The day we met...

3 years ago today we met our precious little baby girl for the first time. Words can not describe what a miracle it was to hold my baby girl in my arms for the first time. WOW!!! She is soooooooooo precious to us and we praise God everyday for bringing her into our family in such a special way. In adoption circles, today is called "Gotcha Day". This is a picture of our first time to meet little Hana, and the ceremony we had at church that day...




What a beautiful precious precious miracle! Thank you Lord!

Two weeks of PURE fun!

Hana had the BEST time on our trip. She did NOT want to come home yesterday. She complained about having to come home most of the way, and will probably be talking about all her new friends for many many weeks to come.

In Karuizawa at the mission meeting, they had children's programs all day for the MK's. Hana was blessed to join in with the mission children and had a blast. She is still singing bits and pieces of all the songs she learned, talking about baby Moses as they studied Moses all week, and talking about the kids she played with. Her English vocabulary exploded during this week too! It was so fun for us to see. The Missionaries just loved on her and she has some extra Aunt's and Uncle's now who just adore her!

Then, in Nagoya, we stayed with our friends who have a 5 year old son, Motoki and a 2 year old daughter, Miwa. Hana and Motoki especially got along really well. We were all raising our eyebrows at the future prospect there! Mommy would be thrilled if this really happened, if they grew up to like eachother, because Motoki is such a sweet little boy! We have tons of pictures of these two playing together. Also at this church there were other children she really had a great time with, especially "Big" Hana, a ten year old girl in the church also named Hana. She REALLY didn't want to leave Nagoya.

They were so sweet to throw Hana a little birthday party in the afternoon on the day of her birthday. We enjoyed cake and she even got some presents. What a blessing that was! We will be celebrating her birthday and "Gotcha" day this coming week, since we actually got Hana on the 31st of August.

She is going through a stage however where she doesn't want to have her picture taken. She also didn't really enjoy having the birthday song sung to her. So we don't have as many good pictures as normal because when she realizes the camera is pointing at her she often turns her back to it. But here are SOME fairly decent pictures to enjoy.

A short reunion one evening in Karuizawa with special friends and their new baby boy!!!
Playing in the pool with Motoki!



BIG Hana and LITTLE Hana!!!


Turning her back when everyone sang Happy Birthday, silly girl!



Motoki and Hana saying good-bye in the rain. They were soooooooo cute with Motoki holding the umbrella for Hana! To be continued??? ;)

Look who's THREE!!!

We can not believe that she is 3 years old ALREADY! Where oh where does the time go! We just got back from a long two weeks on the road, so details and pictures will have to come later, but I just thought I would drop in and let you all know that this precious little miracle of ours is doing GREAT!

OK, ALRIGHT, here are a couple of pictures to tide you over till I can get some more uploaded! ;)





Just a quick note to say she had an AWESOME time on this trip and did NOT want to come home today. One of the main reasons is this little boy she is playing in the pool with! Her new buddy Motoki. They had a great time playing together and she would have brought him home with her if she could! (so many great stories to tell about these two little Angels!) I'll be back with more in the next few days.