave for vacation and will be at Wendy's we always go to our favorite Mexican restaurant our first night in Savannah, Ga. Jalapenos is a great place for Mexican food if you are ever in the Savannah area.

Monday- Will be a toss up not sure yet where we will eat but it will be out I am sure.

Tuesday - Sophia's actual Birthday so we will celebrate at our favorite Japanese Restaurant Heiwa's and then have cupcakes from Bake in the day Bakery. Riz, Wendy's and Kate's Birthday's are also this week so we will be celebrating their birthday's as well.

Wednesday - We will be leaving Savannah and head towards Atlanta, Ga were we plan to take in the sights of Atlanta and see our friends and travel mates from Love Times Two. We are looking forward to seeing them. We will eat out this night but not sure were yet.

Thursday - Riz's birthday so his choice I'm guessing The Varsity for a Chili Dog and a frosted Orange...He has simple taster really LOL. We will be spending the day at the High Museum taking in the Terracotta Warrior Exhibit from China.

Friday - I think we will be having dinner with our travel mates

Saturday - We head for home so food on the highway...

Sunday- We have friends coming in from Ohio who used to live around the corner from us. We plan to have dinner with them so it will either be our favorite Chinese restaurant that I am sure they have been missing or Mexican (we have great Mexican restaurant's in our town.)

Happy St. Patrick's Day

We are Floridians but I think we are misplaced. We were really meant to be Georgians...It is at this time of year that we feel it more then any other time. Is it because of the HUGE St. Patrick's Day celebration that takes place every year on March 17th in our favorite Georgian city.. Maybe but strangely enough we have never actually been in Savannah Ga. for the actual celebration. We have been there just before and just after the big day but have always tried to avoid the sleepy moss draped southern jewel during that time because the crowds swell to make the city bustle with activity. We say every year that next year we will go but have not made it yet, well maybe next year... I think at some point we will wind up living in Georgia maybe not Savannah but it will always be our favorite place to visit. We are going in a few weeks for a few days and are really looking forward to some time away from work were we can just spend some good quality family time. We love introducing Sophia to the things we love so much. She is growing so and blossoming into quite a little spit fire. She is so excited to see and learn new things these days that we are looking forward to this trip with excitement. We will be staying with our good friend Wendy and her two beautiful girls Kate and Claire. Sophia has been practicing saying their names, it is so cute.Then we are off to Atlanta for Daddy's Birthday and we plan to celebrate by taking in "The First Emperor China's Terracotta Army". They are on exhibit at the High Museum through April 19th 2009. We will also be spending some quality time with our good friends and travel mates Jonathan and Susan and of course their two beautiful girls LilyKate and Eleanore. We are really looking forward to seeing them again and seeing how much the girls have changed. Sophia kisses the picture of the girls that is on our fridge multiple times a day and attempts to say Eleanore and LilyKate but usually says Baby and points to each of them. I can't wait to see what she does when she sees them in person.

Sophia's Birthday is also coming up soon but I am saving that for an other blog post...

Tonight we will celebrate St. Patrick's Day in honor of my mothers side of our family. They are full blooded Irish, with the last name of Carr what else could they be right? We will be eating the traditional Corned Beef and Cabbage, Potatoes and Irish Soda Bread. and maybe a few green beers too...:) Sophia is decked out in her "Kiss Me I'm Irish" t-shirt and a cute little skirt daddy's cousin Christine sent to her. Complete with"Kiss me I'm Irish" hair bow and green socks. I tried to take pictures before work to post here but she was not cooperating this morning. She was obsessed with her pink Dora purse and some blocks. I will take some tonight and post them to Simply Sophia later tonight, don't forget to check back later for some Green Cuteness...

Have a great day and I close with one of my favorite Irish blessings...

"May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields,
And until we meet again,
May God hold you
In the palm of his hand."

Meal Plan Monday

Don't forget to check out "I'm an Organizing Junkie" for lots of great meal plan ideas....


Our plan for this week is pretty simple really

The usual for Breakfast and Lunch See last weeks post for those..

Dinner will be as followers

Monday -Grilled Chicken Pasta with lemon butter sage sauce and broccoli. This is a tossed together kind of meal not separate items on a plate...

Tuesday - Corned Beef and Cabbage, potatoes and Irish Soda Bread (Really could it be anything else?)

Wednesday - French Bread Pizza made on garlic bread with fresh Mozzarella cheese and Rome tomatoes and a salad

Thursday - Left overs

Friday -Shake and bake pork chops ( not they did not get eaten last week again LOL), Crashed potato's (these are so yummy) and green beans.

Saturday - Sophia and I will have Flounder in a lemon butter sauce and Riz will have Grilled Chicken with the same sauce (he does not eat seafood), Rice and Fresh Cauliflower and Broccoli.

Sunday we will be having a picnic at the park with friends.. :) I hope if they are free :) Hint Hint are you free? LOL..

I promise to blog about something other then what we are eating in the near future...LOL

Meal Plan Monday

Spring Cleaning update...Well my list was a bit ambitious for one day. That coupled with the fact that Riz's back was out and we now have a toddler in the house proved to make Spring Cleaning a bit more difficult then in years past. I was not completely disappointed with the progress I was able to make however. I did get our living room, Dinning room, Kitchen and downstairs bathroom done. So downstairs I have our Family room, Sophia's toy room and the Office (the worst room in the house) left to do. I am going to work on all of that next Sat. This of course does not even take into account the whole upstairs still needs to be done with the exception of Sophi's closet and drawers which started this whole project last weekend. My goal is to get it all done by the end of next weekend.

OK now on to this weeks Menu Plan.......There are some repeats from last week.. One night we no one was hungry so we had Pot Luck...So Italian Chicken is moved to this week. We did not make the Chopped steak because we had to make a run to the store for cleaning supplies after work one night so we got Chinese food (a favorite of all in our house)...

I am adding to the meal plan this week by adding in Breakfast and lunch ...

Breakfast: Riz and I both eat Toast or Cold Cereal and Coffee for breakfast..sometimes a piece of fruit will be added in...

Sophia: Drinks a yogurt and has a piece of fruit along with one of the following each morning..

Grits

Oatmeal

Cream of Wheat

Egg

Pancakes (no syrup)

French toast (no Syrup)

Waffle (no Syrup)

Lunch: for us is random.. We both work for the same health care company so we are frequently treated to lunch by pharmaceutical Reps. If that is not the case we generally bring Tuna or Egg Salad from home or maybe left overs. Once in a while when the need to get out of the office is high we go out for lunch. I usually have coupons for Arbys, or some other fast food joint (I know not health food but what can I say)...

Sophia: Has for lunch most days one of the following along with a Veg and a piece of fruit...

Fish Sticks

Tuna Salad

Egg Salad

Chicken Salad

PB&J

Chef Boyardee Spaghetti and Meatballs

Monday - Pasta, Garlic Bread

Tuesday - Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup

Wednesday - Shake Bake Pork Chops, Brussell Sprouts, Rice

Thursday - Chicken Tacos and all the fixings

Friday - Chopped Steak, Crashed Potatoes, Green Beans

Saturday - Sloppy Joe's, Tater Tots

Sunday - We will eat out (going to Disney with my -in-laws)

Last but not least don't forget to click on over to "I'm and Organizing Junkie" for more great Meal Plan Monday Links...