Hud the stud

Here are a few pics of Hud. The first few are of his new favorite sport, "blastball." It's a very basic version of T-ball. He's the one with the blue hat and Han's in the background with a skirt on.

Here he is after soccer practice, he put is boots on over his shin guards.

This is how I found him one morning. He had gotten the piece of newspaper, stole my calculator, a legal pad, and grabbed a couple of his books. He's always liked "papuh wuk" as he used to call it before he could say his "R's." Wonder what he'll turn out to be some day.

He's a joy of a boy to parent! He's got so much personality!

BAMMMM!

The other day I was organizing my laundry room and Han was "helping" me. We were going through cleaning products that I no longer use and she grabbed the Kaboom. She said, "MOM, is this BAMMMM?!!?" "What do you mean, BAMM??" "You know," and then said loudly, "BAMMM! And the dirt is gone!!!!"

She must have seen the comercial and it made an impact on her! Scary!!! I had her renact it for the video.

Jesus in his heart!

A few weeks ago, our sweet Hud decided to give his life to Jesus! It was in the van with Russ after church, and we took a picture of it so that he would hopefully remember it better as he gets older.

This has been something Han has been encouraging him to do ever since she made the decision last fall. We kept telling her that Hud could decide when he was ready. She was genuinely concerned that he hadn't made the decision yet. He, on the other hand wasn't quite sure he was ready to die and go to heaven. Han kept telling him, "I did it and I didn't die!"

One day he randomly came up to me and said, "Mom are you going to be there?" "Going to be where, Hud?" "In heaven." I assured him that I was. Then he said, "Is Jackson going to be there?" Again, I assured him. "Well what about my blue blankie?" I told him that I thought Jesus would have a brand new blue blankie for him. "But I want my old one." "Well that will probably be ok." Then he asked if a few more of his favorite things would be there, like knight helmets, swords, and Bible study books.

On the particular day he made the decision, Han had initiated the conversation and Russ told her to let him decide when he was ready. This time he insisted he wanted to and Russ told him that he could wait, but he said no and was emphatic about doing it right away. Russ talked with him about what it meant and he understood it all. When he was ready to pray, on his own, he got out of his booster seat and knelt down. He asked Russ to help him, and said his own little version of the sinner's prayer.

He announced it at his AWANA's Cubbies club that week. The teacher told all the kids that Hud had something special he wanted to share, and he got up in front of them all and told them that he had asked Jesus into his heart. Then after they all prayed for him, Han raised her hand and said that she had something special to share too... "Today in swim class, I went down the big slide and opened my eyes TWO times under water!!!"

Art Auction

One of my favorite charity organizations right now is Love Without Boundaries. They are doing amazing stuff in China including surgeries, foster care and education for orphans.

Their annual art auction starts April 24th and goes through the 29th. Maybe you'll find something you love, and help save a life when you buy it!

The photo above is an oil painting of a little girl who received heart surgery with funds provided from Love Without Boundaries.

http://www.lovewithoutboundaries.com/

Following Christ in Baptism

The other night I had just put the kids to bed when I heard Han yell out to me, "MOM, when I get baptized, I want to do it with my shirt off!!!!

Me: "WHAT!!?!! Han, you can't get baptized with your shirt off, you have to wear clothes."

Han: "Well, Mom, look here at Jesus. Look what he's doing."

I went into her room and she is looking at the pictures in her children's Bible by the light of her night light. Sure enough, there he is waist deep in the Jordan with no shirt on.

Can't fault her for wanting to be like Jesus, but will make sure she is properly dressed when the time comes for her to be baptized!!

Foreign Languages

The other day Han said, "Mom, I learned a new word."
Me: "What did you learn, Han?"
Han: "Ni Hao"
Me: "Wow, Han, that's great! Do you know what it means?"
Han: "It means 'Hola' in Chinese!"

My teenage 4-yr-old

Today I was painting Han's little nightstand. I was doing a crackle finish and for those of you who have tried it before, you know it's challenging to get it to go on smoothly. Well Han was standing by as I painted begging me to let her paint. I kept telling her, "no," and trying to explain that it was difficult. She finally said, "Mom, I know how you feel. I just need you to twust me!!!" Isn't she not supposed to say those things for another 10 years?

Relating to Dad

When Han wants to relate to Russ she gives compliments like:

"Dad you're so handsome!

You're as handsome as an Indian tom tom!!!!"

When Hud wants to relate to his dad, he says things like:

"You wanna piece of me?!?!"

Discourse on Pets

O.K..... for most of you who know me, this will probably not come as a surprise.... I am not an animal lover. I'm sure that puts questions in some of your minds about my character, or ability to love.
I did, at one point, love animals... like my first dog, Gypsie. I also remember when I was little, we lived in Idaho and had some rabbits. I would dress one up like a baby, or put it under my shirt and pretend I was pregnant.
The memories all go down hill from there. The next dog I loved, Tuffy, took on a wild animal more tough than he was. We found him dead on the porch one Sunday morning. Then there was, Muffins, our cat. Something happened to her, she got sick, and we watched her die for a week. Another cat, "Joe-Nathan short for Jonathan," as my sister had named him, climbed up an electrical post (one of those about 50 feet in the air), and we watched as he electrocuted himself, fell with back arched, and let out a horrible death meow. The sudden impact of hitting the ground started his heart back up again, and he jumped up and ran away for a few days. When he returned, he was never the same.... brain was fried. There's also our dog, Tiffany, a white, long haired Llasa Apso. She had big eyes that bulged... and one of her eyeballs popped out one day. Mom and Dad took her to the vet to have the socket closed up. She was then our one eyed dog, until the unfortunate incident that rendered her blind. Not sure exactly how it happened, just noticed her running after us with a dangling eyeball. Here's the worst of the memories... we had an Airedale dog, I don't even remember his name as I have probably psychologically blacked it out of my consciousness. Anyway, he got hit by a car and injured his back leg. Within a few days, he was acting really strange, so my mom was going to take him to the vet. We found him in my room, of all places, hunkered down in the corner. When my brother when to pick him up, an abscess the size of a grapefruit popped, spraying puss all over my stuff. Picture a zit the size of your head exploding in your room. Even years later I would pull a book off my shelf and have to separate the pages because of the incident.
Russ, has had his own painful encounters. His first dog, "Pinto Bean" ran away one day. It was devastating for him. Imagine the horror to find out years later that Pinto hadn't run away, but had actually been given away by his parents.
So maybe by now, you are understanding why I stopped having affections for animals. I'm not sure if I could get attached to one. I mean, sure, some of them are cute, but they all poop, and vomit and that just makes me sick... especially if it's in the house.
I will tell you, though who I am a lover of... orphans and the fatherless!!! You might be offended that it seems like I have put them in the same category as pets. That couldn't be further from the truth!! They are of so much more worth than that, but unfortunately, most American pets are cared for and loved on more than the orphans of the world. I keep seeing this commercial by Pedigree dog food. There's mournful music playing and this sad dog looking at you from behind his cage in the pound. The narrator says, "For every dog adopted, there is one who isn't.... that's why when you buy Pedigree, you are helping to... blah blah blah..."
Well, for all the lonely, longing children who will get adopted this year, there are 142.99 million who won't!

Our First Pets

Here's Han's fish "Princess Bubbles." Don't tell her "she's" a he!

Here's Hud's fish "Sir Knight."

I was thinking it was finally time to let the kids have a pet. At this point in our life, I thought a fish would the best option as they don't take too much training or effort. I mentioned it to Russ and he said, "Can we get a low maintenance fish?" As opposed to what?.... One that has to be let outside every three hours to poop in the yard?

Anyway, since we're not going for a filtered aquarium, the boy at the pet shop said that a Beta would be best. Betas however, don't like roommates unless it's one of the opposite sex, and we're not ready for those kind of questions around here... we already have enough hard ones to answer. So, in order for the kids to each have their own fish, we had to create two bowls (I just used some vases I already had). The kids spent their own money to buy a toy for their fish.

If you notice the kids are wearing their Bel Aire Rec Center Soccer shirts. We left straight from their soccer game to get the fish. Earlier that morning, Han had quite a cough and I mentioned that she might not be able to play in her game. Hud immediately said, "Don't worry about it Han, I'll get your snacks for you!!!" That's really what it's all about at this age... SNACKS!!! Oh, and for Han, it's a great place to meet people. She made a new friend on the other team during the game. She was just following her around on the court visiting with this little girl, both oblivious to the ball rolling past them.

Happy Easter! He is Risen!

We've had a great Easter Sunday! After going to church, we joined some good friends at their house for lunch. They are the new parents of an 8-year-old foster son. Hud and Han think he's pretty great, and we agree!

Here's Hud in his Easter duds. Notice the shot gun.... which actually might have come in handy during church if the police hadn't shown up in time to escort out a man dressed in fluorescent orange coveralls and sitting front and center. There's more to the story, but that's enough for now.

Han's on the loose for some Easter goodies! She insisted on putting her dress back on for the hunt, but decided on more comfortable shoes.

Easter egg hunting is serious business!

Orphans

Did you know that every 18 seconds a child becomes an orphan?

Sometime during your Bible study, look up all the times "fatherless" and "orphan" is mentioned.

When you begin to see how important the orphan is to God, you can't help but ask yourself what He wants you to do for them... maybe give, maybe adopt, maybe visit... something!!!

I recently read a statistic that if 7% of all Christians in the world would adopt one child, there would be no more orphans (143 million estimated).

This video is of orphans in Etiopia, the least of the least of these.

This is our religion... to look after orphans.

God's the best parent coach!!

For the past two weeks Russ and I have been baffled by something Hud has been doing. Last week he incessantly told Han that she was his best friend. He would say it at least 50-100 times (maybe more) a day, to the point of frustrating her. He would keep repeating it until she said, "thanks," or "You're my best friend, too."
We were relieved when that only lasted a few days. But, THEN he started saying, "I love you, Mom" constantly. I know, it's really cute, but he would say it over and over, maybe 5 or 6 times in a row, and at least 100 times or more a day. I would affirm my love for him every time. If I would instruct him or get on to him, his first thing to say was, "Do you still love me, Mom?" Then I would go into the speech about how I will always love him, and that he could never do anything that would make me stop loving him.
Yesterday, he got to spend the day playing with one of his favorite friends. Apparently he drove this little guy nuts, too. He said, "I love you," so many times that Jack didn't want to play with him.
This has been hard for Russ and I to figure out. I mean, we are continually affirming our kids, and telling them we love them. I was feeling like something was wrong, wondering if Hud was having some huge insecurities about our love for him. Last night as I was going to bed, I said to Rusty, "It feels weird that I am praying that Hud would stop telling me he loved me so much." I mean of all the trials parents go through...
But today...... God gave me insight!!! I found him in a hiding spot with his blankie sucking his fingers. About 3 weeks ago, we bought baseball batting gloves (Russ' genius idea) for the kids to wear during their naps and bedtime to help them stop sucking their fingers. The first couple of times they were really sad, but we cuddled them longer, and after a few days they didn't seem to mind the gloves. They've even both earned new movies for finishing the chart we made. Hud and Han have both done well, and I really haven't even seen them sucking their fingers during other times.
When I found him sucking his fingers, he acted guilty (poor guy). I snuggled him, and then the light bulb went on.... he's lost a huge means of comfort and security by not sucking his fingers... that's why he's driving us nuts with the "I love you's." Before now, if he needed comfort or security he'd just find his blankie and suck on his fingers for awhile.
So, that's where I'm at now. So grateful for the insight from the Lord, and praying that he'll soon find other ways to feel secure. Please pray that for him too!!

I'm Officially a Soccer Mom!!

Here they are right before their first game!

Can you tell whose out to win and whose out to have fun?

A little half-time water break and pep talk.
Good game!!!

It's quite entertaining to see 4 & 5 year olds play! It was actually a lot more organized than we anticipated. Hud, when he knows what he's supposed to do, really gets after it. He almost scored a goal for the opponents. Han, is all heart and aims to please! If her coach repositioned her during the game, you could count on her to stay put in her spot for a good several minutes until the coach told her to go after the ball rolling right past her!

Go Comets!!

Destined for band stardom?

Here's Hud just after opening his new guitar from Grandma and Grandpa. He loves it!

We also bought him a toy trumpet for Christmas because it was consistently the one thing he kept asking for all year.

Both a real guitar and a toy trumpet for Christmas... I thought that would be enough to satisfy his innate desire for music for at least 6 months. Wrong! Yesterday he looked over at me and said,

"Mom, I really wish I had a TUBA!!"

Our Hero!

Like most 4-year-old boys, Hud is our resident dragon slayer, princess protector, Spiderman, Superman, knight... he loves to be the "tough guy" but can also be pretty sweet to his sister. I hear him say, "You're my best friend, Punkin," to her at least 15-20 times a day.

The other night was not one of his best in the chivalrous category though. I heard him pestering Han in her room. She was staying, "No, Hud!"... "Stop it, Hud."... "Stop it." This kept up as I was walking in to intervene. Before I got there, he had done something to make her cry. I pulled him aside and was down on his level in his face saying, "Hud, she kept telling you to stop. I heard her say 'Stop Hud, Stop Hud, Stop Hud.' Why didn't you stop?" He looked me straight in the eye, and as serious as he could be, said, "Tuz I was having too much fun."

There you have it... straight from the lips of a child... probably the root reason for most of our sin... we're having too much fun.

What most men wish they could say...

Conversation after Hud had just done something goofy...

Me: "Hud, you're a silly boy!!"

Hud: "I'm not a silly boy, Mom. Don't call me silly"...... "can you just call me 'handsome boy'?"

Adoption Update

For the latest word on our adoption see our blog: www.our-china-doll.blogspot.com

Our Latest Family Pic

Since I haven't posted any pics lately, I thought I'd put up our latest cheese shot. This is definitely rare form for us! Next Christmas we're praying that we'll have some Asian color to add to the family pic. If only China would just let us cut in line and go get her early!!

Where's Hud been?

Some of you might be wondering with all of these posts on Han if something has happened to Hud. Well.... let's just say that he is in a period of learning self- control and spends a lot of time in his room, thus not having much time to do anything blog worthy.
He's "all boy" with a really sweet heart.... the "all boy" is just what is coming out the most lately.
As soon as I have time, I'll post some video of him playing his new guitar. And, in a few weeks he'll be playing on his first organized sports team (I'm sure "organized" is not the best word to use for a team of 4-year-olds playing indoor soccer.) He can't wait!!!