*** Thankful Thursday ***

There is SO much to be thankful for... Oh where to begin!?! I guess I will start with a shout out to all of my special bloggy friends who have been checking in on me lately. I know I've been MIA, but I assure you, everything is okay. I blame it mostly on the hussle and bustle of the season! ;) And I have missed checking in on all of you, too!! I hope all is well with you and yours this Christmas season!

Since pre-Thanksgiving, I have been going non-stop. We also had a pretty strong bout of seasonal sickness hit our household, but we're all on the mend and doing much better now. Last week, Martin's maternal grandmother passed away, so we spent a couple of days up north at her funeral and spending time with family. It was really a beautiful service and celebration of the wonderful loving and light-hearted Christian woman that she was. She will be missed, but we know we will see her again in Heaven one day.

In the next couple of days I will try and catch up a bit on my posts and back-track a little, beginning with Thanksgiving. But for now, I would just like to give thanks to a few special people who have blessed us with some wonderful surprises lately.

We spent Thanksgiving day at my dad's house down in New Ulm. When we arrived, my gorgeous step-sister Jenna, surprised me with this adorable gift she MADE for Khloe! A "JennaLou Original"!! ...Isn't it just ADORABLE!!?!! She is a VERY talented seamstress, and makes the most beautiful (quality!!) purses, bags, wallets, etc... Please take a moment to visit her Etsy shop... you will LOVE what you see!! I plan on having her make me a nice trendy diaperbag to take with us to China for carrying all of Khloe's things! :)

As if that wasn't special enough...we received another gorgeous gift for Khloe in the mail earlier this week. This one was sent to us from one of her sponsors. Recently Diane returned from China with her new daughter, Tia. While she was there, she was able to visit NewDay and meet Khloe in person. This past Sunday night she called me and we talked for about an hour. It was such a blessing. She shared some beautiful things about Khloe and about NewDay and the wonderful staff there. We are SO grateful that she is in such a wonderful place until we can bring her home! She gave me a heads-up about a shiny red package that should arrive any day now... and sure enough, it was here on Monday! How adorable are these?!? I adore monogrammed and personalized gifts...so you know I LOVE them!!!

This is Diane's contribution to Khloe's 100 Good Wishes quilt (*note ~ I will be posting an update on that again soon!) She embroidered Khloe's name on it, in both her English and Chinese characters... I love it!

And last, but certainly not least, I got this wonderful surprise in the mail yesterday. Imagine how excited I was to open it when I seen that the return address label said "NewDay" on it!? I had no idea what was inside, but when I opened it, there was a beautiful paper with Khloe's hand prints and a little 'finger painting' done by my little artist herself! ;) How special are these?! And they were a gift made with funds donated by a fellow-adoptive-mommy and sweet bloggy friend, Mandi! What a thoughtful thing to do... thank you SO much... this will be a treasure that I will save forever in Khloe's life book! My little girl's hands touched this very paper that I now have in my possession... such a priceless gift!!

Thank you again to every one of you who blessed us with these special gifts! You have warmed my heart to depths I cannot express in words! Love you all!! OXOXO!!