The Best Surprise

After 6 long months of being apart from our Meeka dog, she finally arrived in China, and the best part was that the girls had no idea she was coming! 

The girls have not quite been the same since we had to leave Meeka behind in the US last November as we headed off to China.  More recently, however, they have talked about her more and more, wanting to know if we would ever be able to get her here.  Little did they know, that I was planning her arrival for months, and months is what it took.  Her travel alone took 7 days to get from Michigan to Guangzhou!

This past Saturday, it finally all worked out.  The girls and I were watching a Netflix show about the world's best dogs, and we, of course, talked about Meeka throughout.  Then we heard some whimpering and scratching outside the front door and thought it sounded like a dog.  The girls ran to the door and found their Meeka waiting for them on the other side!  Their reactions are absolutely priceless.  Taelyn even lost her voice for several days afterward after screaming so much.

About 30 minutes prior to this moment, I finally got the notice from the pet relocation company that Meeka had arrived in Guangzhou.  I left the apartment to "run some errands" and greeted our pup in the back of a van that came from the airport.  I have never seen Meeka bark so much as when she saw me.  Meeka never barks, but she was so excited to be with her people again.  My video is terrible as I was trying to hold the camera and see Meeka, but you can get the idea of how excited she was.

The whole reunion took months of planning and working with a pet relocation company on both the China and US ends of the operation along with lots of paperwork, vaccinations, and health check-ups.  Grandma and Grandpa Walker were integral in getting about 99% of it all done and in getting Meeka across the world.  One week before she arrived in Guangzhou, they drove her to Chicago where she sat in cargo for an entire day before flying to Frankfurt.  There, she stayed another full day before flying to Shanghai.  Again, she spent another full day at the airport just to get cleared into China where the pet relocation company picked her up.  She had to spend a couple of days in a kennel in Shanghai while the company got her approval to fly to Guangzhou, and she finally boarded that final flight Saturday morning.  This dog has been to more countries in the past six months than most people in the world this year!

Unfortunately, Justin had an event going on when Meeka actually got to our apartment, but he had another special greeting from her when he got home.  It is so wonderful to finally be together as one full family now.

Performances in 5th Grade

Kaelia has really enjoyed her new school this year and loves being a part of the oldest grade in the school.  She has taken on a few leadership responsibilities such as a bus walker where she greets a preschool student from the bus and walks him to class before school.

Kaelia has also participated in several different performances this year.  For the Chinese New Year celebration, she was one of only a few 5th graders chosen to perform the lion dance for the school.  Kaelia was very excited that she got to play the part of the lion's butt; she is the student waving the tail at the back of one of the red lions.

Then Kaelia joined a special choir that was open to older elementary students.  They met during lunchtime and gave a final performance at a fancy international-themed gala about diversity at a hotel.

Finally, Kaelia was a part of the elementary school play where she helped write a script and song and performed in front of the school at an assembly.  The play was called Hairum Scarum, and it was about different princesses or famous females who end up in a hair salon together.  She did a great job playing Goldilocks who was hiding in the salon because she was wanted for trespassing in the three bears' home.  It was pretty cute.  The film of the play is not great, but here is the link to watch.

Secondary School Theater Production

Our secondary school, grades 6-12, just finished the theater production of Annie, and Taelyn had the opportunity to be a part of the show.  She showed quite a bit of promise as a 6th grader, and was the only middle school student with one of the major roles, playing the lead orphan role of Molly (Annie's best friend in the orphanage).

Taelyn had a fantastic presence on stage and did so well working alongside high school students.  She was really impressed with how big the production was with a pit band and backstage crew - parts of a play that she was not exposed to in her previous elementary school plays.  She learned quite a bit from the older students and was so happy to play the role of Molly.  

We are so proud of Taelyn for all the hard work she put into the play!  Here are a few pictures of the final production and the link to watch the entire play.

Kaelia's Camp Out

 Later this summer, Kaelia was supposed to go camping with her cousins and grandparents while Taelyn traveled to the World Taekwondo competition.  Since that competition will not happen, Kaelia decided to go camping for her birthday.  However, June is a bit unpredictable with the weather, so we set up a tent in the upstairs living room and turned on the electric fireplace for a campfire.  Grandma and Grandpa Walker, Aunt, Kate, and Jacob and Riley all came to celebrate as well.

Kaelia had a great time with her cousins.  She also loved the tent and how warm it was inside, she loved her new mp3 player and Bluetooth headphones, and all the kids had lots of fun tubing and fishing in the lake.  At least one of our summer plans could still sort of happen this year.

Happy 10th birthday, Kaelia!

First-Degree Blackbelt

The day has finally come when Taelyn officially earned her first-degree black belt in taekwondo!  It has been a very long process over the last year, especially during the last couple of months.  To prepare for her blackbelt testing, Taelyn has been attending taekwondo sessions for 3-6 hours a day, including: 

• specialty classes such as extreme and creative forms every day before school from 7-7:45 am
• her regular classes after school from 3-4
• leading younger belt classes after that from 4-5
• a combination of regular, leadership, blackbelt-focused, and special seminars from 8-3 on Saturdays.  
  

It is amazing to see how much she has grown this semester, and it all paid off during her two-day testing sessions.

On day one, Taelyn had to show mastery over all the lower belt forms. In the past, she could advance from one belt to another by showing an understanding of some of the forms up until a certain point.  Each testing focused on a different form as well.  This time, she needed to execute each move flawlessly over every form.  

Then Taelyn had to show the ability to spar with more advanced moves.  Sparring has always been a struggle for her; just a year ago she was running away from her opponent, but now she was able to use more advanced moves and read her opponent’s body language to try to block.

Next, Taelyn did board breaking, using more advanced boards that are harder to break.

On day two, Taelyn had to complete fitness and endurance tests where she had to continually punch a bag for 2 minutes followed by kicking the bag for 2 minutes.  The testing ended with a set number of pushing and 2 minutes of plank.  She was exhausted by the end!  What was especially nice, however, was that all the other older students that have already earned their blackbelt in the past joined in with her during the push-ups and plank, cheering her on along the way.  It felt like she was a part of a blackbelt family, and there were great, positive vibes in the room.

At the end of the two days, Taelyn officially earned her first-degree blackbelt with no hesitations whatsoever.  There was a lovely candle ceremony afterward where her instructor highlighted some key strengths that Taelyn has shown over the last year.  Then she was “crowned” with her blackbelt that is embroidered with her name and rank.  It was such a special day, and we are so proud of her!

Message from the Future

It is now August of 2021, and the girls have been asking me more and more to see old pictures and videos from the blog.  We have such a good laugh together watching what feels like a lifetime ago.  As I think back to how I have not kept up my blog since 2019, I am filled with regret.  At the time, it made sense.  Life felt overwhelmingly busy at AES.  We each participated in numerous activities outside of school, and the community held so many events during any given week that it wasn't uncommon for us to be triple-booked on a Saturday night.  

The girls are now both in middle school, and I can't believe that 2/3 of their childhood is behind us.  I try to savor each precious moment I have with them, and we all want to be able to look back at our memories together.  So, I have decided to start up the blog again.  I will do my best to add current updates while also slowly trying to add posts from the "missing years" of 2018-2021.  My older posts may not be as detailed as they would have if I had written them just after the event, and perhaps I may only be able to add photos at times.  But I still think it's worth an update, and I want to keep those memories documented.  So here begins the next chapter of the Walker Family Blog!

Merry Christmas!