Ice Storm

As you may have heard on the news, Kentucky has been dealing with a bit of ice lately. Fortunately, we only lost power for a few hours, but some have been without it for eight days now. People have even had to resort to getting their water from streams since water treatment facilities were also affected. It is bitterly cold here right now. Here are a few pictures of the ice before it melted. (We had two warmer days and got melting.)

Chinese New Year

We had two events we attended for CNY to help celebrate the Year of the Ox. The first event our whole family went to a Chinese dance and then we went with a large group of families to eat at a Chinese restaurant. Claire and Laura were able to see several of their friends including Oakley, and Lillie, who they had their picture made with. It was a lot of fun seeing all of Claire's "China friends".


The second event we attended was with another group of "China friends" and a lovely lady from China demonstrated some Chinese dances for us and then she allowed the children to all join her on stage as she led them through the steps of the dances. The girls loved this. She even gave them each something to wear for the dance. Laura had a vest and Claire had a headband.

Celebration

We always like to celebrate Claire's Gotcha Day by going to P. F. Ch*ng's for a special dinner. She gets to open a little something to mark the day. This year she got two books and a bracelet that we had gotten in her province, Guizhou. It is hand-made sterling silver. Since Claire's most favorite dessert is always chocolate anything, we always order her the Great Wall of Chocolate Cake. This year we had them add two candles to celebrate her two years home. (I got that idea from our travel-mates who did this with their sweet AnnaClaire.)

Two Years Today!

Two years ago today at 8:00 am, the most amazing little girl was placed in our arms. She didn't cry at all, but she she studied us very intently. Her SWI director kept telling her we were her Mama and Baba and she would look at the correct one each time the director said that. We adopted Ling Ling the same day. We were told her name translated to mean "a unique clever girl" and she certainly is that. We called her Ling Ling for several days and added Claire to the end some. Eventually we called her Ling Ling Claire and when she was ready, just Claire. We decided to keep Ling as part of her name and she is now known as Claire Reagan Ling.

I can't describe to you adequately how much this wonderful child has enriched our lives. She makes us all smile and laugh every day. She is a constant source of joy and she has blessed us beyond measure. She is God's gift for our family.

The pictures above are from the first moments we got her and the one with the ball is after we got back in our hotel room. They were all taken on our Gotcha Day.

Here is our very short Gotcha Day video.

The picture below is from today. Two years later. Claire is 4 years old.

The Princesses Trick-or-Treat

This collage is a "Then and Now". Last year, Laura was Mulan and Claire was Snow White. This year, Claire was Mulan and Laura was Cinderella. It is amazing how much Claire has changed in 12 months!

Collage

Pumpkin Decorating

The kids carved their pumpkins a few nights before Halloween. Claire drew the face she wanted on her pumpkin and James carved it for her. Chase designed his own after a favorite video game and Laura did her own with a pattern. Unfortunately, Connor had strep and didn't feel like participating and then he had school activities that kept him from doing one the next couple of nights. I did include a picture of Connor with Claire. We had decorated pumpkin shaped brownies and cupcakes last week and Claire decorated one for her Connor.