Seth started Junior High this year – 7th grade.  It’s a lot to adjust to and he finds it a bit stressful, but he’s doing great.  We love that he is conscientious about his responsibilities, but can still manage to eek out a bit of fun from it all.

Grant is loving third grade. Too bad he doesn’t love his chores as much as he loves his teacher . . .

Kate really is happy about seeing all her friends. Few kids are more organized than Kate. She is pretty sure third grade is going to be awesome.

I can’t get Zane’s picture to load, so you’ll have to enjoy his mugshot from this little combo shot. This week Zane likes school.

Claire technically doesn’t start school until this upcoming Monday. But she did get to go to an open house this week and meet her teacher and find her spot at the table and check out her cubby.  Oh, and make a school bus out of a twinkie, but she ate that before we could manage a picture.

**Keaton, if you are reading this, those are french braids in Claire’s hair, not dutch braids. I still need lots of practice, but I’m getting better! Thanks for the hair-styling tips.

1.  Claire towards Kate.  We went to get KATE’S haircut.  We have not cut Claire’s hair since she joined us, but rumor has it that haircuts she received in the past were less-than-pleasant experiences.  So when Claire went with us to watch Kate get her haircut, well, this ensued . . .

[insert picture here that I appear to have inadvertently deleted off my camera (real tears are being shed here by me - how can I un-delete a picture?) Anyway, it [was] a picture I happened to snap of Claire reaching up quietly to hold Kate’s hand right after she sat down in the hair-dresser’s chair and had her cape put on]

2.  Kate towards Claire.  Today was library day, and as Kate was showing me what she brought home, she showed me this book:

An ordinary book . . but what makes it extra-ordinary was Kate’s explanation, “Mom, I got this book because it seemed like one that Claire would really enjoy if I read it to her.”

Sisters.

School let out Friday, June 4 for the summer.  So Friday, Monday, and Tuesday meant trips to our nearby waterpark, Cherry Hill.  We anticipate spending most of our summer days here, weather permitting.  Claire gets more brave each time we go.  We are glad she loves it, because even if she didn’t, everyone else loves it so much she would just have to come along anyway!

Here’s a quick video of Claire and Kate on the slide.  Claire will do this slide again and again and each time her smile is the same.  She never tires of it. (I wish I could say I am this talented photographer that takes cool vintage shots, but I really have no idea why the lighting makes the video look like it was taken in 1950s.  Oh, well)

We just can’t help ourselves . . . we love Cherry Hill!

Claire doesn’t like to be left out of any thing the kids do.  So, of course, she had to try riding a scooter.  She loves it, along with all the extra attention and praise she gets from her sibling “teachers” whenever she tries new things.  We think she is just as “brave” as the other Weeks kids, particularly since she scootered for the first time without shoes on and without a helmet (if you are the safety police, please cut us some slack!)  Claire seems to be truly enjoying discovering her new world, and we couldn’t be more happy that she shares it with us!

It was also Mother’s Day and we had a great time at Tim and Hilary’s place with my Mom and Dad, Tim & Hilary’s family and Greg & Aimee’s family.  Andy & Jennica were at home with her mom and Jeff & Trina, of course, continue their awesome adventures back East.

As a quick public shout out … I love you Sandy.  You are an amazing mom to our fantastic children and the best wife a husband could hope to have.  I love you.  We all love you.  Thank you for the effort you put into being the best you can be for all of us.

Regular Flip Video

Flip HDUltra

Kodak 720p at 3ofps

Kodak 720p at 60fps

Kodak 1080p

We are now looking to leave next Friday (April 9th) and really hope it pans out that way.  Our original thought was that we would leave today, but alas, no such luck!

I’m currently running some tests with video and image posting to make sure that we’ll be able to keep you all updated as we travel to and around China.  For those interested, here’s our basic travel plan for the trip …

We hope to leave late Friday so we arrive in Nanjing, China sometime during the day on Sunday.  Nanjing (at Nanjing University) is where both Sandy and I spent most of our “study abroad” time before we were married.  It is the former capitol of China and the name, in fact, means Southern Capitol.

Anyway, it is Nanjing that on Monday (likely) we will first meet in person and be given Claire (ChunYi).  We will spend a few days in Nanjing while finalize paperwork and process on the Chinese side of things.  We might take a trip down to the Shanghai area to visit the orphanage where Claire has been living and maybe even see some of Sandy’s family?  Not sure about all of this right.  But any of these things would have to happen during this first week of the trip.

We will then likely leave on Saturday or Sunday for Guangzhou where the US Consulate exists (at least the consulate tasked with managing international adoptions).  We will have an initial appointment on Monday.  Some medical screening and follow-ups over the next couple of days and we should be done sometime on Thursday.

At this point we then plan to head to Hong Kong for a few days.  This is a personal diversion that Sandy is allowing me as I REALLY want to spend a bit of time in my old mission areas.  Can’t wait to see how the place has changed over 15 years!  We’ll likely fly out of Hong Kong that Sunday or Monday and be home the same day depending on when we leave.

All in all, the trip should take just a couple days longer than two weeks.  We can’t wait to go and are anxious to finally have Claire home with us.

And all of us after.

Good times, good times … thanks, Andy!