Wordless Wednesday...

Chinese New Year celebration...

     Our family celebrated the Chinese New Year in two ways.  We attended a cultural festival in downtown Co Springs.   There were traditional Chinese dance performances as well as a variety of martial arts demonstrations.   There were also Chinese food booths and items to buy that we saw in China two months ago – including the exact Panda tie that we bought for Ron. 

     Interesting to us was the crowd.  Many participants were Caucasians holding the hand of their adopted Chinese daughters.  John was the only obvious Chinese adopted boy among the whole bunch.  We figured his odds were 40 to 1.   Not bad for living in CO. 

In the evening, we joined the Chinese Church for their celebration, which was dinner with a program.  The room was beautifully decorated with balloons and red paper lanterns.   

      We had a wonderful time and met a number of other adoptive parents.  Although John was clearly the youngest, several of the families had adopted boys.  We exchanged contact info. with some of them so hopefully we can for grow John’s circle of Chinese friends.

      A real treat for the evening was hearing a famous opera singer from China sing for us, Professor Lily Zhang.  She has a wonderful testimony of how she began a relationship with God when she came to CO Springs as a visiting scholar at a University here. She was baptized in the Chinese Church the first year it was in existence and therefore has emotional ties to it that run deep.  It was fun to watch John clap hardily after the singer's first song. 

     But what John liked best about the whole evening was the balloons.   

 He played with a large bunch of them that were tied together and placed on the stage for decorations.  Actually he picked them up and walked them over to the woman who was the famous singer before the program began!   In addition, before I could intervene, he stole a balloon from two of the children that were sitting near us.  

  

     Not being shy at all, he approached a five year old Chinese girl at the table next to ours.  Reaching out, he touched her decorative red shoes and her red skirt without even saying hello!  (Of course, he doesn’t talk yet so physically touching her was his alternative strategy).    Fortunately, her mother was very understanding.

 

     One tradition that the Chinese Church continued during the New Year’s celebration was giving out red envelopes (called Hong Bao in Chinese) to all the children present.  The envelopes contain money and these had a special blessing written on them in Chinese.  We will be keeping this safe for John’s scrapbook.  It was also meaningful that they took donations for several orphanages in China so that those children could also receive a traditional red envelope with money in it.  

      Happy Chinese New Year from the Besonen's.

Playing with Mommy...

John loves physical play. 

John's expressions of delight are unforgettable.  Not shown here...when he is very happy it is almost like his physical body can't contain his emotions so he rapidly flaps his arms, stomps his feet, and squeals simultaneously.   

And after a full day of play, he loves to fall asleep with Daddy in the rocking chair.  Usually the soft lullaby and dimmed lights puts them both to sleep.  

Dishwasher FUN!!!

John loves to take dishes out of the dishwasher whether they are clean or dirty.  

He was hoping the pantry door was left open so he could hide the evidence of his tampering. 

 

 

 

Since he was caught red-handed, he decides to give the cup back...unlike the spoons that have disappeared also from the dishwasher thief.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When all the clean dishes have been safely put away, he resigns himself to laying on the door. 

Or sometimes he likes to dismantle the dishwasher when it is empty...it all depends on his mood...

Imitation...

                The other day I was feeding John with wet hair so I had a small hand towel wrapped around my shoulders.   I could tell he noticed my wet hair.  However, when he was released from the high chair and on his way to the den where his toys are kept, he grabbed the kitchen hand towel that was resting on the oven door and flung it around his shoulders.   He looked just like I did expect he didn’t have wet hair.

     What was so interesting to me is that I never would have realized that he even observed the towel around my shoulders.  There was no attention given to it what-so-ever.   And yet he imitated what he saw.   Not really knowing its purpose – he did it anyway. 

     John did something similar with the remote control for the TV.   He sat down on the couch, found the remote control and pointed directly at the TV expecting something to happen.  Since the TV wasn’t on,  nothing happened – but he had watched Ron function this way and wanted to do it also.   

 

     The apostle Paul wrote in the book of 1 Corinthians 11:1, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”  This verse has become more meaningful to me as I have watched John “pick up” on actions that we did not intend for him to imitate.  

     Ron and I realize in a fresh way that impressionable eyes are upon us.   This had caused us to pray that our words and actions would be a solid foundation of love for John.  

PS.  Ron claims that the best way of getting John to go to sleep is to model it first.   He often will dose off giving John his bottle at night...evidenced by the following photos.  

Update - one month at home...Jan. 11th

  One month update…

                We are all doing well in the CO Besonen household.  Ron and I love playing and caring for John.   He is a curious and active boy with a lot going on in his mind.  One of our goals is to try to make him laugh hard every day.   He loves to climb into things,  which means he is often emptying his plastic container of books in order to put himself in it.   Like many kids, he loves the bath and Elmo…the latter I have more trouble relating to. 

We have had a couple of very encouraging medical appointments for John.  Although he was diagnosed with “severe malnutrition”,   his labs show that there are no metabolic reasons for this diagnoses.  That’s the good news!  The bad news is that despite our attempts to “fatten” him up over the holidays, he only gained ½ of an ounce in three weeks.  We are now trying a few new strategies to get him to bulk up.

                We are scheduled for an initial evaluation from a cleft palate team in Denver to address his series of surgeries.  We were told by the medical assistant that John might have to gain weight before they would perform his first surgery.   We will know more by the end of the month. 

                Campus Crusade values adoption enough to give me maternity leave for a couple of months.  I have so enjoyed being with John and getting to know him better.   However, due to my responsibilities with directing a leadership school, I am working currently working part-time and will move into full-time in a week or so.  This means finding the right morning day-care for John. 

            If you remember us in prayer we our urgent need is to find John a good day care for the mornings. 

One Month at Home...

John with tailless "piggy bank"  - read below...

John and Ron with Ron's big red "piggy bank".  We were hoping John could use it...but since it is 40 year old plastic, it didn't stand a chance with a curious two year old boy.  Soon "piggy" lost his snout as well as his tail.  Looks like we are in need of a new "piggy bank"...smile!

 

Look Mom...I'm finished with that bite of pudding...

When John is happy with what he is eating he squeals and grabs his bib to take it off in sheer delight. 

It's pudding time...

John playing in near by park