Dora and Diego Got Nothin on Us!

I have learned many things since March 23rd,the day we took these two kiddo's home with us. One thing I have learned about them is that while they do fight like typical siblings do they really do love each other very much. And they love to explore together.

Here the kids discover a 'fort in the woods' that someone else built. It sits atop a little cliff and overlooks a brier thicket. I remember the days we used to build fort's in the woods. We even dug up moss to lay as carpet.

Pierson is quite the 'careful' adventurer. He wants to explore everything but does so slowly and with great care. He likes to climb on the rocks and discover what is under leaves, and sticks. He doesn't however like to get his feet wet. I bought these little water shoes for them thinking he would love to stomp in the water in them... He still insists on wearing his boots though to keep his feet dry. :) He is a funny little thing.

Monkey see Monkey Do

Maylin loves to explore as well. She is usually about two steps behind Pierson. She however is not the careful one. She does things much faster and with little to no care. And as you can see here things are usually done with one hand (she loves her juice boxes). Fortunately she has pretty good balance and agility.

PS I typically don't make the kids wear their helmets while playing in the woods and creek. This day they happened to ride their scooters to the park and just never took their helmets off which worked out great because about 10 minutes after this picture was taken Maylin was running down the trail which is filled with many rocks and roots when my little "thunder wonder" took a great dive. This one was complete with bleeding knees and elbows her forehead would have been bleeding too if it hadn't been for her helmet. The thud the helmet made shook the whole forest!
I think the birds even stopped singing for this one.

But never fear big brother was near. He came and helped me wipe the tears from her eyes and pour water on her cuts. He then took her hand and walked with her the rest of the way home.
Be still my heart.

The joys of a beautiful spring day

I think we can say that Chaucer is doing well with the kids. The worst thing he has done towards them is eat their dinner! He has managed to get a pot of Macaroni, a bowl of soup, ham sandwich and probably so much more that I am unaware of. If anything I often have to save Chaucer from the kids. They pull his tail, ears, hair... When you hear him whining you know one of the children have their hands on him.

I have also learned that the kids love to walk and walk sometimes much further than their little legs can go. Some days they have more energy than others and sometimes we have to stop and take a little break. Often times it is just sitting down and eating some Gold fish and having a drink of water. Sometimes the break consists of making up games to play in the middle of the trail. Today was one of these days. When all else failed we drew a circle in the dirt and tried to get as many "gumballs" in the circle as we could.

After a walk the kids have typically developed an appetite so we sit down and eat some lunch together. We learned that PB&J is a great sandwich. (they weren't sure of at first but they love it now). Lunch is usually followed by a nap. (PS. Pierson is doing much better he actually shut the door himself today and said "She-ya Momma")
After nap time we have to figure something out to do to entertain ourselves until BaBa gets home.

Who doesn't love a tub of water and a garden hose? Pierson thought it was fun to sit in the tub and lean back on the this ball... I think we either need a bigger tub or a smaller ball. :)

And have you met my sassy frass? She spent more time filling up her watering can and watering the grass than actually sitting in it... what ever makes her happy. Right? That area of the grass is going to be VERY green! We'll have to keep moving the tubs so that the rest of the yard gets the same irrigation treatment! :)

Have a happy day!

Ah, the joy of dandelions!

What is a summer day without blowing a dandelions? This was actually taken Easter Weekend I am just getting around to posting it though. Why is it that such a small "free" thing that we want to keep out of our yards can be so much fun? I think it is because God created things for us to play with. I don't think he ever needed us to create plastic toys and rubber balls for entertainment. If we take a look around and get out of our houses there is so much to play with and so much to enjoy. I am finding that my kids like things of nature just as much as they do all the plastic we could buy them.


Take a look around and see what God has provided for you to 'play' with today.

Bet you didn't know I had three kids

I only hate that I missed the metal mixing bowls on all three of their heads.

Ok, I think that I am back from the land of chaos! I am going to be trying to blog more regularly now.

We are working on napping/spending time in their rooms so that mommy can get a shower and rest for an hour. The first day it went well... the second day a little worse. Today... lets just say that I am so thankful for having watched the supper nanny prior to having children. He screamed and screamed and for 33 minutes. He would open the door and try to come out. I would follow it with "Momma loves you" and pick him up and put him back in his room and shut the door, all the while he would scream and flail saying "BOO YOW" (which means no) . Over and over and over again we did this. The only way I was able to stay calm was knowing that this tactic worked for the supper nanny... surely it would work for me. Finally the 21st and last time he opened the door he said "sorry Mommy" with a little pout face and he shut the door by himself... I almost fell over! He has tried to come out twice since then. Once to show me that he was cleaning his room the second to show me that he let the May Fly out of his bug catcher. He is pretty clever in trying to get me to come in and hang out but I simply showed him the egg timer and told him his time wasn't up yet and shut the door... so far so good... we'll see how it goes tomorrow.

His timer is about to go off. I will be trying to play catch up over the next several days. We still need to finish the trip and Easter and just the first few days home...

The chilrens's recreation park was closed...

Today (well actually about a week ago, but i am behind) we thought a great treat for the kids would be to go to the recreation center. It was supposed to have rides and indoor stuff kind of like a Discovery Place/ Carrowinds (for those of you in the Charlotte area you know what I mean.) So we hopped in a taxi and off we went. only to find that it was closed for some reconstruction... boo! :(

So while we still had a cab we pulled out our map and there was a fine arts park nearby so we told him to take us there.

If you read "Fine arts Park" with a big green area marked off on a map wouldn't you think that it was a park like we in the Western world think of as a park... Yeah we did too... However it was a Fine Arts Museum with a few sculptures outside... Figuring that the kids wouldn't be interested in the 'fine art' we decided to walk around and look at the sculptures. The first few pictures are us teaching the kids how to become one with the arts. :)

Daddy is teaching them how to imitate the sculptures... this one must have been particularly strange.

Getting a hug from 'grandma"

Pierson was trying to stand like this woman. Neither one of the kids seemed fazed that she had no clothes on.

Don't conform to the world but become one with the arts.

"This egg looking thing is fun Mom!"

walking up steps backwards. How is that so much fun?

After we had exhausted all of the sculptures we could see the Grand Hotel. I had read about this place and knew that it was also a major tourist destination so I thought while we could walk there we probably should. It didn't look that far... About 45 minutes later we got there! (things are always deceivingly farther than they appear! We were glad we went though. It was a beautiful place. Apparently many emperors came there and they still have state dinners there as well.

(From here it really doesn't look that far away!)
We thought that a picture in front of the hotel would be nice so we told the kids to hug and this is what we got! It was good for laugh or two of passers by!

Maylin decided to take a load off of her weary feet and plopped down on the sidewalk..

Once she was rested up she wanted to pose in front of everything.

And of course monkey see, monkey do! (I know you like the hello kitty band aide on the forehead! That was purely for looks by his choice.)

Of course Daddy is a good sport and joins in the fun!

Inside the hotel. This was an amazing display of real orchids! It was absolutely beautiful. The kids were impressed too can't you tell?! :)

Our little princess making her way down the grand staircase.

So after a long day of walking we decided we would walk back over to the Hello Kitty restaurant. this time we got to sit in the cool seats... But the cool seats weren't really practical for two squirmy children... It was fun though.

Maylin likes to pretend she is asleep in her pictures.

So there you have it. Our trip was nearing an end and we were soon to be going home as a family of four. We'll keep working on posting the trip and the aftermath of the trip so stay tuned!

Thanks to Everyone!!!

I feel like I need to acknowledge so many people and thank so many people! I'll get to thank you notes at some point, but for now please know that we are so thankful for everything, including but not limited to...

-All the prayers.

-Our bible study group for putting out pine needles for us!

-Our church friends and family for coordinating and preparing so much food for us over the next four weeks I understand!!! Praise God!!! Everything has been delicious!

-Friends and family who met us at the airport! It was such a blessing to see all the smiling faces after we were soooooooooooo exhausted.

-Cassie for picking up our mail... (I still need to get that from you)

-My students who have cleaned the house, made paintings for the kids, and brought me cake, cards, and presents. I love you guys!

-Mom for doing all of our laundry! that was no small undertaking! And for helping Adam while I was not feeling well!

-So many friends who have given us clothes and toys! (Teniah thanks for all of the clothes I still haven't gone through all of it, but that is an impressive amount!) Tricia thanks for all of the cars and toys! Pierson loves them. Cassie most of Harper's clothes are going to fit after all... Maylin is smaller than what I thought after all.

-Family and friends who have given us financial aid! You have no idea how much that means to us. Those amounts ranging from $10 to $5000. Every little bit has helped us bring these two precious children to their forever home. Something they deserved four and five years ago. (I'll save their stories for another day but they had hard beginnings. Fortunately they were loved and well taken care of in their foster home for the past 2 and a 1/2 years.) We have come VERY close to paying off everything thankfully we have a wonderful friend who has given us an interest-free loan for the rest of it! Praise God!

-The many gifts we have been given.

-The beautiful peonies from the Biggers.

-Everyone who has had a hand and heart in welcoming these two children into new lives here with us.

I am sure I'll think of more things to thank people for but for now please no that none of your kindness has been unnoticed! THANK YOU EVERYONE!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!

Daan Park or is it Da An Park?

Maylin watching Dora in Mandarin while we finished getting everything ready for the appointment.

Today was "consulate day". We had to be at the US Consulates office at 8:00 for our appointment. Little did we know the consulate's office was extremely busy, crowded and we had no clue where to go. there was a long line waiting outside to get in so we naturally got in line with all of the Taiwanese residents who had been there for a long time already (judging by the length of the line). Adam then had the bright idea that he would go check things out and make sure we were in the right place. He quickly came back and we were ushered inside into another line with more Taiwanese people. Then a guard spotted us and (I guess we stuck out) and asked us why we were there. He then told us to go sit in the VIP area and wait for our appointment... so we did, but within a minutes time we were ushered away by someone else and told to go to the third floor... It was all a bit overwhelming but sure enough the third floor was where we were supposed to be. So we down we sat again... waiting... In all it took about 2 1/2 hours with four trips to the bathroom (mind you there was no elevator), three trips to the "window" where our interview took place, and many many squirms... it was an interesting morning! But it was over and all we had left to do was pick up the children's visa's at 2:30. So feeling a bit overwhelmed we went back to the hotel to regroup then decided the kids needed to get their wiggles out so we headed to the park.
(these photo's are from two different park trips. I thought I would just put them all in one.)
what is a park trip with out some good ole' street vendor donuts?! Thanks Ba Ba!

My two clowns standing in front of the sign for the park.

Pierson was brave and would shoot down the slide head first. He kept doing this over and over even after a few face first landings.

Maylin loved the swings.

Pierson was very brave and tried everything. This apparatus was funny to watch him on. At the bottom he was actually just climbing down the net. (keep in mind he is thinner than we thought so his pants were too big) by the bottom of the net his jeans were around his ankles and his "Car's" undies were shinning to everyone. He laughed and laughed and laughed!!! So did I!

They enjoyed going down this slide together. They wanted me to but I wasn't sure I was small enough for it so I insisted I 'had' to take pictures. lol

Daddy made the swings into a ride. Before he would pull them he would say, "Put your goggles on" and make a 'Shick Shick' noise that they would mimic him. Then they would put on their helmets, wiggles their noses... and so on and so on... Finally he would pull them back clicking and "shick"ing the whole way before he would let them fly. They were VERY amused by this.

Da An Park (we saw it spelled different ways so in fashion with that I'll spell it different ways through out just to confuse you as much as we were!) :) had a lot of exercise equipment. Asians seem to be very health conscious. It was not unusual to see people all of the parks doing Tia chi". Pierson and Maylin thought this equipment was just as fun as the children's play area.

Then of course there was wrestle mania in the field. Daddy is so much fun. Although this incident ended in tears not because someone was hurt, but because Pierson lost one of his tic-tac's he had been storing in his coat pocket. We searched and searched for that orange tic-tac to no avail! Sad, sad ending.

Pierson tends to keep things in his pocket's instead of eating them. I think it is to make sure he has something for later if he needs it. I believe it is a survival instinct. He doesn't know us well and doesn't know when the next time we will feed him or give him candy so he is going to make sure he is prepared always. Maylin on the other hand wants to eat and eat and eat and eat... The girl is a bottomless pit. I think she is just planning on keeping her belly full for the same reason's Pierson holds on to his food. It is sad, but something we were prepared for. If anyone is adopting a toddler or older child we recommend "The Connected Child". It has been very helpful. I still haven't finished it,but what I have read has been very enlightening!