Almost back to normal

Things are going pretty good for Addison. We got her walking casts off and she is walking again. It didn't go as quick as she thought it would but, everyday is getting better. Her feet were so stiff and swollen that she just took baby steps for days. Her heels touch the ground and her bad foot does not turn in as much as it did. All and all the surgery was a success. The Dr. is suggesting one more minor surgery for the fall. He said he could completely straighten her bad foot. We will probably go ahead with that but, right now we are just going to enjoy the summer. As for the summer we are camping and just love it. The girls want to camp every night and, there is a beach at the campsite so that is all they need. They both love water. I spend most of my time packing and unpacking from camping and thinking about what food to take out for the next weekend but, it is so relaxing and people needs more of that in there busy lifestyles. At least we did. HA!

I just love this picture. Addison, Ali, and Sydney looking out the back of the Pontoon.

Who needs a swimming pool when you have buckets and totes!

Addison still had her walking casts on so thank goodness for Walmart bags.

Easter

Easter Egg Hunt at Grandma's House

Daddy helping find Eggs

Easter Sunday

Doing good and going back to School

Wow, is all I can say. Addison has done so well considering how much work the Dr. did on her feet. She went back today for a checkup and the Dr. said everything looked good. I asked him if she could go back to school and he said if she was up to it, but just try a half of a day for a week. She really was not suppose to go back until next week but, she gets around so well in a wheelchair I don't think she will have any problem. I don't think she is in a big hurry because being in a wheelchair with two orange legs is not cool when you are in second grade.

She just informed me the other night that when she was in the orphanage a boy put something in her ear and it was still in there. She told me that it hurt when she pressed on it and it has hurt every since we have had her but, she didn't want to tell me. I have really questioned her about this but, she insist that there is still something in her ear, so we are making a appointment with ear and throat specialist just to be on the safe side. She is going back into the hospital on May 15th and being put under for a little while to have a pin removed from the back of her foot so while she is under the Dr. said today that if there is something in her ear they can remove it. I sure hope she doesn't have anymore good news for us.

She got to pick the color of her cast

Surgery is over

I never got a chance to update and let everyone know that surgery was moved to April 3rd and now it is behind us. The Dr. did what he could do to straighten her foot out and did some work on the heels of her feet. He said she would really be sore. She is now sleeping but the meds are making her sick. Will update a little later

New Surgery date

Well, I am sure most of you know Addison didn't get to have surgery. We had all the arrangements made with school, lessons, preschool, but it was a no go. We got up real early and headed to the hospital. Addison had a little cough but, I didn't think much about it. We got all checked in Addison had her hospital PJ's on and then she coughed . It didn't take the nurse very long to take her temp. She looked at me shaking her head saying "she has a temperature and they won't do surgery so, I will go tell the Dr." Well, her temp was only 100.3 so when the nurse left the room I was digging in my purse for my wet wipes so I could start rubbing Addison's head down. We went with the Dr's. orders and came home. He said because it was such a long surgery and he was putting pins in her feet he wanted her to be completely healthy. We have rescheduled for April 24th. I really didn't want it this late in the Spring because she will be in casts for 6 weeks but, she will still have most of her summer left. So now we need to rearrange our arrangements.

One of Two Chinese New Year's

Every year we go to two Chinese New Year's. One is here in our town at the Chinese Restaurant and the other one is in Cambridge at the Chinese Restaurant. Robin and myself are from the Cambridge area so my Mom and sister joins us each year. It is so fun to see all these beautiful little girls growing up.

Addison's Birthday Tea Party

I am not a big birthday person that goes all out for their kids birthday so Sydney (my grand daughter) came over and the girls had a Tea Party. I went to Goodwill and bought some clothes and a teapot and just like that we had a Tea Party. Addison and Ali had so much fun helping me set it up. They were so excited to get dressed up. They tried on what they were going to wear the night before and when the girls woke up the next morning Ali said, "Wake up Addison, today is your Tea Party". I also bought each of the girls a little purse filled with makeup and perfume (love the dollar tree). We put all the clothes and hats in there toy room so they could pretend that they were going shopping and pick out what they were going to wear. The only thing that I wish I would have done was changed the menu. I only planned this the day before her party so I had already bought stuff to make pizza. If I had it to do over again I would have had little finger food, but it didn't make any difference to the girls, they had a ball and got to pour tea from there Tea Pot and drink punch from wine glasses.

Here's our table before the guest arrived

Three little diva's

Hello darling!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


"Sydney did you hear what Ali said about You"

"No, I didn't say anything Sydney"

The Purse Cake

Addison was being a little diva in this picture. She had candles

that kept lighting and Ali was helping her blow them out and

she didn't like that

We made picture frames with old vintage buttons and I printed

a picture of them dressed up to put in their frame.

Addison pouring her a cup of Tea
This picture speaks for it's self

The DS Dilemma

I am sure everyone reading this knows what a DS is. Well, maybe not because I only realized what they were a few months ago. I knew my Grandsons had them but, I was not sure what they were. It didn't take Addison very long here in the states to know what a DS was and know that she wanted one. She wanted one in the worse way for Christmas. Now ,they are a little expensive and the games that go with them are also expensive. Ali also wanted a DS for Christmas but, I didn't feel she was ready for one yet so V-tech makes a hand held game that I thought I would be able to pass off as a DS for 4 years olds. Well, that plan only worked for a couple of weeks when Ali got to following Addison around begging to play her DS. It was non stop everyday begging and begging. Addison was so good letting Ali play the DS but, I was a nervous wreck because I was afraid that Ali would break it and Addison would be devastated. When I would tell Ali to go play with her 4 year old DS she told me that it was Daddy's DS. Daddy made out with Ali's misfortunes from Christmas. He now has a V-tech and Spongebob operation game that Ali was terrified of. HA! So the moral of this post is we have spoiled girls and Ali has her own DS. I don't know who was more excited about Ali getting a DS Ali or Addison because she doesn't need to share anymore.

Ali fell aleep playing Addison's Ds while she was at school

laying across the bar

Addison is now home from school and Ali just gets to watch and

wish

Life is pretty good . Addison, Ali and Daddy now
have a DS

Tentative Surgery Date

We have a tentative surgery date for Feb. 27th. There is a possibly that there will be a cancellation and we can be moved up to Jan. 28th. We are really hoping for the Jan. date because the Dr. said that Addison will be in recovery for 6 weeks and I don't want her to miss to much outside time. She just loves riding her bike and playing outside. The Dr. is going to repair both feet so it looks like she will need to be in a wheelchair for awhile. I really hate to put her through it but, I know we will be glad we did it after it's all over. The Dr. said he wouldn't be able to make her feet perfect but, he was pretty sure that he could make them better, and that is all we want.

Getting Addison's feet fixed

Addison was born with Club Feet, and when she was 4 years old she had surgery in China. Even though we are thankful for the surgery that she had we don't feel that it was a success. She still walks with some problems. We took her to a specialist when we first came home with her a little over a year ago and he told us he could do some repairs but, there was no hurry. We decided to wait until she was with us for awhile and gained a little weight. (She was so tiny when we got her). We have decided to go ahead and put this behind us and fix what can be fixed on her feet. We have an appointment in the morning, Jan. 12th at Akron Children's Hospital to see when and what is going to be done. I really hate to put her through this but, I think she will thank us when she gets a little older. I will post more later on what the Dr. had to say.

You can see she can't put her heels down. The right one is actually up about 2 inches.

When she walks, her left foot turns in alot. The Dr. told us the first time we seen him that he could take some bone out of one side of her foot and put it in the other so her foot then that would straighten her foot out .

Playing in the Snow

The girls have waited and waited for it to snow enough that they could play outside. We were suppose to get this big snowstorm so building a snowman was on the agenda. It ended up only snowing a couple of inches and before the girls got outside we had some freezing rain on top of it so the snow turned into a crust, but we still had to go out and stomp around in it

Wardrobe malfunction. Ali needs gloves that go to her elbow

Santa Came!!!!!!!!!!!

Santa spent way to much money

Battery operated Mustangs will work for now
It's a DS, just what I wanted

Mom , Dad Look What I Got

My Pride and Joys

Needless to say this is what I live for Everyday

I do love my kids and grandkids

Who said there wasn't diversity in our family

My grand-daughter and my Mom

(Her great granddaughter)

My grandson, Is he a doll or what?

Look out girls!!!!!!!!!!!

The Christmas Season

The girls and grand-daughters in a car going to town

Oh to be young again!!!

Ali was a Christmas Package

in the Town Christmas Parade. It was bitter

cold that night and by the end of the parade Ali

wasn't a happy present

Icing the Christmas Sugar Cookies!!!!


Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

LIGHTS-ACTION-CAMERA

We had the Grandkids and our girls sing before they could open presents Christmas Eve

Everyone has said that there is a stage in Ali's future but we just don't know what kind of stage. The girls are in a Hip Hop dance class and there dance studio picked some of the classes to do a Christmas show. Well, of course both of the girls classes were picked for the show. A Year Without A Santa Clause was the show they did. Addison was a Heat Miser and Ali was a Dog and preformed to Who Let the Dogs Out. It was a really cute show and both girls did good. Some of the classes were even picked to go to some of the local elementary schools the day before Christmas break and preform for the kids. Addison was one of the dance classes that went. She really thought that was something. The girls are done with dance class for a while because of getting Addison's feet fixed. We plan on returning again in the fall but, the girls haven't decided what dance class they want to take. They really want to do gymnastics.

We are now considered Seasonal Campers

THIS IS OUR NEW CAMPERJUST NOT BIG ENOUGH!!!!!!!!


This new adventure of ours started this September. We have friends that bought a camper and a pontoon this last summer. We ran into them one day and they invited us to there camp site and also took us a ride on there pontoon. Well, from that point we were hooked. The next thing we knew we were in the market for a camper. Being rookies at this we bought the first camper that we found. It was a fifth wheel camper and at the time it looked like it was plenty big enough. It was a older camper but was in very good shape . We picked out a campsite put the camper on it and we were considered campers. One weekend with a six foot four husband, two girls , a dog, bikes, toys, lots and lots of food and beverages and anything else that we thought we might need we realized we needed a bigger camper if we wanted to be a seasonal camper. We decided we would look at trading the camper in on a bigger one and we would take it to trade it in where the people that we bought it off of bought it. The people that sold us the camper must of known that we were rookies because they sold us a camper with a salvaged title so the camper was worth nothing on a trade in. We came to find out that the camper had been in a hail storm and there was enough damage to the camper that the insurance company just paid the people off and then gave them a salvaged title. We were just furious, and didn't know what to do. I did a little research on the internet and realized that we had a right to demand our money back considering the people didn't tell us it had a salvaged title and we paid a lot more for it then it was worth. We have a friend that is a lawyer, so he sent the people a letter asking for our money back and by luck they returned our money and we returned the camper. One thing about the little adventure we went on was we knew that we loved to camp so we were off to find another camper. We now have a camper that we just love and am pretty sure it is big enough. It has two bedrooms and two push outs.By the time all of this happened camping season was over so we didn't get to spend a night to see how everything worked. . We have it sitting on a lot but, won't know if we will be able to keep it there until April 1st. We have our fingers crossed because it is a very nice lot. Once we know that we will be able to keep it there we are going to build a deck on it, then presto there is our summer home. WE CAN'T WAIT. We are also hoping to buy a pontoon sometime this summer. The girls just love to fish and Robin is in heaven being on a lake. Robin has a fishing boat that the motor is to big for this lake. (Of course).

A visit from Addison's friend

In late September, we had a wonderful visit from Lauren and her Mom Deanna. Lauren was from the same orphanage as Addison. Lauren and Addison were on the same special needs list from the adoption agency. Through the Internet we came in contact with Lauren's family and we were in hopes that we would be able to travel together to go get the girls. There became a snag in Lauren's paperwork so she didn't get to come home for several months after Addison. Through all the ups and downs we stayed in contact with the Henry's. Lauren and her Mom traveled all the way from Oregon to see us. We had such a great visit and the girls just loved seeing each other. We took them one day to a Amish farm where we rode a wagon and the girls got to feed all the animals that came up to the wagon. There were so many different kinds of animals that came and ate right out of the girls hands. If was such a fun day and a day we will never forget. When it came time for Lauren and her Mom to leave Addison had a rough time. The tears just flowed. It broke my heart but, it also was a good cry because both of the girls are now in happy homes and have so many wonderful things to talk about. It was real cute when Lauren was calling Addison, Jiang Xiao Cui at first but, after a day it was just Addison. We have our fingers crossed that the girls will be able to see each other again.