Christmas 2013 and surgery

It has been a long time since i have posted  .  i apologize.  i will try and bring you up to date and be better about posting more frequently.
      i will take you back a bit.  2 years ago November 18,2011 was the day my sweet mother left this earth and became one of Gods.  She was the best mom and was just a warm and wonderful human being. She loved people and it didn't matter if they were family or not.   She had the capacity to love all and she taught us all to do the same.  She passed away from Pulminary Fibrosis.  Bless you mom I miss you terribly and wish we could see you again. So until that time comes again i will remember all the things you taught me and the things you used to say.  Love you more!!!


My dad met a gal named Lora Steele and married her this past july 20th.    She is very nice and takes very good care of my dad.  It is still strange to see her in my moms house.


Our family continues to grow.  This past year James and Amanda had a son named Wyatt Alexander He was born on Mayy 29,2013. 8.5 lbs.  He looks judt like his daddy did. what a sweetie.

Johnny  and  Courtney are getting married in September  and they welcomed into their family Carson Bentley Valentino Born on September 13 and yes it was friday the 13th.  He weighed in at 6lbs 14 oz.  He also looked just like his daddy.

Rachel Xin Yang Chew was born on October 25,2013.  She joins the Chew family and brother Joshua, sisters Hannah and Abigail, andd brother Jeremiah.

We are very proud to be the grand parents of a total of 9 beautiful grand kids.

Hope graduated a year early in June .  we are very proud of her.  She has to have yet another surgery in December.  She will have double jaw surgery and Tongue advancement.  Recovery is hard and long but will be worth it to get her off her CPAP machine and open up her airway passage.
She is not looking forward to this one.  and i cant say i blame her  she has had 17 surgeries to date and we thought we were done with them.  But ..No...

Grand children X 5

John & Tami

John is still working at Semitool, this year it was bought by a large company Applied Materials. They are located in California. It has been a good move for John. He has plenty of work to keep him busy and we made it through all 3 lay offs. Thank you God !
I am still a stay at home mom and love my time and hobbies. I spend a lot of time driving to Missoula for court related things on our grand daughters court case. This is ongoing for 19 months and we are just waiting to see if her mom can pull things together for Aroura. If not we are in line to adopt and raise Aroura now 4.
We also have still been working on our house. We are stripping off the siding and replacing it with new. What a JOB!!!! For 2 months we worked non stop and in the spring we will resume again. The part we finished looks fabulous!!!Love it!!!!
We took a few trips this past summer. We went to California to visit John’s family and took a side trip to Knotts berry Farm. We took Gramma Tino, and John’s twin brother and his family with us and had a blast.
We also went camping in Idaho with close friends and visited Silverwoods another theme park there. Grayce is our little daredevil and loves the rollercoasters. She is not tall enough so I had to go on with her,
So in our spare time? Oh we don’t have any of that.

Johnny (Paco)

Paco (Johnny) is doing well.
He still lives here in Kalispell. He still works at the car wash and loves it. He is currently single. He has a bulldog who is his best buddy and goes with him everywhere. His name is Oscar.
Johnny is the family man out of the group. He loves coming over on his days off and spending them with his mom. I love that about him.
John and Johnny still love to watch sports together.
He has grown into such a wonderful young man. Somewhere there is the perfect girl for him waiting. But for now he is happy to be plain old Johnny.

James & Amanda

James and Amanda were married on March 5th, this year. We welcomed their daughter Reya Eva Valentino into our family on September 1st, weighing in at 6 lbs. she is a lovely little one. I get the opportunity to have her from time to time here and spend our gramma time together. What a joy!!!
James and Amanda both have been un employed for several months and are struggling. They seem to keep very up beat about it and persevere.
James was released off parole in October. What an accomplishment for him. We are very proud of him and his ability to still keep his head up. We love you all!!!

Rebecca & Claude

Rebecca and Claude have expanded their family once again. Joshua(3), Hannah (2) and mommy and daddy welcomed Abigail Joy Yu En Chew into their hearts and ours on September 18th weighing in at 8.02 lbs.
John and I took a trip to New York to meet her for the first time. John had not been back to NY since he left there at age 4. It was a wonderful time with the grandkids and our Rebecca. It had been 3 years since we had seen them. How I miss Becca.
Joshua is a train,bus,big mighty machine lover and we were able to spend some good time with him. Hannah is so full of energy and love. She is more quieter than Joshua but a beautiful little girl. Abilgail is plain beautiful and so much fun to hold.
Claude is still working at Columbia University in the lab.

Grayce

Anna Grayce is busy ALL the time. She has the ability to charm the socks off everyone. She walks into a room and is the center a attention. She is adorable, beautiful and charming. This year she has learned that she has to work hard as well as being blessed with cuteness. She has Asthma and all sorts of allergys which cause some behavioral problems but through all of this she is still the most lovable adoring child.
At times I wonder…”If only your china parents could see you and how far you have come.” We just got report cards and she has straight A’s and she doesn’t even try very hard at it. She is very bright and she is always challenging us with her questions. She turned 10 in October this year. Hard to believe...it seens like just yesterday we were going to China to have her join our family.What a blessing she has been to us all!!! We love you Anna Grayce Ji Cai Qian!!! Stay the way you are.

Hope

Hope has grown into a very beautiful young woman. She celebrated her 15th birthday this year in August.
She started her freshman year in Glacier High. She loves school and has straight A’s. She is a very diligent worker . We never have to beg her to do her homework. In August she had her 16thHope has grown into a very beautiful young woman. She celebrated her 15th birthday this year in August.
She started her freshman year in Glacier High. She loves school and has straight A’s. She is a very diligent worker . We never have to beg her to do her homework. In August she had her 16th surgery on her nose and palate. (Hopefully this is her last) This made 16 so far.
This surgery helped with all the sinus infections she has dealt with all this time. She is a talented young woman. She drew the Christmas card again this year. She takes such pleasure in her art and writing stories. Very creative mind.
God has blessed her with these attributes and the love for Him is astounding.

christmas 2010

Hello! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the Valentino Family!!
This again has been a year of stress, happiness, projects in our household, school schedules, and just plain fun.
We have met some new friends along the way and some have become literal family. That is a true blessing.
As I sit here in front of my office window at home and look out and see the snow piled on the lilac trees and fence it is a beauty to see. I then realize why God created this beautiful place. At times I wish all our friends and family, that we have not seen for literally years could come and see this.
I also reflect on our girls as they grow up. They are true blessings from God. He truly has a plan for their lives. More on that later.
For now Thankyou for looking forward to reading our little newsletter.
I hope it finds you in your part of the world happy, content and blessed this time of year.
In the meantime remember Jesus is the Reason for this Season.

March 2010

Aroura in the swimming pool

Aroura with Gunner

Aroura with Darren
Well here we are already into March. This past 3 months has gone by so fast.
We are now a family of 5 again. We got custody of our grand daguhter on January 8th and it has been a big adjustment thus far. John and i are adjusting to having a preschooler in the house again. She is adjusting to the fact of travel 2 times a week for visitation to see her mom and her boyfriend under the supervision of the CFS of Montana. We travel to Polson on Mondays which is 1 hour drive one way and we travel to Missoula which is 123 miles one way so they are both very long days and she is absolutely amazing she never complains in the car. We are finally getting the potty training under control as she has had an issue with this with all the moving in her short life.
We have become very close to the foster family in Missoula that has her 1/2 brothers Darren and Gunner. We went down and celebrated their 1st birthday with them last weekend. It was quite the celebration considering the milestones they have achieved in the past year.(they were born at 24 weeks 1 lb8 oz. 1 lb. 9 oz. at birth) I really enjoyed watching her interact with them as it is difficult to bond when you don't live with them. Our 2 families have a lot in common and given the opportunity we will adopt Aroura and they will adopt the twins.
The girls have had a hard time with the adjustment also and we are all doing good at this time. Grayce struggles with this as she was the youngest of 5 and now is not. We are taking the special time i need to attend her and spend time with her. She loves having Aroura around but is still struggling.
Hope has really been amazing with both Grayce and Aroura. She is now 14 1/2 and is wuite the great strong assistant for me. This is hard to do again for the 3rd time at this age but we continue to know we are doing the right thing for her. She is thriving and has gained some weight. How could you not do the right thing by her. As i look back on all the things i have done in my life i know one thing for sure. I have done some remarkable things for the future of this world. 2 Precious little ones from across the world have blessed our lives and everyone they touch. Aroura Roze has done the same. Anyone that spends time with her just laughs and enjoys having a conversation with her. She has the ability to through all the things she has been through smile and enjoy being a child.
Hope all of you are blessed the way we have been. We will keep you posted on the court hearings. We have on on March 30th and this one they are trying to get all 3 kids transfered to Colorado but the State Arrouney has assured me they wiill not let that happen. Stay tuned...
If you all could pray for this court hearing that God will do what he thinks is best for the children.

Aroura Roze

Well we have spent 7 long months awaiting the call from Social Services in Montana about our grand daughter Aroura Roze. We got it on Friday morning when i woke up i thought i could watch an old movie and have my morning tea. Well, that did not happen and i was in the car within an hour driving to Arlee to pick up our charming little Aroura to bring her home to stay with us. We have temporary custody of her and by mext week we should know if it is permanent.
What a blessing it has been to have her here and to know she is safe and happy with us. She loves Grayce and Hope to pieces and is a amazingly adaptable little one. That is the blessing God has given her. He has equipped her with a sweetness and innocence. We have had a lot of people praying and we hope you continue to pray for her and us as we adjust to yet another little girl in our home. Now i am back to 3 kids again. Hope has been a great help with her and Aroura loves her.
It is interesting how when we adopted our girls from China we did not know we would be doing this again let alone when we dealt with their grief over loosing what was normal for them. In order to get gain a family they needed to loose something. Even though it is different circumstances that got them all 3 three here in our family the process of recovery is the same and the feelings are the same.

New photo's

This is the Christmas card that Hope drew for us this year. I like to share her artwork with everyone. Those that do not have e-mail received this in the regular mail.






Just some pictures we took of the girly's on Christmas thought i would share them with you. I love taking photo's and archiving how they have grown.
We hope you all had a great Christmas and a New Year to come. Happy 2010!!!
Tami

Forget the Christmas letter and send the New Year one

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010
To all of our dear friends and our fortunate family;
We have had yet another busy year in our family. To start off with John still works at Semitool and we started the year off with a big pay cut, and mandatory vacation time for the past year. Recently a company in California has purchased his company so there are lots of changes in the future for him and us. We are praying they will be good ones.
Rebecca (28) and Claude still live in New York, and just moved to another apartment. They were outgrowing their current one with 2 little ones under foot. Joshua is 2 ½ yrs old now and such the cutie. He loves trains and Mighty Machines. He is always getting himself and his sister into lots of things. Hannah is the beautiful 1 yr old in October. She is so adorable and we have yet to see her in person but thank goodness for web cams, it is the best invention for long distance grandchildren. Joshua likes to read his books to us on it. Rebecca is a wonderful mom and is always on the go and doing some cooking, experiment or outing with her two.
Johnny (Paco) is doing great. He is now 26 and is still working at the Blue Cow car wash. He had a girlfriend that he was dating for one year but had his heart crushed when she decided it was over. He is on the mend and doing well. He also bought a Old English Bulldog, “Oscar”. Oscar is quite the digger and chewer. He comes over to visit us and Bella and Buttons. They are not so fond of this oversized puppy. But Oscar does not care, he is all about the play.
James and Amanda are living not far from us. He is doing great and will be done with parole this coming October. That is a huge milestone for him. They plan on being married in 2011.
Hope is doing great. She is 14. She is in the 8th grade and is a almost ‘A’ student and on the honor roll again. She will start high school in the fall. She has had a 2-year break on surgeries and we go back to Seattle in April sometime for her appointments I guess we will find out… She gets her braces off on January 15th. Whoo Hoo!!!! She has been going to the orthodontist for 4 years now and was officially his longest running patient. She is thrilled to get them off. Her teeth look so beautiful and straight. Amazing how they can move teeth from the palate to the gum line. She is quite the budding artist. She loves to draw her Anime characters and says she wants to go to school for this type of cartooning. She is currently taking piano lessons with my sister Debby. She is doing very well and she accompanied the school orchestra on the piano for a piece in the fall, and did fabulous. She also plays the viola in the Kalispell Middle School orchestra. She was in cross-country again this year and still loves to run.
AnnaGrayce is 9 now and still very tiny. She is in the 3rd grade, and doing very well. Straight A’s also. She is very inquisitive still and we call her the girl with a million questions. She loves animals and literally loves our dogs too much. She dresses poor Bella up in doll clothes and then takes photos of her. Poor Bella!! Anna is so out going and quite the creative soul. She loves to build things. Love lego’s and K’Nex. She enjoys playing with her niece Aroura when she is here.
Aroura is living with her great grandmother and Social Services is now involved. We have been driving back and forth for visits with her and to court hearings. We are hoping her mother can make right choices for Aroura and her twin brothers who are also in foster care. Hopefully we will get word soon on this case. We are the first placement if not. So we may be raising yet another little girl. It seems like we are destined to do that. We call it the girls club around here.
As for me, I am getting older but still raising kids. I stay at home a lot and have taken up the art of knitting for my grandkids. It is fun and keeps me out of most trouble. We are still refurbishing this old house and it seemed to be a 18 year old project. I love doing it. I put in a sitting garden last year and we just about live out there in the warm weather it is our next living room. This spring I plan to till up the north side of the house and create a shade garden to sit in and plant Hydrangeas and shade ferns. It will be very nice. I also redid the front planter in front of the old porch and it is beautiful and will be larger this year. So yes I keep busy and whenever we can I go and pick up Aroura Roze and bring her here for a few days. We enjoyed days at the lake this year a lot with the girls. Hopefully we can go on a real vacation this summer.
We are wishing you the very Happiest New Year and enjoy your families as they grow up too fast.
God Bless you all!!
Love ,
John, Tami,
Hope, AnnaGrayce and Aroura Roze