Thanksgiving Day brought us an extra special surprise -- tons of SNOW!! Maelin enjoyed playing outside in the snow with daddy (making a snowman, being pulled around on the sled) in the morning and early afternoon. Then we got ready and headed to Uncle Jon and Aunt Laura Gleeson's house for Thanksgiving dinner.
The day after Thanksgiving, Maelin and Mommy set up the Christmas tree. Daddy went hunting, so we figured out the lights (go girls!) and decorated the tree, as well. Maelin loved putting ornaments on tree -- all the blue ones here, all the bear ones here...it's a bit of a 'sorting' tree this year!
These cracked me up, so i had to share them!! Maelin has been into her dress-up box a lot since Halloween. I'm not sure what this is, but i'll call it "princess pirate"!!
Now we're busy getting ready for the upcoming holidays...
xoxo, Shonda
1 comment:
Anonymous
said...
Ahh the good ol' winter break! Such fun, especially when there is "tons" of snow...NOT! I hate winter. I can remember a time however, and kids today are still as ethusiastic as we were, they can't wait to get out in it. Haley got her papa, he was taking a nap and she went out and brought in an arm load of snow and dumped it on him, he wasn't too thrilled but she sure thought it was funny and I have to admit I laughed hardily with her. Haley put on our ornaments and did a good job, I'm glad she did, otherwise it probably wouldn't have gotten done...haha. From now on that's going to soley be her job. Maelin is so funny, what a hoot! Gotta love her!! Until next time, Hugs, Connie
We live in Michigan, where Shonda teaches deaf children, and Jim works as an engineer. In addition to Maelin, we have one 'foster' daughter, Leslie, who has lived with us part-time since was in 1st grade. She's 17 and a junior in high school now.
The Cliff Notes
Here's our story: I had been trolling the deaf adoption websites and email groups for years. In February of 2006, i read an email from a woman named Monica (thank you, Monica!!) who posted information about an almost-two-year old deaf child in China whose file would be sent back shortly. I wrote to the agency and requested her file, which included a photo. That photo stayed in my mind for days; i woke up at night either dreaming about her or thinking of her. Jim and i did some soul-searching and decided we were ready to expand our family. We sent our Letter of Intent to the China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) in early March of 2006 and received pre-approval in April. She was matched with us!! After that, we spent 13 months feverishly collecting and completing paperwork. It was a long road but worth every coveted piece of paper. We met our new daughter, Maelin Yufeng Gleeson, on April 2nd, 2007, in Chongqing, China :)
Jiang Yu Feng
This is the last picture we had of our beautiful baby before meeting her in April of 2007.
1 comment:
Ahh the good ol' winter break! Such fun, especially when there is "tons" of snow...NOT! I hate winter. I can remember a time however, and kids today are still as ethusiastic as we were, they can't wait to get out in it. Haley got her papa, he was taking a nap and she went out and brought in an arm load of snow and dumped it on him, he wasn't too thrilled but she sure thought it was funny and I have to admit I laughed hardily with her.
Haley put on our ornaments and did a good job, I'm glad she did, otherwise it probably wouldn't have gotten done...haha. From now on that's going to soley be her job.
Maelin is so funny, what a hoot! Gotta love her!!
Until next time,
Hugs,
Connie
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