Two Weeks at Home

Hi Everyone,

  I'm so thankful we have 2 weeks under our belts now.  It sure feels like we've been with Jake and Joy much longer than 2 weeks.  Well, we actually have.  We met Jake on Jan 7th and Joy on Jan 14th.  Jake traveled with us for 3 weeks in China and Joy with us for 2 weeks.  Since today is Feb 8th, Jake has been with us for a month. 

 He's picked up English at a pace that I'm pleased with when you consider all the many different aspects of his life that have suddenly changed.  We have introduced Rosetta Stone to both kids already.  It's a learning curve with operating RS, but they are getting it.

 

These next pictures are the first ones that we sent to Heartsent, our adoption agency, for the 1st post adoption report.  I'll try to give some info on each one.

Our backyard....getting to know Dad!

Here we are being silly with the basketball on the head game in our living room!

 

Jake and Joy discovered our ABC magnets and they went right to putting them on the fridge!  And yes, they were singing the ABS song (to the best of their ability in English).

Jake washing dishes!  (He's looking over my shoulder now as I'm posting this with a huge smile on his face).

Jake and Joy visiting with a new friend, Colin Ryland, and speaking Chinese.  They are asking questions about their new family and home.

 

Jake and Joy also discovered the small cabinet of doll clothes.  They were so excited and went straight to dressing up some babies.

     Having two at once has been exhausting, but I know that God intended on us bringing our beautiful children home together.  They relate very well to each other.  Their age and backgrounds have made them so compatible.  Their "Chinese Chatter" has enabled them to transition easier than if there were only one of them here.  

     Our next transition for Jake and Joy will be public school.  They will start on Mon, Feb 11th.  We decided to put them in different classes.  Joy has one year on Jake (she's almost 11 years old) and so she will be in the 4th grade.  Jake will go into 3rd grade.  At this point in time, the biggest reason to have them go to public school is for the ESOL services that they will receive daily.

    They will have Spring Break in April!  And then, summer will come quickly which means more family time.   When Aug. rolls around, we will determine then, whether public school or homeschooling will again be in our future for these two.  We will rely on God's wisdom to direct our path.

Thank you again for all those who are following our journey!  Many blessings,

Xi'an Pictures

Posting by Tom (before Amy came home) and Amy (now editing because it didn't get posted while we were in China):

Some pictures from China.  All of these photos were sent by Amy's cousin, Charles, who accompanied her on this adventure.  They celebrated his birthday on Jan. 19th!

This is the first picture that we received from China: Shane, Grace, and Jake in Xi'an.  The picture is from an iPad so they are looking at the screen and not the camera.

Shane and Jake with Terra Cotta Warriors.  The warriors are from B.C. 209 and buried with the emperor Qin Shi Huang.  There are 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry.

 This is the wall that surrounded the ancient city.  It is 40 feet tall, 50 - 60 feet wide and 8 miles in circumference.

Entrance to the Xi'an wall.  The Chinese woman is Jo, the adoption coordinator for this part of the trip.  She made sure Amy got to appointments on time and all paperwork was complete.  She also took them sight-seeing.  Jo's English was great.  She went to college for English!  It was a blessing to have her!

These next pictures give you perspective of the enormity of the wall.  The pictures are atop the wall.

Our crew in front of the Big Wild Goose Pagoda.

We were also able to go shopping.  Below is a view of a market area.

You could even get lamb's feet at the market. We didn't try these, however!

Hope you enjoyed these pictures.  More later!

Gotcha Day 1 and 2

Jake's Gotcha Day Pictures

 

 

 

 

 

                                                

Here we are in Xi'an.  We're in the civil affairs office with "Jo" our coordinator and Jake's orphanage staff.

                    Joy's Gotcha Day - Jan 14th, 2013

 Gotcha Day was in the hotel room with "John", our coordinator, and Joy's orphanage staff.

 Joy, smiling for mom, during our tour of the springs.

Jinan is the city of springs.

It was freezing cold on this tour and we couldn't wait for it to be over.

 

Joy, signing the paperwork, at the civil affairs office.

She did a great job!

It took me awhile to get these few pictures loaded with 5 kids running around me.  We do have more pictures to share, but they'll have to wait.

Thank you so much to our friend, A.A., who brought an incredible dinner tonight!  The kids were asking for more after their 2nd and 3rd helpings.  

Things are going well.  All 5 kids are doing pretty well with the adjustment.  I'm not quite back to feeling normal yet with my body.  I know it'll take some more time to recover.
Thank you to all who have prayed for us & continue to pray for us.  

I'll try to keep posting on post-adoption life!
With love,

Marta's "We Love You" Treats

     Tom and Marta will be holding down the fort while we are gone.  As you probably can imagine, Marta is not to happy about mommy being the one who has to make the trip to China.  I know that I need to communicate to her how much we love her and will miss her.   So I decided to leave some small gifts for her to get while we are gone.

     I put dates on each bag so Tom will know when to give them to her.  The 1st one will be given on Mon, Jan 7th.  The next one, a week later, Jan 14th.  The 3rd one, on Sun, Jan 20th.  And then the last one, on Jan 24th, the day we come home.  This may be the hardest day because he don't get in until 9:30pm (if all goes well).

"The Present Bag" 

Packing, Copying, and a New Year!

We have 3 days until we leave for China!!!! We are all very excited, and just trying to make sure we have everything. Things are going well, but I am tired of packing. I think we have all packed our bags about...12 times.

On Friday, we'll eat lunch with our grandparents before going to the airport. Then we fly to New York.  Then from New York to Korea, then China. Thanks for your prayers!

Me copying my math to take on the trip

Our suitcase (Me & Joy)

Mom's stuff....right now

Dad wanted a picture of Shane and Marta. Silly girl!

Hey guys! It's Grace here. :) I just wanted to do a practice post for you guys, because I will be the "official blogger" while we are in China. I can't wait to tell you all what is going on in our adoption journey. We are leaving in 6 days, (WOW) and I promise to post as much as I can. 

More bails 

Just a couple of the many (hundreds) of cotton bails.

Sibling pictures! Looking forward to adding two more to this.

Daddy, Marta, Shane and I in between some cotton bails.

I've been taking up photography lately, and this was one of my favorite.  

This was another, all at my grandma's house.

Jake and Noelle

Thank you Danae!  

Danae and Dan were able to meet Jake and give him more pictures of his forever family right after Thanksgiving.

They went to Jake's orphanage and brought his friend, Noelle, home to the USA!

Danae was able to give us some new pictures that we hadn't seen yet. 

In the group picture below, Jake is on the right side with the red, white, and blue short sleeve shirt and Noelle is standing right beside him with her cute pigtails.

   We sent Jake his first care package back in Feb, for his birthday.  And looked what happened!

Danae said, "I wondered where the cake came from for Noelle because we didn't send it."  Now you know why Jake has that expression on his face! 

Jake, when you get home, we will not make you share your cake!  

We will be meeting our new son on Jan 6th or 7th, 2013!  

Then, we'll leave Jake's province and travel to Joy's province!  Please pray for them as they are about to experience the "Big Change."  Your prayers for them and our family are cherished beyond words!

And yes, we are packing! Ok, practice packing and gathering all the things from the list that we need!  We can hardly believe how close it is now!