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

Check out my Slide Show!

Check out my Slide Show!

Check out my Slide Show!

Fall 2007

Hey! How is everyone?

we are into yet another fall. It has been very busy around here. Here are a few photo's of our girl's in the leaves.

As you can see the girl's are all growing.

Time does not stand still around for very long.

We have been busy working on the house and have now got the back done just about. It is a job and a half but it is beautiful when done. Maybe this next year we will get further on it.

Rebecca and Claude will be coming home for Christmas with Joshua Whoo-Hoo!!!!

James is also being released from Prison at the end of this month and we can't wait. He will finally get to meet and spend time with his daughter Aroura. She is blossoming into such a charming little thing and we totally enjoy our time with her. He will be in love the minute he see's her. She kinda' does that to us. I will have all 5 kids here this year for Christmas and can't wait. Too fun!!!

Talk soon

Love John,Tami,Hope and AnnaGrayce

Another year ,School begings...

The first day of school 2007

Well here we are another year later after i started this blog. Since then we have had a lot happen in our family. We now have 2 grandkids and we have 2 daughter growing up before our very eyes. They started school in September and are doing great. I can not be prouder of them. Hope started the Middle School in Kalispell, she turned 12 in August, and she is almost taller than me. Imagine that one a Chinese daughter who is tall. She is skinny and long legged. She wants to be on the Basketball team this year but with her mouth surgeries i am not sure... Well she is a great student and happy and into the preteen attitude. Watch out!!! She has come a long way from that little one at age 26 mos when we adopted her.

Hope at adoption, passport photo 1997

Well onto Grayce she is another blessing. A friend of mine asked me the other day if i am mad at the fact we have our grand daughter 1/3 of the time? I said no!!! It is such a blessing and it doesn't matter HOW they come into our family they are truly a blessing. So needless to say we are totally enjoying being older parents. Adoption is such a wonderful thing and it expands your capacity to love more. We will celebrate 10 years with Hope on October 15th.

Grayce is turning 7 in 2 weeks and such a joy. Even her teacher loves her and enjoys all the funny things she does. Remind me to give that teacher a special gift for Christmas. Grayce can be exhausting at times but she is so full of life. If only her parents could know how much she is adored and i could thank them. She was such a little peanut the day we first met her. We call her our stick of dynamite a punch in a small package!!She is now almost 7 and in the 1st grade

AnnaGrayce age 6 mos. 2001

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Joshua Mu En-Grandparents and lovin it!!!

Well it has been about 6 weeks since our newest arrival into the Valentino family. He came in a small package and a bit early but is still a darling. His name is Joshua Mu En Chew. He weighed in at a whoppin'! 6 lbs 3 oz. he decided he did not want to wait any longer to see grandma and grandpa.
Well i took a trip to New York to visit him and he sure captured my heart.

Rebecca and Claude are over the moon in love with him and this photo is a good reason to be. They adore and love him and are the best parents any little guy could have.

Rebecca and i saw a lot of the New York sites

We had a great time and enjoyed each other

immensley.

Claude is working for Columbia University working in the lab with mice and cell growths. He seems to enjoy it a lot and i think it is his place to be. Rebecca is staying home with Joshua for now and loves being a mommy. I guess i taught her well!!!

School is literally around the corner for the girls . They start on Tuesday the 4th of September and are thrilled. They love school and the challenges it gives them. Hope will be at the Kalispell Middle School ( 6th grade) and Grayce will be at Russell the school they both went to last year. She is a big 1st grader now. WOW!!!!! All day ...What will i do with myself. The first time in 25 years of raising kids and no kids or job to tend to at home.

Paco(Johnny) is living at home with us AGAIN.....We are hoping he will be working again soon. And be on his own again. James is still in Prison he was given a release date of September 23rd but the good ol' system ...it was not to be. They decided to keep him longer. So it is not to be yet. He is doing well though and accepted this dissappointment very well and very grown up. I was very proud of him for that. He is showing periods of maturing. We look forward to seeing him soon and bringing Aroura to meet him for the first time. It will be very emotional i am sure. Well. We all hope this finds you happy and enjoying life. Fall is my favorite time of year and am looking forward to it.

Until then.

Bless you all.

John, Tami,

Rebecca & Claude,Johnny (Paco), James, Hope and Anna Grayce

And our wonderful, beautiful grand kids...Aroura and Joshua

Whew what a family!!!!!

Summer 2007

Fun in the Sun!!!!

We took a trip to the local beach at Whitefish Lake.

Aroura had a blast. She is now 11 months old and is so much fun. We have her 1 week a month and totally enjoy her. She is crawling all over the place and trying to get into trouble. She grins pretty big when you tell her No-No.

The last photo is of Grayce with

Bella our puppy and daddy. They are waiting for us to light the fire in our new firepit we made in the backyard. We had a ball

and roasted marshmallows for Smore's. the next best thing to camping out. Which by the way dad does not like to do. Well this summer we are of course working on our very OLD house. We are painting but to do this we have to strip the old paint off to bare wood. So i say we are not Just painting we are RESTORING OUR OLD HOUSE yet again!!!!! But it will look so beautiful when we are finished. Here is a photo of the one side we have finished so far...

It does look good. We are excited to see an end product after so many hours of work! Well we are having James(twin brother),his wife and 3 boys and Grandma Tino for 9 days starting on July 20th. I then fly out to NY to see Becca, Claude and new baby on the 30th. Hopefully the baby has listened to Gramma and won't arrive till after i get there.

Hope did fabulous on her report card this year in school. Straight "A's" and 2 of those were A+'s, 99 percents. We are very proud of her and her accomplishemtns. She also made it on the honor roll for the whole school year. She is a dedicated worker and works very hard for this achievement. Grayce also did great in school. She has decided it is easier to use the name Anna because everyone knows how to spell that one. Pretty smart. She is learning how to read and reads all signs when we are driving in the car. She is another smart one!!! Hope you all are having a great summer~!!We sure are enjoying all the girly's in our life right now. All 3 are blessings to us. Until next time i update this See Ya!!!

Merry Christmas!!!!

Merry Christmas!!!!!

Hello to all our dear friends and Family;

This year brought us a lot of joy and heartache this time I write to you all. I know it has been a long time maybe a few years since you last heard from us. We start off with the head of the household. John is still working at Semitool here in Kalispell, Montana. He continues to work on our 100 year old house here and there seems to be a never ending tasks on that list for him. But he is doing a wonderful job. He has started the chore of stripping the outside of the house down to barewood which is a feat all it’s own with 100 years of paint on it. We will probably be writing you about this next year too as it is a huge job!!!! I am a working mom now and am enjoying my job at Target. It is flexible with our schedules with the girls and John can fill in with his shift in the afternoon.

The kids:

Rebecca age 24 married on July 24, 2005 to Claude Chew age 24. He is an adorable young man who loves our daughter very much. It is so cool to see it in his eyes when you talk with him about her. She also loves him very much and they live in Scarsdale NY. Claude graduated from Julliard Music School last spring and they both are working now at Starbucks coffee and they seem to like it. They do their music on the side and play in a local symphony there. They are enjoying their life in NYC and we will visit them this summer hopefully.

Johnny-(or Paco as he is known) He is doing well he has an apartment here in Kalispell and he is working at Target also at night. He likes his job and the people her works with there. He had to have surgery yesterday on his shoulder her tore the muscle that holds the ball in the socket off the bone playing softball. He still loves his sports at 23 he is quite the character. We get the biggest kick out of him and his sense of humor.

James is 21 and has still had a struggle with growing up and decisions in his life. He is serving time in the state prison here and will be locked up for anywhere between 6 months to 23 months. It all depends on the parole board there. He is having a difficult time with this but at times shows us he is trying to adjust to his life. I guess you take the little glimmers of hope when you get them. We pray for him daily and see him about 1X a month. It is a 3 hour drive for us one way so it is a long day when we go with the girls. He is also the proud father to our beautiful grand daughter.

Hope( or Elizabeth) is 11 years old now. My has that gone by fast. We celebrated 9 years since our family day in 1997. She has made so much progress and come a long way with her medical since that time. When I look at her pictures from 1997 and now when you see her she is a beauty and hard to believe it is the same child. She has had 10 surgeries and 2 oral surgeries( tooth removals 9 in all). She attend the Children’s Hospital in Seattle and this year she had 2 surgeries. The first was a lip revision in March and the Rhinoplasty( nose job) done in July. Her nose has changed her look so much. She is a tough girl and goes thru all this wonderfully. She has a good outlook on life and a great attitude. She works very diligent and hard . She is a A&B student and is very proud of her school work and the job she does. She loves to sing and has a beautiful voice.

AnnaGrayce is our little firecracker. She is a very intelligent and active child. She loves everyone and everyone loves her. When we walk into a place she is always seen by others and told how beautiful she is. She is a beautiful, loving and rambunctious little package. She loves you with all her heart and she is very inquisitive and wants to know so many things all at once. But boy does she have her daddy pegged he loves her dearly and she knows that. She is in Kindergarten this year and loves to let the teacher know how to run things. Her teacher is fabulous with her and loves her very much. She is a very good student and loves her school.

Now onto our wonderful little princess of a grand daughter!! She was born on August 2, 2006. She missed Hope’s birthday by only 41 minutes. Hope was not thrilled she wanted her little niece born on her birthday!!! Her name. Aroura Roze is as beautiful as she is. She looks exactly like our James did when he was little. We get to have her for several days at least once a month. And grandpa and I really enjoy that time with her. It is so much fun. We spoil her pretty good. The girls cannot keep their hands off her and enjoy feeding her. We hope to take her at Christmas to visit her daddy for the first time. It will be a special meeting. Her mom is a young mom but doing great with it. We have kinda’ taken her in and helped guide her. She is a very lucky young gal who has been blessed with a Christian couple who don’t have kids to take in her and Aroura. From them they have taken her to their church and she has been saved!!! God is Good to us all.!!!! Through Aroura we have seen the goodness of God and we do know that He will save our James also and James will return to Him.

We have so many blessings this holiday season and want you all to feel them also. We are hoping you will take the time to see your kids and family for who they are and thank God for their Health. Through our daughter Hope we have come to realize that not all kids have health and even with problems we are truly blessed to be part of this story.

Enjoy your holiday!!!

The Valentino’s

John, Tami, Hope and Anna Grayce

Halloweeny!!!