It now has been 6 years.....

Six years it was Mid Autumn Festival in China.

We have been in China for 6 days so far.

My mom, Dave, Monika and I have just spend 6 unbelievable days in Beijing.

While in Beijing, I received news that a good co-worker and Katie's would be Godfather past away.

 Katie was the first one to come in, she had such a huge smile on her face, she even saw us and turned around and ran out of the room, when they brought her back she was laughing.

 While visiting with Katie, they brought Jenny in, I didn't even know it until they put her on my lap.

 First family picture of 5
Monika so happy to have 2 new sisters

 Katie learning who her daddy is and how much he can help

 Jenny fell asleep on me after one of her crying times right after we got her

 Look at those sad eyes of Katie, eventhough she was a smiley girl easily, we saw the saddness too

 Jenny and Katie not sure what to think, Monika is just loving it.

 Eating our first family meal at Lucy's

 There is the Katie we know

 Juggling the girls on mommy's lap
This next entry is what I wrote on their Gotcha day.

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival. This holiday for the
Chinese is about reuniting/uniting with families. How
approiprate for us becoming a family of 5 on this day.
We started out the day eating and shopping. Around
2:30pm, we took a bus to the civil affairs and went
into a room. There was two other families there that
already gotten their children. They brought Katie in
first, when she first walked in, she had a big smile
on her face. Next they brought in Jenny, she also had
a smile on her face. They were ok with us the whole
time. Once we left the room and started heading to
the bus, Jenny became upset and started to cry. Katie
was quiet but you could tell she was scared. Once we
got them back here at the hotel, we gave the girls
snacks which they loved. Monika did really good with
helping to get water, sippy cups and snacks for the
girls. She was so excited to have them here. Katie
and Jenny were having a hard time drinking from the
sippy cups, so we took the caps off. I had both girls
and sometimes Monika too on my lap, they were reserve
of Dave. Jenny managed to spill her glass of water on
me. Once the girls felt a little more comfortable, we
changed them and head for Lucy for supper. At Lucy,
Katie started to show more of her personality. She
started smiling and her eyes danced. This moments
didn't last long before you would see the sadness in
her eyes again, but she is at least smiling at times.
Jenny is still very reserve about things, she mainly
just ate. Both can feed themselves using a spoon or
fork. I was able to teach Katie sign language. She
says more, milk, and eat. I am not sure how much she
is going to remember when she gets up tomorrow. We
did take the girls down to the swan room afterwards,
they played well.
Monika and Grandma stayed in the swan room while Dave
and I brought Katie and Jenny upstairs to get them
ready for bed. They both enjoyed their baths. It
took a little bit of work to get them to go to sleep,
both of them had to be held in the our arms to fall
asleep. Monika went to bed pretty good to. Monika
has decided that she doesn't want her doll anymore,
she wants one of the new ones. Before the girls went
to sleep, Dave was reading to Katie and Katie was
trying to tell a story with the book. Jenny started
to babble at the book and saying things, but don't
know what.
Katie weighs 27.5 pds and is 33 1/2 inches
Jenny is 22 pds and is 31 inches.

6 years later....

 Jenny, Monika and Katie no longer toddlers, they are now school age

 Jenny

Katie

Katie now is 51 inches tall and 60 pounds

Jenny is 45 1/2 inches and 47.1 pounds

It amazes me how much they have changed in 6 years from the sad and at time fearful child to a confident, mostly happy children.  It has been a great journey and I am so grateful that we were allow to adopt both at once as at the time we adopted them, it was unheard of adopting two non related children and we had to tell everyone that they were twins.  I Thank the Lord for planning this for us and we trusted the Lord that he would make it happen.

Happy gotcha day girls, thank you for becoming my daughters and giving me such joy to my life. 

Love you.