Sunday, January 22, 2012

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!

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