We're in the news (sort of)

We got the neighborhood paper and found we were in the front
page picture!

Credit where credit is due

I neglected to mention that the baptism photos in a previous post were all taken by our official family photographer, Melissa G., otherwise known to our children as Auntie M. I might as well say here too that she is also responsible for the family pictures gracing our Christmas cards for the last few years. I promised her this year I will include a credit line on our cards. (It is of course, very shameful that a graphic artist would forget to give credit when using another's artwork!) Melissa is a wonderful artist and photographer in her own right, as well as being a brilliant lawyer, generous friend and fabulous auntie. (I hope she won't hate me for embarrassing her this way.) I can't wait until Naomi comes to know and appreciate her the way Danny does. But hang on kids, remember she was MY friend first. Mello, I will resist the temptation to post certain photos of some of the fun times we have had together. (It all began with chin faces!) By the way, she also somehow managed to take this picture of herself with Danny.

Cool carnivorous plant

I was very surprised to see Venus Flytraps for sale in the grocery store, and couldn't resist getting one. They are smaller than I thought. I expected Roger to think I was silly for buying it, but he was totally into it. He caught a fly in our house and put it in the plastic container with the plant (it has a lid with small holes, but too small for this big ol' fly to get through). We saw the fly land on one of the traps, which snapped shut just as the fly got out. Danny was so excited to see that a plant could move like that! We missed the moment of capture, but could see the shadow of the fly inside when we held it up to the light. What a great science lesson! We also learned a lot of interesting things about the plant at http://science.howstuffworks.com/venus-flytrap.htm , including the fact that it will take the Venus Flytrap 5-12 days to digest that fly!

Naomi's Baptism

This is another after-the-fact entry. Naomi was baptised on 9/16 at our church. Roger's family was there, but mine couldn't make it due to distance. We dressed Naomi in a traditional Chinese outfit and shoes we got when we were in Guangzhou. I wore a beautiful silk vest from Inner Mongolia. When we stood up front, Naomi was cheerful and nodded to all the people while Pastor John was talking, which caused some chuckles. She cried briefly when John took her and placed water on her head. As we returned to our seats, we sang "Great is Thy Faithfulness" which made me completely lose it and cry on my mother-in-law's shoulder, and then hug everybody around. I sang that song to Danny when he was born, and to Naomi when we got her in China. This is what we told Pastor John about the name we chose for our daughter:

Our daughter's full name is Naomi Chunxiang H. We kept our daughter's Chinese first name, Chunxiang (Shoon-she-ahng), as her middle name, to preserve a piece of her heritage. The name her birthparents gave is lost to us, but this name was chosen by the orphanage that received her in the spring of 2006 at about one month old. They gave her birthdate as March 1. Appropriately, Chunxiang means "welcome spring" or "fragrant spring."

We decided to call our daughter Naomi because we both liked the name (it is unique) and the more we thought about the meaning of the name, it seemed fitting. Also, Ruth liked the idea of having a Naomi in the family, since the two names are linked in scripture. In the Bible story, both Ruth and Naomi had become like orphans, with only each other to cling to. They needed a kinsman-redeemer to free them from their predicament, provide for them, and give them a family. We pray that Naomi will come to know Jesus as her kinsman-redeemer and experience all the blessings of being part of God's family. We also pray for God to show his grace and mercy to Naomi's birthparents and fosterparents, as well as those who cared for her in the government orphanage and the China Care Children's Home.

Autumn Moon Festival

Catching up on events from before surgery--The Autumn moon festival fell on the day before surgery, but we managed to celebrate a bit with mooncakes and paper lanterns and going out to look at the full moon. (We had fun going to Chinatown to buy the mooncakes and lanterns). The mooncakes were expensive and not really to our western tastes, but it was fun to try the different flavors and see the "moon" (egg yolk) inside them. We also did a little shadow puppet show a week later inspired by a book of Chinese festivals. For an explanation of the legends behind the holiday, go to http://www.chinesefortunecalendar.com/midfallstory.htm .