Saturday, December 30, 2006

The Fury...The Champs!

Oh...if you haven't noticed, our kids love the Muskegon Fury. Why you ask? I think part of it is because my soon to be brother in law works for them and so they get to go to lots of games and get to meet the players. Thanks so much to Tyler for arranging this latest picture. Here the kids are with Pool. He's a good guy (married with kids) and was kind of enough to have his picture taken with Cam and Anna. THANKS TYLER! THANKS POOLIE!

A few new pictures

Julia and her Josh! Josh is Korean and plays for the Muskegon Fury. Julia thinks he's too cool!


Here is Anna and Julia in their new shirts and bows from my friends Sharon and Tonni


Here we are in our matching shirts and bows. The shirts I got at Old Navy.

No more music! :-(

For whatever reason (I think Blogger hates me!), we can no longer have music play on our blog. I can't seem to get the code to work. I'm guessing it's something to do with the new beta version. If you have our old blog, apparently the music is still there. Go figure!

Well, I'm off to finish up our final present wrapping. We have Wagner Christmas this afternoon and there's just a few more gifts to attend to. I will post pictures from that party tonight.

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Jammy picture!

Here are the jammy's that Aunt Cheryl got the kids. Anna loved hers with the jacket. Julia loves Strawberry Shortcake and Cam loves sharks! Don'tcha love bed head?? :-)

Awesome Chinese shirts and personalized items!

I wanted to send along this link to my friend Sharon's Ebay store. They adopted their youngest daughter, Brinley at the same time we were adopting Julia. Her and her husband Marty are about the nicest, sweetest people you will meet. They decided to add to their family again and are now adopting Bailey. She is from the same province as Brinley! How great is that!?! So here is the link to her store! http://www.my-little-pretty.com

I will post some pictures of Anna and Julia in the shirts I got from Sharon. There is another mom in my adoption group who sells matching bows to Sharon's shirts. Her name is Tonni and will can give you her email address if you are seriously interested. I bought Christmas bows for the girls and LOVE THEM! :-) Thanks Tonni!!

Sunday, December 24, 2006

Christmas with the Wagner's 2006

Tyler and Wayne loving their new shirts.


Our goofy family picture!


Julia getting ready to tear into another present.

Instead of the 3 wise men, it's the 3 wise sisters. Me, Samantha and Theresa.
Cam and Aunt Pammy PEACE'IN OUT!

Theresa, Samantha and Tyler checking out the guitar

Yes, the kids outside on Christmas Eve with no coats. It was 43 degrees here today!

As you can see, there is no snow! The kids love these deer.


The kids in front of the tree.


Grandma and Anna opening their matching aprons!

Poppa showing how much he likes Christmas!

Samantha with her nutcracker collection. She has over 250!

Julia looking too excited about opening presents!

Daddy, Cameron and Mommy before the BIG ONE is opened!

Anna showing off her new guitar. She's the new Sheryl Crow.

Friday, December 22, 2006

A post that is long overdue...

Seeing how I couldn't post this back in November, I wanted to post it now. Enjoy!

Wow! It’s November 30, 2006. Just one short year ago today we drove up to the Civil Affairs building in Wuhan, Hubei in the People’s Republic of China. There we saw the most beautiful children entering at the same time. They wore matching outfits and carried glasses of juices with them. Oh how their lives were about to change.

Looking back, I realize that I had no idea as to what would happen that day. Wayne and I, Liz and Brion woke up in Beijing and would soon be taking a plane ride that would forever change our families. Until we heard “I have made an appointment at 4:00 pm to get the babies” from our guide, did we really get what was about to take place.

The only word I have to describe the feeling of seeing Julia for the first time is love. You know that feeling of your first date or when you walk down the aisle to your soon to be spouse, or maybe when you see you baby for the first time after giving birth. Here we were and it was happening again. I knew from the minute we saw her, she was ours and I would love her forever. The best part was sharing it with another family who felt just as we did. Even though both our families have older children at home, this was just as exciting as the day of birth of our bio kids. All the new parent anxieties, all the frustration of not knowing what your child really wants…all those things were present. But at the same time, Wayne and I just stared in amazement as she slept next to us. She was so beautiful. How could we have been so blessed?

As our days in China passed quickly, Julia and Isaac blended into our routines. It was hard and yet encouraging at the same time. I think we all just knew that everything would work out and that God had chosen the right children for us.


Today is a day, as well as Julia’s birthday, I think of 2 women in China that had so much to do with who Julia is and how she came to be our daughter. First, for the birth mom that placed her daughter in a place that she knew she would be found. She knew that her baby would be taken care of there. My heart aches her. If I could have just one wish, it would be to tell Julia’s birth family that she is safe and loved; that we will make sure she that she gets a good education and good medical care. You know, when I look at her smile at me, if I could just send that smile to her birth mom, because that’s her smile. And to the foster mom, we can’t possibly thank you enough for taking care of Julia. We know that you did an amazing job raising her for 2 years. Julia is a very smart and articulate girl. We believe it was all the things that you did with her that made her what she is today.

So what is life like for Julia now? Well, she loves Dora and Barbie. She loves to dance and color. She’s a very good kid who loves our family as though she’s been here forever. We still meet up with Liz and Brion. Isaac is just as cute as bug. Julia calls him “her Isaac” and likes to look at pictures of them together in China and of other times we’ve spent with him.

Our website plays the song “I knew that I loved you” by Savage Garden. For a while I thought I would change it, but really…it means so much to me and Wayne. We knew that we loved Julia before we met her and couldn’t be more grateful to God for placing the perfect child in our arms. So as you go about your day today; say a little prayer for Julia, for her birth mom and foster mom in China, and for Isaac and his family. November 30th is a special day for us.

With much love,
Melissa, Wayne, Cameron, Anna and Julia Wagner

More class pictures!

"The Boys" of Mrs. Smith's first grade. Anna likes the 2 boys on the far right. ;-)


This Anna and Sara. They both love to wear dresses!


Here are "The Boys" of Mrs. Dahringer's 3rd grade. Cam is in the white shirt on the left.


This is Damien and Cam at the party. Damien's dad works with Wayne.


Cam and Julia at Cam's party. He's such a loving big bro!

Anna's class party 2006





New Pictures!

This is me and my cousin Tom, we've been best buds since we were little


Here are the Aunties (and my Grandma)


Here are the monkies in the back of the truck before the Santa parade in Hart

WHOA! Blogger has gone whacky!!

Hey All!

For the past 8-10 weeks, I've had issues with Blogger/Blogspot. I can't seem to log in on my laptop (which is where all my pictures are). I have no idea what happened, but it won't load the log-in page. BIZARRE to say the least.

Soooo...now that we have high speed internet at our house (YES! I love you, Wayne!! Thanks so much for convincing me that we needed it!), I'm going to work on using our dinosaur desk-top machine to load some new pictures. Please be patient!!

Thanks so much and MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

Thursday, November 16, 2006

The mighty hunter

Here is Wayne with the dear he got yesterday. It's a 6pt. with a 16 3/4 inch spread. It was a big deer.

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Here is Miss Julia earlier this morning. She was baptized today. What a great day!

Adoption Poems

LEGACY OF AN ADOPTED CHILD

Once there were two women who never knew each other. One you do not remember, the other you call Mother.

Two different lives shaped to make you one. One became your guiding star, the other became your sun.

The first one gave you life, and the second taught you to live it. The first gave you a need for love. The second was there to give it. One gave you a nationality. The other gave you a name. One gave you a talent. The other gave you aim.


One gave you emotions. The other calmed your fears. One saw your first sweet smile. The other dried your tears. One sought for you a home that she could not provide. The other prayed for a child and her hope was not denied.



And now you ask me, through your tears,the age-old question unanswered through the years. Heredity or environment, which are you a product of?Neither, my darling. Neither. Just two different kinds of Love.
~~Author Unknown


THE ANSWER
Not flesh of my flesh
Nor bone of my bone,
But still miraculously
My own.
Never forget
For a single minute:
You didn't grow under my heart
But in it.

Wednesday, November 1, 2006

Finally, new pictures!

This is Julia at the Harvest Festival Parade, waiting to see her GeGe (older brother)
There is Cam with all the other Scottville Elem 3rd graders marching as the future Scotville Clown Band
This was before the parade
Anna, Cam and Mitch at Poncho's Pond for their Halloween weekend
Julia in her butterfly/ballerina/fairy costume
Here is Anna with a scary guy at Poncho's

Sunday, October 29, 2006

New pictures....NOT!

First, thanks to Shelly for her kind words about Sherman. He will be missed more than my words can be expressed. Losing a pet is like losing a child to me and no matter what happens you love them. I can tell that Riley is missing him to.

Well, as most of my regular readers may have noticed, I have had issues with posting pictures. My 2 programs that I like to use are not working worth a sh*t. It's been p*ssing me off too. LOL!

Saturday, October 28, 2006

We'll miss you Sherman...


Well, we had to put our beloved Sherman to sleep yesterday. He was having some very serious bowl issues and was pooping in the house (sorry for the visual). Wayne and I couldn't handle it anymore and we decided it was best for him and for us. We will miss him.

Thursday, October 19, 2006

I love this picture of Julia Posted by Picasa
Yes, she is too cute!! Posted by Picasa
Julia and Isaac on the turtle Posted by Picasa

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

t Julia and some of her loot from Isaac Posted by Picasa

Thursday, October 12, 2006

This is Julia and her foster mom. It was taken in May of 2005. Posted by Picasa