HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Xin nian kuai le!

In approximately 2 hours and 13 minutes it will be 2008 and 2 years since we signed our adoption contract with Faithful Adoption.

We started our Christmas with a 4AM webchat with Kai Wei and Sarah Grace! What could be better?! We were somewhat disappointed, as it did not seem that they'd received the cute little stockings that we'd sent. :-( But they both appeared well and excited that we had sent presents. While we talked to them we also showed them the elf yourself website with them dancing with their siblings. They both really laughed and smiled. Kai Wei was shocked at first to see himself, but quickly seemed to understand how it was done. Sarah Grace, on the other hand, was rather confused--she mustn't be quite as techno-savvy as Kai Wei.

The rest of our Christmas day was very full. We opened gifts at home and then traveled about 4 hours to spend a couple of days with my family. So much fun. Especially since this will probably be the last Christmas at my childhood home, as my parents have their house on the market and are planning to move to a retirement community near us. Yay!
My mom was so sweet. She had a copy of a picture she has of my sisters and I all at age 2 in the same dress made for each of us, as well as a picture of our house with the backyard in all 4 seasons. I feel so blessed to have had such a happy and fun and safe childhood. I think this is one reason I've always wanted to adopt.

We were glad after Christmas to hear that our friends from the Chinese Cultural Institute had made it to Jonah House the next day with the children's main presents--a Nintendo DS for Kai Wei and cellphone walkie talkie's for Sarah Grace--as per their requests! Above is a picture of them figuring out the cell phones.

We've been elfed!

A coworker showed me this at work today. Her daughters looked so funny and cute dancing all dressed up as elves that I had to subject our whole family to the elf treatment. Unfortunately, you can't have a conga line of 9 elves, so I had to do us in groups. You can see us in action too! You can watch the girls, the boys and our parents dancing! Enjoy, and let us know if you elf yourselves so we can see you too!

I think we'll show Kai Wei and Sarah Grace next time we talk to them. I think this is sure to get a laugh. :)

Our Model

As promised in the previous post, our model to see if the clothes we bought would fit Sarah Grace. I think his expression says it all.



We got Sarah Grace's birthday present in the mail today! She turns 8 on January 1! I wish she were going to be home for her birthday. We'll have to send it to her instead. Ling speaks Chinese and English (she says things like "I like to sing/ wo xi huan chang ge" and "My name is Ling/wo jiao Ling" and she counts from 1-10.) I thought she was pretty cute and I hope that Sarah Grace enjoys her!

Great News!

We heard from Penny at Cathwel today and Kai Wei has had his civil ruling! From the way she put it it sounds like it was the final ruling. If it was that means we are Kai Wei's Mom and Dad and the parents of SIX kids now! He is our son! I emailed her to confirm. Because it may be the civil ruling and then the final ruling in 10 days--but sometimes they get called on them at the same time. Either way, we are much closer. They have chosen not to say anything to Kai Wei, as they don't want him to blame Ssu Ya for a delay in getting home (no word on her from the courts) After the final ruling you just a need an AIT appointment to get the child's visa and then you can bring them home. That often happens in about 2 weeks! But we will probably be waiting a bit longer for all Sarah Grace's court rulings. I say probably, because if they think it will be months of delay we may have to go twice! I just can't bear the thought of having to make Kai Wei wait many more months than he already has. I'm looking into airline tickets! I can't believe it!

We got a package of stuff I ordered online for Ssu Ya today--it was so much fun to look through. We got great pics of our "super model" that I'll have Annie post when she gets a chance. We got 2 pairs of pants, some long sleeve shirts, an outdoor vest and some PJ's! I think I have just about enough stuff until they get here. I did not want to get too much, as it is hard to be sure of size.

So this journey has been so long. I've gotten so used to waiting. I can't believe the waiting is actually going to come to an end!

God has been so good to us! :-)

有哭，有笑 Laughter and tears

We had another video chat with the kids last night. They brought Kai Wei and Sarah Grace in separately this time, which we thought was a good idea. Kai Wei was happy to see the Christmas tree. He really seems to be thinking about how next year he will be able to be a part of all the Christmas celebrations. It snowed here on Wednesday, and when we told him that his whole face lit up. Tim went out and made a snowball to show him, which Daniel started to eat. He was REALLY excited to see that. It was cute. We really hope there is snow when they get home so we can take them sledding and make snow-men and snow angels and eat hot chocolate. It is so special to be around older children who are experiencing their first snow storm. On Wednesday it started to snow while I was teaching my reading class, so once I got to a transition, I let all the kids go ad look out the windows while I put away their supplies. Their little transfixed faces were priceless, and hearing my second grader from Cambodia say with excitement, "this is the first time I see snow!" and later commenting on how much faster it was falling brought a smile to my face. I can't wait to share the beauty and excitement of snow wiht my own little sister and brother.

Kai Wei was so cute after his part of the call was ended. He leaned back in the chair and stretched, and visibly relaxed. He doesn't look stressed during the calls, but apparently they must be a little stressful for him. He's doing really well with his English pronunciation, but I think that's one of the things that makes the chats hard for him.

(If you click on any of the photos in the slideshow, it will pause the slideshow and enlarge the photo. These are all from last night).

Sarah Grace was cute and happy at the beginning of the call. She showed us her toy gun, which Daniel was excited about. I think he was thinking, "now that's my kind of sister!" She also liked the Christmas tree and looked really excited by the snow ball. But, all her smiles disappeared when my Mom asked if she was excited about coming here. Her face fell and she shook her head no. It was so heartbreaking to see her sorrow written all over her face an din her body language. She is really missing her foster family. We all wished that we could reach out and comfort her. It must be so hard to be 7 years old and go through such a big change. I am praying that God brings healing to her sadness and that she realizes with time that she can love our family, while still remembering and loving her foster family.

At the end of the call, she was quietly playing with the sticker book that we sent the other week. It was so neat to see her playing with something we sent. It makes her a little closer, if something my Mom and I were just looking at (and being tempted to play with) is now in her hands and she's playing with it. She was so cute, choosing dresses and accessories for each of the dolls.

Lest I forget, Daniel was disappointed the other day that no one ever commented about him, so of course, I told him the blog wasn't about him. So, he asked for his own blog. Being the nice big sister that I am, with nothing better to do since school let out early during the snow storm, I did. He would be very delighted (his word) if you visit his blog and leave a comment.

The Scenic Route

When I was at that point between waking and sleeping the other day, I dreamt of weary travelers, staggering after their leader, finally arriving at their destination. They realized as they arrived that there was a much shorter path they could have taken, it was just ugly and barren and they would have missed all the amazing views along the way. As I drifted back into consciousness, I thought to myself, "that's what our adoption journey has been like- taking the scenic route".

When we started this journey 23 months ago, we never thought it would take this long. We were told it might take 12 months. The wait has been frustrating. It tries our patience. It tires us out. And yet, the extra wait has been rewarding too. I love new cultures and languages, but Chinese was always a language I mentally checked off as too hard to learn. As we waited, I started learning Chinese out of my desire to communicate, but I didn't have any very high expectations at first, I just wanted to be able to communicate the basics to ease our transition. It wasn't long though until I was fascinated by the Chinese language, and the whole process of learning a language again. Soon I was becoming interested in the written language as well as the spoken language. I also started reading about Taiwan and China, and found a whole empire's worth of history and culture that I knew very little about. The more I learned, the more I was fascinated. Soon I couldn't imagine never seeing the country of my siblings' birth, and I planned for my trip to Taiwan this summer. If the kids had been home a year ago, I wouldn't have gone to Taiwan this summer. I probably wouldn't have pursued learning very much Chinese since I've learned most of what I know since last winter and the more I learn the more my fascination and commitment to learning the language has grown. During our wait we have also met so many people- the local Chinese people we have met through the Chinese church and Chinese classes who we now know are there to support us and will be there to translate if we need them to during the first few months, other families with adopted children who have been there, done that, so many other families adopting from Taiwan whom I haven't met in person, but who we talk about and pray for just the same, and we know they do the same for us. This is what has made the journey scenic. I have definitely become greatly enriched along the way.

Even epic scenic journeys come to an end someday, and I hope soon, we finally, tired but triumphant, make it to the top of the hill, and enjoy the end of our journey- life as a family of 9!