Sorry for being away for so long

Happy Belated 4th of July, the picture above was taken about 10 minutes before we brought Jade to the airport. Happy belated 4th of July. This 4th of July had me thinking a lot. What is it like to be an American? Jade had to do a paper on this, she struggled with it due to the fact that she had only been in America for a little over 5 months. She did a lot of research, she had to write about different parts of history and how America fought for freedom in wars and how things were viewed and so forth, The final part of this paper, she had to write about how it personally felt "What does it mean to be an American", she spoke about the choices we have, the love we have for family, the ability to talk about how we feel and to fight for what we feel is right, among other things. Jade has taught me a lot about being fortunate for what we have in America. Even though I don't agree with all the politics and don't begin to understand everything in the politics, I know I am lucky to live in America. I thank all the people that have fought in the wars and are currently fighting in the wars to help us to have freedom. My father, Uncles, brother and nephew all were in the military, some of them fought in the Vietnam War and others in Iraq, while other trained to be ready to fight for our country if need. Dave currently has a cousin who son is getting ready to leave for Afghanistan. I proudly display the American flag in front of our house and am proud to say I am America and Thank you for everyone in the past, present and future to make this a great country to live in.
The last week in June Katie and Monika joined t-ball at school. The school is offering it for free for the month of July. Monika managed to get hit in the head right at the beginning and decided she didn't want to play anymore. We will encourage her to give it a try again this week and hopefully it will be better. Katie was very ready to play in the field, there were a lot of kids (probably around 12-15 kids per team) so you didn't really need to chase the ball, but Katie being as competitive as she is, tried to chase all the balls and got a couple of classmates upset with her, Dave and I had a little talk with her and told her good job, but that there were plenty of kids out there that she didn't need to run for every ball. Hopefully this Thursday she will do a lot better with sharing fetching/catching the ball. She did a good job hitting the ball and running to the base.
Pirate Monika
Pirate Katie
Pirate Jenny

From the 1st until the 4th, we spend it with some of Dave's cousins and their family camping. This was the second time we had done this. We had a blast and this year theme was pirates. The "grandma" of the group made pirate costumes for all the kids with the youngest being around a year and the oldest pirate being 14 years old. There were about 15 kids. These kids played pirates on and off and even had treasure hunts. They got to bike around a lot and we even allow our 3 girls to go by themselves (with one another, but not an adult) around the loop, it was a little scary at first to allow them to do this, but you can tell they really felt "big" going out of parents site. We spend a lot of time at the beach, the kids played and played while the grown ups talk. Friday and Saturday the boat we out and did a lot of tubing and some water skiing. The tub fit the 3 girls and a parent in it. They loved it. Both Dave and I took the girls out on the tube. We don't see much of Dave's family (cousins) because everyone is scatter everywhere, and most of the relatives lived south when he was growing up, it is nice to reconnect with them. Next year it is Super heros for the kids and villians for the grown ups. We have to make them up and they don't have to be a famous one.
Now for updates:
Jade: She is currently at her Dad's place in northern part of China. She is enjoying her time catching up with her family, she is learning how to play guitar, she will be returning to MN on the 11th of August.
Monika, Katie and Jenny are all doing well, Monika and Katie are looking forward to finishing up their current grade (last day of school is the 6th of August) and Jenny is looking forward to going to Kindergarten this fall. Monika and Katie both have some loose teeth and are working on wiggling them out.
Dave and I are staying busy with our jobs and being parents to our wonderful 4 daughters.
The 12 year old girl that we fell in love with last month, we have decided we are going forth and will attempt to adopt her. We are currently working on fundraising ideas and will have a garage sale in August to start raising money for her. We are hoping to have a spaghetti dinner and possibly a carnival and scrapbooking retreat to help with the raising of money for her. I have been praying and thinking a lot and did a lot of soul searching this past month (especially during cousin camp sitting at the beach or around the campfire), a lot of people have been encourage me (I say me and not us, because I am the one that has been talking to people about her and getting ideas, Dave has been behind the scene) and feel very strong that we could raise the money, I have been unsure of myself and decide to put my faith in God's hand and feel that if this 12 year old is meant to be our daughter, we will then be successful and I want to thank God and everyone that is giving us encouraging words and support with our journey.