Amazing!

We can't believe that we have been home two weeks already. We spent the first week trying to get back on Washington time. That is never fun! It's amazing that the body doesn't always want to sleep when you tell it to and wants to sleep when it shouldn't. Thankfully we had only one night when Jamae and Mitchell decided at 2:00 am that they didn't want to sleep anymore and should be up for the day. We had many nappers that first week, especially Ming. I think he was physically and emotionally exhausted. Thankfully that is all behind us.

This week has been full of summer fun. We have been swimming which is a favorite of MIng. It was fun to watch his face as he experienced our Surf & Slide Water Park for the first time. He loved the water slides, the lazy river, and even tried the flowrider. We told you he was brave. He got in line with Jody and Mitchell, but after watching a few people surf, Jody said that Ming wasn't so sure he wanted to try it. After some urging by Jody, he jumped on and did great! I was really proud of him. He's working very hard on his swimming because he wants to go off the diving board and go on the drop water slide. I'm thinking that will be next summers adventure. Ming was very excited to see that Jay was a lifeguard, although he didn't believe that really was Jay sitting on the chair until Jay raised up his sunglasses.

Yesterday was Jody's day off. Ming grasped quickly the concept that 6 days Father works, but on Thursday no work! Yeah! We went disc golfing. Ming told us that he played frisbee in China, but never disc golf. He was really good. He has a great throw. I'm getting the impression that he is a natural athlete. He can also ride a bike. Our first day home he jumped on a bike and was off. No need to teach him how ride. I'm not sure when he learned or how often he has been able to ride a bike, but he sure knows how to ride. He's full of surprises.

We really enjoyed attending church on Sunday for the first time with Ming - something we had thought about alot the 9 months we were waiting to bring him home. Of course our thoughts always centered around how Ming would react to attending church with us, not knowing if he would even know what a church was. Now we know that Ming attended church in China. Besides saying to me as we walked into the service, "No- English!", he handled the service great. Jody showed a slide show of our time in China and Ming seemed to enjoy seeing himself on screen. I think it was good for him to see the whole trip together like that, hopefully getting a better understanding of how thankful we are that he is now part of our family. Jody and I were also blown away that Ming was singing the songs - we believe in English. We have to believe that he was reading the words to the songs off the screen. We were amazed.

We allowed Ming to call his children's home in China soon after we got home, so he could let them all know that he is safe. This is the third time that he has called them - the first time was the day after he left Living Hope and the second time was the morning we were leaving China for Hong Kong. I think he wanted to say goodbye. This time he was very excited to call. I can imagine that he misses them very much. We could tell that he talked to many different people and used the word for amazing alot. We can only hope that he was telling them over and over how amazing is his new life and family.

The language continues to be a huge barrier. We so wish we could sit down and have conversations with Ming, but that will come. From what we can tell, he is adjusting great. The last 4 weeks have been amazingly smooth. We are so thankful for the easy adjustment to Ming becoming a Bowser. He is working hard on his english. Here is a picture of Jamae teaching him through one of her computer games.


The patient & adorable teacher


Thanks for your continued prayers. We are so excited to be in this journey!