Grandpa's Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Dad! John's Dad, Olen, turned 80 last Thursday. We met up with him and Grandma Jeannie. This is us (I'm behind the camera) at lunch at All Steak restaurant. Funny, they serve other things besides steak.

Uncle Bobby, John, Luci and J.T.
Grandpa and Aunt Ara
Grandpa with John and the kids

The usual suspects
Grandma, Aunt Violet and Luci. Luci loved Aunt Violet's house, and had the run of it after a few minutes. Aunt Violet and Uncle Joe live out in the country and have a new, beautiful sun room on the back of the house. It was our favorite spot.
Luci meeting Uncle Russ and Aunt Patty for the first time.

Bryan accosted everyone he could and showed them magic tricks. Uncle Joe is cornered above, Uncle Russ below. (Notice Uncle Russ didn't even make it 5 feet in the door before Bryan caught him!)


Uncle Joe and Aunt Violet have a great yard for sledding. Who needs snow? Pine straw works just as well. We tried to get Luci to sled, but she decided once was enough.

This is Bryan going, going, going....

A Schoolgirl's Story

Today we got an email in our yahoo group for Luci's province that had this link:

http://english.cri.cn/4026/2007/04/22/269@218924_4.htm

It tells the story of a Maio schoolgirl from Guizhou. She is from Panxian county, and even though she is Maio and Luci is Buyi, I imagine their way of living to be similar. It will give you a glimpse of what Luci might have had, had she remained in her original home.

The story is 5 internet pages long, but only takes about 5 minutes to read. It is a transcript from Chinese Radio International.

The photo above shows us, plus one other boy from our travel group and a crowd of curious Guiyang citizens. We showed them our little note that said where we were from, that we were adopting Luci, and we promise to take care of her and teach her all about her original culture. The Chinese women in the photo were telling us just how lucky Luci is to be going home with us. After reading this story, I understand better why they were so happy for Luci.

Song Birds

Can you see the Cardinal in the tree? It is only about 10 feet away from the window, and it looked so much bigger in real life. Luci and I have watched this redbird sit in this tree every morning. By the time I got the camera zoomed in, he flew away. He's really there, nearly in the very center of the shot. Luci is listening to the Cardinal's song on the Birdsong Identiflyer (www.identiflyer.com) that Mom and Dad gave us. Of course, it is more enjoyable having a learning moment when wearing princess gear.
And, for those of you who have said, "I see pictures of everyone else, how about you?" Here I am. Luci took this today. She could still use more practice, don't you think?

Sweet Words

The other day, Luci grabbed my hand and said,

"Us sit a-gether."

How could I refuse? We had a nice cuddle.

Yes, I've posted this picture before. It is my current favorite of Luci. Did you notice the shimmer in her skirt? And the happy glow on her face?

Storm Clouds

This was taken from our deck. It was so gorgeous out right before sunset on Tuesday, April 3. Of course, big clouds like that usually mean stormy weather somewhere. We had storms all through that Tuesday night. We are enjoying being able to watch the weather from this house...at our old house, we were so surrounded by woods that we really couldn't see the sky much at all. Another bonus: we had no leaves to rake this year! Those trees in the photo are on neighbors' property, and they very nicely kept their leaves from our side of the fence. Reminds me of one of the songs from Camelot, where King Arthur is describing his lovely kingdom to Guinevere, but he doesn't know just yet that she is his future bride. (You know the song...she says "I suppose the leaves fall into neat little piles," and he replies, "The wind whisks them away all together.")

Catching Up

Some things that have been going on with us: Luci has become the next great National Geographic photographer. She has mastered my camera. Here is JT: And here is John, resting after a run:

Maybe she could do with a little practice.

We've had a visitor for the last couple of weeks. Here is Luci taking Flat Stanley to the creek below our house. Stanley ended up seeing a snake that JT caught (yipes!) and going to Helen Keller's house.

OK, so Luci didn't take this one--my camera has been goofing up and when I rotate photos sometimes they don't turn out at all. I think I need a new memory card-thingy. Here is JT in the musical, "Donkey Tales," put on by the kids' group at church. He portrayed "Matt" and even had a little solo. He did great!

Crazy Weather

Can you believe it? We actually saw some big, wet snowflakes while we were on the way to church this morning!

Meet Aubie

We were adopted by a very sweet dog--we think he might be a border Collie--yesterday afternoon. This is one super dog. He's been running around the neighborhood for a few days. Not sure if he belongs to someone, he looks healthy and well-fed. Unfortunately, folks who don't want to take care of an animal for one reason or another will drive out in the country and leave the poor pup or cat, without knowing what will happen to it. Don't read too much into the parallel to adoptions of Chinese children in general, though you certainly could make a comparison. I'm not meaning to give a social commentary.
J.T. has named the pup Aubie, mostly in response to the neighbor's dog, which is named Bama. [For those of you ignorant of the Auburn--Alabama rivalry, Aubie is the Auburn team's mascot. You can imagine what Bama stands for, can't you? :) ]

Taking Care of Baby

Thought I'd show you how we take care of Luci and how she, in turn, takes care of her baby doll. Wonder where she learned to carry the baby that way? I promise I don't carry Luci the same way.
Turned around Tuesday and there she was, sacked out on the floor while I checked email. I also promise that this is the very first time that's happened!

A View of the Past

We belong to a yahoo group for Guizhou Province adoptive families. Yesterday I got this photo in email from the parents of the little girl in the red outfit. That girl is Ellie, who lives in Maryland now. The other standing child is Taylor, a boy also adopted by U.S. citizens (I can't recall where they live). The baby in the walker is LUCI! I was so thrilled to see this photo. It was taken in June 2005, two months before we went to China. Luci was almost 8 months old in this picture. So happy for this glimpse into Luci's past.

Music in the Morning

Homeschool families work hard at providing enrichment activities for their kids. Here are Luci and J.T. entertaining me with some music before breakfast. (Did that sound snooty enough? Really, they found the flutophone and whatever it is J.T. is holding in boxes we were unpacking yesterday. They are trying hard to annoy me, and before I could get my morning cup of coffee!) Another find in the boxes yesterday--a big farmer costume left over from Halloween. Luci had a ball trying to walk in this thing.

It overcame Bryan and he couldn't stand up.
J.T. did a little better; here the kids are posing as American Gothic.

We cleaned up part of the garage yesterday, in order to be able to pull the van inside. (Don't tell John we cleaned out half the garage! It is a surprise. When he gets home from his Army training on Saturday, we hope he is happy with the work we did. He has no internet access where he is, so I don't have to worry about his seeing this blog before he gets home.) The garage is still half full of boxes, but gradually we are putting things away in the house and some things go into the basement. I managed to find a van-full of items to take to charity. Better to bless someone else than fill up the basement with things we will never use again. Oh--and I ought to tell you that I don't ever, ever de-clutter any personal items of John's. He knows his junk (oops, I mean possessions!) is (are?) safe.

J.T. found a cap of John's and the kids all posed in it. (Yes, we keep his current cap in a box in the closet, well-protected! This is an old one.)

Cute, but somebody shut that door!
Did anyone hear me? Shut the door! Oh, my goodness--I sound just like my mother!

First Hair Cut

We finally got Luci to sit in Miss Rita's chair without screaming and squirming. We talked about getting her hair "done" for a few weeks, and Luci kept telling me she wanted Rita to put a bow in her hair. So, armed with a lollipop (Luci's never, ever had one) and a pretty blue bow, Luci willingly climbed up in Rita's chair Friday.

St. Patrick's Day

Our Children's Museum is celebrating all things Irish...and have limericks in their art room. Here is one I posted on their big bulletin board two weeks ago, and the director of the museum told me today that they all love it--even brought tears to the eyes of a couple of them! Here it is:





There once was a little girl
Who was born on the other side of the world.
"She's like no other,"
Said her proud mother--
"Luci is our own precious pearl."

Pal

Pal, our sweet yellow Lab, died this week.

She was hit by a car late Monday night. We had a funeral Tuesday afternoon. We all said something we loved about Pal, and each child laid a dog biscuit on her grave. Then we sang a song and found some big, pretty, red rocks to mark her grave. She was a special dog, a good friend to all of us. Pal was the gentlest, calmest Labrador Retriever I have ever known.

Three of the photos that follow are snapshots of pictures in one of our memory books. Pal was such a tiny thing when we got her in June 1997! Bryan named her for Pal, the dog that Arthur has in the Arthur series on PBS. After a few weeks, she was no longer tiny and Bryan, who had just turned 5, could not figure out why she couldn't look like

Arthur's dog forever.

Bryan training Pal

Is the baby gate keeping J.T. in, or keeping Pal out?

J.T. was just 11 months old when Pal came to our house.

Just 4 months after that first picture! Look closely: Don't you love that tongue?

This was taken in 2002, when John was overseas on his first trip. Bryan and JT are on the big swing that John put in the enormous tree at the end of the driveway. This is John's favorite picture from that time, showing the love of Pal for our boys.

What a sweet, loving dog.

Lessons

We've been studying "Life and Culture in Bible Times" this past month. Especially interesting was learning about the food eaten then, and still enjoyed today--not much has changed. We made some flat bread last week, and here are the results. This is pretty fun!

This was Luci's first time to work with dough. She really had a good time.

Watching it bake.
The boys like it!

Oh, Dear. I had this on the blog before I noticed it was sideways! Here Luci is telling me, "I don't yike it. No biscuit!" Even sideways, you can tell by her expression that she'd rather be making the bread than eating it.

Adoptions from Abroad

In 2006, over 20,000 children were adopted abroad by US parents. Here are the numbers from the US State Department, listing where most of the children came from:

China...............6,493

Guatemala.......4,135

Russia..............3,706

South Korea.....1,376

Ethiopia.............732

Kazakhstan........587

Ukraine.............460

Meet Dr. Heath!

Heath is now Dr. Heath--he called John a few minutes ago to give him the good news! The Doctor with Sophia
Dr. and Mrs.

Congratulations, Heath and Shanna

Heath received his PhD and

Shanna, her PhT (Putting Husband Through)

It Finally Happened!

It really happened.

Finally!

What?

Luci told me, "I Lub You!"

No prodding. No encouraging her to say it. Just from her heart! And, along with it, a big hug!

Movie Making!

Bryan had his first day on a real movie set. He's the one wearing the orange sweatshirt and big green coat. Bryan's friend Bradley is to the left of Bryan. We went by to give the boys some money for lunch, and Bryan was busy running equipment across the street. He was so excited to be working on a professional set! Bryan said the director might use them as extras in a crowd scene, too.

Mom and Dad, Laura and Katie--they are filming at that wonderful, old-timey soda fountain we all went to when you were here last June.