2009 Update

Happy New Year from the Istre family! We so enjoyed hearing from those of you who send us cards and letters year after year. We hope 2010 will be filled with blessings for your family.
We had quite an eventful 2009. Two of our biggest and longstanding dreams were realized.

Many of you know we have been waiting for an adoption referral since April 2007. Well, the call finally came in March, and we saw the face of our precious daughter on a computer screen.
After more paperwork and more waiting, all five of us traveled to China in late July to bring home Lilli Grace Istre, who turned two on August 4, the day after we met her. It was really the trip of a lifetime. We got to visit Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and got to climb a portion of the Great Wall. We were so thankful that the boys were able to come. The trip involved seven different flights and 15 days of travel. We were kind of a spectacle in Lilli’s home province, as it is an industrial area and not a place Westerners often visit. We were always stared at and often stopped for pictures. We were able to take in all in stride and enjoy it, even though it did get tiresome to not be able to communicate well.

The food was generally good, though Eli was disappointed at the lack of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. The names of the food, however, were sometimes lost in translation. One of the funniest was bacon, which was translated, “Cigarette meat.” Mmmm, sounds yummy. We were thankful to be able to find a McDonald’s, KFC, and Pizza Hut in the last city we stayed in and get a taste of home. Of course, we had to go to Walmart while we were there!

Lilli Grace is such a joy to us and has blended into our family as if she’d always been with us. She has changed so much from the scared, skinny little thing we met in China. At first, she had trouble standing; now, she RUNS through the house. She is learning English rapidly and her vocabulary is growing every day. She recovered quickly from cleft palate repair surgery in November and has gained about six pounds and grown about three inches since August. She loves her brothers and they take care of and are very protective of her. It has been sweet to see their nurturing sides come out. No one can put a family together like God can!

Speaking of the boys, they are growing up before our eyes. Jacob will turn 13 this February and can almost look his mom square in the eye. He’s in seventh grade and still enjoys reading, reading, reading. He also made the middle school soccer team last spring, and was proud to represent his school. He is enjoying being a part of the youth group at church.

Luke got a nice tenth birthday present--he got a trip to China and climbed the Great Wall on his actual birthday. He’s in fifth grade and is still very much a sports guy, enjoying basketball, baseball, and soccer. He was part of a travel soccer team that played in and won two tournaments; Jacob also played on one of those teams.

Eli is eight and in third grade and has become a wonderful student and reader. His big sports interest is baseball, and this year he was the hero in a game in which he hit the winning run in against his team’s big rival. He was down to his last pitch, and we were so proud of him for being cool under pressure.

Eric finally completed his master's degree after two years of hard work. He is still driving a school bus and teaching math at the high school, and I am staying at home right now to help Lilli Grace catch up on all the development she missed. Funny thing, though; for a stay-at-home mom, I don’t get to stay home very much! There is always something to do and somewhere to go. I miss my editing work and my friends, but I know I am right where I am supposed to be and I love it. I'm hoping that I can begin teaching next year.

Our other dream realized was our new home. We had been planning an addition to our small house for about a decade, but we finally broke ground in the summer of 2008. We moved in on March 14 and it has been a huge blessing for all of us. The original plan was for the boys to each have his own room since they had shared a small room for many years; when we finally decided that we were going to adopt, Jacob and Luke decided to share a larger room and let Eli have his own, leaving a room for their little sister. That lasted about six months . . . then they all piled their beds into Eli’s room and use the bigger bedroom for a playroom. I love it that they like to sleep in the same room. I wonder how long it will be before Lilli Grace decides to join them!

It was an incredible year in so many ways, and its events changed our family forever. But this year, we’re hoping for a little less eventful 2010!
We hope that the rest of this year will be a wonderful time for your family! If you are ever in the area, please let us know. We'd love to see you!

the Istres
emistre6@yahoo.com