Meet Katie Starr's New Friend Kacey

This is Katie's new friend Kacey. I consider her mommy, Julie and her grandma, Susan to be good friends of mine. I had the good fortune to meet Julie through this wonderful adoption community and our local FCC Chapter. Over a year ago we started our chapter and Susan(Kacey's Grandma) started attending our monthly gatherings here in South Florida. Julie has also attended one of our gatherings when she came from Atlanta to see her mom. Julie and her mom Susan have been a huge source of support to me and my family throughout this tough wait and I hope that they know how much I care about them and their family.

Congratulations to Julie and her whole family!! Your Kacey Susan Xiao Mei is such a beautiful and precious girl. Katie and I are looking forward to meeting her so much.

You can read all about it at: Chasing Little Kacey

Three and a High Chair

I thought it was appropriate that I change the name of my blog since we are home now with our sweet girl. This blog will now chronicle the life and times of our clan. I am changing it to Three and a High Chair because as many of you know we eat out ALOT and this is the phrase that we utter every time we eat out as a family of four. We are trying to eat at home more often as Katie Starr's manners are still being refined and she has no idea what an inside voice is or that spaghetti should not be flung to the next table. Most of the time she is so charming to the other restaurant patrons that they do not seem to mind. I on the other hand am always running interference. We basically stick to very casual dining where the decibel level meets or exceeds our Gansu Princess. We hope that you continue to pull up a chair and relax while reading about our goings on. Be sure to take cover if the food starts flying :)

Another Milestone

Today we made it official here in the good ole' State of Florida and our county. Katie's adoption was officially recognized here and a Florida birth certificate will be issued. The judge was very nice and gave us this photo op. We shared the day with our wonderful friend's, The Przelomski's as well as another great family in our FCC Chapter. The attorney that handled this for us is also an adoptive parent with a child from China. His wife and daughter came as well so while we were waiting to have this case heard by the judge the four children hung out together. After 2 hours of waiting it became a toss up as to who was more frazzled; us or the kids. When the judge offered us candy at the end of the hearing Marc sarcastically told her that he would have preferred breakfast...love that man of mine :)

Home Update

We have posted our final entry on the Story of you with our home update. You can view it at: http://www.thestoryofyou.net/KatieStarrHomeUpdate.html

After this final journal entry you can continue to get our updates on this blog.

Enjoy!!

Having Fun at Cracker Barrel

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Happy 4th of July from our newest citizen!!

On this Independence Day 2006, Katie Starr Hongshan and her family including Lori's parents wish you a wonderful day. We are truly appreciative that Katie is living with us as a citizen in this great country and can enjoy all of the rights and freedoms that we have enjoyed all of our lives. We will teach her that with this comes great responsibility. Great sacrifices have been made through history for this freedom.

Happy 4th of July!!

Friends hangin at the mall

Today, our good friends, Shannon, Alan, Ryan and Mia met us at the local mall for some fun. The guys went and bowled at a very cool new bowling alley attached to the mall while the girls shopped till we dropped. We wanted to have the girls play at a play area at the mall but it was overrun with big kids. Since Katie walks she will only allow me to keep her in the stroller for so long. Here is a video of Katie stretching her legs and interacting with Miss Mia :)

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