Getting ready for our first Christmas together.......

We walked down to the East China ocean to enjoy the sunset and look at the Japanese holiday decorations. It's a wonderful time of year!
We've discovered that Mika's favorite Christmas song is "Let it snow" by Michael Buble. She sings and dances everytime she hears it.

Happy Thanksgiving 2009....it's a turtle?!

We celebrated our first Thanksgiving with Mika and we had a wonderful day. She didn't really understand what was going on, and she kept asking "Mommy, what you doing?" When she saw the turkey she called it a BIG TURTLE! We all had fun cooking together and she and Max helped to make the homemade rolls. Mika especially liked the mashed potatoes and the turkey. We ate lots of great food and then everybody took a short nap. Later in the evening, we drove over to Mihama Village in Chatan and walked on the beach and looked at the holiday decorations. This village is also known as American Village because it has a few American restaurants and is always decorated during American holidays. Thanksgiving day will always be special to us because that's the day the Taiwan judge signed our adoption decree! We didn't know that until we arrived in Taiwan and got a copy of the adoption paperwork. It was a wonderful surprise.

David's big news! November 23, 2009

We received great news today.....David has been selected for promotion to Chief Warrant Officer 3! (CWO-5 is the highest rank there is, so this is a huge promotion for him.) We're so proud of him and very, very surprised and happy. The other good news is that we'll definitely be staying on Okinawa until 2013 now. It's great to know we'll be staying in one place and won't have to worry about moving for awhile.

Mika was a little afraid of the balloons again, but after a few minutes, she liked playing with them.

Mommy and Mika Chinese cooking class- November 19, 2009

Mika and I joined a Chinese cooking class at Ryukyu Middle school to learn how to cook traditional Chinese foods. Today we learned how to make Chinese dumplings and pork fried rice with vegetables. We enjoy cooking together and she always wants to be with me when I'm in the kitchen cooking anything. We had lots of fun and Mika ate until she was STUFFED. She fell asleep in the car before we even left the school parking lot.

Mika was excited about wearing her new apron. It was a birthday gift from our friend Erika.
She liked the Taiwanese dolls that were displayed in the classroom. Mrs. Beall surprised us and gave one to her when we were about to leave.

Mika and Mrs. Beall. She is the cooking instructor and has become a friend since we brought Mika home in May. She's from Taiwan and they talk to each other in Mandarin. Mika surprised us on this day and counted to 10 in Mandarin Chinese! We didn't know she knew how to do that! Our goal is for her to keep her Chinese language and also use english.

Happy 6 month gotcha day celebration: October 28, 2009

We celebrated our 6 month anniversary with Mika today! It's so amazing to think about all the joy and excitement we have felt over these past six months. We are so blessed to feel like our family is finally complete and we're very happy. Taiwan will forever hold a very special place in our heart and we look forward to returning there some day when Mika is older to show her how beautiful her homeland is. She and Max are both wonderful children and we're very lucky.

Mika's first trick or treat adventure!

Our first Halloween together!


Mika and Mommy made a Halloween bat using her hands!

Waiting for her bat to dry.....

Max and Mika are ready to go.

Mika is an adorable Tinkerbell. That's the very first video we watched with her after coming home from Taiwan. Mika calls the movie "Tinkerbell fly!"

Armed with 2 buckets and ready to go. The more candy the better!

Our first stop was Angie's house. We've been friends for about seven years and they're stationed on Okinawa right now too. Mika loves her! Angie always gives her Pez candy.

At Mike and Angie's house.

It was pouring down rain, but as you can see by the smiles on their faces, they didn't care.

Mika and Daddy.

Mommy and Mika. Our friend Yori joined us.

Mika with our friends Erika and "Maki cry." Mika calls her "Maki cry" because the first time she met Mika she cried the entire time we were at lunch. Now we all call her by her new nickname. Hello Maki Cry.

Mika and Max surveying the loot....

We had such a wonderful time taking Mika trick or treating for the very first time. We watched several Halloween cartoons to help prepare her for the big night out. We also let her practice knocking on the door and giving her candy, so after about a month of all this excitement, she was ready to go! She wasn't shy at all and said trick or treat at almost every house. As we were walking down the sidewalk around 7:30, she said
" Mommy, Mika tired, Mika all done." She's so cute when she makes these little announcements so matter of factly. She and Max had lots of fun...even if it did pour down rain. We went to Camp Lester. That happens to be the first base we took Max trick or treating when we moved to Okinawa back in September of 2000. It feels a little surreal sometimes to take Mika to the same place we took Max so many years ago. We are truly blessed.