Hannah LIVE

Stage life for Hannah: She is not nervous even for one second about getting on stage. Enjoy this video of her & the other kids singing at church. The absolute best moment is the very, very end of the video when the song is ending & Hannah stretches out her arms as if she has just sang a solo & the rest of the choir was just there as back-up for her.

Notice her new haircut (thanks, Allie!!). Isn't Hannah a look-a-like for Lucy in Narnia? Well, maybe it is just me thinking she is so stinking' adorable? She is a delightful, wonderful little girl. The other morning I was waking her up for pre-school (feeling bad to be waking her up b/c we had stayed up late) she was very tired getting out of bed but as soon as she saw herself in the mirror she started to do a dance & sing a song from Annie. Literally, the girl doesn't stop dancing & singing. Even when we went skiing this winter, she was singing as we skied down the mountain. That is not a joke. I love it & thank God every day for the wonderful gift of being her mom!

Stage life for me: I guess there is no such thing as "death by public speaking" .. I made it at the women's retreat & actually enjoyed speaking. I feel so relieved that it is over. I know I got way too nervous thinking about it all. About 3 hours before I spoke, I felt complete peace about it all ... I know b/c so many were praying (thank you, friends!!!).

Our Pastor's wife spoke on Saturday morning at the retreat, from her real life experiences of adopting: 4 out of 6 of kids. 2 internationally, 2 from the LA foser care system. I was really challenged about the needs of kids in our local foster care system. 1,500 kids in Pomona District & 35,000 in the County of Los Angeles. I am moved to do SOMETHING about this mess ... not sure what but I know I can do something! We have room for an extra plate at the table. We have bedrooms. We have love. We have stability. We have structure. We have a God that doesn't give up on us. I talked with our social worker this week as we were updating our home study for Lily (since the wait has been so long, the home study will expire before we go to China - go figure!). She said we can't register right now to do foster care through the County b/c we are registered to adopt with a different agency. Seems you can't be registered with 2 separate agencies at the same time.