handsful

I’ve lived in NC (with the exception of years 2004-2010) since I was a year old, but I’d never been to Asheville to visit the Biltmore Mansion. Randy had gone as a child, but didn’t remember much.

This past Thursday, we made the 2 hour trip.

We started with a yummy dinner at Vinnie’s, and then relaxed at the hotel till bedtime. The next morning, the kids had to take a quick jump into the hot tub…I grumbled about being “late” to the mansion, but I got over it.

Kids showered and changed, we made it to Biltmore around 11:30. After going over what the day-admission fee would be vs. the cost of a year’s membership, we went with the latter. We actually spent less money on the membership than we would have a day ticket, since members 16 and under are admitted free. I guess we’ll be doing Biltmore a lot in 2012!

Outside pictures. Did you know, you can’t take ANY photos inside?!? I was miffed, but then realized that I would have spent so much time taking pictures that I would have missed the details of the tour.

We decided to take a self-guided tour, using the headsets with recorded messages for each room…so much better than listening to a tour guide.

The tour took about 2 hours and we were starved afterwards! We walked straight to the Stable Cafe next door…

This restaurant used to be…you guessed it…the stables back in the day. It was just gorgeous and I loved thinking about the people (and animals!) that lived and worked where I was currently eating lunch.

Yes, that’s my lemon-overloaded tea in the foreground.

After we were pleasantly full, we headed to the shops nearby. Christmas decorations, books, toys, etc. The Confectionery was a favorite stop, and helped top off our lunch with a little something sweet. Payton had his eyes on something a bit bigger…

Before we knew it, night had fallen and the place started to really light up. We walked down to Antler Hill Village, where there is a farm (we missed it…it was already closed…we’ll visit that FIRST next time) and the kids goofed around a little.

A statue of George Washington Vanderbilt’s daughter, Cornelia, and her dog Cedric.

How you doin’?

We rode back up to the house, had some pastries and hot chocolate, and then headed home.

Can’t wait to go back…we’re told January is their least busiest month (with December being the most), so I’m hoping we can make another quick trip to Asheville soon!

I promised more info on our Celebrate Dylan night, so here goes…

Our normal routine for Gotcha Day is to take the special child out to eat, so we headed out. We had no clue where we were going…we asked Dylan what he wanted to eat and he said “a potato”. Okay, then.

We were headed to a casual steak place, but ended up here.

A long-time Lake Norman restaurant (37 years, we found out), we’d not tried it yet. And, given how much Dylan LOVES “Cars” these days, it seemed like a perfect fit.

Dylan prayed for our meal…he takes “close your eyes” very seriously.

Appetizers. Dylan tries his first oyster with cocktail sauce. He gave it a thumbs up.

No pictures during dinner because we were all stuffing our faces…catfish, flounder, shrimp, chopped steak, potatoes, and lots of sweet tea. Oh my, it was good. Dylan cleaned his plate.

Did we save room for dessert? Nah, but bring it anyway.

Cutting his 8-layer cake.

Yes, he did shovel it in one bite.

Our other Gotcha Day tradition is giving the child a book…maybe an adoption related book, maybe just something that the child is “into” at the time. We sign the inside of each, with some words of love and the date.

His eyes lit up when he saw this, he absolutely adores anything “Cars” these days. He spent some good reading time on his belly today, “reading” his new book.

We had such a fun night, eating some great southern food and honoring our little guy. How blessed we are to be Dylan’s mommy and daddy!

11/29/10 – taken an hour or so after we first met.

Today, we celebrate Dylan.

And, praise a God that would bless us with this bundle of cuteness.

11/29/11

We look back on this last year and marvel at how easily Dylan transitioned to us – bonded with us – and, showed us love so quickly and easily.

We smile as he measures himself against the kitchen counter, realizing he’s getting taller. And, when he raises his shirt after cleaning his plate, showing us his big tummy.

Tonight, we took the crew out to celebrate…and, had a blast, as usual. But, it’s getting late and homeschool co-op comes EARLY. So, more details and pics tomorrow.

Happy 1 Year, Dylan…we love you!

The big kids youth choir, Testify, took part in the Mooresville Christmas Parade yesterday. Yes, it’s always held BEFORE Thanksgiving, but I let them anyway.

Yes, Dylan has a mouthful of orange crackers…blech.

Lainey in the mosh pit, vying for her share of candy.

Dylan seems to have a monopoly on these…

Here they come! Payton is 3rd from left.

Marley sees us :)

Abbey was on the other side, so I couldn’t get a shot of her.

Ethan on the back, beside his friend Eva Joy.

They were float number 33. There were about 140 floats…it was a LONG parade! The kids came and watched the rest with us.

The gang of friends…they hate having their picture taken. lol…

Marley and Kylie

Payton and Brielle (yes, he’s getting a hair cut today!)

At this point in the post, I should probably say something related to having a great December holiday. But, instead I’ll say Happy Thanksgiving…since it’s tomorrow!

No, not the city – the spider

And, no, I don’t usually blog about spiders…or other creepy crawlies. But, I just had to share this story. It appeals to the homeschool mama side of me…

This is Charlotte. She appeared in our laundry room window back in September. We did some searching, and found out she’s a “zipper spider” or more specifically an Argiope spider. They re-do their webs most everyday, including the “zipper” in the middle. I finally timed it right today, and watched her spin the zipper…fascinating.

This was taken today. See the difference in the background? The leaves have changed since the first picture :)

The part of this that’s interesting? We thought Charlotte was dead last week. Absolutely certain she was dead. She had dismantled the web, crawled to the top of the window, and kinda curled all up. No movement at all. I went online again and read that the zipper spider will die once the temp hits freezing and below. We’ve had several freezes, so I assumed that was it.

As I read further, it said that the female zipper spider will weave an egg sac just prior to dying, and position it near the top of where the web was. I went to the window to check…

At the top of the window sill, safely secured with webbing…an egg sac. You can get an idea of it’s size with the leaf hanging there. It’s supposed to stay there til spring, when the babies will hatch. Maybe one or two of them will hang around and live in the sill like their mama. Maybe we’ll name them Joy, Nellie, and Aranea :)

So, apparently she didn’t die, since she spun this new web today…we had a storm tonight, which tore it apart again. I wonder if she’ll spin it back again tonight. I think Charlotte’s days are numbered, but we’ll enjoy having our spider pet for now.

Flash forward to the next morning…I finally captured Charlotte making her web and zipper :) She spun the entire outside portion, and then began making the haphazard middle area.

See the bundle of silk coming out at once? She can control that perfectly, using only a single strand for the outside portion and then changing it’s thickness as needed.

Then, she crawled down a little ways, and began making the zipper back up.

Then, she crawled to the top, turned around, and made the zipper back down to the middle. This part wasn’t so perfect…I think she was just ready to be done :)

Okay, so now I’m probably done talking about spiders. To me, scenes from nature like this are just more confirmation that we have a very precise and very creative God.

Today, November 13th, 2011, we dedicated our son – Dylan YuHai – to the Lord. He was prayed for, prayed over, and shown lots of love from our church family…

What made it even more special is that November is Adoption Appreciation Month. Our friends were with us on stage, dedicated their adopted daughter.

Our church is very diverse, and adoption and foster care is just about rampant! Many of our friends have adopted or are currently doing foster care. Many have adopted through foster care, and we also have several friends with children from China, Ethiopia, Latvia, etc. Our pastor and his wife have 2 children, both adopted. This church-wide mindset is one of the reasons we love Grace Covenant like we do.

Adoption is a perfect picture of Jesus’ love for us. We, as believers, are all grafted in (adopted) into the family of Christ. We’ve done nothing to deserve this, it’s done out of pure and honest love for us, His children. Lainey and Dylan aren’t ours by birth, but they are truly loved by us, just as if they were. God ordained that the would be in our family, long before the idea of adoption was even on our radar. Thankfully, God’s plans are so much better than ours!

During worship, right before we headed to the stage.

A full stage! Our friends have 3 bio children, and have foster/adopted their youngest 3.

Dylan had no problems going to Pastor Farrell, and loved seeing his picture on the screen in front of him…

Is that me?!

I love how Lainey has her hands over her eyes, and someone forgot to tell Dylan to close his!

After the dedication, the Pastor asked us a few questions about our adoptions…thankfully, we knew the questions ahead of time and could kind of plan out our answers! Randy is completely comfortable talking in front of people. Me, not so much. But, I somehow made it through and was told I didn’t even sound nervous. They’re just being nice.

I made sure to put in a “plug” for the many SN children in China needing a forever family…I hope I planted a seed or two :)

This is the verse written on the card that we received at his dedication today… “Let heaven and earth praise Him, the seas and everything that moves in them.” Psalm 69:34

Yu Hai means “of the sea” – Dylan means “son of the sea”.

We love you, Dylan, and are so very blessed to be your family!

When my kids start to ask when I’m gonna blog again, I know it’s about time to blog again.

A lacing party…

I think my kids enjoy seeing themselves on the blog :)

Here goes. A few random thoughts on this last week or so…

Last I stopped in, it was Halloween. The kids are busy scarfing down their candy these days. I took a cue from another mom friend of mine, and the kids have “Candy Hour” from 3-4. During that hour, they can eat their candy – no limits. Well, I try to limit the littles. Interestingly, the big kids don’t gorge themselves like you might imagine. They eat a few pieces and then call it quits. And, I’m not nagging them to stay out of their candy bags all day. Win!

We had a meeting with our adoption social worker last week, to put together the 12 month report for China. Our last requirement for Dylan’s adoption :) Rumor has it that our travel group was one of the last that’s ONLY required to have 6 and 12 month reports. From now on, adoptive families have to send in reports at the 6mo, 12mo, 2yr, 3yr, and 5yr! I have no issues with sharing with China how amazing our adoptions have been and how much we love our kiddos…but, if each visit also comes with the price tag of a social worker visit? Not so cool. Glad we’re on this side of that line.

Last Saturday, our family took part in a 5K to benefit the kids youth choir, Testify. It was about 41 degrees, with wind. Cold! But, we loved it. Well, most of us did. Lainey was okay for the 1st kilometer, complained during the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, and was thrilled that it was almost over during the 5th. We were floored, she RUNS everywhere…why wouldn’t she love this? Not that we RAN. For us, it was a 5K walk. I’d love to do it again!

Have I ever mentioned that Marley is good with animals? It’s taken her a while, but she’s beginning to build quite a client base for watching dogs in our neighborhood. Since last Friday, she’s watched 1 dog for the whole weekend, 2 additional dogs for the weekend through today, and she begins watching 2 more dogs this coming weekend for 7 days. The girl’s wallet is bulging. I’m expecting a pretty swell Christmas present :)

A butterfly by Lainey. We’re working on Kindergarten skills this year with her, and Dylan is absorbing a lot, too, since he also MUST “do school”. I was a little worried this time last year, she just wasn’t interested in learning her sounds, numbers (could barely get her to count to 10), nothing. This year, it’s finally clicking for her and she’s the one asking to write, draw, play letter games, etc.

Abbey is a busy girl, too. She’s now taking voice lessons with the director of her youth choir…Susan is amazing, and such a huge encouragement to all of our kids. We’re blessed that she has such a calling for youth and for spreading God’s word! Susan told Abbey that she’s making wonderful progress and hopes that she’ll try out for a solo in the spring. She already has a trio part in the upcoming Christmas musical (as well as a dancing part).

Oh, and Ethan also has a duet and Payton has a speaking part. Marley is still getting her feet wet with Testify, but is already talking about trying out in the spring. Yes, my shy kiddo.

But, back to Abbey…she tried out for a local volleyball club today. She played on their developmental team last year, and we expect that’s where she’ll be this year. Fine with us, being on the travel club is $$ and BUSY. We have no more time for busy. Just sayin’

“Homework” with dad. If the answer key isn’t enough for them, then it’s dad to the rescue. Thank goodness he was blessed with math genes. I was not.

Speaking of math, I’ve spent the last two nights making Algebra photocopies. For 4 kids, and ONLY on Unit 2. Remind me to NEVER again buy curriculum that I have to copy myself. Ever.

I guess that’s about it. I’ll keep on swimming this week with our homeschool co-op, speech therapy, youth group, guitar lessons, horse riding, volleyball, and another speech therapy. That’ll get me to Friday. Saturday is pretty tame, and then Sunday we dedicate Dylan AND we’re being interviewed on stage by our pastor in honor of Adoption Appreciation Month. Eek. That reminds me, we’ve gotta go clothes shopping. Guess I’ll add that to the otherwise tame Saturday.