Gawd I hate lazy bloggers such as myself

Where does the time go? Can't believe that we are almost done with February, time just seems to pass faster and faster, but we seem to never get anywhere with all the time flying by. I think we are at 17 months at this point, not sure as I don't really keep track anymore, I figure there will be a day somewhere in the future when we get this random phone call that says I am looking at a picture of your daughter. We will say " oh yeah that's right we're adopting"

So much has happened since I really stopped blogging. I know that so much of what we talk about is in reference to our exchange student Shiyu. She has been such an important addition to our family, and we really can't imagine what a loss to our family it would have been had we decided not to have this experience. Really I can't believe what an amazing girl she is, she is so brave, smart, funny, cute, dedicated, motivated, and just an overall great girl. Some of you will get to meet her, and you will just be struck by her smile, and friendliness. She is going to do extraordinary things with her life. We really understand what a negative experience this could be if you were not matched to the right child, but for us they could not have matched us better. Hopefully we will be matched as well with our daughter. We will really miss her so much when the time comes for her to leave, and we really look forward to visiting her and her family in China, and we really look forward to her coming back to go to college....hopefully in Texas!!


We have had so many first with her, and it makes things that we take so for granted so much more fun and interesting. Her first homecoming parade, her homecoming mum, going to football games, her first choir performance, her first Halloween, and pumpkin carving, lest not we forget her first Thanksgiving, Christmas parties, decorating the tree, going to see the Christmas lights, Christmas, New Years, a trip to visit her cousin in SD, making the JV tennis team, making the math team, going on her first college visit to Rice University, her first American version of spring festival, and welcoming the year of the rat. She has become such an American girl, and if you just saw her walking through the halls of her school you would think she was just an Asian American girl, and while she still loves so much about her country, and misses her family and friends back home in Chongqing, she has melted well into our American life. She dresses like an American teenager, she likes to do what most American teenagers like to do, and she can't wait to go to college just like most American teenagers. If you ask her something she replies with "No, I'm good" she will yell from upstairs....."Mom.....do you know where such and such is"? she sounds sometimes just like an American teenager. Her English has improved so much. She would tend to not agree, but she seldom gets her translator out anymore, she hardly ever ask me anymore what something means. I am really proud of her. If only you could have witnessed her talking to the Rice admission officer.....she was so mature and asked such good questions, and made sure that they understood that she would make a great addition to their school.


It will be strangely quiet around here when she leaves. I will not have anyone here to help me with my Rosetta Stone Chinese, she won't be here to walk Gracie, we will not have anyone to cook yummy Chinese food for us, and no one to teach me all the computer tricks that she knows. I won't know how to turn my flash on and off on my camera, and she is always showing me news things on my phone. What are we going to do without her??

Well there is nothing really left to say that is terribly interesting. I hope you enjoy all of the pictures from the last 6 months that I have been so lazy to not get up. I will post more later in the week. We have some fun spring break plans, a few more college visits, a visit to Taylor, and a trip to San Fran in June. We also have a new puppy coming. But that news will have to wait for different day.

Hope all is well on your end, and I will try and do a better job of keeping up. I started this blog with the intention of it being about adoption, then it went to just the monotony of our lives, and now I am just at a loss of what to talk about that would be of any interest to anyone. We all certainly know that there is nothing on the adoption front that is positive, so we will just let that one go. I guess when the next round of referrals come out that we might finally get to say goodbye to 05' I guess that is actually an act of god, because it sure feels like they have been working on 05' forever!!