Precious family time

"The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together." ~Erma Bombeck

About a month ago, we spent a few days in Port Aransas with my parents and brother's family for some rest, relaxation, and a much anticipated visit. We had a great time together. We spent time at the beach and pool, went to the aquarium, watched movies, talked a lot, had some good fresh seafood, and ate more than our share of yummy ice cream.

Lindy, Brendan, & Bryce having fun at the aquarium

Mom taking in the sights and sounds of the beach. Totally not a sun, heat, or beach person but a super, duper GREAT sport.

Bryce with the coveted watering can

Can you really dig a hole to China?

Dani, didn't you see the sign? Please don't feed the seagulls!

Bren chillin' in the sand...

Great sand castle, Uncle Jeff!

My beautiful girl...
Don't be judging! Yep, our kids are eating their psketti in their undies. So???

Brendan enjoying his 5th birhday

Lindy enjoying Brendan's Transformer Party

I was a little bummed that my new camera locked up in the severe Texas humidity so I wasn't able to experiment with it as much as I wanted. I had grand plans to do the proverbial family beach shots in white. This year the humidity, race against the sunset, crazy wind, some punchy kids, and my lack of photography knowledge kept me from getting the "perfect" shots I had pictured in my head AND had documented on a list.

I'm beginning to think our beach shots will always be bloopers...I have to remind myself it is all about the memory, though, and we have plenty of great ones.

Jeff, Danielle, and the B boys--Bryce (6) and Brendan (5)

My precious parents


The cousins

Us with Mom & Dad...
Did I mention it was windy and humid?

Hey, no fair! He got the height, looks, and brains! RATS.

A phenomenal sunset!

Thanks, everyone, for coming our way to spend time with us. We look forward to the next adventure. I'm already coming up with the next picture scheme. KIDDING!!!

Just because

This morning I was spending a bit of time reviewing some pictures from the summer and trying to categorize some more blog posts in an effort to catch up.

I found a couple of pictures of Don and Lindy and just felt moved to post about the two of them.


I am so grateful and thankful that Don is such a great daddy to Lindy. He brims over with love when it comes to that girl. In the past, I've let the green-eyed monster rear its ugly head and sometimes I've mocked and made fun of their relationship (e.g., cracks about the violins playing in the background like a movie theme when he comes home). I'm not proud of that and the truth is that I just don't praise him enough for being a tremendous father.


The two have an amazing bond and he adores her and she adores him. I love that he knows what to do with her, how to play with her, and how to take care of her. He is so patient with her and can get through to her when I can't.


Don, thank you for wearing so many hats and taking on so many responsibilities to take care of our little family. I don't thank you enough for going to work every day and being the sole provider so that I can stay at home. I don't thank you enough for the sacrifices you make to spend time with your family. I hope you know that you're making a difference in Lindy's life and that she'll be a more confident, secure, and grounded person because of YOU and your relationship with her.

Weddings, wonderful weddings

A rare photo of the our little family together

I'm back again. You probably didn't expect me so soon did you? I really am trying to document a lot of this summer.

It seems like many people like to get married in the summer months, so it is always fun to hear of a new crop of weddings each year. This weird phenomenon is happening. The weddings that we're being invited to are weddings of the kids of friends of ours. How'd that happen??? How can we be old enough to have friends whose kids are getting married and how is it I have a pre-schooler and one on the way? Actually, the special thing is that we're so hip, young, and cool (ha ha), that we're friends with many of these kids, too.

I already wrote about Ashley and Matt's beautiful wedding here. This was an especially exciting event as Lindy was the flower girl and we were so proud of our beautiful girl.

Three weeks after Ashley's wedding, we had the privilege and honor to attend Katie and Blake's wedding. Katie is the oldest daughter of Jenn and Karl, more sweet friends we've met through adoption and blogging. (Lots of you might know her as one of Karleigh Mei's big sisters!) It is a small world folks and not long into the relationship we discovered Blake is the son of one of Don's work associates and that Katie and Blake are also friends of our friends, Kara and Houston.

I like to watch shows like Say Yes to the Dre*ss but it really blows my mind when I see how much emphasis and MONEY (yikes) is placed on finding the perfect dress, having an outlandish reception, etc., and how less emphasis seems (I could be wrong) to be placed on the actual ceremony. I guess this is really not anything new. Anyway, their wedding had to be one of the sweetest and most thoughtful weddings I've ever attended. It was a beautiful ceremony and Katie just glowed the entire evening. I know her parents were beaming with pride as they watched this special moment. It was a family affair and Karleigh Mei was the flower girl. Lindy was especially interested in Karleigh Mei's execution of her job and I had to keep her from giving pointers from the stands. Lindy and Karleigh Mei got to spend some time together at the reception which was a joy to watch, considering we had met Jenn and Karl right after they were logged in for China and had helped pray this child home.

Here are some pictures from the evening. I put Don in charge of the camera and there weren't many at the end of the night. ;-)

Jenn, the lovely Mommy-of-the bride, and I

I pretty much can see Lindy tugging on KM's hand saying, "C'mon, let's go!"

Sweet friends

Solving the world's problems

I know this isn't supposed to happen but it is indicative of what the girls looked like that evening...Very busy; very blurry!

Katie with Houston and Kara

Houston and Kara (less than one month from their wedding here)

Unfortunately, I ran out of the house without either camera for Houston and Kara's wedding on July 25th so you'll have to picture them about 100 times more amazing looking than the above picture (if possible). Grrr...I'm still kind of mad about that because it was another beautiful evening. Kara looked angelic and Houston just looked so in love with his bride. I did that I'm not going to cry, suppressed snort thing, again, as I watched her walk down the aisle and saw the tears in her eyes (and maybe Daddy Garry's, too?!) as she approached the altar. We have had the privilege of watching Houston and Kara grow up and grow in love. They are a special couple who first met each other in the 3s & 4s bible class at the church we attend and the class Lindy is in now. They both have incredibly godly parents whom we love, are wonderful individuals, and together I know they'll be a strong, Christian couple who'll do great things for the Lord.

It was another tear-jerker wedding as I listened to each carefully chosen and prepared word Houston's father, Daryl, spoke to his son and now daughter-in-love. At one point he acknowledged that each one was an answer to the many prayers each set of parents had prayed. I recall my dad saying those same things to Don when we were married. It reminded me that not only do I need to be praying for Lindy during the here and now but that I also need to be CONTINUALLY asking God to be preparing a special boy just for her--when she's 30! ;-)

Well, it appears the summer weddings are over. I pray that all these couples will grow more and more in love with each other and as Lindy says, "...live happily ever after--AMEN!"

Reintroduction

Hello, my name is Lisa. (You say, "Hi Lisa...") For those of you who don't know me or can't recall, I used to blog--A LOT! One blog wasn't enough for me, so I maintained three: The family blog, Lindy's blog, and her little sister-to-be's blog. Three became too many. After a period of time, I hit blogger's block. I also felt kind of bad about myself when I read other people's blogs. I wasn't good enough, smart enough, crafty enough, organized enough, clever enough, etc., etc. I was in too deep. I'm not proud of those feelings but I'm an open book kind of gal and that's some of what I've struggled with.

I began to question my motives for blogging and reading other blogs and realized that I'd probably lost sight of my original intent which was to keep family and friends informed about what has been going on in our life, as well as chronicle our life since I don't scrapbook the good old-fashioned way.

Lately, I feel like I've been blessed with LOTS to blog about but I've been too busy to blog. I am going to make an attempt to get back into it and I'll start with trying to recapture some of what we've been doing this summer. I can't get it into any order right now, so I'm just going to document for now.

It seems fitting to blog about blog friends, so I'll start there!

Last Friday, Lindy and I got to spend the entire day with friends I've met through the world of adoption and blogging...I was so happy to be able to see Diana and Jeff again and meet Ainsley and Ruby. I'd only met Diana in person one other time and I was sooooo sick that I'm pretty sure I had vomit in my hair and was breathing fire during our dim sum lunch. It was back in February 2007 not long before they got Ruby's referral. She has been a faithful friend and prayer warrior since late 2005 or early 2006. I just love her! I love that when I met Ruby she said, "This is Lisa. She prayed for you." That is so true! I also got to see Kim and her lovely family again. I met Kim last year right after she had moved to Houston and was forced to evacuate due to Hurricane Ike. This was a much happier time for us to meet and be together.

Here are some pictures from the day. (The good ones are ones Diana sent. She's an incredible photographer!!!)

If you think we look like drowned rats, we were in the pool all day long, trying to stay cool...

Sweet Ainsley & Lindy Li



Di, Lindy, & Ruby

My precious girl

Lindy Li, Kate Emerson, and Ruby Mei all sharing a cool and colorful treat

Jeff is a magnet for these little girls! What a daddy!!!

One of these is not like the other...(I'm referring to the brown hair!!!)
Kim, Me, & Di

Thanks for a great day girls!!!