Display Your He{ART}: Handmade for Hope

Check out this awesome ETSY basket raffle to raise money for the Joplin tornado victims. Every dollar you donate gets your name in a raffle for one of 31 great baskets. The hard part is picking the basket! The deadline to enter is July 1st, so be sure to get your dollars in soon.

Display Your He{ART}: Handmade for Hope: " Almost 4 weeks ago, one of the biggest tornadoes America has ever seen swept through Joplin, MO., just 45 minutes from my home town. The ..."

A Few Pictures From La Valle, WI

While on vacation...

Dale made Siri her first Smore.  It was a hit!



We ate at the MooseJaw Pizza Company, which not only has good pizza, but gives you a cool Moose Hat.

And we spent two days at the fabulous Kalahari Indoor water park.

The boys got fun airbrushed tattoos and surfer necklaces.

 Against my wishes, Dale did the water wave surfing thing.  He actually did really well.  Here are some quick videos of Dale and David surfing.

~ Danyel Anderson

Nine Years

This weekend David and I celebrated nine years of marriage.  It was a wonderful weekend!  Siri and the boys spent the night at Nana and Papa Collins (Thanks Mom and Dad for babysitting) and she did great.

We went for massages at Zen 3 Bodyworks, which was wonderful.  Then, while on Pickwick Street, we discovered a really neat little grocery store.  It is called Homegrown Food.  Everything they sell is made in the states, and most of it is made locally. We got some really great Apple Butter that was made in Dunnegan, MO by Ozark Country Kitchen.  We also got the best granola I have ever had.  We had the Dark Chocolate Cherry Granolove and is made right here in Springfield, MO.  I love how when you look at the list of ingredients on the back, you know what they all are.  We will definitely be shopping there again.  


The following morning we decided to go mountain bike riding at Little Sac.  Once we got there, we decided to try our hand at Geocaching.  We were using the app on our phone, which gets you in the ballpark of the hidden cache.  On our first one, we started on the wrong side Highway 13, which was unfortunately full of poison ivy. 

The second one was a lot more challenging.  We made it much more difficult that in actually was.  It was located right by the trail, but we took a very off trail approach.  While hunting, we came across a newborn fawn.  He was so cute, just huddle up in the grass.  At first we thought he might be hurt and we should help him.  But then we decided he was just really young and it would be best to just leave him there.
 

Finally, we stumbled upon the box.  It was hidden really well.

This one said it had a travel bug inside. We didn't find one, unless it happened to look like a broken golf ball.

Turns out Geochaching is a lot of fun and we plan on doing it again. Maybe we can work it into our road trip to Wisconsin this summer. Although we will need to improve some on our hunting skills or it may make for an extra long trip.


Thanks for an amazing nine years David! We have had so many exciting adventures; I can only imagine what the next nine years will hold. I love you!


Danyel

Volunteering in Joplin

Today two friends (thanks Amy and Piper) and I went to Joplin to volunteer.  We were planning on volunteering in the missing person call center, but when that area was full we ended up out in the neighborhood helping with debris removal.  And I am so glad we did.  I know we have all seen pictures on the news of the devastation, but to see it in person is surreal. 

Here are some pictures from the neighborhood we worked in:

We were not even working in the most heavily damaged area because they are still conducting search and rescue in those areas. So we spent the day with about 20 strangers clearing out the backyard of two homes. We made a lot of progress, but there was still a lot to be done. A lot. It was a bit frustrating that so many of us worked so hard and barely made a dent in the work that needs to be done.

But I have to share, what touched me the most were the volunteers themselves. One traveled from Texas, another from Pennsylvania. We also had folks that had driven in from Oklahoma and Arkansas. They had seen the devastation on the news and wanted to come help. I can't say that if I saw that a tornado had hit Pennsylvania, I would feel compelled to drive there and help out.  I can tell you that I will now. 

There were so many wonderful random acts of kindness today.  A great couple came by and brought sandwiches and water for all.  Another group came by an hour later with cookies and chips.  A truck was driving around offering work gloves to those that didn't have any.

When catastrophes such as these happen, it's easy to search the depths of your spirituality to find a reason as to why this was allowed to occur.  In the past, I've spent so much time trying to figure out God's rationale, and fully knowing that I could never come to know His reasoning, that I lose sight of what's right in front of me.  In this case, I still don't know the "why", but what I do know is that God was felt all over that place today.  I truly feel that God is love.  And despite what might look like a wasteland in pictures, God's presence is unmistakable.

Want to volunteer?  It's easy.  Show up at Missouri Southern State University. There you will fill out a volunteer form and they will give you a wrist band to show you can be in the area.  You will take a bus to the volunteer site, then go with a group leader to a damaged area to work.  The biggest needs today were people that could run chainsaws.  There are a lot of trees that need to be cut down.  Hats off to AmeriCorps for organizing the cleanup volunteer effort.

Danyel Andeson

Magic Milk

I know this is not a proper update, and I promise to post one soon, but since I have a few minutes I thought I would post some pictures.  Things are good and Siri is doing really well.

The other day her friends Maddax and Tyler gave her a doll that has one of those magic milk bottles. 

When you turn it upside down the milk disappears.  Siri just can't figure out where the milk is going.  She will feed her baby, then try to take a drink herself.  It is so cute! 

Siri loves to do what her big brother's are doing.  She HATED brushing her teeth in Thailand.  Now she can't wait to brush her teeth and tries to do so many times a day.

She loves to dance...

...and she loves cheering on the boys at their soccer games. Go Rockets!  Look for the pigtails at the bottom of the screen.

We had a family outing to Chuck E Cheese over Easter weekend and Siri loved dancing on the stage with her brother and cousin Lilly.  Afterwards, they were all so tired, they were asleep before we got out of the parking lot.

 

Easter was good.  Siri had fun coloring Easter Eggs and ate way too much candy. 

 

 

Speaking of the little tornado, she is awake, so my computer time is up.  :)

 

Danyel

 

 

We are home

We made it home today! Siri did great on the flights. She slept a lot and when she was awake she was happy. On the longest flight they even gave us a bassinet for her to sleep in.

We landed in Springfield at 1:30 (only 37 hours after we left our hotel room at 6 pm) and Dale and Jack greeted Siri with a welcome home sign. I swear those boys have gotten so much bigger in the two weeks we were gone!

Siri did great. At the house she ran around and played with the boys. She likes her room but she loves the boys' room. Anything that moves or makes sounds she loves. She played spaceship and monster truck with Jack. Dale tried to get her to sit on his lap and read a book, but she wasn't ready to sit still.

Around five the lack of sleep hit me like a ton of bricks. I felt like I had been drugged. I just couldn't stay awake. So we all piled into our bed to watch Bolt. Everyone was out but Dale. He woke me up after the movie wanting to play. Somehow I talked him into one more movie. Next thing I know it is one in the morning and we have all taken a really long nap. We got up and had dinner then played for the next several hours. Finally at three the kids were worn out, so we put them to bed and started unpacking.

It's now 4:30 and we are catching up on American Idol reruns. This keypad may take awhile to catch. Up on. And I can't believe it, but Siri is sleeping in her own bed!



Tuesday

Hi Boys -

We spent today visiting Khao San Road...the street where they filmed the movie, The Beach with Leonardo DiCaprio. It's changed a bit since then. Not quite so seedy as it used to be.

Tomorrow is the Thai new year celebration where everyone totes squirt guns and drenches everyone walking on the street. Evidently they decided to start the tradition a little early on Khao San Rd. Didn't get squirted, but saw several who did.  You boys would love it.  You can just walk around squirting people with your water guns.  And they sell some big water guns.

Getting on the plane tomorrow!  Love you and see you soon!

Love, Mommy and Daddy

Siri gives kisses

Hey boys, it’s your daddy!


We had a great day on Monday. Along with all the other mommies and daddies that adopted kids here, we hired a driver to take us to the floating market. The market is about an hour and a half drive outside of Bangkok. Once we got there, we hired a boat driver to take us around the city that lines the canal.

Along with people who just live along the canal, there are tons of floating vendors selling all kinds of goods. While the boats and the canal probably haven’t changed a whole lot in the past several decades, the vendors have. You can find many traditional vendors selling fruits and vegetables in the waterways, but the vast majority have tried to take advantage of the large amount of tourists who come to take in the experience. We thoroughly enjoyed the boat ride and the scenery, but we didn’t do much shopping. The merchandise being sold was 3 times more expensive there than in the markets around town.

Another highlight was when our boat driver docked and let us walk around a Buddhist temple. We took lots of pictures while a monk worked tirelessly making candles and bundles of incense for worshipers to burn.

Siri loved the boat ride. As we passed different vendors she’d wave and yell, “Bye-Bye!” Thai people find it so strange that we actually have a Thai baby with us. Many have stopped to talk to her and have told us how much she looks Thai. They’re really shocked when we tell them that she is. One lady, not trying to be offensive I’m sure, asked us if she was Thai, then proceeded to tell her how lucky she was. I was glad that she had no idea what she was saying. We just kept telling the lady of how lucky we were to have her. Wherever we go though, she attracts a lot of attention.

Oh, and today she gave me my first kiss on her own! It was a great day.

Hope you all have a wonderful day. Can’t wait to see everyone!

Love you,

Daddy

Sunday With Siri Mae

Hey Boys!  It's Daddy!

Yesterday we spent much of the day wondering through the HUGE Weekend Market.  The market is said to be the biggest flea market in the world and after experiencing it, I believe it.  It's a maze of tightly clustered vendors that covers about 10 acres of space.  It was easy to get lost and lose your bearings once inside.  The key was to locate the tower in the very center of the market so that you could figure out where you were in relation to where you began.  So after spending so much time walking, sweating, and haggling with vendors over prices, we decided to keep today a little more low key.

We began the morning like we normally do, with breakfast downstairs in the lobby.  They have a great buffet comes as part of the package with staying at the hotel.  It's been fun seeing Siri try out foods that she's never had before.  Her foster family was very poor and no doubt probably had very little meat to eat, so she's very suspicious of eating meat.  Coming from a Muslim family, we knew she had never had pork before, but just like the rest of us Andersons, she loves bacon!!

Next, we decided to walk down to the MBK Mall and just take in the sights that we came across.

First we took a stroll through Lumphini Park.

As we got closer to the mall, I noticed that we were very close to the Erawan Shrine.  The shrine is a Buddhist place of prayer, located in the center of town at the base of an upscale shopping mall.

As we were about to depart, we noticed some really loud music and a bunch of commotion going on in the street.  When we got to a better viewing point, we saw the Red Shirts.  We read some about the Red Shirts before we arrived.  Evidently, they are a group that doesn't like the Thai government and periodically form protests.  This time last year, the protests turned violent and the largest mall in the country was nearly burned down.  It's just now reopening.  After talking to some bystanders, this was the anniversary of their protests a year ago and 75,000 Red Shirts were descending upon downtown Bangkok for another rally.  As you can see from the video I shot, the police were on hand in big numbers, but stood by as Red Shirts jumped out of their vehicles to conduct the traffic themselves.  Protesting the government in the US is nothing unusual, but in Thailand, it's against the law to say or do anything that paints the Royal family in a bad light.  As you can tell from the video, not all Thais feel that the government is doing a poor job.  This one old man was letting the protesters have it!!

Even though I was curious and wanted to check out how it all went down, we didn't feel like hanging around a potentially violent protest with our new daughter was such a great idea, so we headed in a different direction.

But the best part of our day was watching Siri continue to make such big strides, like she has everyday.  Today, her and I played a ton, and she laughed more than I've ever seen her laugh before.  She let me pick her up and hold her for 5 minutes today, and really likes for me to pick her up and toss her in the air.  We closed out the afternoon by the pool and she tried to swim to me.  She likes the water, but can't help but try to drink it.  She's adjusting amazingly!!  After she goes to bed and mommy and me spend time on the sofa talking, I usually say something about how much progress she's made each day, but conclude by saying that I wouldn't look for her to make that much more tomorrow.  But each day she becomes noticeably more social and open....especially towards me.  At this rate, it's not out of the realm of possibility that I could be carrying her off the plane! 

Thank you to all those who've been praying for us.  I couldn't ask for a better transition, or a better tempered daughter.  I've told everyone that this girl is tough as nails!  She can fall down at a full speed run and hop up with nothing but giggles.  There hasn't been one time that she's fallen or banged her head that she's ever cried or shed a tear.  No amount of heat or lack of nap or lack of food has ever caused her to be cranky or whimper.  She's just so easy to take care of. 

It's been 9 days since we first met, and I wake up each morning excited to see what new things I'll discover about her.  In the beginning, all I could see were the differences between her and our other two kids.  But the more I'm around her and get to know her, the more I notice how much she's just like our boys, and the better I feel about her integration into our family.

Take care.  Love you all!

Daddy (David)

Saturday

Hi Boys -

It was god to talk to you this morning.  Hope you have a great day at the ball park with Nana and Papa. 

It is raining here tonight.  Our first big thunderstorm.  Siri is sleeping.

We had a good day today.  We took the metro for the first time.  Siri seemed to enjoy riding the train.

Siri is also doing well.  She is even learning to say your names.  She likes playing with Daddy, and guess what Jack, she loves playing cars too!  She pushes it around and says Brrrmmmmbrrrmmmm.

She loves shoes.  She will put on Daddy's shoes and try to walk around the room.  She also loves to say cheese for the camera, she can say bye-bye and she can blow a kiss.

Four more days till we get on the plane to come home.  I sure can't wait to give you both big hugs!  Love you bunches and tons.

Love, Mommy and Daddy!