Micah's Wheels

Micah LOVES to ride his bike.  He rides it all the time.  In fact he rode the wheels right off it.  The same thing happened last summer.  And even though Radio Flyer agreed to replace the frame again, we decided it was time for Micah to graduate to a big boy bike.  Plus, this gives the bike half a chance of lasting until Noah grows into it.

Here are a couple of pictures of my big guy on his new bike.  He looks so grown up.  Don't worry, he always wears his helmet when riding unless he's posing for pictures.  

Easter Weekend

Happy Easter! He is risen! We had a great Easter weekend. Bruce was on a funeral detail on Saturday so Micah and Mama headed off to the Easter egg hunt. We somehow managed to miss the hunt for Micah's age group, but our friends Laura and Matthew shared their findings with Micah and he was thrilled!
Fishing for duckies (huh?)
Micah wanted to jump in the jumpy house with the big kids.
Of course, the Easter Bunny hid Micah's Easter basket while we were at church. Mater!How did the Easter Bunny know that Micah loves M&Ms?
This is how Micah tweets!
A new book from Nai Nai and YeYe:
And a personalized truck from Lao Lao and Lao Ye:
The truck was soon hauling Legos!

And baby makes four!

On March 12, we celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary by submitting a letter to intent to adopt this sweet little boy. And now that we have received our pre-approval from China, we would like to introduce him to you. His name is Guo Xin Hua and he is currently living in the Kaifeng SWI in the province of Henen. His name means new, magnificent and spendid. He was born in November 2008, so he is 16 months old now (I think these pictures were taken at about 9 months.

We are just waiting for our immigration approval in order to submit out dossier. We hope to travel about 6 months after that. I can't wait to see that smile in person!

A great read!

There are a lot of good books out there. Like, a lot. But great books are few and far between. Great books are those that leave you a different person than you were before you read them. For me, great books include the Bible, Watership Down, Kite Runner, and The Waiting Child. And now another great book is being re-released: Silent Tears. Kay is a really cool lady - you can keep up with her on Kay Bratt Uncensored.

Orlando!

We just got back from an awesome trip to Orlando with my parents. Micah really enjoyed the time with Lao Lao and Lao Ye. We were able to spend several days at Disney theme parks while we were there. First stop - Magic Kingdom. We learned that Micah has outgrown his fear of large costumed characters and he was thrilled to have his picture taken with Pluto.
The next day we made a pleasant trip to Disney Hollywood Studios. Micah got to meet Mickey Mouse in person! Mickey even signed Micah's Mickey Mouse stuffed animal.
Micah really enjoyed the Honey I shrunk the kids playground.
But his favorite thing was meeting Lightning McQueen and Mater. He even got special permission to touch Mater's hook.The next day we celebrated our Forever Family day. It's hard to believe that it's been two years since this sweet boy came into our lives. What better way to celebrate than by going to Epcot Center. Micah was tall enough to ride Soarin' and really enjoyed it - he's a regular thrill seeker. He liked the Nemo ride too. We visited China while at Epcot. Micah thought we would get a baby while we were there. If only it were that easy.
On Friday, we went to Sea World. They let military families visit for free. Gotta love that! Micah loved the Shamu show!
My brave boy rode the Shamu roller coaster. He's so big.I can't get enough of this smile!
Before heading home we went to Downtown Disney. We rode the tethered balloon.The view from the top was amazing.The very best part was spending time with family...And eating Mickey Mouse ice cream!

Newest Member of our Family

Meet Leia, the newest member of our family. We decided that since she didn't have a  family, we would invite her to join ours.

Healing

If you look at the blog, it probably seems that all we do here is eat ice cream. LOL But it's true that our after school snack is often a popsicle or push-up because Goldfish or other crunchy snacks are off limits.

Ashley asked how Micah's palate and throat looks. I have been trying to get a picture of the healing stitches and haven't had too much success. I guess I'm not a good enough photographer to take a picture of a dark cave with a camera that is larger than the opening. I can't get the flash to illuminate the part I want to see. Below is the best picture. You can see the stitches behind his tongue. The opening back there seems pretty small. No wonder he is snoring. It does seem better as the swelling has gone down.

Micah still snores off and on every night. The quality of sleep has improved significantly, but he still wakes a couple of times every night. The night terrors seems to have left us. Hooray! We visit the surgeon tomorrow for his assessment of the healing and to find out when we can start introducing a regular diet.

The whole point of this procedure was to improve his speech. We are hearing great improvements in /b/, /p/, /d/, /t/, and /s/. We've even heard a couple of /k/ sounds! That part appears to be a success.