Happy 1st Birthday Eliza!

This weekend has been full of celebrations. First of all we celebrated Eliza's 1st birthday. We are so blessed to have our sweet girl home for her birthday. She is doing new things every day. We are now crawling like a little inch worm and clapping a lot. She had cake on Friday (her actual birthday) and Sunday (her party day). It was great to have our friends the Fortlanders celebrate with us. Emily and Eliza are growing so fast.

We also dedicated Eliza to the Lord today or I should say dedicated ourselves to teaching her about our Lord Jesus Christ. We also had the added blessing of celebrating Father's Day with our parents and Great Grandpa Zimmerman. It has been a great weekend.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELIZA HOPE JIAKAI!!!!! WE LOVE YOU SOOOOOOOOOO BIG!!

A Week of Fun and New Experiences

This week has been a full one. Eliza is doing great! She is full of joy and loves to entertain us. She had so much fun in the recycling playing with empty containers. She will be easy to please on her upcoming birthday. She also started beating two stacking cups together and is very pleased with herself. Her enthusiasm is contagious.

On Friday of this week Faith had a swimming party at school so Eliza and I tagged along. At first she was crying in the water and then she slowly warmed up to it. We will take it slow and go in longer next time. All and all I think she had fun.

We are abundantly blessed! We are approaching summer and all of our children are amazing us! Ethan is growing fast and is so bright! Emma is constantly reading--her love of books is wonderful! Faith is full of life and love--she is always ready to snuggle! Eliza's personality is showing more all the time. She has this cute, mischievous look that she gets when she is being silly. You can see a glimpse of it in the stacking cup picture. We are without a doubt blessed beyond measure!

Our Memorial Day Weekend

We had a fun weekend with the family. We spent Saturday at our Church's Memorial Day Retreat. Eliza saw and patted a horse for the first time. She even wore her pink boots! Unfortunately I did not remember my camera. We did bring it on Monday when we went to see the Nina replica in Portland. It was pretty cool! It was smaller than I expected. It's hard to believe that all the crew were able to sleep on the deck of the boat. It really puts the journey Columbus and his crew made to the Americas in perspective. What a rough journey they must have had!

The Cuteness Continues

I am happy to write that we are settling in nicely. The other day I put Eliza on the floor with Faith and a calculator. It was pretty cute. She was able to push buttons and looked very intent on making calculations. Although it looks suspicious, she did not help Faith cheat on her homework. We have a feeling she is a genius!

Faith and Katie had a play date and were nice enough to include all of us. The girls had a great time playing in the sprinkler during our unseasonably warm weather. It's such a blessing to see Emily and Eliza together. They are both growing fast. They have to be two of the cutest babies to come home from China.

On another note please keep singer Steven Curtis Chapman and his family in your prayers. He has adopted three girls from China and is an advocate for adoption. Earlier today the youngest of his girls died in an accident. Evidently her teenage brother ran over her with a car while backing up.

Also don't forget to pray for China as they recover from the quake. Our friends are alright, thankfully. Please join us in praying that people will come to know Jesus as their Savior. May God's love shine on the people of China and may they respond to it.

Please Pray for Han Lin and Family

****UPDATE****We just got an email from Han Lin-thankfully he and his family are well. Their city was not as hard hit. Please continue to pray for China and the people who are suffering.


Please pray for Han Lin and his family. We have not heard from him as of yet. He lives in Chengdu which is about 58 miles south of the earthquake's epicenter. We will post if we hear from him.

Eliza Skipped Baby Food

I just have to share these photos of Eliza. She is eating well. She has skipped baby food and gone right for lasagna, chocolate, cookies, garlic bread, mashed potatoes, rice, chicken, and anything else that Mommy is eating. She continues to amaze us. Although she is not crawling yet she has a very cute way of getting around that involves rolling back and forth. We have no shortage of laughs and joy in our house.

Eliza Goes to Church

This last week has been another good one. Eliza went to church for the first time last Sunday. She did pretty well. She did a lot of babbling when others were talking and was irresistibly cute. We also were able to have dinner with our friends the Fortlanders. Emily is sure a cutie. Faith and Katie (Emily's big sister) hit it off and are planning more fun together.

We are finding so much joy in all four of our children. Eliza is getting more comfortable every day. Tonight we went to a silent auction for the kid's school. It was very busy and loud. Eliza did alright. The best part was seeing her react to Daddy. She was in the snuggly on me with a lot of people around but when she saw Daddy she would get excited and wave her arms. It's great to see her recognize her family especially in the midst of a crowd. Ethan, Emma,& Faith are so loving with her. She gets excited when she sees them too. We are blessed with an amazing family!