This weekend we rallied and celebrated two birthdays for two special girls!
Both girls wanted to go to a waterpark so we checked it out and surprised all of the children with all day passes at the Waterpark of America!
We all had a ton of fun but I did not take pics.
We were busy every moment supervising our group of 11!
Saturday(Ellie's Bday) was the waterpark and church!
Sunday(Emma's Bday) was swimming and a family birthday party for both girls!
A few more of the children can now go off the diving board and slide and then swim to the side!
Heeeerrrrrrreeee's Mia!
Heeerrrrreeeee's Melissa!
Heeerreeeee's Abby!
I love summers and swimming!
We are truly amazed by their progress!
The first time we came to this pool Mia asked
"Can I go in the deep end?"
I was glad she asked but it was a definite NO because she could not swim...
So awesome that within 6 weeks that has completely changed!
This is Anna!
And Abby!
And Melissa!
And Mia!
And Ellie!
Emma does a good job swimming. She can do the freestyle for a little while!
However, we cannot have her in water over her head without constant supervision.
She is so good about staying in the area where she can touch the bottom!
There is usually at least one or more other siblings there at any given time!
We have started giving showers in the locker room right after swimming- makes life a bit easier!
They get so excited about their birthday!
They never had a celebration while in China.
Birthdays are not acknowledged for orphans in China
Sweet babies!!
We had hoped to get Emma a special bicycle- adult special needs trike- but she tried it out and she was unable to do it. Too many things to think about at once- pedaling, breaking, steering and watching were she is going. We know that she would have gotten hurt on it AND she would have hurt someone else...
We settled on a new pink scooter instead!
Ellie got roller blades and safety gear!
But they were most excited about their Just*ce clothes, jewelry and nail polish!
The kids were a little out of control- I think we were all just trying to recover from losing our dear Aunt Kathy.
They lost the idea of personal space and started climbing all over the big kids.
We let much of it slide since we were in no condition to reinforce and reteach-
sometimes ya just gotta do what ya gotta do...
And BTW the big kids were as active as the little ones!
Each day we are healing more and more and life seems to be once again falling into place!
Having the birthday celebrations helped us all!
Ellie had a chocolate Cake and Emma had a DQ ice cream cake!
Next year we will have 4 birthday's in 5 days-
Caitlin, one day off, Ellie, Emma and Joey!
There is always a reason to celebrate!
Happy Birthday Ellie and Emma!
We LOVE you two!!
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