Kirk- Ruptured Achilles Tendon

On Sunday Feb 17 while we were at Monarch, Kirk ruptured his achilles while snowboarding! It's been a long road for us these past 2 weeks: surgery, pain killers that whacked him out, rashes, anxiety attacks, ER room, crutches, cast, brace/boot, physical therapy, home all the time, social deprivation,... But, the pain is finally manageable, and he is getting out some. See his blog at:

http://kirkanese.blogspot.com/

White Out Youth Conference

We had a mini- reunion this past weekend at White Out - Frontier Ranch in Buena Vista. Wade came from Boise to help with recruiting for VCOM, Joey went with the church youth group, and Kirk, Gracie and I went to hang out! We had a great time with our family, as well as lots of old friends from Canon City. We just hung out in our cabin with Russell, Caleb, Ben, Andrea, Rose,... felt like the old days in Canon with the kids friends! What fun to reconnect with some of these great friends! Gracie entertained us all with her dancing, silliness, summersaults, and her many new words! The sessions were incredible- great speakers and worship - just observing the kids worship and minister to each other was very moving!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Here are some pictures of the week of Chinese New Year. Gracie is in a phase of being very interested in "China". She opens her closet and wants to wear her China clothes, she hollers across the parking lot "China" when she sees another oriental person or child :), and she loves her China book - "I Love you Like Crazy Cakes". So, we (actually she) had fun dressing her in various outfits this week. She was baking cookies with her play dough and playing mom by wearing her ski boots.

We went to a great celebration to celebrate Chinese New Year with other families here in the Valley that adopted from Asia. They had crafts for kids, an authentic Chinese New Year meal, and had the dragon make an appearance. Gracie was afraid of the dragon though! Great time to connect with more Asian girls and their families!

Gracie- 28 months

We've been home from China 15 months now- seems like so long ago that we were there! Gracie continues to be a very happy spirited little toddler! She loves to dance in her ballerina and princess outfits- and loves the attention most! She is doing pretty well at potty training, so we bought her lots of new panties. Of course, she nows wants to wear just the pull-ups! She knows just what to do, but just has to decide for herself that she will be potty=trained! (independent and strong- willed little girl!) She loves smoothies now, and gets the frozen strawberries out of the freezer and brings them to me. THen she has to choose her color of straw!

Kirk can't believe how different little girls are compared to boys!