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.

Keepin' the Blog Alive

A couple of pictures today from the playground at Melody's school, just so the blog doesn't become completely comatose.

A Sunny Saturday at the Park

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.

Jillian's Teacher

Last week, there was a Chinese New Year's celebration at Jillian's school. In the midst of all the madness, we managed to get a few moments with her teacher, Ms. Hu.

 

What happens to orphans who are not adopted?

Earlier today, a fellow adoptive parent, Shawnee Fleenor from Kentucky, wrote the following for her status update on Facebook.  I thought it was worth reposting here:

What happens to orphans who are not adopted? In many countries around the world, children without family are deeply disrespected, held in suspicion, or even considered to *be* bad luck, as in marrying an orphan brings bad luck to your entire family, and hiring one brings bad luck to your workplace -- this is the general opinion in many areas of China, for instance. For orphans with physical or mental challenges, the community spirit against them is even more intense. It is a common fate for a young adult who has grown up in an orphanage to fall into begging, prostitution, or other dangerous roles and to have no medical care, education, or people who love and care about him or her. This is, I don't know, just a "public service announcement" on my part to encourage anyone who reads it to maybe be open to helping orphans in one way or another, here in the States or elsewhere, through adoption or helping someone else adopt, through donating time or money to Christian orphanages, etc., if you aren't already involved. :-)  

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 Snow

Jillian grew up in southern China, where the weather is quite tropical.  Today, it snowed for the first time this year in Vancouver and I can only assume this was her first exposure to snow.  She was reluctant but I lured her outside for a few moments.  She hasn't been feeling too well today so she's a bit lethargic.  A few times, I've caught her just absently gazing out the window at the falling flakes.

Jameson's Sound of Music

Jameson's trying something brand new this fall . . . choir at King's Way Christian High School!  Last Monday was his first performance.  They did six songs so I randomly chose one to post here.  We're so proud of him for venturing out a bit beyond his normal comfort zone.

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.

Twinkle Twinkle Little China Girl

Jillian's teacher from Ben Franklin Elementary's Chinese immersion program sent home a CD with some songs on it and this evening Jillian had a great time singing and dancing along to them.  This clip is her final performance of the night.

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.

Introducing Jillian to Christmas

Yesterday, we put up our Christmas tree so I was careful to catch a shot of Jillian hanging her very first Christmas ornament:

 

We really don't know what exposure she's had to Christmas, so I used Google Translate to try to give her a little info:  这是一个圣诞树。我们将装饰它。圣诞节是当我们庆祝耶稣的诞生。圣诞节是在三个星期。This is a Christmas tree.  We will decorate it.  Christmas is when we celebrate the birth of Jesus.  Christmas is in three weeks.

I also used Google Translate to have a little bit of a conversation with her.  We knew from her teacher and her demeanor this week that, for the first time, she was showing evidence of being homesick for China.  I asked her if she missed her family in China and she said yes.  I assured her that they loved her and that we love her, and that we'll be her family forever.  She has spent a lot of time with the video camera that I bought, watching videos from our time in China.  She still doesn't seem to be overly upset by these videos but rather just enjoys seeing them.  We feel pretty fortunate that our transition issues with Jillian have been so minor.