Friends Are Presents We Give Each Other

Thank goodness for friends who can help us, support us, spend time with us and just be a blessing! My online friend Chrissie has given me "expert" advice on this blogging! She is also in the process of adopting from China. I'm so excited for her and Chris . . . you can follow her journey by clicking on her blog, the Estok Journey.

Way back when Kevin & I were celebrating our 5 year wedding anniversary,
we went on a cruise. On that cruise, we became friends with honeymooners, Valerie & Scott. We are still friends today, ten years later! They live in Arkansas so over the years we've planned midway trips to St. Louis and have traveled to each other's homes. Over this past weekend, they drove 1o hours one way just to meet the newest addition in our family. Kamryn was instantly drawn to Scott and giggled the whole weekend. It was so much fun to just hang out.

Kamryn is quite the hugger these days. She especially loves to hug her brothers! They love it when she shows them some attention too. She will also give hugs to anyone she likes. Needless to say, Scott got lots of hugs this past weekend too!

I like to climb in with my toys! 

Kamryn "talking" on my phone! 

Of all the rights of women, the greatest is to be a mother.--- Lin Yutang

This is so true . . . I always knew I wanted to be a mom, and I thank God daily for the boys and for bringing Kamryn into our lives. She is babbling “momma” and whether or not she really associates the word with me, it is music to my ears! It’s so wonderful to see her blossom every day. We think she is very smart! Kevin has been working with her on where her nose and ears are, and she really seems to get it! It’s funny but every day she’ll check out my ears to see what earrings I have on.

Her adoption paperwork stated that her favorite toy was a doll. She does really enjoy feeding her doll a bottle, but we’ve noticed that she has picked up some of my habits and really more so loves to pick up my cell phone and say hello. Her toy phone is just not as much fun as mine. She also knows that after we take a picture of her, she can see it instantly on the camera. She loves looking at pictures just as much as I love taking them.

More snow hit us today and it's supposed to be spring! We need warmer weather so that all these winter sick germs go away! We finally took Kamryn to get her shots, and the same day she got a fever. I thought no big deal, just a reaction from the shots. But a couple of days later and after many junky coughs and wheezes, we headed back to the doctor. Kamryn had bronchiolitis and unfortunately cloudy fluid under one of her ear tubes. So we have had the joy of giving her breathing treatments with the nebulizer 3 times a day, giving her an oral steroid, an antibiotic and ear drops. She seems to be feeling better now though.

She's has taken 7 wobbly steps on her own! Yea! She is such a happy girl, and we are truly blessed. Her laughter is such a wonderful sound!