We're Back!

James and I returned from Oregon late last night. We slept in late and are now adjusting to the time zone.

It's very cold here so we stayed in today but will venture out to do some grocery shopping and playing tennis for me tomorrow.

We had a great time in Oregon visiting friends and family. Thank you everyone for always welcoming us. I wish Daddy could have gone too but not enough vacation, since he is saving it for Ethiopia.

Speaking of Ethiopia, I get many questions about when it will happen. We don't have any more news, except that I think it will be March at the earliest when we get our referral. I plan to call Holt again tomorrow to ask more questions, such as, "can we expect matching to happen monthly?"

Meanwhile we work on the dresses. Thanks to my mom, we now have about 15. My goal is to make 100 dresses to take with us for the orphanage. Home-made dresses. Quite a goal. Maybe if I get those done, we will actually get our referral.

It will be 3 years of adoption process for us in June. So we have set this as a deadline for the adoption. Hopefully we will have good news soon!

No More Fever

James is finally well - after days of staying down with a fever, throwing up, and a horrible cough. Now I'm realizing why fevers exist - to keep you down. He needed to rest and he got plenty of it over the last days. We haven't left the house for 3 days, except for the doctors yesterday. He, the doctor, did a test for strep and it came back negative.

Now we prepare to leave tomorrow morning for Oregon! Looking forward to seeing family and friends. James is excited to spend time with cousins, and we will both get to meet our new cousin Vu! What a special time that will be.

I hope to take a break from all the TV watching that I've subjected onto James. He's singing songs from Chicken Little like, "Do you wanna be my lover". It's really quite funny out in public. I hear him singing it when he's in his own world, just bobbing his head to it. We get a great laugh from and with him every day.

Transformers

This is James' latest song that he keeps repeating: "Transformers, more than eats the eyes. Transformers, robots in the sky (with a really high pitch on the end there for emphasis". We've been hearing this over and over today. Love it, and Lee and I can't help but turn away and smile.

James has also been reading us stories from his books, and uses such words as "wondrous", "especially", and phrases like "at some point" and "by the way". Oh, and lots of rhymes as he plays along with his cars/markers/toys. Funny things happening in our household.

He has a cold today. It's so hard to keep him still as he only has super fast speed and then crash speed. But if he gets going too much, he starts coughing to the point of gagging. Poor little guy.

We're gearing up to go to Oregon - only 5 more days!

New York

Our trip to New York City...

Here is the Baltimore train station, the ceiling was beautiful and the stations was bustling about for the holidays and business travelers.

Here is James acting goofy upon exiting the train station and being in NYC. He had just said, "Look! There's the vampire state building". We were very impressed he recognized it. Better than Emily or I, when we tried to go up in the Chrysler building, mistaking it for the Empire State Building.

Riding the giant Toys 'R' Us ferris wheel inside the store...


The famous Rockefeller Center Christmas tree...


Yes, these were the crowds of people. We tried to stay away as best as possible.

More to post later. This was only the first day!

School Christmas Pageant

James was Joseph in the school play. He really took the role seriously, telling us how Mary and Joseph weren't really married. When he first got asked to be Joseph, he said, "Well, who's gonna be Mary?". He's very careful about these decisions you know. I guess he must have thought Sophia made a good Mary because he went through with it. She was sweet, as were all the children. They looked great in the costumes we made for the play. Just simple robes in different colors. Very long but tied up with yarn belts.


Giggling with his friend David...
Thinking he's ninja Joseph...

Here with Miss LuAnn, his teacher (in red)...

The big production. They told the story, sang a couple songs, came back up for prayers from Pastor Robinson, and then were given gifts to take home. James mainly just stood up there, in his own world, giggling and playing with his cane/shepherd's hook.