Homeschooling Highs and Lows...

I'm so excited right now! My little one has started to read English, and we have been writing English sentences together. Wow! I don't think I could do that after only 3 months here. We go to the library a lot. She loves to get Chinese books from the Fullerton Library and English readers from the Yorba Linda Library. I'm so proud of her. She has had a consistently better attitude towards her schoolwork. I was very discouraged at the beginning of this month, because we had some major setbacks with her behavior. She would throw temper tantrums over little to nothing. It was getting to the point where we were having daily episodes. She would be very happy and loving one moment, then be mad and stonewall the next. I felt like my head was spinning. I hear this is normal and is a sign of mourning the loss of everything she knows in Taiwan, but it has been hard. This last week or two have been so much better, and I'm starting to relax again, although I'm nervous to do so.

One very special moment to me though was when we were trying to find the Fullerton Library. My navigation system took us to a smaller library in Fullerton first, called Hunts Library (I think). We were surprised to find it closed and many homeless people were encamped around it. Trina asked me who all these people were and why they were sleeping there. I explained the best I could. My girl then had the wonderful idea of bringing them food, so the following week we went shopping together and fed about a dozen homeless people there. She wants to do it every week, but it is a very hard time financially for us right now. I told her we could do it once a month. I am so blessed by her heart to do this. I think we have found a new ministry together, although she has asked to have some of them move in with us. This protective mama bear drew the line at that one.

Anyways, that's the latest scoop on Trina.

Her English is Improving...

I was sitting at lunch with Trina today at the China Buffet. I had finished two of my favorite cookies, when she asked me if I wanted any more. I told her that I did want more cookies but that I would get fat if I had too many. She answered back,"Mama, you're not fat. You're not fat, mama." I said ,"Thank you, sweetheart." Then she said,"You say you're heavy, not fat. Saying fat is not nice." Wow. That's just about all I can say. Wow.

I Love This Baby!

Trina Jing-Qi as a baby-

Sabrina was able to email us some pictures of Jing-Qi when she was a baby with her foster family. I had Sam do some work on this one so we can have it framed and placed on the "family wall" in the office at my work. My parents have baby pictures of all their grandchildren up on it. Now there will be one more! God is so gracious!

Here are our latest pics...

(I'm still working on Sam to do a family portrait session of our family, but I can't believe how busy life gets when you add a new member to the family. I didn't realize my last post was over a month ago!)

Yes, we still do the peace signs.

This is Jing-Qi with her cousin, Hannah, who is helping her learn to ride a bike.

Jing-Qi loves spending time with her cousins.

This is the whole gang! What a blast they had cruising around the park on their bikes, looking for ducks and squirrels.

Daddy is helping Jing-Qi learn to ride a bike. Everything of this sort is so completely new to her. I have her play on the playground after school gets out with Christina and her friends. I don't think she has ever seen monkey bars before or the big slides that are customary here. She is still building up her courage for those. I put her in gymnastics, where her lack of exposure to such things really stands out, but fortunately she doesn't seem to notice. She absolutely loves it and feels so strong and brave afterwards. I see her little body growing stronger each day, and we are off the "asthma/allergy" pills now with no snoring at night. Praise God!

These two little monkeys love to be silly and have a blast playing together, when they aren't driving each other crazy that is. Typical sisters! 

I think the adjusting has been the hardest for Chrisitna. She is not used to sharing a room and, with her SPD, the new noises at night of her sister sleeping in the same room can be quite a challenge. Her teacher said she was coming to school really tired and sleepy at first, but is doing much better now-yet another thing to be grateful for. She has had some jealous moments as well. My daddy's girl is not entirely sure she is ready to share Daddy, but things are improving each and every day, and most of the time these two are inseparable. On weekends, they love to build "pillow houses" together to sleep in and get to watch a movie in their room before bed. Very fun times!

This is my attempt at trying to get them to take a serious picture. Almost there!

Jing-Qi can't stop giggling. We love this girl! By the way, the mornings have greatly improved. I think we are settling into a regular schedule now. Sam and I even got out on a date night, which was so needed. It was great to be able to focus on each other and recharge a bit. My little Jing-Qi is still very much tied to my hip and does not like to be alone, which this introverted mother has found somewhat challenging. I am greatly enjoying home schooling her, though it can be very hard on the days that I work. She comes along with me and we are settling into this part of our new lives together as well. I am so very glad I decided to home school. It has given me the opportunity to spend much time alone with her, which I was able to do with my other two when they were babies. Also, it is giving her a comfortable window to learn english and our culture before starting school. I have found that some things we teach in second grade math, she has not yet learned though she is in third grade, so I'm glad to have the chance to see what she knows and, hopefully, get her caught up before she starts school in fourth grade. Life has been very busy, but very rewarding as well. I'm so proud of how well she is adapting into our family. Thank you all for your prayers. I am overwhelmed by God's grace and love for us and am so grateful for every answered prayer.