Just over seven months......

A little over seven months and our steps forward definitely beat our steps backward! We have had some great teaching/learning opportunities of late, that continue to show Yang Yang our love for her. We continue to talk about love and family and feel its sinking in more and more each day.

Recently Jill and Rory went on a college tour down in Southern California, which left Yang Yang, Carley and me home for three days. It was nice that I was able to bound with YY and she let me say prayers with her at bedtime! (Huge progress for Baba) Yang Yang was a little apprehensive at Jill leaving, but they talked about it and Jill assured her she would return.

We were able to go shopping in Monterey one day and ice skating on another, so YY was very happy. Yang Yang did inform us once Jill got back, that shopping is much better with Mom! Apparently when I say something looks good or is cute, it doesn't hold the same meaning as when mom says it.  

I was able to read an email from a adoption group recently, and the parties were talking about a little girl Yang Yang had been in the orphanage with. I noticed the name and spoke with my wife about her. It turns out, she was the same girl and she is about the same age as YY. They were good buddies together in the orphanage. We made contact with the family and hope we can keep in contact and have the girls Skype each other? Needless to say, it was exciting to find another child from Meng En here in America!

As I have mentioned in my last post, we met a woman who leaves close to us, that grew up in China. She has been here in America for a year and we are becoming great friends with her and her husband. She has been making great food dishes for YY and our family and has offered to work on Mandarin with YY, so she can increase her vocabulary and knowledge. This has been a blessing, since we don't want YY to forget or lose her language. We are planning on getting YY into a Mandarin speaking class next year, possibly on a weekend day, so until that happens, this has been great for her and will only benefit her in the future.

Spring break is over and we look forward to the summer. A week in Santa Cruz this summer and then off to Colorado for the Meng En Reunion with her friends!

In Him,

Berk

Six Months and Going Strong

Time is sure flying by these days.We are at the six month mark and it gets better and better with each passing day.

Yang Yang is still loving school and we received her first report card. The teachers say she is doing great and her English is coming a long. Yang Yang is in 5th grade, but 7th grade for math. The school has just purchased Ipad's for her and another child, so they can work on English and other subjects more effectively. YY has also made a few friends, and the ones that live close to us, come by for play time a few days a week.

We just met a neighbor who lives down the street. She is 40, married, chinese and works at a local chinese restaurant. It turns out, she is from the same province as Yang Yang, so they seem to have a lot of the same mannerisms and get along great. She has been making great chinese dishes and brining them over for us.

A few days ago we broke through again and made great progress with YY. Jill and YY were having an off morning that continued to get worse as the day went on. After an extended conversation so to speak, they returned home and calmly had a conversation. What had happened was, Yang Yang had heard some outdated information that she processed wrong, parked it in a corner of her mind and decided to release it that morning. Once Jill was able to bring it out, she was able to speak with YY and give her the correct information. Once she received this information, she seemed to release some of her tension. Without going into Jill's and YY's conversation, Jill was able to let Yang Yang know that God placed her in our hearts, wanted her in our family and brought us to China for her. Jill was able to let Yang Yang know that no amount of information we received from China, would turn us away from her and God's desire to have her in our family. Yang Yang ended the conversation after this by explaining to Jill that she doesn't know why she treats her so badly. She tells Jill that she is trying to figure out why she treats her worse than me. Jill was able to speak with her regarding this subject, but the only thing I can say is progress, progress, progress!

Swim lesson are going great and we see such progress with her confidence in the pool. Once she has completed her lesson later this summer, YY wants to try dance next at the local studio in town. She mentioned hip hop, but I think Baba had modern dance in mind. I think this third daughter is going to keep me young and on my toes.

Carley is doing great in school and pulling in all "A's" and Honor Roll. My Carley went from the youngest to middle child overnight, so she is trying to adjust on the fly. Her roll or position in the family changed, but she will be a better person because of it. She doesn't see that now, but this will only make her stronger. She still loves shopping, hanging with mom and shooting her Benelli 20 Gauge Shotgun at the clay targets.

Rory is turning 18 this summer and is just finishing her first year of Junior College in June. A car turned up in the driveway for her , so she's a happy big sister. Her grades are fantastic also, so we are the proud parents of three serious students. Time to look at colleges for her, so we are looking at Christian Colleges in California. I better look for some more overtime at work because this is going to hurt! LOL  

What can I say about daughter number three..I love her spunk, drive, her excitement of learning new things, sense of humor and her smile. I find myself looking at her and just smiling. She looks over and does her usual comment back "what"? To sound like the 70's...This daughter just trips me out! I look at her with fascination, that God place this girl in our family from Urumgi, Xingjiang Province, China to Hollister, California. I love how she calls me BaBa, not just the name, but the way she says it. The tone and conviction as she says it, makes me marvel at God's plan he has for our lives! The divine intervention and course he set for us is almost beyond words and expression.

I'm forever blessed and humbled by Him,

Baba  



             

Happy New Year (Chinese)

Happy New Year, the year of the Dragon! We started out the Chinese New Year with dinner at a local chinese restaurant with close friends. The food and fellowship was great and we started the new year out right. Yang Yang was excited about her day, school all day, hanging with her family in the afternoon and dinner with friends in the evening. On our way back to our car, YY expressed her joy by saying, "this was a great day today!" :)

Things have been going good and we could not be happier. Yang Yang has expressed her love for her house and loves to come back to it after a long day at school. She is enjoying her time more around us and loves to crack jokes at the dinner table, which warms our hearts. We have now been home with YY for exactly 5 months. It seemed just after two months that everything started to come together. We now understand better her concerns and fears and we can better address them to ease her mind. YY feels more apart of our family now and will talk about things more readily than before. On our rides home from school, I will get full conversations instead of yes and no answers. We are very happy and confident that we will continue to grow as a family and that YY will continue to embrace our culture, while continuing with her chinese culture.

Great news on the horizon, we have some confirmed dates for the Meng En reunion with some of the children from the orphanage that are now adopted here in America! This summer kids who were with YY at the Beijing orphanage will be meeting each other, so it should be a great time. A couple of the kids have seen each other, but most will meet for the first time since leaving Beijing. We are very grateful for the families who are organizing this reunion, because it will mean so much for the children and the families.

I will end this post with a personal note. I hope someday Yang Yang can fully comprehend the love we have for her? We hear that some older children never fully accept there forever family, while others love there new families as if they were born into that family. It's probably hard for Yang Yang to understand how much love I have for her, or how proud I am of her while I watch her during swim lessons for example. Where she may be outwardly embarrassed at 12 years of age that her baba is at swim lessons and handing her a towel, but she will never know that I broke ever speed law getting home from work just to see her last 10 minutes. I also hope when she see's me open her door, her mama's and sisters doors, hand her a dry towel after swimming, that she realizes she is loved and this is how families act with each other. I want YY to understand she is loved always and that she is deserving of great things. After school I ask on occasion to carry her backpack.  Sometimes she will look at me like I'm from Mars and say no, but other times she will let me carry it. It's those times that I appreciate the most, because she is trusting me more everyday. Its not about a backpack, but sometimes I want to show her that her burdens can be light and not always weigh her down. You don't have to do it all on your own anymore, we are here!  I could go on with more examples but it is a busy day today and time to take Carley to school.

I will end now, we have family pictures this afternoon and we are all excited. I will post as soon as we get them back.

In Christ,

Berk    

Visit to San Francisco....

We needed some new books for Yang Yang, so we headed up to Chinatown, in San Francisco. We had a great time shopping and dinning. YY was able to pick out some nice books and DVD's to bring home. I think she had a good time reading all the signs and speaking to a few people.

After our time in Chinatown, we did the other touristy things, we tried to find the house that was used in the sitcom "Fullhouse", we drove down Lombard Street and ate dinner at Pier 39 over looking Alcatraz. What a wonderful day and beautiful night overlooking the bay!

YangYang invited her friend Emily to go with us and I think they both had a great time. YY is still getting the hang of friendship and how to interact with each other. We have been encouraging her to invite more friends over, so we hope this will be the start of many more friendships to come.

Yesterday was YY's first full day of school since she been in America. Her health has been improving and her stamina is getting better. She told us she had a great day at school and called me at work to tell me about her day, so I was a very happy baba! Tonight we head down to our fitness gym to see about swim lessons for YY. We hope this is something she will like to do, since we love to go to the beach and lakes in our area. YY must learn before our next time in the water.  

Well, thats it for now and we hope everyone is doing well this New Year!

He is always faithful.

Berk

The Christ is born.....

Christmas has come and gone and we are in a New Year, wow has time passed quickly. Yang Yang was able to celebrate her first Christmas in America with a forever family, and she seemed to enjoy herself and new family.

YY was very giving this Christmas season and held up opening her gifts until we had opened ours gifts first, that were from her. I felt she received more joy in seeing our excitement, then in her own presents. She was able to experience the joys of the season, Christ Birth, Christmas Trees, lights, presents, family and friends. We hope this was a wonderful experience for her and many more to come.

Christmas brought dinner with the Gilson Clan. My mother pasted away last March and was a life long member of St. Joseph Church, so our family felt it was appropriate to rent there hall this season and have a big Christmas dinner there. YY was able to meet more family members that she had not met yet. I think our count was 50 family and extended family members that were present. Christmas dinner turned out great and YY had a great time with her new cousins.

The New Year bring more change to the Gilson 5.0 family. YY starts full-time school next week and this should increase her language skills and give her more peace of mind in her daily understanding. Carley and Rory go back to there respective schools with full loads of work, so our winter to spring should be busy with academics. YY has been feeling much better and she is down to half a pill a day for her Graves. This is great news for her and us and we hope that someday she can be clear of the medication altogether.

Next up is to make an appointment for the Ear, Nose & Throat Specialist and Eye Doctor, so we can fix a lingering issue with her ear and check on her vision. Our 12 year old does not want to where glasses, but hopefully they will just be for reading?

Mama and Baba are still moving forward and staying positive. We feel we have cleared the opening hurdles and are settling in for more normal or the new normal in our life. Everyday is better than the last day and we are grateful and blessed to have YY in our family.

The next few weeks will bring a visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Bubba Gumps for lunch, and a visit to San Francisco's China Town.

Always in His name,

Berk    

Giving thanks as we move towards our Christ's birth.....

Wow, is time flying along lately. We are starting to run on all cylinders these days and we could not be happier. Yang Yang is still loving school and is meeting some new friends in the process. A recent doctors appointment  shows things are getting better with her health, and we can see that in her behavior and stamina. We see that she feels better and is slightly more relaxed in her surrounding.

Halloween and Thanksgiving came and went, but we had a wonderful time with family and friends. We were able to fit twenty-four family members around the table for dinner on Thanksgiving, with five more guests for dessert. Everyone had a great time and Yang Yang continues to love a large group in our home. She wasn't to sure of the meal, so she had a lot of rolls and stuffing! Yang Yang can't figure out that chicken and turkey are both birds yet. :) So we are working on that and other American food. ( YY loves chicken, but did not know what to make of the turkey ) We had lots of food and fun and all the kids hung out and played cards, Wii and Hacky Sack.

Well Christmas is on the way and we let Yang Yang and Carley have our change Piggy Bank that I throw all my change in over the year. Carley thought she would be smart and claim all the quarters and give YY the rest of the change, but at final count it was Carley with $50.00 and YY with $62.00! Not bad for a year of change. The only thing wrong with this money, is it turned YY into a shopping crazy person! She understands clearly how much she has and will shop and spend to the nearest cent! :) So, we do a lot of walking and weaving throughout the store, but YY is very conscious and gracious with her money!!

The Christmas Tree is up and YY helped the family decorate the tree and house. She is still trying to grasp the concept, but enjoys buying gifts for others and is beside herself with anticipation of the presents under the tree with her name on them! We were convinced to send some presents to Meng En Orphanage after YY called them recently, and I heard a voice on the other side say they would love an IPAD! Yang Yang gave a look towards me like, is that ok? Apparently YY still thinks were rich, so I had to explain to her the difference and that it takes a lot to keep this machine running, so to speak. So a few shoes and shirts later, our box was sent to Beijing. ( IPAD excluded! LOL)

All God's Children International did a video and photo shoot here recently. That was an interesting day. We were able to see the inter-workings of an outside video and photo shoot when the noise from surrounding gardeners and cars driving by, stopped the shoot time and time again. By late afternoon, I felt my teeth chattering while they were asking us questions on camera. I hope we didn't look to blue from the cold and my words were getting harder to pronounce as the day went on. It is for a great cause, so we hope all looks well and we don't end up on the cutting room floor!  

Well that should be it for now. Yang Yang is doing so well and we our blessed to have her in our family.  We continue to adjust as well as we can and know it is still hard for her. We just try to show her as much love as we can and hope someday she will feel proud to have us as her family.

Recently I was asked what I was thankful for, and the easy answer would have been our adoption. Though I'm very thankful for that and that would go without saying, I'm abundantly thankful for Christ and the scripture that confirms my gratefulness.

In Romans 8: 15-17        

For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, Abba! Father! The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

So I can give Yang Yang everything that I can possible give her on earth as my adoptive daughter, but I can never give her the ultimate sacrifice and eternal life that our Christ Jesus has given her. So it is my job as her father on earth to lead her as best I can to our heavenly Father!  

In Him always,

Berk 

Two and a half months with signs of progress....

I'm anxiously hopeful that we have slowly turned the corner. We still have occasional issues, but we hope they will continue to diminish over time. A saying that I feel is appropriate these days and that I like is, two steps forward and one step back, is still one step forward!

I have explained issues before, so I won't rehash those, but it is interesting to see what seemingly insignificant molehills turn into mountains. One example is paperwork sent home from school that needs to get to the parents. I didn't think this would be such an issue, but it is a bone of contention with Yang Yang. ( Her response to us) I think this is either a control issue or a privacy issue with her. Something about us asking if there is any paper work or flyers for us to see. So far we missed our parent teacher meeting and a fundraiser for the school! So we move to plan B and placed a folder in her backpack that says, "parents". We have asked the teachers to place paperwork for us in that folder. We will also ask the teachers, with Yang Yang present, to explain the importance of these papers, and how they need to get to us.

We are slowly seeing Yang Yang's fun personality come out, and with that comes a beautiful smile. Just the other day we witnessed her understanding, smarts and fun personality when dealing with her older sister. You see, there has been some contention between the girls when YY has acted out, so we our working on her sisters to show more grace. So as we were leaving lunch in our downtown area, Jill went to her car and I started towards mine. Jill explained she was going shopping, so Carley said she would go with mom. YY immediately said she was going with momma too. This frustrated Carley, so she said I'm going home with dad. Which in turn, YY explained, me go with baba too! Jill now chimes in and says that she is going shopping and the girls better decide because she is leaving now. Carley then changes her tune and says she will now go with mom, which in turn, YY counters with the same proposal. Now in full frustration, Carley says she is going home with dad and starts walking down the sidewalk. This in turn gets YY to chuckle and say that she is also going home with baba as she runs up to Carley, locks arms and walks down the street! Jill and I could only smile and laugh as Carley was had by YY! We loved seeing her fun personality come out and we hope and pray this will continue for her and us.

Things are running more smooth lately after some down days, and we are hopeful this can continue. We have gone back to a formal schedule on the refrigerator for YY to see and this has made all the difference in the world. We also have her medications under control for her Graves Disease and we see process in her health and attitude. We hope this will continue for a long time and that we don't have to revisit this for sometime, and YY can continue to feel better.  Our next goal will be to fix a issue near her ear that will require minor surgery, but this will have to wait until her Graves has leveled off for some time and the doctors give us the green light for the procedure.

I think that will be good for now. We are optimistic has we move forward into the the later part of 2011. Yang Yang had her first Halloween and loved every minute of it. We will have Thanksgiving at our house this year for the family, so YY can experience that and have around 30 of our family members here too!

Look to Christ in all things,

Berk