Bikes, Newspapers and Jelly beans...

Hi friends!

Today was a typical day for the most part, my hubby was home today which was great! I was so nervous when he went out and started his own company a year ago as we were in the height of the adoption but God has blessed him so much!! He has solid, consistent clients and his business has grown leaps and bounds and now we have the added bonus of him working from home at times several times of the week too. I love watching the girls have their daddy as much as they do and what a daddy he is to all the kids. I am blessed to call him mine. :)

OK, enough sappy stuff...As you all know we have cabin fever that just will not go away so to help the girls stay active during the winter we allow them to ride...yes, ride their bikes(cars as they call them) in the house! Most of the flooring is hardwood and we have a large open space for them to really get going fast. They literally squeal with delight as they turn the corner into the kitchen. I love it! And every night they have to park their cars in the garage(the corner next to the chair). Now with that said, the girls were little stinkers today too, I try not to let them see me giggle after they get busted and have to sit in chairs for a few minutes but it's SO hard to keep my composer, they just look so pitiful and devastated!! It's just hilarious!!! Then when you say "times up" Complete sunshine comes across their faces and the pitiful looks are gone...but of course!

My big guy Trevor doesn't like me to snap his picture and now with the blog I'm snapping pictures throughout the day and he can't stand it. I tried to get him as he was preparing for his paper route but I had a chicken in the oven that needed my attention so before he left for his route, I made him pose...another knee slapper for me!!! I love irritating my children! Anyway, I love my Trevor, he's not a kiddy anymore, he's more of a young man. At times, I get so sentimental as I see my little girls playing, I'll have a flash back of Trevor when he was little and I will literally well up with tears, I miss that little boy, my cuddle bug, my little butterball. It was just the two of us for so long, I love my life now with all my kids and hubby but I miss those precious times too. We had our little life, in our little house that I proudly owned on Quail Drive, we ate out most nights and would go to the movies during the week. I would let him stay up a bit later than I should but I needed to be with him as much as I could. I worked out of the home with him and I always felt bad for that but I had my mom 4 houses down the road to care for him until I got home but it still hurt my heart to leave him so I made up for it in the evening and had our fun every night. He is such an amazing young man, living his life for the Lord. No matter how big (6 ft), he'll always be my kid. :)

I also want to say thank you to all the wonderful women who visit my blog and leave me precious comments. I have made all of your blogs my favs and read them everyday too! I love connecting with women who share my faith and to those who are searching. I get so much encouragement and inspiration from reading your blogs, I'm so glad I did this!!!!

Sending Blessings and prayers to you all!

Amy

Ps...My name is Amy Corzine and I'm addicted to Brach's Jelly beans...HELP!!!! I love the green, yellow, pink and orange....I can't stop eating them OR buying them! I think they know me by name @ Walgreens. I make excuses to go there....HELP!!! :-O

My precious Linzhi

Today was a precious day with Linzhi. Many of you know about her disability and how hard it is for her to do the things she wants to do with her little hands. She is however doing do much better but there are still many things this baby can't do...yet! Anyway, Rachel was at school and Linzhi was in my office working with me this morning when she came up to me for another bit of banana and before walked away, she said "La lu" (love you), then she said "Ni hag" and I said "oh, Ni Hao to you too" (Ni hao, means hello in Chinese). She looked at me and said "NO mommy" and then she started to cry, I picked her up and saw she was smiling so I gave her a kiss and whispered how much I wanted to know what she was saying to me...she smiled (not knowing what I was saying) but then she started to climb up until she was standing on my lap she then (with her good arm) picked up her left arm and put it on my shoulder, then she flung her other arm on my other shoulder and gave me a " Ni hag", she hugged me! The first time ever! She worked hard to do this and she looked so proud of herself, as she should! So now she's been giving "Ni hags" to daddy, beber (Trev) and Rachel. I tell you the truth, this child is going to conquer the world! She does not give up, ever! She wanted to give her mama a hug so desperately and was hurt when I didn't know what she was telling me but she NEVER gave up, she never does! If she wants to color, she'll figure out a way to do it and she does it! I watch her patiently work that crayon into her stiff, bent fingers until it's secure enough for her to color a few marks on the page. I love her endurance and strength, I love the way she is opening up and allowing us to see who she was meant to be, I love the way she starts dancing with her sister when some groovy music comes on TV, she so carefree and loving life. I am so grateful God called us to bring her home and I'm so happy we listened! I love my Linzhi and today Linzhi told me she loves me too!

Love and hugs,

Amy

And the snow fell...

Today the Lord blessed us with a picturesque winter morning. Something these weary winter folks needed to see!

I took a picture of the backyard, it just looked so pretty and everything was still (except the squirrels running in and out of our shed)...Yes, we leave that old shed up because we know wildlife lives in there over the winter, we don't have to heart to evict them!

We were also blessed with a yummy dinner provided by my sweet mother-in-law Sharon. She boxed up and sent home with CJ a yummy chicken casserole, tossed salad (with her famous dressing) and a delicious pineapple/coconut cream pie, plates and bowls and a candle...we had a romantic dinner by candlelight for 5.

Stay Warm!

Amy

CABIN FEVER!!!!! and Another snow storm on the way!

I Love the midwest, I really do...But we have some major cabin fever going on here, especially when we look out the window to see our pool covered in snow. Oh, how I long to be in the back yard in a pool chair watching the kids in the pool with their friends and daddy....soon I keep telling myself...soon!

Yesterday, CJ, Trevor and I "gutted" the up stairs. We cleaned and organized the bathrooms, girls room, Trevor's room and my office. We still need to get to our room which will have to wait until the weekend. We're thinking of maybe painting and rearranging some furniture, we'll see...

Here are some random pictures of my babies... Rachel and Linzhi goofing off and Trevor not wanting me to take his picture.

Amy

Valentine's day dinner w/Cornerstone family

Hello again! CJ and I attended a Valentine's Day dinner with our church on February 12th. The photos from the dinner were just posted so I thought I would slap it on here too.... We played an ice breaker game and yours truly WON!!! I was awarded a $50 gift card to the American Bistro...anyway, this picture was taken right after I won, can you tell??? :-) (I'm competitive...well, just a little)

We had a wonderful time, I love my hubby!

Ruby's beauty shop day!

Today was an exciting day for the Corzine girls. In our house we LOVE "Max and Ruby" it's a cute little show on Nick jr. Rachel has always loved the daily adventures of Max and Ruby and now Linzhi adores them, mommy too! Anyway, there is an episode where Ruby and her best friend Louise play beauty shop and the girls pretend to have one too. So Mommy called Bethany and made an appointment for the girls to have their hair done. It was too precious! Rachel got a trim and curl and Linzhi got a cute angled bob so as it grows it will have more of a shape. Her little hair cut was growing out and I started having flash backs of CJ's former mullet days...time for a cut and quick!

Grandma V went with us so we hand an extra pair of hands so mommy could get some cute pictures and video. When they were finished the looks on their faces were priceless, I could tell they really felt like princesses, which they are :)

After the beauty shop we went to Cracker Barrel with Grandma, had a nice lunch then walked around and looked at all the beautiful Easter decorations...I sure could have burned a whole in my pocket but I found some great clearance bargains and got the girls some cute Hello Kitty tops and skirts and paid around $4 per piece. Now that's my style...cute girly stuff at a cheap price and no one will know the difference! LOL

Tonight we had game night at our house, it was a blast! Trevor invited about 6 friends over for games and pizza and we had my mom and her husband John, Uncle Sean and Terry with their two boys and Aunt Julie and Jim. We played Mad Gab...Guys against girls...it was a hoot!

This weekend will be fun as well, my dad, Cathy and Sage are coming over for dinner on Saturday and on Sunday, Pastor Bob is starting a new series partially based off of the current movie "The Bucket list" so I'm sure there will be a great message, I love that movie!

Have a wonderful WARM (wishful thinking) weekend!

Blessings!

Amy

My first blog!!

Hello to anyone that is interested in reading my blog. I decided to do this because I'm addicted to reading blogs of families that walked the journey of international adoption. I've been inspired by many of them so I thought it might be fun to document our post adoption life and maybe, just maybe I might inspire someone to take the leap of faith into adoption. I also wanted to start documenting all the new and exciting things going on in our family and the progress of Linzhi's upcoming surgeries...here's a little info on our gang....

Well, my name is Amy and I'm married to my best friend CJ. We have three kids....Trevor-15, Rachel-4 and Linzhi -3. We were blessed with two homegrown kids and our youngest blessing is from Nanjing, China. We've been a forever family of 5 since November, 19 2007.

So Welcome and hope you check in with us once in awhile.

Blessings!
Amy

ps... We also documented our journey to China so if you're interested and would like to visit our website, please click the link www.myadoptionwebsite.com/linzhi