Psalm 33:1
Pictures of physical and spiritual brothers taken at a birthday party from last weekend.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
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.
Psalm 33:1
Pictures of physical and spiritual brothers taken at a birthday party from last weekend.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
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!
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
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 :-).
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 :-).
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
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.
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.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
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.
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.
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