Sweet Cali
6 years ago
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Chinese Noodle Soup
We enjoyed Chinese Noodle Soup as a family this past weekend and returned twice this week for more! Needless to say, we all enjoyed the noodle soup. Arabella was especially excited because it very much reminded her of the food back in China. Okay, it was really a Vietnamese restaurant but regardless, it was the same flavors and soup that Arabella was very accustomed to eating in China and a family favorite!
Arabella's First Hair Cut
Arabella had her first hair cut last Saturday and she thoroughly enjoyed the pampering! :-)
Her hair was very short when she came home last year and we've allowed it to grow for 18 months but it was time for a trim. She was all smiles, as you can see in the pictures below. She has the most beautiful smile...her entire face lights up....she can brighten any room with that smile!
Her hair was very short when she came home last year and we've allowed it to grow for 18 months but it was time for a trim. She was all smiles, as you can see in the pictures below. She has the most beautiful smile...her entire face lights up....she can brighten any room with that smile!
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Elijah at 19 Months-The Face of an Angel
Here's a picture of our sweet baby boy---at 19 months old--the face of an angel!!
Praise God for our newest little miracle!!
Praise God for our newest little miracle!!
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Happy 4th of July!
Okay, a little late with our 4th of July posting but with all the good things buzzing around our home and the special time with Earl's family during the week of July 4th, this is my first opportunity to upload pictures and captions.
This was Arabella's 2nd Fourth of July celebration and Sterling's 3rd and hoping Elijah will be home next year for his first celebration of the 4th! We've made it a tradition to spend time as a family placing flags around the yard, spending the day swimming, daddy grilling and ending the evening with fireworks! This year we had a very special blessing-- extended family spending the week with us and what a great time it was having them join us this year!!!
This was Arabella's 2nd Fourth of July celebration and Sterling's 3rd and hoping Elijah will be home next year for his first celebration of the 4th! We've made it a tradition to spend time as a family placing flags around the yard, spending the day swimming, daddy grilling and ending the evening with fireworks! This year we had a very special blessing-- extended family spending the week with us and what a great time it was having them join us this year!!!
Monday, July 8, 2013
We Have China's Pre-Approval for Elijah!!!
This afternoon, Monday, July 8, 2013 at 3:26 pm, we received the email from our agency stating that China has given us the pre-approval for the adoption of Zhong Wei Nan born on November 25, 2011! We have until January 8, 2014 to submit our dossier for his adoption.
Now, without further delay....allow us to introduce to you the newest member of our family!!
He is 13 months old in the following pictures, so the pictures are about 6 months old now.
We have updated pictures however, I'm still figuring out how to copy a picture from a pdf file.
Praising God for our newest little miracle!
Now, without further delay....allow us to introduce to you the newest member of our family!!
He is 13 months old in the following pictures, so the pictures are about 6 months old now.
Praising God for our newest little miracle!
Thursday, July 4, 2013
Sterling Reads His First Library Book!!!
We are celebrating, rejoicing and praising God for the blessing he allowed in our family! Sterling read his first library book on Wednesday, July 3, 2013. This is a definitely a day to be remembered!
Sterling has been reading simple pre-primer readers on Raz-Kids and paper readers from Reading A-Z but on this particular day, Sterling read a book checked out from our local library! We are very proud of him. Earl and I both had tears in our eyes, as we listened with amazement while he sounded words out and recognized sight words. Sterling has come such a long way, especially when you realize he has only known the alphabet for 18 months and the phonics of each letter for 12 months. He didn't have the advantage of peers who have lived and learned for all 7 years of their lives.
To think that a few months ago, a teacher at Sterling's school, someone who is said to be the "reading specialist" sat with us during an ARD meeting to say, "Sterling is a non-reader." When this comment was made about Sterling, he could recognize almost 30 sight words and was reading pre-primer readers but because he couldn't read the 1 book placed before him and answer questions about the book, the "reading specialist" made the conclusion that he was a non-reader. I will say to her credit, perhaps she was only allow to use this one particular book to test him and his school has little to no experience with hearing impaired students and those who have limited verbal abilities within a general education classroom. Fortunately, we aren't a family that gives-in to comments like this about our children, it only gives more fire to continue working diligently.
We are impressed with the work God is doing with Sterling. He continues to learn and make forward advancement by leaps and bounds. Praise God for the work he is doing within Sterling!!!
Sterling has been reading simple pre-primer readers on Raz-Kids and paper readers from Reading A-Z but on this particular day, Sterling read a book checked out from our local library! We are very proud of him. Earl and I both had tears in our eyes, as we listened with amazement while he sounded words out and recognized sight words. Sterling has come such a long way, especially when you realize he has only known the alphabet for 18 months and the phonics of each letter for 12 months. He didn't have the advantage of peers who have lived and learned for all 7 years of their lives.
To think that a few months ago, a teacher at Sterling's school, someone who is said to be the "reading specialist" sat with us during an ARD meeting to say, "Sterling is a non-reader." When this comment was made about Sterling, he could recognize almost 30 sight words and was reading pre-primer readers but because he couldn't read the 1 book placed before him and answer questions about the book, the "reading specialist" made the conclusion that he was a non-reader. I will say to her credit, perhaps she was only allow to use this one particular book to test him and his school has little to no experience with hearing impaired students and those who have limited verbal abilities within a general education classroom. Fortunately, we aren't a family that gives-in to comments like this about our children, it only gives more fire to continue working diligently.
We are impressed with the work God is doing with Sterling. He continues to learn and make forward advancement by leaps and bounds. Praise God for the work he is doing within Sterling!!!
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Double Dose of Vacation Bible School
Our summer is off to a busy but fun start! Arabella and Sterling are now into their third Vacation Bible School and loving it! This week, we have a double-dose with VBS in the morning and the evening. It's great to watch them challenge one another as to who will be first to memorize their bible verse. This morning, Arabella was the first in her class to stand-up and recite the bible verse. Go, Arabella!! No doubt God has big plans for this tiny-but-oh-so-mighty girl.
We had an extra busy day today with Arabella at VBS and Sterling at reading class this morning, then for lunch we did a trip to gather an employment letter for the adoption and back home in time to prepare dinner and head back out to VBS. WHEW! It made for a quick but very productive day. I was able to check-off an item on my to-do list--yea!
We did Arabella's favorite for lunch today, Chik-fil-a. She loves their chicken nuggets. The kids were gifted with 2 small Chik-fil-a cows and the idea was to submit their picture with the cows via email to the Chik-fil-a in Conroe. I guess they are having some sort of Facebook contest and the picture with the most votes receives a year of Chik-fil-a. That's all it took for Arabella's competitive side to take charge. She had it all planned out that her and Sterling were to take their picture at church with the stuffed animals and they were sure to win the contest. There are two things Arabella enjoys, Chik-fil-a and a good competition! (very true to her Chinese Sign-The Horse)
When returning home from our errands, Sterling discovered that he had 5 small Chik-fil-a cows and Arabella only had 1. When it comes to Sterling and his environment, he wants everything to be fair. Even to the point that he gave Arabella 2 of his stuffed animals so both he and Arabella would each have 3 cows. Let me tell you, that is a great big sign of love and thoughtfulness on Sterling's part because if there is anything in this world that he really truly enjoys and holds near and dear, it's all of his stuffed animals! (he has near 100 stuffed animals) So, when taking their picture it had to be with all 6 of their cows and wouldn't ya know, as luck would have it, the picture turned out blurry.
We had an extra busy day today with Arabella at VBS and Sterling at reading class this morning, then for lunch we did a trip to gather an employment letter for the adoption and back home in time to prepare dinner and head back out to VBS. WHEW! It made for a quick but very productive day. I was able to check-off an item on my to-do list--yea!
We did Arabella's favorite for lunch today, Chik-fil-a. She loves their chicken nuggets. The kids were gifted with 2 small Chik-fil-a cows and the idea was to submit their picture with the cows via email to the Chik-fil-a in Conroe. I guess they are having some sort of Facebook contest and the picture with the most votes receives a year of Chik-fil-a. That's all it took for Arabella's competitive side to take charge. She had it all planned out that her and Sterling were to take their picture at church with the stuffed animals and they were sure to win the contest. There are two things Arabella enjoys, Chik-fil-a and a good competition! (very true to her Chinese Sign-The Horse)
When returning home from our errands, Sterling discovered that he had 5 small Chik-fil-a cows and Arabella only had 1. When it comes to Sterling and his environment, he wants everything to be fair. Even to the point that he gave Arabella 2 of his stuffed animals so both he and Arabella would each have 3 cows. Let me tell you, that is a great big sign of love and thoughtfulness on Sterling's part because if there is anything in this world that he really truly enjoys and holds near and dear, it's all of his stuffed animals! (he has near 100 stuffed animals) So, when taking their picture it had to be with all 6 of their cows and wouldn't ya know, as luck would have it, the picture turned out blurry.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
