Happy Halloween!

It was "Trick or Treat" night around here. Kai was a little uncertain about all that meant. He enjoyed the party and parade at school, but seemed a bit unsure of what was going to happen next with all this costuming stuff. I think he was pleasantly surprised with the rest of the day! He especially liked being "scared" by some of the people he met near his cousins' neighborhood where we went trick or treating. And of course he loved the candy gathering!

I've changed a lot about the candy thing. When the kids were little I used to dole it out. Maybe 2 or 3 pieces a day. After all, it's just NOT GOOD for a body. But over time I've come to realize the same body gets it all anyway and it is a lot easier to have it out of the house!

Of course, we all thought that Sarah-Grace should be here. I wonder what she would have wanted to be? A ninja like her brother Jonathan and cousin Abby? An elf like Kai? Maybe a clown? Well, perhaps next year. She really enjoyed the jack-o-lanterns we showed her in our webchat. Her whole face lit up just like theirs!

I've always liked the "fall, dress up, candy" side of Halloween. I've never participated much in the "spooky, scary" part.
I like the object lesson I heard one time about how the pumpkin/jack-o-lantern  can represent us. When we want to make a Jack-o-lantern we have to cut it open and get out all the gucky stuff and then we can put a candle inside and let the light shine. In the same way, we, as sinners, need to have all the "gucky stuff," or sin, taken away by the atoning blood of Jesus, then His Spirit can light up our lives and we can shine for others.

So, we were wondering tonight how the tradition of the "CANDY" started on this holiday. We've been told that November 31st is All Souls Day and people in Medieval times used to dress up to scare away the bad spirits so it would be nice for the good saints the next day; All Saints Day. Halloween being a rendering of "All Hallows Eve" (meaning the day/eve before All Saints Day--hallow being the archaic word for holy person or saint).   Now I have a slight problem with the need to scare away the bad spirits with dress-up, but then, I'm not a medieval person.  Anyway, this is all very interesting and makes a certain kind of sense, but WHAT ABOUT THE CANDY?  Well, I had coffee tonight on the trick or treat expedition and I'm still awake. . .Maybe I will go and research that candy thing and have an answer for our next post and hopefully some pictures too!

Webchats

Look at that beautiful smile!

Isn't she just gorgeous?

Our precious little girl (who isn't even so little anymore- she told us tonight she is 137 centimeters- 53 inches)

Building a relationship long distance via skype with a little girl who speaks less of your language than you do of hers is unique.  The first webchat was so exciting.  The next few were alternately difficult as she grieved leaving her foster family and wonderful as she began to accept us.  We've had high moments (the time she made her pink panther give us all kisses, our rubber band fight, and the way her eyes light up and she laughs when we show her something silly) and the sadder moments (the day she wasn't interested in talking and left after 5 minutes to play outside, the times video or sound don't work well on our side or theirs, and the worst, the day she cried when we talked about her coming here).  

Now, it's still rewarding to get her to smile.  I still love to hear her laugh and try to think of ways to draw her into our family.   But the subtext to everything we share is "you should have been here too".  We lit the pumpkins we carved to show her and told her about cooking and eating pumpkin seeds. I wish you had been here, carving your first pumpkin. We thought you would be here by now. We showed her the photos from playing in the leaves and making scarecrows with the cousins. You would have so much fun jumping in the leaves.  I bet you and Abby will be such good friends.  We told her Daddy baked cookies tonight, and she pretended to eat it.  It's hard sharing cookies long distance.  I wish you could really eat one tonight.  

Soon, Sarah-Grace. We all hope you come home soon.  We're praying daily.

A Beautiful Fall Day

Yesterday we went to a homeschool event about Eastern Woodland Indians. The boys had fun learning about American Indians and exploring the gardens. Jonathan nearly got a fire started with the drills that they had for the children to try. Daniel and Kai helped furnish a model wigwam, and Jonathan, Kai and Daniel all had fun playing some of the games that American Indians played. I enjoyed the beautiful weather and, obviously, taking photos.

Playing "snakes"

Bet you didn't know gourds were heavy.  :)

Jonathan, trying to figure out how the drills worked.

Ride 'em cowboy!

A rose by any other name. . .

Would smell as sweet. . .

Making the beds in the wigwam

Giddy up!

Grinding corn

The boys were impressed by these GIANT pumpkins.

I tried to take a good photo of the 3 boys together.  This one is probably truest to character.

And, after a lot of shots, this is the best I got.  

Trying out the cradleboard.

Poor Kai Wei!

Recently the boys have begun to enjoy playing soccer. The other evening at dinner Kai asked if I would play with him and Daniel in the yard. When I said maybe, Kai Wei said, "Don't say maybe or you will make your little brothers sad". How can you say no to that? I went out and played soccer with them.

A few evenings later, Kai Wei was out playing in the yard with my Dad and brothers and the ball hit him right in the face. His vision was blurry, so they took an emergency visit to the eye doctors, who recommended visiting a retinal specialist the next day. Fortunately Kai Wei didn't tear his retina (which is what the eye doctor was afraid of at first), but he did bruise it and just to be on the safe side, the doctor said no active play for Kai for 2 weeks. No more gym, recess, flag football, or even playing in the yard. Poor kid. Two weeks seems like a long time when you're 11. The good thing is though that his vision is fine and he doesn't need to be on bed rest for the next 2 weeks. Apparently that's what they advise if you actually tear your retina. Can you imagine an trying to confine an 11 year old limited English speaker to bed rest for 2 weeks?

The pictures are from the other week when the cousins came over for tacos, ice cream and movies while our parents went out with our grandparents.



*Still no news on Sarah-Grace, but I did finally post some photos of our webchat to the post below.