Amelia

 Loves her sister

 and the water

 she will try anything

 is graceful

 and sweet

 and hard to grab a picture of

 she is funny

 and one of her favorite things is mermaids

and she is my beautiful daughter

Summer

Here in Florida it has been summer for about a month now. Officially summer does not begin for an other 21 days but it is here with all of its hotness and humidity. The girls are out of school now until the end of Aug. We have so much going on this summer that I seems like there is so little time.

It has been far to long since I have posted here and I will spare you any explanation or excuses. I had every good intention of documenting the last year for my girls to look back on one day but then life just took over. In any case I am going to try and post here more often than I have been. Some days it might just be a picture or two but I will try.

We have some exciting things brewing in our little family of four that I want to share with everyone.

But for now I will just leave you with these beautiful pictures of my two loves....

Then

One year ago we were given the most beautiful gift, a daughter.

Thank you China

Thank you Chris,Karla and Uncle Zhou

We have had the most amazing year of firsts with our sweet Amelia.

Watching her grow and blossom into a funny,sweet,smart,clever,energetic, not to mention beautiful girl,daughter,sister has been a highlight of our lives.

We can not express what joy this child has brought to us. 

She has completed our family in a way we never imagined. 

Thank You  

God

 A Family of three

 and then we were four

 Sweet Amelia

 Mikel and Ci Mei

(Mikel is the director of the True Children's Home)

 Jenny Smith (she is the CEO of the True Children's Home) presenting us with Ci Mei's life book,Chinese Calligraphy brush (made from Amelia's first haircut) and other priceless keepsakes.

 One sister needing comfort the other giving it

 One Happy Mama

 The sister love from day one

 Moments after become a family of four

Mama and Amelia

 and then there were balloons

 and laughs

 and toys

 Our Travel group,
Our Friends
The Vargas Family
(Malina,Desi,Omi and Albert)

 On our way

 not to be left out

One Happy Dada

 enjoying the ride

 Our first of many bed pictures

 Amelia's one red foot

 She can "China squat like a pro

Pizza on day one

=

Happy Girl

Craniofacial Acceptance Month

September is Craniolfacial Awareness Month

Cleftsmile.org

"The CDC estimates that each year 2,651 babies in the US are born with a cleft palate and 4,437 babies are born with a cleft lip with or without a cleft palate.
Cleft lip or palate is one of the most common birth defects, affecting one in 600 children in the United States. Unless treated surgically, cleft palate can interfere with feeding, speech development and hearing. "

Clefting happens during the first 6 to 10 weeks of pregnancy when the facial bones and tissue fail to fuse together.

Cleft Lip/Cleft Palate

occur in every race, in every country in both boys and girls.

Native Americans have the highest reported incidents, followed by Japanese and then the Chinese.

Girls are effected at a higher rate then boys

typically the left side of the face is effected more then the right side.

Cleft Lip/Cleft Palate

can be but is not always related to other syndromes. Read more here

this is the REAL face of Cleft Lip and Cleft Palate

it's not hard to love a child with a Cleft Lip/ Cleft Palate

this Child is the happiest,sweetest,most loving wonderful child. I am so glad we took the leap of faith and decide that Cleft Lip/Cleft Palate was something we were not scared of.

One year ago today

we saw this sweet face for the very first time.

It was love at first sight.

she was our Mei Mei.

she was who we had been waiting for.

Our family grew by one

Our hearts grew to make room

our family was blessed, yet again with a beautiful, sweet, amazing daughter.

Life would never be the same

it would be better

more wonderful

more beautiful

there would be

more

love

laughter

more living

because of our sweet

Mei Mei

Amelia Grace Cimei

a life changing moment...

this has been one crazy week but ended with a great weekend.

We were coming down off all of the excitement of Sophia's big birthday party and really not much happening at the beginning of the week.

Then Wednesday night happened......

It seemed like a perfectly "normal" evening we came home from work, had dinner, we went to the park for some play time and then i gave the girls a bath and put them to bed all very "Normal" until 10:30pm when I see and hear Amelia sit straight up in bed and let out the most awful blood curdling scream. I thought for a moment she was having a night terror (something she had never had but that is what I thought was happening). I could see Riz go into her room and pick her up and I heard him say Mei Mei wake up. Hearing this I ran up the stairs to find them in our room. Amelia was having a seizure.. Riz and I have never been more terrified in our whole lives. I grabbed her and ran downstairs. I put her on the floor and turned her on her side. Riz called 911 and we waited for what seemed like an eternity for the ambulance to get to our house. Amelia was unresponsive this whole time, it was terrifying to say the least. When the ambulance arrived they took her the the ER. By the time they got there she had started to come around. The ER doctor treated her with IV fluids, antibiotics and ran a bunch of medical test. Everything came back "normal" they concluded that it must be some sort of virus. She did have a 103 degree temp and that is what brought on the seizure. It was what they called a Febrile Seizure. they are common in children from 18 months to 5 years old and are most often brought on by the sudden increase in body temperature. We did take her to her ENT to make sure her tubes were OK and that she did not have an ear infection, she gave us the all clear. When then took her to her pediatrician and she did a swab of her throat to insure it was not Strep, she gave us the all clear too.

It was a Virus...

and today we found out it is

Roseola.. read about it here

she had all of the classic sings and symptoms of Roseola. Not sick, acting totally normal, no fever and then a sudden high fever that passed in 2 days followed by a rash on her truck and face. Luckily it is a mild illness that passes quickly and typically does not return.

We love her so much and can't imagine what we would do without her in our lives. Wednesday night hands down scared us to death and made us realise once again how fragile life really is and how quickly your life can change.

Hug and kiss your children a little extra every day.

Everything is OK