Jiangxi, China Girl's Reunion, PA 2009

Schneider Family
Jiangxi sister's w/ siblings
Emmi, Arden, and Graci

Graci with Arden and her brother, Roger.

He became Graci's favorite Causey brother.

Savannah with her Anni

Brady and Brady Families

Our Family

Debbie, Shawn and Shyann and Desiree Brady

Denise and Emmi Corbari

Causey Family

Graci loved Chocolate World!

Sissys at Chocolate World

Savannah, Daddy, and Dax

Sissy Love!

Mommy and my girls!

Emmi, Graci, and Arden

Shyann-there is nothing shy about this baby girl-she is always smiling!

Graci, Emmi, and Arden

Dax and Daddy

Shawn and Savannah

Debbie, Shyann, and Aunt Savannah

Mommy, Daddy, and littles

Graci with her daddy

Can't catch the geese.

You are my sunshine...

my precious sunshine!

Graci and Dax pretty much ran for a week in PA

Brady kids

Friends - Emmi and Graci

Friends

Daddy and Alyx

Sisters - you can't tell there is 6 years difference in their ages. Brady Family

Graci, Dax, and Emmi..on the count of 3!

1-2-3...jump!

Hangin by the pool with the Corbari's

Graci and Daddy

Run, Dax, Run!

At the Amish Village

Savannah was tired of trying to walk in the grass

Amish cart

Our Alyx

Our littles

The first week of August, our whole family spent a week in Strasburg, Pennsylvania. Although the weather was more unbearable than Phoenix at times, we had a fantastic week. We met up with three families that we had traveled to China with back in 2007. We also were able to spend a couple of days with Lee's son, Shawn and his family. This was the first time Savannah was able to see them and meet her nieces. She was still non responsive when they were here to visit in May. Graci bonded right away with her China sisters. First she met EmmiGrace and they hit it off great. They were hugging and playing just minutes after meeting. Well, of course they had met before but the last time they saw each other they were 10 months old. Then as the days went on she met her friend Arden and then Anni. All the girls have gotten so big and they are all still so beautiful. It is so precious to see how happy and developed each girl is. When we parted in China in Feb. 2007 we all had unique and challenging children. Now they are all well adjusted, happy, outgoing, sweet little girls. I love to see it! Besides reconnecting with her brother and meeting her sister in law and nieces, Savannah had a great and challenging week. She became a pro at stair climbing. When we checked in the hotel we found out that our room was on the second floor and there is no elevator. Savannah said confidently, " I can do it, Mom!" and she did. She climbed stairs up and down all week and never fell or stumbled once. By the end of the week I had to tell her to stop taking the stairs just for the fun of it. She is doing great but I still get very nervous. Since we have been back she has been going full on therapy and is progressing wonderfully. She walks independantly most of the time. She only needs to hold on when going over bumpy terrain. But she does hyperextend her right knee almost 100% of the time and her therapists are afraid she is going to do some damage to it. So she is going to begin wearing a knee brace/cage to help the hyperextension. Back home now we continue to plug away at therapy 3x a week with daily therapy at home. Savannah is making huge strides in recovery and is surpassing what anyone had hoped or imagined. We praise God who is able to do more than ask and hope for! School is underway for Alyx (and Mom). To say that this first couple of weeks has been challenging would be an understatement. It has been very difficult to start the new curriculum and online school. Alyx is determined and excited about receiving 'real' grades so she has really dug in to make it work well. We are ending our third week of school and I think we are finally getting the hang of it and getting in a routine. Graci and Dax were not able to get into to preschool this year so we are schooling at home. Graci loves it! She asks everyday to do school and she is super smart. Dax (is super smart as well) prefers his learning to come directly from the tv. Right now he likes to do school for about 5 minutes and then must get back to watching tv. We continue to find it hilarious in the difference between our boy and girl. Graci loves to sit at the table with her worksheets, crayons, scissors, pencils and glue. She loves to construct and accomplish projects and papers. One day last week, Dax was working on numbers, it took the entire living room to do. We spread out the large foam number puzzle on the floor and he had to find the numbers and put them in the right spot. First, of course, he had to watch Mickey Mouse while doing this (luckily Mickey was working on numbers too) then he had to climb to the top of couch and jump into the bean bag, do a forward roll across the floor, jump up, grab the foam number from mommy (kind of like a football player receiving the ball) and run across the room. Then he would slam it down in the puzzle, stomp on it, and yell tah dah! I did it! Graci had about 3 worksheets done in the time it took us to do the whole puzzle. Boys are great aren't they?!