Gratitude

6 months ago today we adopted Erin.  Her gotcha date is the 5th.  I spend the day scrapbooking with friends and family, while Erin spend the day playing 3 basketball games in CA in the "Iron 5 Tournment".  While scrapbooking I checked my email every 5 or 10 minutes to see if there was an update on the games and so  forth.  They did awesome keeping us up to date.  The girls won 3 games and lost two.  The placed 3rd.  Way to go.

This picture is the first glimpse of Erin when she walked into the room.   So looks so young.  6 months seems so long ago but on the other hand, it seems just yestraday.  These 6 months has been a roller coaster for everyone in our family.  Adding another child always changes the dynamics, having another child leave for college at the same time,adding a child that is 13 years old that has never had a mom, dad, siblings, love, guidance, nuture, security can add stress to any situations.  Some days I often wonder if I would make it through with Erin, and had to rely heavily on God, and my support system.  Learning to cherish every little positive thing any of my girls did.  Even though Erin had the most adjustment , it still was hard on the younger girls.  They have done wonderfully trying to be patient with Erin and learning that Mom loves them just as much even though Erin was needing more time.  I have posted on the blog the last 6 months all the little and big steps we have accomplish with Erin, and all the things Monika, Katie, Jenny and Jade of done.  I am proud of them all.

Today the basketball team spent the day in SF touring.    This is them at the beach.  Looks like Erin is having a blast.

This is where they play the 5 games.

Famous Golden Gate bridge.  Erin is hidden behind one of the boys, she has a white hoddie on with a SF hat.
There was another picture taken on the trolly that somehow she wasn't in it.

This is part of an email from one of the girl's mom (also the coaches wife):

You should be very proud of our kids as they shined and represented MDS very very well and beautifully!! I have been told over and over through out the weekend how they were soooo impressed with our school. The players really surprised them so much. They did brought their awesome attitude, great behavior, humble, hard work player, and cheerfully sportmanship!!  We even got compliments from referees and parents of other schools!!

When Erin finally made a basket, our girls players even boys who were watching cheered loudly with proud!  People been asking us why. We explained that she been trying so hard to shoot in basket EVEN her teammates blocked others so she can shoot, been giving balls over and over to let her shoot , give her supports n tips how to shoot, n been cheering for her .. They were amazing about it so people dropped their jaws when they saw my explanation and impressed! One mother almost cried! Another mother wanted to talk to school n coach about our dedication of teamworks!  

Your students are amazing awesome especially proud to be Metro Deaf School student! It is so much worth for us to invest our times on our children by driving back n forth for games n practices then did fundraisings them making sure they continue to well at school so they all could go to Iron 5. Makes no mistakes with that decision!! No mistakes!! Mostly important of all our kids did have a lot of fun playing hard and meeting old n new friends!!

The Gratitude I have for everyone that touches all my daughters life, you make a difference.