WEDDING

And the new couple Marc and Jennifer!

Kathy, my oldest sister, and Mike were so proud. The girls were the first to walk down the aisle and they did it perfectly.

The bridal party arrived on a trolly they hired. The girls did not get to arrive on it because I would have had to take them downtown to get on it. They did ride the trolly after the wedding with the entire wedding party to the reception. The we so sweet and stopped at a liquor store and amoung other things, bought the girls a ton of skittles because as one groomsman said "you need something to celebrate with". They were all fantastic with the girls.

Then it was off for photos. The girls were so beautiful and of course my niece Jennifer was so beautiful.

Rehersal dinner

What can I say but yummy! We went to the Cadillac Bar and Grill in downtown Houston and had a private room. We ate until we could not eat any longer, then topped off with double chocolate cake or cheesecake. Matt, the groom's brother, did a slide show of both Marc and Jennifer through the years and the years of them together. There were many tears in the room and it was very nice. Ruth and Sara sat at a separate table with their cousins, some who came in from out of town.

Wedding Rehersal

We did the rehersal at 6 pm. There are to be 4 weddings tomorrow so all the groups had to get in and out with their rehersals w/i a one hour slot, so it was fast.

Nails and other bling

After the lunch, the bride & bridesmaids all went over to a nail salon for the manicure and pedicure. This was a first for both Ruth and Sara. They (Sara) was upset that they went last and was a tad impatient....oh the teen years

bridesmaid luncheon

This afternoon was the bridesmaid's luncheon at a very lovely restaurant. The seating we had opened to a beautiful garden and it was perfect weather. We got a little lost getting there due to downtown traffic going 0mph due to construction, but with the lifesaving GPS we found a long detour and we were still the second ones there. For those who know me I will ALWAYS show up early because I hate being late.

WEDDING TIME

We are leaving Thursday am for my niece's wedding. Marc and Jennifer will be married at the chapel of their college. Both the girls are in the wedding and today I finished altering the dresses. I had to take them both in at the bodice and luckily Sara's spike heels are tall enough so that I do not need to take her dress up. We have bought matching bracelets and Ruth will wear her hair back with a headband and Sara's hair will get french braided and let down before the wedding for the wavy look.....

I will provide photos when I can

Sara's soccer team

We are almost finished making up the make ups from all the rain. We have two more games and if we win them, we will be in first place. They are the Cheetahs. They have a wonderful coach, a woman this time, and she is firm but nice with the girls, not yelling degrading things to them like so many of the coaches do.

Cat attack

I was eating my stew, and up came my cat across the table, and to my much surprise, finished off my gravy in the bowl, then just a quick left the table with what looked like quite a strut since she had gotten something.

Country visit

We visited a small temple around the corner from our hotel. Jeff and Sara climbed up 3 floors of this small temple. Sara wanted to run to the top, but Jeff panted all the way to the third floor. I was the smartest and decided to keep my feet on the ground and take their picture. To this day, Sara laughts about her daddy panting and not letting her run all the way.

Our group voted to skip a formal temple for real life in China. We went about 30 minutes outside of Fuzhou to a very small farming village. They were harvesting their crop of wheat and drying it. It had been a very good year for them. They were all very nice people.

HALLOWEEN

We had a fun time at Halloween. The girls did most of the lights and decorations outside. Ruth is a ladybug and Sara is a clown, complete with a honking nose.

I took the girls through the neighborhood and we had a good time. Some families had really super cool interactive decorations, one of them sent Sara screaming, and me laughing.

Wal-Mart IS everywhere

Today was a day to just hang out. We went to Wal-Mart which was very different from ours. Notice the smile has gotten much larger.

nerd day

Today at Sara's school was NERD day and not surprisingly we had plenty of nerd things around the house. It is part of the red ribbon week for "DON'T DO DRUGS" The girl with Sara is her best friend.

She also had her fall band concert. The kids got to dress in appropriate costume for the concert, Sara is the clown playing the flute, which was followed by the band masquarete dance/party.

Then she is off to her friend's sleep over birthday party~~we will see her tomorrow at noon. Ruth is loving the attention w/o sister :)

welcome to the family

Today we have had Sara for one day, but today we did the paperwork and it became official. Notice that today Sara is all smiles. She looks so little, resting with Jeff.

Do you notice that each year the cake is larger. Soon we will have one the size of a wedding cake :)

GETTING SARA

The next day we flew from Beijing to Nanchang. We arrived, dumped our things at our hotel, and we were off for our babies. We loved seeing our new friends getting their beautiful babies. The three from Fuzhou were a little late-one being Sara one her best friend that we meet later~Mailia.

Finally in came the three and at first I did not recognize Sara. Understand we only had 3 photos of her and they were old, but she had on the backpack that I sent her with a dragon fly that I sewed onto it. I had made a smaller dragonfly just like it as a pin that I was wearing. She was crying and so frightend. I wanted to just scoop her up and hug her, but I also remembered that we were just strangers to her and I did not want to frighten her more. The director showed us the huge stack of school books that she brought along. Too bad they searched her and too away all other personal items that she posessed which were trivial.

AND, just in case you were wondering, yes, we were all crying, and I cry just remembering this day---the day I became a mom to a beautiful little girl and the day our other little girl Ruth-whom I was missing so VERY much- got a sister .