March Madness...

Since it's March Madness time, I thought I would post an inspiring basketball story. Jaelyn loves to view success stories of people who are like her, so here is the latest we came upon. I truly believe that she will one day inspire others in the same way!

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Not so good report....

So last week Mike took Kaia for her post-myringoplasty checkup, and unfortunately she got a not so good report. It seems her hearing in her left ear has dropped from a low hearing loss to a moderate hearing loss. The doctor was quite surprised by this, especially since the repair looked good when he looked at it. So now we go back in May for another hearing test. Praying that things look better by then.

Spring is here....

Here's more than one piece of evidence that Spring is here!

Great Read....

Seems I have slacked off on my blogging lately, but I do have good excuses (really)! First, my camera is on the blitz (yes, the new one I blogged about in November), so I can take pictures, but I can't get them off the camera. Second, I've been busy putting together this year's team for our work in Chaoyang. I'm very excited to be returning to Chaoyang after having to go to Heng Feng last summer. Don't get me wrong, it was a wonderful experience, but I just missed my kiddos in Chaoyang. And lastly, not a lot of exciting things happened in February, so I didn't want to bore you to death:)

Speaking of the team, one book I am recommending the team read is Kay Bratt's Silent Tears. Kay tells of her experience of living and volunteering for two years at an orphanage in China. So much of her experience I could completely relate to. An encore edition of the book is just getting ready to come out. so check it out.

If anyone reading this is interested in being a part of this year's team, please let me know, as things are starting to roll, or if you just want to support the trip/orphanage, let me know that too. We are planning on purchasing a playground for them this year, and I will post more details when I have them.

Goodbye De-duh...

Last year when Jaelyn turned five, I posted about her giving up her blanket. Well this time I am confident she has given it up for good! As you can see from the photo below, she joined our family already having an attachment to a handkerchief that she referred to as "De-duh." Now maybe someone who speaks Chinese can tell us what she was saying, as we had no idea what it meant, but it was what she would say when she would point to it (it was usually hanging up to air dry). I even posted about it the second day she was with our family in China.


When we got home from China, she gave up her "De-duh" and traded it for a blanket our neighbor made. After last years attempt at giving it up, since she would just suck on anything else she could find, topped by the fact that her sister was still sucking her fingers at night, we decided to give her the blanket back. Well now that she has turned six, we decided to take another approach. "Big teeth are coming, and the dentist says you need to stop sucking or your teeth will come in crooked!" So maybe we were a little dramatic about it, but it worked! She started a couple nights with sleeping with her blanket, but promising not to suck on it. Sure enough, when I would come in to check on her after she was asleep, no blanket in her mouth. She was so proud of herself in the morning when I told her. We then moved to bringing the blanket to the couch where she could snuggle with it in the morning. After a couple nights of being successful with this, she decided it needed one last washing before we tucked it away in a closet, alongside her De-duh. One more sign that our little girl is growing up! We have about two months now to figure out how to get Kaia to quit sucking her fingers! We didn't have to go down this road with the boys. Any suggestions out there?

Hope for Haiti

I really enjoyed this song, written by Bono of U2, performed at Friday night's Hope for Haiti benefit. Haiti will be in the need for the long-run. Let's not forget them. There are many ways to still help the cause....find one.

Rihanna - MTV Shows

Doing Great!

Just wanted to let you know that Kaia's Myringoplasty surgery went well. We won't know the impact on her hearing until we go back in March, but everything seemed to be successful. The left ear drum was repaired, and the right had no hole at all! When I told the anesthesiologist of her nausea on the car ride home in September he said he would give her medication to help with that this time. Whatever he gave her seemed to work, and despite leaving the Seattle hospital at 5:00 pm on a Friday night, we made it home with no trouble. Once again she needed no pain medication!

I haven't been totally clear of nursing duty this weekend though, as Mike came home from his wrestling tournament last night with the flu. He has a fever, chills and aches....you know he's sick if he has already arranged for his morning and afternoon practices to be covered tomorrow, as well as called a sub. Thank goodness the girls and I got our influenza shots this past Fall. Now to just keep the boys away from it!