07 Holiday Photos

The Holidays of 07 came and went sadly without Kimi. There are many gifts still under the tree waiting for her. We only hope it will be Christmas in Feb and not April or later. We had left off being told Jan 3rd we would learn of our long awaited travel dates that came and went. We are still being told we will be home before 2/7. I'm not so sure at this point as flights are booking up with Lunar New Year starting Feb 7th. If the date gets any later Rick and Sandy have wedding and travel plans and won't be able to join us as we had hoped. We will keep you posted. Here are some Holiday photos.

Can you guess what this is? Hint it was taken on Holiday Pisole night!

Sandy and Rick lead Christmas Karaoke, high school sweethearts forever

Rick, Max, and Erich Schaefer, with Bill.....they all look related don't they...huh?

Aunt Patrina with baby Grant AKA Aunt P and Nutti

Ken with some pooped out pups the night before they head to their forever homes

Mom with sis Aunt Bonnie, she had just flown in from FLA aren't they cute

Mom and Ken after way too much fudge! Mom is so happy because after many years of trying to extending the Holiday season, she has an official excuse to leave up decorations. Do you think she can hold out until Kimi arrives?

Brother Kevin sitting with Vinci after cooking a fabulous roast for dinner

Me and Cyndee wouldn't we be a great team for the Amazing Race, we were trying to guess what nickname they would give us?

Niece Nicole, me and Dad. Nicole can't believe after 14yrs of being the only granddaughter there will soon be Kimi to share Nana and Grandpa. I'm sure they will both be spoiled equally.

Out with Red and Green in with the Crib!

Happy New Year! It has been a whirl wind Holiday. We drove to LA to drop off pups and had Xmas celebrations with family. We had pre Christmas pisole in Sonoma and ended up in Tahoe for New Years! Logged in almost 1000 miles it was like living in the car. Luckily the crib has made it up to Kimi's room, the little lady has a place to sleep. No word of travel dates. Two other families I know with children in Taiwan are eagerly awaiting their dates. We now wait for official word of 2nd decree and Kimi's passport appointment. I have to admit a Lunar New Year trip would be extra special (starts Feb 6th), our agency insists we will be home before then. Thank you to everyone for another fabulous Holiday Season. Special thanks to mom for best fudge ever at her B&B and Kevin for a delicious dinner. Also to Sandy and Rick for the amazing flaming flan, and yummy pisole. Now to dust off that treadmill.

Out with Blue and White back in with Red and Green OHHH and 1st Decree!

Back to Xmas season now to pull out the red and green decorations, it's my favorite time of year. Ken's good friends growing up were Catholic and my good friends growing up were Jewish, so after 12 years+ of catholic school mixed with some Hebrew school, we love and celebrate both holidays! It is perfect timing for the gift of Kimi's first decree! We got the call yesterday saying the court has given the first approval of our adoption! We are so excited and stunned everything is very real now......no question Kimi is ours for the keeping! The other great news is that two of my good friends also waiting for decrees for their children in Taiwan also got word. Lori lives north of us will be bringing home Samantha, and Teresa who lives near Atlanta, GA will be bringing home Jeremiah! I hope we get to travel together!

What we know now, first decree is official as of Dec 3rd! We wait for travel packet and more paperwork to arrive later this week. We should be traveling sometime towards end of January! I have not been able to call everyone as we have important renewal papers we are dealing with. These are most recent photos of Kimi we have.

Happy Hanukkah

Just getting the x-mas season going we pause for Hanukkah! First can I just say finding decorations for this holiday is difficult. Macy's has an entire floor for X-mass decorations and one pillar in the basement with some random star plates. I managed to make the house look festive...... I get that from my mom. We were lucky enough to host the family Hanukkah party, first time ever! Thank you to everyone who joined us in the festival of lights. Once again our older menorahs stood strong and no fires were started.

What's Hanukkah without presents!


And without the Williams lotkas


Look at those candles, and no fires were started it's a miracle!


Dave and Nancy AAWW!


Kenny sneaking in sister Sharon, Todd, and Marissa family photo!

Nancy, Auntie Joyce, ans Steve enjoying dinner


Sharon with Holiday, how about a puppy for Hanukkah!


Priceless photo of Marissa with HSM pillow from Auntie Debbie in VA!


Ken with Go-Go, she's such a princess!


Sharon with Star of David pasta and I with Snowman pasta, who says you can't mix your holiday pastas! These are too cute for words...thanks to Ken's other sister Debbie, Tim and Kyle who could not be with us this year.


Todd with lucky Steelers nutcracker !


Becky and Sharon doing Karaoke video game, Todd cheering in the background. Bringing out the Karaoke game pretty much cleared the house it was hilarious. We really wanted Marissa to sing, after being in two plays recently. Next time we will have to find High School Musical sing along for her.

Over The River and Throught The Woods....

When you live in SF it's over the bay and through the Golden Gate Bridge to Grandmothers house we go... We had Thanksgiving at Kimi's adopted Grandparents house in beautiful Sonoma. This is also where our wedding rehearsal dinner was it's like being somewhere in the French countryside. Thank you to our kind hosts Sandy and Rick and to our families who graciously excused our absence this year. The dinner was delicious everyone brought a different dish and we had two turkeys, one was smoked in an egg? One of the traditions is to go around and say what you are thankful for, Sandy always makes everyone cry, it is so sweet. This year we have so much to be thankful for family, health, and friends. It was even more special because our friend Gurjeev who had a lung transplant earlier this year was with us and in good health and spirits.

Sandy, Ken, and I

Chris and Carries Baby Grant @6mos, he can't wait to play with Kimi!

Grandpa Rick and Otis in the new back yard

Old Sonoma Farm House

Mark and Gurjeev with new bionic lungs !

Can you name that cop?

Most of you know I'm on LOA from work, yea wasting my valuable time still waiting for the Taiwan Train. So after the pups were born I switched to puppy duty. We went to a Halloween party for Ken's game. The party was a bomb and we barley got in, there was a line of 300 people around the block. The place was not full but no one was allowed in. The fun part of the night was seeing Ken in his costume, I'll let the pictures do the talking. The 1st photo is me and some friends from Flagship.





Can you name that cop? Officer Jim Dangle from Reno 911..I'm the perp are you LOL yet? We had to walk right next to a bunch of riot cops on our way to the party, and I said," nice costumes" they just laughed at us. The funny thing is my sisters husband is a Sheriff in Los Angeles.

Puppies and Hellgate London on same day

Are you lovin the new site? Welcome to the new blog, eventually older posts will be attached here. We have no word on Taiwan, little Kimi is going to miss the Holidays we will save gifts for when she arrives. The only news we have heard is that our agency is sorry they do not have information or updates. They assure us the case is in the court with a judge and going smooth, "no news is good news". Sorry no news is agravating and seems to be more so to our friends and family. We will enjoy our last few months together continuing to live it up before we have to behave for the baby..or is that toddler...or some say college grad by the time she gets home haha.

I think we left of at the old blog with Ken's game coming out on Oct31st Hell Gate London, they are continually working out the kinks of network issues. There are still more launches around the world to come next year. The other game is Mythos. It is a free online game in beta right now. It is mine and Kimi's favorite game it is prettier than HGL.

Our dog Sabrina had puppies which happened on Ken's launch day he had to go to work after puppy #2 arrived. Luckily I work in labor and delivery so it was no big deal. Actually Sabrina did all the work I fell asleep and she had two more pups quietly for a total of 4. 4 weeks old pictured is Tiffany, Go-Go (doggie in Mandarin), Holiday, and the only boy Gary Cooper. The mama is Sabrina who is the only dog we will be keeping. Don't you want one for X-Mas?