Following Where He Leads...: 2010: A Pictorial Year-In-Review

I intended for this to be a "Top 10 Pictures of 2010" post.

Foolish, foolish girl. What was I thinking?!?!

As I perused through all our pictures for this past year, I quickly realized that I could not condense our year into my 10 favorite pictures.

Wow. We had a lot happen in 2010....here is the Cliffs Notes version of this Blessed Bunch's year.

***********************************************

We started the new year out with a bang. And that "bang" happened to be named Lily Kay. Or "Zibing" as she preferred to be called at first. She joined our family in January...

...although she was not very happy about it at first.

She soon decided that maybe we were o.k., after all.

After being in China (and away from our boys) for way too long, we finally got back home in February.

We got home late on a Friday night...and when we woke up on Saturday morning...

...it seemed like this precious Zibing had just always been a part of our family.

She adjusted so unbelievably well, that we pretty much jumped back into normal life (well, our "new normal", anyway).

We had a great time at the Chinese New Year party that we attend every year.

And she quickly got used to attending church with us every Sunday.

In March, Papa had lots of help celebrating his birthday!

And then, this precious girl who should have been on daily medicine since she was born, finally began that regimen of daily medicine, 3 times a day. We're so thankful for the miracle it was that the Lord kept her safe until we could get her home and get her the help she so desperately needed!

AND our Daniel had a new, big development also...his first hearing aids!

(... and then his 2nd...and then his 3rd...but who is counting?!? Praise the Lord for insurance!)

March also saw Jas and I celebrating our 14th anniversary. Our children were just as happy about it as we were!

Every April I take pictures of my kiddos in front of our azaleas...and this year we had FOUR children in front of the azaleas!

April also saw Lily Kay home to celebrate her first Easter. She sure was excited that Jesus arose from the grave..can't you tell???

Then - surprise, surprise - Lily Kay loved our favorite local theme park when she paid it her first visit!

In May, Elisabeth - our little star - did a great job in her twirling and choir shows.

Every May I take pictures of my kiddos in the field of flowers at the end of our street - and this year we had FOUR children in that field of flowers!

And I got to celebrate my first Mother's Day as a mother of FOUR precious children!

(And just because the day wasn't perfect, I'm not holding anything over Jason's head - nah, not me.)

And May also began Lily Kay's experiences with some of our sweet little town's annual shindigs. We especially love the annual shindigs where everything is free.

We also got to go on Lily Kay's first Blackberry Hunt in May. Heck - that was a first for all of us!

The very end of May also kicked off our very busy summer season, when we got to tag along on daddy's business trip to Orlando.

(I also proved I have no pride or pretenstions when it comes to sharing our real life on my blog.)

And in June, our favorite Kansas cousins came to visit us...

...AND we got to go spend two weeks down in Daytona at Laoli and Papa's time-share.

The Fourth of July was even sweeter this year, now that we had our newest little precious American citizen home with us.

And during Chick Fil A's annual Cow Appreciation Day, we proved that there isn't much we won't do for free food for our brood.

Then we were off to Tennessee to meet up with Elisabeth's "China Sisters".

And then a few days later we were blessed to have my long-lost high school friend Kris and her two precious girls visit us for a few days.

We finished off July with Lily Kay having her "Examination Under Sedation". We were so thankful for the wonderful results from that examination.

We started off August with a bang - er, collision might be a better word. It was our 6th Anniversary of "Elisabeth Day", and we celebrated big time....AND started our new school year. Yes, all on the same day.

Elisabeth also began her Concert Piano career in September.

And, at the risk of being called "slackers", we didn't sign our children up for any other lessons/activities. (One of the best decisions we've made in a long time, in restrospect.)

We kicked off September with a visit from Aunt Steph and Baby Cousin Esther from Colorado! Baby "Esser" only made my children's pleas for another sibling grow louder!

Daniel hit another huge milestone when he dropped the training wheels and started riding his bike like the madman he really is!

I was very blessed (thank you, Laoli and Papa!) to be able to fly with some of my family girlies to visit my brother and his family in Kansas in September!

In October, Lily Kay had a couple different blood draws to ensure she was ready for surgery at the end of the month. She continued to amaze us with her ability to roll-with-the-punches!

AND she didn't want to be outdone by her older brother/buddy, Daniel - so she very quickly learned how to ride without training wheels. And she was off...

We started out October by heading to a nearby Farm/Corn Maze with our homeschool group - one of many cool fieldtrips we've been on with our group during this first half of the school year.

During October, we also had the amazing opportunity to work the Show Hope booth at a Steven Curtis Chapman concert....

...and turned the trip into another fieldtrip opportunity. (Can't help it, I'm a homeschooling mama at heart!)

Lily Kay also got to continue getting acquainted with our town's traditions in October.

Before she headed into her much anticipated/much dreaded (by me) surgery at the end of October. It went amazingly well (even though we had a setback...o.k., more than one setback).

The day after surgery. She's flashing a "thumbs-up" and she's too cool to open her eyes...what did I say about her "rolling with the punches"???

November brought another activity for Lily Kay to add to her list of Fun Things to do in My New Small Town.

November also - FINALLY - brought the end of Lily Kay's marathon dentist appointments. YAY, Lily Kay!

Then end of November brought our very highly anticipated orphan awareness conference that we'd been planning and praying into existence for months! The Love The Least Conference was a huge success...and I'm not just saying that because of the huge impact that it ended up having on Jas and I personally.

The day after the conference we were very blessed to have this photo session with a great (and sweet) photographer, and get a CD of great edited shots - all for free!

( I think I look a little dazed-looking in all the pictures...but it is because Jas dropped this bomb-shell on me as we were driving to the session.)

We started off December with Daniel's surgery (to correct his unresolved hypospadias).

A week later I took Lily Kay and Daniel in together for their surgical follow-ups with our urologist, and and appt with LK's Endocrinologist. We got good news for LK. Things were not going good for Daniel....and we continue to pray for his healing.

December brought another first for our cutie who'd now been home 10 months.

A first that we hope never has a "second."

And then, the moon turned blue.

And through this year, when I found time to prepare posts, sometimes I also found the courage to be painfully honest - sometimes it was funny...sometimes not so much.

And seeing as how time stops for no man, or woman - even one who feels like death warmed over - December 25th arrived and we got to celebrate Jesus' birth with our FOUR precious children.