Referral Anniversary

Tomorrow we will be gone most of the day, so I wanted to post a short memory about 8-8-08. See the sweet picture to the right of this post? It was a year ago we first saw that precious face. I will never forget when the phone rang, and my son came upstairs to tell me, "Mom, it's Denise from CCAI." I somehow knew before I even answered the phone she was calling to tell us about our daughter. And I knew from the moment I saw that precious face she was meant to be ours. And now, I get to look at this sweet face every day. How blessed am I?

August 8, 2008 was a special day for China. It was the opening day of the Olympics, a day of pride for their nation. But August 8, 2008 was an even more special day for the Cole Family. It was the day I finally saw the face of the child I had prayed for, longed for, dreamed of, for so long.

7 1/2 Months Later

Here is a picture taken December 19, 2008, next to one taken yesterday. The kids are really growing up fast!

Visitors

We have been pretty busy lately. Last week we were involved with VBS at our church, and my older teens played in the band. Michelle was in the nursery for part of each day, and I think she picked up some kind of "bug". So, this week we have been staying home, trying to get well. Yesterday was the first day she felt much like herself. I think this is the first time she has been sick since we have had her - of course we went through a lot of recovery with her surgery, but this was her first true cold.

Today we had some special visitors. Renee and her boys stopped by on their way north to visit family. Renee traveled with us to get Joshua Song when we went to China last year. It was great to see them after almost 8 months, to see our kids so happy and healthy with their new families. (Their blog is linked to our sidebar - A Thousand Reasons to Smile.)

And speaking of other blogs we follow, we are anxiously awaiting Molly's Gotcha Day this Monday, August 3 on Continuing the Journey. Molly and Michelle were not only in the same orphanage, but also in the same foster home for a while, so we are excited to see Molly join her forever family.

Please watch

I urge each of you to click on the link below. Even if you have never considered adoption, hopefully it will encourage you to pray for these children. I found it very moving - of course, it's my heart's cry these days!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aa3ZN8Tyzc

Busy Summer

I thought once summer arrived and school was over things would slow down and we would have lots of time to hang out at the pool. So far that hasn't been the case - life seems to be continuing at warp speed. However, after the past weekend, several of our obligations are over, so perhaps more pool days are in our near future. I certainly hope so!

We had a fun July 4th celebration. We had a cookout with some of our neighbors and then they shot fireworks. Michelle wasn't such a big fan of the noise, so after a few minutes I brought her back inside the house.

One of her favorite summer activities is having an ice-pop. It's funny how she has mastered that word - she can certainly say things when they are important to her!

This past Friday she got her first taste of what it means to be an Army Brat. Her Daddy took over a Command, sort of a job change/promotion without the move that is usually involved in that sort of thing. We had a ceremony with a couple of hundred people attending and then a light reception with refreshments. Michelle was a big hit - she sat still through about half of the ceremony. Not bad for a 2 year old! We hired our neighbor to come be a "mothers-helper", so when it got to be too much for her, sweet Lauren took her into the other room to play. Michelle enjoyed the cake and all the excitement of the day.

Grammy Cole was able to fly down from Cape Cod for the special day. We are proud of Daddy - I know he will do a great job!

Helping out a sister/friend

When we came back from China, we looked through some of the pictures taken by the orphanage, and we were delighted to see pictures of Molly and Michelle together in the same foster family. Even though not biological sisters, we have come to think of Molly as Michelle's foster sister.

We had already been following Molly's blog - you can find it on our links to the side under "Continuing the Journey".

They are going to get Molly soon, and things are moving a little faster than expected. That's the good news - Molly gets to be with her family. The bad news is, in this rough economy, their family is struggling a bit to get all the funds necessary for the adoption.

If you would like to read more about Molly, and maybe help them out a little, please visit their blog. It's a great blog, and they seem like such a neat family. Plus, they are having some great giveaway's to everyone who contributes.

Tell them Midge sent you!

A fun, family weekend

Our family woke early Saturday morning and headed down to Virginia Beach. We left at our house at 7:15 and had toes in the water before 11:00 a.m. This would be our only real family vacation this summer due to busy schedules, so we tried to make the most of it. Michelle loved the ocean, and really liked the water until a big wave knocked her over. After that she decided to just stick to playing in the sand. The weather was perfect - just warm enough, and the water was just cool enough. The big kids stayed in the water for close to 5 hours - needless to say, we didn't have to rock anyone to sleep that night.

That evening we drove out to the Rogers home for dinner and a Luohe reunion! Pete and Catherine came to stay with us just before their trip to China to get Emma last November. Catherine sent us some beautiful pictures and priceless video of Michelle. The girls were in the same orphanage - it was hard to tell if they really remembered one another or not. Emma seemed to really be checking out Michelle when she came in. In the below picture Emma was looking through the photo album she was given by the Luohe orphange - and, as usual, Michelle is eating! LOL

On Sunday we drove to Busch Gardens for some more family fun. Busch Gardens has a "Salute the Hero's" program, where all active duty and their families get in one day each season for free. We have lots of great pictures from our fun day which I will try to put up later, but this is one of the main reasons we came - to see the furry red guy of Michelle's dreams. This year they opened the new Sesame Street Land and Michelle gave it a big thumbs up! I wish I had captured her expression when she first saw Bert and Ernie. It was one of awe and amazement to see these characters in the flesh. She was excited but a little reserved until she saw Elmo, and when she saw him she just ran over and gave him a huge hug!


The weather again was perfect on Sunday - slightly overcast and cool with only one brief shower. Busch Gardens is such a fun family park - lots of great roller coasters for the teens, lots of fun little kid rides, and lots of shows and animal attractions if you are not a ride person. We are all tired after such a whirlwind trip, but fun was had by all.