Day One Resurrection Day Series

Today we started Day One of the Sense of the Resurrection series.  In this series we will be making or doing things that will help us to remember an aspect of the Easter story. Over the next ten days the girls will explore the story of Easter through smell, touch, taste, sight and feel.

Today we focused on the beginning of the story, when Mary anoints Jesus for burial. Mack and Madi each read from both John 12 and Matthew 26.  Jesus is at Simon's house when Mary enters with an alabaster jar full of expensive perfume.  She breaks the bottle and pours it on Jesus's feet.  Judas and the other were angry that she would waste such expensive perfume when there were poor to be fed.  Jesus told them not to bother her and that she did this to prepare him for burial.

The girls made their own perfume jars.  They decorated the jars, poured some perfume into them and added reeds to diffuse the perfume.  John 12:3 says "And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume." We talked about remembering Jesus' burial when we smell the frangrance of the perfume in our home....and might I just add....you might not want to come over if you have a perfume allergy...

Visiting A Friend

While we were in California we met up with Miah's friend Tian from China and spent the day at the Santa Monica Pier. The girls has fun playing in the sand, splashing in the waves and exploring the pier.  These two girls are just so cute together.  They pick up as if no time has passed, playing and laughing together.  I love how they hold hands as we walk along.

Miah's First Dance Recital & Unexpected Emotions

On Saturday Miah had her first dance recital. She was so looking forward to this day...but got a little first time jitters just before the show...her friends Mary and Sylvie were not able to make it and she was lacking that special friend to hang with. With a little pep talk and assigning her to one of the Jr helpers (Thanks Neve!) she regained some of that confidence and she did great! She was so proud of herself!

Mommy was so proud of her sweet Chinese ballerina.  I remember years ago while we were waiting for Miah's referral we were at a dance recital for our older girls.  There was one Chinese girl performing that day. I couldn't help dream of the day when I would be watching my our Chinese daughter dance on stage.  As I was watching Miah I was overwhelmed with emotion, trying so hard to not start crying right there amongst the crowd.  All I kept thinking about is the mother in China who will never see her sweet child dance and experience the beauty and love she has to offer.  Again I thank God for the blessing of Miah and the gift I have been given to be called her mother.

Disneyland 2012

This week we returned from the happiest place on earth!  We had fun playing as a family and just focusing on one another during our 8 nights away. This is the sixth time we have gone to Disneyland with our girls (third time with Miah) and we never tire of the experience...well at least not yet ;)

Our first day on the park fell on leap year. For the first time ever both Disneyland and Disney World stayed open for 24 hours with "One More Day" being the slogan.  On our plane to Anaheim there were people flying down for this one day only.  Noting that is was probably going to be very busy, we opted not to enter the parks at 6:00 am. We heard that the lines were huge that morning.  We arrived a bit later, maybe around 9:00 and the crowds had spread throughout the park.  It didn't feel overly busy during the day (maybe just compare it to a Friday or Saturday) but closer to 8:00pm the lines again started forming at the ticket office.  That was our cue to head back to the hotel and call it a day. It sounded like it went well despite the teens trying to start a mosh pit in Fantasyland.

Miah's only request this trip was to have a turn being transformed into a princess at the Bibbidy Bobiddi Boutique.  Madison had it done in October for her birthday and Miah made sure to remind us of that a few times before we left. it was so fun to see her soak up the experience and enjoy being pampered as every little girl should.

Getting her nails polished....

Choosing just the right color of eye shadow...

A sprinkle of Pixie dust...

And voila...Introducing Princess Miah (she kept saying she looked like Mulan)