Grassstains.net

Karen’s mom recently sent some pics she had in her camera.  A couple are of Andy at the Gering Family reunion back near the New Year.  The others are of Emily at her cousin’s, Zoee and Lily, birthday.

Emily has taken to running around in pigtails lately, and very much reminds us that there is a little girl in the home.  Karen remembers her mom putting pigtails in her hair every day as she does the same for her girl.  Andy reminds Emily that he is the typical big brother who could care less when she comes bouncing into the room to show him her pigtails by responding, “So . . .” as she shakes her pig tails trying to illicit a response of approval from the boy.  And Gregg remembers to praise her for how beautiful she is (while being ever so thankful that he hasn’t yet had to figure out how to tie the things).  Our little girl continues to be a delight, and we find it hard to believe that in another two weeks we will have had her in our lives and home for six months.  Earlier this morning, as I walked down to the mailbox (accompanied by Emily) to drop off some letters, she prattled off in her broken English all the things she knew.  She pointed at our house, and said, “Emily’s home,” and that was a great thing to hear on such a delightfully sunny day.

This is a bit out of the timeline, but back in January we were happy to dedicate Emily to the Lord.  The pics didn’t come out well in the dark theater, but in the end this moment marked the continuation of a process where this little girl has been prayed over lots.  Our hope long before we even knew she would be ours to love and care for, is that she would come to know and follow the Lord for the rest of her life.  Grandma and Grandpa Gering were able to come down from Vancouver, and spend the day with us.  Emily adores them, and was very happy to get out of that dress and run and play.

On Friday, my cousin David came into town with his wife Amy and 5 kids – the boys, Josh, Nathan and Danny, and their two Chinese daughters Abby and Elisabeth.  David and his clan live in North Bend, Oregon down on the coast near Coos Bay where he pastors a church.  David and Amy were influential in our pursuit of a girl from China, as they were just heading to China to get Abby when we started our journey towards Emily.  They returned in 2008 to get their second daughter Elisabeth.  They were only able to visit for a few hours, but we enjoyed catching up with them, and introducing our daughter to her second cousins (we think that’s the official designation of the children of cousins – maybe it’s first cousins once removed).

So, some have been asking about the office project, and we are really in the home stretch.  Two weekends ago, we got primer on the walls, and the hard wood floor in.  Last weekend, we got the first coat of paint on, and the doors in.  We also worked on some of the trim around the window and doors, and the electrical trim (installing outlets, switches and light fixtures).  I did run into a little problem with a neutral wire breaking off where the line comes into the box on one of the plugs.  I’m going to have to pull the box off the wall, and hopefully can fix the problem without ripping into the sheetrock.  Mostly at this point we are waiting for the cabinets to be finished, and the trim to be finished.  We’ll need to slap on another coat of paint, but we are close to final inspections and finally moving all the boxes and bookshelves out of the living room.

I particularly like the paint on the teeth – got to love the sprayer!

Covered the floors to paint – they look a bit like this . . .