Forever Family Day!

Eight years ago today a small, scared baby girl was put in our arms! She could not sit up or rollover or even smile....with in a week she was giggling, rolling over, grabbing for toys, and sitting up (with a little help)! We can't believe it's been eight years! Today we are honored to be chosen to be parents to Regina Ya Xuan Fuster. Today we bless and honor her birth parents and China for giving us the most wonderful gift in the world.


As you can see we (Nick and I) tried everything to scan in photos of Regina's match pictures and this was the best we could do!

Our beautiful eight year old! Almost nine!!

CCAI OPEN HOUSE AND REUNION

CCAI's open house was so much fun! It was wonderful for everyone to meet LuLu! Pam and Sara were so excited. Sara cried, I cried..... We hadn't gotten a picture with Josh and Lilly in a long time so that was nice. Regina and Lilly are from Hunan! Regina played so many games and shared her prizes with her sister. I met Josh's sister who is doing work in Henan and she knew LuLu....man did I start crying when she was talking about her in the orphanage. She had longer hair and it would stick to her head it was so hot (this explains why she wanted her clothes off all the time when she joined our family)! She would stand in the hallway with her friends and she was very pale because they didn't go outside very often......what a sad start to a little girls life. We now know that is why she always is so happy when we go outside to play.
We ate homemade dumplings that Josh's mother made I think they were the best I have ever had here in the US! All in all the day was excellent, Regina had a blast, Daddy and LuLu bonded and ate lots of dumplings and Mama got to show off LuLu and Regina and meet some of my cyber space friends.

Lilly, Josh, Regina and LuLu in the CCAI entrance. They truly are wonderful people.

They are the owners of our adoption agency we used for both adoptions.

The begining of summer

LuLu has alot of first so far this summer
running through the sprinkler (she didn't like it very much!)
the Zoo
the carousel (she didn't like it very much)
train ride she loved it
playing cooking with Hunter the neighbor boy
sharing Mom with her sister since Regina is now home full time school is out!
having her own room (she is always so grateful for her clothes and toys its so cute)
playing in the mud with her sister
laying in the grass watching the clouds
growing her own flowers
flying a kite
swinging in a big kid swing
I'm sure there is more but that's all I can think of right now.
she has many more words now my favorite is when she or someone sneezes she
"bess you"

We are looking forward to a relaxing and fun summer. It will be a time for Regina and LuLu to bond (keep your fingers crossed for this one)! I will try to post pictures once in awhile of our summer fun!




sprinkler fun well Regina and I thought it was fun!

Hunter and LuLu playing she loves Hunter

Beautiful girls!

We drove through Ft. Collins on the way to our friends lake cabin and saw a restaurant named LuLu Asian Bistro!

my first Iris!

Regina loves to stay in her jammys and read at least the first few days she is out of school!

Nick and LuLu flying a kite

Denver Zoo

ice cream face!

Nini and spring is here!

Regina reaching for the sky

Two new sister's finding out that they do really like each other

hool a hoop queen

I love this picture, they both look so cute

beautiful Regina

LuLu loves her NiNi

first meeting with NiNi for LuLu

girls mud and dirt oh fun

LuLu is a very athletic girl

DUDE! doing the dog course

Rocky Mt. high Colorado! Love it!

It's amazing to me how when you get home with your new child to blog is a thing of the past! We are trying here but it takes a lot of effort to do it!! We love to read other peoples blogs and give hope to those of you who are waiting or about to travel. Reading blogs for the past 3 years was one way for me to feel that it will happen one day and boy did it!

My girls (waited a LONG time to say or type that) are amazing and they both amaze me every day. LuLu is learning so many English words and understands everything!! She is a very smart, articulate little girl, everything has a place. Regina the free spirit does not care about what she wears or how her "things" are. LuLu has many a time straighten out Regina's "things"!

A few of LuLu's new:

I sorry MaMa, Jie Jie, BaBa (she knows this because of the hitting and spitting)

NO

YEA

peeze (please)

more eat peeze

Ollie

Dude

Kelly

Lily
pizza
bye

hi

OK

booboo

pee

poo

pen

paper

mmmm

yummy

ooolala

She loves to play with the neighbor kids! LuLu has been to 3 Birthday parties.

It is so much fun to see how excited she gets to have a play date with Lily or Zoe.

Our neighbor boy Hunter is a huge hit with her.

We have been hanging out at Regina's school more since its almost the end of the school year and LuLu LOVES it and so does Regina she loves it when we come and hang out. The other day I went and introduced LuLu to her class and man did I get the questions! So not ready for those questions but hopefully I helped some young people understand the word adoption........

for your viewing pleasure.....

Beautiful sisters!

Playing together with Easter Basket goodies! Our Easter was well "tantrum city" so didn't take very many pictures!

LuLu loves to make this face and do peace signs

Decorating eggs!
Nick and Regina do this together every year and this year LuLu helped a bit but ate the most!

Our future skier, she loved being

with us skiing in Eldora

some random shots while in Eldora

sometimes when I ask LuLu

to smile she does this with her fingers to help her smile

and they call this sister love ...............................

Princess LuLu

Yes............. LuLu uses the doggie door

Our neighbors and friends made us dinner for a week when

when we returned from China it was a life saver!

THANK YOU!!

Some friends stopped by to see and meet LuLu and brought gifts for the girls here is LuLu in her new TuTu !






Presents waiting for the girls when we got home! My friend Debra sent them dolls! Our neighbors stocked our fridge, made us dinner, and decorated the house! So the girls got presents and MaMa and BaBa were well taken care off also!

This sign was on our garage!

Hunter you did a very good job!

Before we left for China my friend Tina had this made for me

I wore it the whole time in China. Thanks Tina






I want to once again say thank you to all of the love and support you all gave us on this adventure.

LuLu every day is speaking more English and she also uses sign language. She is a very, very smart girl. The tantrums still come but not nearly as much! She is hugging and kissing us. She dances, she knows a whole Chinese dance and loves for us to sit down and watch it.

Regina is starting to really understand that LuLu is here to stay so she might as well start liking that fact. Regina can be such a big help to me and she is such a loving girl that soon the two of them will be hanging out, dancing, playing and the best part is they will always have each other........