Jet-lag has zapped my creativity so I don't have a title

Why these huge smiles?

You probably won't believe me, but Grace and Carter were grinning from ear to ear because they were going to....summer school. Really, it's a summer camp on Mondays and Wednesday for the rest of July, but Carter likes to call it school. And I was so thankful that they didn't get upset when they realized I wasn't dropping off Caroline too. Grace has been jealous when Caroline and I leave together. It's such a great blessing to have a few hours these two mornings when I can focus on Caroline's needs and know the kids are having a blast.

It's hard to truly evaluate what's like going from 2 to 3 kids because it's still early. But I will say I felt like a ping pong paddle trying to lunge and hit back three balls this morning. I was trying to help Caroline with her piano exercises, periodically jumping into Carter's "office" to be his client, and running sprints into the kitchen to fetch Grace more juice, more yogurt, and anything else she could think of to keep me in the room.

And I'll confess that I lost my cool a little at the sporting goods store when we were trying to buy some running shoes and workout clothes for Caroline, and Carter was picking out which sports bra was his size, and Grace dumped out all the "necessities" in her pink purse which she insisted on bringing into the store. Now if those run-on sentences tire you out reading them, then you get the gyst of how I felt today. :)

But all in all, I'd say that we're all doing pretty well. We decided to stay home from church on Sunday because we didn't want to overwhelm Caroline with too many new experiences at once. Also, because she's already a little skeptical (not sure if this is the right word) about our faith (as she has no religious upbringing), we wanted to teach her some things about church and our beliefs first so she has a foundation. On Sunday morning, we read a Bible story together as a family and prayed. Then I had her read and listen to an online devotion in Mandarin that a Christian adoption group had recommended. She has listened to one of the devotions each day and seems to be receptive, so this is a good start! We've told her that we want to share with her about our God and all that we believe because our faith is the most important thing to us. However, we also told her that it will be her choice to follow Jesus Christ. We won't force her to adopt our beliefs. I think she felt more open to learning when she learned she had a choice. The same is true for Carter and Grace. We can't make them believe what we believe, but we certainly pray with all our hearts that they will one day choose to love, serve, and follow the Lord!

On a light note, we've been laughing at my confusion of words. Especially in China, I would exclaim a phrase in Chinese to the kids without realizing it. And then when I couldn't think of the right Mandarin word to speak to Caroline, I either came out with French or an English word spoken in a Chinese accent. :) For example, "Ni find thee maga-zeeeen." Embarrassing, I know.

Then, I was trying to get Grace down for her nap yesterday and she was not following my instruction. For a brief moment, I turned to get the electronic translator, somehow thinking that would help get my point across! Can I blame all this on jet-lag??

Caroline had her first piano lesson yesterday and picked it up very quickly. She has enjoyed practicing and is eager to learn more.

She surprised me by deciding to participate in an ESL camp at school next week. The camp is every morning from 8:30-11:30 am. When I told her on Google Translate that I was glad she was going but that I would miss her, she placed her hand on my shoulder (she was sitting behind me on Grace's bed) and left it there a few moments. So sweet! After next week, she'll start tutoring lessons with the ESL teacher. We also bought Rosetta Stone today so she can work on her English that way as well. She picks up more every day.

Oh and a cute story from yesterday.... her piano teacher, Julia, is an old friend of mine. Julia is very slim and petite and had some clothes, jewelry, and shoes she wanted to give away to Caroline. When we got home and laid it all out on my bed, she said, "Oh! Show Daddy...Daddy say no more shopping!!!" All afternoon, she anxiously waited for Scott to get home so she could play her little joke. And he totally fell for it. He was giving me eyes that said, "How could you spend so much money????" Caroline just giggled and giggled and then looked up the phrase "Fool you!" on google translate. It was a great moment.
But speaking of spending lots of money, we got some bad news yesterday. Bad news for our bank account, and bad news for our sweet dog Jackson. He hasn't been acting right for quite some time. I even found blood in his urine before we left for China and took him to the vet. The doc put him on an antibiotic while we were gone, but Jackson seemed even worse the last few days. Xrays taken yesterday revealed a jagged stone in his bladder. The only way to remove it is through invasive surgery. So we take him to a specialist in the morning for an evaluation, and they may even do surgery tomorrow afternoon. And I about developed my own stone when the receptionist said the preliminary estimate for the surgery was between $1200-$1400!!! So for all of you expert coupon-clippers and savers out there, I need your help! With little spare time right now, I am tempted to pay someone to clip me coupons and help me save on groceries. But I suppose that defeats the point. On a serious note though, if you know that, say, chicken is on sale at Publix, such a comment would a HUGE blessing! :)

And pray for sweet Jackson that he would do well with the surgery and recovery.