Five Years Ago!

 Five years ago we traveled to a far away place and they placed in my arms and tiny mite.  She cried and cried until daddy figured out that she does not like to be held facing this strange smelling new lady.

 

 She did settle down, but did not eat until the next day, almost 12 hrs later...we took her to the hotel Dr and he discovered double ear infection and an ulcer on her tongue....it took awhile till she started to eat decently.

 At her previous home she was more than happy to snuggle to my chest.

 She did this cute finger waving thing (we called it her windshield wipers) for about 6 weeks until she realized there are a lot of other things to see.

Where did those little kids get to?

 

And here she is today!

Saying Good Bye

For 13 years (almost to the day) we drove the 1993 Chevy Astro, she had
over 223,000 miles.
Today we traded her in for a 2007 Chevy Uplander... I hope this one
lasts as long.Actually the Astro is a bit of a miracle...with every adoption my
husband would say "you know, we will probably need to replace the van soon."
He started saying that back in 2003 when we were bringing home Hope,
then in 2006 we said, "If God holds the van together until we get home..."THEN in 2010 we just prayed that God holds this van together and that
the house roof does not leak (it's 25 years old) and guess what? He
did! We don't have the tax refund yet, but I trust that one of these
days we will get it and we will pay it off.Now the house roof? Well...you can patch them if you need to....

Grandparent's Day

Joseph's school had grandparent's day last week and he was delighted to
have two doting grandma's show up.
He also was part of a small group to play the recorder for the GP's.
Go Joe Go!

Learning More

Tonite Ben was baptized and that brought a new round of questions from
Joseph.

I don't know about other churches, but our bishop says "I baptize you in
the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost"
On the way home Joseph asked about...Father, Son and "what is it?"

DH tried to explain the Trinity in simple terms and he mentioned the
Father sent His Son to earth to die for our sins...and since Joseph had
just told us that his favorite 'verb' (we must pronounce more clearly)
is John 3:16 I knew he followed that....then DH said that the Holy Ghost
came to help us after Jesus went up to Heaven....

Joseph burst in...."I didn't know that one! I didn't hear that part!"

I need to investigate more...but did we leave out the most important
part of the Gospel? Did we get to the cross and forget to finish?! We
were reading the Bible stories, then he told me he read them all and
thought he doesn't need to listen...these truths need to be told again
and again. We forget too easily.

Good News Sonny....Jesus didn't stay dead!

When Should I Let Her Read It?

I just finished the book on the left and am in the middle of the one on
the right....
My daughter has been asking questions about birth moms and family but
this stuff is hard for me to handle.
I was thinking of waiting til she is 10...is that too long?
At any rate, anyone who adopted from China should read both of these
books and it looks like China Witness should be next on my list.

How Little Girls Dig for Worms

Tonite my two girls came and asked if they can look for worms. I said
OK, but you gotta change into boots.

In my mind I'm thinking....these are the two girls that shriek over the
smallest bug and can't use the bathroom if a moth is in there with them....
so I looked out the window and saw two little girls crouched around a
rock, it looked like a Kodak moment.

I went quietly and heard the oldest saying, "Pick it up! c'mon pick it up."
Then I saw the youngest with a tiny twig carefully lifting a worm that
was draped over the stick

and she popped it into the tin can "I got it!"

I doubt they will be much help when it comes to baiting a hook.

Tooth Extractions and other fun stuff

On Tues Hope came home from school and showed me a spot in her mouth.
"It started to hurt a first recess"
She had an abscessed tooth drilled out and filled about 3 wks ago and
now it looked like some of that filling fell out and she had this huge
lump below that tooth. She said it only hurts a little bit.
We got an appt Wed. at lunch time and the dentist decided that this time
we will just pull the tooth... the last time they were worried that her
other teeth would move too much if they take out this baby molar.
Poor girl had huge eyes when they told her the tooth will be coming out.
She did so good though. She did want me in the room this time...other
times with fillings I usually have to sit in the waiting room. I'm
hoping we don't have too many teeth like that at our house...it was hard
to watch.

Then I finished these two items...sorry for the blurred picture...not
sure what I was doing....but I do think Tom turkey looks sorta real...
The flower one is a Carolina Lily and those squares are 3" There were
some tiny pieces.

And someone told me this week that I don't have any patience!
Humph...I'll show him!

We Violated Customs...I Think

Is it a violation of Customs if you bring home a bug, but don't know
that you did?

I don't actually think it was alive...at the time.

It has been making its presence known for sometime, but we didn't
realize it....

This morning after a rough start....Youngest Brother was in the bathroom
brushing his teeth and said

"Mom, something in my ear!"

I looked and it looked as if his ear had finally regurgitated a hunk of
ear wax....I carefully removed it....

This time I wasn't joking when I told him "Joseph you have a bug in your
ear!"

He claims his foster brother put it in his ear in the
orphanage....knowing that his brother was adopted a few months before he
was.....that thing was in there at least a year?? Could that be?

Anyway it looks like a beetle and has one spot on each wing...never know
what surprises we will have.

That smoothed the tension and he decided he would pack a lunch after
all...this time he asked for help instead of yelling at me...

Lonely

Well, God knew what He was doing. He put Joseph in a big family with
plenty of brothers, but...
tonight all his big brothers are out and he took a look at the empty
room and said "I scared"
Even the promise of oldest brother coming home in a few hours is no
help. I guess Daddy will bunk in one of the beds until Joseph is asleep.
That would have been an interesting couple of weeks if we had no
brothers to share a room.

I hope my other two are sleeping soundly, they are at Bible Quiz retreat
and have their first round of quizzes tomorrow.

A Busy Saturday

First off I finished the promised quilt for my newest child. As you can
see from the pictures he is not sure how to handle pictures showing
happiness.

He promptly snuggled under it even though the edges are not finished. I
just started to warn him that there might be pins in yet....and ouch!
He handed it back for inspection and it has not been far from him
since. Makes my heart happy.

Then next bit of news...a bit of a surprise and yet not.... I am going
to be MOTHER OF THE GROOM!

Tentative date Oct 15...gotta make sure the church is available.
Ai yi yi, not sure I am old enough for this job! Blessings guys!

How Do You Know?

How do you know when to push...
when to back off?
How do you know if he is actually so tired or just would rather play
computer?
When he is headed for the school door with backpack and lunch box in
hand, should I grab the door for him or let him manage on his own.
When the seat belt is elusive should I reach over and help or let him
try again, and again...how many time.
When it seems as if he just cannot keep track of his pencil and eraser
(mentioned that before I know) do I help or let him stomp around the
house looking?
Should I double check his lunch box to make sure he is not forgetting
his spoon again?
Should we let him spell the 4th grade spelling words when he does not
understand the meaning of the 2nd grade words.
Am I being a hard mother when I insist he finish the 2nd grade workbook
before doing the 4th grade words?
Am I being a "tiger mom" when I make him write the character for each of
the words he does not know?
Am I being too picky when I make him try to pronounce his Bible Memory
words clearly.
"When you talk Chin*se I don't care if you say it wrong! Even when
Ch*nese people cannot understand you" But this mama wants you to be
understood when you speak English.
BTW when you read it the second time the words were much clearer and you
CAN do it! And we managed the fine dance to avoiding a blow up
tonite...I almost thought I pushed too hard.
Like someone said I don't feel like we have the luxury of time, we are
starting so late in the game and yet it's not me that is deciding these
things...it is God and this fine boy he loaned us.
So one foot in front of the other.....

Happy Birthday!

The big day finally arrived. I was informed though that he was not born until 12 PM. "Teacher at the orphanage told me"
Humph! if they knew so much why aren't they sharing with me?!
I was afraid we would not live up to expectations after all he was told that all American's visit Disney...sorry kiddo, you may have to do what mom and dad did...go to FL and Disney on your honeymoon.

Ah well. First mom cooked and fried and brought hot lunch to school.


Then in the evening we had the birthday cake..  (it's a robot--sorta hard to tell)

And finally! the gifts

The coveted watch with alarm and a skateboard....don't ask me what we were thinking! But the books in a foreign language were a hit too!