Crazy Hair

Just for fun the boys and I decided to do their hair in a "cool" way today.  I think it looks pretty amazing. We went to go swimming today but the pool was closed..wawa. So we came home and did slip n slide again.  Kids love it and dad and mom get to sit in lawn chairs watching.  Pretty good idea if I do say so myself. 

Last night Kayla had a preschool musical show.  Unfortunately she was feeling really sick before, during and after.  She did it though and fell asleep on the way home.  She is feeling much better today. 

Kayla is second from the left.  Sorry zoom is not so good on the iphone!

Rock Star or Crazy Man?

Crazy Man or Rock Star?

We are in trouble!

Ahhh that's better, Kayla calms things down...yea right!

Hey cutie, check out those teeth!!!  She didn't want her hair crazy, just blow dry and brush please Daddy.

Lookin good

too cool for school.

Life is pretty amazing here.  Kids are all doing great.  Strange to think the school year is almost over.  At this time last year we were chomping at the bit to get to China, now we are just chillin.  Haejin and I are super blessed to parent such great kids, belong to such an amazing church, have such a supportive family and have such an amazing God who richly provides for more than we can even ask for!

Slip n Slide

Just wanted you all to have a peek into our fine day today.  We were slip and sliding!  We had a lot of fun.  Kids have never done this before so it was a new adventure.

Things continue to go well with our family.  We are so blessed by God.  Our children all get along well and never fight or argue.  They all listen well and work hard and love other people.  It has been ten months and one day since we met Andrew and life continues to be amazing. We will be going to see some specialists about his hands and feet at the end of this month and the beginning of next.  We are not sure what if any options are available or helpful but we would really like to find some sort of helpful insert for his shoes because his feet hurt whenever he runs...we will see what they say.  If they can't do anything we will look into getting custom made shoes..I am sure those aren't too expensive, right? hahhaha.  Andrew went to outdoor science camp for five days recently.  We were really worried and went back and forth whether to send him or not but decided to let him because he wanted to go.  It turned out ok even though we missed him sorely. 

Ethan placed second in an advanced math class competition.  We was pretty excited to do well.  And he just finished the Harry Potter series.  He is now hunting around for something new. 

Kayla is as cute as ever and is loving her life.  I am sure it is nice to be spoiled by her mother (haha ok by Daddy too)  She is learning to write and practicing "reading" all the time. 

Last week Haejin and I got to spend a couple of days just the two of us.  My mom, thanks mom, watched the kids and we were able to stay in our own home alone.  Those with kids know what a treat this is. 

Church is going well and we are really blessed to pastor the church God has given us.  We really enjoy all the people and are excited about the things we think God is going to do in the lives of our church members. 

We hope all our friends are blessed and enjoying life.  God is good.  Much Love.

Go Ethan!!!

 Nice action shot Andrew!

 Cutest slider ever!!! Kayla!

 Kids at the park...hmmm why isn't my wife ever at these adventures?  I'm gonna have to talk to her about that!

 Andrew headed off to outdoor science camp..cry :(

Slip n Slide!

All Is Well

Thought I would give all our friends a new update about how the family is doing.  Things continue to be amazing for our family.  Everyone is healthy, the kids are doing great, the bills are paid.  What more could I ask for. 

It has been a lot of fun lately with Andrew as he learns English and is able to communicate more stuff.  It is scary/exciting and strange to hear about his life in China and things he has been through.  Sometimes it seems like he has always been with us and then he will share about something he did in China or some messed up circumstance he had and we are reminded that he comes with a past and 11 years of life.  In our discussions he makes a clear distinction between the person he was in China and the person he is here.  Since getting here he has become a Christian and decided he doesn't want to follow the path he was on in China.  It turns out, as we had surmised, he wasn't a really nice boy in China.  He was only interested in himself and didn't have a lot of guidance on how to be a great guy...China standards of a good man and Bible standards are somewhat different.  Anyway it is really exciting to see him genuinely want to leave behind the things he knows were wrong in China.  My wife and I pray all the time that he will continue to embrace the new man he is.  We are so blessed by him. 

Ethan continues to do well in school.  He got a math award and a reading award.  NERD!!!  He is much smarter than I ever was (good thing) and he is an incredibly sensitive kid.  He cares for others and has such an amazing attitude toward people!  He is awesome.

Kayla is growing and is cute beyond words.  We are so blessed by her and cannot believe she is going to be in kindergarten this coming year!  How weird. 

Our family is doing great.  We just paid off our student loans and are completely debt free, except for the house of course.  Church is great and life is wonderful.  We hope all our friends are as blessed as we are.  God is powerfully at work and we are glad to be walking with him!

Look at those amazing kids...yes Andrew is getting buff, no he doesn't have a bowl cut anymore.  No Ethan is not that glowing white color in real life, yes he is skeleton skinny, Yes Kayla is that cute!

Here we are at the orchestra.  How uptown huh.  We are cultured people...no low class here!!!

Andrew messing around in Target....would have been lookin good in the 30's

Doing Great!

I just thought I would blog a little and update everyone on how we are doing.  Now that Christmas is over it seems to have slowed down a little.  We had a lot of fun this Christmas.  It was Andrew's first Christmas ever and our first as a family.  I remember last year we were waiting to get Andrew and just bummed out that he wasn't with us.  Last year we bought family matching pajamas with our names on them.  We had Andrew's PJs but no Andrew.  This year we all wore them together...what a delight. We put them on, jumped in the car, got hot chocolate from Starbucks, and drove around these amazing neighborhoods to look at Christmas lights.  We are talking wall to wall lights and live Santa and singers the works, all over 10-15 blocks.  Overall, we had a great time meeting family and having materialism overload.  Our kids are always fantastic and this year was the same.  Our extended family met Andrew for the first time and they all seemed to like him very well.  We appreciate our supportive and loving family. 

The other day I took Andrew and Ethan to the driving range for the first time.  They had a great time!  They are pretty good for their first time, although totally lacking in golf etiquette.  I was glad Ethan liked it.  He decided he doesn't like soccer anymore so one less sport available.  Perhaps I should have him read a book about it beforehand.  He likes reading more than sports.  Andrew of course liked golf, he likes anything active.

Both the boys have been reading their Bibles regularly.  Andrew reads and listens to his in Chinese on the iphone.  We love talking with them about spiritual issues and it is great to see them both interested so much in Jesus.  We continue to pray for Kayla as she is now four and beginning to understand things.  We pray she too will commit her life to Jesus when she is able to understand.

Last week we were able to find one of Andrew's friends from China who had been adopted before Andrew.  He lives in Washington and Andrew has talked with him on the phone twice.  It has been great to see him interact with people from his life in China.  We overheard thier part English part Chinese conversation.  Andrew was asking about his friends parents.  After the phone call my wife was talking with Andrew and asked what they were talking about. Andrew told her all sorts of things but two things I loved.  Andrew asked his friends parents kissed him.  His friend told Andrew that his mother does but not his father.  When Andrew was telling this to my wife he told her that it was so sad that hid daddy didn't kiss him too.  (LOVE IT)  Also, Andrew asked his friend if he knew Jesus.  His friend doesn't but it was really cool that Andrew is already asking his friends about their spritual status.  We hope Andrew is able to continue this relationship.  We told him to be extra nice because now he has the responsibility of sharing Jesus with his friend. 

All in all we love our family so much and are so thankful to our Lord for giving us such great kids.  We cannot express how much we love them.  Our prayer for oursevles is that we will parent well so they will become amazing adults who impact this world for the Lord.   

Say cheese!  Three great kids

Family PJs!!!!

Hi everyone!!

Teeing it up!