The China Connection

Growth in 2009

We have just made it to the middle of January and it has already proven to be a year of new growth and positive change. Coming into the new year for the nation as a whole, has been one of challenges as well as fear for many people as to what the future holds for them. This was not an option for us, so we chose to trust God instead to be our source. As of December, we had still not seen the large check due to us in May, over half of our annual income from one of our largest buyers. We budget our entire year based on the income from contracts from previous years sales.  Additionally we had not gotten a single contract for the upcoming season's sales (2010) from this company. Normally we would have had many by this time, so rather then worry and allow fear to control us, we chose to pray for these companies.  On December 30th, I received an email from one of our fellow photographers asking if we had received our check. She too had not been paid and was beginning to worry and fear the worst. She questioned whether this company was folding, as so many others have. I told her that we just needed to pray for them. I don't know how she took that or what her belief system is, but Bane and I had been in prayer for some time for all of our buyers. Later that day, we got an email from her, and she was elated that she had indeed received her payment and ours had come days earlier, but was held up at the courier's office since we had missed them over the Christmas holiday. God is so good. About a week later we received an email from them, stating that they were indeed challenged financially, but would press forward by reducing the amount of pay slightly, but with this new agreement came a very nice, well received contract for the new season. We rejoiced and agreed to accept a bit less in order to help on our end, while the economy comes back into balance. Since that time another contract followed as will others. I was pleased to see that our puppy was chosen for one of the calendar covers next year, thus living up to his name Shroki's the Fujichrome Coverboy.....Fuji for short! He's earning his keep. Once our new website is up and rolling, our sales should do very well once again.

A couple of weeks ago, Lyndsay announced out of the blue that she was ready to have her ears pierced.  She just turned four in November, but knows what she wants. We had told her once she was old enough to understand, that she could have her ears pierced once she was sure she was ready. I think the courage came when we were at the Dr. office and she saw a little girl with bandaids on her ears while they numbed a bit before her ears were pierced. Once she realized that we could do hers that way, she mustered the courage. Much to both of our surprise, they used Lidocaine, which only partially numbed the surface, and she felt it, but probably not as much as she would have without. Within a few minutes of finishing she was fine and decided that the pain was worth it. Vanity is such an interesting creature! The beginning of the year we thought was an appropriate time to transition Lyndsay into her new bedroom, complete with a fullsize futon bed. We started putting Charis in her new bedroom, Lyndsay's old room, for naps in the afternoon, to help when we move her from our bedroom. We'll still need to use her crib, as she is a daredevil, and she might fall out of the twin bed right now.

 

Lyndsay's new bedroom, for those of you who have stayed with us....yes this was where you stayed....sorry! No more guestroom or kingsized bed. And for those curious parents....no it doesn't still look this neat and clean, it would scare you to post the "after" Lyndsay shots!

  

This is the huge grin after the nurse marked her ears......

   

and after....yes those are tear stains on her shirt! They didn't last long though.

Charis is loving life! I don't know how else to express it, other then that way. She is so animated and lively. Her evaluation went very well, and as we expected revealed that she was in the average range for all but a couple minor areas, even though for now on the lower end of normal. With only being home for under 4 months she is excelling and they were very pleased at her progress. She still needs to learn how to chew her food better and her speech which is coming along nicely, we discovered with a hearing test, is being impaired by fluid in her ears. She is a little behind in her gross motor skills (running, etc), but considering that she had only started walking at 2, is fabulous! As her muscles strengthen this will correct itself. She is a totally normal, healthy little girl....what a blessing she has been. We've know all along she would be, but this proves to others what we already knew. The Lord knew she belonged with us and unless they had listed her as delayed, we would not have met the requirements to adopt her and never known the joy she would bring to our home.

 

Daddy, with his "hat" Charis didn't know what to think of it.

 

She liked it better as Peek-A-Boo.

 

The girls woke one morning to huge snowflakes falling, I don't know that Charis had ever seen snow before. We never got any accumulation for them to play outside though.

 

Charis learned in one day to climb the slide by herself, after only being shown one time, now we can't keep her off of it. It is aiding her with strength, coordination, confidence and stamina. Not bad for a $12.00 thrift store, fix-me-up toy.  If you wondered, yes, that is the middle of our living room which now looks like a preschool yard.

   

Lyndsay showing off her freshly painted nails, this was a project we allowed the young lady watching her to do, while we were out shooting one Saturday. I knew she would love it. She's growing up so fast, but we are sure glad to be past the 3 year old age with her. Now you'll have to excuse me while I go color my hair!!! LOL Blessings

Photos from Christmas

  

Christmas morning opening their present in the hotel room in Maryland. "What did you get?"

 

   Opening a gift from Aunt Shannon, at Uncle Randy and Aunt Michele's house.

"What is that thing?"" I love my daddy!"
  Having fun with Uncle Roger, wheeee!    

 "I think I want Pop Pop's plate of goodie's, wonder if he'll share?"

 Aunt Shannon is pretty funny! Aunt Sylvia has a lapful of wiggly girls.   

Playing with "Aunt" Paula at Aunt Peggy's house. They enjoyed sliding on the hardwood floors.

     

 

Fuji after a long tiring photo shoot, actually this is his look after about 15 minutes! 

2009 our Dreams, Goals and Expectations

After our wild adventures in 2008, (yes this is a photo courtesy of the Morris family of us walking through the typhoon waters in Guangzhou after Charis' medical exam) we are heading forward in this New Year with great expectancy and some big goals.  Though the last two years have presented more then a few challenges for our family, we know this is a year that holds much promise. We are on the right track now with our business (though we didn't realize that that there was any issue until this past spring)and steadily moving along with our soon to be completed "mega" website which will allow editors worldwide to "shop" for our images from the convenience of their computer.  We are confident that this will greatly increase our sales, which have fallen sharply the last two seasons. It was quite a shock to us when we discovered that one of our largest purchasers no longer wanted to look at slides (of which we have over 500,000), but only digital files, so this site should more then accomplish this task.

Charis is daily showing signs of improvement, with her speech, motor skills, bonding, attaching and other important aspects of development. We've even begun seeing the "typical" two year old testing, complete with the occasional tantrum. She has also begun having regular meltdowns as soon as we take her into the childcare room at our local gym that Bane and I attend. Though not fun to deal with, this is a good indication that she is properly bonding and attaching to us. Initially her reaction there was "see ya bye" and off she went. Tomorrow she will have a physical therapist and others evaluate her to see if she needs improvement in any area and if so providing us the knowledge to properly address these needs. If necessary they will work with her until she is where she should be for her age level developmentally. As I stated in our last blog, based on what we've seen and shared with them, they are very pleased with her progress in two short months. Lyndsay is growing so fast and is showing a lot of improvement with her new role as a big sister. She really enjoyed seeing our families at Christmas and is already asking when she can go back. Our two year goal to move back to Maryland has been put on hold, but our new goal of two more years could be realistic. Once we are financially able to move, it will put us closer to our families and the majority of people we work with doing dog photos. I think it will be good for the girls to be able to spend more time with our families rather then quick visits a couple of times a year. It will help tremendously on the amount of travel we will have to do in order to get to photo shoots as well. Rather then 5 or more weeks on the road, we can do more weekends and work from home, allowing us at that point to put the girls in a more traditional school environment rather then home school. I love the idea of home schooling, but the time element concerns me. Lyndsay with her extremely strong will, is not proving to be an easy student either. She is so bright, but completely shuts down when made to sit still and learn something, even when trying to make it fun.  She acts totally different in a classroom setting and submits to authority willingly. Go figure. The social aspects will benefit her as well, as she has only been home with Bane and I for the last three years. We are on a waiting list for a preschool, but as of this time an opening is still not available. Charis is much more social, as she had no choice but to be in the orphanage setting, she loves just about everyone and is a clown, enjoying making people laugh....hmmm, could that be another challenge! LOL  Probably, but I'm sure easier then the many challenges of our older blessing!

Fuji, our shih tzu pup, has turned out to be such a wonderful little dog, he is so easy and cooperative for photo shoots, though if it involves too much "work" he just lays his head down and wilts. A huge difference from our beloved, but very head strong golden Bogen who we lost this past summer to cancer, at the much too young age of 8. I know Fuji will be heavily published, just as his predecessor has been and still is.

Bane has been enjoying working on some wood projects, building some lovely benches, tables and for Christmas he made me a gorgeous jewelry box partially with walnut from our property. He put so much time and effort making these and really seems to like it. He made a beautiful bench for our pastor and his family for Christmas and he offered him the opportunity to put some furniture for sale in his showroom (he owns a cabinet making business).

I'm looking forward to a much needed vacation, then preparing for our spring shoots and calendar submissions for 2011....yes, that is scary, but they work two years ahead.  I pray that our sales for 2010 calendars will be record highs, at this point it is difficult to know, but like everything else we do, ours is a business operated completely by Faith. We don't go by what the media says, or what our bank accounts look like, because we know that God will supply everything we need and that all things are possible to him who believes. Have a blessed, prosperous New Year!