Blessing experience

We continue experiencing God's blessings each every day. The recent Haiti earthquake shaked our hearts for those who lost their personal possessions, loved ones, or treatured hope. David wrote out a check Friday night for the Haiti contribution. Saturday he joined other church members for a day of fast. At the same time, we contacted a person on Craigslist to buy the toddler's furnature (bed, chest drawer, and night stand) for Emily. While I was in Jean Ann's baby shower in the morning, Nikki told me that she had a spare toddler's bed for us to use for free. But we already made appointment and borrowed the truck. So we went ahead to look at the furnature on Craigslist in Fort Worth. We were a little disappointed that they were not what we expected. So we decided to get the toddler's bed from Nikki, which turned out being exactly what we wanted! Saturday night after our daily Bible reading, David suddenly realized that the check that he had wrote out for Haiti was exactly the same amount that we were supposed to pay for Emily's furnature! We thought we gave to Haiti; in the end God paid us back. We were humbled! That reminded me of so many of my experience of God's faithful provision in the past. I decide to write down each of them and post them one by one before they lapse from my memory lane.

In Emily's world, she developed a unique way to call “Mama” and “Dada”. Her voice of “Mama” is so gentle, soft and sweet while her voice of “Dada” is so strong and direct, as if those two words represent femininity and musculinity for her. She loves to mimic whatever sound we make (she can make “Meow” “Baa” “Mei” "Roar" sounds for cats, sheep, cows and lion) and she can say light, some “a-“ words (apple, airplane) and “b-“ words (baby, birdie, balloon, ball) besides grapes, shoes that she already knew. She has consciously used some sign languages she learned from the video like "milk", “eat”, “more” besides her pointing, waving, and clapping gestures. She is really a good communicator.

Here are a few pictures for this week:

(OOps ... out of focus_)
(Quickly made up for another one)

"If only I can get in that shower ... "

Here is a video of Emily signing "More, please!"

Week In A Nutshell

MLK day was a holiday at CA. David and I went out to run some errands together. I was glad that he could go with me because it takes on a toll for my back to carry Emily in and out of the car seat now. Tuesday was our Anniversary! The beautiful weather brought back great memories. We went out for dinner at Chadders (my choice) and exchanged small gifts. Emily was very social at the restaurant. After she finished eating, she visited every table in our section to smile and weave at everyone. That struck lots of conversations with friendly strangers. We had planned to watch the wedding videos but we were tired after putting Emily to bed. Thank you Sweetheart for the past two wonderful years! We certainly went through lots of changes together. But every day was full of warm and sweet memories. I can't wait to unfold the days ahead of us!

Friday we met our friends Fred and Fang for Evan's birthday dinner. Saturday morning David met up with Brian for breakfast while I ran some errands. In the afternoon my former FriendSpeak reader from Ukraine, Nora came for a visit. We were so happy to see her since we have lost contact for 5 years! Here are a few pictures of the week:

Emily plays with her brush

Emily loved the doll Nora got her

Emily continues to amaze us every day. One day David asked her to bring the socks on the chair to him. She ran over to the chair and brought one of the socks over. David asked her to bring the other one over. She did it right away! She learns so fast that it challenges us to teach her more and more each day.




One good news of the week was that I finally reached my parents after over six months' of communication blockage. One of our FriendSpeak readers Molly called David Wednesday morning and told us that the phone line opened up between US and my home town (Xinjiang province). I called home right away and got to catch up with my mom. Hopefully the internet will re-open soon so that my folks can see Emily through Skype.

Another good news was that one of David's readers Joey (who has come to our house to study almost every day) wanted to ask his parents in Taiwan about his decision of becoming a Christian. He told David that he thinks Christianity has much more richness and transformation power than the religion his parents were practicing. Please pray for his growth and final decision!

Sunday night at the Chilian party for Prestoncrest missionary the Grant family, David fed me spoons of Chilis while I was feeding Emily. Judy H. came over to tell David: "How sweet it is that you feed Wendy and Wendy feeds Emily! Who feeds you?" We all laughed. This was the kind of little warm moments that I'd like to remember about our family.

Where's Your Nose?

This last week, we realized that Emily understands more than we thought. One day, when I suddenly asked her: "Emily, where is your nose?" To my surprise, she pointed to her nose right away. We tested again and again in the next several days and she always pointed to the right place. So far she can point to her nose, mouth, ears without any mistakes. Here is what she does when you ask "Emily, where's your nose?"


We've been actively planning and preparing for our little boy. We thought about the room arrangement, bedding decoration, registration, and even clothes. We also tried to tell Emily a little bit about her brother each day. She was totally embracing it now. Here are pictures of Emily loving on her little brother.


David had a very busy week since he was asked Wednesday night to do the FriendSpeak training seminar at church for the workers on Saturday morning. He did lots of preparation on Thursday and Friday. Emily and I couldn't go to the training Saturday morning. But we were so happy to hear that the training went great and David received lots of encouragement from the attendees. David also has been praying in Chinese everyday. I'm so proud that he can say 90% of the prayers in Chinese now.

Dad bought us a webcam for Christmas. David and Emily have been playing with it with both Dad and Amy during the last couple of weeks. We surely enjoyed it. Thank you Dad for the wonderful gift! Emily is not only interested in the flash light on the webcam, but also interested in the blue light (the power button) on the computer. She often shuts down the computer by pushing it. So we have to put up a fence around the office:


Here are a couple of random pictures of Emily playing with her socks and little doll.



January is a special month because many of our friends' birthdays fall in it: Laura, Mary, Heidi, Hongyu, Evan, Bobbie, Joanne, Billy, Cody... Happy Birthday to you all! Hope you have a good one!

The Coldest Week?

It was so cold last week in Dallas that the night temperatures dropped to teens for several days. I took a sick day on Tuesday since my coughs got worse. Thursday when the high temperature dropped below the freezing point, my manager asked me to work from home. Emily and I hadn't been out of the house unless absolutely necessary. Fortunately we both got over the cold on Friday. So Friday night we went to the party for David's readers Hongyu and Sandy. We were surprised to see David's former reader Mike and his girl friend Grace too! We haven't seen them for a long time. We wished we could talk more with everyone. But before we realized it, it already passed Emily's bed time. Hongyu's dad was so good with kids that he played with Emily for a long time so that David and I could visit without much distraction. Sunday we went to Gayla's house for lunch. She was going to introduce a girl who committed to be a missionary sent by His Little Ones to us and to the Stoltes. But the girl was sick so the rest of us had a nice lunch together.

David ran all the errands while I was sick. He also went to several Christian bookstores to look for the Bible study materials for Teenagers. Our missionary friends Andrew and Jamie in Beijing need them to study with a teenage girl. Finally David was happy to find an easy to read Chinese Bible and several Bible study books. David went to the MRN conference on Saturday. It was really refreshing for him.

We started to pack away Emily's clothes that she has outgrown. It was sad that she will never wear those pretty clothes again. Each of them has been soaked with our precious memories. She is off to the two-year-old clothes now. Emily's favorite food these days are homemade cranberry sauce, bread, all kinds of fruit, yogurt and tofu. She wasn't very interested in the vegetables (that was a regression from several months ago). Even for fruit, she just sucks out of the juice and spits out of the meat. Hopefully this will change after more of her molar teeth come out.

Here are a couple of pictures we had during the week:

This picture is a bonus to make you laugh: Emily is curious about everything we do. Here is her peeking through the door crack when David was taking a morning shower. She did it long enough for me to find the camera, snap a shot, and bring her clothes over for a change. Luckily she couldn't see anything since the shower was to the left of the door ... Ha!

Keep warm and have a wonderfully blessed week!

And We Are Having A ... Boy!

2010 slipped in quietly as we spent a lovely evening at home together. Tuesday after Christmas, Hollis and Amy along with their two boys came for a visit. We enjoyed the lunch and good visit afterwards. Amy just loved Emily. She wished she could steal Emily away! That night we went to Jeff and Lea's house for their annual Christmas party. We got to see many out-of-town friends. It was snowing but we were very warm inside. Wednesday night we met with Leslie for our annual Christmas dinner at Houston's. Leslie and David have kept that tradition for many years. We had a great dinner together. On the way out, we found out our car was out of battery. So we called AAA. They came in half and hour and fixed the problem. Emily was so happy that she got to run around the shopping center where we parked when we waited for AAA. She waved at everyone who came out of the restaurant and gained a "Happy New Year" and a wave back from everybody. She was really social at the restaurant too. After she finished eating, she just wanted to get off the table and walk to every table besides us. She looked at them with a smile and followed by a wave. Surely enough all the people at those tables started conversation with her. Friday (New Year's Day) Mary and Ted came for a visit. We had a wonderful dinner time together. They commented how playful Emily was and she kept us entertained.


Meanwhile, Emily and I are still fighting with the cold we had during Christmas. Emily's molar teeth are coming out. So she had running nose and drooling mouth. I am mainly fighting with coughs. Emily loves stairs. Whenever she sees one, she would make her way toward it. I barely have enough energy to keep up with her. She was really into crawling after her 13th month birthday. Now she crawls and gets up right from where she is. That is quiet a skill that she mastered in no time! She loves to play with David, me and any people. She initiates play all the time and we love it. She shares more and more stuff with David and me. You will see her bringing us all kinds of stuff she found: the dryer lint, the paper from the floor, the Christmas decoration hanger pin, the broken ceramic chips, ... Luckily she gave all these to us instead of putting them into her mouth. Still we had an urge feeling to vacuum the whole house whenever she brings us something from the floor.


Enough has said about our baby number one. Today was a big day for us because we knew more about our second baby: yes, it's a boy! We were so excited to know that. David got really emotional when the technician pointed it out. We are so blessed!!! Both the technician and the doctor commented that our baby boy was very photogenic. I already know how Emily would love her little brother and how our little boy will turn out sweet like his daddy. Next thing on the list is to think of a boy's name and prepare for the nursery.



I didn't have a new year's resolution list this year. After being a parent, I gradually got out of the list mode. But on top of my mind, I already knew what I'm going to do and be. How about you? I pray that God will richly bless you this year and grant all your resolutions to be true!!!

Christmas Update

Hope you all had a great Christmas! Ours started on Tuesday when Amy and Kendall arrived with Chloe and Sophia. Emily was so excited to see Presley. Wednesday our missionary friends from Chili, Penny and Jeff came over for a visit along with their two boys Caleb and Aaron. Liesl joined us too. We had a wonderful time eating and catching up with each other. Dad came in on Thursday. It snowed in the afternoon! The kids loved the snow. After dinner, we watched "The Very First Noel" together. David then read the book "T'was the night before Christmas". We put the cookies and carots out for Santa and Reindeers, changed the kids in their pajamas, and went to bed. The kids were still too little to understand what was going on. But it was a good practice for next Christmas.

We were surprised to see the remaining snow on Christmas day. This was the first time for me to see a white Christmas in Dallas. We were not used to such a cold Christmas ... We opened the gifts in the morning and cooked in the afternoon. We had planned to see the Christmas lights in Deer Field neighborhood since it's just around the block. But both Emily and I were sick later on Christmas Day. It was Emily's first ever sickness and it was my first after pregnant. I guess the flu shots really didn't protect us. David didn't feel well either. But his symptoms were the lightest. David's aunt Joyce and cousin Gregg's family came to visit the day after Christmas. We had a good visit with them.

David and I didn't do much gift exchange for Christmas. The main gifts we gave to each other were to sponsor four kids in China to go to school for one year, as we did in the past. We started "shopping for the kids" right after Thanksgiving (we used ocef.org to do this). But it was so hard to pick out four kids from the thousands that are in the database. Every one of them needs sponsorship desperately. Almost all of them had parents who lost their ability to provide for the kids. About half of them are orphans who live with their aged grandparents or other relatives on the farm. In the end we just randomly picked four, knowing that to all the needing kids, we couldn't do much; but to the four we picked, it means a whole world ...

Emily wasn't into the gift business yet. When we all opened the gifts in excitement, she'd rather run around the house and play. Since she was having some running nose for the first time, it took a while for her to get used to us wiping her nose. Her new words are "Putao" (means Grapes in Chinese) and "Xiezi" (means Shoes in Chinese). One big achievement we had was that three quarter of her nails got trimmed! Kendall was able to trim her nails when they were here. Go Kendall!

Below are some of the pictures that captured our Christmas this year:

Emily gave "Merry Christmas" kisses to her stuffed animals one by one on Christmas morning in her pajamas:

Uncle Kendall gave it a try on trimming Emily's finger nails:

Succeed! We got to hurry ...
It took a village to trim the nails for both hands and one foot

A white Christmas

Emily was watching the snow on Christmas day (Thank you Amy Wilson for loaning us this red coat. We loved it!)

Chloe and Emily were both fascinated with the snow:

Group family picture with Joyce, Gregg, Shannon, Lexie and Ryan

Lexie was so good with babies. See how attached Chloe was with her:

The Hatcher family:
After our guests had left after Christmas, we started cleaning the house. Monday after lunch, David went out to meet Tony for lunch and see Sue in the hospital. I was washing the dishes while Emily was minding her business. Suddenly I saw Emily was scrubing the floor with the towels that she found from the utility room. Once I realized that she was helping me to clean the kitch tiles, I couldn't help laughing. She has seen David doing that so many times so she was imitating David (using one foot to scrub the floor)... She worked the whole area in the kitchen. I had to give her a hug and kisses!

Our cleaning crew finished the tile area ... Wasn't it worth an applause?

Here is a video of Emily playing "Where is Emily" game with David:




Again, in the middle of hard-working... Emily has excellent coordination. She can kick the small balls around the house without any problem:

Growing with Emily: Year at a Glance 2009

Merry Christmas

This past two weeks has been so busy, as most of you are. At work, I went through a week-long condensed training and took a job-related world-wide certificate exam. That consumed almost all of my energy: 8 hours training plus two or three hours homework every day. I'm so glad that it was behind of us! Besides that we shopped and wrapped all the gifts, participated several Christmas parties and attended a friend's graduation ceremony at UTD. Emily did so well in parties that she was bragged by my co-workers and friends all the time. We were sorry that we couldn't attend all the Christmas parties and see all the friends that we'd love to. Wish they could spread out more during the year! David's college friend Terry and his wife Hong and daughter Elizabeth from Houston came to spend the night with us Saturday night. It was an added joy to this time of the year. I know we won't see many of you before Christmas and New Year. Please let us know how you spend the holiday afterwards. We wish you a wonderfully blessed time with your family, friends, or yourself! Peace, hope, joy, love to you!!!

Last Monday night I went to the Apple of Gold Christmas reunion and saw many friends that I don't see very often. It was really a treat for us (relatively) young ladies to be served by the mature and respected Church ladies.

Emily is more and more fun each day. She is still a good eater and great sleeper. The only thing is that she eats so slow. Be careful if she sneezes 20 minutes after she finishes eating. Chances are all the food she stores in her mouth would spray out in front of her. David joked that every time she sneezes, it costs us 99 cents dry clean fee. Ha! Our guests were often amazed what a good girl she was. She was always happy, content and easy. That's our precious girl!


Another new thing about Emily was that she'd rather see us off every time we put her down to sleep. As soon as we put her down, she would rollover and stand up right away. As we waved bye-bye and closed the door, she stood in her crib holding onto the bedrail quietly. She wouldn't cry or make any sound. Five or ten minutes later, we went in to check on her. Sometimes she was still sitting in the crib silently touching her bears or holding her blankets. We never heard her crying or objecting/complaining after we put her down for naps or night sleeps. She is just amazing and easiest baby we can have! Guess her nap schedule is changing soon. Here was what we saw after she fell asleep afterwards:

The third change about Emily was she didn't like to be out of our sight. She likes to be around us. When she wanders away, she always turns right back to us. When we leaves her, she would follow us wherever we go.

Emily normally doesn't like anything on her head: hair pins and sunhats. But she surprisingly liked this winter hat. She put it on all day when it was cold last week. Combined with the puffy Chinese coat, does she look like a China doll?

This is the second Christmas dress that Emily had. Our friend Mary Biggers from FriendSpeak bought it for her. She got so many compliments.

Emily loves all her stuffed animals. She kisses each of them whenever she sees them. But she was scared of this moose who sings Christmas carols for some reason. Before long, she developed close friendship with it too! She huggs it, kisses it, and most of time, dances with it ... Emily loves dancing with music. She swings from side to side or bounces up and down. Sometimes she just waves her arms. It was amusing that whenever we do the laundary, she would run right up to the washing machine, face it, and dance according to the rhythms of the washing sound (which sounds like a music to her). She has an excellent rhythm!

(Note that she was holding a blood pressure gauge when she kissed the moose ...:-)

Once again: Merry Christmas!!!