瓢虫(Lady Bug)

Hope's first response to a Piao Chong (or Lady Bug) on her. Ah! For the wonderment in children's hearts to be in our hearts as well.

I think that's why God keeps giving us children, so that we can see the world the way they see it and see HIS awesome creation and stand in awe instead of cynical boredom.

We found out that our Dossier (legal stuff) that went to China was Logged into their central system on April 23rd. For those who have adopted, our LID (Log-In-Date) is April 23. This is the official count down for China.

Love and Logic

We've been attending a Small Group at our church, reading and learning about How to Parent with Love and Logic. The book, Parenting with LOVE and LOGIC by Foster Cline and Jim Fay, goes along with the course.
How has this parenting style changed our lives; let me count the ways:
1. No more need to shout at our kid. Result: vocal chords remain intact. Happy parents
2. Kid has to make a choice. Result: happy when she makes the right choice. Very sad for everyone when she doesn't.
3. Kid becomes empowered and feels like she can contribute something to the household good. Good, considering she's only 26 months.
4. Parents aren't exhausted after kid goes to sleep. We can actually have a decent conversation and be awake for once.
5. When we have to scream (life in danger, etc), she actually listens!
6. Lots of empathy, makes us parents extremely loving to kid, even though SHE made the wrong choice. IT's not about a battle of I'm right/Your wrong.

So, far, we like it. Our home can remain fairly low on the decibel range of toddler homes. Though, we are still sinful creatures and can raise the voice pretty easily. Hope likes to sometimes make the wrong choice just to see if we'll follow up with our consequences. Is that strong willed? not sure...

Wanna see Grandma

Well, After a long debate about whether to go to Utah for vacation or to San Diego, Hope has again "trumped" our decisions! Man, what happens to couples after they become parents? It's like the kid becomes the dictator no matter how hard you try to make sure that the "parents come first"

Paxton was talking with Grandma on the phone, when Hope sat on his lap and said "上飞机！去看Grannmama!" (translation: get on plane! Go see Grandma). She proceeds to run around the entire house telling us that we are going to go to the zoo to see "flah-ming-gos" and "长颈鹿“（giraffes: her favorite). Of course, Grandma is on the phone telling us to yes, please come asap to San Diego and she will spoil Hope rotten by taking her to the zoo and Sea World and the beach and Balboa Park. Might as well just put a crown on her head and bow down to her! After we hang up, we have a serious discussion. Utah: beautiful arches, campgrounds, long long drives. For Hope, there is no mention of food, so Utah is bad. San Diego: Grandma and food, Penguins and food, Flah-ming-gos and food, Giraffes and food, Big Ocean and food. Hope has decided that San Diego must be the place we are to go.

She overhears us decide that maybe this year, we should go visit Grandma since Hope will probably try to eat one of Utah's arches if we take her. Maybe when she's old enough to appreciate looking at a beautiful piece of rock, without trying to chomp on it, we'll take her to Utah. She decides that we will go fly now to Grandma's house. I can't find a good way to explain to a two year old the idea of saving money to buy plane tickets to fly far far away in order to see Grandma. So, I just tell her, Grandma is far away, and one day, we'll get on a plane to fly to where she lives, so we can eat and see her. She's happy with that, and chomps on a Mini-Wheat.

Hope's Visual DNA

This Morning, I asked Hope to pick what her favorites are and why she liked them. This is what she came up with. Notice the theme on food and giraffes. Ah, the simplicity of a little toddler.

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Cool Visual ME (Lisa, that is)

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DTC = Dossier to China

Here is an email we got from our Adoption Agency on Tuesday, March 10th at 5pm:

Hello everyone.....it's official.....I just sent Morgan out the door with 10 complete dossiers.....to drop off at DHL.They will be China bound within the hour....it's a great day!


Well, everyone, our Dossier (all of the official mumbo-jumbo application that's been going from our home to Denver and Washington DC and all over America) is probably in an airplane, headed for Beijing to be accepted by the officials.

It makes us officially "paper pregnant"!!!! Yah! I can eat chocolate and get fat and not worry about the calories making my baby fat...haha!

Beauty and Beastly

Here is our little sweetheart, looking all innocent and sweet...












Next second, she grabs a nearby crayon and draws on the camera lens and giggles with delight as she ruins the camera!

Easter Sunday: We celebrate the risen Lord Jesus who suffered so deeply for us and rose from the dead, to conquer, so that we may have eternal life with HIM. What a glorious DAY. Even though it snowed and covered the rising sun.




Hope and dad woke up to plastic eggs lying all around the house! What to do? We got a little pail and went looking around for these eggs. Hope had a grand ole' time. Of course, this made us late for church, but ah well! After the egg hunt, Hope divvied up the eggs: one for mama, one for baba, and the rest for her. What a nice sharing girl...snicker

Here's our little Hope focusing, like a young grasshopper, as she colors eggs for Easter. We've discovered that yellow is her favorite color, since she wanted to dye all of them yellow. Mom had to intervene.

It was a "Good Friday", for as we had fun dying eggs, we also had a good time, focusing on the sufferings of Christ. Without His sufferings, we could not have understood the great victory that He would have in three days. Our hope is that one day, HOPE would come to understand this deeply in her own heart.

Next American Idol

Here, dad is teaching Hope to say "I'm a pop star!"
What's the age minimum for American Idol? I think she has a chance!