Merry Christmas Everyone!

We had a story book kind of Christmas this year.  Sharing the season through the eyes of an adopted fourteen year old experiencing Christmas for the first time was something we will always cherish.
 In this movie you will share some of our family's joy.  Notice the many smiles.  Adopting an older child can be harder than adopting a baby but the rewards can be measurably satisfying.  Thank you for sharing a little bit of our lives and Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to each of you.

Enjoy!

A singing Christmas Card from Marlee and her class

The Girls Are Having A Lot Of Fun These Days!

Tis the season…Holiday fun!

We’ve had a great time preparing for the holidays.  Here’s a glimpse at what’s been going on in Sgroi-land:
We had our first portraits as a family of four!
 The girls had fun decorating the Christmas tree.  Bridget told us that she has seen Christmas trees before, but never had one until now.  She seems to be quite enchanted with it!

The girls also built a Gingerbread House together.
The stockings are hung by the chimney with care…
Lou outdid himself with his holiday display this year!
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Please do what you can...and thank you!

It's that time of year again when the Zhanjiang Kids Organization is asking for donations to continue their Open Arms program.  For those of you who don't know, our precious Marlee is from Zhanjiang, and we give great credit to the Open Arms program that ZKO established there for Marlee's on-target development and ability to adjust and bond so easily.  They are doing truly wonderful work.  Marlee was actually "child #2" in the Open Arms program, and they have since helped hundreds of others at the Zhanjiang Social Welfare Institute!  We're surprised and delighted to see that they're still using Marlee's photo on their donation page.  See if you can figure out which one she is!  And, while you're there, please consider giving what you can to this wonderful organization.
http://www.zhanjiangkids.org/helpingopenarms2010.htm

                                                             Marlee then:

Marlee now:

Breakfast with the Sugar Plum Fairy

The Evansville Dance Theatre hosted their annual “Breakfast with the Sugar Plum Fairy” to kick off the Holiday season.  Marlee and I attended with 4 friends and their Mommies from our local adoptive families network.  We all had a great time enjoying the festivities!

Marlee dressed in her Holiday clothes, ready for the big event.

Waiting for the festivities to begin

The girls got to meet the Sugar Plum Fairy after a lovely performance from The Nutcracker.

Ellie, Maggie, Marlee, Arabella, and Ellie.

Halloween III

Bridget joins Marlee for her first Halloween and Marlee's third.  Halloween III is a thrilling romp through this year's Halloween Season.  Bridget has been with us now for a little over three months.  How are Marlee and Bridget doing these days?  Not bad.  Enjoy the movie everyone and Happy Halloween!

More fun with the Grandparents

We had a great time visiting with my parents, and both girls were saddened to see them leave (as were we)!  Here are a few more pictures from their visit.
  

Grandma and Grandpa visit!

My parents have been visiting for a couple weeks, and we have all been having a great time!  Yesterday, Grandma, Grandpa, Mommy, and Marlee visited the Evansville Museum (Bridget had school and Lou was at work).  Tonight we’re all going out for dinner with the extended family, so we’ll be sure to post more photos tomorrow!

 

Marlee’s School Pics are in!

We are so proud of our girls!  It is amazing to think of Marlee as a "school girl" (our big 3-year-old is in Jr. Pre-K) when she was just a baby a bit ago.  But, here is proof of it.  We really love how they turned out.  Bridget’s Pics should be coming in soon.

Marlee goes to the Pumpkin Patch

Marlee’s Jr. Pre-K class took their first field trip, and Mommy came along as a chaperone.  Marlee enjoyed her first school bus ride, her first hayride, a walk through a maze, and picking her own pumpkin.  Here are a few highlights from our day: 

Birthday parties and home improvement

We attended a birthday party for Bridget’s new friend, Hope, on Friday evening.  Hope is the daughter of our new friends the Peckenpaugh’s.  We all had a great time.  On Saturday, we got up and started stripping the wallpaper in our living room.  It was fun to have the whole family pitching in. 

 

Up, Up, and Away!

 

Here Marlee takes off at her school picnic.  All the kids seemed to really enjoy this ride. 

Playtime

   

Over the past two days we’ve watched as Bridget has started to relax and play!  It’s great to see her smiling and laughing.  Marlee has been waiting patiently for her sister to become a playmate, and it looks like she’s getting her wish.  Needless to say, we’re all very happy.

Fitting in

We had dinner with the Peckenpaugh family last night.  Two of their daughters are Bridget’s age.  They allowed the three teenagers to make dinner for the rest of us, and they did a great job!  More importantly, Bridget seemed to have a great time with the girls.  Here’s a picture of Brianna, Hope, and Bridget with their finished meal.  We look forward to seeing all of them again.

Labor Day Windfall

 

Happy Labor Day Everyone!

We stopped at the furniture store today and Marlee got her face painted like a butterfly and a balloon shaped like a butterfly.  Bridget and Marlee had a bunch of popcorn and goodies as well.  You never know what you’re going to get.

A Beautiful Day

We had our best day yet today.  Bridget and Marlee really had fun at the Evansville Zoo this morning.  Bridget practiced English often, repeating animal names and participating with eyes wide open.  Marlee participated in a little play that the zoo staff put on.  It was cute.
Bridget got a lot of great photos with her camera.  It was such a beautiful day.

 

Getting to Know You

 

Not only are we getting to know Bridget but she is getting acquainted with herself as Bridget.  We went to the open house at her school last night and her teacher said that she is doing very well.  She says that she really likes school.

She took these pictures of herself with the camera we got her for her birthday. 

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More New Friends

This weekend started off with a dinner party. We had Shuang, Betty, and Sela over for dinner on Friday night. Shuang is a student at the University of Evansville. She has agreed to come over once a week or so to help ease Bridget's transition to life in the USA and to help her in communicating with us. We had a nice dinner and Bridget even cooked the vegatables. Bridget grieves for many things. Friends, Foods, Language, School and culture are all very different from a month ago. Sometimes she handles it well, while other times she pulls back and doesn't want to do much of anything. We are really glad that Shuang has agreed to help her a bit. Betty and Sela's support was really nice to have as well (Plus, Betty brought Brownies and Betty knows chocholate very well).

Getting acquainted.

Here, Lorna wonders what it is she will be eating while Bridget prepares some unidentifyable vegatables.

I think Bridget likes what she is hearing.

Bridget and Shuang talk about life in Mandarin Chinese while Marlee observes and wishes she knew what they were saying.