Trunk or Treat!

Kalyn came out for our Trunk or Treat--thank you Kathy, for letting us get a photo of them together. I know she was tired! Isn't that elephant suit cute? Kathy's mom strikes again! Greg and Kathy are Alabama fans, so of course, Kalyn needed to be an elephant. In true Auburn retaliation, I got out JT's old tiger suit for Luci.
So pretty. Kalyn reminds me of some of the girls John saw at the orphanage in Kabul. Absolutely beautiful. (But Kathy and I know the best thing about Kalyn is that she's a sweet girl!)
Bryan was a cowboy. Isn't his suit funny? He had a posse of little girls running after him most of the night.

JT was the Karate Kid! (Okay, so this is a photo from a few weeks ago. I didn't get a shot of him on Saturday! He took off as soon as we got to the church property and played the whole time, so he wasn't exactly wanting to pose for Mommy.)

Pumpkin Patch With Our FCC Group

FCC stands for Families with Children from China. Our group is called the Shoals Ladybugs. We had an outing to the McGee Farm. It was a lot of fun, and we all took scads of photos. Here are some:

Kalyn is looking forward, but Hannah isn't.
Now Hannah is looking at us, but Kalyn is looking elsewhere.
Kalyn's facing front but Hannah has passed out of the picture and now Kara has popped in!
Our newest beauty, Olivia. She came home less than a month ago!

Luci shows off her prize pumpkin. "I found it myself!"
Bryan gets the prize for the tiniest pumpkin. They were hard to find since it was so close to Halloween, and quite a few schools had been there in the previous weeks.
JT milks a cow. ??
Such concentration!
Bryan really got into this. He didn't act like he was too cool for all of the fun, which John and I appreciate so much!

JT had fun watching Luci and then created a scary face on his pumpkin.

Kalyn!
Luci and Hannah. I think Hannah and Luci favor each other.

Friends!

The corn crib was a favorite. These kids, Zach, Katie and Kara, are siblings (adopted, not natural siblings). They were a lot of fun to be around. Most of the rest of us families wish we could go get another child or two from China, just like their parents did.
Luci really liked this, which surprised me.
Now, this gave me a near heart attack. Luci climbed up on this hay bale again and again, and jumped off--most of the time without holding on to John's hand.


Just an odd photo. I like how it came out, even though I didn't intend for it to be blurry.

'Way Back in Albuquerque...

I wanted to be a giraffe when I grew up! Albuquerque was where we lived when I was little--1 year old to 5, I guess. I was always told, "you're too little!" by Mom and Dad and all three of my big brothers. That's no fun! To counteract that, at age three I decided to be a giraffe when I grew up--never again would they say I was too little! The bonus was that I'd also be able to reach the cookie stash Mom kept on top of the refrigerator.

Three Years Ago

Three years ago, a beautiful baby was born in a Bouyei village in Guizhou, China. I don't know what tragedy made the parents leave this precious little bundle at the door of a tiny store, but she was found and eventually this baby made her way to our house. She is just what our family needed...named Luci (light) Vivian (alive). What a great description of what this little girl gives to us--she is light, certainly, and she energizes us!

Here is Luci today with the clothes that she was wearing when the orphanage director brought her to us in Guiyang, on August 15, 2005. The clothes swamped her then, at 15 lbs. They fit just right now--at nearly 30 lbs. See that pacifier in her mouth? That was tied around her neck (yes, really!). This little shirt was underneath the red outfit. She had on striped green socks, cute little red sandals, and a diaper tied around her waist with that yellow string she's holding in her right hand. There also were bits of brown paper toweling (the kind you sometimes see in bathrooms) stuck to her backside, used when they changed her diaper.


We talked a little about that "gotcha day" and looked at some pictures from our trip to China. Luci took off the orphanage clothes and put on her princess dress, bounced from the room, and proclaimed, "I got a mommy and daddy!"

Luci and I have several movies that we like to watch. Two current favorites are Rolie Polie Olie Baby Bot Chase and Annie. Both are about children finding their "forever families." We watched Rolie Polie Olie first. We talked about the twins, Cootchie and Coo, lost in space, and that they needed a family. Rolie Polie Olie's family eventually adopts them. It is a cute movie--the babies are taken care of on a "Mother Ship" shaped like a mommy robot, and the subject of adoption is throughout, using words like "forever family" and "find out where they belong." It is obvious even to Luci that they belong with Rolie Polie's family. The Mother Ship made it easy to talk to Luci about the orphanage she lived in, how someone took care of her and many others at the same time, and it is not a scary topic to her--of course, that would be so different if she were older when she was adopted. She was just 9 1/2 months when she left there and has no real memory of it. (When we got home from China, she used to shy away from the pictures of her from the orphanage, as if it were a bad memory she was trying to avoid, but she no longer does that. Time heals many wounds and fades some memories.)
After seeing Rolie Polie a few times (more like a million!) we watched Annie together. Without saying anything to Luci about Annie's situation in life, we watched. I saw some things unfold in Luci's mind that showed me so much about how she thinks--and how deeply she feels for others. Annie got to Daddy Warbuck's house and was shown all the perks of the house. When Daddy Warbucks finally acknowledged Annie's presence, Luci said, "she needs a forever family. She needs a Daddy."

We watched and loved that Daddy Warbucks took care of Annie in his own funny way. Luci was thrilled that Annie was getting a daddy. Luci's big on happy endings...although "being rescued" is not currently the recommended thing to be teaching young daughters. I don't have any problem with happy endings, growing up to be a princess. Every one of the heroines in the movies and stories we've seen have been strong young women who knew what was good and what was evil, and they were rewarded in the end. That seems pretty good to me. Luci has had one fairy tale ending already in her little life--only it was really a beginning. Who's to say there won't be a few more happy beginnings to come?

Matthew's Eagle Scout Project

Now, before you all get excited and wonder who Matthew is, and why haven't we told you about this child of ours before, let me explain (a la Ricky Ricardo: "LUCI, you've got some 'SPLANIN' to do!") . Matthew is the son of one of my Feingold friends. He made this fountain to earn his Eagle Scout rank. Matthew's mother, Sheila, wanted to show our Feingold friends his wonderful work and I offered to post the photos here so we could share it with our Bulletin Board buddies on the Feingold board. But if you don't believe that, I will be happy to claim Matthew as my own.

The fountain is in Illinois, at " The St Francis in the Woods" Convent/Chapel which is a retirement home for nuns. A spiritual center is also there.

The Man Cave

John and Bryan spent quite a few days and evenings making a room out of nothing in the basement. They put up sheet rock and made a drop ceiling, added lighting, doors and baseboards. John picked out colors for the walls and concrete floor, and then, because that wasn't enough activity, he and Bryan built that enormous loft bed. They had lots of fun creating and the best part, according to Bryan and JT, is that girls are not allowed! They have spent hours down there playing noisy video games. Bryan's had one sleepover already.

(For those of you who noticed and might be concerned about the computer down there, away from parental supervision, rest easy. It is not connected to the Internet.)

Luci's First Real Big-Girl Haircut

Luci's had a trim before, and was looking forward to getting her hair cut--after all, it means getting a lollipop at the end! We want to let her hair to grow long, but right now it looks so scruffy and needs some shaping up. We requested (and got) a cute little bob that looks so sweet on Chinese girls.

Before...
During...
Luci got quite relaxed...
and After. Rita cuts our whole family's hair. She is the nicest person at the Designing Salon.

Celebrating the new 'do at Cracker Barrel. That cute outfit was made by Millie, Kalyn's grandmother. Isn't it cute?
After a quick trip to the mall to buy a new, big, orange hairbow, we hit Foodland. That tiny buggy makes Luci look all grown up. I love this haircut!

Doing a Handstand, Her Way

Birthday Party! I Am Free!

At our house, generally the early birthdays are at home, with just family. Supper, birthday cake, and presents. Last year's blow-out was an anomaly because Luci won the drawing at the Shoals children's museum. We are back to normal this year.

Here are some pictures from Luci's early birthday celebration. She was thrilled by her cake and presents. She will tell you she is FREE (three)! She waited through four family birthdays this summer, asking each time, "Where's MY cake?!" Well, Sweetie, here it is! Luci (so happy!) and the bite out of her cake.
JT thought Luci needed some help. Kalyn, he was really paying Luci back for what she did at your party.
The boys taught Luci to get the frosting off the candles...unfortunately, it also looks just like they are teaching her to smoke!

Nana and Papa, the book of animals and the coloring book are right on target!
I kept seeing all these cute children in their mommy's blogs and couldn't figure out just what made them so cute--besides their natural beauty, I mean--it was the hair bows! So here we are making up for the lack of hair bows in previous posts.
Bryan and JT showered Luci with lots of balloons.

Nana and Papa also sent this book for the rest of us--well, really for John, Bryan and JT. It is a smash hit! This book has all kinds of things in it, from snakes and spiders to making a battery with quarters and aluminum foil to how to approach girls (I'm thinking it's the chapter on girls that makes this book "dangerous").
John brushing up on the "girls" chapter, seeing how he's supposed to deal with me. Good luck on that one, Honey.
Bryan loved Luci's doctor kit.
JT trying out Luci's new LeapPad toy.