Surprises at Starfish

Kay has come back a married woman, Mrs Kastner as she will now be known as. We were so happy to welcome her back and meet with her family. Kay and Will had a reception here in Xian and she asked that we bring some of the babies, so Antoinette, Nathaniel, Gabriel and Jeannie went to their first reception. It goes without saying that she missed the babies and could not believe how everyone had grown. I think Nathaniel surprised her the most because he had surgery while she was away and he is also a whole lot bigger and he is rolling onto his stomach.

There have been quiet a few surprises this last week. Jeannie and Sean both started crawling in the last few days. Sean just decided to crawl across the room. We all stared open mouthed at him. He just moved those little fat legs of his and off he went around the corner. As soon as he got there he let out a massive cry. I guess he must have felt lost. He has been pulling himself up and standing but when he sits down he does the splits as far as he can and then plops down on his butt. Jeannie is so proud of herself and has a big grin every time she crawls.

A bonus photo of Rachel. I managed to catch her kissy mouth. She looks like a goldfish!!!

Sean also had his birthday on Saturday. The rest of the older kids were almost rioting trying to get some cake. Sean took a whole hand full of cake and tried to eat it. Antoinette still loves popcorn and they all really like potato chips. The cake was all over the floor and the babies were eating it before we could clean it up. It was soooo messy.

Lily is moving her body, going from side to side and I am sure she will be rolling over soon. She is also cutting her bottom two teeth and you can see these huge ones coming down on her upper gums. She chews on everything including her own toes. The biggest surprise: Both Lily and Danielle sat up on their own this week. They are still a little wobbly and will easily fall down but that has been wonderful to see, especially since Danielle just recently had massive heart surgery.

Jasmine is just amazing. She went from standing with some help to the next day one day to cruising the furniture and now a week later she is now standing on her own. She is only 9 months old but I think she is going to be an early walker. That is going to be so hard because she is so active. Our record holder for walking the earliest is baby Amanda. That was such an interesting story. Amanda was born with only two toes on each foot and so often people asked me if she would ever walk and I had no idea if she would or wouldn't. It was so great when she started with her little football line backer stance and gave these steps when she was about one.

We also got news yesterday that after getting the adoption medicals completed, the three flowers (Heather, Jasmine, Lily) got their adoption dossiers ready and that they will be sent in to the provincial government soon and then on to the CCAA. I am so happy that we have moved one step closer to them having a family of their own. That is the one of the purpose of having the foster home. I am not so worried about Lily and Jasmine, but I so pray that a family's heart will be softened to accept Heather as their daughter. She has improved so much since the surgery. She started rolling over and is now sitting for longer periods of time. She is developmentally delayed and I am hoping that she will catch up as time goes by. She will need some additional help but she is the sweetest child with such a soft personality.

I want to thank the people who recently sent boxes. I hope I have thanked you personally but there were two who arrived with email address and I am absolutely horrible with using snail mail. Thank you so much for being so thoughtful. Your support is so vital to our survival.

Thanks too to the Stacey from Adelaide, Australia who came to spend a few weeks with us and Makinna who is here right now from Nevada. Jane is arriving on Monday from the UK. Having volunteers here is just wonderful for all of us.

Love and laughter,
Amanda , chinese.starfishthrower@gmail.com