We got another day out!! This Wednesday Jen Jen came with Tanya and so the girls and I decided to go for a bike ride. The elementary school that the kids go to was suppossed to be fairly close and a pretty ride so we went looking for it... it was quite an adventure! We failed to find the school for about 2 hours and ended up on some long side, country rode following these Chinese signs we thought were pointing to the school....umm yeah we were wrong. Not sure why we thought we could guess at Chinese characters but it ended up being a beautiful ride anyway. Then finally we asked directions once got back into town and we finally got there! So here are a bunch of pictures from along the way. We stopped at a candy store, Taiwanese style of course, and a tea shop, and then a lady's house for lunch :) And the pictures are in the wrong order so they happened time wise from top to bottom just fyi :)
Black licorice-Jess' bike
Dorothy-Katie's bike
Blue Wizard-My bike
It was delicious!
The school...finally!!
A Taiwanese scarecrow...I loved it, it cracked me up!!
We thought we had found the school, but it ended up not being it. It was a neat looking building. We pulled up and it looked deserted so it was honestly kind of creepy and there was a big dog so we left really fast and decided that wasn't it. lol It was funny :)
Jess and one of the little ones. He makes the funniest faces :)
Katie and I taking babies out for an afternoon walk :)
I thought this was the most precious thing ever! These are our 2 newest and smallest babies.
Baby Update- They are doing very wonderful at the moment :) We have one that leaves tomorrow. The parents have been here all week and thankfully they have been wonderful! Our count as of tomorrow then I believe is 21 with no news of new babies coming in. We have been working a lot with them on standing and sitting and it is adorable! They are all getting so BIG! We only have 2 in newborn diapers and we used to have like 7. There is a whole group of them that used to only lay on their backs but now they can lift their heads really well and are getting good at balancing when we help them sit. And another on baby food. I fed her both times today and my goodness I now think spoon feeding is quite an art. It took me a minimum of 30 min to even get it all in her mouth and that doesn't mean it got swallowed. Talk about a good lesson in patience. There are a bunch of them finding their fingers and thumbs. One little one actually put her whole fist in her mouth!! That scared us to death but she pulled it right out and then just stuck 4 fingers back in. lol And a couple are noticing their tongues, there are 2 or 3 that you walk by and you just see their tongues hanging out of their mouths wiggling around and occasionally spitting. It's very funny when we're not trying to feed :) I'm starting to dread leaving them. I thought after so much baby time I'd be ok, but now a few hours without them and I'm dying to hold one again. It's just really amazing to watch them grow. I know everyone says that but now I know why and it's so true! Well that's about all for that....
Katie, my room mate who is the Aunt to one of our baby girls just found out today that her brother(the one adopting) get's to come in this Monday!! That was such exciting news!! Grace is the precious girl's name and she will get to go home soon :) Unfortunately so does Katie :( She leaves Thursday morning and I am not looking forward to loosing my room mate :( I'm going to miss her soooo much!! However Jess may move in with me and I love her so that would be fun :) Starting this weekend, or sunday I guess, things will be getting really crazy. We have a family come in Sunday, another Monday, Katie leaves Thursday, another girl comes in Wednesday or Thursday, then another staff member who has been on furlough in the States come back the 19th, then I leave the 26th and in between then there could be more families coming but we won't find out until AIT-the court- gives a court date or something along those lines. Those should be coming soon then the families book flights within a matter of a few weeks or less. So things will start to change quite a lot over the next few days but I think it will be fun.
Well there is lots more but i'll have to try to update again soon, i think that's enough for now. lol Love you all!!
Oh, how delightful to read your latest blog. We liked the variety and the pictures. We especially liked your bike's name "blue wizard". I think your ? building looks like Rapunzels tower. Did you see any golden hair hanging down? The bike ride sounded fun. We hope to be able to ride bikes next summer when we have good knees. I doubt we'll be able to ride as far as you did though. It's so nice that you get a day off to play. I'm sure it makes you better helpers in the long run. Comments on the pics: Love the hats; it looks like you have a silly straw (IA Mindrups fight over mine); the soup looks good (we had chicken chili for supper); we love the scarecrow also and it cracked me up to hear you say "cracked me up". I haven't heard that expression for awhile. All the baby pictures are so precious especially the one of the two new babies cuddling. Can you believe just a few more days than two weeks left? We keep praying for you and I know you'll miss all the babies and be looking for someone else's blog to read re: them. Well, since visiting with you in Midland, we haven't accomplished much..well I haven't accomplished much. Grandpa has done more basement work as well as picking up sticks outside. I was so tired the first 2 days home. I did get my hair cut, had a pedi and manicure. I hadn't done that since right before my surgery. It felt really good. We had a cold front move through this afternoon (Sat. 7th) and the temp has dropped and I'm wearing grandpa's fleece jacket. The wind is blowing and the sound is coming through the kitchen fireplace. We had the rugs cleaned in the living, stairs, and the main path through the master bedroom. The only place we can sit is at the kitchen table or in the yellow bedroom! I think we can get to our bed!Ha. Lily has ballgames this weekend. We'll try the 2 p.m one tomorrow. Hope it gets warmer. We went to two of hers last weekend and Kate's soccer game which was called because of lightening. It was in the 2nd half and since it was cold I think we all were relieved. Grandpa is sitting here at the kitchen table with me making snells for his Canada fishing trip. He's going to grill steak for Mother's Day. Uncle Doug is coming over. He's bringing something? (Grandpa told him anything but meat or potato) so it'll be a surprise although he's a good cook like your Dad. We had great food when we visited your home. Risotto,ymmmmmmmmmy.
ReplyDeleteribs, extra tender. What is something you are looking forward to eating when you return to TX?
On Friday May 14 all my siblings and spouses will treat G. Grandma Dinkel to lunch at the Audubon, Iowa, tea room for Mother's Day. I'm sure the guys can't wait, but Aunt Muriel said they had great desserts to encourage them. Aunt Diana who lives in Grinnell, IA, is going to cook G.Gma's dinner in Harlan, IA, for Mothers'Day Sunday, but she'll cook at Aunt Muriel's house in Harlan and A. Muriel will be in Lincoln at her Daughter's home. Did you follow all that? Enjoy the rest of your week and know that we pray for you.
So exciting to read about your adventures. I saw Hannah at the mall on Monday and I told her that I blog stalk you. :) I have been checking for a new post the past several days. Sounds like you have been very busy. I hope that the next 18 days are very rewarding. Praying for you!
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