Ladybugs and The Red Thread

Thursday, March 2, 2006

A little update

Sorry that I haven’t updated in a while, but...Life is BUSY with 3 kids!

As you can see, I posted pictures of Julia and Cameron in their Chinese outfits. Wayne and I did a presentation to Cam’s class (Mrs. Anderson’s 2nd grade) and to Anna’s (Mrs. Stenzel’s Kindergarten). We put our pictures together in a power point and the kids loved it! We added many facts and figures about how long it took us to travel to China. How many people there are living in China...that sort of thing. We did tell them the reason why we went. Most of the 2nd graders had good questions about China and the people. It was a lot of fun.

Julia hasn’t been feeling good lately, so our funny little "China Girl" as daddy calls her, has been grumpy. It’s a side of her we hadn’t seen since being in China. It can be frustrating, but we need to remember how hard this is on her yet. Cam and Anna have had colds and been sick too, so it hasn’t been a good month.

Anna’s birthday is tomorrow! She will be 6. Holy Cow! Where did the time go? I can hardly believe that she’s 6. I remember being very pregnant and finally going into labor on a Friday morning. I knew Doc Nelson would be out of town that night and I was bound and determined to have the baby before he left! Anna Elizabeth arrived on March 3, 2000 at 8:01pm. She weighted 8lbs 5oz and was 20 inches long. She had a full head of dark brown hair. Until Doc said that she was a girl, I was convinced that Anna was going to be a boy. Man, I was wrong!! She is a very girly girl. Loves to have her hair, make-up and nails done. She loves to wear pretty dresses and pretend she’s a princess. Anna’s hearing is still the same. She has moderate hearing loss in both ears. She will have to wear hearing aids forever. I think she’s ok with it. In fact, she loves seeing other kids with them. Anna has also become a great big sister. She likes to boss Julia around and help do stuff. :-)

Here is a link to an article that a friend of mine wrote. His name is Larry Baldwin and his wife Melissa and I have become "virtual twins". We met Larry and Melissa while in Guangzhou, China. They had recently adopted their daughter Maddie. I think I posted pictures of Julia and Maddie on the red couch at the White Swan. Anyways...Larry wrote this terrific article about adoption from the dad’s perspective. I thought it was a great way to end my post. I hope it makes some of you think about adoption a little more....

http://www.allprodad.com/9myadoption.asp

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Julia with her doggie, Riley and Sherman

Up close and personal with Julia

The really cool dragons that they made in Cameron's class

Julia in her traditional Chinese dress

Cameron and Julia at school

Wednesday, February 8, 2006

New pictures of the kids

Here are a few of the pictures we had taken at Sears last week. I think they all turned out really good. Anna is just too cute in the one pose. Julia looks super cute with her sprouts. Cameron is looking sooooo grown-up. I can't believe that's my little baby! :-)

Enjoy the pictures!

There's my big man, Cameron!

This one is my favorite.

Yes, they are too cute for words!

Anna Elizabeth looking as adorable as ever!

The Wagner kids

Here's our little sprout girl!

Thursday, February 2, 2006

Happy Belated Chinese New Year and Groundhog's Day!

I had forgot to post about our Chinese New Year dinner with the Brooks family and the Dykema family. We went to a really neat Chinese place in Holland for dinner. The buffet was HUGE! Bigger than I had ever seen! Lots of great food and a ton of traditional new year's dishes. There were 16 of us all together and it was very loud! There were lion dancers performing at the restaurant. Julia, Avery and Isaac really seemed to enjoy it. I have no idea if any of them recall last year's new year celebrations. 2006 is the year of the Dog. Lucky for us, we have 2 pooches in the house already. I did give them special treats on Sunday which was the start of the new year. After dinner we headed back to the Dykema's for dessert and some play time for the kids. All of the kids got along very well. I'm hoping to get some pictures from Brion or Michelle, because I FORGOT my camera. BLAH!

I posted some pictures of Julia's ears. It came to my attention that some of my family didn't have any idea that Julia was a special needs kid. Well, not that she really has any "handicaps" per say, but they had no idea that she had a different ear. We have an appointment later in March with our audiologist and ENT (the same docs that see Anna). That will start all the testing that Julia will have to endure. Hearing tests aren't hurtful, they just take time to be accurate. I'm sure we will end up at U of M for an MRI. We both want to know if she has the inner workings to hear out of that ear. I think that she does, but we won't know for sure till the MRI.

Well, I've got to get Julia down for a nap, she's been up since 6am. ~hugs~