This week’s photo challenge from Double Happiness! is “Gimme!” and dear Donna assigned me the letter “U” – thanks a lot Donna :)
It’s taken me awhile to come up with 10 things I love that start with the letter “U” but here goes ----------

Unicorn – A mythical beast that is fierce yet good, selfless yet solitary, but always mysteriously beautiful.
And what’s more appropriate than a Chinese Unicorn Dragon –


Unique – Our girls – twins but not identical and each is very unique –


Ukulele – I love that word, it’s just so much fun!
Click on the video and you’ll also hear Lynette Giacinto’s “Polly and Me”.
Visit their website for information about their CDs - Adoptive Music

United -
What Mom, Dad, Hope and Faith were on “Gotcha Day”



Ultimate - “China Mist” by Robin Samiljan

"Flow with whatever may happen
and let your mind be free:
Stay centered by accepting
whatever you are doing.
This is the ultimate."
Zhuangzi
Chinese Philosopher









Undressed -
The girls’ preferred mode of dress


United States - Home!


Us - Hope & Faith's family


Unblemished - I love pearls!


Double U(W) – Wonderful – what the twins are!
Does this count as two (double)?

Our Pretty Girls!
(Faith on left and Hope on right)



One of several photographs taken by Tinley Photography in Hobbs, New Mexico late last year. I think they did a really great job.

Mom, Dad, Hope, Faith, Grandma, and GDad met up with other families with children adopted from China to celebrate Chinese New Year this past Saturday. They had a great time and enjoyed meeting some new friends. Here are a few pictures from the day. You can see additional pictures here.

btw, Mom got her new camera :), but not until after the party on Saturday :(
We'll be expecting new and improved photos really soon Mom!

All dressed up and ready to go --


Trying for a group picture :)


Faith & Hope with their Red Envelopes

The above calligraphy, called 'chun lian' (Spring couplet) is a popular decoration that the Chinese often display during the Chinese New Year as part of its celebration. It is placed on the entrance of the house, somewhat like Halloween and Christmas decorations.

Word-for-word translation:
Top (Horizontal across): Whole Earth Returns Spring
Left (Vertical) line: winter gone mountain clear water sparkles
Right (Vertical) line: Spring comes bird sings flower fragrant

Chinese New Year starts with the New Moon on the first day of the new year and ends on the full moon 15 days later. The 15th day of the new year is called the Lantern Festival, which is celebrated at night with lantern displays and children carrying lanterns in a parade. 2007 is the year of the Pig.

February 18, 2007 - The first day of the Lunar New Year is “the welcoming of the gods of the heavens and earth”. Many people abstain from meat on the first day of the new year because it is believed that this will ensure long and happy lives for them.

To help the twins (and Mom and Dad) celebrate Chinese New Year, I (Mimi)recently sent them a package with a large dragon to play with -- see the girls enjoying it below.

Just being sisters --

Got this email message from Tara this morning --

"ITS 4:30 AM

Its a busy early morning in the maternity ward with snow on the ground. Lots of moaning and groaning going on . One single delivery, and another mama had one but it appears she could have another.I'll let you know later, how many more we have today..........


ITS VERY COLD OUT THERE!!!!!!!!!!"

Sounds like Mom and Dad are having to deliver lots of babies this morning -- good thing Mom is a nurse! :) Wonder if they realized it would be like this when they decided to raise show lambs a few years back .... hopefully the girls will want to follow in Rachels footsteps and show those lambs!! They'll probably be more like Madelyn who wanted to show pigs, ducks, and dragons!

Maybe we'll get pictures later, hopefully with the girls' reactions --

We have a new baby!

Lambing season has started at the Lindsey household and here is the first lamb born since the twins have joined the family. Over the next few months this will get to be a regular occurrence as there are around 60 or 70 ewes getting ready to have their babies. It looks like many may be twins or even triplets!

At first the girls were quite frightened by the sheep and would scream whenever they were in sight but have gotten much better recently -- as long as those wooly critters are on the other side of the fence :) Dad was able to lure Faith into the pen with this new baby just born this morning but as soon as it started moving toward her she was very ready to get out of there! Hope wouldn't even come near the pen! Guess these little girls better get use to them, looks like there are going to be a bunch more in the near future.

The Why of Hope and Faith (written by Mimi) --

Hope and Faith have two JieJies -- Rachel and Madelyn and a GeGe -- Yates. In August of 2004 they were all killed by a drunk driver. Rachel was 10, Madelyn 6, and little Yates only 1 month old. While they can never be replaced, their parents felt that they had lots of love to give and an empty home and hearts to fill so decided to adopt from China. They started the process, hoped for twins, and waited. On the second anniversary of the wreck they received a call -- there were two little girls waiting for them in China. Twins. Hope and Faith.

Hope and faith have gotten all of us through these past few years and Hope and Faith will continue to fill our lives with love and laughter. We will never forget Rachel, Madelyn and Yates and will make sure that their MeiMeis will know all about them.

To see a recent news cast of their story click here. This is the local CBS station in Odessa Texas. The video is titled "Hope, Faith, and Love". I'm not sure how long this link will be good. (NOTE: It appears the above link is no longer working but the link to the NBC story listed below continues to work.) You can also see another video here. It is the local NBC station in Lubbock Texas from May 2005 but the link continues to work, just click on the video camera icon above the pictures to the right of the story.

PLEASE DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE!

Rachel, Madelyn, and Yates

Every day there are new things the girls are experiencing and trying -- some good, some not so good :) and there's always a part of me (the Mimi) that wants them to stay "little" as long as possible and another part that is always excited to hear about new things the girls are learning and trying, guess those are pretty normal feelings most all parents and grandparents have about their children/grandchildren.

The girls seemed to have quite a vocabulary (in Chinese) for not quite two years old when Mom and Dad met them in China last October. Even the women from the China Team who were traveling with them often commented about their vocabulary (they do speak a dialect unique to the Fuzhou area of Jiangxi Province). Since they've been home they are learning new words in English every day but still converse with each other almost exclusively in Chinese (or we guess that's what it is!:) and will also try to talk to us in Chinese from time to time as well. I wonder if they would be learning more English faster if they didn't have each other to talk to but I'm glad they have each other and will learn English all in good time. I would love it if they could continue to learn their native language as well but I know this will become somewhat lost as time goes by :(

The girls were pretty picky eaters at first, eating lots of what they liked but not liking a lot of what we are most used to. Since they've been going to Ruth's House they seem to be learning to like more kinds of food, guess they see the other kids enjoying it and are willing to try as well. They are now even eating mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese, two things Mom and Dad could not get them to try!

They are such funny little girls and continue to amaze and delight us at every turn. I'm so glad their ours!

The other day the girls got in their closet, pulled down all of their shoes and started trying them on. Mom got some cute pictures -- and the results!

Hope and Faith trying on shoes



Faith showing off her selection --


Notice they are also on the wrong feet :)


The aftermath!

It's always funny when little ones want to "help" so the girls decided they needed to "help" Mom (or maybe it was Dad :) this weekend by sweeping --

Hope, being the jie jie, decided she should be first but Faith isn't far behind with the dust pan





Then Faith get's her turn





"Mom, I'm tired and this isn't too much fun --we're done!"


Guess it's just more fun being two little silly two year olds!

Daddy's Girls


Two sweet sisters checking out their lambs


A few days ago I posted some new pictures of the girls' new hair do's, seems Mom has been at it again -- the girls' first pigtails!

Faith - She's lovin it!


Even Hope! - not sure how Mom pulled that one off :)


Aren't we too cute?

Sleeping Babies is the theme for this week's Family FotoFun Friday Challange over at Double Happiness! (Mimi finally figured out how to link! :).

We've got sleeping babies but Mom and Dad would sure like for the sleeping to last all night through. Anyway, here are a few fun pictures of our girls while they ARE sleeping and here are a few more from an earlier post.

Hope & Faith sleeping in Dad's chair their first week home


Faith recently falling asleep at the dinner table


Hope sleeping in her tutu


Hope


Faith


Mom and the girls sleeping over at Aunt Chelle's