Mister BeetFace

And here we have beets of a different kind.  Acer loves pickled beets, and thankfully, NaiNai, Bill's Mom, cans very good ones herself.  As you can see, Acer tried to lick the bowl clean after he finished off a bowl and a half of them!

From Mr. BeetFace

Musical Breakthrough

Acer has always loved music, since the day we became a family, he had definite tastes in music and would request certain songs.
Since his birthday on the 21st, however, he's made huge strides relating what he's hearing on his new toy piano to what he's playing on his steel drum, his zylophone and even on the real piano.

It's been pretty exciting to watch and hopefully I'll be able to post some videos soon, as he's now requesting I take videos and pictures. He loves to listen to himself play when we play the videos on Youtube.

Don't forget to add us to your prayer list

Throughout this process I've found the more I pray, the more I fund raise.  I'm asking the prayers come from you too, to help us get where we need to especially since the cost has gone up another $2000 due to the economic crisis.

You feed and water them and look what happens!

We've started to notice Acer's ankles peeking out under his pants lately and wondered why as I haven't had a mad shrinking fit with the washer, and we'd just bought him new pants for school in the fall.

Well it seems he's grown an inch and a half in the last six months!

This explains how he was able to gain three pounds and still look as slim as ever. I was actually worried because, going on weight alone (he's very muscular) Acer's weight and old height put him in the obese category for BMI calcualtions. Now that we know he's 39.5 inches, and 37 pounds, he's in the 80% category which makes me much happier.

Now I just have to find longer size threes or size 4's made for boys with no butte!

Latest Little Miss Pictures

Deb from WenJun Gotcha sent us these pictures today.  WenJun was a friend and roommate of Calliandra's and I know she is really missing her.  I was glad to hear that they'd had a chance to talk on Wed. night via skype.  Here you can see the Bethel Choir singing away.  As a singer myself I have to wonder how they're handling the transition from only having one male voice to know being half male and half female voices as the girls have been finding homes.  Wen Jun is in the back, the tallest in the pink turtleneck.  The girl in the back, in yellow and the girl in front in pink polkadots are both really wanting families, so please keep them in your prayers as they have seen three of their classmates go to families this year.  Also, please pray for the shortest girl in the back as she is reportedly in hospital right now.

BTW Calliandra is front and center in these pictures wearing a cerise windbreaker and purple velour pants.

Please add us to your prayers as we're heading to the last month of waiting for LOA, and still have fundraising to do, also, Calliandra's been more quiet on our phone calls lately and so prayers that we continue to progress in making our emotional bonds with her.

Acer Playing Along

Acer got the Steel Drum from YeYe and NaiNai for his big Birthday/Christmas present, and the piano from my friend and Mandarin Professor, Qin.  Here he's putting them both to use at the same time, even if he only has one drumstick to pass between both hands (more on their way thanks to Uncle Dawei)  Sorry, I shot the video this way, I didn't realize that you couldn't turn it like you do photos.

Acer Drumming at Christmas

Uncle Dawei was nicely helping Acer play the drums at the grandparents house, Helping by making sure the drums were where Acer thought they should be.

Christmas is still happening here.

We go today to pick up our Alex and tomorrow to pick up our nephew Brandon.  Brandon will be here until Wed Night and Alex will be here for a full week.  I'm so excited it's always a joy to have either one of them here, and now they'll both be here at the same time.  Plus, Alex will finally be able to talk to Little Miss on the webcam, an event that Little Miss has been looking forward to for a long while.

Traveling for their daughters

The Blog WenJun Gotcha is about a family adopting from Little Miss' orphanage.  They arrived home YESTERDAY with their daughter.

Heads up seven up is traveling TODAY to bring home their daughter Jorga.  

'tis an exciting world out there, and we'll be joining it soon (ish)

Still waiting

And from all of us to all of you, a Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Little Miss (she's on the left)

Baptism ceremony

We were blessed to Have Ric and Stef make the two hour drive in the blowing snow so they could stand with as as sponsors for Acer. The pastor walked Acer up and down through the church afterwards and had people shake hands with Acer. It was beautiful and we were so pleased to be able to have Acer baptized on his fourth Birthday. Acer behaved wonderfully, but was especially happy when Pastor Doyll took him over to shake the hand of Acer's friend - Mr Ron, the drummer from the band. We were almost late because we were helping our wonderful next door neighbor get her car unstuck from her driveway so she could go to her church.

Also the Church had a bake sale last week and we were given the check from the proceeds, They raised over $400 towards the Bring Little Miss Home Fund. I was very choked up when they presented us with it and  couldn't even say anything. - Me, not able to say anything!

Walking with YeYe

This is one of my favorite moments of the day, seeing Bill's Dad & Acer, dressed similarly, walking hand in hand through the church.  Acer was so excited that He was there and that NaiNai was there, he announced it to the whole church when Pastor Doyle was carrying him around.

Bill and Acer decorate the tree in the snow

Bill's work had a half day on Friday and so he arrived home in time to shovel snow in the daylight.  We bundled Acer up with snow boots and snow pants built to handle MI weather like this, and Acer headed out with the decorations for our tree.  Acer loves these and had been waiting all day to go out and hang them on our scrawny tree.  Bill took the time out of the shoveling to do this, that and the fact that he's not afraid to wear matching dragon hats with the rest of his family are just two of the reason I love Bill.

More Fun in the snow

Snow up past his knees!

Busy Day coming up.

Acer's fourth birthday is coming up in just over a week, on a Sunday.  For some reason I got an idea in my brain and ran with it; I decided to have him baptized on the same day.  Despite the thought that we'd celebrate Acer's birthday's quietly and his family days as a larger celebration, here I am, planning a large celebration for only four days before Christmas.

What a gift

Acer's school has a Santa shop, with gifts from fifteen cents to ten dollars. Yesterday we sent Acer off with his list to buy for and a specified maximum amount to spend on each person. He came home with his gifts in sealed and labeled bags and seemed quite happy about it. I am quite sure that he was very actively involved in choosing them because .... They all JINGLE!

Taking a little break due to chaos

Sorry I haven't been posting as often lately, I just haven't had the extra oomph to do it after coming home from work and dealing with the could outside.  That, combined with my house being in total disarray from the painting means that I just haven't been spending that much time on the computer at all.

We're all okay, Little Miss is okay, we're just playing the waiting game now.

Talk to you more as I get more time!