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

More from the Windy City

Saturday was a full day at the conference. It was so neat to be in a room full if people that were walking similar paths. And we got to meet friends from our Adoptive Parents of Thalassemia FB group

Good looking bunch , isn't it.   The couple on the far right even did a presentation on adoption Sunday morning. 

Saturday night was the 'Mad Science Dance Party'complete wth party favors. 

We all had a good time as you can see. 

Sunday brought more speakers and group sessions. I was especially inspired by the yoga teacher's session.  And the young women that spoke about why it was so important to remain adherent to chelation brought herself to tears so moved me. And you all know my strict rule that no one cries alone in my presence....

The main lesson I learned this weekend was chelate, chelate, chelate and then chelate some more!  

After the conference ended Sunday we took the opportunity to visit some dear friends that live in the area. 

Serenity and Katie were from the same orphanage in China and adopted at the same time.  'China Sisters'. 

And of course we couldn't leave Chicago without Chicago Deep Dish. 

Soooo good. I promise I will be food responsible tomorrow.....

Little bit this, little bit that.

Greetings from Chicago!  Our merry band of travelers is in Chicago for the weekend to attend the Cooley's Anemia Foundation Patient and Family Conference.  Cooley's Anemia is another name for Thalassemia.  Last night was the welcome reception and it was so neat to be in a room full of people that 'get' thalassemia.  There is so much optimism about the future of treatments and options, the energy is incredible.  

And speaking of incredible, the food was WOW!  Thalassemia is kind of 'rooted' in south Asia, and the Mediteranean so guess what the food was.  Yep, Chinese and Italian. Greek.  The girls(as well as mom and dad) were pretty happy. 

We can't wait to see what today brings.  There will be seminars and speakers for us to learn from and even sessions for the kids.

In other news, we have received a few updates on Betty June.  She is 40 lbs and 36 inches.  She speaks Mandarin and Cantonese. She looks pretty happy in her pictures.  We didn't see Belle's smile until we were in China.  It is good to see Betty June's smile.  Being a 6 year old she has already lost a few baby teeth and is her front two teeth in.  That made me a little sad to miss.  

If you notice in some of these pictures she is wearing a MICKEY MOUSE shirt.

This same little boy is in most of her pictures.  He appears to have Down's or something like that.  I hope he won't miss her too much.  That kind of makes me sad to think about so when you say your prayers, pray for him too.