A Christmas We'll Never Forget!

This is Phoebe Pearson writing. If you don't remember me, I wrote several earlier stories about some of our kids (Ashton, Brandt, Jamar, Jourdan, Henry, Hayleigh, Sapphire, Miracle, and Malik). Now I am going to write about our two newest children, Hanh Ly and Linn Chan, who joined our family earlier this year from Cambodia after spending a few months with a family in Tennessee, the Sanduskys, who live in Nashville. We live in Texas, in the city of Fort Worth.

The reason Hanh and Linn were with the Sanduskys for a time was because Mike and myself had to get the last of the necessary adoption paperwork completed before they could be cleared for adoption, and they also needed some time with a family who could watch over them until the paperwork was finalized; and then they could come to their new home in Texas. (By the way, Hanh and Linn are biological sisters; Hanh is the older one at 14, and Linn is the baby, at the age of four-and-a-half.) Well, they came to our family way back in March, and our family has been blessed by these two little Miracle Children from Cambodia.

Like most of our adopted children, Hanh Ly and Linn Chan are both children who have special needs. Linn Chan was born without arms, but she doesn't let her handicap stop her: she'd just as soon do everything with her feet! She is an agile little monkey, and she never ceases to amaze or delight us with her dexterity. As for her older sister, Hanh Ly, she is visually impaired, and she also is extremely shy in nature. It takes her quite a while to warm up to somebody, and until she does, you won't hardly hear a peep from her. She is extremely quiet while her sister is loud and boisterous in nature.

Both Linn and Hanh are learning English, and both are doing quite well, I am happy to say; and the other children have quickly adapted to having two new girls in the family; and they all love them so much. They have accepted them as their "new sisters", and in turn, Hanh and Linn have accepted their nine brothers and sisters as their new family, and are content to be with them at any given chance.

This is also their second Christmas in America, and they are slowly getting used to the ideas of going shopping for presents, gifts under the tree come Christmas morning, and things like cold weather, ice, and snow, three things that aren't very commonplace here in Texas; but they have since learned to associate snow/ice/cold weather to Christmas, so they go along with it. They think that it will snow on Christmas, just for them, but I am too embarrassed to tell them that it doesn't snow all that often here in northcentral Texas; and if it DOES get cold enough, all we usually get is ICE, something a lot of us north Texans just don't handle very well (especially in our cars!). They have learned about singing Christmas carols or learned about "Santa Claus", and now that it is nearing December, Linn, especially seems interested. She keeps asking us when we are going to put the Christmas tree up, and she keeps looking up the chimney, to see if she can see Santa. She also looks for "Baby Jesus"; she thinks that He will come to the house, too, on Christmas morning because we sing a lot of songs about His Birth!

This may be their second Christmas here in America, but this IS their first Christmas as OUR DAUGHTERS, so this Christmas is especially going to be quite memorable. We plan on pulling out all the stops in making their Christmas a truly spectacular one. In fact, my husband, Mike, already has started shopping for the kids, and one of the things he got for Linn was a toy HUMMER that she can ride. He also got Hanh a computer made especially for visually impaired students, so she can do her schoolwork easier; I KNOW she will love THAT, and I KNOW that Linn will absolutely LOVE her HUMMER!! I also got them something for Christmas: warm winter pajamas, down-filled comforters for their beds, and warm fuzzy slippers, so they ought to be very cozy this winter!

For Christmas, besides the gifts, caroling, and going to our church's annual Christmas Cantata, we are also going to Nonna George's house in nearby Cleburne; Nonna hasn't met the two girls yet because she had been in and out of the hospital (mostly in) because of serious medical problems, but she is now finally well enough to where she can have visitors and is now strong enough to withstand people dropping by. Her husband, Art, has been a Godsend, helping his wife through the worst of her illnesses and being with her during her many hospital stays. She is doing much better, but she is still pretty weakened. She is looking forward to meeting Linn and Hanh, and the girls are looking foward to meeting their "Invisible Nonna", whom they have heard much about (but have never seen, thanks to her being so ill).