The Land of Hand

After being so slack as of late in keeping up with our Blog, I am going to give you a very quick summary of our Fall, before I post about our Christmas Fun, later this week.
Joshua is loving school and has had some fun events with his class. Mommy was able to get out of her own class to enjoy these events with him. They wrapped up their farm unit with a “Barnyard Buddies Breakfast”, complete with animal shaped waffles. The class sang a couple of songs and recited a poem. It was very cute. In Oct. The Firefighters came to visit and the class got to step inside the firetruck. Joshua was unsure at first, but enjoyed it enough, that he decided to dress as a Firefighter for the “Trunk or Treating” event at school.
We enjoyed attending a couple of Harvest Festivals with some friends and we visited the Southeastern Railway Museum. Joshua loved exploring all the old train cars and riding the short but fun “real” train ride. We took Joshua to see the Circus and although he was scared, he persevered and enjoyed the acts, that he was awake for.
At the end of September we completed the “Domestication of a Foreign Adoption” process that gives us the equivalent of a US birth certificate for Joshua. To finalize the process, we had to go before a judge and take an oath to reaffirm that we fully intended to raise Joshua as our son forever. It was a good family bonding experience, sharing with Joshua how much we love him, and choose him to be a part of our family. We did this in China, but he had only know us 24 hours and he could not understand anything that we were saying.
Joshua enjoys spending time with his family, friends, and cousins. He continues to make us laugh, challenge our patience, and bring great joy to our lives.
Enjoy the pics from our Fun Fall Festivities

• I thank God for my full tummy.
• I thank God for my kitchen full of dirty dishes.
• I thank God for the extended family we were blessed to see today (and for those we did not).
• I thank God for my son (who has recently memorized John 3:16).
• I thank God for my husband (who helped me with the cooking today).
• I thank God for my friends who support and encourage me.
• I thank God for my bloggy friends who share their lives with me on the web.
• I thank God for sending His son Jesus to be my savior and redeemer.
• I thank God for the blessing of living in a country where I can publicly thank Him!

A very Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Hello from the Hands!  We are still here.  I will try to post once a week for a while, to catch up on all the latest happenings with us.  Our guestbook is currently offline and we are trying to decide if we are going to open comments.  So for now just enjoy the posts and check back in a few days for another update.

I am starting with a post about our trip to the beach, since the last post only had 2 pictures and no information.

We went to Crescent Beach, FL for a few days to celebrate out 20th Wedding anniversary.  We had 3 perfect mornings on the beach and enjoyed hanging out in our beachfront condo during the hot afternoons.  Grandma was able to join us, and we all enjoyed watching Joshua have his first real beach experience.  Julie’s cousin and her husband, who live in the area, were also preparing to celebrate their 20th anniversary. We had a nice afternoon with them and we had a little ceremony to renew our wedding vows together.  It was a quick trip, but a lot of fun.
In August, Julie and Joshua went to watch Aunt Melissa compete in a horse show.  We enjoyed watching her compete, and it was fun to meet her horse Nutmeg.  Joshua was a little nervous about petting Nutmeg, but with Mommy’s help he did just fine.

God is so good!! Through a line of connections from our Suzhou Orphanage Yahoo group, we have received a very precious gift. A picture of Joshua when he was only 3 months old!! (Thanks Rosi and those who connected me to her!) This is a treasure that I never even hoped to possess. The earliest photo we had of him was his referral photo at about 18 months old. Isn’t he just the cutest rolly polly little thing!

I will try to get some more posts up soon but Joshua started school this week and I started teaching again as well so we are all trying to adjust to our new schedule. I will just leave you with a couple of pictures from our trip to the beach and Joshua’s first day of school.

One year ago (July 23rd) we became a family of three. It is very difficult to put into words a summary of the past year. We have all experienced so many firsts and learned much from one another. Joshua’s adjustment has been nothing short of miraculous. We know that your prayers before, during, and since his adoption are a big part of that! I have recently been in email contact with two American volunteers who worked in the orphanage while Joshua was there. They both remember him and have told me that he and the other children were prayed over each visit and that “Jesus Loves Me” was sung to all the kids as well. I was a little overwhelmed to receive this little bit of information about his past. When you have almost nothing, a little bit can seem quite big. I had thought about posting all sorts of “then and now” photos or recapping all the events of our trip last year, but I have decided that I will allow Joshua to sum up the past year for us. The following video is of him singing and dancing to his favorite song from Vacation Bible School, it is called “I Know My God is Real!”

My God is real indeed!!

Happy Gotcha Anniversary to all our travel buddies! We love ya’ll and miss you!