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!

Andrew "Yes Jesus"

Hello all, hope you are well.  I just thought I would update everyone on an amazing conversation Andrew and I had last night.  For the last several months he has been reading and listening to the New Testament in Chinese on his itouch.  He has gone through two gospels, Acts and Romans.  We have been talking about spiritual stuff off and on at home as well as at church.  Well last night when we were talking Andrew was telling me how he prays often and talks with God and that he wanted to say "Yes to Jesus"  We spent about 45 minutes or so talking about it and at the end he said that he believed in Jesus and wanted to follow him.  So I prayed with him to say yes to Jesus!!!  Pretty awesome day!  It has been amazing to watch his faith journey over the last few months.  When we first met he hadn't really ever thought about God or spiritual issues.  He has asked a lot of questions to us and to our Chinese speaking Pastor Mark.  Several weeks ago he indicated that he was believed the Bible but still wished he believed more.  Last night he decided to step forward in his faith!  Praise God.  What a blessing he is to us and what a great day for our family!

Three really cute kids

Kisses for everyone

Zombie Land

Birthday, Life and 5 months

It's been five months since we first met Andrew.  We can hardly believe all the amazing stuff God has done in our family.  We have such a great connection to one another, not only Andrew to us and us to him as parents but our kids all get along so well.  Andrew takes care of Kayla and Ethan and he play well together.  No fighting or angry words.  I am so overwhelmed at how amazing all our kids are.  Every night when my wife and I are praying we just marvel at how awesome our kids are and we thank God constantly.

I noticed it has been a while since I blogged last.  ooopps. But I guess we are back into our everyday life and time just zips by.  Andrew celebrated his first (12th) Birthday a month ago.  He had never celebrated a birthday in China nor had he ever been given presents.  We had a party for him with our family and friends and around 40-50 people came.  He was blown away by the sheer volume of presents.  It looked like a Toys R Us exploded.  He was so excited.  Even a month before he would constantly tell us.  "17 more days till Andrew's birthday"  and ask over and over if there was going to be a party for him and who was going to come.  Thanks for everyone who was able to make it by the way.  It was a great day for him.  I don't even think he really cares that much about the presents.  He was really excited that so many people came for him.  A good day.

We have been hanging out at Disneyland, doing homework and having a blast.  Andrew has learned a lot of English.  We no longer use the translator to communicate.  I think in a year he will be fluent!  hahahah.  Sometimes we even forget that he is still learning.  The other day he was speaking in Chinese to one of our friends and I was blown away that he spoke Chinese so well...forgetting that he has only been here five months.  Ethan has begun to love school again.  We  were worried since his last teacher was such a bust.  He is going to an invite only early morning accelerated math class.  I know this sounds amazing to you all too.  He gets all geeked up to go.  I am sure he likes it more than his soccer team.  Guess he is just like Daddy!  hahahha NOT.  Gotta love that nerd.  Kayla is as cute as ever and now wants to read all the time.  She can't actually read but that doesn't stop her.  We get to listen to a story everyday and sometimes she just sits alone and "reads" aloud.  She loves dragging a book around with her.

Life is amazing.  We are trying to be great parents.  We love our kids so much we constantly want to be better at raising them.  Well hope you enjoy the post and Happy Thanksgiving.

Looking cool in this new clothes

What a great smile

Cutest kid on Earth

That's my son!

That's my son!

Family train...even Tanner is there

Those are some handsome fellows

Nice family of fake smiles! haha

He is officially bigger and stronger than uhma

Happy 12th Birthday Andrew!

Piles of Presents

Wow!

Slightly overwhelmed

Still too cute

He can't believe everyone was there just for him. Happy 12 Son.

We are thankful that God loves us and has blessed our family.  We pray you are blessed as well!!

1st Day of School

Ethan and Andrew had their first day of school today.  We decided to put Andrew in his age appropriate 6th grade rather than hold him back one year.  We figured he hates school anyway so why tack on an extra year.  No actually we and the administration of the school thought it would be best for him.  It was a great morning.  We were worried all night and Andrew was very nervous.  Since we have grown up with Ethan's class we basically know all the kids in his grade but we have no idea who any of the kids are in Andrew's grade.  Actually, we knew one kid named Joshua.  His family lived near us for a while and his brother was one of Ethan's friends.  Joshua is a great kid and he had visited our home a few times.  Well, needless to say, we were hoping the one 6th grader we knew would be in Andrew's class.  Of course when we showed up Joshua was in Andrew's class.  We were pretty excited and talked with him on the playground and introduced him to Andrew.  He volunteered to show him around and take care of him.  We were super blessed.  Right away Joshua pointed out another kid who spoke Chinese and introduced Andrew.  Then we got to meet Andrew's teacher.  She seemed nice.  We told her a little bit about Andrew and she thanked us for letting us know about his limited English.  She then said something like, "Don't worry because I have him sitting to a nice boy."  We then came to find out that by "coincidence"  (of course we don't believe in coincidence but God's hand) he was already sitting by Joshua in class.  In that moment we again realized how good God is and how he always provides more than we even know how to ask for.  Pretty cool day.  Both Ethan and Andrew have good classes and were excited rather then discouraged after school.  Blessings!

Time with Daddy

I sit in my office at church today reflecting on how amazing our God is and what a blessing our new son has been to me and our entire family.  There was a pretty cool moment today between Andrew and I.  A little background on Andrew.  He hates to drive or travel in cars.  In China, he would put his head between his knees and rock back and forth, then claim to be sick.  (Of course you are sick son, if you do that. )  He is motion sensitive but avoids the car whenever he can.  Even a ten minute ride is long to him.  We don't think he gets car sick as much because we force him to sit up and look forward, this has helped, but still in his mind he is going to get sick every time he gets into the car.  So today I had to drive to the airport, which is about an hour away.  Andrew asked where I was going and I told him and told him it was an hour away by car.  He said, "Andrew, No."  I said OK.  A few minutes later he had a concentrated and conflicted look on his face so I asked him what was going on.  He indicated he wanted to go.  I told him he could do whatever he wanted.  Eventually he decided to go with me.  This may seem small but I am certain he wanted to spend more time with me and if he had to go in the car to do it then it was worth it for him.  We took my truck and he insisted on sitting right next to me, not in the passenger seat but the mini seat between he passenger seat and the driver seat.  He held my hand the entire time and every few minutes would kiss my hand, look up and give me a kiss.  (by the way he totally loves kissing his parents now!!!!)  We know of adoptive parents who can't even get a hug from their kids after six months being home but we get hundreds of hugs and kisses all day long from Andrew.  He is our most affectionate kid.  Anyway, I was really happy that he wanted to be with me and was willing to do something he hated and thought would make him sick so he could spend more time with his daddy.  Needless to say I love him so much and am so blessed to be his father.  He is an amazing boy and we couldn't be more blessed.  We have known him 44 days. 

When we got home he was really excited because he didn't feel sick the entire time!!!  Thank you God.

Disneyland

So I guess our kids really are spoiled.  We saved up enough to get season passes again.  Rough cause Disney ain't makin it easy.  Andrew now thinks everyday in America is Disneyland and waterparks.  We have totally ruined any possibility of him thinking America is normal or goes to work or school.  Daddy seems to never leave the house, neither does Uhma, kids just play outside for a while and then we all go to some amusement park.  If we don't go to an amusement park we go biking together and then to the playground or have friends over.  I guess our life is overly blessed.  I don't know how it got so amazing but I praise God everyday for our amazing adventure.

Andrew continues to do wonderfully.  He now will kiss us in public no problem.  He loves to come up and hug and hold hands and when we are at home he will lay against us or sit on us.  He sleeps well, eats well and loves our family.  We love him so much, our only regret is that we didn't get to be his parents earlier.  He is an amazing kid and our hearts bust with love for him and over him.

We know other families that struggle to attach to their new child or their child struggles to attach to them but so far we have not had any issues like that.  We have a senior from the school I teach at coming over to the house to speak with Andrew in Chinese.  He is Korean but spent 7 years in China.  This Tuesday we were asking about China and what Andrew misses and if he wants to contact his foster parents.  He was not really interested in calling them and kept telling us that he loved being here and that his new family is good and he is enjoying it and thinks everything is good.  He did mention that when Daddy gets upset it is a little scary.  hahaha.  Our only worry in this whole thing was that Andrew would rather be in China then with us.  That is not the case and he loves being in our family.  We are truly blessed.

So we continue to live a life we don't deserve and can only thank God for his goodness.  We pray for all our friends that they too could experience the love of God and the love of family.  Be blessed.

On the tram.  Can we be cuter?

Classic Disney Family Photo...Ordinary Family.

Small World After All...isn't it true.

Kayla wanted to go on Space Mountain and was exactly 40 inches.  She thought it was going to be fun...but...then waahhhahhahh.

If you could zoom you would see terror.  Daddy trying to keep her from totally freaking out. 

Thunder Mountain...much more fun.

(PHOTO REMOVED DUE TO MARRIAGE ISSUES)    These two beauties are the love of my life.  I love these girls SO much. 

Andrew finally knows that Daddy eats his children.  Too bad...welcome to the family.

Hi!

I am biased but this is a BEAUTIFUL FAMILY.  GOD is amazing and has blessed us. As a believer God has allowed us to be full with his love but then has added fullness of love from our family.

Home 15 Days

We have been home a little over two weeks.  We have been with Andrew for 25 days.  It seems much longer, in a good way.  He seems to be pretty attached.  His English is improving and he gets along well with the other kids.  Ethan, being the most sensitive of our kids, sometimes wants more time with Dad and Mom.  He has had one or two moments of jealousy but the upside is worth it for him.  He has someone to play Pokemon with and also play Uno and other games.  Kayla has always been too little but now Ethan has someone who can actually play stuff.  Kayla is stoked because the more brothers the better is her motto. 

Andrew loves to swim and asks to go everyday.  Yesterday it was cloudy and misty but he still wanted to go.  So I (Sam) went with him to the small local water park.  We, of course, have passes.  Luckily it is two blocks away so we can just go for an hour or so.  So daddy and Andrew got to go swimming in less then hot weather.

When we first met Andrew he hated driving. He would put his head between his legs and bounce up and down, then complain he felt sick.  So we have been making him ride correctly since getting to America and now he doesn't seem to mind as much.  The sickness has been magically cured!  yea us. 

Andrew is more attached to Daddy at this point.  I think he is normally attached to Uhma but Daddy and he have an amazing connection.  He loves to come near me and sit by or lean next to me.  He doesn't balk at all at kisses anymore and sometimes even initiates them.  He certainly initiates physical contact, hand holding, and leaning.  He is even more open to physical affection in public.  He will hold hands, allow hugs and even allow kisses sometimes.  My wife always makes him kiss in public...hahaha just to embarrass him.  She threatens no DSi if she doesn't get her kiss!  He always gives in for DSi.  He loves his video games. 

We have had a relaxing two weeks.  Playing, hanging out and having a good time.  Andrew is happy to be part of our family and tells us that he is glad to be here and he likes it here more then China.  In addition, some of the bad habits he had seem to be gone.  He doesn't make hitting motions toward everything anymore, rides correctly in the car and overall is better and better each day.  We love him beyond measure.  Last night when I was saying goodnight and telling him how much I love him I stretched out my arms as wide as I could.   He then told me, "I love you" and stretched out his arms as wide as he could made a stretching noise and then an explosion noise.  We truly love him beyond measure and I think he is feeling the same way.

 Our prayer continues to be the same today as it was when we decided to adopt him, that he would have the opportunity to follow Jesus.  We pray he will choose to become a Christian when he understands what that means.  Thanks for everyone's prayers and love. 


Not so keen on the swings

Going swimming...again