Cheri Kay in Haiti....where my life became meaningful.

This past week has been crazy--But AWESOME! The kids and I got to go to Michigan for the first Christmas EVER that the kids have had with the family and my first in 4 years! It was so nice to be home, see snow (although I am not a fan of it!), and to finally introduce my babies to the family traditions that I've known for most of my life! What a gift! The trip home was interesting! On the first flight, the kids got to go sit in the cockpit of the plane! They loved it! The pilots gave them wings and even let them touch buttons! Jaryse thought that was REALLY fun! They travelled so well! They are such troopers! We had 3 flights scheduled for our trip to Michigan, 2 layovers! We first flew from LA to Denver, and everything was nice and smooth! The trip from Denver to Chicago was also easy, until we landed in Chicago. When we de -boarded, we were told that our flight to Lansing was CANCELLED! UGH! They told me that they cold put us on stand-by for the rest of the evenin...

The week is finally over!!!! Oh, bummer, and so is the weekend now!!!!! The kids finished school on Friday for the year! We are looking forward to 3 weeks with no homework!!! Well, I am at least looking forward to that!!! On Thursday, the school put on a Christmas program and the kids did so well. It was fun to watch all of the classes use spoken language and ASL (interpreters were used as needed!) I loved watching both of my little ones show how much they've learned! Jaryse (the little one with the white shirt on the very far right in the front row!) was super cute! This is a hearing class, and so they sung a song about snow flakes and they used Sign Language too. Half way through the song, Jaryse stopped doing the ASL signs and looked over at me and gave me the "I love you" sign! It was so cute and so heartwarming! Ecrissa did a great job as a reindeer in a skit about snowmen! She was too cute, as she walked up onto the stage and waved at the entire cr...

Yesterday we celebrated 9 months home from Haiti. How did we do this you may ask????? By not even getting out of our jammies!!!!! The kids and I had a day at home just hanging out! We watched movies, painted some arts and crafts, read books, colored, I cleaned a little bit, we ate snacks, and just played! We also looked at pictures of the kids from when they were little babies! I am still amazed at their journey so far and how little they once were! They enjoy seeing themselves and hopefully as we do this every now and then it'll leave a nice open and safe place for them to talk about adoption and ask any questions they may have. I'm so blessed to be chosen to be their mommy and to be allowed to be a part of their lives. Needless to say, yesterday was wonderful. IT WAS AWESOME! I am so thankful for all that the Lord has blessed me with and continues to bless me every day!

So, please forgive the no sound, old school video...but here is a bit of my man punching the punching bag today! Unfortunately, my camera is very old, takes not so great pics, and has no sound on the video, but at least something is better than nothing right now!!!! Jaryse had fun punching this thing for over 25 minutes! His little giggles were just priceless!!!

And we are loving it!!!!! Granted, there is no snow here in Los Angeles, but our house is decorated, the kids are wearing their santa hats, stores everywhere have things up, houses are lit up with lights, radio stations are playing Christmas music, and this little family is just so excited to spend Christmas in MI with the family!!!!!! Every day I am thankful for every minute I get with my children ! They amaze me! I love love love watching their eyes gleam with all the newness of the States and with all that they are learning and experiencing! I'm so blessed by them! There's really nothing interesting to report, just weeks full of school, homework, family time, gymnastics time, ballet time, house cleaning, bike rides, park, hangin ' out with friends and somewhere in there we all sleep! Both kids are doing well in school. Jaryse is having issues with runny noses and coughing, they come and go and come and go! There is no other real symptom, just a little cough. ...

I'm super tired!!! LOL !!! We have been so busy....doing what......well.....basically when we are not in school, working, or at a doctors appointment, or ballet or gymnastics, or church, or doing homework we are hanging out!!! I have tried to make our "family time" more family and less computer!!! So, when the kids are watching a movie, so is Mommy. Mommy is not updating status on facebook , or updating the blog, or whatever, the computer is down and Mommy is hanging with the kids and all three hang out! That's been good for the three of us, but bad for keeping up with emails, blogs, pictures , etc!!! We had a very restful Thanksgiving! We did NOTHING!!!! I know, sorta un -American to not eat a turkey dinner, but, that's just fine by me! Jaryse wanted donuts, so we walked to the donut shop together and all got donuts for breakfast on Thanksgiving morning, then took a bike ride to the park in the afternoon. It was wonderful! We laid around on the couch, r...