Athens FCC Celebrates CNY!

What a great looking group!

Happy Chinese New Year! We hope that the new year, the year of the rat according to the Chinese, has already shown great favor to all of our friends and family. Chinese New Year is the longest and most important celebration in the Chinese calendar. The Chinese year 4706 began on Feb. 7, 2008. I'm sure that most people who read this blog are well aware of the Chinese New Year celebration. But for those of you who aren't familiar with the Chinese holiday. Here's a few notes to help you out.

My New Friend!

Whereas we number our years consecutively from the birth of Jesus Christ, the Chinese use a 12 year cycle to track time. Chinese months are reckoned by the lunar calendar, with each month beginning on the darkest day. New Year festivities traditionally start on the first day of the month and continue until the fifteenth, when the moon is brightest. In China, people may take weeks of holiday from work to prepare for and celebrate the New Year. Legend has it that in ancient times, Buddha asked all the animals to meet him on Chinese New Year. Twelve came, and Buddha named a year after each one.


Legend also has it that the cat and the rat were both informed about the New Year meeting at the same time and agreed to go together. But on the appointed day, the cat overslept and the rat didn't wake him, instead he went off to the meeting himself. Of course, since the cat didn't show up, he did not get a year named for him. And that's why to this day, cats don't like rats! Apparently, the rat also outsmarted the ox, convincing the ox to let him ride on his back since it was so far to the meeting. When they got close, the rat jumped off and ran ahead, becoming the first one to arrive. Therefore, the 12 year cycle always begins with the rat! The kind ox had to settle for second place.

They didn't plan the fashion statement, but don't they look great!

According to Chinese legend, the people born in each animal's year would have some of that animal's personality. Those born in rat years tend to be leaders, pioneers, and conquerors. I'm a rabbit person, which is known to be popular, compassionate, and sincere. Connie is a dragon (Austin was jealous when he learned this fact), which means she is energetic, warm-hearted, fearless, and charismatic. Austin is a rooster, not the coolest of animals to his way of thinking, but he accepted it nonetheless. He is independent, practical, hard-working, and observant. Lily Grace? You're gonna love this one. She's a monkey person! Born in 2004 means that she would have some of the monkey's personality. She would be fun, energetic, and active. And oh, likes to chatter. Check.

But with all the fun of celebrating Chinese New Year, I try to take this time to pray for and ask others to pray for Chinese Christians. No one knows how many Christians there are in China, but there are many estimates that range from 40 to 140 million. That's certainly a lot of Christians, but to minister to a country of 1.4 billion? So, please pray for the Christians and those in China who've not yet gracefully embraced the gift of Jesus Christ. I believe that God is going to raise up a ministry in China that will one day be able to see that the Chinese people, a graceful and beautiful culture, know his glory to its fullest. And this ministry will help the Chinese government to ensure that children are nurtured in families and not in orphanages. I just know in my heart of hearts that God is planning something big with the children whom He has placed in our care. Every time members of the Athens Families with Children from China (FCC) gather, there are more of us and more little children who've already overcome more than most of us have in our lifetime. God has a big plan for these children and it's really an awesome blessing to be a part of it. Billy Kim was once an orphaned child in South Korea and was "adopted" by an American soldier, who lead him to Jesus Christ. After growing up and attending seminary in the U.S., Billy Kim returned to his native Korean roots and lead an evangelical mission of such magnitude that he is now known worldwide as the "Billy Graham of Korea!" The Koreans now send missionaries all over the world, including to the U.S.! The same can happen with one of these children who've already taught us so much and who continue to teach us new things each day.



We celebrated Saturday night with Athens FCC at China Buffet. Let the record show that this was the second time in three days that the Greens had Chinese food. I'm actually beginning to find some things I can eat! I was doing ok gathering food at the buffet until I saw the squid or octopus or whatever that thing was extending its suctioned tentacles upward begging for a dinner date! Ugh! Oh well, at least after that, I didn't overeat! After dinner, the children did what children always do, they found a way to play! Lily Grace and Anna became best friends for the evening after Anna taught her to play "Ring around the rosies." I wish I had counted how many little girls and boys from China we now have in our chapter. Maybe somebody can tell me.


Happy CNY!

Love,
Jerry, Connie, Austin, Lily Grace, and Lia Faith (somewhere out there),
Green, Party of Five

Happy New Year! Rats!

So many times she has asked us to go to dinner with them and so many times we have not been able to work it out. So, Sonya finally found a way to get us to go out for Chinese - sweeten the deal with a Chinese Acrobat show at the Princess Theatre in Decatur. Thanks Sonya for inviting us and thanks to all our friends in the Decatur chapter of FCC for allowing us to celebrate Chinese New Year with you. It was really good to see some friends we hadn't seen in a while. We even got to see some of our really special friends from the Athens Chapter of FCC. That is really cool. And Lily Grace and Austin really enjoyed the show. When the two young acrobats performed their skating routine on a table top, Lily screamed "I wanna go skating too!" And she sat totally engrossed in the show for the most part, save the occassional boredom dance performed in the isle between her mom and her brother! Austin and I were just amazed at the talents and abilities of these amazing athletes. If you ever get a chance to see a Chinese acrobat show, don't pass it up.

Connie said just get those pictures up and don't write a book. Just pictures! And it is a little late, but I wanted to get these up before the first day of Chinese New Year got away from me. So, without further commentary, here's some pictures from our evening at the theatre!

"I wonder how she got so tall?" "How'd she know what dress I was wearing?"

Connie and Lily enjoy a good old-fashioned homecooked Chinese meal!

Katie Lin waiting to go to the Princess. She and I became buddies tonight because I let her take some pictures with my camera!

Grace Anna really looks cute in her glasses (and intelligent too!)

Lily enjoyed having her picture made with one of the Acrobats.

I love this picture, check out the smile on the young acrobat as she watches Lily meet all of them!

Hiding behind her fan!

Of course, no Chinese event is complete without the umbrella! This is Addie Liu, helping Lily hold her new umbrella (autographed of course by the acrobats).


Happy New Year (Rats!)

Love,
Jerry, Connie, Austin, Lily Grace, and Lia Faith (somewhere waiting for us)
Green, Party of Five

Lemons and Strawbabies

Sometimes life gives you strawbabies (that's Lily's word for strawberries) and sometimes you get lemons. Our challenge is to enjoy both because God's word says to "Give thanks in all circumstances." Not necessarily for all circumstances, but in all circumstances. God's Word also tells us that "All things work for the good of those that believe." We are greatly blessed to have been on the strawbaby side of the fruit isle most of the time, but for the past few weeks, we have been visited by a few lemons.

First, Lily Grace got sick, very sick. She missed two weeks of school. Her doctor diagnosed her with a severe case of the flu virus. Seeing her completely listless, as her fever reached as high as 104 degrees was terribly frightening. We were giving her Tylenol, but we learned that if the fever gets that high, Motrin is better. The doctors told us to bath her in lukewarm water and if her temperature didn't come down in an hour to take her to the emergency room. She had already been running a fever for several days when it got this high. So we were naturally concerned. Here's where the strawbabies came in. When they found out about her, my little Upward Basketball team, the Lady Eagles, decided to pray for Lily Grace. And so they did. By the time I got home from practice, Lily's fever had broken and she was running around playing again. Thank you Sarah, Kathryn, Jenny, Ashley, Anna, and Alana! Your prayers were heard and Lily's better now. That was the week before last. Lily has one other person to thank. Momma!

Hope this didn't cause it!

The entire time she was sick, she didn't want anyone but Momma. And she wouldn't get more than a foot or two away from Momma. Neither Austin, nor I could comfort her. Only Momma. And that's how it happened. Momma got the flu. The worst case of it I've ever seen. One night, I thought I was going to have to take Momma to the emergency room. Her fever was high and she couldn't breathe. It was scary. By this time, Lily was well on her way to recovery, but Momma was still on a downward spiral. Connie missed a week and a half of work between caring for Lily and then suffering the affliction herself. I don't know how Austin and I have avoided it so far, but praise God for that - this is a nasty bug. Then, out of the blue, came a wonderful surprise. Becky got wind of Connie's illness and brought over some homemade chicken stew, homemade cornbread, and a giant homemade chocolate pie. That was the best cornbread I've ever had - thank you Becky! Plus gifts for Lily and Lia. And from that day forward, Connie began to improve. She went back to work today, but is still not up to full speed.

In the midst of these lemons, our adoption agency called and left a message that they needed to talk to us. We got excited, maybe they wanted to ask us about a special needs child. Maybe there was a new list coming out. Maybe they were finished with our Homestudy. Maybe, maybe, maybe. Maybe not. Lemons. Carla informed us that the Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs had implemented a new policy and that all agencies had to be in the new online system to receive any referrals, special needs or otherwise. Our agency is not in the new online system and might not be for several months. They know not when it might occur and even then, there's no guarantee of a 'list.' And so now we wait. The agency suggested that since we're not yet logged in with CCAA, maybe we should check around while we finish our Dossier to see if there are other agencies that are in the system and that might be willing to take our case. This doesn't sound good. Lemons. Now, it seems like we're starting over. Looking for an agency. Looking for a sister for Lily Grace. Lia Faith is out there somewhere and nothing that CCAA or anybody else does is going to keep us from finding her. I know this because my God said it and I believe it.

Meanwhile, we'll keep enjoying the strawbabies and tolerating the lemons.

Here's a strawbaby - Austin sketched these portraits of himself and Lily Grace for me and Connie for Christmas!

Another strawbaby - Uncle Wes bought Cookie Monster for Austin when Austin was 6 months old. He bought Tigger for Lily Grace this Christmas. Lily took Tigger out of the box and immediately dropped him on his tail to see if he'd bounce. Until she did it a couple of times, we had no idea what she was doing. Hopefully, she'll have Tigger as long as Austin has had Cookie Monster!

Love,
Green, Party of Five
Jerry, Connie, Austin, Lily Grace, and Lia Faith (out there somewhere)