My three girls

Tons going on in the Hammel house! I will post when I get a chance. Enjoy!

Kai and Referral Day

Yesterday was the one year anniversary of receiving Kai's picture and information. She has grown so much in the past year! I was amazed when I first saw her picture. She just did not look like the picture I had had in my mind for the last 2 years. She was even more beautiful than I could have dreamed! The picture above is one of the first pictures we had, the picture below is one I took last week.

First Pigtails!

Kai brought me a pony tail holder and wanted me to put her hair in pigtails. She showed me by holding one on each side of her head,lol. I really thought her hair was not long enough, but it was. she looks sooooo cute!

My favorite pic

This is my favorite picture of Kai! She had been playing with the big girls in the garden and was rather proud of herself,lol!

More Pic's

I am way to lazy to think of something to say...... so here are a few more pic's.

WOW, it has been a while!

Well, many of you know that Kai broke her arm and had to have surgery. It has been really crazy around here, but here are at least a few new pics!

Kai's Referral Video

Just click on the red arrow.....



I have been practiceing with the video thing. What do you guys think? Am I missing anything? Any suggestions?

catching up

Whhhhhhhhhew! It was a long month of yuk at our house. V had the flu and lost 8 lbs, and before that we all had a virus for a few days. So hear are a few pics from the last month.

Kai.... after the bath.....

Gave Kai a bath this morning. See previous post for pics. Ummmmmmmm, this is her after lunch,lol!

Kai

Our sweet little Kai Kai!

Mayflower Best Western, Wuhan

This is the Hotel we stayed at in Wuhan. It was really nice. The last pic is of the hotel lobby. I wish I would have taken a picture of the outside of the hotel:(

Locksmith Kai

Last week O locked the bathroom door on accident. V used a credit card to unlock it. I guess Kai must of have been watching, because I just looked into the hallway from our bedroom and saw Kai with an old gift card sticking it in the crack of the closed bathroom door! She is SOOOOOO smart!

In other news, we took Kai to the Dr for a check up. The Dr we use only takes new patients that are adopted from China. She said Kai was the largest Chinese baby she has ever seen! Toooooo funny. she will probably be taller than her mama by the time she is 12!

the girls and teething

Kai and Olivia love playing together now. It took a few months for them to both really get to know each other and enjoy each other,lol!

Kai is teething, YUK! I have never seen teeth come in like this. 2 of hers have had bloody looking blisters just before the teeth break through! Poor baby! She is such a trooper!

Silly Kai and ICE

We went to see ICE at the Gaylord Hotel over the holidays with some GREAT friends of ours. We has a wonderful time! ICE is an indoor ice sculpture show ( duhh we do live in Tx where temps rarely reach freezing for any length of time,lol). It was really neat and the people who carve all of the sculptures are from Harbin China. VERY COOL!

16 months old today

Today Kai turns 16 months old. It is really hard to think that 16 months ago tomorrow she was found at the gate of the orphanage. I think it is harder to think about now than it was when we visited the orphanage and saw the location she was left. Something about having time to get to know her personality and fall even further in love with her makes it seem so tragic for her birth family and the choice they had to make. What a blessing she has been to our family. The pics above were two of three referral pics we received on Aug the 4th. She was 10 months old in the picture. Later today I am going to take a close up so we can all see how much she has changed. I love this sweet girl. Thank you God for bringing us down this road.

The Church In China

While we were in Wuhan we went to church. It was a school with a court yard. It was unique in the fact that there was not a pastor at this church but it was a feed from a near by church. Every room in the school was full with a tv for the congregation to watch. We arrived a little late and all the rooms were full but the court yard. The people there were soooooo friendly. They brought us out hymnals ( in Chinese) and Bibles ( also in Chinese). We just pretended to follow along,lol! I had no idea where they were in the Bible or the hymnal. All of the chairs were full so we sat on a little bench. Several of the older women in the congregation did not like the fact that A. we were sitting on the benches with the babies, and B. we were in the sun with the babies. We spent the next hour being moved from spot to spot in chairs so we would not be in the sun! It was very sweet and very funny! Kai was sleeping in her carrier when we first arrived and one of the older women leaned in to get a peek, she kissed her on the cheek and then whacked her on the cheek! This is a very normal thing for the Chinese! They are always whacking the babies on the cheeks.Its a way of showing affection. We really had a wonderful time and it was so moving to see the Chinese worship.

Lost Pics of China

We had several pics that did not get transferred from the laptop we took to China and our home computer. We just realised they were missing a week or so ago. So here are a few extra random pics from our trip!The first is Kai setting in the window of our hotel in Wuhan. The second is one of my favorites,and the third is of the three of us after dinner in Wuhan.

Cowgirl Kai

Kai has some new pink cowgirl boots! She LOVES em! She is a bit of a shoe hound. She will bring me a pair of shoes and say shhhhhhh shhhhhh, that means " I really think these shoes are cute, please put them on my Yedi like feet so I may admire them!"

Flower Girl

Olivia was a flower girl in a wedding this weekend. I think it was the most beautiful wedding I have ever been to. It was amazing! Here are a few pics.