Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Dear Family and Friends, December 2010


Before I write our Christmas letter each year, I like to read our letters from previous years. It’s a good reminder of the past and all our blessings. Five years ago we started telling you that we were adopting a baby from China. In some of our letters, I tried to predict when this might happen (and we were WAY off). Finally in 2007 we just said, “We don’t know, but we’re still waiting.” God’s timing is always perfect and September 5, 2010 was the perfect time for us to meet Tong MinXian. Megan Mei MinXian was officially adopted into her forever family in China on September 6, 2010. She was born January 27, 2010 near Tonggu Co., Jiangxi, China. We were very blessed that Megan is developmentally on target and is growing more and more accustom to our family. If you would like to learn more about our trip, you can visit our blog at www.weissfamily-update.blogspot.com.

Since we’ve been home, Megan has continued to blossom. She is crawling all over and even does a gorilla crawl sometimes. Right before Thanksgiving, she started standing by herself for a few seconds. We’re pretty sure she will be walking before her 1st birthday. After the 1st two awful weeks of getting over jet lag, sleep at night started to fall into a regular pattern. She still lets us know that she is in the house at least once or twice during the night, but she doesn’t need to be rescued and just goes back to sleep. She is not a fan of napping and only needs ½ hr. in the AM and PM. We have not found any food yet that she won’t eat including table foods.

Miranda is a 5th grader at RCS. Over the past year she has kept busy with ballet, ice skating, tennis, swimming lessons, and Summer Arts Stages. She also attended church camp for the 2nd year. In Oct., we discovered that she needed reading glasses. Mikayla is a 3rd grader at RCS. She has been busy with Children’s Music Academy, ballet, ice skating, tennis, swimming lessons, and golf. Right after Christmas last year, she got her first pair of glasses.

I am still working at Altru in the rehab and I taught LPN clinicals in the spring. I took a leave of absence from clinicals for this fall and coming spring and 12 weeks off from Altru when we adopted Megan. I went back to work at Altru right before Thanksgiving. Having time off from work was great, but keeping up with 2 school-age children and a baby have kept me plenty busy. One forgets how your schedule changes with a baby. I am still co-secretary of AWANA and co-leader of a serving ministry group at church. I also still enjoy sewing various projects.

Brian is in his 12th year at AE2S. Due to the increase in employees in the Grand Forks office, they are building a new office building which should be completed in spring 2011. He has been very busy with projects in Bismarck, Mandan, Minot, Williston, and Great Falls, MT. He has travelled to Great Falls a couple times this year and will be going back again next year. This spring he was selected to be president-elect of the ND chapter of the National Society of Professional Engineers. The school board also keeps him busy.

In March we were able to go to Branson, MO with my sister’s family and my parents. We spent 5 days doing tourist stuff during the day and going to various shows in the evening. One of the days we drove up to Mansfield, MO to visit Laura Ingalls Wilder’s home. In May we went to the air force base to see the Thunderbirds. We were able to get some camping in this summer. Brian and the girls went to Turtle River and as a family we went to Icelandic, Old Mill, and Bemidji State Park. After staying overnight in Bemidji, we drove to Itasca. It was the first time Brian and I had seen the headwaters of the Mississippi River. The girls, my mom, and I also went to Lincoln, NE to visit my sister in June.

Well, that’s our news for the year. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year as you celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.



Brian, Richel, Miranda, Mikayla, and MEGAN!