Well to bring you up to date with the ValentinoFamily...

This year started out like all the other years slow and not too eventful.
By the end of January, James, our son was released from Prison and came home to live with us. Our quiet house soon was busy again. I longed for the days of just John, Me and the girly's. We drove and picked him up in Missoula which is a 2.5 hour drive from here.He looked well and happy but exhausted as he had to take a bus from Deerlodge Montana that day. He was very glad to see us. It had been a long road for him he was in Prison just shy of 2 years. He also had a new daughter to meet and learn how to be a daddy to and take care of. So off we were to Tot Training 101. He is doing very well and adjusting to being on his own and taking care of Aroura and he loves her to pieces. Well along came the girl friend. By March he had a girl he was seeing and brought her home to meet us. Her name is Amanda and she is very good to James and the baby. She misses Aroura when she is home with her Mommy in Libby. Amanda is an outspoken gal and has a big heart. She is very nice and we love her. James is happy with her so that is very important.

Aroura is now 2 and is a doll!! She still is slim in the hair department but i guess Hannah takes over for her. Aroura is starting to talk and calls me Mumm-Mumm and Gramma when she feels like it. She is very stubborn like her daddy was, and most of the time she is a good listener to gramma and easy to have with me. John and i love the time we get with her. We have her for sleepovers often.The girls love to mother her and spoil her but that too is easy to do.

Paco (or Johnny) as we know him as is also doing very good. He lives with his buddy Garrett and Garretts' girlfriend and their baby in a house here. He and Garrett have been buddies since they were young. Paco has always been single since high school and we always knew he would just find the right girl at the right time. Well it happened earlier this year. He works at the Blue Cow car wash and next door to it is a coffee house. The girls in the coffee house sent a balloon over to the car wash with no names but 2 phone numbers on it. Well Paco called them and hooked up with Bailey. She is 20 and a sweetheart. She compliments him very well. They are pretty cute together. She now works at the Wells Fargo Bank here and we see them frequently.

Hope is doing great .She turned 13 in August this year. My how time flies by. She ran on the track team this year and absolutely loved it. She is on a break from surgeries and we don't need to see her panel of Craniofacial Doctors for 2 years!!! Whoo-Hoo!!!!!She has a 3.8 gpa in school and is very dedicated worker and loves school, reading, drawing, horses,and is very talented. Our Christmas card this year was drawn by her. It is her own creation. She is into this new cartooning called Anime. They look asian to me but what do i know. I think she is very talented. She has blossomed this year into a lovely young lady. She is getting more comfortable in her own skin and likes the way she looks. She still does not like to listen to mom or dad but i guess we call her normal!!!

AnnaGrayce is also growing into her own little person. She is now 8, and doing great. She does a paper route with Hope and they enjoy having some money to spend. Grayce is definitely the saver of the 2. And she enjoys rubbing that fact in to Hope. She loves school, her reading is wonderful and her math skills are far above average. Her teachers all adore her. She loves to help others even when she is not asked to. She is very energetic and loving to others. She is still very tiny but i think she will always be that way. She was diagnosed with Asthma last year and we have finally found a combination of drugs to help her with that. I have it so i know how frustrating it can be. She is also allergic to Milk products so she has gotten very good about it all. She had her Christmas Program at school last week and was a Suzy Snowflake and the announcer at the end of the program and she had it all memorized and did wonderful with it. She is definitely at ease on a stage and i think she has found her passion. So look for her name in lights in the future!!!

Well John and i are doing fine. This year has been trying for us with my health but i am doing much better now. Johns work is slowing up and has time off for Christmas but he is still employed.

For those of you who did not hear, Rebecca and husband Claude made us proud grand parents again on October2,2008 with the birth of their daughter Hannah Elizabeth . She weighed in at 7lb2oz and 20 in long. She has lots of hair Joshua the proud big brother has made the adjustment now and is very proud of his sister. He likes to share his big passion with her, BOOKS. He is now 17 months old and quite the helper. We are very proud of them and think their kids are the cutest in the world!! We have enclosed a few photo's of them.

We hope you all have a blessed Christmas and New Year!!!!
We wish you all the best in the year to come. May God Bless you all and remember He is the reason for the Season!!!
Love
The Valentino's
John, Tami, Hope and AnnaGrayce

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2009

Fall at the Valentinos, NEW BEGINNINGS

Hannah Elizabeth Chew Born October2,2008
weight:7lbs5oz, 20in long




This fall lots has been happening around here!!!
School started on August 28th. The girls were both glad to be back in school. They love it!!! Hope is in the 7th Grade and on October 15 we celebrated 11 years with her in our family. Boy are we the lucky ones. Grayce started 2nd grade, learned to read chapter books and loves school and she also turned 8.WOW!!!! Time sure flies by. She had a party with her best friend Lark who lives up the street from us. They have been good little friends for a few years now. She wanted a tea party so i threw her one and they dressed up in the princess dresses complete with gloves and bangles. They had a great time. I love giving parties to them on a small scale so we can also get enjoyment out of the hard work. She is still small for her age but spunky. We love having her in our family.
We also had our 3rd grand child born on October2,2008. Her name is Hannah Elizabeth and she was born at 7 lbs.5 oz. and 20 in long. She was born to Rebecca and Claude the proud parents, and Joshua MuEn the proud big brother. We are very proud to be grand parents but miss them alot being in NY we cannot go see her yet but hopefully soon. But we talk on the webcam every weekend which is wonderful.
We also had Hope's first orchestra concert of the year and she did a fabulous job. She of course looked as elegant as she played. Boy would her China parents be proud. I can only think of how we are the blessed ones to witness this and hope they know she is loved and adored by us all. Next was Halloween and the falling of all our maple leaves. It is always such a colorful time of year here in the Autumn. You can view the smilebox photo's here also.
Happy Halloween, Happy Thanksgiving and all that comes your way this Autumn season!!
We love you all
Tami, John, Hope and Anna (as she is liking to be called these days)

Make a Smilebox postcard

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

11 years of Hope!!!

Well Today we celebrate 11 years with our Hope. She has been such a joy to have in our family . She still amazes me whenever i stop to think about her story and how she came to be in our family. At 13 she has matured into a beautiful young lady and to think of where she would be if we had not found out about her from our dear friend it is scarry. She loves to read still, is an 'A' student in school, love running in cross country, she loves all of us, and especially loves to draw sketches of people.She is quite talented.
We are the lucky ones as i think back on her life with us.For those of you who traveled with us to Kunming on October 15,1997 we wish you all a very Happy Family Day. Our love to all your families.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Make a Smilebox photobook

Surgery #15-Hope

We are heading to Seattle for yet another surgery for Hope. This one is number 15 for her. She is doing well but with the braces in place she has sprung 2 fistula's (or holes) they are not very big but about the size diameter of a large speghetti noodle. Well they are causing problems with speech and she wants them repaired. So here we go.

She will have surgery on Wednesday March 19th.
This is her spring break and what a way to spend it. I can sure think of better ways but she is determined.

We are hoping this surgery is successful as it stands a chance to fail. If this does not work then the holes are larger because of compromised tissue and the will have to do a live graft from her tongue/cheek. Which is a 2 surgery proceedure and entailes us returning 3 weeks later to remove the tongue/cheek graft and hopefully the cells have adhered to the holes and plugged them up. Not fun...

As you can see from her photo she cut all her gorgeous hair off.

She loves it short and she looks adorable. She is growing up fast.

Well we will be in touch after surgery to let you all know how she did.

Talk soon

Tami

Christmas in the Snow

Hello from the cold North, Montana!!! Well i am writing late but as my mother always said, "Better late than never". Wow what a last few years it has been for us. As you remember from last year we had a beautiful grand daughter born so she decided she wanted to write this letter from a 17 month olds point of view.

Hi I am Aroura Roze, i live with my mom, Coral and her friends G'Ma Tina and G'Pa Josh. They are very nice and love me even when i pull the dogs tail. Oh! His name is Onyx he is a big black lab and sometimes it is too templing to see that tail in front of me. Well i love my life, and i love my G'ma and G'Pa Tino. I go see them once a month and stay a week or so. I love it over there as there is always a lot going on. My daddy has been in prison since before i can remember and i am so happy to see him soon. Well i will give this back to my Gramma as i am not too good at this with only a limited vocabulary it is dificult.

Well as you can see Aroura is adorable and it is so much fun when we have her here. We love the time we get with her and we are having fun watching her grow and experience new things. Well James is coming home this weekend. He has been incarcerated for 26 months and long 2 years for us all, The girls are very happy and excited to see him again. It has been 14 months since we saw him last.

We had a wonderful Christmas as Rebecca, Claude and Joshua came to visit. It was Joshua's first time to Montana. Yes a Grandson, Joshua Mu(means to bask or bathe) En(means Glory in Chinese) Chew. Born on July 13th (yep friday the 13th) ,2007. He weighed in at a whoppin' 6lbs 5lbs ( if i remember correctly) He weighed the same as Rebecca did. He was born a bit early so he had a hard beginning but soon learned the knack of eating and loves it. He is now around 17 lbs at 6 months old and trying to be up. He has achieved sitting pretty well. He loves to be in his excorsaucer and is just a charmer and loves us all. He is such a pretty litlle boy that we are just too proud. Can you tell???

Well this year Hope is doing great in school almost straight A's. And she has been on the honor roll all last year and so far this year. She is a very dedicated and dilligent worker and loves to read, and do her school work. She says she wants to be a doctor in the craniofacial field. WOW has she come a long way since that little sick girl of age 2 when we adopted her in 1997. As you can see from the photo she is growing into a beautiful and lovely young woman. It is so hard to believe she has grown so fast. She still loves gymnastics although we were told by doctors she can no longer compete. Her artwork is swesome and amazing. She will be taking art lessons from my dad this year hopefully.

Well onto our AnnaGrayce she is still the little burst of energy our family needs. Although she wears us out she seems to never tire. She started basketball a few weeks ago and loves it. She is the smallest on her team by far. She is tiny but mighty. She loves to play with her teamates and has even made several baskets for the team. In school she is far ahead of the other students but her teacher says she needs to learn how not to give unsolicited advice to the other students. If we could just capture her energy and zest for life. She is always there for hugs and enjoys helping out around here.

Johnny was living with us for 5 months this year but is out again on his own. He is renting a house with 2 of his friends, and working for a contractor here but will be switching jobs to work at a local car wash in management. He is very happy being single and loves being on his own. He is also excited to see his brother this week.

John is still at Semitool times 14 years. He likes his job and the guys he works with and it is a flexible schedule so he can work from home when i need him to. He has been a busy guy working on our house. Being a 100 year old house it has a lot to be done always... We put in a new back door before Christmas and it is beautiful!!!! We are still making progress on the paint job. It is a never ending project. As we have to strip all the paint off the siding to bare wood, then patch, and sand, and finally paint it. The portion we have completed is absolutely beautiful. I am guessing it will be another 1-2 years on the project. So we both are in the resting mode for the winter and come spring we will be working hard again.

As for me i enjoy having time with the girls and since my parents moved here a few years ago it is always busy here. I enjoy not working and being here to have lunch with John everyday and just have fun with my girlfriends.

Well i hope your Christmas Season was restfull and Happy for you all and We wish you all the Merriest of years to come. May God Bless you richly!!!!!!!!!

Love

The Valentino's

John, Tami

Hope & AnnaGrayce

Aroura Roze,James

Rebecca,Claude,Joshua

Johnny

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