July the beautiful

As I have said before, I LOVE JULY!!
We have so much to celebrate in July.  So here are some of the highlights!

July 5  The 10th anniversary of Serenity joining our family.

Yep, you read that right.  10 years

Can you even believe how the time has flown?

Big Brother and Big Sister.

July also means Serenity's Adoption Group reunion.

This year it was in Gatlinburg, Tn.

Awesome scenery

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And BIG surprise!  My cousin from Ky was visiting Gatlinburg at the same time

with his family.  Too Cool!

The adults even took the opprotunity to hit the town without the littles

thank to the Bigs!

A visit to Tuckaleechee caverns

Tween Girl Silliness

On the way home we got to have lunch with a cutie from Belle's travel group

Serenity had her 11th Birthday this month

Big brother Mattie got her Just Dance 4

Matt and I celebrated our 28th Anniversary

And Belle had her first Anniversary with us.

From this

To This

What a difference a year (or 10) can make.

Happy anniversary Serenity

Ten Years.  Ten very short years.  That's how long we have known Serenity.  I'm not sure where the time went.  My sweet girl will be 11 this month.  HELLO!  Not sure how that 11 month old they handed me in China turned into an 11 year old.  

Look how scared she looks.  She was not very happy at all to be handed to us.  She was sick and scared and well, just plain mad to have her world shook up.  She would not eat solid foods for us for a couple of months.  She would only take a bottle.  Her first solid food with us?  Fudgesicle  Behold the power of CHOCOLATE!

On the anniversary of joining our family we try to do something special with her.  This year we took a train ride. We took a trip on the Oil Creek and Titusville Railroad  It was a good time with the whole family minus Dean and Nikki.  

On the banks of Oil Creek

Big Brother and Big Sister

My beautiful daughter.

Happy Anniversary