First days of school

With bittersweet emotions....Natalee excited but not wanting to be gone from her sister....Mom excited but not wanting to be gone from her daughter....school began. We are so blessed to be able to have Nat attend Cal*vary school and completely support it's mission and having our daughter schooled there. But, nonetheless, it's still hard to see your little girl going off to school, being all "grown-up". She fully enjoyed her day, her teacher and being in 2nd grade.

Megan did really well and only asked about 3 dozen times when we would go pick Natalee up. Today she helped me with a huge project and was quite proud of the work she did. I'm looking forward to some one-on-one time with Megan and she's looking forward to doing "school" with Mom.

Praying that the school year is filled with new experiences, good times, safety, laughter, and draws us closer to our Savior..... for you and your family too!

Blessings!

Home 5 Months

Happy Labor Day! Summer is winding down and school is beginning again. We've celebrated five months with our wonderful blessing, our daughter Megan! She is so full of life....joy...and love! Often she wraps her little arms around our necks and says "I luzz you sooo much!" Just a silly thing that she recently said to me....coming out of her bedroom after getting ready for bed she said..."mommy I has nose on my hand". I was confused for a minute and then I realized she was talking about a booger - we started laughing - that's Megan - just too cute!!

Megan helped Daddy cheer on his favorite team today.....and they WON! Wow - maybe it will be a better year for Daddy and his Wolverines! Megan shows us how she cheered.

Two weeks of fun stuff!

This past week we had VBS at our church every night, and of course, I never thought to bring my camera. :( Both girls loved all the fun and Megan especially loved the music! It was a great week of learning more about God's plan for our lives. The theme was Mystery @ 12627 (Colossians 1:26 & 27) and it was really neat how the writers created this whole "mystery" at a museum to teach the kids about God's plan of salvation and His love for each one of us. It really was a great week, I just don't have any photos. (I'll have to get some from the official "photographer".)

The previous week the girls and I were at Chinese Culture camp. It was so much fun! Megan was in the xiao ban class (little kids) and Natalee in the da ban class (big kids). They had 3 class rotations and then group games. They had a language class, writing class and culture class where they did Chinese brush painting, papercutting, Chinese knotting, and dance. I was a helper and also took Chinese cooking class. We made some delicious foods and plan to make several of the dishes again.

One of the really neat things in Nat's writing class was that her teacher not only taught them various characters, but in doing so, he presented the story of creation. It was really incredible how through the Chinese characters the Bible could be presented. Her writing is in the photo below on the left, sorry it's not the easiest to see. The girls really enjoyed learning more about their birth country and asked when we could do that again! :)

Right before Chinese camp we had taken the girls to Dutch Village here in our area. It was a beautiful summer day and we all had a great time. Megan loved the swing with Daddy and then they got to walk a goat named Peanut. Actually, the goat waked Megan most of the time. She thought that was so much fun! Later on that day I called her "peanut" as I've done many times before and boy did I get the look. She said, "I not peanut...that's the goat!" Oops. It was a wonderful day to spend together.

4 Months with Megan!

To those that follow our blog and have hoped to see more updates or photos - I'm sorry! I have not been very disciplined these past few months. In fact, in all honesty....I'm not the same since being home with Megan (which is not all a bad thing). Having gone through international adoption (a 2nd time)... seeing the huge need of families for children...leaving part of my heart in China....struggling with understanding the selfish, "me...me...me/gotta have more stuff" society in which we live... has been somewhat hard. My routines are all off and I haven't felt the best physically...but..... I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE having our "baby" home with her forever family!! I am so BLESSED to be Mom to another amazing little girl who challenges me to be a better person...and the laughter and joy she brings to our family is wonderful!

So...I'm hopeful that I'll be more disciplined (not just in blogging but exercising...avoiding too many snacks at the wrong time of day....prioritizing my day....)

Well....on to the update of this past month. Seriously, it feels like I just wrote the last post but in reality it was a month ago. ugh.

July 3rd we took the girls to the zoo and then fireworks later that night. Megan loved the zoo...but didn't care too much for fireworks. After the first blast she told Daddy that she was done and ready to go home. She made it through without any tears but just snuggled up to Daddy and tried to go to sleep. On the 4th, after their bath, we did sparklers and Megan thought that was "ahh-some".

Megan has been trying to gain more confidence in riding her scooter....playing "base-a-ball" has been a favorite and she's getting really good at hitting the ball! She's also a good helper for me from time to time. :)

We took our first "road" trip (to WI) with Megan for our China reunion with Natalee's adoption group. She did pretty well on the trip, only asking within the first 15 mintues on the road if we were almost there. How do they learn these things??? It must be part of all kids' genetics. We had a great time with our China family! Megan especially loved her first swim in a pool...watching a dvd in the car...seeing penquins at the zoo....and making new friends, especially Mr. Jimmy whom she adored and had wrapped around her finger.

WE ARE SO VERY BLESSED!

Home 3 months

Where does time go? It's hard to believe that it's already July 2nd! We have been home with Megan for three months now. There are days that I hardly remember she's only been home a short time - she has adjusted so well!

She is speaking very well, mixing her English and Chinese words. She has no trouble getting her point across. There have been a few times, especially if you're talking to Megan on the phone, that she just sighs heavily and hands the phone to her JieJie (big sister) for her to interpret - it's quite cute. My MIL thought she kept saying "chocolate cake" when Megan was telling her about her birthday but she was really saying "chuck e cheese" - too cute! :) She often say's "holdjewme" - or "hold you me" meaning she want's to be held or picked up. When Megan says "No" - which can be often depending on the day - it comes out "Noah". We are so blessed by our spicy yet caring, fiercly independent yet dependent, talkative yet contemplative, humorous yet serious daughter. She brings us a new depth of joy!

Shortly after her birthday we decided that since she was talking about her foster family in positive ways and telling us things they did together - that we would show her some photos. We had sent two cameras to China before we traveled and they took photos of them together - they are priceless! Megan loved looking at them and got quite excited to see PoaPoa & YeYe (her foster parents). Then we thought we would watch the video of our trip. It was going really well until the part of hearing and seeing PoaPoa and YeYe - that's a whole different set of emotions when you actually see & hear your loved ones that you miss so much. She became very, very quiet and had such a sad look on her face. We talked about the adoption and how God has brought us together as a family - forever and she understood but still wanted PoaPoa & YeYe. She told Daddy later that night, "I go PoaPoa's house far away"....Kyle said "well, some day we'll go back to China"....she interrupted and said "Daddy, we take big plane to PoaPoa". Wow - she get's the fact that she is far far away. It was a sad converstion but we just showered her with lots of love and understanding. It was probably premature to show her the video, we should have stuck with just the photos. I guess hindsight is 20/20.

The girls have enjoyed playing in the sprinkers on the hot days we've been having. Now today, as I post, it's the third day in a row that we've had temps only in the mid 60's - what a drastic difference from a week or two ago!

Happy 4th Birthday Megan!

Lunch & fun time with Mom, Dad, & Nat at Chuck e Cheese. Megan loved all the games & rides!

Our Chinese class summer picnic. Megan celebrated her birthday with friends at the park. She enjoyed climbing the sand dune several times and saw Lake Michigan for the first time. I think it was probably her first time experiencing sand too. At first she didn't like it on her feet, but once she took her shoes off she was fine.

Opening presents. She kept saying "why" when we said she had presents waiting for her when we got home....but, it didn't take her long to rip into them and find the gifts waiting for her.

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl! We have been so incredibly blessed to have you as our daughter! These past few months have been so much fun getting to know one another better. It's amazing how God works....He knows exactly what we needed - each other. Megan you have a wonderful personality...full of life and love...your laughter fills our home and our hearts....we love you! Hope you've had a wonderful birthday and that you'll always know how very special you are to each one of us and to your Heavenly Father.

Random Photos

We've been home now for 2 months and whew, it's busy. I've been terrible at blogging lately and hope to do better. So...in an attempt to catch up a little...here are some photos of the girls and a glimpse at what we've been doing lately.

Dress Up Days...Megan loves to "pwee-tend" to be Dora or a princess. She is just like Nat at this age and changes her outfits several times each day. There was one summer when all Natalee would wear were dresses...well...it seems her little sister has taken a liking to dresses too and will often wear one or two throughout the day. Thank goodness for hand-me-downs and thrift stores!

These babies names were just too cute...the "mommy" was named "Guizhou" (the province she is from) and the "baby" was "Zhong wen" (meaning Chinese language). Megan's language develpment is coming along by leaps & bounds. She understands so much, actually everything really, and she is speaking tons of new words daily. It's so cute to hear her talk because it's a little bit Chinese and a little bit English! :)

SNAKE! SNAKE! Natalee's 1st grade class put on a "ZOO" and she was a snake. Each student had to research information about an animal, create a poster about their facts, make a mask and then participate in the zoo. Family were able to attend the zoo and we received animal crackers at the "concession stand" and we then were able to "feed" the animals. It was so cute! Megan absolutely loved it and wants to be a snake now too! :)

Daddy & Uncle Brian were able to attend the Red Wings game a week ago and saw them win the conference championship - they had a blast! Since then, Megan has been cheering "Go Wings" with Daddy. We found this jersey we had in the back of the closet and she loved wearing it!

Summer-time fun! Natalee finished 1st grade, it's hard to believe how quickly the year went by. We are so excited for summer break and are looking forward to some relaxing days at home...nothing major....trips to the zoo...library....dutch village....park...reading....playing....
just enjoying being together!