! I'm back !

I  have missed my blogging world!  Since I blogged last, here are some of the things we've been up to....

Traveling back to our favorite old stompin ground: THAILAND!  We needed to leave the country to apply for new WORK visas (woot woot) and while we were there waiting for all the paperworkstuffredtapeandheadaches

we gave an IUI fertility treatment one more shot.

The super duper dose of fertility medicine I took gave us more than perfect conditions, and the doctor felt very hopeful.

BUT.

We have heard from the Lord.  The answer to our prayers for a second child has not been yes.  or no.  or wait.  There was no earthly medical reason why I didn't get pregnant- it is obvious the Lord wants us to focus on our adoption that is already underway-- and adopt more than just one.

The five children we've always thought we would birth will not be born of my womb, but of my heart.

Joelle was so excited that brothers and sisters are waiting to come home to us somewhere that she did

this:

and then this:

then this:

.

We had fun in the sun on Valentine's Day!  And every day before and after that.  Thailand is quite sunny.  Joelle LOVED this dress that her sweet EMILY B bought for her.

  When we came back from Thailand, we had our Adoption Homestudy with our social worker.  It is safe to say that my house will NEVER be that clean again- so I took advantage and took pictures.  Lets all pretend it always looks like this!

Above is the guest bed room that will one day be filled with some hopefully funkysweet bunk beds for little monsters to use as a jungle gym sleep on.

Below is Joelle's room with her bed and her sweet raspberry-cream-striped walls.

Here is our bedroom... hopefully there is some cheerful decor coming soon to a drab room near me.

There is a new young lady in our lives! Please meet EVA!  She is a freshman in the college where Scott teaches, and through a friend of a friend heard that I was looking to hire a young person to come and teach Chinese to Joelle.  She is not only young, great with kids, and has GREAT standardized Chinese... but she is a sister.  She comes twice a week and plays with Joelle and speaks Chinese the whole time.

 We also have a new little lady in our lives: meet DingDing!  Scott and DingDing's dad are close friends that we've known the entire time we've lived here.  When we came back from Thailand, he called us and said he needed someone to watch their daughter during the day because he has to run his music store and his wife had to go oversee her crop of jujubee's and walnuts in the XinJiang province (very far away from here).  We gladly welcomed the chance to see what life would be like with two kiddos.

One word:

CRAZYSCREAMINGTWOLITTLEGIRLSBLISS.

...I promise that's only one word.  Look- no spaces.

Although she cried for her mommy and daddy for a while, she's now comfortable and plays a toddler version of hide-and-go-seek with Joelle, eats, has potty accidents (because a certain Christine forgets to ask if she needs to go and then tickles her too much) and takes naps.

ahh, nap time!

... ok, the pictures loaded out of order- so we're back to the topic of how clean my house was one day for 5 hours.

Here is our living room, dining room, kitchen!

A closer look at the kitchen and dining room/ doorway.

So, there is a small update on our Asian-flavored life since January.

Soon to come: homemade pop-tart recipes, pictures of my hand-sewn quilt, my thoughts on the joy of cloth diapering, an update on our adoption news and justforfun pictures of Joelle.