Mother's Day, Baby Dedication, and Lily's Re-adoption

I have a lot of other things to talk about, but I  want to make sure that I do not leave out these important events.  Just when I think things cannot get any busier they do.  Last week we had Mother's Day, Baby Dedication Day, Lily's Re-adoption, a Mother's Day Picnic at school, my YPO meeting at my house, Jilliana got strep, a meeting with the principal of the school we may or may not be attending next year,  extra practices for the Mother's Day Program at Church plus our normal week of swimming, school, choir, gymnastics and laundry.

 Just before going into our court appointment to re-adopt Lily.  This time we were able to do it ourselves rather than pay someone to do it for us.  It is not required to re-adopt in California.  Lily was officially adopted in China in the eyes of the United States and China.  But just to make things easier we re-adopt. That way there is never a doubt.  Also, the Chinese Birth Certificate we have for all of the girls are rather large and they are written in Chinese with translations.  Getting a copy if we ever needed one would be almost impossible.  So now we will be able to have a birth certificate that looks like everyone else's and we can get a copy if we need it.   We explained to Lily what we were doing, but I am sure she was confused since she already knows she was adopted in China.

 Here we are in the courtroom.  We did not take the girls out of school since this was just a formality for us.  They were present at her "real" adoption.  We expect to be back to do the same for Jilliana after we have our post-placement visit in August.

 Here we are swearing that she will have all of the rights that a biological child would have and swearing that we will take care of her.

 Lily and Daddy listening to the Judge.

 Daddy signing the adoption papers.

 Lily got to sign her own name.

 The judge making it final.

 The girls singing for the Mother's Day Picnic.  It was 92 degrees that day!

 I was the only Mom getting three plants!  Lucky me!

 Meilynn at the picnic.  We just measured yesterday and she is taller than Emma for the first time. Emma and Meilynn have been almost the same height since they have been together.  Emma is three months younger but has always been the same height or a little taller.  When we got Meilynn at 26 months old she was only 19 pounds.  She caught up with Emma a while back.  So they both weigh 35 pounds at almost 6.  Meilynn is 41 and 3/4 inches and Emma 41.  Lily (almost 8) weighs 42 pounds and is 47 inches.  Jilliana at 3.6 is 27 pounds and 36 3/4 inches.  

 We had baby dedication at Church on Sunday and we dedicated both Jilliana and Lily.

 Our sweet girl

 The children wrote these and they were displayed on the big screens for Mother's Day.  I almost didn't get Lily's because my camera was shutting off when hers came by.

 "She kisses me every night"

 Walking in for the Mother's Day Program.  Lily just got her hair cut.  We had been trying to grow it long, but it was just not healthy, and it grows really slow.  We think she looks cute with her hair cut.

 Emma my little fashionista

Our Pastor giving the girls their Bible's for baby dedication.

I will leave tonight with two little glimpses into some of the things I get to hear every day.

Tonight on the way home from Gymnastics we were talking about having penne pasta since I had promised Emma we would have it.  We had steak on the weekend and the girls were talking about whether they like it or not.  I overheard Emma saying that , "Shee would like it if she had ketchup."
  I said, "Why didn't you have Ketchup on it then"
Emma said, "Because Ketchup was not available."
She makes me laugh with the language she is experimenting with.

I know this is bad, but I do not mend socks.  Not with the amount we use and really how inexpensive they are.  So when we get a hole in our sock I usually say throw it away.  So the other day Lily told me she had a hole in her sock.  So I told her to throw them away.
A couple of days later Jilliana saw the socks in the trash and kept pointing at them and saying what I am sure is sock in Chinese.  I told her they had a hole in them.  But I thought I better show her what I meant so she wouldn't be throwing her socks in the trash.  I took those dirty socks out and could not find a hole anywhere.  I put them on my hands looking for a very small hole and still not hole.   So I called Lily up from downstairs and said,
 "Lily why did you throw these socks away?"
 She said, "Because they have a hole in them."
I said,  " I don't see one".
 and then she said,
" Well I got sand on my feet!"
So I guess since when she got home from school and their was sand on her feet that she thought she had a hole in her sock.  It is these type of things that come up just when you think she understands everything.

Vicki