We're Back!

We're back from China, back from family camp and back on the JbarJhappenings blog!

Sorry for the confusion with switching blogs two days before we left for China. There were many miracles in the journey to Joshua. One of those miracles was being able to travel to China to get him at all. It truly was only because of what we are calling "a Divinely Appointed Mistake" that we were allowed to go. We know of no other families that have been allowed to travel to this province since the swine flu made the news. The province officials were a bit upset with us for having communicated our travel plans with other families and our agency advised us to make our blog more private before we traveled. For anyone that missed the updated travel blog -- here is the link -- http://jbarjendsofearth.blogspot.com/ We are praying that the other families waiting to travel to this province will receive news soon.

We returned home on July 8th, tired, but so very thankful to be home and to have Joshua here with us. He has been doing really well. He is an energetic, friendly, smart, outgoing boy. He has had a few sad moments where he has become a bit withdrawn, but so far, we've been able to draw him back out of it with patience and persistence. We all truly love this boy and I think he is growing in his affection for us as well. He seems to be a loving and affectionate boy by nature.

Just over a week after returning home, we were packing up again to go to family camp. Thankfully, the camp is only a bit more than a half hour from home. Joshua really enjoyed the camp. He enjoyed meeting and playing with the other kids from church, especially the ones he had met the first Sunday home. His favorite activity was riding a bike. The only problem was that we only had one bicycle with training wheels and Anna also became interested in that bike. Taking turns is a good lesson, but created a few problems over the weekend. Once home, I was able to get training wheels onto another bike that was a better size for Joshua and everyone is happy now -- other than a few scrapes and bumps that have since resulted from the bicycle riding.

The second day at camp, Pete wiped out his ankle in a big way. We spent the afternoon at the ER and he spent the rest of camp on crutches or with his leg elevated. He saw the podiatrist today. His ankle was still very swollen five days later. This is not the first time he has injured this ankle. The doctor's evaluation was pretty discouraging. We think we need to pray for a miraculous healing. The podiatrist thinks he has no ligaments left to heal (as in, he has completely destroyed them) and would need reconstructive surgery. Wouldn't it be great for the doctor to have a huge surprise at the next visit!

The kids did this crazy audio adrenaline song for talent night -- Joshua fit right in when he decided, at the last second, to join them on stage... not sure which side of the gene pool this comes from (notice my husband and I were NOT there), but he seems to be an Aldrich child. My efforts to remain behind the scenes don't always work. There was this crazy activity at church this year of passing a cookie jar from porch to porch and whoever had the cookie jar when church started at camp would have to do "the chicken dance"... someone left the jar on our camper porch while Pete and I were at ER (okay, they claim they delivered it before my husband was injured, but my kids found it and called us as we were on our way to the hospital) We actually returned to camp with cookies and were prepared to deliver it to another unsuspecting family on Saturday night. Unfortunately, someone decided to change the rules and declare the game over during our campfire worship time on Saturday night... Joshua wisely headed for the nearest tree branch when we were sent center stage (crutches and all) for the chicken dance -- sorry, no pictures - you'll have to imagine...

This week we started using the English language program that we purchased in China. Joshua loves it! The other kids have enjoyed watching the DVDs and helping him too. This is a program that I heard about from an American woman who is teaching English in China with her husband. We met them one day in Guangzhou. What a blessing that meeting ended up being! I had no idea what program to use to teach English and I don't think I ever would have found this one here. It is fun for all of us to hear Joshua trying out his new English phrases. Next time you see him, be sure to ask "How are you?" The program is called "GoGo's Adventures in English".

We're enjoying a new produce stand in our little community. One of the benefits is being able to supply Joshua's watermelon eating habit. It seems everyone likes to have the ends of the watermelon. Since we are now able to eat three watermelons per week, we decided to be crazy and cut the ends off of three watermelons at once and have our own little watermelon party....