Beautiful Fall

Our short 3-week vacation to America has turned into an extended-stay trip during beautiful fall. We are well on our way to finishing all of our required medical appts for Chloe and are hopeful we will return home to Taiwan at the end of the month. In the meantime, here are a few pics of the wonderful weather we have been experiencing.

Little Update

Do you ever have a month or a few weeks where life just explodes?  Welcome to September for me.

September began with school starting for the girls and Chloe's 5th birthday. I actually did get pictures of the third day of school as well as her birthday but I got a new computer two weeks ago and the pictures have not been transferred yet.

We left for a "three-week vacation" in America on Sept. 12 and have since learned that we will probably be in the U.S. through at least the end of October maybe even into November. (More on that in a moment)

My youngest sister got married on Sept. 16 and we are proud to welcome Uncle Asa into our wild and crazy family.  Hang on Asa, you haven't seen nothin' yet. haha

Last friday we took our oldest daughter, Chloe to the pediatrician for an evaluation.  Chloe has always done things in her own way and in her own timing.  After a thorough exam by the doctor, she determined that Chloe is at least a full-year behind in her growth and development.  We will be seeing multiple doctors over the course of the next month to determine any underlying causes as well as to determine a course of action that will hopefully include our swift return to Taiwan in November.

This weekend we will be heading to Branson, MO for a fun day at Silver Dollar City with Jeff's family and next week we will start our string of doctor's appointments for Chloe.

Our internet connections are a little spotty so it is taking us longer than usual to respond to emails and check our voicemail. Sorry if you have tried to email us and we haven't responded.  We are hopeful things will slow down a bit after this week.  I'll send another update when I get a chance.

Until then- it's great to be in the US where everyone knows what I am saying.

It'll grow back right?

This is Ava a month ago.

Here is Ava Today.

 

This haircut has been brought to you by big sister Chloe. (She wanted Ava's hair to look like daddy's)

Am I a Tiger Mom?




Guess which one is Chloe.  I'll give you a hint- she does not have black hair.

 

A friend of mine recently directed me to the article below talking about parents who immerse their kids in another culture so that they can gain a competitive edge later in life.  I found it very interesting given our current life. 

Chloe recently completely her first kindergarten year in a completely Mandarin-speaking environment.  The first few weeks were difficult for her but she quickly adjusted and she liked school from the beginning.  She will return again this fall for her 2nd year of kindergarten.  (They do school a little different here where kids attend Kindergarten two or even three years.)

Why do we send her?

We had several reasons for sending her to all Chinese Kindergarten.  The least important reason was her future competitive edge in the marketplace.  Sure, it's great if she speaks the language that many assume to be the next superpower but I don't think kids who don't learn Chinese are at any great disadvantage. Does language alone create a successful functioning human being? It depends on your definition of success I suppose. I would contend that the character traits of Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Gentleness, Faithfulness and Self-Control are far better gauges to a healthy human than the number of languages spoken or what initials appear after a name.

I am reminded so many times that how we want our children to turn out, we must first model it ourselves.  Do you want loving and joyful adult children?  We must be loving and joyful parents.  How about honest and faithful children? Gotta start with us.

Of course, there is a place for education and a need to learn reading, writing and 'rithmetic.  It's also a good idea to be exposed to other cultures. The problem is our tendency to sacrifice our children on the altar of education and then we are surprised when money becomes their God.

How much more freeing would it be to lay our children at the feet of Jesus, model good character in our own lives and then let a God that knows and cares for every hair on each child's head take care of their future.

http://www.newsweek.com/2011/07/17/american-kids-immersed-in-chinese-asian-education.html

Chloe's New Eyes

Two weeks ago Chloe's school conducted a routine vision exam. Chloe passed the distance vision screening with flying colors. However, when they asked her to pick shapes out of a three-dimensional object she wasn't able to do it. Thinking that there may be a language barrier (her school is all in Chinese), Chloe's teacher called me and asked if I could come to the school and help her repeat the test. Even with my presence and explaining what they wanted Chloe to do, she still failed to see any shapes in the 3-d box.

At the school's urging I took her to see a Pediatric Opthamalogist at the big Taiwan University hospital. Overall, many Asians have notoriously poor eyesight and Chloe already has several kindergarten classmates that wear glasses. I felt very comfortable with her well-educated and very experienced eye doctor that specializes in children's vision problems. It took Dr. Luke all of about 1 minute to figure out that Chloe is slightly cross-eyed. This problem stems from the fact that she is farsighted (unable to see items close to her). The end result of her being cross-eyed is that she has no depth perception (which means no 3-D vision).

Now, here's the crazy part. When Chloe was 18 months old she still wasn't walking or talking and she had never learned to crawl. She did this funny scoot across the floor on her bottom when she wanted to go places. We took her to see several pediatricians specializing in child development delays. The consensus seemed to be that the talking was delayed due to the gross motor skills delay but no reason was ever determined for the motor skills delay.

Fast forward to last week. We returned home from the eye doctor and I begin looking up things about kids who are farsighted. I began to notice a couple of common themes:
1.) they never crawled
2.)they had significant gross motor skills delays
3.) they had difficulty with many tasks such as catching a ball, walking down stairs, etc.

I immediately thought "hmm, this sounds like a child that I know."

Chloe's glasses came today and she absolutely LOVED them... for about 20 seconds. We've been fighting to get her to keep them on all day. The first thing she said when she put them on was "Oh, mommy I see you and Bubby, too!"

The biggest problem is that until her eyes adjust to them, they actually make things a little blurrier than if she wasn't wearing them. Dr. Luke said this is normal and it will just take a little time to break in the new eyes.

So, what do you think? She picked them out herself.

Happy Birthday Bubbie Sissy

Today was Ava's 2nd Birthday.  We ordered her favorite dinner, pineapple pizza and then she opened a few presents from Nana and Grandma.  And she topped off the evening with some carrot cake.  I'm not sure who was more excited about opening the presents- Chloe or Ava.  :)

Happy Birthday little girl.  I didn't think you would ever get this big and yet you are already here.  Crazy how the days creep and the years fly.

Chloe and Ava New Pics

Chloe, Age 4

 Ava, Age 2