Feb. 2011

Here's a picture of Penny holding our friend, Katie's little boy. He is half Korean. And Penny said, "Mom, his eyes look just like mine! He is a real cutie. It's too bad for us that they will be moving. But, we're so happy for them that her husband got a good new job in Washington state.


At the end of January Penny and Jay went up to Covenant Heights for her confirmation youth group's winter retreat. That same day I, (Chandra) had a meeting in Denver to learn more about my new volunteer/part-time position with World Heritage International Exchange Student program. So, during nap time at the preschool where I'm working, I'm trying to read through the manual and figure out what I need to do to make it possible to find host families and get the schools to allow exchange students to come here.

Jay continues playing the piano at a middle school in Loveland and then going to work at a credit union in Wellington in the afternoon. I've been getting some extra hours at my preschool, lately, when other teachers are out. And we are VERY thankful for unexpected provision through our tax return. We discovered, much to our surprise, that this year they changed the tax law and we can now get our full adoption tax credit. So, our return will be much bigger than we anticipated. Praise God! So, we feel we could even afford to take a family vacation out to Chicago at the end of July to go to the Thai Reunion and then stop by and visit my family in South Dakota on the way back.

We had a very nice Valentine's Day! Jay treated me to a gift certificate to a massage and a beautiful flowering plant. I gave he and Penny a book that I created online by including blog entries about us becoming a family. It turned out really nice and it will be a special treasured memory for years to come. Then we all went out to eat that night. Later Penny said that she was really glad about the family to which she belonged, because she heard of lots of kids her age who had to stay home alone while their parents went out on a date alone that night.

Speaking of date nights, they come few and far between for Jay and me now that we've become parents. However, we actually had one while Penny went to a Chinese New Year Festival with her friend and their family. And what did we do? Most of the time, we actually did yard work together. It sounds crazy, but it was actually kind of nice just to be alone and feel like we were getting something accomplished side-by-side without any interruptions or demands.

Penny has been busy this month practicing her Thai dance. She and I worked together on coming up with the choreography. We got ideas from watching Thai youtube videos and my video tape from when I was visiting a Thai conference back in 1999. Then I managed to get a free download of the Loy Khatrong song she wanted, after having ordered the wrong one from a company in Bangkok. She used all of her savings money and paid a friend back in her hometown of Udon Thani to purchase and send her a new Thai dress. She is planning to wear the dress when she does a Thai dance for a tryout at a community talent show on Saturday, March 5th. Last year she tried out by playing her Thai hammered dulcimer. She didn't get picked to be in the show last year. But, that didn't stop her from trying something again this year. I'm proud of her that she's not trying out just to be picked, but to have fun and share a little of her Thai culture. She has been working hard in school and getting almost all A's and B's. She signed up for her classes that she'd like to take in high school. It's hard to believe that she'll be going to high school in the Fall. She also has the goal of trying to get a summer job and study to learn how to drive, since she'll be turning sixteen in the summer.