Are we rich or poor?

The question in the heading came from Jenny this morning as we were eating breakfast. I am not sure where the question stemmed from, since we weren't talking about money or anything at the moment. My answer was money wise we are not rich or poor. Family wise we are very rich. We have one another, love one another, We love God and Jesus, we are all healthy, we are happy and secure. We continue for a little bit talking about how we were very rich. The girls frequently ask if we have all the money so we can go get Erin. We have always said we are still working on it, but we also have a lot of paperwork to do. They don't understand the paperwork part as we are always doing it. The grants that we are going to apply for, they are time consuming and some of them are having us write about our relationship with God and Jesus Christ. I have always loved God and Jesus Christ, I have always believe that they know exactly what they are doing with my life, I may not always understand it at the time, but trust, them they know what is lying ahead and are preparing me for what is coming up. I have not really ever freely spoken about my relationship I have with God or Jesus Christ, that has been always between me and them. I have talked with people about God and Jesus and my beliefs, but not my deep feelings for them. With the grants we (most of the questions we answer them separately)are having to write about how we feel or who think Jesus is and so forth. As time consuming this has been, it has allow me to really explore my relationship with them. It has renew my love for them and to love them more ( I thought I love them with all my heart, but realizing I had more love to give to them.). So if we don't get any grants or a very small amounts of grants, one awesome thing that came from doing the paperwork is I got to spend a lot quality time with Jesus and God and learning more about my relationship with them. So
I had wrote a post just recently about allowance, although I didn't get much of a response from the post, I had also posted the question on Facebook, I got a lot of response back from there. Dave and I have to discuss the allowance some more. Right now it is on the back burner, I got a lot of good advice and resource help. One thing is for sure, we will not have "chores" tied into allowances. The above picture is Jenny peeling potatoes. She loves to help cook and do things in the kitchen. It takes her a lot longer for her to do it, so I just have to plan accordingly when she or her sisters help out. This was my biggest concern about allowance. I didn't want to change "helping out around the house, because we like to do and mom asked" to it is a chore and we do it to get paid". When the kids were younger, the upstairs playroom, we made them clean it up every night before they could have a snack. We no longer do that because they have a cousin that comes over before and after school and they all play up there. We didn't think it was fair for them to always clean up and not him. We never know what time his parents are coming over, so we can't set a time. They have always been good about cleaning it up when we are having company, and since we don't have to look at it, it doesn't bother me that it is messy up there. Every so often they will surprise us and clean it all up. Again....don't want to make it a choir. I would have never guessed that this would be a hard decision, but it has open up a very good discussion.

Jade dressed up in one of her speech outfits. She did a trail run with us this past Thursday. Last weekend she was gone on a overnight to Marshall to compete with approx. 700 kids (some from other states) in different speech categories. Jade's speech is in the informational categories and she spoke about Chinese Characters. She made it to the final round and placed 5th out of 45. We are so proud of her. She got a trophy too, I was going to take a picture of her with the trophy, but we haven't done it yet. She is learning a lot and is excited about it. Way to go.
Sunday we got free tickets from my sister's co-worker (Thank you so much) to go to CDT (Chinese Dance Theater). They did a wonderful performance and what amazed me, it was a small group..(see the picture below). The group consisted of 8 or 9 kids and then around 10 or so adults. Each group did about 5 to 7 dances. It amazed me how well the kids did with all the different dances they had to do. Jenny's dance, they learn one dance for the whole year. These kids were probably 6 and older. We also ran into some good friends of ours too, so that we nice.

Monday we went out with friends of ours to celebrate Alex's birthday. Alex turned 6 and last year he declared he was going to marry Monika (he calls her momika). This was before he started school. Since he been in school, he has met many "girlfriends".


Not sure what is up with Alex's smile. But this is Monika and Alex. Monika right now is growing her bangs out because she wants her hair to look like her 1st grade teacher (she is in 2nd grade). I haven't decided if I like her with bangs or not. I have always allow my kids decide what they want to do with their hair, I figure it theirs and they have to wear it. Jenny just got hers cut again short. She loves it short. Katie keeping hers long, but wants bangs, and Monika is growing her long and having no bangs....
Where are we with bringing Erin home? We are waiting for one thing to be clarified with homestudy agency and then our homestudy will be done. We are hoping that will be today or tomorrow. Then it will be sent out to immigrations. Time line on getting her, no sooner then June, more then likely we are into July or August. Moneywise: we are still working on fundraisers and grants.
Now it time for my to have my time with Jesus.