Pretending

After the snowiest winter in memory, the crocuses and daffodils are blooming and the weather is unseasonably warm. We are pretending it is spring. Today we even cooked hot dogs over a fire in our backyard. Tomorrow we will go geocaching and won't even need jackets. If you don't know what that is, google it. It is tons of family fun. Or call and invite yourselves to join us, we'd love to have you come along.

The Reason for Two

When you are in the midst of all the miserable paperwork for an international adoption, it is helpful to keep in contact with other people who are walking the same path. They can give you advice and console you when you have a glitch, as you inevitably will. Some of these people are just beginning the process and haven't been matched with a child yet, so there are frequently conversations about specific waiting children whose pictures may be seen on various blogs and agency websites. People say things like " have you seen Davey on so and so's new list? Isn't he adorable?" So of course, you go over to so and so's new list to look at Davey and while you are there you see pictures of 10, 20 , 30, other children who wait ( of the 2000 plus on Chinas special needs list at any one time). You know that many of these will never be chosen, but when you find a Special One, you go to all your blogs and you say "did you see Kent, on Agency's new list?" hoping that someone else will see what you have seen and choose Him. And so I did. For two boys. The first was last fall, for Simon, from our agency's list. The second one, in January, was this boy, posted by another agency, from the shared list. I fell in love with those dimples. I said , "see him, isn't he cute?" and many agreed. But, it turned out that he was meant for us. We are rejoicing !

Chinese New Year

The Chinese part of our family, Ric's mom and Dad, invited us to their house to celebrate Chinese New Year. Ric's brother Brandon, also lived with an American family for many years, until recently. Rachel, the blonde, is his American sister. My children, (two of whom speak Chinese) Nellie, Dominic, and Andy are Ric's American siblings. Brandon, Ric's Chinese brother, does not speak any Chinese. lol

We began our celebration, as they would in China, watching some of the day long TV programing which would include, singing, dancing, acrobats, and magic shows.

The younger children played games while the older ones kept in touch with their world.

Ariel was pretty unhappy that she no longer maintains the 'child' label and wasn't invited to fill a bag with goodies, which include red envelopes filled with varying amounts of good old American dollars.

The real highlight of Chinese New Year, of course, is the food, much of which you will never see at a Chinese restaurant !

Random Winter Fun

Happy Days

Mighty warriors of all ages.

Jerry's mom and dad came for a visit.

My mom and dad couldn't come, but they did take us out to Mexican.

The other kids loved sledding, but Rosie's favorite part of the snow was building snowme. She built one all by herself !