Christmas?

Well, it's hard to believe Christmas has come and gone and now it is already the eve of a whole new year. This Christmas was different for our family and maybe even a little bittersweet for me. It was so much fun to watch Samuel (our recently adopted nephew) join in the family celebrations and tear into his first Christmas presents- he has the sweetest personality and just has this look that melts your heart! We had a wonderful month of celebrating our Savior. But at the same time it was hard to think of our little girl who is probably already born, not being with us. We have many traditions that we are excited to introduce her to next year, and it was just a little weird to think about how this was our last Christmas as a family of 5. I realize as I look back, I hardly took any pictures this year- which is not really like me. We had many things going on, but yet I was not really in the picture taking mood. Did Christmas really come and go that quickly?

We hosted Christmas eve at our house and in addition to my side of the family, we ended up having 5 international students from Malaysia join us as well- it was a blast! Here are a few pictures of them all being goofy with the boys:

The boys have been so funny lately. They decided a few weeks before Christmas that they were going to put on a magic show for our Christmas eve guests, so we went to the library and got a few books and they started practicing. They had a whole little stage set up in the playroom, where about 20 of us crowded in to watch the show. It was pretty hilarious and ended up being more of a comedy show than anything else! Here are a few pictures of the fun that took place...

My Grandma came over a few days before Christmas and we frosted gingerbread cookies with the boys. Her health has not been the best lately, so these times are treasued even more. I only got a few pictures though.

Farewell to our foreign friend

For the past six months we have had the wonderful priveledge of getting to know a very special girl from Hong Kong. Her name is Fai Ching, she goes by Crystal as well, and she has been such a joy to know and spend time with. We were matched with her back in January through the International Friendship Program at the local university, when she had just arrived to study marketing for the semester. We became friends right away and I was just amazed at how God had matched her with our family so perfectly. I loved having someone to talk about China with and I think she was just suprised that I was so interested in all of the different Asian cultures. Although she only spent 6 months here living in the dorms without a car, we managed to squeeze quite a bit of time in with her before she had to return home. She even lived with us for the last 3 weeks!

And so, sadly last week we had to say goodbye to our sweet friend as she left back for Hong Kong. We have promised to continue to keep in touch, and one funny thing she said before she left was if I was ever going to be in Asia then to call her and she'd come see us. I told her Asia is a big continent! and she said that didn't matter, she'd find a way. :-) She is especially excited about our little girl who will be from Asia. Fai Ching we love you and miss you already!

On her 21st birthday with her sweet Malaysian friend Shi Ying (not sure if I spelled that right?)

One of the highlights of our time with her was getting to celebrate Chinese New Year together. We started this tradition last year but it was especially fun to have someone Chinese spend it with us. We had so much good food and neat decorations. She showed us how to make dumplings and we showed her how to make fortune cookies (which is totally an American thing by the way)!

We also were priveledged to be able to witness her baptism which happened on Good Friday. It was such a blessing to be able to be a part of the work that God is doing in this young girl's life.

I want to encourage each of you reading this to consider being a part of an International student's life. Whether it is through the friendship program, Intervarsity, or even hosting someone in your home for a semester or two- you will be blessed. There are many students who are so lonely when they come to the U.S. and just by being available to have a student or two over for dinner or to go bowling or shopping with, it means so much to them! And it has lasting impact on your kids as well. This picture is of Fai Ching and her Malaysian friends who are here for 2 years. They have left for the summer, but my hope is that we will be able to connect with them this fall when they come back and hopefully be able to eventually connect with some Korean students too!

God's Marvelous Creation

In an effort to try and cram everything in before Fai Ching goes back to Hong Kong, the very next day after getting home from the beach we loaded up and headed to Yosemite for the day! We were all pretty exhausted by the end of the day, but oh it was so worth it. I actually was glad for the excuse to go because our boys had never been and they really enjoyed it. We hiked the 3 easiest waterfall trails and explored around the valley a little. The weather was gorgeous but the only downside was that it was windy and pretty cold when you got near the misty falls. It is still so amazing to me that people from all over the world come here and marvel at the mountains and waterfalls and yet refuse to acknowledge the One who created it all for His glory.

(click on the pictures to see a closer view)

I love the center picture of Half Dome- some of you reading this have probably climbed it before- that is so amazing to me, especially when you are standing on the ground looking up at it!

I took my new camera and pretended to know how to take stunning pictures of the landscape. Again I will mention that I actually know nothing- I just point, shoot, and hope that it turns out! This is one of my favorites of Bridalveil Falls- look closely and you can see rainbow. Cool!

I love this one of the bridge- it reminded me of a scene out of Narnia or something.

"Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness stretches to the skies. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice is like the great deep. "

Psalm 36:5-6