A Romp in South Fork

On Saturday we strapped on the snowshoes for a family romp in the South Fork of Provo Canyon. The fresh air, exercise, and the beauty of God's creation were exactly what my soul needed.

Sasha pre-romp and all smiles

In our family, we engage in full-contact snowshoeing.  It requires helmets and goggles.

Apparently Ben is the one who should be wearing the helmet and goggles!

Loving the sunshiny snow!

I just love this canyon!

Aha!  Now we see why Sam wore the helmet!

It can be so hard to get a good photo of Ben (because he's usually making monster faces) - but this one really captures his sweet spirit... and adventurous nature.

Sash definitely enjoyed her sledding runs

Time to head home.  And a good time was had by all!

Last Call for Good Wishes!

Ok, that's not really true, you're never too late to send your good wishes, but we're reaching the end of our 100 Good Wishes Quilt fabric collection for WanYing.  I know that there are several packages enroute, even from Europe(!) and if you haven't sent your note and fabric yet, now is your chance!

We'd love to include as many prayers and good wishes as we can possibly get from our family and friends - old, new, church, work, neighborhood, school, and blogosphere.  So if you're reading this, that means that we'd love to include you in WanYing's quilt!

And it's super-easy, we promise:

1. Select fabric that you like from your craft supplies, old clothing, project pile, or the fabric store - maybe it's meaningful to you, maybe it has some history, or maybe you just think that it's pretty. It should be 100% cotton and woven (not knit, not like a t-shirt). If each member of your family wants to select their own, all the more good wishes for WanYing!
2. Cut a 12" x 12" (or larger) piece and another little scrap of the fabric for the note
3. Write a note for WanYing with your good wishes. You could include a scripture, a quote, song lyrics, a picture of you, and/or your own heartfelt blessings and prayers for her future. Do whatever expresses your good wishes for WanYing. Don't forget to include your name!
4. Add a scrap of the fabric to your note, so that WanYing can match your quilt square to your good wishes.  We'll put all of the notes in a book for her to read as she grows.
5. Get your fabric and good wishes to us! You can give them directly to us, send them via mail (95 S 300 E, Orem, UT 84058), or give them to either of our moms if you're in the Westminster, Md. area.

Thanks so much for helping us put together such a precious gift for our new little one.  We can't wait to envelope her in all of your love and good wishes!

Sasha's New Skill

Nobody is owning up to who taught her this new "skill", and everybody is feigning ignorance as to how it all happened, but Sasha has now learned to cross her eyes on command. 

Sasha loves to make freaky faces, and heaven knows she gets plenty of reinforcement whenever the call of, "hey, boys, looka me!" goes out.  But for now we'll go with "she just learned it on her own"... until I find the real culprit. 

Our Adoption Testimony

Steve and I are applying like mad right now for adoption grants and many of the grants ask for an "adoption testimony" - our personal story of why we chose to adopt. I'm kind of proud of our answer and thought I'd share it here :)

---

Our family journey of faith has been a series of decisions made in quiet and ever-growing certainty of the next adventure that God is calling us to. That was true when we were two crazy kids who got married in their late teens, true of two crazy twenty-somethings who decided to move 2,000 miles away from everyone they knew to follow God's plan in Utah.

And it was true of us 4 years ago when we were ready to have a third child and slowly realized that God had a miracle in store for us through the adoption of our daughter Sasha.

We do not believe that Christians are commanded to adopt. We do firmly believe that Christians are called to live lives of love and to care for all those in the margins - including orphans. For us, caring for “the least of these” did lead us to adoption. We were ready for another child, and we knew that there were 140 million children in the world who are desperate for families. So, through prayer and study and a whole heck of a lot of research we finally said yes to the adoption adventure God purposed for us.

When we started on Sasha’s adoption journey, we didn’t originally purpose to complete a “special needs” adoption, but there were plenty of special needs that we were open to and felt that we had the faith, the fortitude, and the family dynamic to take in stride. To our surprise, our first “referral” from Kazakhstan was for a two-year-old girl with a wide, unrepaired cleft palate. Gratefully we accepted Sasha’s referral and then the real adventure began.

Sasha has been home from Kazakhstan for almost two years and although our journey with her hasn’t been easy, it has been amazing. And so when we were ready to consider having another child, there was no doubt that we would bring our fourth child into our family through adoption. We were also immediately convinced that we would specifically pursue waiting child adoption. And now we simply cannot wait to bring our daughter, WanYing, home from China in the spring of 2011.

We believe that the most important things that our children can learn from us is that they are:
1. loved irrevocably and unconditionally and
2. not in charge

We purpose to teach our children these truths through word and action every day, just as our God teaches us the very same things. Adoption has taught us in new, astounding, painful, and stretching ways that we are not in charge and that we are passionately and perfectly loved by the God of the Universe simply for who we are. It is our prayer that we can impart to our children a glimmer of these truths as we have learned throughout our lives and especially through adoption.

Lego Creationary

by Sam

We got Dad Lego Creationary for his birthday and, really, I've been using it more than he has. Creationary is like Pictionary but with Legos. I like it. You get a card with a picture and you roll a die and that tells you what category you get. The four categories are: transportation, nature, things, and structures. My favorite category is... well, I just can't say!

These are my seven top favorites that I have taken pictures of. See if you can guess what they are before you look at the answers at the bottom!

Category:  Nature

Category: Things

Category: Transportation

Category: Transportation

Category: Transportation

Category: Things

Category: Nature

Answers (from top to bottom):  1. Dinosaur  2. Drums  3. Hot Air Balloon  4. Mars Rover  5.  Train  6. Watch  7. Watermelon

And that's it for my 7 faves!

Tubing at Soldier Hollow

There's a lot that I love about our church - life-changing fellowship, challenging and affirming Biblical teaching, plenty of places to serve, awesome kids programs... but if I had to rank all of those in order of maximum fun served up in 2 hours, well, nothing compares to our annual CenterPoint Church Day at Soldier Hollow!

And why do I love Church Day at Soldier Hollow?

1. No pesky up-hill walking, the miraculous tube-lift does it all for me!

2. We get to hang out with our church buddies from near and far

3. Hearing Sasha scream, "weeee!" all the way down the hill never gets old

4. And I just love hanging out with my family!

Thanks for satisfying my tubing needs for another year, CenterPoint!

WanYing Update!

Beware - by looking at the following photos, you will fall pretty hard for our little girl. Consider yourself warned.

Yesterday we got our long-awaited WanYing update from WACAP and learned the answers to some of our lingering questions about WanYing and her current living situation. And, most importantly, we got awesome and adorable photos of our baby girl!

Height:  33 inches (up from 30 inches in October)
Weight: 24 pounds (up from 20 pounds in October)
Foot length:  4.7 inches (I wonder what shoe size that is?)
Number of teeth: 16

What are WanYing's favorite words and phrases? She now can call daddy and mommy, and says “let’s eat” and “go play”. Can understand what an adult speaks to her.

How many fingers does she have on her right hand (we have had trouble telling from photos exactly what's going with her right hand)? There is a finger on her right hand and it can move and form a firm grip on objects. [And we are so excited that there are pictures of her grasping blocks in both hands!]

Is WanYing still living with her foster family? She’s already taken back to the
orphanage to live. [This isn't surprising, but we're sorry to hear that she will have endured so much transition in the previous and future couple of months]

Does WanYing have nicknames or is she called by any other name? No nickname and we just call her Wan Ying.

Other glimpses into WanYing's personality: She is a smart girl who not want to play with a dirty toy. When she sees garbage on the floor she would pick it up and throw it into the garbage can. She is a generous girl who likes to share foods or toys with her roommates.

This is such a great update and makes us all the more excited and anxious to get to China and hold this sweet little girl in our arms!

More exciting official-looking envelopes

Oh my gosh, we're really getting close now!  Woo hoo!

Yesterday we got a letter from the Bureau of Consular Affairs (don't these all sound so official?!?) verifying that on the 14th they sent WanYing's I-800 approval to the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou.

Here are the (blessedly few!) remaining paperwork steps:

• Thursday morning, WACAP (our agency) will apply with the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou for our Article 5
• The Article 5 usually takes exactly 2 weeks, but it will be delayed a little for Chinese New Year, so they'll pick up the Article 5 when the Consulate opens again on February 7th
• Our Article 5 will be delivered to the CCAA (Chinese Children's Adoption Authority) on the 9th when they open again after Chinese New Year
• And then we wait somewhere between 2 and 5 weeks for our Travel Authorization!

Once we get our Travel Authorization (TA), we can travel at any time, so we'll travel just as quickly as we can make our flights and reservations, probably around 3 weeks after receiving our TA.

What does all of this mean?  Well, in the best case we'll leave around March 15th.  If the TA takes longer to come, we may leave in early April.  Either way, we're getting close!

For all of the paperwork details and dates, see our full China Adoption Timeline

Sleeps 6 - Getting Cuter!

We worked hard on the girls' room this weekend and it's all looking significantly cuter. I was congratulating myself on the fact that it could almost pass for organizedish until I realized that the only reason I could walk in their room is that the toy box and table and chairs were relocated to our room. On the up-side, if I lose 75 pounds and two feet of height, I will be able to comfortably enjoy tea parties in my very own room.

The faux-canopy and fairie lights above WanYing's bed are really cute - the photos don't do them justice. Once we get the bookshelves/cubbies/junk repositories installed next to WanYing's bed, I'll try to take better photos.

I figure that I must have succeeded in the cuteness efforts since it took Sasha roughly 2 hours to settle down and fall asleep on her first night in her new bed. Only something really cute would keep a kid awake and excited for that long, right?

And kudos to Daddy for ensuring that the girls' room is free from decapitation hazards thanks to the new light fixture (goodbye, fan) and normal-sized persons can enter the bed thanks to the newly shortened bed legs (thank you, hack saw).

Sleeps 6

You know we're getting close to travel (emotionally if not quite chronologically) when we start to rearrange the girls' room!

Although Sasha is insistent that WanYing is going to sleep in her bed, Mom and Dad would like to pretend that there's actually a chance that the girls will actually sleep, so we opted for a bed each.

We started setup on Sunday and except for the decapitation factor with the ceiling fan, the fact that no adult-sized human can enter the bed because of its proximity to the ceiling, and the slight issue that the girls' room is such a total mess that two adult-sized humans cannot both stand in the room at the same time unless they are very comfortable with each other, the project is coming along nicely.

So, the legs of the bed need to be shortened (enter: hacksaw) and considerable cutification of the bed is required (enter: fairie lights) and a change of lighting fixture is imminent (enter: no decapitating fan). But, hey, at least we've started :)

Irresistable Gingerbread House

When Mom buys a gingerbread house kit on clearance after Christmas (I mean, it's gingerbread and Sweet Tarts, it's not going to go bad!) and you've already waited ridiculous tens of minutes for the icing to set, well, a girl just can't pause to pose for a picture!  You just have to dive in!

Not to toot my own horn...

I'm just saying that I think I deserve some kind of mommy street-cred for successfully re-inserting Sasha's left earring

...exactly one week after piercing

...by the light of a headlamp

...while she was sleeping (because even the mention of putting it back in while awake threw her into shrieks of, "I fine, I fine, I no need eawing!")

...because, and I quote, "It fell out when I kicked her in the head" (Ben)

Truthfully, I have no idea what really happened or how the earring came out because I can't imagine that (or even how) Ben would have kicked Sasha's head, but now it's time for a glass of wine and a quick prayer that this evening quickly fades into distant memory.

We want your good wishes!

We're in the final weeks of collecting fabric and notes for WanYing's 100 Good Wishes Quilt and we want to include your good wishes in this fun welcome home present! You may be thinking, "Me?  Do they really mean me?" Yes!*  We'd love to include as many prayers and good wishes as we can possibly get from our family and friends - old, new, church, work, neighborhood, school, and blogosphere!

It's super-easy, we promise!

1. Select fabric that you like from your craft supplies, old clothing, project pile, or the fabric store - maybe it's meaningful to you, maybe it has some history, or maybe you just think that it's pretty. It should be 100% cotton and woven (not knit, not like a t-shirt). If each member of your family wants to select their own, all the more good wishes for WanYing!
2. Cut a 12" x 12" (or larger) piece and another little scrap of the fabric for the note
3. Write a note for WanYing with your good wishes. You could include a scripture, a quote, song lyrics, a picture of you, and/or your own heartfelt blessings and prayers for her future. Do whatever expresses your good wishes for WanYing. Don't forget to include your name!
4. Add a scrap of the fabric to your note, so that WanYing can match your quilt square to your good wishes.  We'll put all of the notes in a book for her to read as she grows.
5. Get your fabric and good wishes to us! You can give them directly to us, send them via mail (95 S 300 E, Orem, UT 84058), or give them to either of our moms if you're in the Westminster, Md. area.

Here are examples of some of the notes we've received so far, and if you'd like to see more examples or learn more about the tradition of the Bai Jia Bei, you can check out our original 100 Good Wishes Quilt post or our friend Lori's 100 Good Wishes Quilt blog.

We're trying to collect all of the fabric for WanYing's quilt by the end of January, so you have some time, but don't procrastinate too much!

Thanks, and we can't wait to see your fabric and sweet good wishes for WanYing!

*unless you're already one of the blessed ones who has already given us your fabric and note, in which case, know that we are grateful and please disregard the remainder of this particular blog post :)

Celebrating WanYing

I am so blessed to have friends who believe that every baby should be celebrated rather than any of that only-throw-a-shower-for-the-first-baby nonsense!  And so on Friday WanYing and I were truly showered with love by my wonderful friend Laura, my moms, and a dozen sisters from church.

It was a lovely gathering  - the ladies brought fabric and notes for WanYing's 100 Good Wishes Quilt, we enjoyed "authentic" Chinese treats purchased at Provo's own Chinese grocery, and we received some very thoughtful, very useful gifts.

But hands down the best part of the evening was joining my sisters in prayer.  We prayed for WanYing, for our trip, for our family, for the bonding and all of the unique facets of adoption - agreeing in blessing for the whole process and blessing this little one who is already woven into the fabric of our family.

The food (even the "authentic" food) was met with enthusiasticapproval except for the plum juice, which was unanimously declared disgusto.

Laura demonstrates how to replace the fortune in a fortune cookie with a special message just for the Morningstars - we get to read them when we get home from China, so you know we're looking forward to that!

Present time!

For reasons that I will not be able to explain, about half of the shots on my camera had me making a face like this.  This was the least embarrassing of the bizarro-face photos.

Sweet matching dresses for the girls from our moms

Sasha models her adorable new dress - can't wait to see the girls in their matching dresses side-by-side!

And I just had to include a photo showcasing the new earrings.  Adorable!

It was a beautiful evening, and I am so grateful for these friends and sisters who value our family so much and show us such tender love.  It sure makes a girl feel special.