Happy Mother's Day!

We are so thankful for the great Mothers we have. John's Mom, Elrino, loved everybody. She was kind to everyone, that is an amazing thing. My Mom, Audrey, put up with more from us than most moms. She told me today about the fire department, police, and who knows what other government agencies have called on her in the past, all about her SONS (she did not mention any trouble from her daughters! ha ha, brothers!). And John's step Mom, Jeannie is terrific, too. We all love her as much as our other Mothers. Luci, of course, claims her as her own.

You will never guess what I got for my Mother's Day present! I got a DOOR!

This is the basement door from the old house. It didn't match the doors in the new house, so John put it in the garage. He worked on it last night as a surprise to me. This door is special because it has the measurements of the three children on it from birth...the last measure before today's was the day we got home with Luci in August 2005.
Luci was found on what they think was her second day of life. She was measured and weighed that day, and those measurements are so dear to me. On our referral day, June 27, 2005, I went to this door and marked her numbers on the door. I got such a nice surprise! She was the exact same length as Bryan and JT on the days they were born! And her weight was almost exactly halfway between Bryan's and JT's.

Here they are now: Look how they've grown!!

Bryan is now 5' 6"; he's grown 6 inches in 20 months!

JT is 4' 8.5" tall; he's grown 4 inches since August 2005.

Luci is 1.5" short of 3'. She has grown 5 inches since she became a U.S. citizen.

Some other stuff:

We started "square foot gardening" this year. http://squarefootgardening.com Here are two of our squares--JT has peppers and tomatoes stared above, and below you can see that they have grown in just 8 days. In that blank square are some peas that have popped up through the soil, but you can't see them in this shot. They are probably overcrowded, but we'll deal with that later.

Aubie is standing guard--the Garden Guardian, I guess. He is keeping critters out of my cucumbers, mint and petunias. (No, we do not plan on eating the petunias--they are just pretty.) Below, you can see that the yellow squash has come up, too. We started with as many plants as we could so we could experience some success....since this is new to the kids and me, we are not sure just how plain old seeds will do. As for Bryan's square, his has all seeds--spinach, radishes, Brussel sprouts and tiny carrots. So far, his spinach and radishes have sprouted. There's not a photo here because it just looks like a box of dirt right now. Too hard to see the sprouts.

Mom, you'll be so glad to know that all those meals (I thought they might be experiments) did not scare me away from squash! Can you believe my kids actually like tomatoes and Brussel sprouts??!!

Introducing....Dr. Heath!

Heath graduated yesterday! Congratulations, Heath! Dr. and Mrs.



Heath and Shanna

holding

Sophia and Sara

Audrey holding Sara and Heath holding Haley

Audrey, Heath, J.T. and John (the proud Daddy!)

Bathing, Camping, and that Goofy Dog Again

Luci loves taking baths in the whirlpool tub in our bathroom (she calls it "the pool") but the kitchen sink runs a close second. This was last night--can you see the water squirting down on her from the hand-held squirty-thing (what is that thing called, anyway)? This picture shows that Luci is named just right. Luci means "light"--she is, indeed, our angel. What a neat halo!

The boys camped out in the back yard yesterday. I thought they'd be in before dawn, but apparently they didn't want to leave the X-Box and games, TV and DVDs they were watching all night. You think it does not look too level? It is flat as a pancake compared to the yard at the old house. I camped out with the boys one night there, and you had to sleep with your feet downhill because the other way made all the blood rush to your head (sleeping sideways made you slide downhill, and we'd all end up in a heap at the other end of the tent). Now for the goofy dog. There is no picture, you just have to imagine this. Aubie the Wonder Dog has been stealing our newspapers. Not so unusual? No? How about this: After reading the paper, he folds it back up, inserts it back into the plastic sleeve and brings it back! Over the past two weeks, Aubie has taken 6 newspapers and brought back 5, sometimes a day or two later. Pretty good, huh? I figure he's still working on the Sudoku puzzle in that sixth paper, and that's why we haven't seen it yet.

Keeping Me Busy

This child! Luci has a mind of her own! (Just like her momma, you say?) Yesterday, she took her baggy full of crayons into our bedroom and climbed up on the bed. I went in just a minute later and she had chewed up several crayons, swallowed some, and then spat out the rest all over the bed. Yuck! Thank goodness the comforter and sheets are multi-colored, so even after washing it does not look too bad.



Then--Luci tells me she has to "go potty." Until yesterday, this means she sits on her little potty for a few seconds, then gets up and runs off. Usually the diaper or pull-up doesn't even get taken off. Until yesterday. I followed her, again about 30 seconds later, and she had managed to get out a new roll of toilet paper and tear off strips, dunk them into the big potty and wash her bottom. YUCK!! After disinfecting her with lots of soap, I thought the excitement was all over.



Until today. She ran off with a pencil (yes, I know she's not supposed to run with a pencil, but you try chasing a fast two-year-old who has a head start!) and made it to our bedroom again, where she managed to leave some nice artwork on the walls. I asked, "Who did that drawing?" "The bear," she said, pointing to an innocent-looking Winnie the Pooh. Oh, right. The bear doesn't even have fingers to hold the pencil. Am I supposed to believe that?? Where is that Mr. Clean Magic Eraser when you need it?

Good Friends

Today, Kalyn brought her Mom to visit with Luci and me. We had a good time! The girls spent most of their time playing, "It's Mine! No, Mine!" but managed to play nicely anyway. Looking at these pictures, you'd think the girls were close in age. Luci's 11 months older than Kalyn, but they are just about the same size. Kathy and I talked about this a long time ago--maybe it is the difference between Kalyn being in foster care versus Luci in an orphanage (the nutrition would make a big difference); plus the Northern China girls seem to be taller than the Southern China girls.

Kalyn is a real character and made me laugh every time we tried to get a photo. She's a real beauty, too. What a fun time we had! It was nice seeing a grown-up, too--Kathy, I'm so glad we got together today!

Magic, Spiders and a Goofy Dog

The kids are learning to do sleight-of-hand tricks, and here is Luci dressed for the part.
Pocus-Pocus! Luci perfects her card tricks.
I was watching JT play video games in the dark, and Luci came by. I snapped this photo and nearly went berserk when this spider appeared on the camera's screen. I catapulted Luci onto JT's bed, woke up John to get his big shoes on to kill the spider, then found the critter---here it is, below: The Ultra-Scary Power Ranger Action Figure Spider. Sheesh. Is that my Dad I hear laughing at me? And here is our goofy dog, loving Luci's generosity in handing out doggy biscuits. Love those eyes!

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.