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!
Last fall Michaela and Benjamin started going to a local Tae Kwon Do class. They have enjoyed it, and a couple of weeks ago they each earned their yellow belt. The class is at a local church and as part of the belt requirements they have to memorize scripture. It’s been a good experience and they’re trying to talk Dad into joining them. Way to go Michaela and Benjamin!
We are celebrating that another Elijah has a forever family! This wonderful family, the Bourkes, is in China right now. We became connected with them because our Elijah and their Philip both lived at Shepherd’s Field before their adoptions. We got to meet them in person last summer when we attended the Philip Hayden Foundation reunion.
The incredible thing that I wanted to share is that the Bourkes were empty-nesters. Twenty-two years after the birth of their first son and only child, they were in China adopting their second son, and this week they are adopting their third son. How neat is that?! If you’ve ever thought that you were too old to adopt, please, please think again.
We were also travel mates in 2006 with another incredible couple that had three grown sons and despite being empty-nesters they were in China to adopt Jaden and also returned last year to adopt another daughter.
I am so thankful for the examples of these two couples that went against what our culture said they should be doing as they neared retirement age. Rather than preparing to kick back and collect shells on the beach, they followed God’s heart and have now given homes and hope to four more children. God is good! We love and admire you Bourkes and Murrays!
Johanna can always bring a smile to my face. This morning she came upstairs ready for breakfast all decked out in matching clothes with her American Girl doll. Hope this brings a smile to your face, too!
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.
I had to show off Elijah’s beautiful penmanship from this morning. He had fairly good printing when we met him last year, but over the last few months we have also been working on cursive. He copied this verse from his Bible without asking for help or looking at his letter chart at all. Yes, I’m proud!
Ami is sporting some of new birthday jewelry from Grandpa and Grandma Wolfe.
