Friday, November 27, 2009

Time to see Santa

We decided to take Sakura chan to see Santa Clause since we were with Grandma and knew that she would want to go experience this with us....







Let's go and see Santa Clause!


Hmmmm, I don't know who you are, but I'm okay here with you.....





Ummm, how long do I have to stay with this guy?
Enough pictures already!

I'm DONE - I was a good girl for about 2 million pictures, but enough is enough...

Sakura was very good sitting with Santa, but she definitely figured out that he wasn't "family" and wanted us.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Thanksgiving

When I found these jammies, I knew that Sakura needed them. "Everyone is Thankful for Me" is right! We are very thankful for this special little girl that came into our lives. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't count my blessings, and Sakura is the biggest blessing I've ever had, she is truly the light of my life, so on Thanksgiving Day and every day I give Thanksgiving for her, and for all of the special people in our lives that made this possible. I am thankful for all of our new family, it's amazing that through this process of adoption, you meet people that you never would have met otherwise, people that touch your life in so many ways -
our lives are truly blessed, and we are all thankful for you!
I also wish all of you, our family and our friends, Near and Far a Happy Thanksgiving!


Sakura's 1st Thanksgiving dinner - a little sweet potato, mashed potato, turkey and a roll. She even ate with special silver, Mommy's fork, and Grandma's spoon - she loved silver and kept chewing on it - LOL!

I'm ready to celebrate!


The table is set



Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Thanksgiving Every Day

The table is brimming with good things to eat;
We're surrounded by family and friends; what a treat.
The feelings that fill us today can’t be beat;
It’s Thanksgiving Day, and it all feels complete.

But other days, sometimes things don’t seem so fine;
Those days are not polished and don’t seem to shine.
It's then in our minds, we forget all the good,
And think of the things we would get, if we could.
On days when our thinking causes us dread,
If we could remember, it’s all in our head,
And not let our minds take our gratitude away,
Then we'd make every day like Thanksgiving Day.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Happy Birthday to Daddy!


Happy Birthday to the best Daddy!

Sakura thinks so anyway :)



We enjoyed a delicious lunch at



and yummy dinner at


Daddy's birthday cake

We were in Phoenix for Daddy's birthday, and despite not getting his birthday wish (a nice shot in his shoulder - the Dr. said that he will require surgery eventually, a shot wouldn't be advised), I think he enjoyed his special day with his special baby girl!

Sakura was facinated with the candle, and tried to reach for it...so Daddy held her back.

Happy Birthday to Daddy!




Monday, November 23, 2009

My Little Cherry Blossom

Hanging out with Mommy .... being patient while Mommy takes some pictures. While we were in Japan we bought this jinbei for Sakura, I really wanted to get a kimono but we never made it back to get one so this will have to do, I thought it was looking like it would fit and it does :)
I had ordered this cute headband (how could I resist cherry blossoms?) so I stuck it on and outside we went - yesterday was nice and sunny!




My precious little girl



Friday, November 20, 2009

It's OFFICIAL!

This year marks the 10th anniversary of National Adoption Day, a national day of celebration of adoptive families and an opportunity for courts to open their doors and finalize adoptions. Since 2000, more than 25,000 children have had their adoptions finalized on National Adoption Day. Here in Yuma County we are celebrating on November 20.

Today 20 November 2009 Sakura .... officially became

Peyton Sakura Shimizu
Honorable Maria Cruz signing our final decree of adoption.
Honorable Maria Cruz with us, everything is final.
Sakura's attorney (District Attorney) Jon Smith with us.
Daddy receiving our Order Granting Adoption copy.

Although Sakura has been our daughter since we found out we were parents to a baby girl back on February 9th, and then finally held our daughter when she was delivered to us by Taz, Okada San and Manami back on March 22nd, today is a very special and important day to us.
Grandma brought a special afghan for Sakura. This afghan had been started by my Grandma who passed away about 5 1/2 years ago and finished by my Mom's friend Karen, so a piece of Great Grandma was here with us to celebrate too which was very special.

Peyton Sakura looked adorable in her pretty red dress, and she was a perfect little angel during the ceremony, she sat pretty quiet throughout the proceedings, while we were being questioned, and then even clapped at the appropriate time, when they announced that the petition to adopt was granted....
Everyone was surprised, but I think Sakura knew everything was now "Official" ;o)

Today more than 20 families were part of the celebration at the court house, we were lucky and we were first on the calendar.
This was Judge Cruz' first adoption, we think it was a great way for her to start the day!

We were joined by my Mom and David, and several close friends, Carla, Alan and Gracie, and Katie, we know that many others would have come if they were able.
We went to our "special place" which is where we were when we received our phone call from Taz telling us that we had a baby girl, Mimi's, for brunch after the ceremony at the court house. Thank You ALL for joining in our celebration!

Today our celebration wouldn't have been possible if it weren't for many people.
First of all Airi, Sakura's BioMom, there isn't a day that passes that I don't think about her, wondering if she knows how much we love our daughter and how grateful and appreciative we are for her selfless act. Yukie, Sakura's BioGrandma, she also had to sign away rights to Sakura and I'm sure she played a huge roll in Airi's decision to give up Sakura - I hope they both know that there isn't a day that passes that I don't think about both of them. I want them to know how very special they both are, how much Sakura is loved, and what a special gift they gave us. I also want them to know how happy Sakura is, she might be tough to "make smile" but she's a happy little girl, she makes us cry, laugh, and smile every single day.
We are SO lucky and blessed to be her parents!

We also thank Taz, who without her giving so much of her time and energy to us and for us and all of the adoptive families, wouldn't be where we are today.

Taz will always be our guardian angel.

We also thank Okada San, like Taz, Okada San gives her life to these babies, taking impeccable care of them while in her care.

Lesley at Across The World Adoptions, without this program we would not have Sakura, Lesley gave us her undivided attention during our process, we don't know how we would have filled out the dossier without her guidance.

Eryn and Gregor Cech - the Japan "pilot" family and very special friends, who were persistent in their dreams of adopting a baby from Japan, if they hadn't pursued their dreams, we wouldn't be celebrating today! Thank you for making our dreams come true too!

Equally important, we would like to thank our family and friends, without your prayers, support and encouragement, we wouldn't be celebrating today with our beautiful daughter.

Thank You all very much!

Peyton Sakura we love you beyond measure, we are SO proud to be your parents today and every day. You are our angel, the gift we thought we would never have but always wanted ~ we never dreamed life could be so good....

As this poem by Maureen Hawkins reads:

Before you were conceived I wanted you~
Before you were born I loved you~
Before you were here an hour, I would die for you~
This is the miracle of life.

Monday, November 16, 2009

PattyCake, PattyCake, Bakers Man

Bake me a cake as fast as you can..........



Still need to figure out how to "roll em and roll em"

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Sakura goes to Sea World!

With Papa here visiting from Indiana, we took the opportunity to head over to San Diego for the day and go to Sea World...Papa had never been and this was Sakura's first time as well.

Before we left we had to stop at Katie's to get Sakura's other stroller to use. Katie handed me a letter that Nicole had to write for school (which she got a check mark + on!
YAY Nicole!), ironically it was a letter to Peyton describing Puffin's...

Here is Peyton's letter from Nicole:




At breakfast in El Centro on our way....Sakura enjoyed her first pancakes!


Ahhhh, a sleeping baby (IN the car)...

Let's GO!

Our first stop was the Seals.....they bark and bark and bark for food!

Our first show! The Seal and Otter Show!


Sakura "talked" to the seals, otter, and walrus, and waved at them too!

You can see by the look on her face, she enjoyed her first show!

Sakura and Papa's 1st show at Sea World, almost over!

Here they are watching their first show...I think they both kind of liked it!

Mommy liked this rock!

Waving to Daddy and Papa (on the rock)

Ernie and Bert!

We had to go to 1-2-3 Come Smile with Me photo stop to see Elmo and Zoie...they stick you on a green screen so they can take the picture, then they put a background on...we didn't like the pictures they took - so pretend that there is a pretty door behind us leading into Elmo's house!


Look who is under the Sea with Elmo!

SAKURA!
Our turn with Zoie


And Cookie Monster too!



Papa kind of liked this little Sesame Street gal and thought Sakura needed to have her...
we don't know who she is, but she's pretty cute,
and as you can see Sakura went right for her shoes!

Thanks Papa!

We stopped for a snack...well Daddy and Papa enjoyed a cold one, and Mommy got a Coke, Sakura enjoyed some puffs and water, and tried sharing some with Daddy!

LOOK at those penguins~

Can I get in there with them?

Sakura was a busy little bee...she didn't want to post for pictures,
she wanted to SEE the penguins!

Thanks for the great description Nicole, we found the Puffin's and Peyton posed with them
(and the other penguins) just for you ~
if you look close there are Puffin's behind Peyton in her picture below!

Mommy's favorite - time for a whale of a show - SHAMU -
when Mommy was a little girl her dream was to become an Oceanographer...
just so she could swim and train Shamu, that didn't happen,
but that just shows her love for Killer Whales -
it still makes Mommy cry watching how beautiful and amazing they are!

Hi Shamu!




Playing with my binkie, I was VERY tired by this point!




Amazing!




I think I want to be in there with them....I ♥ Shamu too!




The Sea Otters are a close second in the favorites category! They are SO stinking cute!




Guess what....I couldn't stand it anymore,
I fell fast asleep as soon as Mommy put me back in the stroller!

SO tired!


Some cool Sea Turtles...just like Squirt in Nemo!




Beautiful tree




Look at those SPIKES on the trunk!




Fall in San Diego - Yay!




Pretty little Flamingo




Looking at the otters with Daddy




A second with Pete Penguin on our way out....
Thanks for the fun time at Sea World Papa!