Happy Chinese New Year

Today we got to attend our first event with Families with Children from China- Arizona. We went to the Chinese New Year celebration. We usually go to a CNY dinner every year, this is the first year we got to go to a CNY Picnic at this time of year! This is a great group and they really go all out for Chinese New Year. They did a great job. The girls got face painting, balloon animals, and made tshirts. They tried the rock wall, jumped in bouncers and played a lot of yard games. There were two inflatables and the smaller one was for 2 and under. Lucy had no interest in the "baby" one and tried over and over to get in the big kid bouncer.



There was a Province Parade, where kids came up as their Province was called. We told Amy there are not a lot of kids adopted from here province so she may be the only one, sure enough she was. Angie as usual, had several little friends from her province.




There were several dance performances, a kung fu demonstration and our favorite, the lion dance. I love the Chinese drums and All the girls got to give them a try. Angie was so serious trying to get the rhythm just right.



We met new friends and look forward to a great new year.

Hiking in our backyard

You know how they used to say that Ginger Rodgers was a better dancer than Fred Astaire because she could do everything he did backwards and with high heels? I kinda always feel that way when we go out to do things that eveyone else does with a baby on my hip and preschoolers in tow. I remember when Karianne and Angie were 3 years old we went hiking in a cave. It was a mile straight down. Brent carried Karianne and I carried Angie. Did I mention I was 5 months pregnant with Lucy too? People have no idea what a workout is unless they've tried it holding a baby.



Anyway, we went hiking today on on of the mountain just a few minutes away from us. It didn't look as steep as some of the other trails around so we brought all the kids. I still haven't gotten a good picture of our view out here, but it is just gorgeous. We are in a valley with mountains 360 degrees all around us. We got on the trails and did pretty good. We got a lot of stares from the serious joggers and walkers as we toted our kids up and over the trails. We only had one scrapped up knee and Lucy and Amy gave up about halfway through. I took Lucy and Amy back to the car and we drove around the mountain and waited for the rest of the hikers to come off the trail.

Update on Orphan Alert

The Boy I posted about a few days ago, J.D. has a family. Praise God!

Hudson Taylor is one of my heroes. He was a giant of faith serving out his life as a missionary to the Chinese in the 1800s. A friend shared this quote on Facebook and it is so good I just had to share:

“It will not do to say that you have no special call to go to China. With these facts before you and with the command of the Lord Jesus to go and preach the gospel to every creature, you need rather to ascertain whether you have a special call to stay at home.” (Hudson Taylor)

Happy Birthday to me

I had a fun birthday yesterday. A sweet new friend brought me a cake and was merciful enough to get the number candles instead of individual candles although Lucy would have loved to help me blow out all those candles. She kept trying to blow out my candles but she had her binky in her mouth so I got to do the honors.

Orphan Alert! This boy is so loved by God

Oh how I wish I could adopt this boy. Could you please help find him a family? Read his story:

JD came to the orphanage in four years ago when he was 9 years old, crawling on his \knees because his feet were deformed. Up to that point, he had survived by dragging himself along the side of the road selling newspapers and hiding his earnings in the bushes. At the orphanage, JD's feet were amputated and he was fitted with prosthetics. Today, he proudly stands and walks quite normally. But a profound piece of his life is still missing.



When we met with him, JD was so nervous he was shaking. His caretakers told us he'd had blinding headaches for days because he was so worried about meeting us. When I asked him why he was nervous, he said simply: "Because you're my last chance for a family."

JD is a 13-year old boy with a very sad history, whose time is running out. If he's not adopted before he is 14 he will be ineligible for international adoption, and never have the family he so desperately wants. He can't remember ever living with a family but does remember years of living on his own on the streets. He remembers surviving by crawling along the road selling newspapers and hiding his earnings in the bushes.

His hands appear somewhat different but he can do everything he needs to with them. He is able to write, feed himself and take care of his bodily needs.

Because he began school so late and has been hospitalized for surgeries, he attends classes in the orphanage where he is said to be good learner who works very hard at his studies. As he left, he looked at us pleadingly saying, "I wish I could have a family." We want his wishes to come true his id is JD.1096.16763.01 and we will be happy to share his information with you.

There is a $4000 Promise Child grant for eligible families for this adoption and a possible additional fee reduction. Please contact us at FamilyFinders@wacap.org or 206-575-4550 WACAP(www.wacap.org) is a non-profit adoption agency.

Please spread the word and help these precious children!!

Bird Smack

I just had to laugh when I saw this. We have a very high entryway to our front door with a window over the door. There was a single feather on the ground in front of our door and a perfect silhouette of a brid on our window. Hmmm.

Making Lemonade

We got lemons. So we made some Lemonade today. Mmm good.

Birthday Video

For some reason the video didn't load up on that last entry. Here it is:

Lucy's Birthday

Lucy's birthday was Sunday. We took the girls to Rainforest Cafe to celebrate. We got the Volcano thinking they would enjoy the wait staff shoutig "Volcano" and the sparkler on top. They didn't shout and they aren't allowed to have sparklers in Arizona. Bummer. That is all we did for her birthday because I hadn't found her birthday presents in all our boxes yet. Found them last night so we bought her a little Dora cake and gave her her presents- Mickey and Minnie dolls. She loves Mickey Mouse. We got a video of her blowing out her candles, she's very good at is as you can see. :-) I took off her shirt before she ate the purple cake, that was a great idea, she painted her chest with her fingers covered with purple frosting. Great fun.

She's a cutie, and we love her. Happy Birthday Lucy, you're 2!