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