CHRISTMAS 2008

And the angel said to Mary...

"Nothing is impossible with God!" Luke 1:37

We have had an exciting, blessed year! Our big news, in case you haven't heard, is the arrival of our daughter, Eliana Renee Hope VandenHeuvel! We were at the hospital when she was born on May 12, we brought her home from the hospital when she was two days old. "Eliana" means "God has answered my prayer" and she truly is the answer to our prayers. God is so good, and so Gracious! She is a beautiful, amazing, joyful, sweet, and funny baby. We are having such a great time! This is an open adoption and we have an on-going relationship with both of Ellie's birthparents, which has been such a blessing! Just this month everything was finalized and made legal (check out the video below). She is forever a part of our family, and she was worth our five-year wait for a baby!

We have had other events happen over the past year, as well. Here are some highlights:

• Spending six months with Kristina's sister and family (on furlough from the mission field)
• Tent camping (with a newborn!) with Kristina's family at Bass Lake
• A Thanksgiving adventure - van broke down on Interstate 5, God delivered us a new one!
• Making over the kids' bedrooms with the addition of Eliana
• God's provision, blessing, grace and love...all year long!
  

Mariana is our beautiful girl who just turned 9 years old! She is loving 3rd grade at Valley Christian and doing a great job keeping up with homework and being a contributing part of her class! She is growing up way too fast! Mariana continues to enjoy arts and crafts, loves doing science experiments, and played softball last spring (and... tolerated it!). Kristina is teaching her to play the piano, and Mar is proving to be a natural! Mariana LOVES being a big sister all over again, and does a fabulous job helping with Eliana, and even gave up her privacy to share a room with her baby sister.
She always looks forward to going to church to spend time with her friends and to learn more about God.

Jack is such a funny, sweet and happy 7 year old boy. He's doing a great job in first grade and is being quite the skilled reader! He's a leader in his class and helps his teacher by setting a good tone for the whole room. He loved playing T-ball this past spring and wants to jump into the next season. It was fun to have other coaches yell out "move back, everyone!" whenever Jack was at bat! He also learned how to swim and is now water-safe.

Jack also loves to spend time with his friend Jared, who lives down the street. They play with legos, Star Wars toys and make up all sorts of boy-shooting-roughhousing-things too.
It is a JOY to watch Jack fulfill his role as Big Brother. He is so sweet with Eliana and can't help smile whenever she's around. (She's my secret weapon in the mornings when I'm trying to get Jack out of bed!)

Eliana is seven months old and is growing too fast! She just cut her first two teeth, and her newest "tricks" include sitting up, almost crawling, and playing peek-a-boo. She loves people, and her favorite time of day is anytime her brother and sister are home. She loves to "pet" Maebe, our boxer, and Maebe is so patient. Eliana loves music, and loves being loud - growling, yelling, jabbering, laughing. She definitely lets us know she's here!

Christiaan really enjoys his ministry at Cornerstone. He gets to work with a great team of people and he looks forward to heading out to the office every day. His days are filled with meetings, but he has learned to see the value of developing other leaders around him in addition to doing a lot of the work himself. This was the first Presidential election in which Christiaan was able to vote as a U.S. citizen. He loves being a dad to three very different children and tries to spend one-on-one time with them whenever possible.

Kristina loves being a stay-at-home mom. Life is always busy, and having three kids is, well, more than having two! She continues to teach piano lessons and serve in music ministry. Most of her time is spent keeping up with the housework, helping Mariana and Jack with their homework, and holding Eliana. It is her privilege!

From our house to yours,
we truly wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy 2009!
May your lives be filled with love for our Savior,
and love for others.

We can testify that God is Good, He loves you,
He is Faithful in all He does, He hears our prayers,
and He is worthy of our praise!

Because of Jesus,
Christiaan, Kristina, Mariana, Jack and Eliana

Each year, the Cornerstone staff gets together for a Christmas party. This year we met in the main auditorium since the group has gotten too large for other places. We had such a great time. The food was excellent and Pastor Steve sang with Alvin and the Chipmunks. We also played a game. We competed in teams to see who could make the best Christmas-related photographs.  Here are some impressions of that evening.

Eliana's Adoption Hearing from Christiaan VandenHeuvel on Vimeo.

Jack's Christmas Program from Christiaan VandenHeuvel on Vimeo.

Mariana's Christmas Piano Recital from Christiaan VandenHeuvel on Vimeo.

The kids being silly and fun

Some more random pictures of the kids and our adventures.


Our neighbor Christina

Some random pictures of the kids and our adventures.

Eliana's Five months old already!!!

Time is definitely racing by! Ellie is growing so fast. She gets cuter and more fun by the day. She has such a GREAT, EASY disposition! She can already roll from tummy to back, and back to tummy. She's starting to rock up on her knees and we find her several feet away from where we put her. We are like, "NO!!! Slow down! Next you'll be crawling!"

Mariana and Jack are having a blast with her, and she loves being entertained by them. It's so fun to watch an 8- and a 7-year old being silly. Ellie doesn't care what they do or how weird they do it -- it's hilarious to her! She's proving to be loud and silly herself, full of squeals, shouts and laughter - she fits right in!

Eliana's only "difficulty" has been the fact that she's been teething for almost three months, and still no fruits for her labors! Poor thing!

She sleeps through the night most nights. Occasionally she wakes up around 4am and has a little party and practices all her new sounds for 5-10 minutes, then falls back asleep.

We've started a little bit of food. She's just starting to get a hang of swallowing her cereal or sweet potatoes. She'll keep a little bite in her mouth and then, bloop! - spit it out.

We love her so much! She is such a blessing to our family, our little answer to prayer. We know God has big plans for her life, and we fel so privileged to be a part of it!

What a Kid!

Jack is 7 years old and in 1st grade. He's growing up so fast! He is a typical boy in most ways - loves Star Wars, all action figures, sound effects, video games... He's learning to read and is doing an amazing job! His two front teeth are growing in, which also ages him into being that school-aged kid.

Last Sunday (Oct. 26), he called a family gathering. He had a baseball cap filled with fold-up papers. He told us we were going to play a game for one whole week. He explained that on each paper there was someone's name. We were to draw a name, and don't tell anyone. Then, for a whole week, we were to secretly to nice things for that person.

He told us that he got the idea from a Veggie tales video (from the "extras" on the menu). So he had watched the idea and thought about it, and took matters into his own hands and organized the whole thing, all by himself! Isn't he cool?

We've had notes taped all over the house. Here's on that was left on Christiaan's pillow on Friday (Halloween). We have no idea who might have left it (even though he asked me how to spell "Halloween").












Also, on the same day, I was laying down for a little snooze, and Jack came in with this:

He's the best. He's my best boy in the whole wide world!

My Bat (Mariana), my Cat (Eliana), and my Clone Trooper (Jack)

HALLOWEEN 2008

I know, I know...I'm way behind on my blog posts. Well, there's no time like the present to get caught up!

We had a great time getting dressed up and getting ready for CandyZone, our church's Halloween alternative. The kids even ended up with the day off of school and Halloween landed on a Friday! Yeah!

Christiaan was already at church, setting up for CandyZone, so we all got ready. We first stopped at our friends, the Esmeyer's, to premiere our costumes and get some good pictures.

Mariana in full bat faceJamie and ElianaTwo "clone" Clone Troopers - Jack and his friend IanMom and the Three Kids - I'm dressed in my "not me" character...as in, "Who are you?" Answer: "Not me!"

The Stirling's Last Night in The US

Right before they left for China, Christiaan asked the kids and grownups what they were looking forward to as they got ready to fly back to Yanji. Here's what they said:



Stirling's Last Night in The US 2008 from Christiaan VandenHeuvel on Vimeo.

NEW VIDEO: Mariana Lipsyncs to Jack's Sweet Tunes



Mar "Sings" from Christiaan VandenHeuvel on Vimeo.

Day at the Glen
The kids and I had a great time a few weeks ago (when Kristina was off to her God Chicks conference in Southern California) at the Dublin "Day at the Glen" fair/carnival.

Mariana and I actually won a prize (shooting water in the little hole, you know what I mean?)

Mariana spruces up her shoes

Mariana thought it would be a cool idea to bedazzle her "plain ol' gym shoes" with some... duct tape. I gotta give her: it's creative.
So, after a few days I made her take off all the tape, but you know duct tape, it leaves a slight glue residue, so now when she walks around the house she sticks to the floor and makes this weird sound. It totally made us all laugh this morning.

Eliana's Three-month Pictures