Summer Days

In adoption news, I had my homestudy visit today with our social worker. Dave had his last week. There is only one visit left - which is the home visit. We can't do it until we get all of our documents in, though. We are still missing a couple of things - but we are getting really close!

Rock of Ages

We went to this cool place called Castlerock National Park which is pretty close to us. It is in the Santa Cruz mountains. There are tons of boulders and rocks that you can climb. Some people are using ropes and caribiners and mats, but our kids were climbing and scampering over some of the easier ranges. It was SOOO fun! We went with the Kus there.

Just that morning, I had been teaching the kids in Nathan's class about Exodus 34, when Moses goes up to Mount Sinai the second time and asks God to show him His glory. The Lord tells Moses he must hide in a cleft of a rock, where the Lord will cover him with His hand, and then pass by him with His back facing Moses. And look what we found at Castlerock - a cleft (one of many). That's Aar Bear taking a drink inside. It reminded me also of how the Lord Jesus is our Rock that has cleft for us to hide in Him. He has endured the punishment for our sin, and even today shelters us in the storms of life. Praise Him!

Rock of Ages cleft for me
Let me hide myself in Thee
Let the water and the blood
From Thy riven side which flowed
Be of sin the double cure
Save me from its guilt and power

Not the labors of my hands
Can fulfill Thy law's commands
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone;
Thou must save, and Thou alone.

Nothing in my hands I bring
Simply to Thy cross I cling
Naked come to Thee for dress
Helpless, look to Thee for dress
Foul I to the founain fly
Cleanse me Saviour, or I die

While I take this fleeting breath
When mine eyes shall close in death
When I soar to worlds unknown
See Thee on Thy judgment throne
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.

Father's Day and more fun with hipstamatic

I was in Los Angeles on Father's Day, and so I could not blog about it in real time. But I will make up for lost time now :-).


I am so thankful for my own father - who loves me and raised me. . . For all the swim meets he attended, all the show choir concerts he faithfully came to, all the help with math homework, being so persistent about teaching us Chinese, taking my sisters and me to the library in the evenings, playing all sorts of raquet sports with us, and sharing stories about his own father. He still shows he cares for me in many ways. Even though I am 36, he still brings back a little something for me when he goes on trips; he never fails to send us a postcard from whichever locale he might be passing through; he helps to carry my bags and anything else when I leave home to walk to the car; he brings fruit from whatever is the current harvest in his garden or orchard.

And I am so thankful for *this* man here, too.


He is my better half.

And I have grown to love and appreciate him even more seeing him grow as the father of our children.

He rough houses with them, making them all shriek with delight every night when they play "Tickle Monster."

He tells them goofy stories that I could NEVER make up. Norman the Lint Ball, and SpiderPig are some of the boys' favorite tales from Dave's repertoire. I have to deliberately tell Dave not to make the story too exciting, for fear that it will get them giggling and too excited to fall asleep.


He tenderly holds them when they are hurt or sick.

He has carefully sewn up Nathan's chin when he split it falling in the bathtub.




He is a doctor, but did you know he can also do face (and arm) painting, too?


He has gently removed countless splinters, given so many rides on his shoulders, and has spent many nights sleeping at least part of the night on a mat on the floor or squeezed in a twin bed alongside one of our sleepless or scared children company until they fall asleep.



Happy Father's Day, Dave! We all love you!

Some Fun With the IPhone

Those of you who know me know that I am NOT a cell phone person. I have been known to lose my phone, let it run out of batteries for days at a time, never even set up my voice mail much less check it.

All of this changed when I got my iPhone! Man, I love this little gadget! It is amazing! And I am NOT a techie AT ALL. Mine is even an old one, a 2G, purchased from Craigslist. I DON'T have internet on it, and I *still* love it!

iPhone, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. . .
1) I have the entire Bible on there, which I can read in the dark with a toddler snuggled up next to me fast asleep. I don't need to turn on any lights or fumble with pages which may wake up little Aar Bear. The iPhone is backlit - so I can read it perfectly in the dark :-).
2) I have discovered the value of texting - mainly because the iPhone keeps the texts so organized. . . by contact, and it shows up as little bubbles as if you are having a conversation with each other (which you are).
3) I LOVE being able to put my contacts in there and be able to take a picture of the said contacts. I know that other phones probably have this, too, but the iPhone, again, keeps it all very organized.
4) It takes decent pictures. Not in any way comparable to my Canon, but pretty darn good. The quality is higher than the photos we took with our digital point and shoot when Matthew and Nathan were babies (yes, yes, I know that this was a long time ago, and that a year in tech years is like dog years, but still!)
5) All the cool games you can download for a buck or two. It's great! I personally love Scramble and Doodlejump. I am sure there are other wonderful apps out there and I haven't even gone beyond the tip of the iceberg. I don't have a lot of time to play games. . . so I am happy with the couple that I have.
6) I can listen to MLB.com on there - which means I can listen to every Dodger game and hear Vin Scully - Yeah! This is a BIG DEAL since I am not in Los Angeles anymore.
6) I don't let it run out of batteries or lose it because as I have listed above - it is SO much more than a phone!

Hmmm. . .this is probably a REALLy boring post to those who don't know what I am talking about. How about some pictures? We recently downloaded an app called Hipstamatic - it takes photos and makes them look like you took them with an old time camera. These are some photos I took at a wedding we went to on Saturday. Whatcha think?





And YES - that is boba milk tea you see behind the flowers. The bride and groom had all you could drink boba available for everyone. How cool to have boba at a wedding reception!



And possibly even cooler - cotton candy! Yes, cotton candy for all the kids at the reception! As you can see, Nene and cousin Jay Jay were soooo happy (and sticky)!



Sarah and Daniel were the bride and groom. Sarah is Dave's second cousin. It was a beautiful wedding and fun reception. The best part was that we all rejoiced with them knowing that the Lord brought them together. They are both God-fearing, Jesus-loving people - and it was so wonderful to see them become a new family in Christ.

Brotherly Love

"Behold, how good and pleasant it is for brothers to dwell in unity!"
Psalm 33:1




Pictures of physical and spiritual brothers taken at a birthday party from last weekend.

Not something one would elect to do. . .

Our dear dear friends who are a wonderful married couple wrote a letter of referral for Dave and me for our intention to adopt. It was such a moving and well-written letter. There was one part where they were quite humorous:
"We know that Chenning loves David because she has become an avid Dodgers fan, not something one would elect to do given the last 20 years of Dodgers history."

Ha ha.

All jokes aside (because I know it's a joke - come on! The Dodgers were pretty awesome last year, and are doing well this year so far), that part of their letter got me thinking.

I truly do love watching my favorite team play baseball. But it was not always so. It's true - I loved Dave first. So because I loved him, I wanted to do something that he liked to do, too. That's what got me into the Dodgers and watching baseball. It was because of the love I had (and still do) for my husband, Dave, that got me to start following the Dodgers.

Do you know that God loves you?
"God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten son so that he who believeth on Him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16
Not something one would elect to do.
Who would give up their only son?
Why would anyone do such a thing?
For people who have rebelled and ignored him over and over again?
Doesn't seem to make sense.

But "God so LOVED the world."
He loved us first.
"In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." 1 John 4:10
So it was because of love.
That is what caused Him to choose to do something one would not choose to do.
Praise Him!

This also made me think about our decision to adopt.
Again, "not something one would elect to do" according to many people.
It might not make sense.
Why bring in a child from some unknown origin when you have 3 beautiful children already?
Why adopt when you could have more children of "your own?"
Aren't you worried about how your adopted daughter will adjust?
How the boys will react to her?
Will she feel different?
You won't know much, if anything, about your daughter's first parents.
You won't know what kinds of problems she may have.
How are you going to balance your time - you are already so busy, Chenning, with your 3 kids!
It is risky.

Yes, it is. But I elect to do this because of love.
It takes some imagination right now because we are just at the beginning of this process.
Don't know where she is coming from.
What nationality she is.
Has she been born already?
What is her background?
But I know that I can love her, will love her, and in a sense already do.
I know that my faithful and loving God can empower me to love her.
And by His grace, she can love me, too.
And that our family together, I pray, will love the Lord together, too!

A Day in the Life of Spiderman

All in a day's work. . .

Sing Praises to His Name

I found this video and thought I would include it in our celebration of Aaron's 3rd birthday!

Not only does it have Matthew and Nathan exuberantly singing praises to the Lord at VBS, it has a cameo if little newborn Aaron (maybe 8 weeks here?). I just about swooned from adorable :-). Doesn't seem that long ago that my chicks were so small. Feeling so so blessed to be "Mama" to these little men.

pv=nrt and other randomness

We got back from a busy but lovely weekend in Los Angeles. Always great to see family - especially this little chub of love:


That is Tabitha, my niece. She is 3 months old and loves the Dodgers already. That's what she is watching here, so peacefully and contentedly lying in the crook of Uncle Dave's arm. She stayed like that for nearly an hour! I want to buy her one of these:


And here are the cousins all lovin' on each other. That's Tabby's mother - my sister June. Isn't she pretty?


Ah yes, and pv=nrt. If there is only one thing (and I think there is only one) that I remember from CHEM 1A - it's pv=nrt. You can use it for almost anything! Well, at least that's how this English Lit. major feels :-). So, yesterday morning the kids were experimenting with these ice blocks they made the night before. Since we don't have an ice maker, and pretty much never have ice in the house - they are amazed at it and love licking, cutting, breathing on, holding, sliding, and melting it.

So, here N is cutting it (and thus pv=nrt). You up the pressure, and you up the temperature at that point where you are cutting into it - and so it melts faster. Or something like that. The details are a little fuzzy. Please enlighten and correct me if I am way off here.



And little A showing off his Spiderman costume! He currently is very into Spiderman, constantly asking us questions like, "What is radioactive bwood?" and, "Is Bwack Spadderman a bad guy?"


And look at this guy. This is Nene - we traced around him in order to learn some body parts in Mandarin. Very handsome, don't you think?


In adoption news. . .
We had a bit of of craziness in the morning when I tried to pick up my paperwork from the doctor's office. I had asked the traveling notary to meet us there at 11:30, when I had my appointment to get my health report notarized. Anyway, I got there and realized that I forgot the papers! Ugh. The notary was very nice and agreed to meet us later at 3pm when the doctor was free again to sign and complete the documents. So, we came back at 3pm only to realize that the doctor didn't have her driver's license on her! I had left a message the day before stressing that a valid ID was a necessity for notarization. But she didn't get the memo :-(. Poor notary woman! But thankfully, there is another doctor in the office - my doctor's brother - agreed to sign in her stead. Phew!

We had our first homestudy meeting yesterday! Homestudy is when an assigned social worker meets with you a few times to get to know you as a couple and as individuals, and then as a family (if you have children already), and also to check for safety in your dwelling place. I was a little nervous - but she was very nice and I actually feel like I learned a lot! So our meeting yesterday was just us as a couple. The kids got shuttled to the Kus' - and they had a blast there playing Killer Bunnies, eating hotdogs, and playing Wii.

On the topic of Killer Bunnies - we were gifted a set with expansion sets from some dear friends over the weekend. Matthew, my board game lover, is on cloud 9! Oh, the card of terrible misfortune! A large prune danish! Kabbalah dollas! If you don't know what I am talking about, you haven't played Killer Bunnies :-).

Happy happy birthday Aar Bear

Today is Aaron's 3rd birthday!



Aaron was a surprise baby. Not planned by us, but definitely planned by Someone. I remember that Dave and I had gone back and forth a few times discussing whether to have a 3rd child or not. I was all for it, he was not so sure. One day when we were driving home from somewhere, and Nathan (then just newly 2), and Matthew (5.5) were fast asleep in the backseat, Dave took a look at them in the rearview mirror and was so taken with that picture of sweetness that he said to me, "Ok, we can have a 3rd." Well, little did he (or I) know, I was already a few days pregnant with Aaron at that time. All this to say, Aaron was definitely meant to be and we are so thankful to the Lord that He planned this little one to be here in our family.

We had the hardest time thinking of a name for him. There are so many boys in our family that we didn't want to duplicate names. I wanted something not too common. One night at dinner, some dear friends suggested, "How about Aaron?" It stuck in our brains. Aaron means "Mountain of Strength," and his middle name, Theodore, means "Gift of God" and is also for his grandfather who is a Theodore himself.

My due date was May 29th. So when it came and went, I wasn't too disturbed. After all - Nathan was a day late, too. But then when May turned into June and still no baby - it was hard for me to be patient! Anyway, he arrived just at the perfect time and was perfectly healthy and beautiful! It was an easy, but long labor (they always had been for me), spent watching the Dodgers (something about baseball is conducive to labor - the rhythm, the alternating moments of stress and the moments of relaxation) and just putting around the house. Dave's parents came at around 9pm and we headed to Methodist Hospital.

Once there, I was a bit frustrated because my contractions petered out. But I was dilated to 7, and things progressed. He was born at 12:40am. Even through the pushing stage, my contractions were about 5-8 minutes apart. Definitely not a textbook labor. When he slid out and was lifted onto my chest, I looked down at him and thought to myself, "I feel like I have seen you before!" Aaron looked so much like Nathan at birth. He was 7 pounds even, and just beautiful!

Here's a trip down memory lane. . .

This is Aaron at his first West Coast Christian Conference - only 6 weeks old!



Aaron is a couple of months old here. He LOVED to lie on Daddy's legs like this when he was a newborn.


First Halloween. He was 4 months old here. We were at a Harvest Party, and I love love love this picture. It's really more a pic of Nathan than of Aaron. But look how vigilantly Batman is guarding the baby!


First birthday.



Second birthday.


And today - his 3rd birthday!


For those who know our Aar Bear, you know that he is a little chatterbox! But he is shy, too, so if you are just meeting him you may not know that he talks at all. His favorite things to do right now are - play Tickle Monster with Daddy, play legos, watch Max and Ruby, and take out all the DVDs, line them up, open them to see if the discs are inside, close them and stack them back again! He does that every, single, day!

Happy happy birthday, little Aar Bear. We love you very very much! You are a treasure to all of us, sweet love.

Memorial Day Fun

We met some dear dear friends at Tilden Park in Berkeley yesterday for a family outing and some fun in the sun. It was so beautiful, and the weather was perfect - not too hot, and not too cool. Very cool to be back at our old haunt :-).

Although Dave and I both are Cal alumni (Go, Bears!), we did not ever go to this part of Tilden Park. We got to go to the Little Farm and feed the animals.





Go on the carousel. . .


Have a picnic lunch with a simple birthday cake for my soon to be 3 year old little love. Oh, just look at the expression on his face! Can you tell that he loves birthdays?


And we also got to ride on the steam train! This was awesome. Only $2 per person for a 10 minute ride through the redwood forest of the Berkeley hills. So beautiful! Matthew was cold in the shade and was lent a Pablo Sandoval Kung-Fu Panda hat by our ardent Giants' fan friends. We weren't sure if we could stomach it, having Dodger blue blood in our veins, but felt it was permissable to keep Matthew a little warmer.