More At Home

Taylor has been with us for 3 weeks now, and she is fitting in well.  We are seeing more and more of what we believe is her true personality.  The first name she learned was "CoCo"--our dog.  She calls us by our Chinese names--because she was taught those before she came.  She calls us--Mama; Baba; JieJie (big sister); and Gege (big brother).  She is understanding some English--very simple things, but she still doesn't speak a whole lot.  It will come.  ;-)

All the kids are enjoying her, even though she and Stephen have some power struggles--LOL.  He seems to take the title "big brother" a bit too seriously.  He thinks he needs to tell her how to obey, and she doesn't like that very much.  We are working on it.  They do play and have fun together too.

A few weeks ago the kids used their very hard-earned money to pay their half of a XBOX 360, and we have been getting a lot of exercise ever since.  All of our games are "Kinect" which means the kids have to move around to play (no controller needed).  It has been a great way to spend family time together on rainy days.  Even Stephen gets into the action.

We are still praying that the adoption can be finalized soon.  There is some paperwork that got delayed but needs to go through ASAP.  There are certain deadlines that have to be met at this point, so we really need prayers that things get finished on time.  I don't even understand it all myself, I just know that when things get sent to us now we have to scan/email or mail them back immediately.  So it is a little stressful to think about.  (I try not to think about it--I don't do good with stress.)

If all goes according to plan we will come back to the states for a visit December 21-February 21 (our last day to see friends will be the 14th).  We have a lot to do in a short amount of time--doctor visits, additional adoption/citizenship processing, "fellowship" visits, etc.  We are looking forward to it, but it is going to be a whirlwind I can already tell.  We hope to see you all, but we also won't be able to do a lot of traveling because of all of our non-negotiable appointments.  That last week we will probably take a  few days of  vacation with our family of 6 because we have found that we are really tired at the end of America trips, and the rest of the week will be with extended family.  It should be refreshing, right?  It is hard getting back on a plane and coming back to "work" when we are so worn out.  I think that we need that week of solitude.  :-)  So if you live far away and want to come see us, let's try to plan it towards the beginning of our trip.

So save up your Chick-fil-A  left-over packets of sauce and your left-over Taco Bell packets (my favorite thing to bring back to Chin@).  I am hoping to bring back a gallon-sized zip-loc bag full.  :-)