Catching up

Our weekend in review!! Where does the time go?!

Lots of playing ...

Sunshine is such a busy girl all. day. long. She never stops! It's so cool to watch her "work" ... she is so curious and is constantly learning new things! She is really good at playing by herself most of the time and loves that play kitchen! Her favorite toy so far is the tea set - you can see bits of it laying around in the pictures. She likes to imitate us having tea by stirring things with spoons - love!

In that last shot, you can see her demonstrating a skill she had just figured out - scooting ON something ... totally quicker and more efficient :-) We are all about efficiency in this house!

Next up, we have 2 videos - the first one is a super-fun clip of Sunshine splashing in the baby pool with Angel & Lovebug. She is such a water baby and had a blast! I pieced the video together from several clips I shot while we were outside, so you'll see it broken up a little.

The second video was taken earlier tonight as we were finishing up dinner with her. She is getting really good at imitating us and THIS one is hysterical, I just had to share. The little nose crinkle is about the cutest thing ever. LOL.

I know I am her mom, but I stand in awe watching her ... we have our tough times just like any other family but she is such a happy, well-adjusted baby girl. She is affectionate and sweet and looks to us for approval. She is so smart and is picking things up so quickly! It's truly miraculous to watch God work through her. I have already learned so much from her and I know it's only the beginning. It is such an honor to be her mom ... to be given the opportunity to watch her life unfold and help her grow. Wow, just in awe. God is so good.

And then we have Lovebug making a super-goofy face with a mouth full of Noodles. LOL. This is a pretty typical sight at our house - Lovebug being goofy AND him having a mouth filled with macaroni :-)

I'd also love to include a shot or 2 of Angel, but she is in a "no pictures, please" phase ... I feel bad because she has been kind of neglected on the blog, but she refuses to take any pictures for me! Actually I guess both of the older 2 have been neglected a bit recently ... but I have lots of catching up to do with Sunshine!

A quick update on the medical stuff - we are off to our Cleft Clinic appointment tomorrow. It's not invasive, just long. We'll meet with the surgeon who will do her surgeries, his amazing nurse ... along with a speech pathologist, a dentist and orthodontist, a geneticist and an ENT. Oh, and she'll have a hearing test. Woooo! Long day, but this is the last doctor's appointment with the cleft team before her first surgery on Aug 18th! Hard to believe we are less than a month out!

And one more teeny weeny piece of information about something huge, totally wonderful, and absolutely a God thing ... our dear, dear friends, The W.'s, will be meeting their baby girl in China in about a half hour! You may remember me writing about them - they are the family that received their referral the same day as us ... their daughter was born the day before Sunshine, in the same province, taken to the same orphanage, with the SAME special need of CL/CP. Our families have been forever intertwined and our girls will always be China sisters ... heck, they are practically twins! Just amazing how God weaves things together, isn't it? The people that are placed in your lives ... wow, just so cool. Anywho, if you'd like to head over to their blog and follow their journey (which will practically be the same as ours!), don't forget to leave them some love with an encouraging comment or two! It's so helpful to read them while in China!

ANGIE & CLINT - If/when you read this - We are praying for you and can't wait to see your baby girl in your arms! I have been thinking about you non-stop, we are right there with you!