misc. photos

LOL

Daniel told his speech therapist yesterday "my brother doesn't like our sisters. He likes me best. My mom is my best friend. She is so pretty."

OKAY lets laugh about the whole sister thing.. right now anyway.. and focus on the later.. I AM HIS BEST FRIEND!!!!!!!!!!!

Friday, tomorrow is our 2 year Gotcha/Family/Adoption Day! and HE FINALLY LIKES ME!! NO what HE LOVES ME! what a LONG two years.. thank you friends who have prayed for our family. Thank you God for keeping me focused on you and seeing Daniel the way YOU see him. For softening my heart towards my son and letting the love flow!

I AM HIS BEST FRIEND!!!!!!!!!! :O)))))))

Gung hoy fat choy... or something like that..

Happy Chinese New Year!!

We had a blast last night at a friends. here are some photos from her camera.. i will post mine -oh you know.. next year... LOL

more fun at the park

daniel ask ' sarah, are you sure this is safe'. sarah replies, ' uumm oh yea.. and really fun'...

more laughing.. is this child ever not laughing?

taking advantage of a warm day.. went to the park.

favorite photo of the day... sophia flying through the air.. free and laughing. She loves the swings.

this one is for Alice.. what a novel concept.. to put your babies in ONE swing so you only have to push once... heheheh (just a random family at the park)

I never thought our family tree would be full of miracles... thank you God for blessing me beyond my prayers!

beginning teachings of safe ice and not so safe...

playing on the ice after Bob taught them the "safety part" .. we can count this as a home school moment right?!! LOL

On the left is the original design from Sarah's "design lesson book". On the right is how she free handed the left side. I think it is really good ( i am her mom!) . She is always drawing something. I hope our summer move coincides with a good art summer camp this year!

fashion "project"

This is Sarah and what she looks like for school.. every morning she "dresses up ". She is our little fashion designer. the next several photos are of her are making a fashion notebook and one of her many fashion designs.

my motive for the yummy snack found out! How to make this snack: place a ritz cracker on a cookie sheet.. then the peanut butter then a big marshmellow. broil in oven until top of marshmellow is turning light brown. Wait to serve the kids for a few moments b/c the inside is very hot. YUM-O!

first bite..

what is this?? My mom use to give this "treat" to us when I was a kid. It is GREAT for sensory kids.. aka: Sophia. it is oowey and gooey and perfect for her.. and me.. that is before the peanut butter recall.. again.

inside fun on cold days..

So excited!

I wish I could explain to you in bloggy land all that has happen today... what I can tell you is that God is ALIVE and MOVING!

TWO people contacted me today to pray for them. One we will call "d" and the other we will call "E". I would love to ask for prayers for them. They are in the midst of miracles happening.

Please, I know it is sometimes hard to remember to pray for the unknown but these ladies need MANY praying.

I will share as I am told I can.

I AM SO EXCITED TO SEE GOD"S PLAN UNFOLD FOR THESE TWO DIFFERENT FAMILIES!!!!!!!!!!!!

HELP - house fire- pls read

Please go to http://www.aplacecalledsimplicity.blogspot.com/

This is a blog I LOOOOOVEE to go to. Linn is amazing.
Her house caught fire TODAY and they lost everything material. Praising God that the children are safe and alive.

Please go and find out how you can pray or donate.. her buddy is posting updates and there is a link to brainstorm what we can do..

cupcakes and giggles

oh the sound of children eating cupcakes.. it is this side of heaven!
I included a quick video. When I rounded the corner the ooohhh and aaahhhh's from Drew were so funny. Bob said.. hhmm do you know what these are? laughing.. At Shepherds Field, they celebrate birthday months with yummy cake so .... this is not a first for him but I bet carrot cake with creamcheese frosting IS a first for him/?? who knows and frankly, who cares.. the giggles are what matter now. :O)
enjoy~

okay stay tuned... an error message is coming up.. telling me to go post the video on youtube!well our youtube acount is "myheartinchina" so you can go there if you wanna.. i will keep trying here... sorry

what can we do?

Pray of course..

i guess it is okay to paste and copy something off FB if the conversation was open and between me and another??

This is Tim Baker talking about the van at Shepherds Field/ PHF. Will you commit this request to prayer ...perhaps even donate a little (or lot) to them?? You can donate online www.chinaorphans.org and I know they would love if you could remember them in your prayer life. thank you..

"yea...but u know we will have to retire this van along with the other 2 Ford vans before May 1 2009. The Chinese gov will not allow this old of a vehicle to drive into Beijing after May 1. Please keep this need in your prayers."

black eyes and faces in concrete...

So i like to think that i have well behaved children... today I put them in the back yard and said "don't come in until you are sweating with red faces and out of breath". :O) I also said, you need the Vitiman D. :0)

umm yea.. i heard high pitched screams.. well it could only be daniel or sarah.. hehehe seriously. it was daniel. see i told you.

I ran outside, and I am seeing Sophia ON TOP of her brother RUBBING his FACE on the CONCRETE. are you kidding me? Daniel is crying and sophia is saying "I told you NO". I run over and pull her off and then she cries.. sure she does.. off to bed she goes.

what are you thinking?

Then about an hour later Sarah's turn. She comes running in and says MY EYE MY EYE. I did include a photo for you.. which doesn't even do her eye justice. Evidently, Sarah and Daniel were playing "Surviorman and surviorwoman " (i tried hard not to laugh)... and somehow the soccer goal ended up in her face. .. lol.. so she has this goose egg - more like a robin size egg right below her eye. and NOW it is turning BLUE. ohmygosh. I always thought my kids first black eye would be one of the boys.. not my daughter.. LOL

on the bright side.. did you SEE that child's eyelashes? ! beautiful.

memories and gratefulness

I am reading our favorite magazine tonight. It came in the mail the other day and I have been planning a night to devour it. I use to bring it to dental and doctor appts and while the children read or played, I would get in what I could. .. now that Drew is home - life will be different for a while.. a good different but we certainly have a "baby/toddler" in the home again!

Our favorite magazine is DJ. Discipleship Journal, helping you grow in Christ. http://www.discipleshipjournal.com/

In issue 169, Jan/Feb09, page 64, article Buried Treasure by Miriam Z. Walsh I have found a new way to "journal". She says, look for God in your family stories. The article talks about not just journaling what has happen in your life but talk about what God did in that situation. I have one journal that is about me as a mom, me as a girl growing up and me as a person. This is for my children later in life. Not to be seen now but later. I have another journal for each child that is hand written while I waited for them.. whether through pregnancy with Sarah or the adoptions of Sophia, Daniel and Drew. Each one is just for them. about me while I anticipated their arrivals. Within those journals, there are scriptures, tears, laughter and how God was working through me. I never intended to write in any particular way, it was just a form of conversation to my child to tell them how very much they are loved. Looking back it is also telling them how God had/has a hand in their life and mine.

I enjoyed this article b/c it gives me more thought on journaling. I want to journal family stories now (uh, kinda like a blog LOL) to be me AND bob. :O) and facebook doesn't count honey. :O)))

The author suggest guidelines for each event that would be noteworthy to write down: What specifically happened (being specific lends to the beauty of the story) and include your feelings; How did God work on our behalf; what did we learn about God? She also says to keep it handy so you are more willing to write in it often.

For quite some time we, as a family kept a "blessings box". there were pre-cut cardstock in there and any of us felt that we were blessed we would write down the blessing and put it in there. I began to keep prayer request in there as well. sometimes extra money that we were blessed with. I love that little green box. At the end of the year, I would go through them and remember the incidents and always smile b/c it taught me that no matter what, God is good. It also reminded me of happenings throughout the year that I would not have remembered.

My next step.. Bob and I agreeing what would be noteworthy things that happen in our life (over the last 15 years) together where we can convey to our children about our awesome God we serve and how He has been present in our lives, the third strand in our braid.

blessings to you and your family

HAPPY NEW YEAR

by the way.. i posted a cartoon.. not that it particularly pertains to this post but b/c it is funny and describes our life :O)