YOU + US = FOREVER

It is amazing to me the love God can plant in your heart for a child you have not yet physically met or held in your arms... but it is there, burning clear and bright.

We love you, Mayzee Joy.

We pray for you. We hope for you. We're making plans for your bright future.  And soon, love, we will come for you. This will be your last birthday without a family.

In less than 6 months you will be home with your forever family, and we can't wait to shower you with love.

Until then, happy happy day meimei.

Unfortunately, Amazon doesn't ship ponies to Hawaii

Naomi's birthday wish was for a big girl bed... or a pony. Anticipating the arrival of their new little meimei in September/October, we dismantled Stacey's office and turned it into a little girls' happy place. We painted the walls blue with three little birds flying home to their momma and papa, hung paper lanterns and assembled a bunk bed while the girls slept.

They were thrilled with their birthday morning surprise.

Good Morning

The sun was glorious this weekend. It felt so good after so much rain. We soaked up the sun, ate ice cream, visited gardens and had gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free chocolate chip cookie numminess to celebrate my birthday. Kalea sang Happy Birthday to me nearly 100 times complete with "you live in a zoo... you look like a monkey... and you smell like one too... HEY!"

I feel blessed.

Calling all Knights and Princesses!

There were giggling princesses and brave knights...

Crowns and shields to be decorated, festive music to be danced to...

 Sword fights to be fought...

And a hunt throughout the kingdom for the king's treasure, stolen by the evil black dragon.

Our brave knights and princesses worked together to slay the mighty dragon and return the treasure to the king. 

In return, he gave them each a portion of his majestic castle and there was much rejoicing! (Thanks for making our awesome castle, Mark!)

It was a magical day, fit for a princess turning five.

Ku'u Momi Makamae

Happy day, my precious pearl.
Oh how we love, love, love YOU!

I had a birthday

And you know, it turned out to be a really nice day.

Naomi and I were both sick... but the stars (or rather events of the semester) aligned miraculously so that Mark was able to take the day off of work to play with/take care of us. That was the Best.Birthday.Present.E.V.E.R ... well, except for the email we received 5 birthdays ago... an email that changed my life and changed my heart. Discovering you are soon to be a mother after nearly a decade of waiting is something pretty special. I guess that tops all. Yes, that was definitely the best birthday present ever.





Having Mark to help and celebrate the entire day with us was exactly what I needed. Best gift he could have given me this week. I slept in until 9. We cleaned up the house. Mark took care of our not-feeling-so-well-whining-girls and let me shower in peace. The girls drew birthday cards and gave me a tickets to a piano concert "date" with them next week and Mark gave me tickets to WICKED! The production doesn't come to Honolulu for another 10 months, but I am SO EXCITED!





We spent the afternoon on the North shore eating shave ice at Matsumoto's and enjoying the sun and sand at Waimea. Oh, the sun - it was such a beautiful day. We picked up fresh shrimp and Mark cooked up mouth-watering numminess for dinner.

















It was a delightful day with my three favorite people.

to infinity and beyond!

something magical about balloons

TWO