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.
