Goodbye 2011 and welcoming 2012

Happy New Year Everone!




















Hi Everyone, These are a few pictures that I just wanted to post. 2011 was one year that we did not adopt any new children. It was a year that many of our children started school. We had 7 children start school for the first time!! We wish we had traveled more but that was not possible. It was definitely a year that we stayed home other then local trips to the lake, beach and parks. It was a year of adjustments for Ian, Ellia and Benjamin where they had "first" of everything. These are children who had never celebrated birthdays or holidays. In 2011 they received their first Easter baskets and egg hunt. They watched fireworks for the first time dressing in their red, white and blue. Even though we were not able to go door to door dressed in halloween costumes, they were able to carve pumpkins and dress up in costumes going room to room making each other laugh. They loved dressing up pretending to be this and that. Thanksgiving was wonderful, the children sat at the table dressed as Indians ( with their head gear made at school). Yes, 2 turkeys were needed and there were very little leftovers. Christmas for us was celebrated with so much joy because the children did remember it from the previous year. The moment the tree went up, Ian especially started jumping with such joy saying he knows "Christmas". I can tell you he did not have that connection until the tree went up. This was his 2nd year celebrating Christmas even though he was now 6 years old! I had to work on New Years Day so our New Years Eve "party" was celebrated from 7pm to 9pm. Angelina (6 years old) said it was the "best New Years party she had ever been to." How cute! Sorry about so many double pictures, with some more time I will go back and edit.