Amaris' First Easter

This morning we celebrated the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ... uh, with ladybugs, candy and eggs. 

We captured their smiles while coming down the stairs...

Gabriella Grace 

Amaris Nanette (which means grace and favor)

This is what they saw. Love when they are little that I can do just about anything and it will appear to be a great idea... even if I just brought their ladybugs downstairs from their room and plopped them in their Easter buckets with a new bottle and their bunny ears they have been wearing for this last month. 

I clearly didn't take this photo... because I would have been SURE to not photograph the one chaotic (catch everything) counter space. 

The Easter Bunny brought Amaris her own set of necklaces and bracelets. Ironically the same set that Gabriella got for her birthday a couple months ago. 

I love the face of Gabriella's excitement when she saw HER first egg this year. 

The race was on... wish I had the video camera rolling... there was a bit of roller derby going on to get the first eggs. Amaris is pretty strong! She won!

This is Amaris' first Easter egg... EVER!

They started opening the eggs after only getting a couple... 

We had some gluten free cinnamon roll pancakes with cream cheese frosting... Ooh la la... 

This is actually a left-over cinnamon roll pancake from yesterday (just re-heated), so you will need to imagine it smothered with a couple hundred cream cheese frosting calories. The girls each ate 3 or 4 of these.  

Ready for church!

Jesus didn't come to start a religion. 

He came to have a relationship with you.

Got Jesus?

Easter Bunny 2013 Photos

Amaris makes visiting costumed creatures fun. She LOVES them as much as her older sister is TERRIFIED of them. 

Amaris gives them hugs, high fives, bats their noses, grabs their arms, climbs in their lap... whatever she can do to get their attention. 

But, when I attempt to get a photo of both my girls together with a furry creature, I can't seem to get smiles from them simultaneously... 

After some 12 attempts to get a good photo, this was the last one. The photographer was so done with me. I was a wee bit frustrated with her... she shouldn't expect anyone to "like" a photo when a child's eyes are closed, a chin is too high or low, etc. But, oh she tried. I wasn't having anything to do with it. 

On a scale of 1 to 10... 10 being "I love it!"... 

I would say this photo is a 2. 

Yep, I REALLY hate it. 

Honestly, I kinda wanted to send the photographer on break 

to grab Wendell another carrot, especially since we forgot ours. 

After our photo shoot, I gave the girls' the dresses 

of their sisters waiting in China. 

This was a little bit better photo... 

Thinking of trying to have FOUR little ones under the age of 7 smile simultaneously just makes me cringe. Is this even possible? In just a year, I will know. 

Amaris' 3rd Birthday, First Birthday Home!

What a joy to celebrate Amaris Nanette's 3rd birthday with her!

For two years she spent her life in an orphanage.
She was loved there, 

but it's much different than the love a family can give. 

I bet they have no idea what a spit fire this girl really is. 

I took the girls for our birthday frozen yogurt. 

We each were entitled to a FREE 12 oz. 

Can you see their bowls? They ate it all. 

I think Amaris left 3 bites. 

Amaris was born on my 40th birthday thousands of miles away...

But God brought us together in a very miraculous way. 

Gabriella loves having a little sister to play with all day, 

and we are currently waiting to be matched with 

two more Chinese sisters.

In the background is their new trampoline. 

It counts and plays music as they jump. 

They also got a tunnel to crawl through that is a caterpillar. 

I think we only gave Amaris a couple presents each day.... 

for like a week.

She was in Heaven!

  

Counting, sorting, and matching airplanes. Oooh la la!

The big brothers stopped in... to get their taxes done...

but let's pretend for a moment it was to see their spoiled sisters.  

Gu Gu Kai and Gu Gu Jordan

Amaris grabbed her crown from jie jie Tyanna to put on. 

The girls bounced for Gu Gu...

  

Mama was able to get a photo with Amaris and Baba 

before Amaris fluttered away again. 

She is ALWAYS on the move!

Earlier in the day, the girls were counting their new ladybugs 

and putting them in their sorting tray.

Lesson 1 for Mama... Amaris wins!

First, I will say that I wish my camera photos were better 

because this really was a funny day. 

While Gabriella was homeschooling at the little table this morning, 

I gave Amaris her "homework". 

Amaris' "homework": 

String ALL the RED beads. When you are done, let me know. 

Shouldn't be too hard... In my mind, I am thinking that 

if she doesn't organize them by shape first, 

she SHOULD be done in less than 3 minutes. 

I forgot ONE thing though. 

Amaris does things her OWN way. 

(I can totally see my mom smiling down from Heaven right now)...

My camera couldn't capture all of the things Amaris did 

with just 6 red beads to go... but, here's a glimpse. 

Amaris stood on the media chair you see in the background 

(on the arm rest)... until she lost her balance. 

She went to grab her stroller and microphone 

to race into the other room... The forbidden room. 

The dog chased her. 

Amaris returned after being asked 

what she was supposed to be doing. 

She got pretty close to her red beads. See the photo below...

Do you see the pile of beads in the top right corner of the photo?

She has already strung the majority of the beads. 

BUT, instead of stringing those last 6 beads, 

she decided to hang off her trampoline 

and pull her legs up and down as though 

she were at her Gymnastics class on the bar. 

Amaris decided to return to the beads... well, with a little prodding. 

She looks at them both in front of her and behind her. 

She contemplates for a mili-second what she should do. 

Lunch is about to be served and 

it has been over an hour of sheer delight... uh, for her that is!

Getting her "homework" finished 

does not appear to be on her agenda anytime soon. 

Despite the fact that she LOVES "homework".

She even throws a fit if I don't give her "homework".

She leaves the stroller because she got a glimpse of her princess ball. 

She proceeds to put the ball behind her back and throw it 

as far as she can. 

Gabriella giggles from the table. 

Amaris has something to work with now. 

She has got the attention of her jie jie. 

And, Amaris LOVES attention. 

After she throws the ball a couple times, 

I look to change her attention back to the beads. 

I march her little Chinese toushie back to her "homework" 

and show her that she only has SIX MORE RED BEADS. 

Gabriella is now enjoying her lunch... 

Amaris notices, but is not concerned in the least bit. 

Instead, she encourages the dog to eat her lunch... the dog's lunch!

   

I share with her that Gabriella and I are now both 

enjoying our yummy lunch,

that her lunch is on the counter, 

and that she can come join us when she is done with her "homework." 

She crawls through these two chairs and opens and closes a container of diaper wipes. 

EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THESE ACTIVITIES, 

she has NEVER DONE BEFORE...

I give. What is so special about today?

She sees the dog carry her (the dog's) special "bear" stuffed animal.

She chases the dog and grabs "bear" from her and starts to run. 

The dog catches her and they begin to play tug of war. 

Sigh.... my camera battery was low, so I missed this funny scene. 

But, I am sure you can see this little monkey in action. 

It truly wore her out. But, she was happy. 

After her nap, we talked again about her "homework" and 

what needed to be done. 

Something we had done perhaps 20 times in the 2 hours 

before nap time. 

I asked her to show me the red beads and to finish stringing them. 

She proudly held them up. She did it! It took her mere seconds.  

She had the biggest smile on her face.  

We counted her beads together. 

I could tell she was having lots of fun. She won!

How could you not love a monkey like this?

And, when Baba came home today, he asked, 

"So, what did you do all day?"

Her First 3 Birthdays

Celebrating her birth... 

Amaris was born with 4 very serious heart conditions: 

This is called: Tetrology of Fallot or TOF.

It would have been nearly impossible for her birth mama 

to keep her and for Amaris to have any quality of life. 

So she did what none of us would ever want to do... 

she secretly took her child to the small hospital clinic 

in hopes that someone would find her 

and get her the medical attention 

she knew her daughter would need. 

Out of THIS love from her China Birth Mama, our love was birthed. 

Today Amaris celebrated her 3rd birthday on MY birthday.  

Yes, even God loves special days!

Half the Sky Program

Half the Sky works in the MaoNan Orphanage in 

MaoNan, Guangdong, China. 

These are the earliest photos we were given of Amaris, 

abandoned at 1 month... if I remember right. 

From everything we can tell, 

she was greatly loved and well taken care of. 

She had a memory book about a 1/2 inch thick 

that documented many things for us. 

It was translated by our guide while we were there in China. 

I will post this in a later post.