Hope's Happy Hugs

Highlights from our Mexico Missions Trip (July 2014)

Faith & Hope had a wonderful time serving in Ensenada, Mexico. Being Hope's very 1st missions trip, she did very well. Hope got a lot of practice going door to door, saying "Hola."

As a family, we helped paint a church building, replaced a roof and had a Children's program for the kids.  We even visited a Day Care facility that had a few orphans on site because the orphanage was being renovated.

Hope even expressed a few words on the team's blog:

Mexico Missions Team 2014

Hope sure gave a lot of hugs to everyone:

Danny was our Team Host, who led us to our projects.

Hope helped get our dorm room more points when she colored an Olaf picture for the "Cleaning Fairies" which led us to win the price of "Cleanest Dorm Room!"

Hugs to everyone!

Lesson Learned: It's one thing to learn about compassion, it's another thing to apply it

Pay It Forward

Summer is here! Isn't that Olaf's favorite season?
(Thanks Aunty Jasmine G. for the cute T-shirt)

Miss Hope has already finished Kindergarten and has been diligent in her reading & writing during her summer days. 


For this particular summer, Faith & Hope are preparing to go to Mexico with us on a missions trip.  Our team of 20 is hoping to help out at an orphanage, build & repair a house & run a carnival for the families in the Ensenada area.  In our 1st World country, we take for granted all that we have. We hope that the girls will see how blessed we are in the USA. This is Hope's very 1st missions trip and she has raised all her funds as a team member. Hope has been a joy to us and we desire that she would learn to "Pay It Forward" in her own life. 

2014 Mexico Missions Team

Check out our Team Blog for updates:

2014 Mexico Mission Team

"Let It Snow"

We finally had a REAL birthday party for Hope. All the other times, they were small family celebrations. This time, we wanted to make Hope's 6 years old birthday slightly more memorable. 
So, we decided upon a "Snow Party."
Yes, that's right. SNOW in San Jose. How did we do it? Well, Owen and I drove up to Tahoe, stole the remaining amount of snow left at the time and brought it back.   NOT!
Actually, we had 1500 lbs of snow delivered into our backyard. This is what Californians have to do for that "Winter Wonderland" feeling. 

With Frozen's "Do you want to build a Snowman?" playing in the air, "Pin a Carrot on Olaf" game and warm chili dogs, the festivities were a great hit. 

Once again, our family is reminded of what an incredible blessing Hope is to us. She is a delight and a gift from God.

Happy Birthday Hope!

Guess who has the same birthday as Martin Luther King Jr.??
Yours truly, Hope Lee!

Hope turned 4 and the theme was "Princess" for her special day. There's not one day that's gone by that she has not put on a princess dress. She wore the dresses so many times, the laces were coming off and the little fake pearls were tangling off the edge. Thank goodness for the glue gun and Mommy knowing how to sew.


Now, where do you go to celebrate a 4 year old's birthday in the middle of Winter? You take her to Fairytale Town in Sacramento. Her two cousins joined us. She loved it.

After that, we had pizza and cake at her Uncle Marvin and Aunt Avelin's house.




Faith & Hope love having their face painted.




Owen's immediate family (Diana not pictured).

National Adoption Day

Funny, I don't post for 3 years and now I'm hyper-posting.

Back in April 2009, the minute Hope entered in the United States, she became an American citizen. We handed the documents to a customs agent and her visa was placed into affect.

But wait, there's more! In order for the State of California to recognize that Hope is ours, we have to go through a re-adoption process. Yes, as if the 4 years of adopting Hope wasn't enough. We PAY an additional fee and submit more papers and go through a hearing with a judge.

On November 18, 2011, which happened to be National Adoption Day, we had an hearing with the Honorable Mark H. Pierce, judge of the Superior Court of Calif., County of Santa Clara. The courthouse was full of adoption advocates and media. In one of the assembly rooms, they had refreshments, blankets for the adoptive child. A photographer for adoptive families and a picture framed craft for the kids.

Thank goodness we had a good friend whom we affectionately call "Aunt Joanne" help us take pictures and be there for moral support. We signed papers, we swore an oath and teared up (well, I teared up, Owen never does). Faith even missed school, so she can support her little sister in this "official" day.

Besides the fact that Hope had a little "pee" accident, everything went well. The security line was so long, poor Hope just couldn't hold it. Poor Owen too, she sat on his lap most of the time because the extra change of clothing was IN the car.

Happiest Place On Earth

In August, we were able to visit my mother and brother down in Southern California. We took the girls to Disneyland and it was Hope's very first time.

















Boy, talk about "delight" in her eyes. She never saw so many princesses and she LOVES princesses.




Hope is our "dress-up" girl and Faith is our "performance" girl.

Hope In Preschool

Happy 2012 New Years Everyone!

Wow, our last posting was in April of 2009. That would make it almost 3 years. Time sure flies.

When we brought Hope home, she was underweight, had nappy hair, barely spoke and smelled like a fish (Mentioned in"Rough Nights" Posting, 4/2/09)


We are proud to say, according to her last Kaiser check-up, she is just fine in her physical development (according to the Asian scale). Her hair is shiny. She's had 6 months of speech therapy and talks too much now. And she smells like whatever baby shampoo we use on her.

In Fall of 2011, she began preschool. We were a bit hesitant, because she just wasn't that confident with potty-training. When we brought her home from China, it seemed like they had tried to potty-train her. But, I think they made her sit in a potty for a very "extended" time. She would have lots of accidents and seemed traumatized when it came to sitting on the toilet. None of those "Have your kid trained in a day" books worked. We made "baby" steps each day. It was over a year of training.

Now, Hope loves preschool and is very sociable.



Hope's very 1st field trip.