2/16/2009 Family update

I last posted about Abby - she finally got out of the hospital and tomorrow she goes back to begin another round of rough chemo. Her family posts updates multiple times a day - so if you do check out their blog (linked to the right) than scroll down to "catch up" OR at least check out some cute photos of the kids. Anyway - please pray for Abby to be able to handle her chemo this time without a lot of pain and being sick.

Family update from us - FIRST - Happy Valentines day! Ours was good. Lacie and I went with Ava and her mommy to the ballet on Saturday afternoon. We saw Cinderella. It was fun. On our way there Lacie said, "Mommy, is this girls night?" She knows that once a month I go for "girls night" - no boys allowed.

Valentines evening we went to dinner and after fighting with our kids (Euitag excluded of course) we were worn out and ready for rest. But first, we got home and had special dessert that John made while we were at the ballet and shared valentines cards, stickers, candy and such. Then we watched a movie as a family.

Euitag: this is long overdue - but his first semester grades were awesome - all very high "A's." He is on the Math League and so he has many extra-curricular tests/exams. From one, he got an award - a U.S. Savings Bond; then he took an exam last week and said not to expect an award - he knew it would be hard. He came home knowing he did bad - and was dissapointed. Low and behold - he had the highest score in the region. He is so far a "governer's scholar" or some such title. He did get a medal. He has another test this next weekend - Have I said we are very proud of him? When he was off due to the ice storm my mom took him to the Science Museum. Here are some pics of his day:


AND if you ever want to be in an aquarium but did not want to get wet . . .


Lacie: I knew it would happen - it was bound to happen eventually - tonight she said, "I wish I had another mommy." This was after a bit of a time out due to sassy-ness. Of course it felt like a dagger right into my heart. But - I am sure she is normal. I did tell her that my heart hurt to hear her say that. She eventually said she did not want another mommy, and then added, "not yet." I had to laugh at that. Of course this is the child who tells me she wants to grow up but she wants to live with me forever. She does not want to get married and move away and have babies herself. "But I do not want to leave you mommy - who would take care of me?"

Her teachers love her. In the past month or so these are the notes from School:
- "Lacie used her manners throughout lunch."
- "Lacie was Happy. Did great at listening, sharing and following directions. She had fun playing in the wind at A.M. recess. AND Lacie is very affectionate. Her hugs make my day."
- "Lacie did a super job at listening"
- "Lacie extended her horizons today. Normally she selects books as her place center. Today Lacie chose dinosaurs and puzzles. She had spunk today. It was a fun day."
- "Lacie had a great week and kept a positive attitude."
- "Lacie did a great job sharing in centers today."
Needless to say - I thought the teachers were keeping a positive outlook in class and all parents got these notes. But when I picked her up one day a few weeks ago a child was crying when her parent picked her up. She apparently got a bad note. I am thrilled that Lacie is so good at school and all the teachers love her. She is beginning to recognize sight words - I am loosing track of what words she does know. I am just excited that she is excited about reading and learning.

Lacie told me the other day, "Mommy, I love your mom. I love going to your mom's house. AND I love your mom's husband." (translate - I love MawMaw and Don.) She tells daddy every day, "Daddy, I love your wife." She is a riot. Oh yes, she tells Euitag, "Euitag, tell your mom I love you, Ok Euitag? Now tell your mom I love you."

Paul: Ahhhhhh - our boy - our wild and funny and affectionate boy. He is going from "baby" to two over night. He loves to put his hands in his pant pockets and walk around like he is tough stuff. Instead of walking or running into a room - he charges like a bull - growling as he charges - full steam. He is ALL boy. He has been promoted in school to the "almost 2 year old room." This is the room where they learn to drink from cups without a sippy. They also begin some potty training - No pressure though - thank God.

His speech therapy is going well. I think we have had three official sessions. (we lost a few days due to the ice storm, etc) As much as I am ready for him to talk, I am also not ready for him to talk. It is almost as if - when he begins to talk - my baby is officially growing up. I can kind of keep him more "babied" if he is still grunting and pointing. Anyway - in last week's therapy he said about four words. (he is still signing more and more words every day - I can barely keep up.) Today in speech Paul said: boom, go, set-go, bye-bye, and done. He signed "cookie, please, more and car." Cookie and car are sort of new words. He had already mastered please and more. Overall I think he has said or is beginning to say, "Mama, MawMaw, Elmo (Momo), more, down, done, bye, da-da (daddy), go, set-go, ball, boom, dog maybe - and maybe a few more. I want to keep track - I guess with speech therapy we will be able to keep track. The neat thing is is that he UNDERSTANDS everything.

Well, here are pics of Paul - the first is Paul jumping on my mom's back as she was wiping up a mess on our floor. (Yes, she is a saint.)

Paul and daddy napping:

Back in January Lacie's friend Ava had her fourth birthday party. For her birthday she wanted to have a manicure with her friends. Here are some pics of the princesses getting their nails done - there are about 11 pics - it may take a few mins for them all to down load:

Blessings to all -
Vonda

2/8/2009 Will you pray for Abby?

Friends and family, would you please pray for Abby?

She was adopted from Guatemala as an infant. At three years old, she was diagnosed with a high-risk, aggressive form of Leukemia. Certain genetic complications have put her chance of surviving the treatment at about 20%.

I am praying for her and her family. Would you pray for them too?

You can find more about Abby here, on her family blog: http://www.riggsfamilyblog.com/2009/01/about-abby.html

2/7/09 Chinese New Year

I know, I know. Chinese New Year was over a week ago. The official day was the day before our huge ice storm. The rest is somewhat a blur. It seems like yesterday and it seems like a year ago.

Anyway, this evening we celebrated Chinese New Year with our friends and China families, "Families with Children from China." Look at my Korean boy, isn't he a cutie?



Some more pics:




Best Friends - Noah and Mikah





We had a great time.

We met another China/Korea mom. Her kids are our kids ages. Her son came home from Korea in November '07. Anyway, it was awesome to meet her. We hope to get to spend some time with them in the future. They used the same agency we used for and in Korea.

Well, Happy Belated New Year!

Vonda

2/5/2009 Ice Storm slideshow

Here are some photos of our yard, the tree that pulled everything down and the damage. It still looks pretty rough out there - but we do have power now. Yea God!

2/3/2009 Power Outage Update

We finally have power – the real kind. And not without some effort on John’s part. Our electric company told us we were low priority since we are only one house on the street waiting for power. I just took a long hot bath. Can someone say CLEAN?

Before I get into all that though, FIRST I want to say what wonderful neighbors and friends and family we have. AND of course I do not want to forget the WONDERFUL guys from Alabama who along with their southern charm – added electricity to our street again by Sunday. (that did not mean that John and I had power – but we were closer than before.)

To begin – we have wonderful neighbors across the street who are letting us use their van until ours is fixed and ready to drive again. I think it has been almost a month that we have used their van. Ed is also very generous with this time and patience helping us with many tasks. Even at Christmas time, he hung lights on his house for our pleasure. Each day when we were coming home from pre-school Lacie would say, “I can’t wait to see Mr. Ed’s house.”

Then our other neighbor across the street, who in the dark on that cold Wednesday night a week ago, left his wife in a cold house to take the kids and me to my mother’s house. We piled up suitcases, computers, books, and more for a few nights with her and my step dad.

Then my mother and step dad who opened their home (somewhat indefinitely) to us – kept us warm, helped me with the children – and treated Euitag like he is one of their own grandkids. This may seem trivial but we love Euitag now as our own and it makes us warm inside when our family and friends include him as a part of our family. Mom let me use her car to take Paul to the doctor and cooked for us and played with the kids. Don spent time with us, spent time with Euitag talking music and computers and stuff, and although their home was invaded – we continually felt loved. AFTER Lacie and Paul and I went back to our home on Saturday, mom and Don let Euitag stay so he would have computer access, access to the TV and in a quiet home away from kids for a few days. Mom and Euitag ended up touring our city and went to a museum and viewed an IMAX show about the Grand Canyon. Maybe he was a little spoiled. AND mom did some of our laundry.

Our friends Kristie and Darryl had us over Sunday night for the Super-bowl, fed us and let us shower at their house, bathe the kids and do some laundry. What a huge gift that was.

My cousin, Heather, who has two busy little boys has offered her house for sleep, eating, showers, play and laundry. Like she has time for a whole big family to land at her home.

Other friends, Bette and Mike said we could come to their house this week to shower. What a blessing since we may still be out of hot water and real electricity for several more days. (Remember that we had to have a personal electrician fix our roof and connect the wires. We are now waiting for the power company to come out, inspect it and turn on the power.)

Another neighbor who I had not met yet stopped to check on us today and offered any help if we needed it.

Co-workers have offered to help in anyway – even by letting us bring in some laundry for them to take home and bring back the next day. Amazing!

Just today, a friend Susan, who I have not talked to for some time offered to not only let us use her house and shower but she offered to leave her house so we could have privacy. Wow.

And of course, friends from church who have also made generous offers to use their house, laundry, etc.

While still using a generator, we feel very blessed to have our home warm AND, yes, I still worry about being hooked up to a generator – but so far so good and I count my blessings every day. God has been so so good.

On to another topic:

It finally happened – I was shopping with my family at target. John had the kids in a grocery cart a few isles over and I heard a small child say, “mommy. Mommy. Mommy” I responded, “Yes, what honey?” John looked up over a few shelves and smiled – another child was calling for “mommy” and I just automatically responded – as simply as if someone said my name.

Familiar people:

Paul has familiar people he loves: Some family, some teachers, Euitag, friends, and friends from church. Of course he is still only saying a few words. Update on that later. While at my moms last week, we pulled up Euitag’s caving/spelunking photos to show my mom and Don. Paul and Lacie looked at the pictures with us. When Paul saw a familiar person, he would get excited and point to that person and giggle. He got real excited over seeing Kayla and Luke (two kids at church who have just shown all kinds of love to my boy), our minister and his wife, and Euitag of course. He does the same when we are looking at familiar faces in photographs. We have a photo framed of his foster family sitting in his room. We often look at that photo. He still gets excited to see their faces. It is so sweet. I point to them and say: “Umma and Appa and they love baby Paul Wonwoo.”

Paul now says: Ju = juice; my = mine; mama = me/mommy, ma = me/mommy, maw = my mother, no = no; nooooooooo = no; he has finally said daa = John (but not too often – he would rather use the sign). Oh, he now barks like a dog, meows like a cat and growls for all the other animals. Speech therapy begins tomorrow.

He has picked up a few new signs. His sign for bottle is the same for milk. He discovered M&M’s the other day at moms. So, I showed him the sign for “M” in sign language – did the “M” 2X – but to him it looks like the sign for milk/bottle. He began using that sign when he wanted an M&M. Am I confusing my child or what? He has a few more signs – but for the life of me I can’t remember what he knows now or not - the number of signs continues to grow.

Gotta run. I will add photos soon. Blessings!