Happy New Year!

As I've said so often....God has blessed us far more than we deserve!!
2010 has been a good year for us. Rob and I both have had good health.
Both kids have escaped serious injury or illness. We both have stable
jobs that we have not had to worry about. God has blessed us with a
wonderful family, extended family and church family! Simply put.....
WE ARE BLESSED! We thank God for His provisions, His love and
mercy! With Him leading the way, we can face 2011 with assurance
that His Grace is sufficent! We hope everyone has a wonderfully
blessed, and Happy New Year!

Our Wonderful, White Christmas!

Twas the Night Before Christmas

Stockings are ready to be filled. Even Lilly and Sophie:)

Cookies and Milk for Santa!

Two very excited Kiddos sporting their new PJ's. :)

Twas the Night Before Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the Roberts' house

EVERY creature was stirring, including a toy mouse! (Zhu Zhu pet)

Mom in her PJ's and Dad in his cap

Were seriously hoping everyone would just take a nap! (sleep all night)

The noise level was CRAZY as the kids ran about

It was making Mom and Dad really want to shout!

Supper is in our tummy, bath time is done

Prayers have been said and songs have been sung

Now we snuggle in our beds waiting for Santa to come!

Merry Christmas to All!

Christmas Cookies and Friends!

Every Christmas we decorate Sugar Cookies with the kids. This year

we included three of Aiden's little friends. They all had a terrific time!

Love, love, love making special memories!!

Christmas Fun

Aiden proudly showing off his gingerbread house.

Shaelyn and Aiden on the Santa Express with their little friends.

Aiden coloring his tote bag.

Aiden and his decorated gingerbread man.

Shaelyn helping her little friend make an ornament.

Aiden showing the organic ornaments he made for the birdies!

Today was a wonderful day spent with special friends! A few of

the families that we have gotten to know through our local

Smart Start program joined us for "Breakfast with Santa"

at Aiden's preschool. While there, the kids got to make a

lot of Christmas crafts including a gingerbread house.

It was so much fun and very festive. Then we took the kids

to the Green Goat Art Gallery. There they made organic

Christmas ornaments for the birds and other wildlife. After
that , we took them to ride the Santa Express at the

Transportation Museum. This was especially neat because

Santa and his helpers came aboard our train ride and passed

out candy canes and oranges to the kids. To top it all off, while

we were on the train ride, it started to snow! It was a perfect

day! We are very blessed with incredible friends!!

Blessed and Thankful

For several years, I approached each upcoming Holiday with a bit of dread.

The silence in our house was profound and seemed to get louder with each

passing year. We dreamed of Trick-or-treating, Thanksgiving Parades and

the joy of Christmas morning with our kids. I must admit that I had many

questions and lots of tears! I simply could not see God's plan because I was

looking through human eyes. This picture is a wonderful reminder that

God's ways are BEST! My blessings are too numerous to count and my

gratitude is overflowing!

Happy Halloween

Shay and Aiden in their costumes!

Sophie and Lilly had a costume too!

Even though our Halloween fun is not entirely over (we have

trunk-or-treating tomorrow night at church), we already feel like

we have had a terrific Halloween! The kids attended a Fall

Carnival last weekend that kicked off our festivities. The kids

picked pumpkins, trunk-or-treated, made a craft and

of course ate yummy food. Then we attended another

Fall Carnival at Aiden's preschool where the kids played

games and trick-or-treated again. Yesterday they attended

yet another Fall Carnival where they also trick-or treated.

This afternoon we took them Downtown where all the

stores were participating in trick-or-treating. Then we

headed to the mall for trick-or-treating. We then topped it

off by taking the kids to see Toy Story 3 this evening.

Needless to say.....we are TIRED! Tomorrow we have

church in the morning and then we carve our pumpkins!

Tomorrow night the kids have Awanas and then we

trunk-or-treat AGAIN! This time we are participating

in the trunk-or-treating by decorating our "trunk"

(truck bed) to resemble the Biblical story of the 3

Hebrew children and the Fiery Furnace! Should be a

lot of fun! *BLESSED*

A Fun, Fall Day!

Today has been an extremely fun day! Rob and I took the kids

to a Fall Carnival at the Preschool that Shaelyn use to attend

when she was little. It is the sister church of the Preschool that

Aiden now attends. They had a really neat "pumpkin patch"

where you could purchase a pumpkin and then decorate it.

We ate lunch there (yummy hot dogs) and the kids enjoyed a

cake walk, craft, bounce house and even truck or treat! We

then came home and made our scarecrow family on the bench

out front. We set our pumpkin family on the front steps until

it is time to carve them for Halloween. We then enjoyed

playing in the many, many leaves that nature has blessed us

with in the back yard. It has been a day that we will remember

with fondest memories!

Braces

We have reached a new milestone! Shaelyn has braces!! She

got them on Wed. (10-20-10). She is still in the "sore phase"

of braces and is not sure she is in love with this idea. I think

she has done well and keep reminding her that the soreness

will go away. I am proud of her for overcoming her fears and

having them put on . She is a little trooper! Way to go Shay!

Awana Club

Shaelyn concentrating on writing her memory very on the parking lot.
Aiden LOVES playtime!
Aiden was thrilled to get a New Testament from the Gideons.

Our church recently starting an Awana Club. The kids
have really started enjoying it. Everytime they go
they seem to like it more and more. Aiden is in the
Cubbies group and Shaelyn is in the TNT group. They
meet on Sunday nights from 5:30 - 7:00. We are
thankful that our kids are being exposed to such a
great program. We are blessed!

Humbled and Amazed

Today Rob came home from work and told me about
a co-worker of his that was simply ecstatic about the pending
adoption of his 5 year old daughter from Russia. He was
proudly showing everyone the picture of his daughter! Blonde
hair and blue eyes, such a cutie. He told how he and his family
were longing for the day that she would be home. (They hoped
in time for Christmas). While this story doesn't seem any
different than any other adoption story I know you've
heard, it is. It touched my heart in such an amazing way
that I had to share. You see, this man and his wife were
blessed with two perfectly normal sons, now in their teens
and a 6 year old biological daughter with severe Downs Syndrome.
One might would say that they had been given a "bum deal" or
even go as far as saying that maybe they were adopting to get
a "normal" daughter. But how wrong they would be! The little
girl that they are all so excited about bringing home, is herself
Downs Syndrome! I was humbled! Again, I see a perfect picture
of Christ's love for us through the beautiful story of adoption.
It doesn't matter if we come to the Throne less than perfect,
His love for us remains the same.

Aiden's Photo Shoot

I'm a bit late in posting these pictures and I know many of you

have already seen them but I couldn't resist posting them on

my blog. We have a friend that is a terrific photographer and

does such great work! He met us at the local park a few weeks ago

and took lots of pictures of Aiden. They all turned out better than

I could have hoped for! We are so excited to now have some really

good quality pictures framed and hanging in our living room.

Happy Forever Day Aiden!

We celebrated Aiden's Forever Day on Sept 8th. In keeping with

our Forever Day tradition, we let him pick out a cake and of course

he chose spiderman cupcakes. :) We put two candles on the cupcakes

to represent the two years he has been ours. We sang happy forever

day (in the tune of happy birthday) to him and he blew out his candles.

His present was a couple of Toy Story toys and a cup. He was thrilled!

We are so thankful and humbled that God chose us to care for this

little boy! He is such a joy and blessing! Happy Forever Day Aiden!

We love you so very much!

Weary Travelers

Two years ago today we were on our way from Beijing to
Chongqing to meet our precious little boy. To say that
we were tired and stressed would be an understatement!
We had flown thousands of miles, spent over 16 hours on
a plane, had tried to adapt to a 12 hour time zone difference
in 2 days. Doing all of this this without ANY luggage AND
while dealing with a very anxious 10 year old! We
had seen the Great Wall, Tienneman Square and the
Forbidden City all on the same day! We were bone tired,
dirty and missing the comforts of home with people we
could understand! I remember thinking I simply could
not go on, I just couldn't do this! And then.....I thought
about a little brown eyed baby boy who was waiting for
his Mommy and somehow I found the strength to
forged on. I think this is how birth mothers who are in labor
must feel. I was terrified, exhausted, thrilled, excited and
every other emotion imaginable all in one! In less than
24 hours I would have a son! The journey was hard,
the travelers were very weary, but we'd do again in
a heartbeat in order to have our son! We love you
Aiden and thank God daily for you - OUR SON!

School Time!

Shaelyn was ready to get out of the car on the first day of school!
She was all smiles!

All dressed and ready for Middle School!

A bit nervous but excited too!

Aiden says he's ready for "Schoo" too!

Aiden is so very excited to be going to pre-school! He's

about to bust! Aiden posing with his pre-school teacher!

All ready to go in and start having fun at preschool!

Shaelyn started Middle School this year! She was very apprehensive

about the change to a new school but transitioned with flying colors!

She wears burgundy shirts and khaki bottoms for her uniform this year.

Middle school is VERY different than elementary school but so far Shaelyn

has handled the change well. Also, Aiden started preschool this year!

He will only go 2 days a week for a few hours but we thought it was

important for him to be around other kids. His teacher also has a degree in

Child language development and plans to work closely with him

on his language skills. Aiden is such an independent little guy and did

wonderfully with being dropped off for "Schoo" (School). We are

very proud of both of our kids! We are praying for a good school

year for both of them!