Chinese New Year

Happy Chinese New Year!  I guess we are starting a new tradition and celebration in our house, Chinese New Year.  I had been working for that last couple of weeks on a menu for our celebration.  Last weekend we went to the local Asian market and picked up some supplies.  I had read that Chinese dumplings are an important dish for Chinese New Year.  Caleb and I practiced making them last weekend and we perfected them for the dinner.  We ate Chinese dumplings/potstickers, chicken fried rice, a chicken noodle dish, sweet and sour pork and Chinese almond cookies for dessert.  We also decorated the dining room.  We invited some friends over who adopted a little albino girl from China 10 months ago.  Unfortunately, in addition to being an albino, she has some significant neurologic issues that were not disclosed to them until they were in China.  The officials in China tried to talk them out of adopting this child.  I could not imagine how hard it would be to go over and then not come back with a child.  They already considered her their daughter from the day of her referral.  She was 2 when they got her and she was not sitting or eating solids or walking.  She was only content when she was left alone and did not like being held.  The doctors here now think that a majority of her issues are due to neglect.  Although she has made significant progress in 10 months, they still have a long way to go.  This family helped us prepare before our travel to China.  They shared their stories with us and gave us some great pointers before we went.  They have a son close to Caleb's age that is very similar to Caleb.  They seem to have similar personalities and picky taste buds, so it was nice to get some eating tips from them for Caleb before we went.  They also prepared and gave us a note to open every day while we were in China.  It has been fun developing our relationship with them and so seemed very appropriate to share our first Chinese New Year together.  Below are some pictures from our day. 

Caleb making Chinese dumplings

Chloe making Chinese dumplings

Our Chinese dumplings

The dining room decorated

Chloe

Chloe

Mom and kids

Dad and kids

The group at dinner

Katie

Chloe

Katie and Chloe

God bless these children and all the orphans in China and around the world.  I am so thankful God placed these children in our homes.  What a blessing they are to us!  Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy New Year!

Christmas was great!  We had a wonderful time celebrating with family.  Chloe loved opening presents and then would love what was inside them.  We had a pretty busy Christmas.  It started Saturday morning at our house.  We got up and had a nice breakfast.  Then we opened presents at our house.  I think Chloe really enjoyed it.  Then we went to our 4:00 church service and then off to Kevin's parents for Christmas Eve dinner with the extended family.  Unfortunately Chloe did not sleep well that night.  After being up and down all night, she woke up at 5 am and was hungry.  Just when she finally fell back to sleep, Caleb came running in to wake us up and tell us that Santa came.  Needless to say, Chloe was a little fussy that morning!  I figured for sure she would fall asleep during church but she did not until the last 5 minutes of the service.  Then what do you do?  We woke her up and put her in the car and headed back to Kevin's parents.  She made it through lunch and of course opening some presents which I think put her in a better mood.  Then she took a much needed 3 hour nap and after that she was her happy self again.  We headed to Austin on Christmas evening to spend time with my parents.  Chloe is not always a huge fan of her car seat.  About 1/2 way there she started to cry and pull at the car seat harness.  The crying went on and on.  I would say it lasted at least 30 minutes which seems like an eternity when you are in the confined space of a car.  But at last we made it to Austin.  We had a nice time there with family and of course Chloe liked opening presents.  My brother's family got her a toy set with a hair dryer and curling iron etc.  She loved the blow dryer and went around the room fixing everyone's hair!  It was a great first Christmas with Chloe.

Chloe opening a present

Caleb opening a present

Getting ready for Christmas Eve service

Thanks Santa!

Thanks Santa!

Chloe fixing her hair

Chloe fixing Tim's hair?!?  What hair?

Our social worker came over to do our 6 month post placement report.  Yes, it will be 6 months that we have had her on January 26.  I really enjoyed sharing our Gotcha day and trip to China with her.  We shared some of our videos and pictures.  I got a little teary eyed watching the video of when we first met Chloe.  Still melts my heart.  I think Chloe liked watching the videos too.  This was the first time that we had shown them to her.  It is really amazing the progress Chloe has made and how she continues to adjust with such ease.  But what is more amazing is how different she looks.  I am posting a couple of before and afters.  What a transformation.

Gotcha Day

Now

I am excited to report that Chloe's speech therapy was approved through our insurance.  She started her speech today and will go weekly on Tuesdays for about an hour a session.  She did great.  She is such a smart and social/interactive girl.  She was really trying to do what was asked of her by the therapist.  Caleb is going with and he brought a note pad today to take some notes about the therapy.  How sweet!  I cannot wait to see the progress of her speech with some formal therapy.

Chloe has really adjusted to American life.  She has quite a busy schedule.  She is taking swimming lessons and is going to start a music class tomorrow.  She also likes going to story time at the library.  I can't wait to see what her interests will develop into as she gets older.