Ashley's older Sister Christy and Brother in Law Jeremy at Christmas Dinner.
The Family enjoying the holiday together. We had to set up in the living room this year to fit everyone. A great "problem" to have.
Ashley all dressed up.
She comes to see Daddy now a lot more than she did at the start.
Ashley with her sister Michelle and her niece Hayleigh.

Ashley and Mommy.
Ashley up close playing with Daddy.
Another shot of the family at Christmas.
Merry Christmas to all and Happy New Year.

Love, Mike, Billie, & Ashley

Ashley is getting to know her niece Taylor when she stopped by to visit. They played and had a good time together.
Ashley with Mommy & Daddy getting ready to go out.
Ashley and her niece Hayleigh playing. Hayleigh and her mommy just got in from Germany.
Hayleigh and Gi Gi outside playing football.
We are so happy to have our younger daughter and granddaughter home from the Air Force for a little while. They have been gone for a year and a half so we have a lot of catching up to do. We will have over 20 family members here for Christmas this year, it just doesn't get any better than that !!!!
Love,
Mike & Billie

Just some pictures tonight. She loves her mommy in case you didn't know.

Well things are getting better everyday with Ashley. I spent the last three days at home with her while Billie went to work and that gave us some bonding time. She has now made a major step in that she has asked to get down from Mommy and then walked over to me and reached up for me to pick her up. She is playing a lot and trying new foods all the time. She has even gotten better when new people stop by to see her. She doesn't hide her face all of the time they are here now and she even played with her niece this evening. She still wants her mommy and won't go out of her sight when she is home.
Here are a few pictures from the trip that you haven't seen yet.

Thanksgiving Dinner
Ashley and mom at Thanksgiving
The Family in the White Swan Lobby

Sorry for not posting last week.
We had a very busy week of getting over major jet lag and getting use to being home again. Of course for Ashley it was getting home for the first time. This is where the Story of the rest of her life begins. She went backwards a little on bonding and a few other things the first few days but she is getting better and more happy and playful each day. We took her to the doctor on Monday and got some new meds for her and go back on Tuesday. We went to Church yesterday and she did great, she didn't cry once and looked around and watched everything going on. I will try to get on here more often this week and put up some more pictures. Here are a few to get you started.

Ashley talking on the phone.
Taking a nap.
She likes her room and the bear.

Eating out for the first time.

Love Mike & Billie

Just a quick note to say we are home. Thanks again for all of the prayers and thoughts for us during this time. I will post more in a couple of days when we get caught up from the Jet lag a little. Ashley LOVES her room and got all excited with the stuffed animals and all. I need to go fix a bottle now so I will do this later.

Love Mike & Billie

Just a few pictures tonight. We are madly getting ready to leave and try to sleep a little before our 4:30am wake up call. We can't wait to see you all and get back to our own home. We will however miss the wonderful people that we have now made part of our family here.

Ashley on the bus.
Daddy are you ready for Golf ?What do you mean I can't play through?
Monya on the Bus.Another shot of Monya.
See you all soon.
Love Mike & Billie

The Famous Red Couch Picture. Monya is in Wesley's arms just out of my view on the left. She should be in the "official" picture though.
Ashley and Daddy right after the picture above.
The Chinese Princess getting ready to go.
Isn't she lovely?
The Atha Family
Today was filled with shopping and sight seeing. We had a nice day and saw the sun for the second time since we have been in China. We had a beautiful river boat cruise tonight and it was quite a sight. Tomorrow we go to the final appointment and then we get ready for the trip home. We can't wait to see you all again and let you meet Ashley. The first few days we will need to let her get settled but we will have her out bragging shortly.
We love and miss you all.
Mike & Billie

This is the view out of our hotel room window at about noon. We have only seen the sun a couple of times during this trip. We do not know if this is normal for this time of year or just this way all of the time.

Even though this is out of focus you can see a very happy and playful Ashley cutting up with Daddy and the camera.
Another view of the beautiful Smile of Ashley.

This is our "Adoption Barbie" that is given to all the adoptive families by Mattel and the White Swan.

It is getting closer to time to go home and we cannot wait. We are all very tired and Ashley is running a fever again. Once again we are blessed by the Stanley family who let us have their medicine for Ashley since we had used all of ours. They have been a wonderful family and we are so thankful for them! Many have asked about the lady who fell and I have forgotten if I put in here about only one of them or both of them. The first lady who fell at the zoo is doing much better, but still sore. She has the local shopping to keep her going. The elderly lady who fell in her room ended up with a broken arm and flew home today to get it taken care of, we have had many prayers for her during this time and we hope all will heal quickly.
As we have feared the group has separated a lot since the move. Each couple or maybe one or two couples are going their own way, we are sadden by this as we enjoyed the time with all of them.
We have learned a lot for this trip and will treasure the time forever. I value the time learning from all of the other families more than anything. We have such a good group of Christian people here and they are not afraid to show it. We have prayed in public, held hands in prayer and worship together, comforted each other and attended to each other's needs.

By the way Billie and I found some white silk and bought enough to make Ashley a wedding dress when she grows up. Billie thought that this would be a nice thought to have the silk from the same trip as when we came to get her.
We hope that everyone at home is doing well and we look forward to seeing you all very soon.
Love to all,
Mike & Billie

Monya and Wesley hanging out at the front desk of the White Swan Hotel.
Ashley likes the crib here.
She really likes the Crib.
Dale, Billie, and Sharon doing over 2 hours of MORE paper work. This should be the final to get ready for the appointment on the 30th.
All in all a good day today, we just moved from one hotel to another. We like the hotel okay but the other one was much nicer. We don't have enough room here and we have already lost the group feeling in just a few short hours. Before we all would go together to do things and so far everyone is going their own way. We did set it up to meet at 8am for breakfast with a couple of other families tomorrow. We have a "free day" tomorrow so that will be nice not to have to rush to one place and then the next. We hope everyone is doing well at home, we sure do miss all of you.

Love,
Mike & Billie

The Atha Family having fun at supper.

Another shot of the Atha Family.
Ashley & Mommy at dinner.

Two Beautiful young ladies !!!!!!

God is so Good, God is so Good, God is so Good, He's so Good To Me !!!!

Another Sunday in China:
We started the day in worship to God and thanksgiving for all that he has and is doing for us. The whole group got together in one of the hotel meeting rooms and we held a service. On couple sang a few songs and lead the rest of us in praise worship. Another man lead our thoughts in a sermon about the adoption process and how it is our opportunity to show others who God is and how he effects our lives. He also mentioned how that these babies would most likely never have known about God if it was not for the adoption process and us bringing them into our homes. We are very thankful to the mothers who made the choice to give birth rather than abort these precious souls.

Later in the day we went to the Zoo to see the Pandas and ended up in a mighty rain. We all were running for cover and trying to get back to the bus. One of the ladies fell and hit her head and is banged up pretty bad. We think that she will be fine, once again God had the Doctor in our group for a reason so she has been watched over by God and by a Doctor as well.

In this picture Ashley is enjoying the zoo before the rain by taking a nice long nap.

In this picture she is finally learning that Daddy can be a lot of fun and she will be joining Taylor in the "Throw me up to the sky" fun.


A kiss for the beautiful Ashley from Daddy.

Hey mommy this guy is alright after all, you weren't kidding.

Pray for the continued recovery of our lady that fell. Give thanks to God always for all that you have and all that you so often take for granted. We are blessed beyond our own understanding and we are BETTER OFF THAN WE DESERVE !!!

Love Mike & Billie

The Atha family at Lunch.
Ashley eating lunch.
The Medical Exam. Not real sure about all of these people and all of the noise in here.I am very sure I don't like these people trying to weigh me, give me back to mommy.
Back to the lunch pictures, ain't she cute !!!
Somewhat busy day again, we did have a little free time and that was nice for a change. We meet in the morning to have our own Church service and we go to the Zoo in the afternoon. We were going today but that was changed. Very tired so not going to type much tonight, maybe in the morning before Church.

Mike & Billie