Yesterday, if you can believe, was the anniversary of the day that we first saw our sweet Zoey's little face, the one year anniversary of our referral date. 
I can believe it's been that long because I don't feel like she hasn't ever been with us. We had some friends over for the AL/AU game and Christine was looking at one of our photo albums. 
The pictures that the orphanage gave us of Zoey that they had put in a little album for us were in there and it is kind of surreal looking at them. 
It's just like a biological child, you can't remember your life without them almost. I can't believe that it is her in those pictures in ten layers of clothing sitting in the dirt outside the Poyang SWI. And coming back to reality that it is her makes me tear up everytime. So we celebrate our little girl and how far she has come since that day, 
(how far they ALL have come)
I can believe it's been that long because I don't feel like she hasn't ever been with us. We had some friends over for the AL/AU game and Christine was looking at one of our photo albums. The pictures that the orphanage gave us of Zoey that they had put in a little album for us were in there and it is kind of surreal looking at them. It's just like a biological child, you can't remember your life without them almost. I can't believe that it is her in those pictures in ten layers of clothing sitting in the dirt outside the Poyang SWI. And coming back to reality that it is her makes me tear up everytime. So we celebrate our little girl and how far she has come since that day, (how far they ALL have come) that we sat at our computers at work and saw her picture for the first time and cried because we couldn't wait to hold her in our arms. 
Now she is ours completely and always will be. 
What an amazing journey for her and us! 
Now she is ours completely and always will be. What an amazing journey for her and us! 
That precious angel face just makes me melt. She is a little stinker too, always trying to sneak up the stairs. 
And the really scary thing is that she has made all the way to the top twice and we didn't even know it until she came walking into the room upstairs, once I was up there the other time Vince was.
She is trying to put on her socks and shoes herself now and gets so frustrated when she can't get them on. 
Zoey LOVES this little house toy. She will play with it the longest that she has ever played with any other toy really. And she really likes it when someone else will crawl in and out of the door with her. (Jan, obviously the whole family has gotten to enjoy this wonderful toy you gave us) 
It's the highlight in our den! Zoey didn't like it that Vince was walking around with it on like he was stuck in it, but we thought it was hysterical!
I am in love with my moms camera. I was playing with it and got some cute pictures while they were playing and a little video. 
I just love to hear her laugh!
With her beachball belly, she fit the outfit perfectly and was definitely the cutest pumpkin I ever saw! On Halloween afternoon they have Trick-or-Treating on Main Street where we live. All the businesses give out candy to the kids. We decided to do that in the afternoon. Of course Zoey didn't quite get the concept, she just knew that people were giving her something and had to stop every foot to take inventory of her bucket. 
My friend gave us the adorable hand me down bumble bee outfit and then Madison kind of invented her own outfit. 
I told her she looked like Morticia Adams but she didn't have any clue who that was. After about two hours of getting too much candy for an army we went home. Zoey and Vince gave out candy and me, Madison, Neely, and Hope went to see HSM 3. If you haven't seen it and you liked the other two HSM movies on Disney Channel you should see the final one. It was cute!
We had such a great time. It was really fun wear these costumes and to see everyone at church dressed up too. Several people didn't know who we were and some others who wanted their pictures made with us. Of course Vince looked so helarious with the black hair and mustache I barely recognized him either. One of the first weeks of November, Madison had a school Thanksgiving program at school. She had been picked for a speaking part and also to hold a cut out turkey for one of the songs. 
She did such a great job, well all of the kids did. Their music teacher, Ms. Henderson, does a really great job with the kids. 
They are all very animated during their part and the programs she chooses for the kids to do are the perfect length and have some really cute songs in them. We are very proud of all the kids in the program, but especially our Madison!
We had a really great time, however, it was during Hurricane Ike and the beach was closed most of the time while we were there. It was unbelievably windy. 
I can't imagine what it would've been like where the hurricane actually was because we were about to blow away, or at least Zoey was. 
Anyway, Madison and Zoey had a ball playing in the pools. There were three, two outside and one inside. Zoey also had a great time playing peek-a-boo with the curtains.
We got some funny pictures of her, like this one where she has fixed her own hair. 
Doesn't she look like Betty Rubble from the Flintstones? 
Vince and I have been working out, can you tell? Betcha didn't know he played the ukulele either. We couldn't resist sitting in the gigantic chair, it was really interesting to see me getting up there! 
Madison had fun on this trampoline thing, but said the straps were killing her legs. We were just proud of her for trying it, she's usually not very brave when it comes to things like this. 
We got scared for a few minutes because we couldn't find Zoey, well, here she was hiding in this sign giggling watching Madison jump.
Isn't she just a cutie patootie! 
One night they had a band playing and kids were playing some plastic instruments on stage with them. These videos are of Zoey and Madison that night. They are a little long, but you can skip through and see her dancing, it's too cute! 
