July 12th 2012 Almost 4 years being home together as a family. I haven't posted FOREVER.
Our kiddos have been great. We love them SO much!! They have kind hearts,great personalities, and just wonderful to be around. MOST of the time. :)
Since i never post anymore, I thought i would leave one last picture to end our blog.

Having a great time!

Summer 2010

It's been 2 years since our referral. June 26th was the exact date. Bethi and Amanu have definetly been keeping Shawn and I busy. I really don't know what we did before they came into our lives! REALLY!!!

Recently Bethi had surgery on both of her big toes. She had a birth defect that turned her big toes in and under. We had made two trips to Shriner's in St. Louis before the actual procedure was done. It was done 3 weeks ago tomorrow. She has casts on both feet and cannot put any weight at all on them. Tomorrow is when she gets them off. She has counted down every day of the 3 weeks!! The day before she had the surgery we took the kids to the St. Louis Zoo. It was way hot. They had more fun with the water fountains than the animals!

We went to St. Louis for Bethi's Dr. appointment regarding her toes. We ate at the Meskerem Restaurant. It was SO good! We ate there last year when we first took Bethi to Shriners Hospital. They have since remodeled. Looks really nice.

We went to the ARCH in St. Louis. The kids had a blast riding the "elevator" to the top.

Who weighs more???

Smile!!

Inside the "elevator".

Amanu calls the ARCH the RAINBOW!!!

In Springfield we met the Hyman family! Brandon, Elisa, Miles, and Baby Marley.

The kiddos

Elisa and Marley

Amanu likes to pretend this is his horse!

Bethi won a door prize! It was gift certificates for Taco Bell.

Math Night at Bethi's school. College students from Pittsburg State University came and played math games!

Showing off her tooth!

Bethi lost her front tooth!!!

Almost a year and a half!

Amanu refused to let going to the bathroom interfere with his peanut butter! EWWWW!!!
Valentine Tea Party

New baby for Christmas

Amanu giving his big sister Braden her gift.

Bethi giving her big sister Braden her gift.

Amanu LOVES playing with any kind of ball. He wore himself out!

Bethi's Christmas program. Amanu wanted to cheese it up!

The kiddos have been home with us for almost a year and a half! Hard to believe. They are doing so well. Problems we have with them are minor. Such as, Amanu was peeing in my shoes for awhile...he's over that now! He liked his juice sippy cups at night and never slept well. The juice is now gone and he is sleeping much better!!

Bethi likes to argue with her daddy a little too much. She thinks she's the boss of him sometimes. ; )

She loves school and has lots of friends. She really worried me at first because she was clingy with her teacher.She is reading mostly by herself now and enjoys it.

Amanu is so amazingly bright, the things he says amazes us daily! He has such a good memory.

WISH I DID!

Amanu finally gave up running from his cousin. Ava is 8 months younger, but 3 more pounds than Amanu! So yep, he runs!

Bethi and Amanu both love to play outside!

Don't have the pics yet but as of September 25th Bethi now rides her bike with no training wheels!She is SO proud of herself!

This is at the Magic House in St.Louis. Bethi had to go see an pediatric orthopedic for her toes. She has two bones in her big toes. We are looking at surgery in June of 2010. She doesn't want to miss any school.



Making the BIG bubble was hard!

Fishing at the Magic House. Amanu didn't want to leave!

Back Home

First day of school for Bethi!!She's wearing her Hanna Montanna shirt. Before we got the kids I was the one saying i didn't want our kids into all the "commercialized" clothing like Disney, etc. Guess what? First things she wanted when she got to America!

I LOVE this pic! I was sad! What a lonnnng hall!

This pic was taken on Amanu's 2nd birthday. September 16th

He wasn't feeling to whoopy that day, so no party that day!