Rookie of the Year

MelodyJoy had her first exposure to volleyball at Multnomah's free volleyball clinic today and seemed to enjoy it! She was the youngest and smallest one there but the MU volleyball team was great in working with her.

The Girls of Summer

Down by the River

We made our first trip as a family down to the Columbia River a couple days ago, just to walk a ways along the water on the Vancouver side.  It'll be fun to go back sometime when the weather is warmer. Some amazing houses on the bluff overlooking the Gorge! Mount Hood was beautiful right behind the kids but it didn't show up in the picture, unfortunately.

Fishin' Around

The girls got it in their heads that they wanted a pet fish so last weekend Jeannette took them to the pet store and they got two beta fish.

A Few Recent Photos

I'm back to having little motivation for keeping this blog updated.  Sorry!  Just to put something up here, I thought I'd post a few recent pictures.  This first one is from early January, when the weather was really nice and Jillian was wearing a cute outfit featuring a hand-me-down ladybug sweater from Melody . . .

I took this following picture just this afternoon.  I thought Jillian looked extremely cute in her denim and boots . . .

And here is a picture of Jillian on her "new" bike, which is actually Melody's old bike with new training wheels added on.  She does pretty well on flat surfaces but doesn't really have the strength and coordination yet to push uphill.

And here's big sister with her pink bike . . .

First Moments with Jillian

We traveled in China with Steve and Elizabeth as they adopted their son, Theo.  The other day, Steve sent me some photos that were on his camera, which included these from our first few seconds with Jillian, just before Theo walked into the room and changed their lives.  These are a lot better than what I already had so I thought I'd post them here.

A Violent Home

Jeannette told me I needed to video the girls playing with the Nerf swords tonight,  just to document that they actually did enjoy each other at least part of the time.

Songstress

My favorite female songwriters are Carole King, Carly Simon and Cindy Morgan.  Now I may have a new name for the list.

This evening, MelodyJoy was walking around singing a little tune.  After awhile, she brought me a piece of paper and told me to write down these words:

Every step that you take

That leads to a path

That will take you right to heaven

You will see Jesus on His throne.

I asked her where she got this song and she told me she wrote it!

Baby Steps

Yesterday and today were good days, celebrating Thanksgiving with both sides of the family.  What made them particularly good is the fact that our girls' sibling rivalry--primarily Melody toward Jillian--seemed to ease off a bit.  This is such a relief as it was totally draining to have to try to balance every little action, word and favor out . . . and even then there were many meltdowns.  We're still tired--Jillian can be pretty demanding of our attention, especially Jeannette's--but it felt today like we have begun to get a glimpse of how things can be and should be.  

Sisters

Two videos from Jillian's first night with us, before the sibling rivalry began to kick in.  In the first, Melody is introducing her to the joys of blowing bubbles.  In the second, she's giving Jillian a manicure while Jillian plays with some modeling clay.  At the end, you can hear me saying "I love you" in Chinese to Jillian . . . and Jillian saying the same thing back to me.

 

 

Sunshine

She's Brilliant, Brilliant I Say!

Okay, last night I wrote, “Jeannette even wondered aloud if she might not be ready for school yet.  Less than two hours later, she wondered aloud if Jillian might be ready for a regular public school.  The truth is somewhere in between, probably.  . . .  But I’m getting ahead of myself.”

Last night, Melody was writing on a small dry erase board.  Jillian wanted a turn.  First, she drew a small triangle, but she erased it right away . . . and wrote an A, then a B, then a C.  I’m not sure where she would have gone from there, but Melody began writing subsequent letters and Jillian also wrote them along with her.  Jeannette wondered if perhaps Jillian knew her English alphabet but not the Chinese characters.

Elsie, our guide, talked with Jillian today and figured out that she can read some simple Chinese words.  In addition, we were incredibly blessed yesterday to get a “Half the Sky” scrapbook with pictures and commentary (in Chinese) of Jillian’s entire life!  Half the Sky is a foundation that seeks to improve the lives of children in China’s orphanages and one thing they often do is document these kids’ lives so that their early history isn’t lost.  In this case, one of the things we got to see was a picture of Jillian writing her characters.

This photo is of her writing the ABC’s at our “adoption appointment notary” appointment today, where we finalized the adoption, promising “never to maltreat or abandon” Jillian.

Another example of how sharp she is came last night when we got on the elevator.  We are on the 15th floor and wanted to go to the 13thfloor.  She wanted to push the button.  Melody beat her to it but it didn’t work, so Jillian moved to the other panel of buttons and, either from memory or from hearing Jeannette say “13” remembered to reach for and push the button for the 13th floor.

She is very quick to pick things up and seems quite self-aware.  We also saw some hints today that she is rather competitive and might be a bit of a stinker.  She and Melody are getting along great but earlier today she managed to get the room key away from Jeannette before Melody could ask for it and then raced to the door to open it.  Melody wasn’t too happy about that!

This morning, Jillian got to talk to her brothers for the first time, using QQ.  QQ is kind of like Facebook and Skype.  It was great to see the kids interact and Phil even got to show her her new bedroom.  She seemed excited to see it.  She had been introduced to it in the photobook we sent a few weeks ago, so I think she understood what she was seeing.

After a trip to McDonalds, the girls visited the swimming pool and little play area.  We suspect it was Jillian’s first trip to a big pool, but we can’t know for sure.  She is a strong little girl.  She may be scrawny but she’s got muscle and determination.  She’s going to need it!

Pretty in Purple

MelodyJoy and I went to Multnomah's basketball game tonight.  The team didn't play very well but I love this photo I took of her on the bleachers, using our new Samsung flipcam.

Packin' It Up

Today we're packing. A week from today, we'll be unpacking.  In China.

This was kind of a dry run, to make sure we have room for everything (we do) and haven't forgotten anything (we're doing pretty well . . . only a few things we need to go grab at Walmart.).

Sweetness

I'm not sure you can read what is written in this photo this very well but I had to post it here. A few days ago, Melody grabbed one of our new pictures of Jillian and a piece of paper.  On the scrap of paper, she wrote, "This is your home" and added a heart with "love" inside, then she taped it to the photo and hung it on their bedroom door. 

First Day of School 2012

Jameson and Melody, ready to head off for

11th and 2nd grade respectively.

 

 One last hug from Phillip before starting the day.

And ready to go . . .

Melody and Jillian's New Bed

 

Jeannette and the boys spent much of today sanding, assembling, painting and setting up the used bunkbed we bought via Craig's List a few weeks ago.  All set up and ready for Jillian's arrival!

A Quick Family Trip

Last weekend, we went down to Klamath Falls for a couple of nights to attend Jordan Lyman's wedding and visit our old church. Here are a few photos from our drive home.

At Salt Creek Falls, a quick stop near Oakridge as we drove to Eugene . . .

On Monday, we spent the day on the lake with Jeannette's brother, Scott, and some of his family.  I enjoyed reading my Grisham novel in the front of the boat . . .

A Message to the Tooth Fairy

MelodyJoy lost another tooth this weekend.

This is the note she left by her bed.

She was a bit disappointed that the tooth fairy--

who she says she absolutely does not believe in

--didn't write her a note in return.

 

Our beautiful, toothless girl: 

Good to Go

MelodyJoy got her passport in the mail today! She's all set now for her big adventure to China to meet her new sister.

This is actually her second passport . . . her first one was issued by China about six years ago.