It’s over 50 here today and oh, what a taste of spring! We enjoyed a hike through our woods and soaked in some sunshine. I know cold days are yet to come, but I sure wish it would stay nice like this.
I have one little one who more than willingly obliges to pose for me. She insisted on taking my picture, too. 
All is not well in Ratville. On Monday we left the house about 4:30. The kids had been playing with Midnight up until right before we left. We returned home at 7:30 to find Midnight a little stiff. Ugh. One poor child was in tears, mourning the loss. The others were equally grieved. Despite my bit of disdain for the rats, I felt sympathy and rushed the kids to Petco for a replacement (now Midnight II). Yes, it ended up being a late night, but hopefully they will have sweet memories of being escorted to the pet store late at night because their mommy loved them so much.
That’s not all. The next morning the kids decided that “Ginger” was not doing well. She was very sneezy, and as rats can be very prone to respiratory infections, we made yet another trip to the pet store. Because we are still within the 15 day guarantee they will take Ginger to the vet and administer antibiotics for her. Oh my. Wouldn’t it be easier to just get a new rat? Yes it would, but no, they have all fallen in love with Ginger. What another little life lesson in just their first five days as rat owners. We take care of the things we own. So now we wait 7-10 days for Ginger to be restored to health. The kids can call and check on her as they like.
On a totally different topic, here is a funny story. Elijah and Benjamin love to be tickled and often beg for it. I know, crazy kids. But I willingly oblige and tackle them with tickles frequently. When they’ve had enough, they simply have to say, “I love you!” and then I stop. Well sometimes I carry on a bit and say, “Well, I love you, too” or “I love you more”. Elijah started his own rendition of the book Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney, even though he’s never read the book. He’ll say something like, “Well, I love you around the world” and I’ll return something like, “I love you around the world ten times.” This morning he shouted through his laughter, “I love you like God does!” Awwwww. I said, “Well, you can’t beat that!” He gets it, he knows how much his Father loves him. This kid brings joy to me every day. Thank you Father for your gift of love and for allowing me to show that love to my son and for the gift of his love in return. Pretty cool!
We celebrated Chinese New Year this afternoon with our local FCC group (Families with Children from China). It’s always special to remind ourselves of the culture of two of our kiddos and to be with other “like” families.
Ami was so awed by the dancers and loved that she got to practice with them.
These two buddies also lived at Shepherd’s field with Elijah. They are now brothers. So neat that they are so close to where we live!
Or more like rats and boys…hard to come up with a title for this post!
First of all, Elijah had an appointment this afternoon with the pediatric cardiologist. When I say “this afternoon”, I mean ALL afternoon. This was a different doc than we saw a year ago, but oh what a difference. We loved this guy, the staff, and the hospital. They spent a lot of time with us and came up with a clear report. We may have to watch for a couple of minor things in the future, but God willing Elijah will continue to live a healthy and “normal” life. What a blessing! Rather than go back again next year, we will return in two years just to keep an eye on things.
It was also special to spend an afternoon alone with Elijah and have one-on-one time. We had plenty of time to talk and Elijah talked a lot about his early years in China. He has shared quite a bit over the last year, but as his English skills have improved he can communicate much more clearly and with more detail. He is such a brave and forgiving young man despite the emotional scars of the past. As we hugged and cried together, I thanked God for Elijah’s openness and for continued bonding.
Secondly, while we were gone the rest of the kids were anxiously awaiting our return so that we could go to the pet store for their long awaited rat purchase. Yes, we now have two rats in the house. How long does it take to get over the shivers before I start to think they are cute?! The four older kids have researched and saved their money for this joint venture. I’m proud of their teamwork! So here’s to welcoming Ginger and Midnight…..
We had a great weekend with Eric, Kate, Elle, and Zane here. With birthdays on Feb. 1, 8, and 15, as well as Valentine’s Day and Chinese New Year today, we had good reason to celebrate.
Friday night we enjoyed watching Benjamin play basketball and score his first basket this season. He couldn’t wipe the grin off his face!
On Saturday we made Valentine’s crafts and a Valentine’s/birthday cake. We also made lanterns for Chinese New Year and made traditional dumplings to go with our feast of Egg Drop Soup and Fried Rice. We also all enjoyed going to China Night at MU, a celebration of Chinese culture with music, dance, martial arts, and more. We saw some beautiful performances.
Despite the late nights a good time was had by all. It’s fun to see the kids playing together and enjoying each other. We are blessed to have family that lives somewhat close by!
Happy Chinese New Year and Happy Valentine’s Day to all our friends and family!
Benjamin lives for snow. He prays for snow and spends as much time in the snow as he can. Elijah loves it, too. We’ve had about 5 inches in this last week, and with frigid temperatures that snow isn’t going anywhere very soon. You can kind of see from the pictures how rosy the boys’ cheeks are from the super cold. The boys are in their respective forts. And yes, that’s Johanna licking snow off the sled in the background. Funny girl.
Ami is sporting some of new birthday jewelry from Grandpa and Grandma Wolfe.
Okay, I thought I’d share a “real” life moment from our house. I read most every night to the kids after we have had our family devotion time. It’s just a nice relaxing time to snuggle together and share a good book. We’ve read everything from Little House on the Prairie to missionary biographies. There is often (well, always) competition as to who gets to sit by Mom and get their back scratched. I love to have my back scratched too and once in a while I get to be treated while I read. I don’t know how this next part got started, but somehow some of the kids like to “fix” my hair. When it’s reading time they will race to the bathroom to get the basket of brushes, pony tail holders and such. I have had many fancy dos, but had never taken a picture until now. I thought I better document what really goes on in our house most nights. This latest stylish statement is thanks to Elijah.
Hope you all enjoy a good laugh. The picture really doesn’t do the up-do justice.
Oh, she has been waiting and waiting to turn four. It seems like ever since she turned three she has been waiting for this day. She will often tell people, “When I’m not three I’m going to be four. And when I’m not four I’m going to be five. And when I’m not five I’m going to be six.” So I guess the countdown is now on until she is five.
We started Ami’s day by singing Happy Birthday to wake her up. We were all up and anxious to celebrate with her. She chose cinnamon rolls for breakfast, then she got to open presents before Daddy left for work. To top things off it had started to snow during the night and it has continued to snow throughout the day. It’s beautiful!
Chewing gum from Michaela; finally, now that she's four!
Ami had a great day playing with all of her new goodies and chewing gum. For her birthday dinner she chose green beans, chicken nuggets, and jello. Chicken nuggets are a rare treat for her since most have dairy products in the breading. I can’t remember the last time she got to eat any. She also chose pink cake with pink frosting and sprinkles.
We are thankful everyday for our Ami treasure that God surprised us with. Yes, we call Ami our “surprise pregnancy”. We thought we were done, but God. He had bigger and better plans and I can’t imagine having missed this. First Ami, then Elijah, what next God?
Here’s a video I took today. It’s a bit long, but Ami just kept going on and on so I kept the camera rolling. She is very imaginative!
Today was a special day as we celebrated Elijah’s 11th birthday. It also seemed like a celebration of his being home with us for one year. We arrived home just a week before his birthday last year and it’s amazing to think back to our relationship and how we communicated at that time as compared to now.
Elijah requested donuts for breakfast, noodles and apples for lunch, then chicken drumsticks, mac ‘n cheese and corn-on-the-cob for supper with chocolate cake to top it all off. Last year we didn’t know what to feed the kid so we took him out for Chinese food and got him an ice-cream cake since he didn’t like sweet cake. So much has changed!
Birthday wake-up call
We are so blessed to have Elijah in our family. His cheerfulness and resiliency humbles me. I can only hope to learn from his spirit. We honestly don’t know his “real” birthday. Shortly after being abandoned he was taken by a helpful policeman to the local orphanage. The day he arrived was February 1, thus that was the date chosen to be put in his records as his birthday. The date itself isn’t important though. What matters most is that Elijah’s heavenly Father knows the very hairs on his head and knows him by name. And as far as earthly parents go, we will do our very best to reflect our Father’s love and make Elijah feel ever-loved and cared for. Happy birthday, son. We love you so very much!
Well, maybe it’s not always fun, but the kids have enjoyed learning through some particular activities this week. Because of my background with Japan we have always enjoyed some origami here and there; we have several origami books and always have a supply of origami paper around. The kids have been on quite a kick this week of making all sorts of things. This isn’t “school”, but you can bet I’m going to count some art hours! Michaela discovered a neat site that your kids might be interested in. It has countless designs, many of which are simple to recreate.
In science this week Benjamin, Elijah, and Johanna have been studying static electricity. Of course this means lots of fun experiments. Some experiments don’t need to be written out in a book. This is Johanna after rubbing her head on the couch!
After science time this morning I got out the humidifier to help with our dry air.
