Really Rachel!

Today is August 25. The first day of school for Noah, Simon, and Elizabeth! And it also marks the day that Rachel turns 18-months. That's a big milestone and an age I have always enjoyed. She is a wonderful and typical 18-month walker, runner, babbler. Rachel is now saying 'bye-bye' in addition to her other words of 'ma ma', 'da da', 'done', 'hug', 'cheese', etc. She can now climb on our furniture and crawl up and down stairs. She loves to go for car rides and go on walks. She is doing great in Sunday school. She squeals with delight all the time. She's also become quite the little sister around the house, too! Just ask her brothers and sister. :o)

Well this past Sunday, August 17, we dedicated our 4th child to our LORD at our home church. It was also the week we have officially had Rachel for 3 months (since 12 May!). It was a great time of family because we were visited by Grandpa Duncan and his new bride, Maggie who flew in from the coast. Nana & Paptoe drove in from the east. Grammy and Papa drove across town. They all joined us to celebrate Rachel's dedication. This is tradition in our Baptist faith, but it also our time to seriously ponder and remember that Rachel, like all children, is a gift from GOD. She is no accident, coincidence, or possession. She is a great heart bestowed upon us by a very great God whose love passes all human understanding. So, that said, this was a very special day in the life our Rachel and our family. Our church family was kind enough to let us show a short video called "Hidden Treasures" by Show Hope. Because God used the Chapman family to awaken our hearts and eyes t...

We find ourselves missing China now that the games are beginning! What a year to receive our Rachel, the year China hosts the Olympics! We did enjoy a lot of site seeing while in Beijing and can confirm they have done a fantastic job in beautifying their city! We felt like we toured Beijing in their glory. Organic flowers, roses lining the expressways. Rooftop gardens sprouting on top of most any building. Olympic Mascots Huanhuan, Jingjing, Beibei, and YingYing adoring the landscapes and botanical gardens (of course, we came home with one of each!). So, now we watch Beijing from across the Pacific; enjoying the beautiful culture gliding in HD across the TV screen. We're watching it as a family and looking forward to the events ahead! We cheer for our US athletes and can't help but feel affection for the Chinese athletes as well.

Rachel has embraced the camera. She merely hears the whir of the camera lens and she's all smiles with eyebrows raised. In fact, she's sometimes too fast to account for the camera delay. Might have to change it to the action setting permanently!

We traveled to small town east Texas for a week and just returned home yesterday. Rachel did GREAT! She must be a country girl at heart. After all, her home town of Enping is a small farm town of only 400,000. Right, that's a farm town for China. We had lots of fun at Papatoe and Nana's house. Aunt Carrie and cousins Karissa and Jedidiah drove all the way from St. Louis to meet Rachel and play with Noah, Simon, and Elizabeth. We went to church, played Rummicube and Life, walked the country roads, had group-Gameboy challenges, and even had a blackout one night. One of our trip highlights was picking fresh blueberries and blackberries at a local berry farm. Every one of the kids enjoyed it as much as us! In fact, altogether we picked over 30 pounds of berries. So if anyone comes knocking, I bet we'll have some fresh cobbler waiting. We also spent our Fourth of July at the farm. Uncle Bobby, Aunt Lori, and cousin Ryan drove out to have our favorite Nana lasagna di...

One of Rachel's favorite things to do is help load the dryer of all things. She loves to pull out Bounce dryer sheets and throw them in! Maybe it's the fresh linen scent. Ha ha. She likes laundry time which is good... so maybe that will motivate me to do it more often! Anyway, couldn't resist taking that picture.

Rachel is so at home, it's adorable. Babies are truly amazing in their natural ability to adapt. She's on a great schedule and sleeping great. We have the normal baby issues that can rock the sleep or get the occasional grumpies, but this child is pure delight! The best thing is that after two years of studying bonding disorders and behavioral adjustments she is seriously attached. If anything, she has separation anxiety. Thankfully, she now knows that if we disappear around the corner, we have NOT left the country. We're still here. This month has been a great first month of true firsts. She started walking on Friday, June 6. She has 4 new teeth and cutting 2 more molars. She is saying "Da Da", "Ma Ma", "frog", "diaper", "Noah", "tickle", etc. She insists on feeding herself now and is trying anything we give her. Don't get me wrong, she can spit it out as quick as we give it. I've relearned t...