Charis birthday

Celebrating at Grandma's house

Grandma is just the best. Zeke thinks the cupcakes are so yummy.

Wow. Fancy, shiny shoes.What a great present from Grandma and Grandpa Steve. She loved them.  Came home and tried them on, laced them, unlaced them and kept looking at them.  One of the good things about not being able to buy your children everything they want is that they sure appreciate and enjoy the items they do get. 

Te next day at school, she got to wear her fancy shoes.

This was the birthday party with her 2 friends (not pictures).  For the first time ever, I bought cupcakes instead of making a cake.  I just couldn't find the time.  This was the day before her consult with the Doctor who maybe would have a diagnoses for us. He didn't.  But he did give us an avenue to pursue and we are meeting with another specialist the 21st of this month.  He did say that he did not think it was Leukemia which we were so glad to hear.  It is such a weird health issue she has. I don't want to call is a disease yet, because we don't know what it is.  She is perfectly healthy one minute and sick the next.  We cant go a week with out some kind of symptom. 

A few tickles from Dad.

Her friend made this journal for her.  She loves it as she is a craft girl. 

I cant believe how time flies.  Charis turned 8 this December.  We legally changed her birth date after talking to doctors and such, but really we knew the moment we saw her that the date they had given us was way off.  When I researched it more I found evidence that it was off.  She was checked out by the orphanage doctor almost a year before she was admitted to the orphanage.  There was another little girl with the exact same name, that was the same size as Charis (I have a picture of them sitting on a couch together) and her birth date was also way off also.  The unknowns about adoption.  It didn't matter to our family one bit though.  We did not adopt Charis for her age, we adopted her for who she was and we love her so much!  Happy Birthday Charis!!!