Ramble on

I have a few minutes, so I thought I'd sit down and just do some rambling. First, the Cooper news. He's starting to form real words. Once in awhile you'll hear a 'shooss' for shoes, or 'ba bye' instead of 'ba ba' to say bye bye. He says 'heez' as his form of please, and we hear it loud and clear when we're eating and he wants a bite. He is even saying some things in Cantonese, but neither you nor I would understand them, only Sarah does. He's in the stage where using his tongue to do the spitting 'pbpbpbpbpb' sound is just the funnest thing to do. And he is just turning all shades of brown. Sarah takes him to swim every other day; and, despite the generous coating of sunblock he receives, is getting more and more cinnamon colored.

Ok, now on to my news. Things are working out tremendously for our family in terms of my work situation. I finished working for the company I was working for last year, and have been looking for another job that would allow me flexibility and time to study. I got hooked up with a company called Science Adventures. Working 'full time' for this company means working 5-7 hours a week and receiving about half of the pay we need to survive. Unfortunately, they couldn't get enough work hours together for me to offer me the 'full time' position. Bummer. I had to look for some other full time job. I was offered a few, but they all involved long hours and working on Saturday. Sarah and I prayed about it, and we decided that a long hours job would not be condusive to our goals. We decided to exercise faith that Heavenly Father would open a way despite the risk of not going with a standard full time job. Well, not 2 days after we made that decision with Heavenly Father I got a call from Science Adventures. One of their teachers that was going to come from the States changed his mind, and would I like to take his hours and work full time. Yes, absolutely! So now I'm going to have that wonderfully flexible job this year. Now, I need to add to that. Just a few days ago I met with the person who I've been working with sporadically in setting up his new business of personal organizers. He asked me to be the 'managing director' of sorts for his company, and I could work the hours I'd like. WOW! What a blessing. Now I'll be working not one, but two jobs with wonderfully flexible hours (great for my studies). Sarah and I never imagined that when we felt impressed to make the more risky decision of not going with a standard, full time job here in Hong Kong that we would be blessed so quickly with just exactly the thing we needed. Actually, this situation is even better than what we hoped. We are being blessed even beyong our needs. We are so very grateful for Heavenly Father's abundance.

Photos through the cracks

Hi. I just saw that some photos on the old hard drive had slipped through the cracks and I hadn't uploaded them yet. Well, here they are. Just click here and enjoy the Cooperness.

One year today

Although Eric usually is the one to post on our blog,
I felt the need to make some comments.  Today is our
one year anniversary of bringing Cooper home from the
orphanage, Mother’s Choice.  Today we returned to
Mother’s Choice with Cooper.  I felt overwhelmed by
how much our family has changed this past year.  We
left Mother’s Choice one year ago with hopes of
becoming the family we always wanted to be.  Today we
returned as that family.  I’m so grateful for Eric and
Cooper.  Eric and I have never been happier than this
past year, and feel like the luckiest people in the
world.

I’m appreciative of Cooper’s birth mother, for giving
our son life and for her choice to give him up for
adoption.  Her loving act made it possible for us to
become parents.  Finally, I’m thankful for Mother’s
Choice and the work they do.  Each volunteer took
loving care of our son until we could. 

We are truly blessed.  Thank you for all your prayers.
Heavenly Father has truly answered them, as evidenced
by our Super Cooper.

The Pick-Up Artist

Today I got to see Cooper try to pick up on girl for the first time. Yep, my little boy is already playing the field.

Today I took Cooper to the club play room for him to be able to run around and play with all the other kids. About 3o minutes into his playing, screeching, and running he stopped dead in front of a cute little 2 year old girl who was sitting on a foam rectangle. He stared at her for a few seconds, then proceeded to point at the play gym and jabber away. I imagine he was trying to communicate that they should go play together, and how well Cooper can climb up and down the big steps (no doubt trying to impress the little lass). She just stared at him. Cooper then jabbered more and pointed again. Still no response. I think Cooper could tell that the little girl was not going to be moved by his mastery of 'goo goo gaa gaa' parlance alone, and so he approached. He was not shy in the least, Cooper was a boy with a goal. He was going to sit down beside her. However, as soon as Cooper was part way up the foam rectangle, and it was obvious to the little girl what he was trying to do, she got up and ran away to go sit someplace else. Cooper was a little devestated. He tried to hide it; play it off like it was no big deal, but I could tell. He just sat on his little foam rectangle, alone, staring at the little girl now across the room, with a look of distraught disappointment on his face. I felt bad for the tyke. He had just experienced his first (to my knowledge) R E J E C T I O N. Oooh, ouch. But, true to Cooper form, after about 2 minutes the entire experience was forgotten and he was again trooping around the play room with his silly little pleased grin beaming brightly.

Switching

Sorry for the few days of silence. I have been working to install and use linux on my computer due to some unresolvable issues with WindowsXP. This change to linux will hopefully save us some moolah in that we won't need to buy a new PC. It's taken some time to change over, since linux operates differently from windows, but it also hasn't been as painful as I thought it might.

As for news about Cooper, for the past few days he has been cutting 4 . . . yes FOUR molars all at once. Please direct all prayers to mommy and daddy during this trying time. Thank you.