Lily's First Visit to the Zoo

We are embarrassed to admit that we have had Lily for 7 and 1/2 months and this is the first time we took her to the zoo! We decided to avoid the crowd at the L.A. Zoo and we went to the Santa Barbara Zoo (easier on the legs too). It just so happens that Lily turned 2.5 on the 17th, the day we went. Emily is funny at the zoo. she goes around holding her nose saying "Eeewwww" they stink. Let's get away from here" She's such a princess.

Behind this picture of the three girls there is supposed to be a snow tiger, you have to enlarge the picture to see it.
After we were home I asked Lily what her favorite animal was, she said the elephant. Unfortunately the picture of the elephant didn't turn out too great, so we inserted the Giraffe.

I had to throw in this picture of our little flower. The other day Lily and I were playing in the back yard and I decided to put these flowers in her hair. She loved it and was willing to pose for me while I ran into the house to grab the camera. What a cutie!!!

Easter-Family-Friends

A play date at the park with friends. 

The girls were so cute in their matching outfits. They love dressing up.

Lily loved the chocolate in her Easter basket. She has a real sweet tooth and would have nothing but chocolate for breakfast if we let her.

The girls had a lot of fun decorating eggs. The look Lily is giving Emily is a classic "Lily look".

Our friends who adopted 3 children from Ethiopia were out visiting. Emily and their daughter Kali really hit it off. The next day Emily asked if she could have Kali over. Unfortunately they live out of state.

Here's the whole group. We had a really nice time. If our three families would of had all our children here there would be 18 "kids". We only had 10 this day. We are all truly blessed.

Continuing to add to the Hammersley Family

We're on a Run! We are about to add our 5th daughter (3rd in-law) to our family. We just continue to be blessed with beautiful daughters. 

Below are pictures from the Bridal Shower held for Jolina (center), our newest, soon-to- be daughter-in-law

Of course Lily had to get in on the action and help open presents.

Emily loves to give gifts, she went into her bedroom and put together a gift for Jolina. Jolina loves Hello Kitty so Emily gave her some of hers.

Christy wouldn't brag about making this beautiful cake, but I can. The cake is made up of cupcakes decorated like flowers.

As I said, we are very blessed!

Lily's and Micah's First (early) Easter Egg Hunt

Lily didn't know what to do with the eggs. She started to get the hang of it when they were almost done hunting for eggs.

Micah's sweet Great-grandma had an early Easter surprise for Micah , Emily, and Lily. She gave them all baskets and had eggs hidden in the yard. The eggs had change in them. Lily held up a quarter and said "dollar". At least she knows it's money.

Lily has been saying the cutest thing. She likes to tell us, "I love you too much". She also has a new favorite book it is Dr. Seuss' ABCs. We put her "reading" it on U tube, but are having trouble getting it uploaded to our blog. Hopefully, we will be able to do it soon. She is getting really good at recognizing her letters.

Kid Fun!

This interesting event happened when we visited our son Aaron and our new grand-daughter Lizzy. The kids started having a blast pulling Emily around by her tights. The hard wood floors make for a great bowling alley also. After the leg stretching event we played bowl the kid down the hall way (gently, of course). Sorry, no pictures of that event.

She's got Hair!!!

We decided we can't wait until Lily's hair grows so we helped her along a little. We had Emily stand back to back with Lily and draped Emily's hair over Lily's head. Doesn't she look lovely? She's going to be even cuter when she has some locks on her head, in about 10 years or so.

6 Months!!!

This is Lily on the day she was placed into our arms. September 1st, 2008 in Nanjing China.

Now, if you take a close look you can see one hair that has grown!!!! Actually, maybe a few others too. But, sometimes we look at her and wonder if her hair has grown at all. Her face has filled out a little more and so has her vocabulary.

Our two little treasures!

Six months ago Lily was placed in our arms. She has been an amazing little girl. She never seemed to grieve, except the day we visited the orphanage. She has become more and more attached to us. She is definitely a Mama's girl. Lily has a sweet disposition, though she can be quite stubborn. For the most part her orphanage behavior is gone. She doesn't pinch, pull hair, or spit anymore. She gets along with her sister most days. She has days when she just wants to battle it out with Emily. Thank God those days aren't too often.

Lily can now sing the ABC song with very little help. She is recognizing some of the letters and is finally remembering some of the colors. She just did not seem to get the concept of colors. She now will sit and listen to a book being read. I don't think that she had books read to her in China. She used to want me to "read" a book to her and then stick her face in my face and wonder why I was talking like that. Of course, then I couldn't see the book to read it. The look on her face was just so funny.

Lily has just become more and more dear to us. God has truly blessed us with her. We are enjoying having her in our family.

God continues to draw our hearts toward orphans. On the side bar of our blog we have added a link to No Hands But Ours. There are peoples testimonies listed under "family stories". There are some amazing stories of how God worked in people's lives to connect them with a special needs child. We have been blessed and encouraged by these stories.

The stories we read on this site remind us of what The Lord did when we were waiting for Lily. We had been praying for God to bring people in her life who knew Him and would love her and care for her. We prayed this often. Then, the Monday before we were going to leave for China we received a comment on our blog from a person who actually volunteered at Lily's orphanage! They said, I know your Lily, we call her JuJu. They said they were praying for her and loved "Dad" like we did. They had been volunteering at the orphanage and had been praying that "Dad" would bring a family who would love her like "He" did. We were so blessed that God, in His awesome power had orchestrated it so that these people were there loving our little daughter for us until we arrived!!!  WE TRUELY SERVE AN AWESOME GOD!