Growing up so fast-literally

It's official today.  Julia is nine!

It has been a low key day since we already celebrated her birthday.  She wanted pizza for dinner and a special treat - fudge.  We obliged on both.  

The day started rather dramatically when Zach went to take Wyatt to school and discovered that someone slashed one of his tires right in our driveway.  Oh Joy.  

However, today is a special day in our family history.  Eight years ago today, we boarded a plane to go meet Julia, and she turned one.  Five years ago today, we boarded a plane to go meet Wyatt and were heartbroken to leave our other three kids at home.  I think Julia has been contemplating adoption as she asked today if I think her birth parents are dead.  I know there are many more questions to come, and I hope we can take the whole crew on a heritage tour of China within the next few years. We are still reeling from the weak economy, so we keep taking dreams off of our list, and a trip to China is highly unlikely.

Julia has grown so much physically.  We visited an amusement park a few weeks ago, and she was 1/2 inch short of making the cut to ride the biggest rides.  Two weeks later, she was 1/2 inch over the 54 inch requirement. I think there may have been some measurement error.  Can a person grown an inch in two weeks?  Regardless, over the past year, she has definitely grown significantly taller.  It has affected her tumbling as she has not been able to keep up. It will be interesting to see how tall she gets.

The pug in the picture is one that Julia won shooting basketball at the amusement park.  Because she scored 2 out of 3 baskets, she won the medium prize.  She named it Phineas because my brother has a pug that looks just like this named Phineas.  Julia was so excited about making 54 inches that she kept her wristband that verified it and tied it to the hang tag on the back of the dog.  She was thrilled to have a souvenir, and I guess she will be wanting to shoot baskets every time we go to the park.

I am glad that at nine, she is still sweet, sassy, and lovable.