Saturday marked 10 years since Davis joined our family. Hard to believe it has been an entire decade since this little guy joined our family and made us a family of five!
Davis and Wesley spent most of the day in the car coming back from Boy Scout camp in north Georgia.
But when we picked them up about 5:30pm, we took them for some Sub Zero ice cream to celebrate.
And we got this text message from Joey with a Parker sighting. They found him in the Target in The Villages while he was on a break from camp. It was nice to have a picture for proof of life for our camp counselor (he's been gone for 2.5 weeks now.
The littlest guy turned 7 on Sunday! We celebrated at home with his favorite dinner of pasta and meatballs and then his brothers made him a special birthday cake - Parker mixed and made the cake and Wesley helped decorate with sprinkles and candles. So happy to celebrate this guy and another big milestone in his life!
It's been four years since we walked into an office building in China as a family of four and came out as a family of five. So hard to believe that Davis has been home that long. We are so thankful for him and for how he completes our family. Here are some of our favorite pictures of that first day.
And here's the wonderful crew of family and friends waiting to greet us upon our return from China on July 5, 2013. Davis wasn't quite sure what to make of all those people.
And this is my all-time favorite picture of our three boys together, taken about six weeks after we returned home from China.
In this last year Davis finished first grade, got speech therapy at school twice a week, played basketball again, learned how to swim better, participated in Tigers in Cub Scouts, had dental surgery with several teeth removed and more capped, gained weight, grew some more inches, hiked mountains, rode some bigger roller coasters at Disney and so much more. He'll play kickball in town starting next week over the summer, go to Cub Scout day camp next month and in September he'll get another stamp in his passport when we go to Cuba as a family. We're so blessed to have a front row seat to everything he gets to learn and experience. Looking forward to many more years!
This guy had extensive dental surgery last Thursday. All of the problems were related to his cleft condition. Davis still sees Dr. Ron Rosanski in Ocala, who works in conjunction with the Craniofacial team at Shands in Gainesville. One day a month, the pediatric anasthesiologist comes to Dr. Ron's office to do surgeries. Here we are just after checkin, waiting our turn.
Davis was scheduled for 5 extractions and 2 crowns. He ended up with 4 extractions, 4 crowns and 4 fillings. He did remarkably well with the surgery. After an initial period of fussiness when he first woke up from surgery, he was a pretty good patient as he recuperated at home on Thursday and Friday. He's had very little pain and is back to eating all regular foods now, which he appreciates. Even chocolate pudding can get old when it's about all you can eat!
When Davis came home on Friday from school he had his FIRST loose tooth. It was so loose that it hurt and he couldn't really eat dinner. But Davis didn't want anyone to mess with it yet. When we got home from the baseball game, Davis finally agreed to lay down in Mama's lap and let Baba work on his loose tooth. Daryl was able to wiggle it out and Davis got his first tooth to put in a Tooth Fairy pillow (he borrowed Wesley's). We hung it up in the foyer on the coat closet door.
This happy boy woke up on Saturday to discover that he got $2 for his very first tooth!
Davis got to attend a birthday party for a classmate at Skate World over the weekend. He managed for the first time to get out there and to skate/walk/shuffle his feet all around the rink quite a few times; yet another motor skill he's been developing. He was so worn out he fell asleep in the car on the quick trip home!
This house lends itself SO well towards decorations. After the Christmas decorations came down, we put up some of our Valentine's Day decorations but primarily decorated the house for Chinese or Lunar New Year for Davis. That holiday comes officially on February 8th and begins the Year of the Monkey. But Lunar New Year is the kind of holiday that gets celebrated for a couple of weeks in most Asian countries - in terms of cleaning one's house, traveling to be with family and observing special traditions.
Traditional couplets proclaiming Good Luck, Good Fortune and Blessing for the New Year.
The Twelve Animals of the Lunar New Year Cycle
The Dining Room with our table silks from China and our Lunar New Year tree
This past weekend we had some fun with friends. The Baugher family came down from Ocala to visit us during the 11am worship service at Community and we got to go out to lunch at Square One afterwards. The kids had fun hanging out and catching up and so did the grownups!
This was the before. June 2013. For Davis' Chinese passport to come to America. They had 0 problems getting him to do the serious face.
This was taken a few days ago. October 2015. It took 15 takes and 20 minutes to get a serious face out of this little man for his American passport photo. Because now every time he sees a phone or a camera, he gets the biggest smiles or makes silly faces!
See this is more like it. See those big smiles!
These are Davis and Wesley's school pictures for this year.
This weekend we spent some family time celebrating Lunar New Year, which fell on Thursday February 19. It's a holiday celebrated in China as well as Japan, Mongolia, Korea, Tibet and Vietnam. In most of these countries the celebration starts about five days before the holiday and goes for a whole week after New Year's Day. One of the things we talked about when we adopted Davis was finding ways to incorporate his Chinese heritage into our family life. Celebrating holidays like this is one way we keep that heritage alive. Our Families with Children from China group met today for their New Year Celebration and we invited Uncle Nam and Uncle Kelly to come up and share the experience with us. They came to Ocala Saturday evening and toured town a bit before we all headed to dinner at Mojo's.
Then today Kelly and Nam went with Daryl to worship at Druid Hills before meeting the rest of us back at the house. The five of us had been practicing a surprise for Uncle Nam - learning how to say Happy New Year in Vietnamese: "Chuc Mung Nam Moi!" After saying their special phrase, the boys were happy to receive these traditional red envelopes from their uncles with money inside.
There were more New Year's presents for the boys as well - plenty of special sweet treats to go around.
Our FCC celebration took place this afternoon at Chop Stix Cafe in Gainesville, a great little restaurant with all kinds of different Asian foods on the menu. They're normally closed on Sundays and opened up just for our group's celebration.
Davis' name was added to the map this year for birthplaces of all the kids in the adoption group.
The big craft today was fancy decorated zipper pulls for backpacks. The boys had fun making them.
There was time for traditional music and dancing and the dragon parade.
These two guys had different Vietnamese soups for lunch. Uncle Nam had Hu Tieu Nam Vang (noodle soup with chicken pork and shrimp) and Davis had Pho (pronounced Fuh) with meatballs.
I tried something completely new and loved it - Pad Thai with Pork.
Daryl and Parker both got General Tso's Chicken.
Dessert was these super cute cupcakes - It's the Year of the Sheep (or Goat or Ram depending on who you talk to!)
And afterwards, we went outside for fireworks - this was a huge string of firecrackers ties together!
Some family pictures rounded out our time together.
Crazy uncles are lots of fun.
Wesley was given several of the extra craft bags and made a whole set of the backpack pulls.
We're so glad that Uncle Kelly and Uncle Nam made the time to come up and celebrate the Lunar New Year with us this weekend. It made our celebration that much more special.
The Allen Family was established in 1999 and currently resides in Fruitland Park, Florida. Debbie and Daryl are both ordained pastors in the United Methodist Church. They have three sons: Parker, Wesley and Davis. Join us for our Allen Family Adventures!
