Crazy About Cali

We had the perfect Mother's Day here at the McGinness household!  We woke up and gave Mommy her gifts.  Cade was sooooo excited!  Cali was even into it this year.  Kim's parents came over for breakfast.  After a tasty breakfast we took off to Boca and Pop's house for a scrumptious lunch.  We were able to spend some time outside over there. 

 
 

  
  
  
 

We came back home and Cali Liu took a nap.  I finished up the mowing and Kim organized some of our outside flowers.  We then cut down a huge shrub that had probably been in the ground for 20 years (I broke in my new chainsaw!).  Cade was a huge help!  That job wore us all out.  Cali woke up and spent some time outside with us.  The Perdues came over late in the day to let Mr. Miles run around for a while.  We finally headed inside to wind up this perfect day.  If you ask Kim she will tell you that she truly enjoyed her special day.  It was so nice that we were able to spend some time with our parents and then spend some time together as a family of 4.  

 
      

We did take time today to remember Cali's "Birth Mom".  On the other side of the world there is a woman who gave Cali life.  This woman made a gut-wrenching decision to leave Cali in front of that hospital.  Her decision ended up bringing Cali Liu into our lives.  What a blessing that was!  We will never forget this special woman.  Each time we look at Cade and Cali Liu we realize that God truly is amazing.  He has allowed us to have these two beautiful children.  Cade was born 8 years ago.  For a long time we did not know if he would ever have a sibling!  After a long wait, here came Cali Liu.  We look at our family and cannot imagine life without Cali Liu.  She was the perfect fit! 

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there.  I hope that you all had a wonderful day!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mcginness/

The Cyclones were back on the soccer field tonight.  After dropping our last two games of the tournament yesterday the boys were hungry for a victory!  We played a very good team.  Our boys came out strong and pulled out a 5-2 victory!  Each and every kid on the team played hard.  It was nice to get back on the winning track again!  Cali was perfect.  She was even cheering for all of the different players.  Too cute!  

                                                     

That was only our 2nd regular season game with this team.  We are now 1-1-0 after tonight's win.  This coming Saturday we have three games!  Two are with the Cyclones White team (the team that played tonight), and one is with the Cyclones Blue team. 



It was a busy Monday evening for the McGinness crew.  We are now all heading to bed.  Good night!

We had to wait a week, but we finally were able to truly celebrate Cali Liu's 2nd Birthday!  Since the last post, over a week ago, Cali has recovered nicely from her bout with Pneumonia.  She had a rough go of it, but is back to her ornery self. 

We held Cali's party this past Sunday evening.  It was an Elmo party.  As you can see from the pictures, Cade, Cali, and I were sporting our Elmo shirts.  We could not find one for Kim.  Cali had an absolute blast.  She was so excited to open her gifts.  She was just as excited when she opened clothes as she was when she opened a toy!  It was so awesome to see her reactions to each gift.  We even had an Elmo cake made for her big day.  Here are some pictures from the party: 

 

  

  
                   
                                                  
 

 
 

Kim and I have talked a lot lately about how lucky we are to have Cali Liu in our lives.  Seeing her so happy means so much!  As much as we don't want to think about it, we often wonder what her life would be like if she was still in China.  We also wonder if her "tummy mommy" was thinking about Cali on her birthday.  How could she not think of this precious little girl?  According to the information we received, Cali was found on April 6, 2006 which is one day after her birthday.  That means her birthmother (and possibly father) were with her for 24 hours before they left her in front of that hospital.  I just cannot imagine the feelings that they went through that day!  It brings us to tears when we do think about these types of things.  We have said it before but they must have been beautiful people b/c Cali is such a beautiful little girl!  Their gut wrenching decision to leave her turned out to be such a blessing to our family!  It is amazing how life works.  God is good!

Cade had another soccer game on Sunday.  He was supposed to play two games on Saturday but they were both rained out.  A week ago he scored 4 goals and the team won.  On Sunday he went out and scored 3 goals in what ended up being a 5-5 tie.  He is playing so well on the offensive side of the ball.  The whole team still needs to improve on their defense, but they are definitely improving game by game.  One of his goals was a beautiful boot right over the goalies head.  That poor goalie did not stand a chance!  We are so proud of Cader.  He plays in a tournament this weekend down in Raytown. 

Saturday night Kim and I attended a very nice event with other members of the bank.  We attended a fundraiser for the Heartstrings organization.  It is an organization that helps adults with disabilities.  We had a great evening.  It was so nice to get all dressed up and then go support such a great cause.  Here we are prior to taking off.  Don't we look sharp?!! 

     

Check out Flickr for more pics:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/mcginness/

This past weekend was a great one!  Friday night Cade had soccer practice.  Immediately after practice our basketball team had our season ending party.  We had it out at a local clubhouse.  The boys had a great time.  They ran all over and they were even outside playing football in the dark.   We all chowed on pizza, watched some of the NCAA Tournament, and just enjoyed hanging out with everyone.  Cali was very good.  She hung out with Kim and I for most of the night. 

I worked on Saturday morning.  The rest of the day consisted of running errands, etc.  It was a nice, relaxing Saturday. 

Sunday was our BIG DAY.  We took off at 9:30am and did not return until after 6:00pm.  Cade played two soccer games down in Lee's Summit.  It is an hour drive south.  One game was at 11:00am and the other at 4:00pm.  We figured that it would not make much sense to drive all the way home in between games. 

 

Cade had a great first game.  He had an assist and scored his first goal of the season.  The team itself did not play too well.  We were on the losing end so this team stands 0-2.  After the game we ran to eat and then hung out at the new Bass Pro that was near by.  Cali was perfect!  We had such a good time.  I highly recommend you stopping in to check out that new Bass Pro Shop.  I was impressed! 

      

The second game went a little better.  This game was with the team that had not played a game together this season (due to weather, etc.).  We took the lead late in the game only to give up a late goal.  The game ended in a 3-3 tie.  After the game we headed north again.  It was a long, yet fun day.  We enjoyed the time together as a family of 4!

 

We had our first official baseball practice this evening (Monday night).  It was freaking cold!  Cade enjoyed it and did well.  While we were gone Cali threw up twice.  She is not feeling well at all.  She is in and out of sleep, etc.  We pray that she recovers so she will be full strength on her birthday! 

Check back soon.