12 month PAR

I can't believe that in just a few weeks we'll be doing Halle's 12 month post adoption report. She's progressed so much! riding a bike, knowing routines, going to school 1/2 days, making friends, liking pets, etc. She's a big time talker- just like the other kids are! We are thankful for the blessing she is!

Pics from the summer

Back Together

So we've had a wonderful summer being back together as a family. Every day we count our blessings that we got to move and live near to the school. The kids ride their bikes or walk to school, we go there and have water gun wars with friends, etc. We also live walking distance from Walmart which is a very big deal here in China :) it's not the exact same as ones in America but it sure is convenient! And if I go right after I drop off the kids at school, I don't have hundreds of others shopping with me!

In other news, marissa has learned to ride on a bike with no training wheels and is in second grade now. DJ is in kindergarten and loves his new classmates, and Halle is going 1/2 days to preschool where it is in Chinese and English. She loves it and is so far, a great student! yay for her!

U.S. Passport

Okay, next on the big steps once we returned from America was to move, get Min Hao settled in his new foster home, and get Halle a U.S. passport! Happy to say, that is all accomplished and now we're just waitng on her SS card so we can finally file our taxes! :) Halle enjoyed her stickers from the consulate!

Trip to America

I know it has been months since I've blogged! We moved and then had to get a new internet connection and then my computer died and has now been resurrected! :) Needless to say, I will slowly try to get everyone reconnected with the big events since my last post! Starting with, halle and my trip to America. We got to visit lots of friends and family and most importantly, Halle became a US citizen and got re-adopted which just gets her name officially as her American name on all docs and easy access for her to her birth certificates, etc. We loved staying with my mom, halle's grandma, and got to do lots of fun things with her like visit the daycare she works at, go to parks, and get a first haircut! Halle also had lots of fun making new friends and eating American food. She can't wait to go back next summer! I would love to add pictures, but they are still being "found" somewhere on this new hard drive! So hopefully, pics to come soon!

Dispersing!

Well today we start saying good-bye to each other for a few weeks! halle and I must travel to the US to walk through immigration while Dave takes Marissa and DJ to Malaysia for some time in the sun with grams and gramps. Meanwhile, Min Hao will be spending some time with some of his favorite people and his new foster family. We just finished the school year and said our good-byes to everyone. Halle can't wait to start jr. kindergarten next year! All the while we're packing up to move closer to teh school (praise!!!) so everything is topsy turvy which my heart feels like as I'll be away from dave, marissa, and dj for 3 weeks! Attached are some end of the school year photos!

AAAAHHHH!

to my shame i have not been blogging hardly at all! of course i could blame it on busyness- our dog had a tooth infection, we're moving to a new home, we're traveling to different continents in less than 2 weeks, we're finding places for min hao to stay while we're gone, and the list goes on. dave just recently returned from traveling all over west china riding camels, donkey carts, and seeing old ruins. our camera died somewhere along those travels and thus my desire to blog has been crushed without adorable pics of my kids to post with my little blogs :) needless to say, we are busy but also enjoying so many things. right now here in our little corner of china, the weather is perfect, halle is becoming a rollerblading sensation (i know this is offensive to some parents who think she is too young to skate but she is a big, strong girl and athletics is apparently in her blood!), min hao will have a new foster family come july, he and marissa have been horseback riding 2 hrs away from us and will be attending a horse pentathalon next weekend, and we have joyfully watched the changes of the many tadpoles in our pond becoming frogs. i love spring. i love the Father for creating it and how it makes you appreciate life in general.

if my camera were working i'd probably attach a pic of the kids catching tadpoles, halle in a poofy green dress next to the blooming cherry trees,

To my shame

Wow, I really can't believe it's been so long since I've posted. could be because of the total amount of crazy important things we've been up to :) Like Halle's 6 month post adoption report. All is well and it's taken care of. although she did manage to go through like 2 dresses (kept getting nice and dirty at the playgrounds) she was clean when the social worker arrived :). We also had Marissa's 7th birthday which was fun of course! She had 3 classmates spend the night- her first big sleepover! Where does the time go! the bummer was that DJ and Min Hao had both gone to the dinosaur museum as a field trip. Who would've known there would be a humongous traffic accident where no one moved for 6 hours so they both missed her party completely. Praise the Lord they made it home safely and blessings on those teachers and chaperones who kept a bus of 4 and 5 yr olds content and unafraid for 6 hours stalled on a freeway! Right now Dave is traveling all over western china with his juniors and seniors riding camels and going to stockyards. I'm so thankful that all 4 kids have stayed healthy and have been practically angels during these 10 days Dave is gone. They are so precious!

Easter

Easter was full of so many firsts! I loved watching Halle (and min hao) grasp the concept of hunting for easter eggs, decorating easter eggs, and running through the sprinkler (not a favorite thing yet, maybe one day). The Lord gave us a beautiful day- sunny and perfect for potlucks and time at the parks. This is one of my favorite weekends to date!

Too Much Candy

Well just a few weeks ago we filled out all our papers for our post adoption report and it seemed all was well. And then we discovered candy wrappers under her pillow. hmmm....and then the next day Marissa says, "Halle has your coke in her room". Thankfully she hadn't got the lid off yet but this child has a serious sweet tooth. It could be because we don't really eat sweets around here very often- she had got the candy as some leftover we hadn't thrown away from a friends party and we do drink coke on occasion as well. It also could be that she got spoiled on it in her foster home or the orphanage. On her gotcha day her backpack was literally at least 1/4 full of candy and sweet crackers. We were shocked and as much as we wanted to take it away from her we knew we couldn't as that backpack had her 3 yrs worth of belongings. So now I'm wondering, "is it just because she's 3?" i don't think so. "is it just because she has a sweet tooth?" maybe. "does she lack self-control because she hasn't been taught it?" probably.

today was easter and we let the kids each have a certain small amount of candy in the afternoon. Tonight Dave and I and the older two were playing apples to apples while Min Hao and Halle were playing with their toys in his room. Then I realized it's uncannily quiet in there so i peeked in and what is Halle doing? Eating DJ's candy. Hmmm....still a work in progress here.

Time with Maizy

Well as my next post will be unindated (is that word?) with massive pictures of easter egg decorating and hunting this post will be about what has also been consuming our time- Maizy! This dog loves attention! So much so that when she went to the vet she was able to convince our wonderful vet to give her a bright purple cast (as if we aren't looked at enough in china now on our walks we add a dog with a purple cast on...). I had her after school one day and most of the elementary came out and pet her (yes, at the same time). She of course loved it! Then she saw DJ and she sat up all alert and as soon as he was near enough she jumped on him and gave him lots of love. Thank you Lord for this surprising gift!

It's beginning to look a lot like Easter!

Well I must say time has just been flying by and I am overdue for an update! One of my highlights recently has been watching the kids Easter Chapel last friday. I didn't even know DJ was going to be the narrator! So sweet! And then the 1st graders (marissa's class) did this beautiful song where they twirl and "chatter with the angels". All the girls had on lovely dresses so it was so fun to watch! I will try to upload the videos but must admit i'm very technologically challenged and so it may not work!

Spring has sprung here and we are delighted to be wearing t-shirts and shorts now. It seems spring actually got forgotten because it's definitely warm enough to be summer! but either way, i'll take it! I need some much needed Vitamin D!

Later this week we have our easter egg hunt and then potluck and then on Sunday we'll have easter services and another potluck! hmmm...wonder if we'll fit into our easter dresses by the end of the day! but most importantly we've been going through the true meaning of Easter with the kids. What a delight to have them understand the depth of it all. Our friend Jesus is our hope!

Next week will be Marissa's birthday. My big girl is almost 7! I can't believe it. She's having 3 friends spend the night so I'm sure I'll have plenty of pictures to post for that!

Happy Easter Everyone! He is risen and because of that we are set apart. No one else nor any other "god" has ever done that.

Marissa's Midnight Song

Marissa has been having trouble sleeping at night so she made this song to sing at night:

The Lord will take care of us when we are scared and when we are not

when we are sick we can always think of Him; when we are bad he is sad, but He still takes care of us and always still loves us. He loves it when we're happy. He always takes care of us, care of us, care of us.

Words by my angel, Marissa

Spring Break Part 1

Well Spring Break has certainly been WAY more interesting than we'd anticipated :) God sure knows how to take your plans and make them WAY beyond what you'd expected. We'd carefully planned a "hanging out" day with friends every other day and then just family days on the other ones. We'd planned special projects and regular cleaning and learning times. For once I thought surely that I was organized :) (not me typically) and so as planned, on Monday our friends came over (2 friends for the kids) and while out on a walk we came across a stray basset hound who'd obviously been abandoned. she was dirty and limping. Having owned a Basset when in the states and having not seen one in the 2+ years of living here our hearts went out to her and we took her to the vet, gave the vet and the guard of our community our phone number in case her owners came looking for her. So far no phone calls. She's the sweetest thing but NOT what was on my agenda for Spring Break. Not on my agenda for our time in China actually! We'd had specific things we were praying for during Spring Break, not planning on praying about whether we'd be adding a dog to our family.

Other than that, we've had fun picnics on the porch, nice long walks, visits with friends, and now lots of walks WITH a dog and giving a dog a shower (at least once a day because she was dirty dirty dirty!). The boys have been doing lots of legos and Marissa has been enjoying using her new journal and pencils. I love Spring Break! I love God's gifts to me and mine :)

Post Adoption Report Pictures!

These are the 5 photos we are sending in for Halle's 6 month post adoption report pictures. Mommy and Daddy had to be in all the pictures with her. We can't believe how time has flown with our fun, sweet, sassy girl :)

Sichuan Cuisine Museum

We went and toured this beautiful park and restaurant and although the day was gray we made some wonderful memories. We got to climb rocks and have a picnic, Halle learned the joy of feeding goats (she wasn't excited at first but when EVERYONE else was doing it she realized it's okay and loved it!), and we enjoyed sweet fellowship with friends. I think the pictures say it better than I could write it :)

Getting Sweeter with Time

All week I've been absolutely cherishing each day with Halle. She truly has gotten so much sweeter with time! It's such an encouragement to see her being silly with Dave, being so excited to see us when we pick her up from daycare, to be happy to sit by anyone (not only me) in our family, to dress up with her friends, and most importantly (hehehe) to only pout instead of throw a full blown fit (i know pouting isn't good either but compared to how she used to be....i'll take it any day!). Of course it's not perfect but it's lightyears better than I thought it'd be by now. We praise the Lord for giving us such a treasure! Happy 4 months Halle!

Just modeling

Lately we've just been so pleased with how Halle has felt more comfortable and her use of self-control. She used to throw fits whenever she wanted something and we told her no. Today 3 times I could tell she was on the verge of a fit and instead she just got a grumpy face for a minute and seemed to work through it and then was fine. We're so thankful for the peace this returns to our home. You can probably ask my in laws who stayed with us over Christmas that it wasn't ultra peaceful then, but it's a night and day difference now. She used to get angry if I was busy and said "go ask daddy" but last night she said "okay mommy" and went and asked him and he helped her with whatever it was. no hesitation, no anger. wow. we were pleasantly blown away! We are thankful for our little girl who loves the camera!

Orphanage update

Yesterday we visited Min Hao's orphanage to see how his adoption papers are coming along. Seems they haven't done anything in 6 weeks, however, we'll go back next week and get his medical done and then they said they'd have it mailed off by the end of march and then 2-4 months everything will be processed. It made us just really pray even harder that the family that God has for this ultra happy boy is getting ready. We desire him to be placed with his forever family so soon! He's already 6 yrs old and at such a fun age.

At the orphanage yesterday I had to keep promising him, "don't worry when we're done here we'll go to McDonalds and get a treat and then go to school." He asked me no less than 7 times if we're going to McDonalds and school. At first I was rather annoyed by this because I'd already told him so many times but later that night when talking with my very wise husband he mentioned that perhaps Min Hao was nervous there and just wanted to clarify and be reassured. He did a great job smiling when I asked him to and saying "ayi ni hao" (hello auntie) to the workers there. I wanted them to see so badly that he was happy and doing well because he was just so nervous he wasn't acting like himself.

Anyway, please be praying along with us for a few things. One is that in June we have to get Halle to America and Dave will be taking Marissa and DJ to Malaysia to visit grandparents Yost there. Min Hao isn't allowed to leave the country so we need someone to care for him for 2 weeks in June. Also our contract with him is up in August so there's a need for a new foster family to step in and take over his care until his (Lord willing!) adoption. And of course be praying that God opens a godly family's heart to adopt this joyful boy asap! Thank you friends for coming alongside us and standing in the gap for this precious child of God!

Pics

Girls just want to have fun! notice the beautiful eye shadow!

Also, my lovely two girls in pink!

And fun with min hao!