Another Birthday Bash!!

Yesterday we celebrated Haleigh's birthday, she turned the BIG 13!! She is an official Teen. WOW three teens in the house now, will someone please wake me up!! It is hard to believe my baby girl has grown to be a young lady now in junior high school, she has changed so much over the year. She is doing very good in school and made a lot of new friends. She is a very caring, loving person, and we are so proud of who she is and who she is becoming. We had a small party with family and friends, everyone had a good time celebrating her special day. Next big thing for her will be contacts, she is constantly reminding us of that. I can't believe how blessed we are!!

"Happy Birthday Pumpkin" We love you very much!!

Taken just hours after she was born, daddy had to go out and buy a bow

Haleigh Age 4

Our cowgirl at Age 8

Our beautiful princess

Haleigh with her baby goat Hannah

What a head of hair!!

Haleigh this past July in Tennessee

Her beautiful necklace she received from her Pa Pa Sonny and Carolyn

Of course she had to have a horse cake, she's still a cowgirl at heart

Lots of changes!

It's been a while since our last post, so I thought I'd post some new pics. It's been an amazing last few weeks, it seems like Savannah has just blossomed into this little independent person who's speech has just amazed us! She is saying things more clearly now and is getting good at demanding what she wants. She has started to want to feed herself more, she can put her jeans on all by herself, they may be on backwards but she can get them on. She can put her shoes on by herself, they may be on the wrong feet but she can do it! She likes to bathe herself now, not happy when Momma wants to clean her. She buckles herself into the stroller, shopping carts and high chair. She likes to fold clothes with Momma, and does a pretty good job with the washcloths. She has just started to sit still and want us to read her books to her, her favorite book is wacky sheep, given to her by a cousin and she points to everything on the pages that you ask of her. She can make the sounds that animals make like sheep, chicken, doggy , kitty, piggy, horsey and of course we have a field of cows across from our house so she can definitely make the cow sound. She is getting really good at saying grace with us when we eat, and saying Amen really loud at the end. When it's time for her brothers and big sis to go to bed she goes in their rooms and gives each one a kiss and a hug and tells them night-night and then leaves the room waving goodbye, it's so cute. It just seems like within the last few weeks she has grown so much and becoming our little big girl!

Enjoying time outside

This is as good as place as any for a nap!

Hanging with cousin Maverick

Moments after Jordan handed down his rocking chair to Savannah, it was given to him when he was two years old

Of course Savannah had to share this moment with best friend in the world "Panda"

"The Girls Club" Alyssa(niece), Savannah, Mikayla(niece), and Haleigh

Our beautiful Little Big Girl!

Forever Family Day Celebration

We celebrated having our beautiful daughter in our lives a year now by taking her to the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in Ohio. Those helping Savannah celebrate were Brian, myself and the kids, my mom and dad, my sister, niece and nephew. Savannah had a wonderful time looking at all the animals. I remember when we were in China we toured the Chongqing Zoo, so I thought this would be a wonderful way to celebrate each year on Forever Family Day. While we were there we gave Savannah one of the many presents we had purchased from China to give to her on each Forever Family Day. This one was a little Chinese hand drum we had bought from the Zoo in Chongqing. Savannah loved it! Within the last few years the Zoo in Columbus opened an exhibit called Asian Quest, it had Asian elephants, Amur tiger, Malayan sun bear, etc. And of course knowing we would be touring this exhibit Savannah was dressed in one of her silk dresses we brought home from China. We also had the chance to meet Jack Hanna!! Jack is the directer of the Zoo. We had met him once before when Jordan and Tannor was just little and he posed with them and gave them autographed photos of which I still have today. He and his camera crew were actually filming some segments about the Zoo but he took time out to talk with us and pose for some pics. and of course you can see by the pictures Savannah was completely out and missed her moment to meet Jack. On the way home we stopped to eat Chinese. We had a wonderful time seeing the sites and remembering back on the day Savannah was handed to us and our hearts just melted. We were instantly in love and always will be.

Savannah, Jordan, Tannor, Haleigh, (niece) Alyssa, and (nephew) Hunter
Ready for a day at the Zoo

Savannah sleeping right through her visit with Jack Hanna

Haleigh and Jack

Grandpa George and Savannah helping Momma feed the Lorikeets

Nap time!

Whatcha lookin at?

Savannah playing with her drum

Savannah looks like she's getting licked by the Amur Tiger

Momma and Baby Asian elephant baby Beco born on March 27, 2009

My niece Alyssa and Savannah sitting on rickshaw

My sister April giving Savannah some love

a puma snoozing the day away

a bear joining the Puma for some zzzz's

Savannah loved grooming the goats

Can I take this one home Momma?

Happy 1 Year Anniversary

It has been exactly 1 year since Savannah Jiang Yu was placed in our arms. Our lives has not, and will not ever be the same. Savannah has changed so much in the past year. When she came home she would not leave her Mama, and Baba had limited time with her. We could not leave the room without her screaming at the top of her lungs. And she would not let anyone hold her. Now, she will go to just about anyone. She still prefers Mama unless Baba has been at work then she waits for him at the door and gives him a big hug and kiss. She doesn't cry when we leave the room anymore. Most of the time we have to go find her as she will leave the room and get into things she knows she's not supposed to, and when we find her she always has a big ornery grin. We love Savannah very much and will never forget that moment on September 16th, 2008 when she was placed in our arms. Congratulations CCAI Group 1409 on our 1 year Anniversary.

Gotcha Day 09/16/08


Mama and Baba with Savannah

Savannah's (very hot) first bottle

Baba with Savannah

a year ago on Sept. 11th

One year ago we stepped on a plane for a trip that would change our family forever. We left our house for Yeager Airport on Sept. 11th, 2008 at 3:30am, our flight left at 6:21am bound for Chicago's O'Hare. After a 5 hour layover and lunch at McDonald's, we were off to Beijing. We had never ever been on a plane before. WOW! What a long and somewhat rough ride. I guess 75mph head winds will do that to a plane. We then made it to the Beijing airport where we met our guide Helen and 17 other anxious but tired CCAI families. All week I have reflected back on those first few days in Beijing, it was absolutely AMAZING to be in our daughter's homeland, to take in the sights, the smells, and the culture. It seems like yesterday. I miss China, it's people and our wonderful group of families who came together to share the most personal, magical moment in our lives, the moment we met our beautiful children for the first time.

Brian and I waiting for our next flight out of Chicago O"Hare

Haleigh and Brian playing Nintendo DS to pass the time

Our Chariot awaits us heading for China

Back to School!!

Today was the first day of school for the Decker bunch. It was a good thing and a bad thing. It was sooo peaceful around the house today, well except right up until my little energizer bunny with the beautiful almond eyes awoke! I was so glad not to hear the I'm bored there's nothing to do bit, but yet they did help with Savannah a lot and kept her entertained. It was so hard for me this year to see my baby girl Haleigh start her first year of Jr. High School. In our area we have a grade School k-6th and a Jr./Sr. High School 7-12th, so no middle school. Haleigh is growing up so fast as is the boys too. She's a 7th grader, Jordan is a senior, and my Tan-Man is a sophomore. She was so excited this morning to be at the same school with her brothers. It saddens me to think they are going to be leaving the nest sooner than I think, but I find great comfort in knowing that the Lord will watch over them and keep them on the right path he has chose for them. I thought Savannah would look for them and ask for them today but she was way to busy getting into things as usual. And to think we don't have to worry about grade school again for another 5 years!!! lol

Savannah waiting to see them off to school

Triple Decker Threat!

My beautiful young Lady

Great week!

We had a very busy but great time attending our county fair this past week and Jordan's scrimmage game on Saturday. I can't believe football season is here already! Savannah had a good time at the fair. We put her on the carousel but she wanted nothing to do with it, or any of the rides for that matter. She did like the music entertainment though and danced to it. We have always entered our kids in the pretty baby contest, it started when we had Jordan and kind of became a tradition with all three kids, so this year keeping with tradition we entered Savannah. Savannah's good friend Leila was also in the contest. Neither of them placed but that's ok, we already know we had beautiful little girls. Leila lives about 15 to 20 minutes away from us. One day when we were getting ready to travel to China for Savannah, we had to go to our board of education office to get a form for Haleigh to miss 2 weeks of school to go to China. While we were there we found out that another local family had came there to request a form for their two children to miss school for a trip to China to adopt also. We had no idea! It was amazing to find out that through our three years of waiting for Savannah, another family in the next town over was waiting to be matched with their little one. We kept in touch through e-mails the next few weeks while getting ready for our travel and met them at the airport on Sept. 11th, the day we left for China. They were with a different agency and we went our separate ways after that but seen them again while both our agency and theirs were on a tour of Tienanmen Square. If you know anything about Tienanmen Square it is a huge place filled with thousands of tourists, and amazingly we found each other while touring. they then went on from Beijing to Guangzhou to meet their beautiful daughter, who was from the Guangdong district. We still keep in touch with them through e-mails and met up with them a couple of nights of the fair. and plan on getting the girls together as often as we can. When they are together it is so cute.

Savannah and Leila trying to buckle and unbuckle the stroller belts

Friends for life!

Savannah sporting her ladybug swimsuit at the contest