Summer Updates + Micaiah's Blog

Well, summer started for us over two weeks ago, but morning sickness has had the best of me for the past 8 weeks, so I haven't been up to blogging. Thank God I've reached my 14th week and morning sickness is finally over! The kids have been keeping me on my toes - well, more like keeping me in the driver seat of our minivan driving all over town. Last week the enjoyed VBS at a large local church across town. They loved it. This summer the kids all picked at least one activity, but with four kids, that's a lot of activities! Lydia's doing gymnastics, Mimi's taking ice skating lessons and art lessons, and Micaiah's taking tennis lessons and going to volleyball camp. What's Kari doing? Well, guess she gets to ride all over town with mom :) - she's a real trooper. Oh and of course, lots of swimming. This week is the first week the temps have been in the hundreds. I haven't had a chance to get any picts of the kids swimming yet. I've got to remember to bring my camera!
These are a few picts of the kids with their father's day gifts for Mike. Mimi and Micaiah made him some glass art pictures. Can you tell what they are? Lydia made Mike a picture of himself. Can you see the resemblance?

I know some of you have been checking out Micaiah's blog. In an effort to keep him writing this summer, he's been updating his blog fairly regularly. If you haven't had a chance, I know he'd love to have you take a look and leave a comment or two. Actually, he updates his blog w/ Chau events even more than I do! micaiahsblog.blogspot.com

Kari - Official in the USA

This past Wednesday was Kari's court date to be adopted in the USA. She was officially adopted in China and recieved her US citizenship in September '08, but we chose to "readopt" her in the US so that she could get a US birth certificate. My parents and Lydia came along to witness the event. The court even gave each girl a teddy bear to match their sweaters - which was nice because for them this was a pretty boring event!

The LA Children's Court is in Montery Park, so the best part of the deal was a delicious Dim Sum meal for lunch! Kari loves ChaSiu Bows - buns filled with BBQ pork. She loved those in China and she still loves them! We had to put a limit on the number she could eat since she was eating non-stop. Then we topped it all off w/ a Boba drink for the ride home :). Kari will have to wait about 15 months or more to get her birth certificate b/c the CA government is a total mess right now, but we're thankful Kari could once again become officially ours even though she's been officially ours for 9 months now.

Graduation

A major milestone - Lydia graduated from Preschool on Wednesday :). Going into the day, I don't think she had a clue what "graduation" meant. We kept trying to prep her, but being only four she still seemed pretty clueless. Regardless, she hammed it up quiet a bit. I wish I had a photo of this, but she strutted up the isle to her seat flashing what looked like a "peace" sign or a "V" for victory sign with her two fingers. All the parents were laughing and she had this big grin on her face. Turns out the "V" sign to her was - you guessed it - BUNNY EARS! She even flashed her "bunny ears" again when it came time to receive her certificate. Mrs. Cindy awarded her the "Mild Mannered Award". Mike was like, WHAT? How could Lydia be considered "mild mannered"? At home she certainly is NOT mild mannered, but she does come across as being so in the classroom. So, she sang the songs - sort of, got her certificate - while flashing the "bunny ears", and saved the best for last - cake! Oh, I have to add one more thing. In her school yearbook, put together by some of the parents, the children were all asked what they want to be when they grow up. Lydia's answer - "Big Bird". Yes, that in a nutshell is my dear sweet off-the-wall Lydia :).

Blueberries!

Our family loves three day weekends. With Mike working full-time at his secular job and being involved with ministry part-time and on the weekends, having an extra Monday for a family day together is a special treat. This Memorial Day we headed out to Underwood Family Farms to do some blueberry picking. The kids picked about 5 or 6 pounds of blueberries and had a great time feeding all the farm animals. Kari was especially taken by the goats and couldn't get enough of hand feeding them. The kids like fresh blueberries, but I still have to figure out what we're going to do with some of them - maybe blueberry jam? blueberry scones? blueberry pancakes?

BIG Surprise Bonus

Well, for those of you who are non-facebook users, I guess you haven't heard the news about the Surprise Bonus we received this month. Not the typical bonus you would expect in the form of a raise or a vacation. It's more like: give birth to two, adopt two, get one bonus baby for free :). Yep, the Chau Kids are now 5. Baby #5 is due to be born around December 30. If you're surprised, so are we. Ever since before we were married, the family plan was to give birth to two children and then to adopt two - Lord willing of course. After Kari arrived in September, we were thrilled. Our plans for our family were complete, or so we thought! Guess God has other plans for us. I'm still a little shocked, oh and very tired and a bit nauseous too. But learning to trust that God has what's best for our family - even beyond what I can see and understand.


I love this picture. My mom's face says it all. It's the moment we told her we were expecting again. She's saying "FIVE?" and my sister, she's saying "WHAT? WHAT?" in her typical Cheryl fashion. It's kind of how we all feel right now.

Shocked and yet Rejoicing.

Going Green

Well, it's official. The Chau Family is Going Green. :) At the urging of Micaiah, who has been learning about composting at school, we recently started a worm bin and a compost bin. The kids are mostly excited about the worm bin - eagerly saving their banana peels, egg shells, and other scraps for the worms. Did you know that half a pound of worms can devour 1/4 pound of food scraps in one day! Our family easily generates that much green waste, so were hoping our scraps can soon go to good use in our yard.

Heat Wave!

Well, Spring Break came and went w/o a blogspot post :). But I did have a delightful time w/ my three girls. Micaiah was traveling to AZ and NM with his beloved grandparents for the entire week. We missed him dearly and hoped he would blog (micaiahsblog.blogspot.com), but he and his "Gigi" and "Boppy" were much too busy for blogging! The house was VERY quiet w/o our dear son. The night he bounded back into the house talking non-stop we realized how quiet the house really had been.

So this week the weather decided to take a turn and skipped straight to summer. It was over 95 degrees for two days! Mimi decided it was time to wash the car and Kari was ready to help out. As a family, I think we are really ready for summer vacation.