Gung Hay Fat Choy...

For those of you unfamiliar with Chinese New Year, that's the Cantonese way of wishing someone a Happy New Year. On Monday night we celebrated at our local Chinese buffet with other adoptive families. There were about 35 in all, and we had a great time. The children received red envelopes with candy and money to start out the new year. One snafu is that I placed $1 in each envelope, unknowingly wishing the children bad luck. Yikes! I now know that to give someone an odd amount of money is not the proper thing to do, as the Chinese are very superstitious. I think I can still get around it cheaply next year by giving two quarters:)

Wrestling Season...

So it's wrestling season, which means on any given night or weekend, Mike or Josh are on a mat somewhere. Last weekend was a home meet for Josh, hosted by his club, Whidbey Wildcat Wrestling. Josh ended up placing 2nd place in his bracket, wrestling at 130. Yikes, he's almost caught my weight class!

The photo below was taken seconds before Josh pinned his opponent. What made it tough was that his opponent was also his team mate!

Way to go Tiff!

So this is a shout-out to my niece, Tiffany. She made us proud last month when, following in her aunt's footsteps, she graduated from OSU. Now wish her luck in finding a job!

Urgent Need...

So for about a month now I have been following this family's amazing story of adoption and miracles. Shortly before Christmas they adopted their 9th and 10th children, two beautiful little ones from Uganda. Their story of faith and persistence is amazing to read. Since then I have found myself making daily visits to their blog for tidbits of encouragement and family life with 12! Well yesterday I was saddened to read that their home was burning down, right at the moment I was reading their blog! To make matters worse, today one of their son's had an emergency appendectomy. Talk about a Job story! Many people in the adoption blog world are doing what they can to help this selfless family, from filling out an application for Extreme Home Makeover, to setting up a Chip-In donation. I am trying to spread the word, so decided to add a link myself. If you would like to help, follow the link here to help the family.

"THE" question

So yesterday Jaelyn asked me the question I've been expecting for quite some time now. I had prepared myself for that moment, practicing the perfect response. We knew the moment was near, as we have been hearing lots of "Tell me about when I was a baby in China," (which means when we traveled to China to get her), and lots of pretend play of putting things up her shirt and exclaiming "Mommy, I have a baby in my tummy!"

But I was not prepared to be enjoying a nice warm shower, only to hear her ask from the toilet, "Mommy, was I in your tummy?" Mind you I was not going to have this conversation without being able to look her in the eye. I had envisioned us having mother/daughter time in her room someday when this subject came up!

"What did you say?" I asked while peeking around the edge of the shower curtain, wanting to make sure I heard correctly. As Jaelyn repeated the question, there was no doubt that I heard correctly. I quickly responded with "No, you grew in your China-Mommy's tummy. Mommy and Daddy went to China to bring you home so they could be your Forever-Mommy and Daddy."

"Oh." she quickly accepted, then went on to her next random thought. Whew, that was all the questioning for today. That wasn't so bad. Guess kids will just ask what they're read to hear, so I don't have to practice so many steps ahead of her. I'm sure there are many unanswered questions ahead, and I just pray her heart continues to process and know that she is loved more than anything she could ever imagine. Lord thank you for giving us each other!

Remembering Grandma Inks....

Now that the holiday rush is over, I want to post in honor of my grandma who passed away on Dec. 28th. Just last July my grandparents celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary. Amazing (and I thought I was doing well at 20 years)! Don't you just love their wedding picture? And the second one was taken at their 70th celebration.

A few years back, when Grandma and Grandpa lived in Oklahoma, we took the kids to see them, thinking it may be one of the last times we saw them. Little did we know that a couple years later they would move back near family, in Oregon. We are glad they did. Look how young the boys are!

I am thankful that Grandma Inks did not have to live long with her illness, and even more thankful that she is now having a good time in heaven. We had a wonderful memorial service in honor of her, and I was blessed to see family I hadn't seen in many, many years. The following photos were from Grandma's celebration of life...

The grandchildren present (minus Ben who was awol during photo time)


My brother and his beautiful harem

The rowdy Crebbin Clan

Our paternal grandmother, Grandma Dorothy, who lives across the hall from my maternal grandparents (she knew Grandma Inks since they were teenagers!).

Grandma's kids: Bill, Gloria (my mom), and Alan

Happy 5th Birthday Jaelyn!

So Jaelyn is now proud to say she is five years old, and she grins from ear to ear whenever she says it. She has also reluctantly given up her blanket, because isn't that what you do when you're five (at least that's what we told her)? If you have seen Jaelyn sleep, you know she shoves half her blanket in her mouth to suck on, and has since the first day she has been with us. We were really proud of her for giving up her blanket so easily, that is, until we find that she substitutes anything around her bed to suck on to put herself to sleep. So much for breaking the habit...might as well give her the blankie back:)

She loves her Beaver sweatshirt...just like Daddy's! Unfortunately the baby stroller has been a source of contention between her and her sister. It's hard to watch your sister get all the good stuff, when your birthday is still 3 months away...

With a New Year's Day birthday, Jaelyn got to celebrate twice; once with family, and a few days later with friends.

Memorable Christmas...

To say that the Christmas season of 2008 was memorable is an understatement. It began with one of the longest drives to Oregon ever, with the record snowfall on the ground. What is typically a five our trip ended up being an eight hour trip. We saw motorists wiped out everywhere, just sitting in their cars, facing the wrong direction on the interstate. Our goal was to be like the "Tortoise and the Hare," just keep on moving at the same slow pace and let everyone race around us. Fortunately we made it to Portland just before the ice storm hit. There was literally seven inches of snow on the ground with a sheet of about 3/4" ice on top. We were housebound that Sunday, so the kids went outside to play in the ice! On Monday we braved the weather to head out to Klamath Falls. We had to chain up to get out of the Portland area, then took off the chains for the Willamette Valley, then put them on again for Willamette Pass. Again, our trip took us almost twice as long as usual, but our Tortoise method paid off again.

Once there we enjoyed four days with family and lots of snow. The kids even built a giant igloo that could fit three. Of course, two of those bodies had to be the girls:) All ten cousins got to be together for Christmas, which was wonderful!

Thankfully our trip back to Portland was much more uneventful than the one going south. We had a belated Christmas with my family, then spent the next day with my Grandma, and getting to say our goodbyes. She passed away Sunday morning at the age of 89, and being married to my grandfather for 70 years. Incredible! The upside of her passing over the holidays is that a lot of family had already been around, and most of those who weren't were able to fly up for the service. We celebrated her life yesterday and I enjoyed seeing family that I had not seen in 30+ years. Grandma sure was surrounded by a lot of wonderful people!

Due to us being with my grandma on the 27th, we celebrated Kaia's anniversary of joining our family four years ago (Gotcha Day), a couple days late. Our usual celebration is gorging ourselves on Chinese food, and that we did. Our memory of that day four years ago in China is so fresh in our minds. That too was a memorable Christmas, but in a much different way.

So the holiday season comes to a close today, not because this is New Year's Day, but because it is Jaelyn's 5th birthday! She is quite excited about it too, and reminded me this morning before I even had a chance to speak.

Thank goodness for a couple days rest and recovery before we have to head back to school on Monday. Now to sort through the photos and decide which ones to post (and delaying the laundry, grocery shopping and decorations to take down)....