Baby shower for the 52 starfish babies!

A big thank you to everyone that came and helped with the baby shower yesterday! We got tons of clothes, playtex drop-ins, everything a baby at starfish could need! Our change jar was emptied and counted to find $72! We ended up getting $350 which, once doubled, will be able to pay for 2 1/2 cleft surgeries! Thanks so much to everyone! My grandma came down for the day and we sent her back up with 2 rubbermaid containers full of books and clothes and 2 trash bags with blankets, burpclothes and other sewn items. There is still tons of stuff sitting in the downstairs bedroom that I'll take up when we go to Seattle next week. 2 more weeks until I leave. Am I excited? Definitely (I'm actually freaking out). :)

Jack

    

Jack is the oldest one at Starfish. He just turned four years old. He has spina bifida and hydrocephalus, which is why his head is bigger. He is the singer at Starfish and sings Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and the Happy Birthday song all the time. He is paralyzed from the waist down and has a wheelchair, which is adored at Starfish. When Jack's not using it, the other kids line up to have a ride in it. :) 

 

Jack singing twinkle twinkle and the birthday song.

Snowed in...

Last night we went to bed with a little snow. We woke up with 14 inches. I guess we're staying home. :) We found a really good hill down the street and have been sledding. No school or anything for a while.

It's snowing!

Finally we get a taste of winter in Oregon. It started snowing last night and we've been enjoying it even though it look like no signs of it will be left tomorrow. :( We only slid 4 times on the way to church. Even though it's fun to have any snow, I wish we'd get a lot of it that will melt in about 2 weeks so it doesn't interfere with my trip at all. :) 1 more month! I can't wait!

Some things I learned today...

1. Dentists like to talk to you because they think it's hilarious that you can't speak because you have a big rubber thing in your mouth and you're all numb.
2. It's better to get cavities on your back teeth than your 4 front ones.

Yep. I got to go to the dentist at super early a.m. to get some cavities filled in my front teeth. Why do dentists seem to think it is necessary to talk to you? And ask questions that you have to answer instead of nodding yes or no. :) They only numbed my top lip, so I wasn't talking that funny, but the numbing did go all the way up to my eyes so I was trying not to fall asleep for 2 hours. Don't you love cavities!

I'm not the only one excited about China...

I've been helping Elise with her handwriting this week and today we had a little fun. :) 

A step closer to China

I got my visa in the mail yesterday! A whole month before I leave. I'm just wondering why they like to put the visa in the middle of an empty passport book? It is seriously glued to the middle page in my passport. I can't wait to leave! 36 more days!

Elise: the starfish baby

When Elise (my sister) saw that there was a baby named Elise at Starfish, she freaked out. She decided that this baby was the only person in the world with her name and thought that they had a special attachment because of that. It was and still is pretty cute. Before I left she worked super hard and earned $8 to go towards Elise's surgery. And she wanted me to bring her favorite toys with me to China for her to play with. Sadly, I didn't have any room and I think I won't this time either. So, when I got to Starfish I decided that I would play with Elise tons for my sister. If Elise was crying she would get picked up by me immediately. By the time I left she would start crying if I just walked in the room, so I think she might have been okay with me holding her all the time. :) She had a few milestones happen while I was there: she celebrated her first birthday and stood up for the first time (I got a picture). When she first stood up she was super proud of herself and started clapping and fell backwards. Luckily, I caught her since they have super hard floors. She started turning around before she would let go and start laughing after that because it's really funny to see if Rachel can remember to catch you before you fall each time. Elise's surgery got paid for because she was just too cute and what better way to spend money you've saved for forever. :) She'll be there when I get back and I can't wait. She's going to get some more spoiling along with Miss Charlotte.

This is Elise at Halloween. Her lip looks super good. She'll need quite a few more surgeries and a lot of dental work since her teeth were already coming in when she had her surgery.

How you celebrate birthdays at Starfish...

Especially when you have 3 to celebrate. Coco, River, and Elise have rather close birthdays: Coco, March 28; Elise, April 7; and River, April 8. We celebrated on River's birthday. About a few seconds before we started the video Coco and Elise were bawling. They didn't understand the whole cake thing.

 The other kids did though. If you watch closely you can see some of them just staring at the cake and Nava (left corner) is trying to see past the guy taking all the pictures. :)

Happy 2012!

I had an awesome new years, celebrating with some amazing people. :) Each new year brings new changes and new goals for the year. One of the bigger changes is that we have 9 a.m. church now, which came just after christmas break so lots of tired people this morning. :) My brain really wasn't working and I kept on losing my spot on my music while I played the organ for prelude and then at noon I played for choir and was totally lost. So... my new year goals from last year didn't really get worked on until after August... 

but I did work on all of them. This year's goals? 

1. finish the Bible

2. earn my honor bee

3. be positive

4. have a blast