More Surprises!

The other reason that we took the trip to Oregon was that we bought a car for Nick! The kids didn’t know, so we had some dicey moments not talking about where Noelle and I actually were on Sunday and Monday – when we were actually driving home!
The reason we bought a car in Oregon is that my very generous brother bought a new car, sold his to his mother in law, and we got hers. Basically, they gave us an awesome deal that we just couldn’t say no to. I like to say that God and Uncle Adrian provided Nick with his car! But….that meant a long drive for Noelle and me! We got up early on Sunday morning and took off. We drove down into California and turned East at 80. For lunch we stopped at In n’ Out, Ter’s favorite place to eat in the world. It was awesome, I must admit, and I’m not much of a hamburger fan!
During the long drive, Noelle and I had a lot of time to talk. Some new information emerged about her life in China and about Noelle herself. She told me that she had some sort of white spot on her cheek when she was younger, and that they didn’t think anyone would adopt her until it healed. She also said that they loved her a lot (who wouldn’t) and wanted her to stay, but when she got to be 7 years old they thought she needed to be adopted before it was too late.
By far the most emotional moment came when I asked her if she ever wondered about her “China mom”. She had never mentioned this, and I always knew it would come up someday, but I thought maybe I would broach the subject while we were alone and free of distractions. I didn’t know if she would look at me blankly or answer (as she did once before) that “I don’t have one”. That isn’t what happened. She said, “Mom, I think about it every day.” And burst into tears. She said, “I don’t like to talk about it because it makes me cry.” She said that she thought that her mom wasn’t married and that’s why she gave her up. She was so broken up, my heart was breaking for her. I said, “Do you want me to tell you what I think?” She nodded, tearfully. I said, “I’m not sure, because we can’t know for sure, but I think that she loved you very much so she took you to a place where she knew that you would be taken care of. Maybe she wasn’t married, or maybe she already had a child – in China you can only have one, you know. Anyhow, even though we don’t know who she is, or where she is, we can still pray for her.” She said, “How can we pray for her…we don’t know who she is!” I said, “God knows who she is.” She said, “God knows people in China?” I said, “Absolutely, God knows everyone all over the world. Just like He knows how many hairs are on your head (they had studied that at Zion a couple of weeks ago), He knows every person on this earth. So every day we can pray for your China mom, that He keeps her safe and that she comes to know Him. I told her that I am always here for her to talk to about these things and that all adopted children wonder about their birth moms and it was normal for her to have those feelings. Poor baby – I just hope that I handled it well.
We had lots of fun bonding on our trip - but oh how great it was to finally pull into the driveway on Monday night! I told Ter that it’s a lot further when you’re the only one doing the driving!
All the kids were so happy and excited to see us, and when we told Nick that was his car, he was so happy! He kind of fell against the car and I gave him a hard time about denting it before he drove it. Since then, he has driven around the neighborhood a bit, and also is studying “the book” so he can take his test to get his permit.
Anyhow, I already posted as many pictures as I can for today, so I’ll post a few trip back pictures tomorrow! Still working on catching up!

And More Pics

Here's a few more pictures of the Oregon trip!

More Pics

Here are a few more pictures of the Oregon trip

Surprises

So much has happened since I last updated that I'll need to do this in stages!
I kept quiet on purpose, because I was keeping some secrets! It was hard!
Noelle and I flew out to Medford,Oregon on September 11th. My sister, Tresa, was turning 40 on Saturday the 13th, and we surprised her. It was so much fun! We were able to use our miles accumulated from our trip to China, so we flew for free. We did have to go from Lincoln to Minneapolis to L.A to Medford and it took a long time (we arrived at 10:50 PT - which was 12:50 AM to us). On Friday we went to lunch and hid behind a column while my brother, Adrian, said to Tres - "I'm going to give you one of your presents right now" and out we popped from behind the column. She was quite surprised and happy to see us, especially Noelle, since she hadn't met her yet. We spent just a couple of days with them - and it was awesome. We also got to meet my new nephew, Keith Joseph. My sister Sherri and her husband Russ also flew up from L.A., so there were four of the six of us siblings were together, along with spouses and all the kids, except for Sher's. Noelle got a big dose of the Sue family, and she got everyone straight by the time we left (a big job!). She loved playing video games with Chandler and Carson, Adrian and Loralee's boys - and she really fell hard for MacKenzie, Tresa and Carl's little girl who just turned two. Actually, we all did. She is such a little doll, and we celebrated her birthday along with her moms. Adrian and Loralee have just finished doing their back yard - it is beyond awesome - and Adrian (the greatest USC fan of all time) watched SC beat Ohio State (sorry Eric!)
I'll post a few pictures - and tell more of the story later!
Lisa

Go Huskers!

Hi All,
We rushed through most of our chores last night after we got home - had a late dinner and this morning Ter and Nick left for Lincoln to go to the Husker game! The rest of us went to the "Uptown Art Festival" in Kearney - we went to the Library, where the kids made leaf collages and leaf rubbings - and they each checked out a couple of books. We headed over to the Children's museum, but they were planning on having sidewalk chalk drawings and it was sprinkling, so we left. We went to MONA (Museum of Nebraska Art) where we watched Mr. Miller from Kearney High making pottery on a wheel, then went inside and the kids made edible art - they painted with food dye on cookies. They loved making them and they loved eating them!
Then we headed home so that we could watch the Husker game. After lunch, they went and got their gear on so that they could get in the spirit!
Right now it's halftime and we're winning!
Go Huskers!
Blessings,
Lisa

Amazing!

Last night I had an experience with Noelle that amazed me, maybe more than anything else she has done.
She has a science test coming up - it's on parts of a plant. It's prett detailed...honestly, if I had to take a test on it, I'd have to study.
When I saw what she had to learn, my heart sank.
I know that Noelle has been a bit down about school, because it's so hard for her this year, and I'm not sure yet how much help she is receiving.
I think she is still a bit intimidated by her new teacher - still some bonding to work on there - and I'm sure it's a challenge for the teacher as well - I know she's never had a ESL student before . The words are all harder and she's still got a long way to go in learning English. Every single subject becomes an English lesson - twice the work.
So when I saw how difficult the words were, and she not only had to learn them, but be able to identify their definitions, I'm not ashamed to admit that I wanted to cry for her.
But, I couldn't let that show. I told her to "study" it. She studied for about 5 or 10 minutes.
It was getting late, so I told her, "Let's have a test." I gave her a list of the words and then I read a definition and let her tell me which word it belonged with. She still couldn't say the words, so she would spell them to me.
Do you know that out of 16 words, she only missed 3 on the first try? And two of those three she got on the second try.
I couldn't believe it.
As got the next one and the next one and the next one right, I was incredulous. I actually started wondering if she was psychic and was reading my mind!
I keep going over it and over it in my mind and I can't understand how she could possibly have gotten them correct!
She couldn't read either the words or most of the definitions - so she had to have memorized what they looked like, then as I read them, sounded out what they looked like in her memory and told me which word matched.
However she managed it, it was amazing. And it gave me a glimpse of her future...once she has her English...there'll be no stopping her!
Blessings,
Lisa

S-U-C-C-E-S-S

I mentioned last week that Noelle was struggling a bit with her spelling words. She had written them all five times (I always make the kids do that with their spelling words - even though the teacher doesn't require it), but she didn't know what they were. When I got home, I asked her to read them to me and she couldn't on some. So I had to tell her what the word was, then ask if she knew what it meant - explain what it was, then have her say the word aloud while she practiced writing it. Then we did a spelling test for the six words of the day and if she missed any, she had to write them five more times. She was a bit discouraged at first, but quickly got into the groove. The great news is that.... she got a 105%!!!!! (She got all the bonus words right). I'm so proud of her and she is so thrilled. She had to go to each of us and show us all her paper. She works so hard to do well. What a great kid!

I'll also show a picture of Noelle and Alex. She is having a lot of fun having someone littler than her to play with and keep track of. We know that she had a special little boy in China that she bonded with, and I think she helped a lot with the younger kids in the orphanage. So Alex fits right in and she loves having him around.

Over the Labor Day weekend, I was just sick as a dog. I had some sinus issues along with stomach issues, so I was out of commission for the majority of it. Ter spent the weekend working his little heart out on coating the deck, helping the neighbors unload a truckload of red rock, and putting siding up on the north side of the house (he didn't quite get it finished - but it's getting close). I'm so grateful that God chose to send me a partner that is so handy around the house. He can do anything!

Katie has made her move to Omaha - she transferred and will be starting work tomorrow. All the kids are back in Nebraska, except Ryan.

Oh - I will be going to Cleveland in mid September. Although I have "retired" from the Eaton Diversity Council, I was asked to come again to the Diversity Conference. I guess they are having a Panel Discussion where everyone can ask questions of the winners of the 2007 awards - and I was the Chair during that time, so they asked if I could come. It's always a lot of fun, and very inspirational. I expect it will be hard for me to contain my excitement enough to NOT rejoin the council! I have so many irons in the fire right now, I think that it's best if I don't at this time. But my heart is still in it!

Blessings, all!

Lisa