Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Skiing the Trees at Copper
Over the past year, Steve and I have discovered many wonderful aspects of Lanhua's composition and personality. On the ski slopes, several of Lan’s key features shine in a way that is impressive, motivating, somewhat frightening and absolutely perfect. She is determined to do whatever she sets her mind to, she is an astute learner and athlete, and she has no fear. Whether it was following her cousin McKenzie through the trees, chasing Allyson and Uncle Bob down the fast runs, forging her own wooded trail (yikes), or barreling down a crazy tubing run head first with her Aunt Susan, this kid has moxie. We couldn’t be prouder!
Our First Slumber Party
It started with a trip to the mountains to play in the snow and ended with a Sunday night slumber party with 2 of Lanhua's closest friends from school, Pricilla and Melina (aka her "besties). Unfortunately, Dana couldn't make it. It was a great night for the girls and an illuminating night for Steve and I. We had a blast and are so fortunate to have these children and their wonderful parents in our lives.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
L is for Lanhua
On February 5, 2011, we celebrated the one-year anniversary of Lanhua’s arrival to the United States. We also honored the Chinese New Year, the year of the rabbit.
Few photos were taken during the 8-hour gaextravaganza, but we did capture a few action shots from the dodgeball game and marshmellow roast. In addition, we photographed a special gift presented to Lanhua by her good friend, Pricilla: a painting titled "L is for Lan." It was a very, very happy day!
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| "L is for Lan" by Pricilla (a sideways view) |
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| Besties! |
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
More Photos from Q4 2010
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| Lan and her Uncle Brian and Aunt Heidi |
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| Monkey Cousins |
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| Happiness is a good sucker. |
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| Lan and Mom |
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Our Fourth Quarter
Much time has passed since our last blog. A detailed description of the activities, challenges and progress in the 4th quarter of 2010 would simply require too many words and individual posts. So, I’ve summarized the events of the past 3 months and supplemented my brief description with photos. We’ll try harder to keep-up in the New Year.
Foster Family: We continue to keep in regular touch with Lanhua’s foster family in Guangzhou via email. We’ve exchanged photos, stories and advice (them to us). In the New Year, we hope to communicate with them using Skype (thanks to Tandora). This relationship represents a turning point in Lanhua’s journey that I quite frankly can’t describe other than saying "it’s huge.”
English: Lan’s comprehension has reached the point where she understands most of what is being said in just about every environment. Her speech is advancing at a slower pace, but she’s a determined kid and gets her point across one way or another. She’s more comfortable interacting with new people and is slowly but surely learning to extend herself with common courtesies such as “thank you” and “good-bye.” (This has been a significant challenge for her.) Around friends and family, she's quite the chatterbox.
School: Lanhua is thriving at her new school. She loves her teacher and is doing very well in the Montessori learning environment. She’s made friends with the kids in her class and from what her teacher tells us, she’s quite social and eager to participate in just about everything. Right before the winter break, she even participated in a violin recital with her music class.
As I’ve written before, there are no words to describe our experience this past year. Incredible, remarkable, amazing, joyous, challenging, scary, crazy and unbelievably rewarding come to mind. We are the luckiest family on the planet. Happy New Year!
Foster Family: We continue to keep in regular touch with Lanhua’s foster family in Guangzhou via email. We’ve exchanged photos, stories and advice (them to us). In the New Year, we hope to communicate with them using Skype (thanks to Tandora). This relationship represents a turning point in Lanhua’s journey that I quite frankly can’t describe other than saying "it’s huge.”
English: Lan’s comprehension has reached the point where she understands most of what is being said in just about every environment. Her speech is advancing at a slower pace, but she’s a determined kid and gets her point across one way or another. She’s more comfortable interacting with new people and is slowly but surely learning to extend herself with common courtesies such as “thank you” and “good-bye.” (This has been a significant challenge for her.) Around friends and family, she's quite the chatterbox.
School: Lanhua is thriving at her new school. She loves her teacher and is doing very well in the Montessori learning environment. She’s made friends with the kids in her class and from what her teacher tells us, she’s quite social and eager to participate in just about everything. Right before the winter break, she even participated in a violin recital with her music class.
As I’ve written before, there are no words to describe our experience this past year. Incredible, remarkable, amazing, joyous, challenging, scary, crazy and unbelievably rewarding come to mind. We are the luckiest family on the planet. Happy New Year!
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| New Bike from Santa! |
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| Disneyland with girlfriends from school |
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| Halloween at school |
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| Lan and Pops in the mountains |
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| A self-portrait |
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| First time on skates - a natural! |
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| Thanksgiving Football Game |
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| Lan and her Grandma Wedel |
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| Christmas Eve dancing |
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| Lan and her Grandma Gigi |
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| Skating with her Dad |
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