SumMer LiVin' {Sunday Snapshot}

We celebrated the 4th of July yesterday.

I know. :-)

It was actually an annual party that started as a 4th of July fete...but has evolved into apartysomewherearoundthefourthofJulythatnowhasadifferentthemeeachyear party.

My sister and brother in law, super fun party planners and hosts that they are usually give us a ring a few weeks before the party to let us know the "theme" for the year.

This year? Disco. Complete with a dance contest.

Right on.

Before the big dance off, we enjoyed some swimming.



Cousin love...



...and LOTS of lip licking good food!



Chloe wore her finest. Please don't mention to her that ties are for boy dogs. She doesn't know and was awfully proud of her poochy ensemble.



And the dance contest?

My girls brought it.

Good to know all of the hours we have spent dancing around the house have paid off.

Older cousins who organize and DJ a dance contest totally rock.



Lia took it seriously. Here she is listening to the rules.



And all that seriousness paid off. She won for the "best moves". All that sweaty dancing earned her a Gei*o headband and a bottle of cookie dough hand sanitizer.

Total score, right??

She could not have been more thrilled and already has plans to take that hand sanitizer in her backpack to Second Grade. :-) I love my slightly germ obsessed girl. And her awesome dance moves.

Jillian wasn't quite sure what to make of it all at first. Taking it all in but not sure what the craziness was about.



But soon the pulsing beat won her over and she got her boogie on.

Big time.

And even though she won no hand sanitizer...that little one's got moves too.

I'm SO proud.





Needless to say...a great time was had by all (I may have joined in to dance "The Hustle...but happily no photographic evidence exists. You're welcome.) and we are all a little "danced out" tired this morning. Such a fun party and we sure can't wait to do it again. In about a year. :-)

(My niece, Olivia. Always camera ready.)



I am joining in with Stef's Sunday Snapshot. Lots of fun and lots of great photos! Check it out!

A TaLe of TwO SisTerS {Sunday Snapshot}

We have been home with Jillian for just over 7 months (whoa!). I remember reading a blog post by an adoptive mom several years ago where she suggested that it takes a good six months to truly start to settle in and feel "normal" again after the addition of a child (biological or adopted!). That kind of stuck with me (obviously) and before we traveled to China, I had prepared myself for {possible} rocky roads and a {possible} difficult period of adjustment for all of us.

Well...if you haven't gotten it from reading this blog...we have been extraordinarily blessed with a wonderfully easy transition with Jillian. She is SO easy-going, loving, trusting...just easy. She eats, sleeps, plays, cries, laughs and just generally meets each day head-on looking for the next adventure.

Having said that...I have to admit that it hasn't been ALL rainbows and unicorns around here. :-)

There's a new sheriff in town and the....ahem...OLD sheriff had a bit of a bigger adjustment than we thought she would.

Jillian adores Lia...





...and I know Lia loves Jillian too...





...but it HAS been a bit of a work in progress.

On a daily basis. :-)

We've been on summer vacation for two weeks...and I am thrilled to say it seems we may have tunred the corner onto Sibling Love Lane for good. While we still take a turn on to Squabble Drive or Give Me a Break Way from time to time (usually around the time I am trying to get dinner on the table each day!)...I see them each settling into a good routine with one another...a nice mix of doing their own thing and playing together as well.

Yesterday we took a short trip to a local historic park to explore a bit. I had my camera to scope out locations for some upcoming family sessions...but when I saw all those painted doors I HAD to get a few of the girls. Sometimes the bloopers are my favorites! (This truly makes me laugh...hilarious...and SO them!)



...and then of course...the kind of shot my husband insists I take. The children are as enthusiastic as me. We!love!canons! LOVE! Can you tell?? :-) (see Jim??? I DID put it on the blog...because we love you if NOT your choice of backdrops! Ha! :-))



But then...I get lucky enough to capture a quick moment between Lia and Jillian that makes all the struggles (photographic and other!) worth it. I stopped to reset my camera settings...and left to their own devices...this is what happened. Like I said...Sibling Love Lane. I have proof...and I am saving it to look at tomorrow.

Around the time I will be trying to get dinner on the table. :-)



I am linking up once again with Stefanie (third week in a row...shut.the.front.door!). Click on the link below to enjoy some more Sunday Snapshot goodness...you'll be SO glad you did. Good stuff.

{Don't FalL OvEr}...

...it's the second post in a week.

Because I am a younger sister.

Happily so, mind you...but a second nonetheless. And really? That's a good place to be. A LOT less pressure...and there's always someone to look out for you. I like it here in secondom (and with all that less pressure, it frees me up to coin new words. Like secondom...just sayin'...).

But it makes me just a bit more sensitive to things like noting all the important passages of life....and just the everydayness (again with the new words...to be honest I have been working hard to get a word added to the dictionary ever since Beyonce got credit for the word "bootyliscious"...but I digress...).

My Lia's younger years were fairly well documented...and well...I want the same for my Jillian. :-) It's not that any of HER moments are less important...because we have enjoyed every.single.one....but it seems to have more to do with how busy life is keeping us.

We have been home just over 7 months with Jillian...and things seem to be settling into a new {fabulous...but busy} normal. Time seems to be passing in warp speed...and I am already losing some of the details.

So...no promises...because, you know, that is WAY too much pressure for me, a second daughter and all...but I am going to try REALLY hard to document our life with Jillian just a bit better.

Whew.

Okay...got that out of the way.

Which means I can now move onto the good stuff.

About a girl and a sprinkler.

Old school summer fun at it's best.

Jillian hated it.

As if.



I actually have yet to find an activity the child does NOT love...





She took some time to explore...



...but mostly, like Forrest Gump...wherever she was goin'...she was running...



But always with a smile.



So glad I get to come along for the ride. :-)

{SerEnDipiTy} ~Sunday Snapshot

My life has not turned out the way I planned. I say that often. But I always follow up with..."it has turned out better than I ever could have hoped."

And it's all a marvel to me on a daily basis. I am so so thankful for so many blessings...but mostly for the three people I live with.

A chance conversation with a co-worker at a part-time job led to the blind date with the man I would eventually marry. (See mom...Prince Charming really DID come knocking at my door!!)

A chance conversation with the {somewhat crazy...but that's a story for another time} Social Worker who came to do our home visit for a domestic adoption led us switch gears and find our first daughter in China.

The road to our Jillian is a bit more complicated but no less miraculous. In fact probably more so...and I know without a doubt that a much bigger Hand orchestrated it all.



...and in SORT of the same way...a happy accident led to one of my most favorite photo shoots ever.

The aforementioned accident happened during a visit to a nearby mall (in an attempt to escape the scorching heat) . And it required...ahem...the purchase of a new pair of {dry} undies. When I was buying them, I spotted the dearest little pink bathing suit. On sale. DEEPLY discounted. I did what I had to. It was a must have. Can you blame me??



...and even though I had promised (and held to!) my big girl to keep the beach shoots to a minimum...I had made no deals with the little one. Total score.



So...I had the suit...and visions of what I wanted to capture...but we had no swim cap. I sent my husband (I KNOW!) out to search the one beach store on our small island with no big hopes that he would find what we needed. And he came back with the perfect cap. For which he proudly told me had to ask for help to find. I was indeed VERY proud that he took the time to ask (which in fact MAY be the biggest miracle of this whole post... :-)).



That miracle was followed closely by the miracle of actually getting Jillian to put on the cap.



We kept Jillian up past her bedtime to take advantage of some beautiful light that we noticed every evening...at once pink and golden and soft...perfect.

She didn't seem to mind.



...and in true Jillian fashion, she did not disappoint.



I ended up with a series of basically unplanned photos that capture my girl at her best...and bring a tear to my eye every time I look at them. Serendipity. Those unplanned moments in life? I'll take them!



I'm playing along again this week with Stefanie at Ni Hao Y'all. To see some awesome Sunday Snapshots click the link! You'll be glad you did!

{JOy as BiG aS thE OcEaN} Sunday Snapshot

Last year at this time, we were here at the beach...dreaming big about the coming year and knowing that THIS year, Jillian would be with us. Truly, almost everything we talked about started with the phrase, "Next year, when Jillian is home..."...

...and now, here we are. We blew in to our favorite island Saturday, packed to the gills and looking forward to the week ahead. Although we spent a weekend here in the winter, we couldn't wait to see Jillian step on the sand for the first time...and experience the thrill of the ocean water (and really...here on the Jersey shore...part of that thrill has to do with the COLD water!).

We threw open the sliders while we unpacked the car...and Jillian was mesmerized by the "big kids" on the beach. Every time we told her we would go play in the water, she cheered loudly. And I am not kidding when I say she asked us 112 times about it. She is nothing if not persistent. :-)

By the time groceries has been bought, suitcases unpacked and dinner served, it was getting close to bedtime. But I had a plan for Jillian's first time on the beach...and I am so glad I pushed through. Several years ago, I brought a pink pettiskirt for Lia to do photos on the beach. She was so excited to see the water...and on a whim, I threw the skirt on the minute we arrived and off we went. I captured some of my favorite photos ever of Lia wearing that skirt, so happy and filled with joy to be at the shore. The skirt is still a bit big for my little girl...but in the words of Tim Gunn (who doesn't love that man??)...we "made it work"...to capture Jillian's reaction to HER first visit to the beach! (and she did not disappoint!!!). I am so excited to have "matching" photos of my girls...taken years apart...but sharing the same happiness!

Her fist glimpse of the ocean...



I wish I could share the giggles that came out of her when her feet felt the sand for the first time! It was a puzzler for sure!!



A little nervous about the waves at first...







But then...she decided she liked it...and I am so glad I had my camera in hand. Really...we were on the beach such a short time...but these moments will forever be etched in my mind. I am SO glad Jillian is home...and so glad I have the honor of being her mother. Blessed beyond reason...and so so grateful.



Edited to add this photo of Lia in the pettiskirt several years ago. When I posted the link on Facebook someone asked if I could post a photo from Lia's session. I didn't think I had any on this computer...but lo and behold...I found one!!! :-)

{photos taken with a Canon 50d (bought secondhand but works like a champ! :-)) and a 50mm 1.8 lens}

Join the fun and check out other Sunday Snapshot entries over at Stef's blog!!

What a difference a year makes...

Ummm...can you hear me now??? For the three people who may have been waiting for updates (Hi Mom, Dad and Gram!!! :-))...we are here. Very happily so...but crazy busy. Jillian continues to fit in like she's always been here...keeping us hopping and laughing a good deal of the time. Although she puts her backpack on every morning when we walk Lia to the bus and insists, "Ying Ying SCHOOL", she won't officially start pre-school until next fall when she will attend the same Montessori school that Lia did. Luckily she seems content with her weekly music and gymnastic classes where she generally holds court and regularly brings a tear to my eyes with her tenacity and can-do attitude. While we all might be slightly more worn out at the end of each day...and have had to re-discover the skill of multi-MULTI-tasking...we can't imagine life without our Jillian. She's going places I tell you...and lucky LUCKY for us...we get to come along for the ride.

This week (April 25th)one year ago, we received our referral call and saw Jillian's face for the first time. We tried to do the "right things" before assembling our paperwork to commit to adopt her...had her file reviewed by an International Adoption Clinic , talked to other families who have children with limb differences, researched treatment options...but...she truly had us at hello. We received the call at about 10:20 pm...just as we were getting ready to head to bed. We quickly looked at her file and contemplated a Special Need we had not specifically checked off on our agency's checklist...and then we got to her photos. Jim kind of chuckled when he saw her for the first time...the same reaction he always has when he likes a photo I have taken of Lia...and when I heard that...I knew. I knew she was the ONE we had been waiting for. She was the REASON we had waited. We sent our Letter of Intent in that week...and traveled to bring her home last November.

So...this is our version of a Sunday Snapshot...just call it "What a difference a year makes..."

Our first snapshot of Yu Ying...this was taken when she had just turned two years old...



Our first update...in June, 2011...she was 2 1/2 and had been moved to foster care...



A surprise (and much needed!) update in August, 2011...when we learned Jillian had a foster sister (see her arm in the photo???)!



We missed Jillian's 3rd birthday by mere weeks...a tough blow to this mom who did everything to be in China for the big day...but we sent a cake...and were thrilled to receive 50(!) photos of the party! (10/24/11)



FINALLY...our first REAL glimpse of our girl...look how brave and trusting she was (November 14, 2011)



An impromptu photo shoot about a month ago...a day where everything I did struck her funny!



And of course...the first photo at the top of this post...taken today...you understand why I had to lead with THAT one, right??? We're in the throes of a massive rainstorm in our parts...and we let the girls run a bit in the rain. They got some new rain boots for Easter...and, well, it seemed the perfect day to give them a great test run. Jillian wasn't sure at first...but before long she got the hang of it and had a great time. It is her expression in the top photo that makes me love it so. It's the same one she has when she is checking with me to make sure she understands my directions...or whether she should use a fork or spoon...or if it is REALLY okay to run in the rain...so so sweet and eager to please. And really...I just want her to know she had me at hello...

{Photo taken with Canon 50d. ISO 200, focal length 50mm, f/1.8, Shutter speed 1/200}. Edited with actions from the Florabella Collection.

To join in the "Sunday Snapshot" fun...head on over to Ni Hao Y'all...