Friends from China...

Remember Abby's family in our travel group to China? They adopted Abby the same trip we adopt Benjamin. Our older boys love their boys and our families ended up spending most of our time together while in China. We have so much in common and what a blessing to have Scott and Sharla as friends. We were so excited to hear the news of them traveling through and stopping to see us!!

I couldn't wait to introduce Alaina and Abby to each other. They are almost the same age and I knew right away they would be instant friends. When they came in the door of our home, Abby had the biggest smile...and I got a big hug right away. Sharla said when she told Abby where they were going, she said, "My HuiHui" (Benjamin's Chinese nickname). She was very sweet and caring with Benjamin, just like she was in China. Mackenzie and Alexis enjoyed getting to know each other while taking care of their little sisters.
Alaina and Abby played on the swing set for an hour.

Abby is learning to speak English and doing really well! I was amazed how well she spoke. Like Benjamin, she understands everything we say. I'm sure Alaina didn't mind doing most of the talking...LOL They played for a long time with Alaina's dollhouse and had so much fun together.

The big boys played soccer at least an hour and then we picked up pizza.
We were so happy they were able to go to church with us yesterday. Turns out that it was "friend" Sunday and we filled up almost a whole row. After service, we enjoyed our church picnic with 12 tables full of food. Yum! I was so thankful to have all the help from the big kids today. Hudson and Nick were buddies.
Alaina, Hudson and Benjamin loved the boys playing with them and putting them on their shoulders. On the way home, Alaina wanted to know if Zack (Yes, they have a Zachary,too) could live with us. Before we left, Abby had big hugs for everybody.

Benjamin fell asleep before we left the parking lot.

When putting Alaina in the bed last night, big tears streamed down her face as she said, "I miss Abby." She wanted to know if they were coming by our house in the morning.

All of the kids are trying to plan our next get together. We were surprised and happy to know that we will get to spend some time with them as our boys will be in the same travel soccer tournament...but not playing each other since they don't play in the same age groups.

All of us are wishing we lived closer.