39-Week Baby!

Brittany is 39 weeks and 2 days.  Baby will be along any day now!  

First Day of School Pics!

All three of the school kids are in school now!

Justin started 6th grade at Global Village Academy last Monday, August 4th.

Keelan started 10th grade at Gateway High School on Tuesday, August 5.

And Caylie started Chinese-immersion kindergarten today at Global Village Academy!

Where We've Been All Summer

 It was a rather unsummery summer.  Not like the usual ones.  Usually the kids and I spend our days at the reservoir.  But this summer, Jim and I spent a lot of time in the car, driving kids to where they needed to be.

6 early mornings a week Jim, Keelan and I went to Better Bodies gym.  Jim and I usually go anyway, but we got a summer pass for Keelan.

6 mornings a week we took Justin to swimming lessons at Utah Pool.  He's been taking lessons continuously for almost a year now, and is doing great.  He knows all the strokes, can swim 100 meters, tread water for a long time, and is learning to dive. 

5 days a week Jim took Taylor to his new job!  He is now working at a new Goodwill store that is soon to open in Aurora, but for several weeks he worked at this Goodwill warehouse in Stapleton, while the new store was being built.

5 days a week we took Keelan to Pickens Technical College for an automotive class.  This was part of the Aurora Youth 4 Success summer program.  Keelan wants to do the two-year automotive program at Pickens during his junior and senior years.

 3 days a week we took Caylie to her preschool class at the Beck Recreation Center.  She l-o-v-e-d preschool!  When we would pick her up, all her little friends would run to hug her.  So cute.

And that is where we've been all summer!  

Caylie and Justin's New School

Caylie and Justin will soon be attending a new school.  I know I said I'd talk about Caylie's schooling for awhile now, and I'm just now getting to it; sorry!

I had originally planned for Caylie to go to preschool this year and kindergarten when she was six.  But when we had her testing at ChildFind earlier this spring, and found out that day that she still understood Mandarin, we decided to look at other options.  I knew there was an international charter school near us that offered Mandarin, Spanish and French immersion.  I called them and found out that they had an opening in their Mandarin kindergarten for the fall.  We went to visit and decided that we'd like to try it.  It is a full-day kindergarten, which was the biggest drawback for me (I'm not ready for my tiny girl to be gone all day!) but we're going for it anyway.  Since she has only been home a little over a year and isn't yet fluent in English, I don't think she's really "ready" for kindergarten yet, but if she needs to go two years, that's perfectly OK.  After all, she's my tiny girl!  We're excited about this opportunity for her to regain her first language.  We're excited for her to learn more about her Chinese heritage.  We met her teacher the other day, and I think she will be great.  She is Chinese and lived in China until just a few years ago.  Even though Caylie acted a little shy with her, especially when she was speaking in Mandarin, she is extremely excited about kindergarten  ("keengon", as she says it, hee hee.)  Her first day at Global Village Academy will be August 11.  (This is why she went to preschool over the summer!)

I had planned to home school Justin again this year.  He loves being home schooled - a little too much.  He is happy to just be at home with me and the family, and doesn't care that much about interacting with other kids his age.  As I was reading an email from Global Village Academy a couple of weeks ago, I saw that they were offering a new class for 6th graders this year.  This class will be different from their other middle school classes, as it will be for students who have no prior experience learning another language.  This class will learn Spanish, but from a beginning level.  (If only it had been Mandarin, it would have been perfect!)  So once again, we decided to go and check it out, and after speaking with the principal and taking a tour of the building, we decided to give it a try.  Justin is very excited that each student will have their own laptop!  He's also excited for a real science class that includes dissections, haha.  It will be a new adventure for Justin, and a little out of his comfort zone, but I think it will be good for him.  We met all of his teachers the other day and found all of the classrooms, and now he is ready to go!  He will start this coming Monday, August 4.

Here are Justin and Caylie in two of their new Global Village Academy shirts!

AAC 20th Anniversary Picnic!

Our adoption agency held their annual picnic on Saturday; this time celebrating 20 years!  We had a great time visiting with friends and meeting new ones.  It is so much fun having Caylie there with us, and having her see that there are so many other families like ours.  I think that will be more important to her as time goes on.  

I remember the first picnic we went to, back in 2012.  It was the day after we'd got Pre-Approval from China to adopt Caylie.  I met our social worker that day, and cried when I showed her Caylie's referral photo.  I looked at all the other adoptive families there with their little ones (and some big ones who had been home for several years) and they were all so normal and natural with their kids.  I couldn't imagine that at that point!  But now we are there, too, and so thankful.  

AAC Staff

Caylie with Erin from AAC, who got us through the adoption process!

Enjoying some friend rice.

Chinese dancing.  

These are some friends who went through adoption training with us in October 2012!  Both families adopted from Korea, and brought their children home over the last few months.  It was fun to have all our kiddos together!

I think Jim was waiting for his turn in the bouncy house.  

Keelan stayed up most of the night before at a youth group lock-in.  But he was still ready to enjoy the day.  He has a heart for orphans and for adoption.  And he loves anything about China!

Caylie and Daddy heading off to get tattoos.

Caylie's trying to show off her tattoo.

There it is!  

Caylie and me with our new friends Julie and cutie pie Sophie.  

My beautiful girl.

It looks like Caylie is making a new friend and sharing her fan, but she's not.  Haha.

Caylie and me with our new friends Cynthia and Emma, who we met right here on this blog!  :)

Caylie got a new "China dress" at the event.  She was so proud of it that she wouldn't even let anyone else carry the bag.  I need to get a photo of her in it!

Justin loves the picnic every year.  He was mostly off doing his own thing!

Me with Regina of AAC, who helped us get our adoption process started.

Yummy watermelon!

Caylie and me with Marissa of AAC.  We have some awesome video of Marissa meeting Caylie in China a month before we did.  

Caylie and me with Nicole of AAC, who helped us at the beginning of our journey to Caylie.  I still have an email from her in which she told me, "Your daughter's name is Fu Jiu Chang!"

Lots of friends!  Caylie and me with Vickie and her daughter Maleah, Erin of AAC, Christie of AAC and her sweet baby, and the West family.  

We are so thankful that God introduced us to our precious Caylie JiuChang through AAC, and so happy to have  the "family" that we have there!

Brittany's Baby Shower

Brittany's baby shower was Saturday at our church.  We had a fun time with friends, eating cake, playing games, and watching Brittany open gifts.  It's getting more and more real all the time . . . the baby will soon be here!

Yummy snacks.

 Fruit baby by Andrea!  Nobody wanted to eat his head, haha.  Isn't he adorable?

Baby gifts.

Brittany and Caylie

Julie calling Baby Bingo.  (I didn't win.)

Memorize these items in 15 seconds!  (I didn't win.)

More games.

Brittany opening gifts.

Caylie was very excited about Brittany's baby party.  Especially the gummy bears.

Me, Caylie and Brittany.