Thursday, May 28, 2009

The Newest Family


Julia got big news today! A family who wants to adopt her received their Preliminary Approval (PA). It will still be quite a while until she joins her family, but we're all so excited that she is matched! They've decided that they don't want to change her name, so she'll still be Julia around here!
Tuesday, May 26, 2009

How Addison Crossed the Road


Our little Addison always makes us chuckle. Take the picture above, for example. If you tell her "deng wo," she'll roll her eyes at you. Loosely translated, deng wo means glare at me. Again, sometimes we encourage the children to do things that are probably parentally inappropriate, but they make us laugh and we can't help ourselves.

In an entirely unrelated bit of cuteness, Addison has been amusing us with her new walking habit. Addison recently learned to walk, and now she really goes! This girl does not want to slow down, but evidently she also fell one too many times in the process of learning. As a result, she's incredibly careful with any perceived roadblocks in her way. If she comes up to a step, she'll get down on her hands and knees and crawl over it.

The other day, all of the children were going on a walk, and Addison was happily toddling along in front of the group. All of a sudden she came upon a painted line in the road. She stopped short of the line and stood there eyeing it. One of our staff members encouraged her to keep going, but she wouldn't budge. In fact, all the rest of the children passed by and she still waited. Our staff member wasn't sure why she wasn't moving, and so she encouraged Addison once more to keep walking.

Addison got down on her hands and knees, crawled over the line, and promptly stood up to run and catch up with the group. Now we've noticed that anytime she sees anything that might possibly impede her progress -- whether it is a step, a painted line, a transition from grass to cement, or a crack in the sidewalk -- she insists on crawling over it! We know it won't be long until she grows out of this quirky little habit, but for now we think it is quite cute!

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Bubble Blowing


When he sees someone blowing a bubble with gum, Peter isn't quite sure what to think. He really likes it, and he wants to learn to do it himself. Perhaps he isn't quite sure where the bubble comes from, because he gets the cutest little expression on his face as he tries to recreate the phenomenon. Not knowing that bubblegum is the necessary ingredient in successful bubble blowing, he purses his lips, rolls his tongue, and blows, hoping for something to magically appear in front of his face. Such a cute little face on an inquisitive and determined little guy!
Friday, May 15, 2009

Wendel's Goodbye

We recently found out that not only is Wendel matched with a family, but he is going to be adopted soon. In fact, he leaves this Sunday to go to his hometown to meet his adoptive parents!


Though we don't know anything about his adoptive family, we have been working hard to prepare him for this upcoming departure... Today was his last day in preschool, and when it was time to leave, he crawled into his Foster Mom's cart and started waving goodbye.

As they got ready to leave, he started crying out to Sarah, our preschool teacher, "Laoshi! Laoshi!" (Teacher! Teacher!)

Everyone gathered close, expecting little Wendel to say some sweet and touching final goodbye.

Sarah kneeled down beside the cart... "Yes, Wendel?"

"Teacher, you forgot to give me my piece of candy at the end of class!"


So much for sentimentality... Wendel clearly has other - more important - things on his mind.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Housekeeping

We noticed that the NDFH website button (not the blog button) was a bit too wide for many blogs and was getting cut off. We think we fixed the problem. So... if you put the button on your blog and found it didn't really fit, please grab the new one! And, if you want to post the button on your blog but don't know how, here's a great tutorial from The Design Girl.

Putting the button on your site is just one more way that you can help us Spread the Word!

New Button

Zaijian!

We're saying goodbye to someone we love today, and we're not happy about it.


(That's Wen Xiang up above, a sweetie pie in our Healing Home. She had a heart surgery and she has Down's Syndrome. She's really blossomed in the last few months, and we're especially excited that she can almost sit up on her own! Among other things, she particularly enjoys sucking on her toes. And, though we don't really think she meant to be pouting in the above picture, it was a good fit.)

Anyway... today is Lauren's last day as an intern at NDFH. She has been such an asset to our team for the last year, and we're really going to miss her. Lauren took a year off between high school and college to come volunteer at NDFH, and now it's time for her to go back and get ready for school. We know she's moving on to great things, but she will still be sorely missed.

We love you Lauren!
Thank you for giving selflessly, loving endlessly, and serving enthusiastically!

More pictures in our Scrapbook...

Available for Adoption

We have a couple little guys whose papers are out there and available for adoption! Small World Adoptions has both Adam's and Aaron's papers. Let's advocate for these sweet boys until they are matched!

Aaron (Joseph on Small World's website)

Adam
Monday, May 11, 2009

Need a Makeover?

One of New Day Foster Home's friends (and the designer of the New Day Foster Home blog), Danielle of The Design Girl Studio, has decided to host a raffle benefitting our formula project!

You can enter the raffle on her website. All monies raised from the raffle will go to our foster home's formula project... and who knows! You might get a cute blog out of the deal!
Sunday, May 10, 2009

Summer S'mores!

Nothing says "summer" better than a barbeque, don't you think?

Many of the foreigners here at New Day just love summer cookouts, so we were determined to find a fire pit so that we could bring this little taste of home to New Day. After quite a bit of searching (this is not a normal thing to purchase in China!) with no luck, we finally ordered a custom fire pit right here in the village, made by a local welder who makes and sells metal drums.

So Friday night we let the older kids stay up a little past bedtime so they could join us in a favorite American tradition - making s'mores! Victoria, Sophie and Emily absolutely loved toasting the marshmallows and assembling the s'mores. Emily slowly turned her toasting stick, making sure her marshmallow was toasted evenly all the way around. Victoria preferred to let hers get pretty well charred, and Sophie was somewhere in the middle. But when it came time to eat, the girls were not a huge fan of the sticky messiness. Instead, they opted to sample the grilled hot dogs and mushrooms. (Yes, you read that right. These girls chose mushrooms over s'mores.)

Brett on the other hand, LOVED all of it from beginning to end! His shirt, face, and fingers were covered in chocolate marshmallow goo!


Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Emily's Big News


This morning we were able to give Emily the wonderful news that she has a family! We're so thankful that this precious little girl finally has the thing her heart longed for most -- a mom and a dad of her own. And, as icing on the cake, she has a big sister! Her name will remain Emily.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Boxing Match

Though we don't condone hitting, we admit that we did sit back for a few minutes and watch Annie and Addison discover the reality of cause and effect. We hope this video makes you chuckle a little... and never fear - no children were harmed in the making of this video.

If you watch closely, you'll notice that first Addison hits Annie (in the pink). Then Annie tries to hit back, but she can't quite reach her mark. So, while carefully dodging Addison's further attempts at a boxing match, Annie pulls her target a bit closer to her. Once she's in a closer range, success is ensured!

We think this proves little Annie thinks quick on her feet! And, we also ended the mini-brawl right after we got the video... is it terrible that we let it go on for the sake of a cute video?!

Bon Appetit!

We love many things about Julia, but there are two traits that we find especially adorable. First, she's got a marvelous imagination. Second, she loves to eat. Combine the two, and you'll often find Julia making up stories and games involving food. This morning in pre-school, Julia told us she was going to make something very tasty for us to eat...


Carefully, she poured out her ingredients into the bowl.


But like any experienced cook, she soon decided to just dig in and forget exact measurements.


Now just a pinch of salt...


And now we're done! As she offered the cup to the nanny, she proudly declared, "Hao chi!" (Good food!)

Jack's Efficient Eating Technique

We just loved this video of Jack going to town with his birthday cake. This little boy has learned that good things are best eaten quickly... after all, there's a better chance for seconds, that way! Maybe he's taken lessons from our puppy when he picked up this highly efficient technique. Whatever the case, we think he's absolutely precious. Not sure if his foster mom will appreciate the laundry that she gets to do after this escapade, though! Oh well. Boys will be boys.