Brownie! Happy 5th Birthday!

What a night we had last night!
 
We celebrated Brownie's 5th birthday, June 10th, around a dinner table with her selections for the meal...
 
soup...
 
peaches...
 
pickles...
 
warm rolls...
 
cheddar cheese...
 
and a rainbow chip birthday cake!
 
Our child, most particular, also ordered a water balloon fight to mark the anniversary of her birth.  So we filled about one hundred balloons and took them down to the common area between the apartment buildings. 
 
Daddy wondered..."what will we do with all these water balloons?"...I said "just wait...we'll have dozens of interested locals to play with!"
 
And we did!
 
We probably had a group of 35 swarm us to play the games and another 40 who stood around in awe of the strange western-practice of drenching each other with water from balloons.  We were particularly delighted by a few older ladies, grandma-types, who joined in the festivities.  It was an absolute laughing riot!
 
In fact, we resolved that we would have to regularly host water balloon spectacles here at the LQ for more and more participants.  Our steamy nights simply beg for the cool of a bursting balloon over your head!
 
All of us wet, we circled around Brownie and sang her the Birthday song in our two languages.
 
Brownie, you are a magnificent delight to your family.  Five years ago we were amazed at your massive brown eyes and happy personality.  At birth you didn't even cry, simply gazed around with your beautiful eyes; we were entranced.  Today, you command such attention in the brood.  Your dancing has drawn much acclaim this year in the Kindergarden.  We enjoy your nightly, sometimes hourly, performances of your dances...wow, you've got some serious jazz hands! (Your Uncle J, the original Jazz Hand Master, will marvel at them this summer!)  :)  Your teachers say that you are a "light" in the classroom.  Kind to the other children while reminding them to obey their teachers and always eager to help them in English lessons.  They say you are a natural teacher!  We have been given such a gift to be your family, to watch you grow and change each day.  May your heart be full of rich soil for the seeds of the Word and my you follow Him all the days of your life!
 
Happy Birthday Brownie!  You made it to 5 years old! 

---

Windows Live™ SkyDrive™: Get 25 GB of free online storage. Get it on your BlackBerry or iPhone.

Family Day

Well it was a fantastic event...
 
The elevator doors opened on our 8th floor and out walked Bub and Potato's first families.
 
There was lots of emotion and some new revelations. 
 
Bub's foster mother brought a picture of him from the very day he was found.  I was overwhelmed with tears.
 
Potato's foster family brought her a jade pendant of a monkey.  She and Brownie were born in the year of the monkey.  It was so special to see her eyeing the pendant all day long.
 
We asked for a memory about each child that we didn't know yet...
 
Bub's foster mother said that when he was little, he would rub her back while she sat on a low stool in their apartment.  This story arose after we were explaining how loving Bub is...that often if he sits near you, he unconsciously begins to rub your back.  It was a special moment as our families were further connected by our boy.
 
Potato's foster family said that there was an earthquake when she was just two years old.  All the families in her village decided to stay outside, many through the night after the trembler.  Her foster father said that as they headed out of their apartment, that Potato turned back to get stools for her foster mother and father.  They were so touched by her concern for them.  Daddy assured them that her personality still shows her caring heart.
 
There were tears in everyones' eyes several times during the 4 hour visit.
 
We enjoyed food around our supersized table...then enjoyed watching each of the children perform some things they've memorized in school this year...Chinese songs and poems.  While Potato's foster mother and father watched her recite a long poem about America, in Chinese, their eyes sparkled with tears and their smiles touched me deeply.  They could not have been prouder of her.
 
We told them how we thanked God for them and that we believed that every day of Bub and Potato's lives they had been under the watch care of our Father in heaven.  We said words would never be sufficient to express our gratitude for their generosity and we acknowledged that God had used them in a profound way in the lives of our children.
 
They left with hugs and kisses and promised to return on Bub's Family Day in September. 
 
What a gift for our children to know the families who had them from their earliest days and for us to share our lives with them here in the very same city where we received them.
 
It's probably just dumb luck, I guess...
 
 

---

Insert movie times and more without leaving Hotmail®. See how.

Happy Family Day, Baby Girl!

Three years ago today, at this moment in time,  our family was nervously awaiting the arrival of our Potato.  Butterfly and one set of grandparents had made the trip to this city with us that we now call Home.  My heart was in my throat and it pounded mercilessly while we stood in the sterile, stuffy Civil Affairs Office.  There was no clue that in that place families were made everyday.
 
"She's already here"...I'll never forget the guide telling me that...my eyes welled up with tears as her siblings began to cheer.  My mom gave me a look to remind me that though I had seen her pictures for months...this would be the first time that she would see the face of her Momma, and my tears might frighten her.  Daddy gave me a reassuring look his eyes wet with the emotion of the scene.
 
We'd dreamed about her, prayed for her and tried to imagine what her personality might be like. 
 
Then we heard the sound of one squeaky shoe approaching.  As she stood in the doorway, time stood still as she stared at this strange group of foreigners all smiling at her.  She had been dressed by her foster mother in a light green, embroidered chiffon dress.  She was clutching the stuffed giraffe we had sent to her some months before while we waited for the paperwork to process.  Her tiny presence commanded the room as she tentatively stepped in.
 
Brownie, then just a few days shy of her second birthday, offered her some cheerios from a bag.  After tasting one, Potato took the bag into her own hands and began to hand them out to her siblings gathered around.  It was our first glimpse at her power-packed personality...
 
She cried intermittently and asked for her Grandma and Grandpa (her foster parents who had devoted themselves to her from the time she was one month old when the orphanage asked them to care for her; until that very day that they'd kissed her good-bye, put her on a bus with the orphanage worker and released her at two years, four months old.)
 
Tomorrow we will celebrate this special day by welcoming to our home Potato's foster parents.  We will enjoy a cake and conversation, Potato is so excited to use her newly acquired Chinese to impress them.  Also joining our celebration will be Bub's foster mother who is traveling from his birth city some 5 hours away.  She has not held our darling boy in nearly two years since he walked out of her life and into ours.
 
Three families, united in love for these two precious children.  Our family, the most blessed having the future with Potato and Bub.  Their families, the most generous, having given themselves fully to the love and care of these babies who they ultimately released so that they might have forever families.  All of us together, joining in a celebration of family, in this, our children's birth country...it is divinely orchestrated, of this we are sure.
 
I'm posting a couple of pictures of Potato, three years ago...I can hardly stand to look at them and the profound pain I see in her eyes...
 
Then a few pictures of her from the last few days.  Our vivacious, intelligent little firecracker's face reveals how she's doing today.  She is a mighty force of joy in our lives...her love of life and her family is noticed by everyone who comes into her path.
 
Happy Family Day, Baby Girl!  Your family loves you...immeasurably!
 

---

Insert movie times and more without leaving Hotmail®. See how.