Happy Birthday to My Teen

Where has the time gone. Almost two months has passed. Can you tell that we are busy. I don't even have time to post. To bring folks up-to-date - we've celebrated my big birthday, Christmas, New Years, Eric's Birthday, Chinese New Year and now K's 15th birthday. We watched the Super Bowl (Yea Steelers!!!) and had a surprise BD party for K as part of the super bowl party. I can't believe that 15 yrs have passed since I held a beautiful baby in my arms. She has grown into a beautiful young lady. She recently auditioned for the All-District Honor band. She placed 12th out of 44 flutes for the 9th & 10th graders. Unfortunately, only the top 10 flutes participate in the band. She just missed the cut-off. But from what she heard, the top 10 are mostly 10th graders and had some of the highest scores ever seen. She feels pretty good about placing 12th. So now she is training for pole vaulting for the track team. I don't know about that, but it's what she wants to do for the Spring track season. She also just got her report card and again made straight A's. And got a level 4 on the EOC test in math. We are very proud of her accomplishments.

SJ is becoming quite a talker. Sometimes she never stops talking. And you can understand her pretty well. She is almost totally potty trained. We've only had a couple of accidents since Christmas and those are at night. She loves to look at the pictures of her SWI sisters and knows their names. She is very bright and keeps all of us on our toes. I will post pictures when I get them downloaded from the camera. With K's activities and only one computer, it will take me a little time.

Disney

Last week I had the opportunity to travel to Orlando for work to attend training. The evening hours allowed me to do a little sightseeing. So I was able to take advantage of attending Mickey's Christmas Party. The lights and icicles on the castle were beautiful.

SJ sang on Sunday with the Cherub choir. She really didn't know the song, but she knew that she needed to use the song sheet that the director uses. The children were so cute. Although the picture doesn't show it, SJ just could not keep her shoes and socks on. She was up there barefooted. I wonder what the folks in the church thought.

Our little Duckie

SJ was a duck for Halloween. I'm not sure she enjoyed being in the costume but she loved getting her pumpkin filled with goodies.

My "A" Honor Roll Girl

I need to brag on K now. Report cards came out about a week ago. Our wonderful daughter "K" was on the A Honor Roll for her first 9 weeks. She has worked really hard and we are so proud of her. She is also in the Flying Falcons Marching Band. The Band has done well this year in two competitions. The first competition was the Freedom Marching Festival. The band received a Superior and 3rd drum and horn line. The second marching festival the band received a Superior, 2nd place overall and 2nd place drum and horn line, 3rd place drum major and 3rd place flags.

Princess for a Day

Once upon a time there was a girl who dreamed of being a princess. She loved to ride her horse. One day she went riding and met a beautiful princess who was celebrating her birthday. The little girl was invited to the magical castle and was transformed into a princess for a day.

The four princesses.

As you can see, SJ was invited to be transformed into a princess at AG's birthday party. Angel put so much into transforming the garage into a castle - fit for a prince and princess. Her son was also having a birthday party and all the boys were tranformed into princes. Sarah really enjoyed the party and playing dress-up.

Officially & Forever Ours

SJ is totally 100% ours now. She always was, but we wanted to do the re-adoption in the US courts for the ease of future paperwork. So on September 30, the judge made it official. We are now waiting for notice from the Vital Records office so a new birth certificate can be issued with us listed as her parents.

K is busy marching in several events this week. It started on Monday at the country club, then Thursday for the Battle of the Bands, Friday night - football game and finally Saturday - Freedom Festival. Next week it will be a little lighter, but on Friday it's homecoming.

15 months & 1 day as a TNT family

Fifteen months ago a beautiful little girl was placed in our arms. She has now lived with us longer than she was in the orphanage. So much has changed for all of us during the past 15 months. She talks non-stop (well only if she knows you), she loves to sing & dance. She is doing quite well with potty training. I would say that in a couple more weeks she may be wearing regular panties. So far for the last several days, she has come home from daycare wearing the same pull-ups she wore to school. But she gets lax when she gets home. I haven't taken her out of the diapers at night yet. Maybe soon, but she is not dry when getting up in the morning.
K is doing well in school so far. At the 1st 9 weeks, she has a 107% avg. in Algebra I, and 97.?% in Honors World History class. Of course PE & Band are "A's". Tomorrow we hope to visit one of her Xiushan sisters for her birthday. But it all depends on the gas supply. If I can fill-up SJ and I will go down the mountain.