This and That

New Territory. . .Having a Teenage Driver! YIKES!

We had a great time celebrating Shelby's 15th birthday with her good friends, Hailey and Kelly.  We enjoyed seeing the movie War Horse and having dinner together.  We ended the night by surprising Shelby with a serenade of Happy Birthday by the staff at the restaurant and a delicious cookie with ice cream.

Around here, birthdays typically are celebrated more than once.  This was on Shelby's actual birthday - Christmas Eve!

Miss Katie arrived exactly 2 years and 2 weeks after Shelby.  Katie loves peanut butter and wanted to try this chocolae peanut butter brownie pie.  It was good but only with a cold glass of milk to help dilute all that chocolate!

Katie has had an amazingly wonderful 1st year at school.  I am so grateful that she has made some wonderful friends like these two.

We had a great time designing and painting at a nearby studio. After all that hard work, we headed to 5 Guys and enjoyed some yummy burgers.  These 3 giggled the entire evening and had me laughing hysterically as well.  Oh, to have such carefree spirits!

no words needed : ) 

My idea of packing prior to Sunday afternoon.

My initial attempts at packing on Sunday.  Thankfully I have managed to do a lot more since then and other than weighing my suitcase to make sure I am under the weight limit, I am almost ready to go.

Of course I had to take time off from packing to celebrate Chinese New Year.  Our super-sized family joined 3 other large families to celebrate our children's Chinese heritage.  We had a great time and enjoyed a wonderful  assortment of Chinese food. The youngest of the bunch came home right before Christmas, and of course Sharon and I are adding 2 more next week.  Only God knows how many more little ones may be home by next CNY!  Amazing and miraculous!  What a blessing to be a part of such an incredible group of families who love the Lord and are passionate about heeding the call to care for the orphan.

Oh my, I just realized that Leiney Grace has only 3 more sleeps at Leiyang Social Welfare Institute!  She will know the love of a mother in 3 days (it's already Friday in China).  She may not like the love of this mother initially, but hopefully she will soon receive my love and give me love in return.