Well, we have two VERY excited 4 year olds in our house... The rest of the crew is pretty excited too, but the blog is about the four year olds. :) So, anyways..
Tonight we announced
we were going to see the most famous mouse
and his precious little companions. You have probably guessed it. We are going to Disney World!
Wahooo.
Anna Grace has been begging for a trip to Disney since our last one in 2008. With Andrew's adoption and everything in between we were unable to go '09 or 10 but finally we are going!
I will leave you with this conversation as we told them that made everyone laugh :)
Mom: Anna Grace and Andrew, Guess what?!! Them: What??? Mom: We are going to DISNEY WORLD! Anna Grace: OH MY goodness! YAYYYYY Mommy! My heart is just so,so happy! Andrew: Disney World? I wanna go to Nana's.
Anna Grace never ceases to amaze me..here are some of my favorite things about her right now :)
She is in love with anything that has wings or sparkles. her favorite movies range from Power Rangers to Tinkerbell Her favorite thing to wear is anything that doesn't match. She loves to tell people what to do. and they listen. She rules the house and knows it. She can rock a tutu and cupcake shirt like no other Oh, and her kissy-lips are the best thing since peanut butter and jelly. ;) I love my girl.
So, if you see my lovely header you will notice it is slightly blurry. I cannot get it to fix. My firends have tried, I have tried and nothing has fixed it. If you know anyway to...PLEASE let me know. Whoever can solve this gets a free blog design ;) thank you in advance! Ashton
January 21, 2010 was a day forever etched in my heart and mind. It was the day a little boy walked off an elevator, completely unaware of what was happening, and into the arms of his forever family. For us, It was one of the happiest days of our lives. For Andrew, it was the saddest, hardest, and worst of his. Yes, he had a hard life in the orphanage but that was his home. The Nannies might have been mean but they were the only "Mama" he had ever known. Everything the sweet little one had held dear was slowly being ripped piece by piece away from him and he didn't know what to do. We were in China trying to love him and speak to him and connect with him but he didn't understand. He spoke a different language. Love and Vocally. We looked different {blonde hair, blue eyes, glasses, etc}, We talked different, We ate different, We wanted to hug and kiss him, and we just wanted to love him. Something so foreign to him. The time in China was amazing, don't get me wrong. It was beautiful and perfect and we were so in love. Andrew blessed us from the moment we saw his face on May 1, 2009 . When we arrived home in February everything hit. It hit hard. We were alone. Andrew couldn't communicate. He was upset, confused, and so lost. He had no idea what was going on. Andrew taught us how to love like crazy. He slowly learned to love us. We loved him all along. the good. the bad. the beautiful. the ugly. ALL worth it. Andrew is a cleft affected child and his language is finally coming along SO well. We are so so so proud of our little man! He is proud too. He is doing so well in speech and is coming along beautifully. The journey of Andrew was hard, I am not going to lie. We had a lot of hard days and a lot of good ones making the hard ones worth it. We dealt with grief hard. The kind of grief no 4 year old little boy should have. Tears on both behalves and a lot of prayers begging God to heal hearts. We spent so many nights before Andrew came that God would heal Andrew's mouth and help his mouth to be ok {cleft lip/palate} We didn't realize that praying for Andrew's heart was needed, too. We prayed God would help heal the hurt in his heart and make him whole again. He did. God was so very faithful. Andrew is a precious loved Child of God. Jesus loves him so very much. We love him so very much! Throughout this entire year there have been so many ups and downs. So many nights of crying and nights of celebrating another step in our progress towards Andrew's bonding! We never imagined what adopting an "older" child would bring...How could we? We didn't know how a 4 year old little boy could rock our worlds. He blessed us in so many ways. God has taught us SO many lessons and so many things through this little boy. He even proved that Andrew's verse "With God ALL things are possible" was a PERFECT fit for our little man. After the long road to him and how God intervened and made clear he was OUR son there is no way to deny this is the verse for our boy. Andrew's story has just begun. On January 21 his old book of Orphanage life and others was put to the side. A new book of life with a Forever Family and becoming what God plans for him to be was opened and I feel so blessed to be all through this first year in his book. He has so many stories to tell. He has lived a life most would never, ever choose but it is HIS STORY. Every up, down, joy, and sadness is all Andrew. I cannot wait to see how God colors his "book" this year. I know it will be amazing, beautiful and perfect. Just like Andrew is. We love you sweetness. Happy Gotcha, Baby. Look at how far we have come.
As we are approaching our One Year Gotcha for Andrew I cannot help but take a step back and just look through all of our crazy ups and downs throughout this year. This year was like no other, I assure you. It was a year filled with many tears {joyful and not so joyful} and a lot of celebrating. Firsts and growth were in order all the same and many new things that awaited us. This time last year we had never met Andrew. We were busily packing and rushing to get EVERYTHING ready for our big trip to China! We were SO excited and the thought of holding Andrew in our arms was seriously too much to bare. Our last Sunday spent in America and without Andrew was spent with Family. We went to the movies to see Avatar, to Outback and then headed home to watch a movie in my mom's room. It was a picture perfect thing. So precious and if I could go back to that moment RIGHT NOW, I so would. I would do it all over. When we arrived in China we didn't know what to think...We were about to meet our babies! About to add another child to our family and change our lives {and his} forever! It was a crazy thought. When January 21 finally arrived nerves were shot and we were complete crazies. We all couldn't sleep and were so excited/scared we didn't know what to do. We walked around the hotel, ate breakfast and then went to the ninth floor, cameras in hand, tissues waiting, and the sweet backpack for Andrew in the corner. Surrounded by all of our sweet friends and family who were waiting for their child too. It was truly unforgettable. Then, Helen {our guide} asked me to accompany her downstairs to help get the babies up. My heart sank to my knees and I was so excited I couldn't stand it. Madison, Taylor, and I headed down stairs. Finally those little feet walked off the bus and something came over me. Tears started to flow and I was having to remind myself to breathe and not to touch him! We rode the elevator up with the babies and took off as soon as it opened. 4 precious children were led off the elevator and into the arms of their Families! What a MAGICAL moment that was! We did not know what was to come after that Gotcha moment. The bonding, the love, and the heart break. This past year with Andrew has been amazing and it has been hard. We have had to teach a child all new things. He had FOUR years in an orphanage and did not understand family. He taught me how to love in so many ways. God has transformed this little boy. He has molded his heart into such a beautiful thing. This time last year Andrew didn't know what a family was or that he had a family 5 days away from him! This year, Andrew is loving his family and we are SO thankful and so undeserving of this beautiful blessing. Thank you God for our Andrew Hudson JianHui :)
The past 2 weeks have been a jumble of all kinds of things. Our last week of Christmas Break was spent hanging out at home, going to American Girl, and having fun! We all started back to school and attempted to get back in the normal schedule this week. Anna Grace and Andrew got the Croop and were out of it until about Thursday. I hate when they feel bad ): Thankfully they are feeling much better!
On Wednesday Dec. 28 we went to Amer*can Girl with Kathleen, MollyClaire, AnnaGrace, and Lydia for MollyClaire's birthday! It was so much fun and so special. Anna Grace got a bitty baby and I got a bitty twin. {Yes, I am 15 but I couldn't resist.} We spent the day shopping in the mall and then went to the bistro inside American Girl. We got desserts to share and the whole experience was something you could never forget. It was an amazing day. The whole group! Anna Grace and AnnaGrace
I got a sponsor child about a month ago who is in Uganda. I was so excited. Her name is Zalia and she is 7. How beautiful is she?! Go here if you would like to sponsor a child as well compassinmyheart.blogspot.com
Today was a huge day. We got almost 9 inches of snow! That is a big deal for the people around here. The snow is beautiful and the boys have been running around outside all day. We have no school today or tomorrow and it is still snowing! Who knows when we will go back :)
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