Speaking of the water buffalo,

here is a 'story' Isabella wrote at school:

A note from Bonnie

It is 6 am in Vietnam and Bonnie and her family are on their way to visit Bella's birth family. I am beyond excited:) I have had a smile on my face all day knowing that while I sleep tonight, they will be with "mother" and "father" and more importantly, the water buffalo:) In the mind of a 3 year old, that is the most important thing to take pictures of. I'll post more about their trip when I hear from them!!!

Messed up sleep cycles.

Don't ask me how we do it but sometimes Isabella's sleep schedule gets completely upset and then WE pay for it. She only got 8 hours of sleep 2 nights ago and as we were leaving the mall yesterday, this is what I found in the stroller:




Because she fell asleep for an hour at 5 pm yesterday, she didn't go to sleep until 10:30 pm last night! UGH! So that set her off today. By 5, she was a screaming, thrashing, devil child. Todd had no clue what to do with her-he went from Mr. Nice-Nice to "I can scream louder at you than you can at me". I finally had to separate them. He couldn't grasp the fact that we could just leave her on the couch to scream. Guess who fell asleep at 8 pm???!!!!

A very special video

It dawned on me yesterday that we have never shown Isabella the video we took while we were in Vietnam. After much searching, I found the video camera but none of the cords. Then my brilliant husband showed me how you could put the mini dvds in the DVD player...there is a little groove that holds them. Amazing. Anyway, we found the one of us going to her orphanage and on it, I signed/sang (off tune, of course), "We are going to get our baby!" I thought she was going to giggle herself right off my lap. She got the biggest kick out it!! Then we moved on to the one when the nanny put her in my arms for the first time and the look of pure joy on her face....it was truly priceless.

The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree....

and thank goodness, it is the CLEANING tree!!! I asked Elisabeth to mop the floor and empty the dishwasher this morning. Not only did she do both of those, she vacuumed AND cleaned the glass door as well. Oh, it makes mama proud to see one of her offspring follow in her clorox-clean footsteps. I think I'm going to cry.

A different kind of chicken...

Tonight, Todd and I took Isabella out for Chinese food (Elisabeth opted to stay home and some Bella-free time). On the placemats were pictures of animals and the different years they represented. We were laughing because I was born in the Year of the Cock. I knew, as soon as it was out of my mouth, that I should have said rooster. Here are Bella's replies:

"What's a cock?"
"Who's a cock?"
"Why were you born in the cock?"
"Where's the picture of the cock?"
"I want to see the cock."
"Oh, I see another picture of the cock!!!!"

Lucky for us, she brought the placemat home to show Elisabeth.

Grand total, so far...

So far, we have raised $305.00 for the Food for Thought program:) That is enough to give 4 families a total of 30 chickens each!!!! WOW:)

Popped out!!

Isabella and I were grocery shopping yesterday, a task she LOVES to help me with-oh JOY! Anyway, they have a Chinese take-out bar there and I stopped to get an egg roll. The Chinese woman behind the counter kept starring at Isabella-to the point that she was looking at her, with her mouth open, while holding the egg roll and doing nothing else. She finally said, "Where she from?" Isabella promptly replied, "Vietnam. I was in my mother's tummy and POPPED out!" And off we went....

Trying to explain

Tonight I thought I would try to explain to Isabella about the Food for Thought program and how the very poorest of families in Lang Son would get 30 little, baby chickens. I know how she LOVES baby animals so I pulled up the picture of the chicks from Bonnie's website and talked about the poor children and how they will get to be fed. We talked about what you can make using the eggs and how the kids' tummies will be full of good food. When I showed her how the babies turn into big chickens that lay eggs, she screamed, "YUCK". I told her it was food and they wouldn't go hungry anymore and that it wasn't 'yuck'..... She replied with, "Well, it ISN'T YUMMY!"

I wonder if she'll think it is 'yuck' when she gobbles down the chocolate cake (made with eggs) that is in the oven baking?

Elisabeth's 3rd Marking Period Grades (so far)

English Period A+ 98 3/13/10
Intro to Algebra/Geometry 7 A+ 101 3/19/10
General Music A+ 98.2 2/27/10
Social Studies A+ 100 3/22/10
Science A- 90 3/22/10

Pretty amazing, huh?!?!?!?!

Birth Parents

We have made arrangements, through Bonnie Lockwood's Birth Family Services, for Isabella's birth family to be contacted within the next couple of weeks. She is leaving for Vietnam on Wednesday and will be taking a new DVD player, artwork from Isabella, a letter from us, a photo book with pictures from 2009, a photo book of my sister's visit to Lang Son, a personal DVD of Isabella, and a few DVDs that teach English/Vietnamese. We are very excited that she (and Son, the man that works with her) will actually meet up with the family, find out how they are doing, find out if they need anything, and hopefully establish a way of getting them money without having to go through the orphanage. We will also be getting new pictures/videos and updates on all the family members:) I'll let you know when we hear anything!!!

Touching...

So far, I have collected 150.00 dollars from friends who know and love Isabella and want to help out with "Food for Thought". One friend, alone, gave me a check for $100.00!!! Pretty wonderful:)

Food for Thought

This is a letter I sent to all my family and friends....maybe it will touch some people who read this blog:)

Through our adoption of Isabella, we met the Lockwood family. They, too, adopted from the same province (Lang Son) as we did and have made a promise to help the poor families in that area. The Lockwoods will be traveling to Lang Son next week. While they are there, they will also be working on a project called "Food for Thought".

There is a great need to help the children who attend a school in Lang Son by improving their nutrition. The project is to supply chickens, roosters, feed, and guidance to a number of the poor families whose children attend the school. They have volunteers who will assist in all the arrangements. In exchange for the chickens, families will send their children to school with cooked eggs to share. When they have more than doubled their number of hens, these families will give some roosters and hens to another family on our list.

Since "Food for Thought" is new this year, Bonnie Lockwood will be meeting with the school next week to give them a plaque listing the names of the donors who helped to start the program. If you wanted to donate, your name will be on that plaque.

A mere $5.00 goes towards buying 2 chicks or chickens- plus feed. They will combine all the money and each family will get 30 chickens and starter feed- the school and the Lockwoods will check up on the families. They are hoping that all the poor Lang Son families of children who go to this school will eventually have chickens.

It doesn't matter if you can give $5 or $50 - here is a place where each act of kindness counts. Eventually, we will make a trip to Lang Son with Isabella where she will be able to see all the names of her friends and family that gave to this wonderful cause. The Lockwood family will follow through on this project to keep growing it. It might grow slowly but that is okay as long as it grows.

Below are pictures of the "Food for Thought" chicken project families. They are a happier family and soon a healthier one - thanks to donations. We can imagine this family struggling to feed all of the children and keep them in school. The oldest child is 9 and the youngest is only 18 months.

They hope the chickens help and eventually help other like families. The school has a great idea to add a pig to our gifts.

I am sending this to you because you know us and you love Isabella. IF you want to help, please let me know. I will be sending money, via PayPal, to Bonnie by Wednesday so she will have it before she leaves for Lang Son. If you want to check out her blog, please go to: www.charitabledreams.blogspot.com. If you would rather go through her, you can visit: familiesinvietnam.org/love_education_fund.shtml and click the 'MAKE A DONATION' button.

I find it amazing what $5.00 can do!! Having been to Lang Son, it is incredible how they live day to day with what little they have. Isabella was given up for adoption because there was no possible way her birth parents could provide for a new baby AND their 5 other children. I am hoping that other families will not have to face this decision with the help of this project:)

Thanks for listening!!!

More sun!!

Beautiful Weather!!!

The snow has gone and the sun is out. WHOOOO HOOOOO!!!!!

Snowboarding....and skiing, if you want to call it that.

Elisabeth just got her snowboarding gear from my sister and after all of her friends let her down, she decided to go boarding by herself. Well, she wasn't really by herself because Bella offered to go. The poor guy that got stuck teaching Isabella is probably in a hot tub right now with a big fat alcoholic drink. The girl knows how to manipulate men-just ask her daddy. She has NO fear and is quite cocky about her ability to ski. Todd and I took turns chasing her down the bunny slope after her lesson. You could hear us screaming, "Make a piece of pizza!!! (put the tips of her skis together). I think the pictures explain it all. Elisabeth was WONDERFUL:) She had a fantastic time and can't wait to go back. Plus, she looked really good-everything matched:)

"I AM A SHE!!!"

SHE has had it being called a HE. Tonight was the last straw. We were at Taco Bell when a snot-nosed little toddler kept looking at Isabella and saying, "Look at the baby!" She didn't just say it once, she said it over and over. Isabella HATES being called a baby and kept saying back, "I am NOT a baby. I am big girl!" The kid then says, "HE is a BABY!" The dumbass mother looked at me and giggled (it must have been a first time mother-she thought her kid was adorable), "She thinks all little kids are babies." I replied, "Isabella isn't in the best of moods so I suggest you tell her to stop calling her a baby or she might get slugged in the face." For the rest of the dinner, we had to listen to both idiot parents repeat everything their genius child said. Todd picked the table so I guess it was his fault our dinner was ruined.

Independent in the kitchen...

Isabella took it upon herself today to do the dishes. She washed them with half of a bottle of Dawn, rinsed them with gallons of water, and then put them ALL in the top rack of the dishwasher. And...while she was doing all of this, she dragged her step stool over to the fridge, got the OJ out, took it over to the counter, got herself a glass, and poured herself some. I SWEAR I was in the next room doing bills and thought she was playing quietly in the sink.