Ava is 5!! (Update)

 We had more of a birthday celebration week for Ava. Her birthday was on a Wednesday, so the weekend prior we gave her our present from Mommy, Daddy, Laura, and Christine---a new strawberry shortcake bike and helmet. It was such a beautiful weekend, we wanted her to be able to ride it. She was very excited. Probably a little confused about her actual birthday, but still excited none the less!

She loved blowing out candles, and really liked her ice cream cake. I think we blew out candles about 5 times :))

I took cupcakes to her school for her class and she was thrilled. She didn't like her cupcake, but the rest of the class loved them!

The following weekend Craig's sister and our brother in law threw a huge Minnie Mouse party at their home for us. (in NC) We were able to see family and friends that we don't normally get to see and we had an absolutely wonderful time! Ava was tickled and so funny!

My niece made the cutest decoration out of dum dums!!

The cake was awesome! Everything was decorated perfectly!! 

Ava was so excited, but she's also a real "ham" so she was enjoying all the attention.

My wonderful family and friends!

Uncle Ashley, Daddy, Ava, Auntie Jane and Mommy

I sure do love Ava's kisses!!

Cousins! 

Sisters!!

I am amazed at how much Ava has changed within the past year! She is a little social butterfly for sure! She is talking more and more---non stop really, it's just still a matter of understanding what she's trying to say! She's still developmentally behind her peers in every way, but WOW what progress she has made. She had absolutely NO stimulation or support in China and we are so proud of her for what she has learned. She receives PT, OT and Speech Therapy at school and we really feel that it may take her a couple years to catch up fully. She is so funny and doesn't miss a beat. She understands EVERYTHING we say, and I just feel that for some reason she can't always express herself verbally. Whether it's just time that she needs, or if it's a real speech problem we don't know yet. She isn't always interested in learning (like colors, etc) but she loves to draw and read books and count. She has a sense of humor that is hilarious and she's a real drama queen. She can sing beautifully and strum a guitar so carefully. She watches every move I make and imitates everything I do! (She even grunts like I do when I have to bend over and pick something up! I've tried to stop that, but it's real funny to hear her do that!) Ava is spunky and won't let her friends or anyone else walk all over her. She loves to snuggle and she's so loving. She is always happy and smiling and I can't even imagine our life without her! She is our blessing and our joy! Adoption isn't always easy, and we have surely had our ups and downs (just like being a parent in general) but we'd do it all over again in a heartbeat!! In fact we really feel in our hearts that we are supposed to adopt again, but God hasn't told us how we can do that yet. Please pray for clarity for us for that matter! (plus we'd need some miracles to happen!) But nothing is too big for God, so we just pray that if it's God's will, that He will make it known to us! When we first started out on this journey, it was more or less my vision (very soon to be all of our desires) but ever since we've had Ava, Craig has felt very strongly about going back to China and adopting again. (he says Ava needs a sibling her age!) So, our request is that you will pray that God will either take this desire away from us or provide a way for it to happen! Thank you for your prayers! In the meantime we rejoice in the wonderful blessings that God has given us!