Vacation and First Days of School

Chris and I took the kids camping for a week here in PEI. It was nice to get a break but WOW a lot of work! Thanks to Dean and Stacy (Chris' brother) for letting us use their trailer - it was a great spot! We were able to visist Avonlea Village which our kids love! This is their favorite place to go in the summer. It is a little village that is set up to look like a town from Anne of Green Gables. There are actors who act our scenes from the book and lots of fun activities for the kids to see and do. There is a house where people can dress up and take their own pictures...our kids got a great kick out of that. As you can see, we have 2 "Annes" and 2 "Gilberts".

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The kids enjoyed the camping...the weather wasn't too bad, we had a few nice days and a few rainy ones. I think I was just anxious to get back home and get everything ready for "back to school" - seriously, I know it's terrible but I was counting down the days, hours and minutes. Let me just say it's been a LOOOOOOOOOOOOONG summer!

Our very own Annes and Gilberts

BACK TO SCHOOL - YAY!

Caleb - grade 7 (Oh, I so want to cut his hair!!! He wants to have long hair for Jr. High!!)

Dylan - Grade 5

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Evan and Alyssa - Kindergarten

Alyssa Li

Evan Jun

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There is so much I want to write, so much on my heart. I just don't feel like I could even share it in a way that makes sense, that's how much is going on in my heart and mind. This adoption has made me feel things I didn't expect (both good and bad) and it has once again filled my heart with an even deeper passion, compassion and hurt for the rest of the children still living and breathing each day, broken and without someone to love them.

I honestly prayed for peace after this adoption - peace from this burden of knowing the hurts and pain of so many children around the world. I believe God is pushing me towards more and not necessarily more adoptions. In fact, I don't think more adoptions for our family will happen and I'm actually okay with that (hard to believe, I know!) but I feel a sense of urgency that God is pushing me (us/our family???) to something else...something that makes me think "but that's impossible" yet that's exactly how God shows himself - through the impossible!

Anyway...like I said, too much going on inside for me to even express it so I'll save it for later. But, in the meantime, I came across this song and so here it is ...to honor the loss our beautiful, precious, adopted children suffer, the loss their birth parents suffer but also to honor the amazing gift they are to us - their moms and dads.

Everything To Me

Mark Shultz

I must have felt your tears

When they took me from your arms
I’m sure I must have heard you say goodbye
Lonely and afraid you had made a big mistake
Could an ocean even hold the tears you cried?

But you had dreams for me
You wanted the best for me
And you made the only choice you could that night

You gave life to me
A brand new world to see
Like playing baseball in the yard with dad at night
Mom reading Goodnight Moon
And praying in my room
So if you worry if your choice was right
You gave me up...
but you gave everything to me

And if I saw you on the street
Would you know that it was me
And would your eyes be blue or brown like mine
Would we share a warm embrace
Would you know me in your heart
Or would you smile and let me walk on by
Knowing you had dreams for me
You wanted the best for me
Oh...I hope that you’d be proud of who I am

You gave life to me
A chance to find my dreams
And a chance to fall in love
You should have seen her shining face
On our wedding day
Oh is this the dream you had in mind
When you gave me up
You gave everything to me

And when I see you there
Watching from heaven’s gates
Into your arms I’m gonna run
And when you look into my eyes
You can see my whole life
See who I was
And who I’ve become

You gave everthing to me

Hello again!

Well, the countdown is on for school...3 days for Evan and Alyssa and 4 days for Caleb and Dylan. We organized all the school supplies, sneakers, lunch bags, backpacks and all the other little goodies needed for a fresh school year.

I want to draw your attention to the video I posted on the side of my blog (right side). It's a bit long (about 10 minutes) but it is so good to watch. It talks about passion for orphans, God's passion for orphans and believing God is big enough to make a difference!

If you want to see the video full size, click on this link.

Slowing Down...

There are some things Chris and I are working on (outside our family life) and I have found there is not time for blogging! We are doing well, the kids are doing well and we are taking a bit of a break before school starts again. I will start blogging again but for the next little bit, things are going to be craaaazzzzzyyyyyyyyy!

There were HUNDREDS of ladybugs at this beach...the kids loved them. Alyssa and Evan with their "lucky ladybugs"!

Oh, the girls are going to be swooning over this hunk!!! :-)

Gorgeous - but then I'm biased!

Cutie pie EVAN!

Rolling along!

It is so hard to believe we are almost at the end of August! Dylan has started back with hockey- he is attending camp this week and again next week and then he'll be heading to tryouts. It seems like we just finished and here we are again back at the rink. I actually love it and look foward to Dylan's hockey season. I took Alyssa and Evan to the rink yesterday to watch Dylan and Evan kept complaining that he was cold! Oh, he has so much to get used to! The rink will soon be his second home! :-)

Alyssa and Evan start full-day Kindergarten in less than 2 weeks!! I took them today to see their new school, classroom and to meet their teacher. Alyssa's 2 best friends are also going to the same Kindergarten so she is VERY excited! She has made it very clear that Evan is NOT allowed to sit beside her and her friends. Wow, the attitudes start so young.

Evan is doing amazing - he is learning so much English and is speaking quite well. He has also been teaching all of us many, many chinese words. I love hearing all the kids talking to him in Chinese. I try but I really suck at it (and he doesn't mind telling me so either!).

Life is starting to settle down and I feel like we are getting our groove back. Our biggest issue is still the jealousy with Alyssa. The other day she says to me, "Why did you want to get him anyway?!" And then other days, she will tell Evan all about how we waited for him and looked at his picture everyday and how happy we were to go to China. I guess being 4 (and being female!) gives you the right to change your mind according to the day.

I am blown away by what a wonderful little boy Evan is. He has a really awesome sense of humor, not like a silly boy sense of humor, but a mature, really funny sense of humor. He is sweet, endearing, has excellent manners, loves to play with the kids - just all around wonderful! He is still very needy in that he constantly calls to me and wants my attention all the time but other than that, there are absolutely no complaints at all!

My parents came to visit over the weekend and all our kids love, love, love to see Grampie and Grammie! They don't live in PEI so we don't get to see them as often as we would like so it's always a special treat when they come. It was a nice treat for me, too because they cooked us some meals, took us out for supper, watched the kids while Chris and I went on a dinner date and helped with some house chores.

Chris and I are working on something special and we hope to have it ready to present to the "world" in the next few weeks. It should be really good and we are excited about it...more to come on that!

Grampie and Grammie with the "gang"!

Some more family fun!

Over the weekend we were able to visit with Dean and Stacy and their kids (Dean is Chris' brother). They have a trailer up at Marco Polo land and this week was Halloween week. The kids got to dress up and go "trick or treating" at the campground. Yup, they LOVED that. Evan and Alyssa ran full tilt from trailer to trailer getting candy. All the kids came home with bundles of halloween treats.

We also visited Shining Waters Fun Park and the kids had a blast. It was a kind of rainy, cold day but that didn't stop the kids from the water slides, pool area and going on all the rides! It was actually kind of nice because the line ups weren't long.

The weather has been crappy here in PEI since the beginning of August. I'm finding it's helping our family, though because we've been staying home and just hanging out at the house. Everyone is getting along pretty well (Alyssa and Evan have their usual arguments about 25 times a day!) and we've been able to settle into a nice routine.

I feel my sanity returning and feel like we are all getting comforable with Evan and he's feeling happy about being here with us!

The kids (our kids and their cousins) getting ready to head out to "trick or treat"

Poor Dylan was running too fast and lost his leg! Ha ha ha...this was a cool display at one of the trailers!

Evan enjoying one of the rides at the Fun Park

Like I said...the rain and cold didn't stop the kids from loving the water slides...here's Dylan coming in for a landing!

Just a really cute picture of Alyssa -

captures her superior attitude very well! :-)

Mom, Evan and Alyssa

A family day

Yesterday was my birthday and it was one of the very few days our family spent together since adopting Evan. Chris has been extremely busy at work and we just haven't had a chance to go out together as a family and enjoy family activities. Chris was home sick from work but by the afternoon he was feeling better so we dragged him to town to enjoy some of the touristy PEI things...we went to the park, the waterfront, we went on the Harbour Hippo (it's a hour ride that tours around town and then goes in the water for a boat ride), went out for a birthday supper...it was a lot of fun and the kids LOVED the Harbour Hippo ride!!!

Evan continues to do so well...he is speaking so much English now and is understanding almost all of what we say to him. I am worried about him losing his mandarin so we are looking for a mandarin speaking lady to come into our home and care for Alyssa and Evan 2 days a week while I'm at work and they are not in Kindergarten. I think it would be awesome for the kids and I would love to have someone who might be able to show me a few chinese cooking tricks and teach us some cultural things about China.

I just have to say how absolutely sweet and adorable Evan is. I just can't believe what an incredibly boy he is - he has so much personality - he is extremely funny and mischevious (in a fun way), he is happy, outgoing and a tease. This is a contrast to Alyssa because Alyssa tends to be very serious and is always "thinking" whereas Evan is all outgoing energy. Every single day I just adore him more and more!