Somethin' New

We always said that if we ever sold our boat, we would consider putting in a swimming pool...

well, that time has come. 

So, after two weeks, water was added and that's all it took...the girls could barely stand it, the waiting...

The temperature in the air was a balmy 80 degrees for October in OH; the water, not so much...

it was all of 64.

Throwing caution to the wind, I let them go for it and go for it they did!

For all of five minutes.  But hey, they can say they did it!!

Heat is coming Friday {it'll be all of 58 degrees this weekend}

You can bet we will all be in for a maiden voyage,

for all of five minutes.

Six Months Our Daughter

Wow, I can't believe it. Our little bird has been with us for six months today.  Olivia speaks so much English, sometimes so fast we have a hard time understanding her.  She seems to still have her Chinese language, but of course no one is conversing with her so its hard to know. She is hanging in there at school, making strides in baby steps... Livi is very happy most of the time, her struggles seem to come from not comprehending what something means or is and then she gets frustrated...all very normal, but she stills has a smile on her face.  We are loving our little girl more every day. 

Older child adoption is definitely not for the faint at heart.  We imagine we are on the very good side of the spectrum, but it has not been easy...its very hard to explain, but its just a different dynamic and  

 we have had to take a step back and really THINK about our reactions to things and remember the things she doesn't know or understand.  Sometimes Livi tries too hard to fit in, but that we understand.  We are all learning together, patience and understanding. 

We are very proud of our little girl and know she has come so far and lost so much.  

We love you Olivia ZiJing!

Just Her

As we approach the six month's home mark with Livi, I will just say things are going very well.  Life isn't without its struggles and second guesses, but what we have is one strong little girl who tries soooo hard at everything she does.  School is going okay, but we know how hard it really is for her.  She is being tutored and Title 1'd to death, but the highlight tonight, for me, was when she recognized 90% of her alphabet letters.  Everyone who encountered this little survivor while we were in China said what a smart cookie she is, and we know she is...she is processing and converting and learning, yet every.single.day, she has a smile on her face.  Her teacher says she has no frustrations at all, just smiles away...what more can we ask for.  It'll all come, in His time, at her pace...

For now though, she's hangin on for dear life!

Another First {First Grade x 2}

I woke the girls softly this morning at 7:15am and told them it was time!  They both slowly got up and awake and then the chaos ensued.  They wanted to get dressed right away, not waiting for breakfast or potty break or anything.  The new “Twinkle Toes” had to go on their feet before they even touched the ground!  It was the perfect start to the day; I only hope the whole day goes so well.  We had a scare; Abigail ran a high fever the last two days and of course, she has strep throat.  The doctor said no school, but once I got home last night, she was feeling much better and the fever had broken.  Soooo, three doses of antibiotic later; she got on the bus with a kiss and a wave. 

Olivia was her usual self, giddy and excited, while Abigail was “nervous”.  We got to meet both of their teachers last night and I think things will go very well for both of them!  Our prayers are for Olivia to comprehend all that she is about to learn.  We know she is catching on to the language, our concern is she doesn’t know what she is talking about. So, again, praying she will have understanding.  Abigail is very bright, she loves to read and she can only be a help to her sister in those areas.  Her Kindergarten teacher invited her to come read to her new class this year, they allow that; how cool is that? 

P.S. To quote Abigail, school was "AWESOME"!!!!

What's Been Going On?

I hate to admit I’m not the blogger that I want to be.  I want to keep a record of life with my girls (and my guys), but life interferes with my wittiness and time to actually think about something to say that might make a memory. 

Things have been going “okay” with Olivia.  She is truly a great little girl, and she is a trooper.  We have to keep reminding ourselves who she is and where she came from just a short time ago, and not let frustration take over. 

We need to rely more on God and not so much on each other, because that just doesn’t work.  Livi wants nothing to do with her Chinese language, only wants to speak English and so wants to be like her sister.  Her English has come along very well, especially when we remember she has only been here for four months!!!  She comprehends a lot of what we say, some not so much, but we usually get our point across.  Where she struggles is basic stuff like the alphabet and colors, things we take for granted.  I didn’t even realize she didn’t know her colors until just recently.  She knows them in Chinese!  So, we have tried to work with her more on that kind of thing and I am really looking forward to her going to school NEXT WEEK.  They have more tools than I do to help her overcome what she doesn’t know. 

Abigail continues to be the bossy big little sister.  Some days, they get along great, others, not so much…typical sisters I guess!  We are encouraging Olivia to be her own person, not try and copy Abigail so much…more baby steps.

We have had a pretty fun summer, I’ve been able to take off most Fridays and do things with the girls; plus we had a wonderful vacation in Hilton Head, South Carolina a few short weeks ago!  We had never been there and now that we have…well, we may never go anywhere else!  It was a great time! 

We sold our boat (sniff sniff), which we’ve had for 12 years, kind of on a whim…thought we’d post it and see if we got any bites, and whoa, it took all of 12 hours.  So, to make up for it, we’ve done a lot of swimming at friend’s houses and enjoyed every minute of that.  Both girls are fish and really do well in the water…

Here we are, in all our glory!

So that’s the quick update from Ohio.  Next up, school starts…

 

Another First

We have a very nice boat that has become a thorn in our sides over the years. 

Having said that, we finally uncovered it and took it out for the 2011 maiden voyage yesterday. 

 It was a beautiful day by any standards, 90 degrees and the lake water was perfect. 

Olivia knew we were going "boating" but she didn't have a clue what that meant! 

Oh but when she figured it out..she had a blast! 

 She didn't like watching the boys tube as much as swimming

BUT when the girls got to tube with the boys, they both liked that VERY much!

It was an exhausting day as you can see below from the view of the back seat of the truck, but oh so fun!

Fourth of July - Independence Day

We had a wonderful, busy weekend; gotta love three (and 1/2) day weekends! 

The girls spent 8 hours in our friends pool on Sunday, we are so blessed and thankful for that gift of friendship! 

Then we capped it all off with a visit to watch fireworks {even though it was late on a work night, the joy in watching their faces as they watched the fireworks was worth all the tiredness today}

(I can say that because its early in the day, check with me later on that opinion).  Enjoy!!

The girls were watching Mulan II on daddy's laptop while we patiently waited for dusk. 

Can you hear the ooohs and aaaahs? 

 Extraordinary!