My Blog List
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Is it June yet?5 years ago
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Catch Up5 years ago
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Christmas in Deer Park7 years ago
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9 Years Old!8 years ago
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Beach Birthdays8 years ago
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Physical therapy9 years ago
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Three weeks home...11 years ago
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Story time in the Holland house.11 years ago
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GREAT NEWS!!16 years ago
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Monday, March 25, 2013
Re-united
Today Harper was re-united with one of her friends from China.
She was so excited all day, carrying around pictures that we had of the two of them together. I am not sure she remembered him at first but she sure was excited. John Wesley has been home for just over a year now, so it has been awhile since they had seen each other.
Here is the cutest picture of them together before they came home...
(this really has to be one of my favorite pictures!)
I was so excited and anxious to see how they would re-act...
would they remember each other?
Well, it did not seem to matter...they were fast friends. Poor John Wesley was followed around by Elon and Harper the whole time! I asked Harper is she remembered John or if it had been too long, she said "Yes, I member", then Elon said, "I don't remember him at all" - too funny! She shouldn't remember him, they were most likely not together in Shanghai.
But, these Shanghai sweeties were just too cute together!
New friends really are the best...
This visit was even a little more special because we were able to meet Mrs. Sharon, John Wesley's mom. Sharon is the one who first "introduced" us to our sweet Harper. While Sharon was waiting to bring home her precious little John Wesley she had seen a picture of Harper and inquired about her.
When she shared that Harper had been through treatment for Leukemia it really stirred our hearts. She asked other Shanghai moms to pray for her. Which I began doing. Little did I know that God was gently revealing to Cole and I that this was OUR daughter.
God used Sharon to lead us to Harper.
We love Sharon for that!
Not to mention, she got to name our daughter! Yep, that is right...Harper was what Sharon decided to call her when she first shared about her. After Cole and I had called her Harper for so long, it just stuck and we love her name (and so does Harper)!
Saturday, March 9, 2013
School Fun
I have to admit that teaching is not something that comes natural to me. I truly believe that teaching is a gift, one which I did not receive :) I have met some very amazing teachers over the years. All different yet all wonderful. I do think that even if you were not blessed with the gift, the more experience you have, the more comfortable you get. It also helps if you have an amazing student, now luckily, that was something that I was blessed with...my little HARPER!!!
Here is a look of the past few months of working with Harper. We started out very simple, with some colors. She had only been home a few weeks in these first few pictures...
Around Christmas we started introducing letters. She struggled at first. Understandably so, going from her language to our language...they are so different! At first I thought it would take forever but she had me fooled. Once she understood what we were doing, it all clicked!
She loves doing workbook pages and has beautiful handwriting. She is very precise and does not like to have messy work. There is a good possibility that her coloring skills just may be better then mine.
Here we were finding Insects and Iguana's, things that started with "I",
and Elephants for the letter "E".
While taking a phone call, she picked out 6 elephants and lined them up perfectly...
once I got off the phone she informed me that this was Baba, Mama, Case, Camden, Elon, & Harper. It was a very sweet moment... (I guess you needed to be there).
Here is our Elephant family...
Another funny day was when we were finding things throughout the house that started with "S" and marked them with sticky notes. Scout was doomed! He did not want that sticky note on him, but he was a good sport :)
Harper also gets to learn a bible verse when Elon is learning her's for school. This one was one of my favorites because of the motions we came up with to try to learn it. Elon sometimes has a hard time memorizing the verse's but with good motions - she gets it! Harper was along for the ride and even though she may not know the value of what she is learning, it thrills me that scripture is some of the first English words she is learning :)
Harper also love's doing crafts - so we made something that started with the letter she was learning (especially one's she was having trouble with). Here is her Whale!!
And her butterfly - she loved this one!
But the thing I love the most about our "school" time is how much we laugh. Here was one funny day that I was able to catch on video (if you want to take the time to watch them, you may want to watch them in order)
For those of you who did not find these funny must not know what a "shank" is...
Be glad! This is a prank/trick/tradition (whatever you want to call it) that was started in our family many years ago by my husband.
Here is the gist of it...the unsuspecting victim is busy doing something else
(washing dishes, brushing their teeth, or just simply has their back turned)
and then the prankster pulls their pants down.
Sometimes... to. their. ankles.
Yes, it was funny at first.
Or if you are the prankster and not the victim.
OR if you are under the age of 10.
Which I am not.
But I really do not mind being the prankster!
Well, getting back to the school - All of that work (and laughing) has led us to the point in which Harper has learned the entire alphabet and their sounds in just over 2 months!
She really is doing amazing. We have begun sight words and pre reading now - our hope is to have her ready for first grade starting next school year.
Way to go Harper!!!
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