Ashland Pictures

New Pictures and Halloween

Halloween was a lot of fun this year....both girls enjoyed trick or treating, but Emma was easily the most excited with the candy loot! Nina was freezing the majority of the night and chose to sit out the 2nd round of trick or treating with our friend, Audrey. Nina and Emma have also started swimming classes, and both LOVE it! Little Nina is so excited by the time she gets to jump into the water that I am convinced that she will soil her swimsuit! Her teacher thinks that it is hilarious! Emma is a pro, and is doing really with in class with Audrey. Both girls are singing in the children's choir at church. Nina has an obviously tougher time learning the words, but is catching on with our help.

Nina received a bone scan last week which threw us for a loop. It says that she is 4 1/2, according to her bone structure. Dr. Taylor says that, giving a year or so for institutionalization and poor nutrition, she appears to be 5 1/2 or 6. Where do we go from here? Well, she is scheduled for a dental visit on the 25th, at which time she will have a dental scan. The dental scan *can* be more accurate. We will compare the two scans then figure out what to do. Dr. Taylor says that she would recommend waiting a year, giving her as much calcium and iron as possible, and seeing how she is progressing at that point. If it appears that her birthdate is still incorrect after a year, we will be able to change her birthday legally if we wish. Interestingly enough, I asked her last week how old she was....guess what she told me? "Six!" After telling us that she was 8 up until now, she says six! I don't know what to think of that...the truth is that only God and her parents know for sure, which means that we will never know for sure.

I sent an email to her orphanage director with some pictures recently. I have not received a reply, but I didn't expect to. Nina would still like to call her friend in China, and we will try to arrange that in the future.

Hope that everyone is doing well. Our thoughts are with my family in Florida. My great uncle is receiving hospice care, and his remaining time on this earth is very short. We are praying for my great aunt, Janie, in hopes that she will take comfort in knowing that she will be reunited with him someday.

God bless!

Kris

Aaahhhhhhh Fall!

My FAVORITE season, and luckily, DH's too! The girls have been busy, busy with school and activities. We were able to visit Ashland last weekend during fall break. Nina met my grandmother and my great aunt for the first time, attended the Ashland football game, and charmed the pants off my parents and my brother!

We found out later in the week that my 40 year old baby brother had been in a terrible accident while working. He is SO blessed to be alive, and my mom and I have reminded him that God has a DEFINITE and IMPORTANT plan for his life. His UPS truck rolled over an unknown amount of times while falling over a 60 foot hill! He suffered some major head trauma, and had to have an ear reattached, but it could have been SO much worse, esp. if he hadn't been wearing a seatbelt!

Nina has grown a 1/2 inch already! She still does not like milk (and it makes her very sick--even the lactose free kind), but we have found ways to sneak some calcium into her diet. Of course, she also continues to take daily vitamins, and is eating more "American style" food these days. I'm still making lots of noodles, but we are making progress! She is such a joy, and I miss her so much when she is at school! Emma is doing TONS better, too. Her teacher showed me her notebook during our conference. Emma has drawn many, many pictures of her holding hands and playing with her sister, and most of the titles say "I love my sister," or something similar. Despite the bunkbeds, they choose to sleep in the SAME twin bed most nights, and both have recently gotten into "cleaning" the house. A welcome change! :)

Enjoy the new pictures! We love you guys!

Update

Its been a crazy, but mostly wonderful, time period! Emma became sick last week, followed by Roger, then HongLi. So far, I have been blessed....however, I've started with a major deep chest cough tonight. Hopefully it will not turn into something more. We have been VERY sad to have not been able to return to church! We made it one Wednesday night before Emma got sick, so we are really hoping to make it this weekend. We miss our church family!

Can I just say that despite all of the sibling rivalry issues, and the increase in household busyness, I LOVE having 3 kids. I LOVE my 2 girls! Nina is SUCH a joy, and is NEVER in a bad mood, or uncooperative....ok, at least not for more than about 5 minutes! She started some tutoring today at Garden Springs (with the ESL teacher). She is going back to school for tutoring tomorrow, then we hope to enroll her to start next week. I'm more than a little worried...the poor thing will just have to sit there, not knowing anybody. I know that others have done it, but I'm planning on attending with her for a little while. Knowing her, it will only be a couple of hours before she is ready for me to go.

Enjoy the new pics!

Kris

Update

Hello to all! We have been hibernating over the last few days, so I haven't taken the time to update our blog. We arrived back in Lexington on time at 9:55 p.m. on Wednesday night. Just today are we starting to get back to feeling slightly normal. We were hit hard yesterday...as in feeling like we had been hit by a train! If you haven't been through an intense jetlag experience before, there is no way that I know of to explain it. Somewhere between getting hit by a massive flu and the feeling that you can get after pulling three allnighters in a row during college finals. Your entire body aches, you feel clammy and cold one minute, then are sweating bullets the next. Your stomach is upset, you are dizzy and all you want to do is sleep.....like for 12-16 hours. Like I said, that was our yesterday, but today we are feeling MUCH better! Thank you, Jesus!

Nina is doing so great! She is picking up some English, but still has far to go, understandably. Emma has been struggling. She is so jetlagged, and going to school as of Thursday. She has been experiencing more jealousy than I even expected her to experience. Today, it really does seem as if she is feeling better also. There has been no whining or jealous tantrums at all! The girls have loved each othe to death...Emma's absence has allowed both girls to "miss each other" during the day. Today, we all went to pick up Emma, and stayed after school for the book fair. Nina was able to see where she would go to school, and will finally understand where her sister is all day! Emma was proud of her school, and was able to show it off which made her feel very important. A win-win!

We are still battling with Nina's motion sickness issues. I have NEVER had motion sickness (other than from inner ear stuff), so I am NO help whatsoever as far as trying to make her feel better. Roger used to get sick when he was younger, but hasn't in a long time. We've finally stopped turning on movies, letting her read, or play video games while we are in the car, all of which have helped. If anyone has other advice, please let me know. I gave her a 1/2 of a Dramamine pill yesterday, and it put her to sleep before we could ever GET to the car...kind of defeats the purpose!

Here are some pictures not previously posted. We'll try to post a few more times before calling it quits with the blog. Thanks for "listening!"

Kris

At Nana and Papa's

Ready to Go Home!