Congrats, Drew!

We found out today that Drew was named to the Honors Chorus, which is selected by the Illinois Music Educators Association. This is the 2nd consecutive year he has earned that designation, and it means he will perform with the Honors Chorus during the IMEA Convention. Honors Chorus represents approximately the top 2% of voices in the state as determined from vocal scores at tryouts a few weeks ago. He received the highest vocal score in the District, and will be part of the IMEA All State Concert in Peoria in February ... on my birthday. I can't think of a better gift for mom than to see her guy sing with the best high school vocalists in Illinois!

Four Years Ago Today!

Four years ago today was one of the happiest days of my life ... equal to the day my two sons were known to me, and the day I was married ... it was the day we received Abby's referral and finally knew we had a daughter!

I waited for the call all morning. One of the families in our group got her call, and then it was over an hour before our phone rang. But it finally did.

My hand shook as I wrote down the information. Girl. Guo Kui Yan. Born January 24, 2003. She's 9 mos old! Zhuzhou Children's Social Welfare Institute, Zhuzhou City, Hunan.

Now today she's sitting on the family room floor in her cute little princess pj's and sorting through the Halloween candy that is still left but she's not allowed to eat at 9:30 in the morning.

Enjoy the slide show of the first 3 pics we saw of Abby, taken when she was about 5 months old ... compared with 3 recent pics. That little baldy has grown a beautiful mane!