Joy in the Midst of Exhaustion

So, we're just concluding homeschooling week 2.  I love it, Halle likes it, but still asks to go back to regular school sometimes.  Oh my heart.  In the midst of that, our school is moving.  It's a good thing.  God is moving in this area, our school is growing!  More opportunities to share His truth with more kids.  However, there's grieving going on.  In my heart, in my kid's hearts, in my husband's heart.  We have been at the same location for 6 years.  This school is all our kids have ever known.  True, the teachers are all moving to the new school, the students are moving to the new school, many of the classroom décor is moving to the new school, but the actual building is not.  It's silly, it's just a place, but a place that holds so many memories.  We know He is calling us to a new place, a better place, just like when the Israelites were called to leave Egypt, and yet my heart is resistant, even fearful.  I want to stay, for things to not change, even if the change is for the better.  And yet, deep down, I want to be in the middle of the great work He is doing.  I know in just a few weeks, I'll be excited about our new school and making new memories in new places, but until that point there is a lot of grieving.  It's hard to pack up classrooms because things won't look the same in the new place and yet it must be done.  Trust is what must happen next.  Trust that even though I'm hurting He is leading us to His next work and it will be good!  Today a group of us friends got together to pray.  I confessed my resistance to change.  I confessed that as much as I'm excited about the new school, I'll miss the old, but I cannot be two places at once.  The tears came, in a flood actually.  He must've known how my heart is struggling because in my email this morning was the sweet, final update of our son Hudson.  How I needed this! The next update will be with our OWN camera and with our OWN words.  He will be Hudson Paul Yost and we will make new memories with him in our new places and it will be exciting.  Change is good :)

Immigration approval and waiting...

Well our I800 came and I began rejoicing until I saw the little word "provisional".  What?!  It said we needed visas.  Hmmm...we live in China, he lives in China, no need.  So with panic beginning in my heart (trying to trust you here Lord) I called the people.  They said not to worry, just let the next step know.  So tomorrow that is what we do.  Call and make sure we do not need anything else but to wait. 
Meanwhile, the wait is starting to kill me:)  Today we get pictures printed for his photo book that I hope to send next week.  Getting some new pictures in the home of him...dreams of him happening more regularly now.  Think I'm definitely starting the nesting stage.  October seems so close and yet so far away right now! 
Tuesday is our baby shower for him.  Pretty excited to celebrate him with others!

Hudson Paul Yost

Yes folks, after months of painful toil (and yes, those of you who live around me know this is true), we've finally agreed on a name- and probably only because we were forced to make a decision on one of our forms :)  Hudson Paul Yost will hopefully be joining us in October or November this year!!!  So, Hudson means son of the Brave Ruler (Jesus!!!!) and we like the name a lot and it has fun nickname possibilities, and the kids all liked it, and of course Hudson Taylor was a great missionary to China so it's perfect!  Paul is a great middle name because every Paul we've known has been a great guy, especially Dave's grandpa, who in a way, we feel brought us together (long story, ask me later!) and my cool cousin married a Paul who we love!  So, it seemed like a great family name to pass down.  And so, there it is.  The last major decision is done!  Phew!

New Pictures!

Recently we were surprised with an email that contained 3 new pictures of our son!  Along with a little description saying "he is doing very well and is very active."  Well we saw that to be true when in one picture he is the only one actively reaching for the food while the others are all sitting nicely :)  He'll fit in just fine here- we are an active family!  So, enjoy them with me!

Busy Busy

So it's a busy summer for us.  School has ended, we've showed Yuan Yuan's photo to everyone at school.  We got approved so we began showing it all over FB.  The kids are getting excited.  Now to decide his name...Until we do, we have to move to a new house, Dave goes to Beijing to work on his Masters's, I go to America to see my little brother get married, and then we need to get used to our new community.  And we can't forget to do fun things like play Star Wars Monopoly and go swimming!  Busy Busy, but that's good.  Keeps me from going crazy while waiting for Yuan Yuan...  :)

Introducing Yuan Yuan

This morning was quite exciting as we opened our computer and there before us was our referral.  My computer couldn't open the links fast enough!  As we sat there gazing at his face, the room started shaking.  First thing I thought was wow, i'm a little tipsy from looking at him so long and then realized that we were actually experiencing an earthquake!
We grabbed the kids and ran down the stairs.  by the time we were outside so were all our neighbors.  We were all in our pj's and I was wanting to go back to my computer so bad and read more about our new son.  But alas, when an earthquake of that magnitude hits, you are encouraged not to go back in for quite awhile so we sat visiting with our neighbors and all I am thinking is "we only have 48 hrs to do our LOI!  i must get back in there!".  Needless to say, we did get back in and got the LOI returned.  Now to put all those pics on the desktop and gaze at him some more :)

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 :)