Happy New Year

It is the Chinese New Year. It is the year of the tiger. Mikenna, Brienna, Meriah, Madissen, Mom, Mrs. Luedtke, Jordan, Shelby and Lexi all went to Chinatown in Chicago for lunch and the New Year's parade. The lunch was wonderful and the parade was VERY crowded. At times it was hard to see some of the parade because people kept moving and getting in the way. Mikenna liked seeing the dragons. In the mass of all the people, we actually ran into Matt(my nephew) and his wife and then Mrs. LaGrassa, a teacher from the middle school in St. Charles.
Paul and Melia could not be with us this year because they are on their way to FL. to look at a college in Palm Beach (rough huh?)
We are ending the evening watching Mulan 2. Mikenna loves watching Mulan.
Well, this was a fun day for all of us and we look forward to many more celebrations!

Mikenna is 3 !!!

I can not believe that our little Mikenna that we went over to get in China in March is now 3! She has definitely lost the baby look and is well into the toddler stage. We looked at baby pictures of her(that the orphanage gave to us) and Mikenna would laugh at how her hair would stand straight up when she was a baby. I cherish those few pictures that I have.
It also has been an emotional time for me(Lori). I again thought of her birth mom and wondered if she was thinking about Mikenna and wondered what happened to her daughter. As Paul said a few days ago, if they (her birth parents) had been able to see her now, they would never had given her up. She is such a bundle of joy and I know in the bottom of my heart that God has great plans for Mikenna and she was meant to be in our family. The joy we have is her birth parents saddness of not knowing what happened to their precious daughter.
Then I also think of her foster mom, a year ago she celebrated Mikenna's 2nd birthday with her knowing that would be her last one. I know that she is missing Mikenna because of Jane our rep in China keeps us informed. I do send pictures to Jane so pass on to her foster mom. Being a foster mom takes a lot of love and courage because a foster parent gives all their love and knows that that child will eventually leave their home for the child's forever family. I don't have enough words for the gratitude I now have for Mikenna's foster mom. She loved her so much. We know this because Mikenna loves us so much and that is a reflection of what she was shown in China before she came to our family.
I will post pictures of our birthday girl so everyone can see how big and beautiful she is! Keep praying for our little one!

A lot has happened since Halloween

My girls have been telling me that it is time for me to update the blog. So, here it goes... Thanksgiving: we celebrated Thanksgiving up in MN with Paul's sister, husband and 3 daughters. Mikenna had fun meeting Veronica who is just a few weeks younger than herself and then the twins who were 6 months old. We all had fun just hanging out with one another. Two weeks later, our niece got married and Mikenna loved the dance floor. Veronica and Mikenna entertained some of us through dinner as they danced the night away. They were very cute! Mikenna, in her very pretty dress was trying to do the "worm" for everyone. After the wedding we set up our Christmas tree... I'm sure she was trying to figure out why we had a tree in the house. Anyway, Christmas was a bit mellow this year since she had never experienced Christmas in China. She was happy to get the presents but not as excited as I had thought because she had no reference point to gear her experience on. We went to the zoo on Christmas Day as a family. Mikenna had never been to a zoo so she was very interested in all the animals that we saw. I had told her that her birthday was after Jesus' birthday so after Christmas, she thought her birthday would be coming. Little did she understand that she needed to wait until the end of January.
Mikenna's speech is coming along great. I think she has been immursed in the language so much that she really should not have any problems. We are having her tested thru the school district in March to see if she qualifies for early intervention for speech and hearing(just to make sure). So, we'll see what comes from that.
In January, Mikenna and Lori had the wonderful opportunity to meet another little girl(Anna) and her mom. Anna was adopted from the same town as Mikenna. Anna is 2 years old and Mikenna would say,"My new friend, Anna" whenever she would talk about our visit. We hope to continue to get the girls together for play dates. We now know 2 little girls from Nanning, China. The other little girl is a relative of mine that adopted Ella about 7 months before we got Mikenna. We plan on visiting Ella and her family in June out in CO. We are SO excited!
Mikenna also made another new friend, Dave. Dave's family has been in the adoption process a long time and they were waiting for Haiti to give them court dates. Well, the earthquake hit and God allowed many miracles to happen last week and Dave and his family were united. It was SO amazing to see God's hand in every step of the way. All 26 orphans were not hurt in the earthquake and all 26 were able to get their visas approved to come to the US. So, we went over on Sunday and spent some time with Dave and his family. It was a very emotional week for the Malley family but God is faithful. All our children are wonderful blessings!

Happy Halloween!

Mikenna has known for a few weeks that we had been talking about halloween. She would say, for halloween, I be a lady bug. I knew that she really had no idea what she was talking about. She did not like any scary things in the stores. So the day arrived and she put on her costume. It was pretty cold here in Chicago so we had to bundle her up. She really never got the hang of saying trick-or-treat. She did open her bag and then would say thank you. She would say, 'I like candy!' She likes the idea of having all this candy around the house. Hope you all had fun with your families.

Another Unexpected Reunion in October 2009

Well, I know it's a little late to update but we had the wonderful pleasure of hosting a very quick reunion in Chicago for our friends that we traveled to China with. Let me tell you how it all started:
On September 20th, I met one of the moms with her 4 daughters that we traveled with for lunch with Mikenna. I told Vipa that Jane our Holt rep that lives in China would be coming to Eugene, OR for 6 months for training. After our lunch, Vipa called Jane and found out that she was already here and that she would be taking a break from training in early October. The next thing we knew, Jane had a flight booked to Chicago on October 1-6th. I called everyone with 5 days notice and let them know that Jane would be coming to our house for a few days and that she would love to visit Chicago. So, needless to say, I was in a whirlwind to 'clean' the house for our company. Our friends from Va. flew in on Sat. Oct. 3rd with their 3 children, the Hecky's from Ohio drove in on Friday, the 2nd and then the other family from the Chicago suburbs met us in Chicago with Jane. The other family from MI could not make it down because they had made plans already and just could not rearrange their schedule. They did send a letter and pictures of Mei Li to Jane so she could see how much she had grown. It was a fun/crazy weekend of showing everyone the sights of Chicago. We met down at Navy Pier and the kids played at the Children's Museum all afternoon. It was raining most of the day so we couldn't be outside. Jane and some of the other people wanted to go to the Sear's Tower but we decided not to pay to go up and not be able to see anything because of the clouds. We went to OvenGrinders Pizza for dinner. It was good pizza and the kids were really good. The next day, Sunday, I took Jane to our church so she could experience a church in the United States. She was quite interested. We then went home for a BBQ which Jane had never experienced. All the families joined us and it was a little chilly out but we all manged to eat outside, play in the backyard, have dessert and then head back to Chicago to the Sears Tower. It was a beautiful afternoon and evening in Chicago and we took many pictures. The Hecky's left from Chicago to head back to Ohio. The rest of us headed back to St. Charles. Melia and Meriah did not go with us downtown because of soccer games but the good thing was that they had dinner waiting for us and the Sharps. We shared dinner together and then the Sharps needed to get back to the hotel because they were heading to O'Hare by 6:15am on Monday morning.
We packed a lot of things into 2 days but it was a lot of fun to see Jane and this was the first time that she has ever been to the states and the opportunity for her to see the children that she helped place in their American home and with their families.
We had some of our family and friends stop by on Sunday to meet everyone that we have talked about.
I will post pictures from both reunions soon. We love our friends!

4 month reunion

On Thursday, August 6th, our van headed to Hartville, Ohio. Our destination was the Hecky's house. We were meeting a total of 3 other families that we traveled to China with. A few families could not join us this time but we had such a great time that another reunion is in the works. On Friday we just hung around the house and pool. Mikenna was so excited to be with Zhan-Zhan(Mariah) again. We waited for the next family to arrive from VA. Mikenna was again happy to see Qi Fu(Emmett). She was in her glory with her little friends from China. On Saturday, the 3 families went to an animal reserve that is owned and operated by the Amish community. Then we went to an Amish resturant and enjoyed some delicious food. That evening we spent our time by the pool and BBQ'ing and the kids had a ball. The 4th family arrived from MI with little Mei Li. She experienced the pool for the first time with her Dad. It was so much fun to see the kids and how they have adjusted to the American way of life. We have such wonderful new friends from our adoption. The Lord really placed each family in our group for a reason. We loved and supported each couple and child throughout the trip and that relationship continues. Most of the families had older children and all the teens hit it off really well. In fact, Brienna felt so comfortable that she even played a prank on the one and only teenage boy. All in all, it was a wonderful trip. Before we left, we shared a lunch of Chinese food. Some of the families had had Chinese food since returning to the states and some of us hadn't ventured out to ordering Chinese quite yet. But it was very good and we really enjoyed every bite. It was sad to leave our adoption family/friends and Mikenna really didn't understand why we had to leave her friends. We all can't wait until the Spring when we see each other again. We had a blast!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LET FREEDOM RING !!!!

As I get older, the more sentimental I get. For the last two 4th of July's, I have been very emotional thinking about our future daughter over in China. It was hard to think about our daughter being born and raised in a country that very much dictates their people. This 4th of July, I find myself so very grateful that Mikenna is home in the US with us and she will grow up in a country the celebrates its freedom. She will only remember the freedom we have here in the US. Our freedom did not come without a huge sacrifice. Many men and women gave their lives for our freedom. Thank you to all servicemen and women that have protected the US. I have always loved history, but until I traveled to Russia and now China, I never realized what a privilege I have, being born and raised in this country. Our founding fathers established this country for religious freedom and God has blessed us greatly. I pray that He continues to bless this great country that we all live in. I hope you all enjoyed your 4th of July. Enjoy the pictures our newest citizen of the United States of America!