Another year older!!

And I'm finally on vacation! My school district summer program ended yesterday and as my first official day of vacation... I'm celebrating my Birthday!! How nice of them to end it so I wouldn't have to work on my B-day!!

And so much to catch up on here...

To start is my weekend at Heather's what a great time we had. I arrived on Friday afternoon and within ten minutes of being through the door of her BEAUTIFUL home I felt like I was home with family. I settled right in, got comfortable, and we started chatting away. Her home is so much prettier than her photos from the BPOH could show. She has awesome style and decorating skills to compete with the finest of decorators. And her hubby, John, well this man ROCKS! I had not laughed so much in awhile. We enjoyed some finer moments of sarcasm and humor that were quite hilarious. In the evening we did some food shopping for the big BBQ, had some dinner and chatted the night away before realizing we should get some sleep.

The Waiting Families/Forever Families was a HUGE success. So many different people with different personalities, all with the same common "thread". I enjoyed meeting each and everyone of them and their GORGEOUS children. Heather's Co-Host Chris and her hubby Tim (aka Shirley... LOL, Leah you are priceless!!) came with loads of food and drinks and were ready to help get things set up. Matt & Shannon along with their daughter Chloe were the first to arrive, Joanne & Kurt and their daughter Kelsey came after. Then came Heather's sister Kristin (Tin) and Mr. Mason (OMG Gorgeous)and her Mom, Then Erin & Michael and Wendy.

The star of the day was none other than Stephanie and her two daughters, Leah & Maya. Stephanie and family had just returned from China on Monday, and I don't know about the rest of you, but I want to know how she managed to look so amazing and be so personable on top of major jet lag and adjustment to life with a family of four. This girl can hang. What a treat it was to look into that beautiful baby's eyes and dream about what it will be like.

Everyone was so nice and those that had BTDT were wonderful in sharing their experiences and journeys to those of us that haven't yet. It was by far a wonderful day and I hope we will all stay in touch and get together again some time in the future. I am always humbled by the friendships I have created by the use of this dumb computer. What a true "journey" this is. I'm so glad to have people to experience it with.

Here is some AMAZING CUTENESS from the day... courtesy of Heather (of course!!)




You'll have to jump over to Heather's site to check out the rest!!

In other BREAKING NEWS....

My good friends Jane & Erik have announced the REFERRAL (WHOOOO HOOOOOO!!!) of their beautiful daughter Madeline Jane Xia. She is a waiting child in the province of Shaanxi, and she is a little over two years old. What a beautiful girl she is and I can't wait to meet her in person. CONGRATULATIONS Jane, Erik & Big Brother Connor!!! Here she is!!!



So now I will sit with my coffee, in my jammies and enjoy this first day of vacation... I will have lots of fun birthday stuff going on this week.. Dinner with Mandy & Kathy, A.C. with Kelly & Jay, and dinner with the folks. I could get used to this very quickly!!

Enjoy your day!