Happy Day - Happy Place!

The actual princess Becky's birthday was spent with the princesses! We had the amazing gift of three days at Disneyland - and it happened to coincide with Becky's birthday and Katie's spring break. 

What lovely company they had for her birthday! 

  

 Besides the bedazzles princess's and the furry friends....we got more than a few rides in. Becky is our super cautious rider, and Cami is "bigger, faster, higher so there are only a handful that we can all ride together! 

It was a happy day at a happy place! 

Behind...but here's Becky's Birthday!

Wow - I have never gone this long without a post. In 7 years - never this long. I wish I had a compelling story to tell about what's kept me away - but basically its's been so "normal" around here, that the events are passing without much notice. 

This is a good thing. A very good thing. 

Now - on to the events!!!

Becky turned 7 a few weeks ago. It was a very fun filled weekend! We had a birthday lunch at school....

.........then a dance show in LA..........

.......then a birthday dinner with her best friend! 

And all of this took place BEFORE her actual birthday. Stay tuned tomorrow for the big day event! 

and you may have noticed....we have a bit of a penguin thing happening here! 

Today - that Day.

I am not even sure where or how to begin this post. You see - today was an extraordinary day.

Today, I was privileged to be a support person for a team of 22 amazing people who ran the LA Marathon for Love Without Boundaries.

It was out of this world awesome for so many reasons. I tried all day to write a pithy, 50 word Facebook status that summed up the awesomeness - and 50 words a one or two photos just never did it justice, 

It was amazing because I watched my friend Kelly - who last year wasn't sure if she could do 13.1 miles or fund raise one dime - lead a team of 5 people who collectively raise over $4100 as they ran 26.2 miles. I had a front row seat watching God grow and stretch her. And I just love her - so how awesome is that! 

Bonus - I made some really wonderful friends in her team she put together - amazing women of God who love Jesus, their families and have a heart for the defenseless. 8 Months ago, they didn't know about orphans in China who needed them - today, they sweated it out for 26.2 miles for those babies. (Did I mention it was in the mid 80's before noon today?)

It was also two women that made the day super special - one of whom a deep friendship is blossoming out of many training hours together. She is a source of Godly wisdom and support - who made the choice to push herself and try a full marathon for the first time. The other I have a profound respect for because she is tackling this 26.2 miles again after her first attempt was with a severe (undiagnosed) neck injury. Her bravery and tenacity on behalf of the LWB Babies is amazing. Not only did she run for TEam LWB- but all her running buddies ran for a different charity team - but she is a defender and superhero of her LWB babies.

It was sisters running together again... but bringing along a daughter. Their legacy of running is transcended by the legacy of compassion for the orphan. Both are amazing things to share with your kids. The daughter is now recruiting her friends to run for LWB! 

Both these sisters have done this race before - and each year there are struggles and battles but their commitment is greater than any adversity they face. They inspire everyone to keep doing it!

Of course the representation by the AWESOME school my kids go to made me cry big old gratitude tears- moms who love Jesus, their kids and my kids. Because of that - they stretched themselves in a HUGE way. They are the reason that we love Eastside Christian Schools - because they live what Jesus teaches! 

Made even better by watching a sweet friend burst into her own with accomplishment in areas she never knew she could - 

It was the painted sky God gave us as our runners got into their corral to start

and the HUGE blessing Chez Jay in Santa Monica was when they hosted our finish line festivities in their parking lot - nothing says "love" like a bacon cheeseburger after 26.2 miles! 

It was a group of young adults who love each other, have a heart for the orphan and are living a life that represents Jesus so well to a generation in desperate need of that. Getting to know these kids (yes - 20 somethings are kids!) was just plain fun!! Their enthusiasm for life and willingness to humor os "oldies"  made them a joy to be with! 

Aren't these newlyweds just the cutest, most adorable couple in the world! 

For sure the day was made extraordinary because my husband is an amazing man who will do anything his wife asks him to when their are babies to be saved - including getting up in the middle of the night to corral a bunch of sleepy runners into cars and get them to the start line on time! 

It was a perfect day because my co-conspirator is a woman I adore and we might be sisters from different mothers - and we only got into a little bit of trouble together! If I have to be sidelined from running - there is no one better than to have share the honor with! 

It was the peace of mind through all this that my kids were doing great with my brother - who interrupted some stuff he has going on to take the weekend out and be with them so Doug and I could support the team. It always russian (or China?!) roulette when we are gone how the girls will be when we get back, but apparently Uncle Kenny holds the magic touch - because they were regulated and happy! 

It was all of these things, wraped in a huge blanket of prayer 

It was a God ordained team of people with a heart to be the defender of the orphan - the superhero to the lonely. 

Every once in a while, you have a day that is just bigger than words. It is life changing and ground breaking and earth moving and heart shaping for people and you have the privilege of a front row seat. 

Today was that day. 

To Him be all the Glory - It was HIS day! 

It's a New Year

It's a bit of a challenge sometimes - raising kids who are a different race and from a different culture. It's not as much finding a balance between their birth culture and their American culture as I think it's an integration of the two - which is hard when your parents aren't Chinese. 

To help, we fully take advantage of the opportunity to celebrate things that are important in the Chinese culture - and Chinese New Year is certainly the their most important holiday. 

So we celebrated big here! 

First, Becky really wanted to celebrate with her class, so we hosted a Chinese New Year party at school for them - with stories and games and a CHinese lunch. Becky used a free dress pass to wear her Chinese dress - and I even got creative with her hair (or as creative as I get!) 

We also took a morning and attended the lunar New Year celebration at Disneyland - which I consider to be a true integration of two cultures! 

I am relatively sure that face painting is not authentic Chinese New Year activity - but it was fun! (and free - might be the only free thing ever at Disneyland!) 

The calligraphy was very authentic - and this gentleman was so kind to the girls. He did a "Happy New Year" for Cami and an "I love penguins" for Becky.

The new years festivities finally culminated with the FCC (Families with Children from China) celebration at the end of the two week observance. We are blessed that we live close to Chinatown - so the girls get a taste of China more frequently than most adoptees. They also have some excellent Chinese-American role models in the Miss Chinatown & her court  - all these girls are either UCLA or USC students or graduates majoring in very "smart" subjects like biomedical engineering or the like! 

We were also SO blessed to spend the night with our bestie's Sophie and her mom!  

Cami got to be hte guest DJ again like last year - she loved it (even though Becky tried to move in on her job!) 

Our FCC group is so huge that there is no way to really get a good group shot - but this angle at least has our girls in it! 

These celebrations in no way make up for the loss my girls experience of their birth culture. And short of moving to China, there is no way to replace that loss. The best we can do - for right now - is to encourage them to integrate where they are now with where they came from.