Avery gets a special gift from church!!

When a child enters kindergarten, our church gives a gift and has a ceremony to enter the world of school. This special gift is a bible!! Our hope is that this bible will become the foundation of her life as she learns to read. We hope it will be the thing that guides her and transforms her life. Attached is a picture of Avery and I at the ceremony as she receives her gift. She is so excited because now she has a book like her parents!!

Avery meets her teacher and starts kindergarten!!!

The time has come for Avery to start school. Although I was not ready, she couldn't wait!! Before school started, Avery got to meet her teacher and see her class room and loved it!! Her teacher's name is Mrs. Davis and she loves her. Attached is a picture of Avery and Rylan walking to school on the first day of school. Rylan did not start school, but enjoyed taking Avery to school and wanted to stay with her sister. Avery told Rylan that this was her school and that she wasn't old enough to start here. When I dropped Avery off, I kept wanting to stay and make sure she was going to be okay. Avery was fine and ready for me to let her go, but I of course I was holding back the tears as I said goodbye. It truly seems like yesterday that I had her at the hospital and held her in my arms. Now she is headed off to school for for the next 12 years of her life and I am down on my knees a lot more praying for protection and guidance as she ventures out into the world of school. I have also put pictures in my photo gallery of her classroom and teacher. Please feel free to look!!

A Baby Shower for our future son!!

When we got back, our sweet friends and lifegroup from our church wanted to have a baby shower for our little son. It was honoring and very special to me to have all our friends around to celebrate the birth of our son. Being back at home has really made me be so thankful for the things I have and especially for the special friends that live here. I will miss them deeply. We are truly blessed beyond measure and I am so thankful to God for giving me the opportunity to allow our paths to cross. Not only did they have a shower for me, but also for another friend who was having a little girl a week after me. Attached is a picture of her (Denise) and me in front of the shower cake. Isn't it the cutest cake ever!! Thanks to Amanda Haywood for making so sweet and yummy!! Also many thanks to the ladies that put the shower together...Neysa, Amanda, Melinda, Jennifer.P, and Sara. It was great. I will also post some pictures in the photo gallery of the shower!!

Swimming in the states in our subdivision at Eagle Springs

When we made it back to the states, one of the first things the girls wanted to do was go swimming!! We have a pool in our subdivision that has slides and the girls love it. We have a bunch of friends that live in our neigborhood. As soon as we got home..we headed to the pool as much as we could. We loved seeing the blue sky again and although it is hot here..it was nice to relax in a clean outdoor pool. Here our some pictures and I will add some to our photo gallary!!

 

Pictures of our apartment in China

It is hard to imagine that we have been back in the U.S. for almost 4 weeks now. It has been very difficult to adjust to being with out our husband/daddy, but we are managing. There is so much to say..so I think I will first back track and talk about our apartment. People have been wondering what our apartment looks like so I took pictures before we left. We live in a highrise apartment. There are 6 buildings in our highrise that are 30 floors high. We fortunately live on the 3rd floor and like that way. The apartment is approx 1800 square feet with 3 bedrooms and a study. You will see from the pictures it is fairly modern. When we left we still did not have our furniture, but had loaners to live with. Chris finally got some of our furniture last week and is suppose to get the rest this Monday. We will see since Chevron decided to break ties with the company that provided the furniture. Attached is a picture of what you see when you stand at our door. We have huge windows and the scenery isn't too bad. Please look in our photo gallary to see the rest of our apartment if you would like. I plan to post more when we move back so you can see the finished product if that ever happens!!