What A GIFT

I know I haven't posted in MONTHs. I keep thinking I will go back and catch up on all the posts I've written in my head. (I've even taken pictures to post with them.) But it is not to be.

So a SYNOPSIS of what we've been up to since May: Adjusting to life as a family of 9, high school graduation for Hollie, a month in Rhode Island for Corinne, family trips to Michigan and Table Rock Lake, swim lessons, lots of summer time fun, escaping NYC and Hurricane Irene with Hollie, 2 girls leaving for college, 5 kids starting school, surgery for Mia, various therapies, football and cheerleading, Shriners with Mia to discuss surgery for later this fall, and that's just the highlights. :) YES ... life is CRAZY!

Anyhow, I knew I couldn't NOT post when I opened my email today and saw these pictures. Isn't she ADORABLE?! What a precious gift!! Mia is beaming to know that we now have baby pictures for her. She's already got a spot on the mantel picked out. :)

Happy Mothers Day x 7!!

I still often shake my head when I think about being a momma to SeVeN!!
There are days I think how and when did this happen???
We have added 4 kids in under 2 years.
Wow!

Here is a little snapshot of each of my BLESSINGS!!!

Corinne - My Rock: You are the one who first made me a momma. I am so blessed by the beautiful young woman you have become. Your steadfastness and determination in this past year of adversity have been amazing. Now please come home!!! (Three more days :))


Hollie -My Light: Your servant's heart and desire to shine Christ to all, challenges, convicts, and blesses me. You are truly a joy and bring such fun and energy to our family.

Mia - My New One (I don't have a good name for you yet): You have exceeded my expectations. You are brave and resilient beyond what any 9 year old girl should be. You are kid and loving. We are blessed that you have made us a family of 9.

Isaiah - My Prophet: Your heart for God blows me away. Your love for Jesus just spills out of you every where you go. I know that God has BIG plans for you buddy!

Lydia - My Sunshine: You do everything big, bright, and bold. Your warm and radiant smile fills a room. Just like I sing to you every night, you are my only sunshine. :)

Kaden - My Delight: You have such a pure heart and a sweet spirit. After 12 years with just your big sisters, you truly were a delight that God wanted to bless our lives with.

Josiah - My Joy: Your smile, your laugh, and your sweet soul define who you are. I especially love seeing you being a tender brother to your sister Lydia. There is a bond between you two that is a joy to watch.

Happy Easter - April Update

Wow, hard to believe we have been home 3 weeks already. Our transition is going very well. I am figuring out life as a momma to 7. The days are good. They are noisy. They are happy. They are full of activity. Let me just say, I go to bed exhausted every night. :)

Mia is doing great. As with most families who adopt older kids, the biggest struggle right now is the language barrier. We are trying to train her in the ways that make our home run smoothly and trying to understand what she is needing, wanting, and feeling. It's hard to do all of these with "charades", but we are making baby steps.

Since, we have been home we have had some good family times.

We celebrated Hollie's 18th Birthday:

Hollie had her Senior Prom:

Isaiah turned 7:

And we celebrated Easter. (I love the row of 5 little ones, ages 4 - 9, but all the same size.)

Wish I had more time to write, but the birthday boy from yesterday (Isaiah) is waiting (not so patiently) to play his new computer game.

Welcome Home Pictures

We Are Home :)

Just a quick update to say we made it home (and we are glad to be home!). The flight went well. Mia slept about 7 hours and Corinne and I each slept about 5. We were so blessed to be greeted by family and friends at the airport. (And once I track down some of the pictures, I will get those posted.) Mia was a little overwhelmed, so sorry for those of you who got frowns and snarls, rather than the smiles we are accustomed to seeing from our sweet girl. Mia has had so many new things to take in during the past few days, and she is such a brave little girl. She has had some grieving over the weekend, which is good and normal. But we have also had great fun. Last night, she and Hollie had a little sparring going on that had us all literally laughing until our stomaches hurt. We know we are just at the start of the adjustments, but we keep saying to each other how we can just see how she fits in our family. We are doing great switching over our bodies to this time zone. We have been moving Mia's bedtime up a little each night. Last night we put her down at 9:30pm and it is 8:30am and she is STILL sleeping. And the other kids are all at school/preschool -so the house is very, very quiet. :) (Who would have thought that I would be saying that just 3 days after bringing my 7th child home.) We played outside much of the day yesterday, so I think she is just plain old worn out. We have had some issues with figuring out foods she will eat. The first 2 days, I think she stopped eating due to grieving, but she is now trying some things, but pretty much doesn't like any of it. So far we have been successful with bananas, clementines, craisins, honey wheat pretzels, and chicken noodle soup. I have a selection of Aisian foods - rice, noodles, veggies, sauces, etc., but she just says no to them all. I figure she will get hungry at some point, so I am not too worried. I just want to give her some comfort foods, if I can figure out what those might be. I am also anxious to help her languague skills. This girl could talk up a storm in Mandarin, so I know she is dying to chit chat. She has been very reluctant to repeat English words or speak n Mandrin to us, so I think is just going through the soak it all in and gain some confidence phase. I did order an ESL dvd this morning, and am looking to see if our library can order in another resource for me. I can't wait until we can communicate better. Overall, it is going better than we expected, and she is doing great. Thank you for all your prayers, support, and encouragement. Keep them going, as we continue through this adjustment phase. And I promise my next post will include some pictures. :)

Seats together!!!

I was able to get online this afternoon and confirm seats together for the long flight home. Hallelujah! The Lord has answered our prayers. :)

Red Couch Pictures

We have been blessed with our time in China, but we are soooo ready to come home. We have a slow day today, which will involve packing, some playing in the park, and Corinne studying. We are counting the hours until we are home with our whole crew and all of you! Thank you for all of your prayers and care through this part of our journey. We know that the real journey begins when we get home, and we are so excited to watch Mia unfold in all that God has planned for her. God is always faithful!!

Pictures from Yesterday

Mia and Corinne goofing around. Mia loves silliness!!

Mia walking in the park with her friend Annie (Hung Fen). Just love this picture. :)

The amusement rides.

Starbucks - We got Mia a Mango Passion fruit smoothie, but she wanted our chocolate frappucino's so she wasn't too happy with hers.

A man in the streeets.

On the Pearl River Boat.

Yesterday morning Kevin left and made it home just fine, but he only slept 3 hours. Ugh! Hoping the little 4 go easy on him today! The girls and I have the exact same flight home on Friday, so he was able to give us some tips on what to expect for check in, each leg, security, and customs. We also met another family last night from St. Louis and they will be coming home on our flight all the way to Chicago as well. This is her 7th China adoption, so I am feeling good knowing she will help out if we run into any issues. She also indicated that they only assign 50% of the seats before check in, which means we have a good chance of getting our seats reassigned together. Please keep praying about this, as it would be a blessing to be seated by both the girls on the long flight home.

Yesterday we went to a park that had some little amusement rides. We were a litle wary about whether there are safety regulations here, but we took a chance and let the girls ride a few of them. They had a blast! The parks are so pretty, and the Chinese people are so active in them. Instead of playground equipment they have little exercise machines that people of all ages use. We have also seen people of all ages playing badmitton, ping pong, tennis, and hackey sack in the parks.

Last night Corinne and I were able to get Netflix on the computer. We watched a couple old episodes of "Say Yes to the Dress" and ate popcorn and Lindt Truffles. We were in heaven!

Today we had our consulate and everything went well. Praise the Lord! Tomorrow we will pick up our visa and then just be hanging out until our flight on Friday.

We went to a store today call Gifts of Love from China, which gives all of its profits to help special needs orphans. We had been there a couple times already, and I asked Corinna, one of the workers if she would talk to Mia about what we are doing when we pray and who Jesus is. She was able to do this and Mia listened but didn't say much. When we got back to the room I heard her singing the chorus to "Yes Jesus Loves Me" which I have been singing to her each night at bedtime. So sweet! Even though I know she does not understand it yet, the seeds have been planted and the spirit is working.

Tonight we went on a little boat cruise on the Pearl River. They use laser lights to light up all kinds of buildings and bridges along the river. It was a beautiful night. Somehting that made us really laugh was when Mia was talking to Arielle, a 13 year old girl adopted this week by another mom in our group. Arielle shared something with Mia and Mia responded with "thank you" and then quickly realized she had spoken in English to her Chinese speaking friend and changed it to the Chinese version of thank you. So funny that a few English words are becoming natural to her. She also gave me my first Chinese lesson tonight at bedtime. She worked with me on the correct pronunciation of the Chinese word for pretty (which I tell her often) and Xiaoyu (her name). I repeated them many times after her, thinking they all sounded just like how I have been saying them, but at the end she was satisified that I was pronouncing them much better. Too funny!

Well that's all for tonight. The internet won't let me load pictures, so we will have to post some in the morning. We are in the final stretch and anxious to be home with you all!

Safari Park

We visited the Safari Park today and it was amazing. Highlights included white tigers, Mia petting a baby bear, an elephant show, feeding giraffes, and 12 pandas. It was a beautiful park and so fun to see Mia experience a zoo for the first time. We are having alot of fun with the other families in our travel group.

Kevin is leaving in the morning, so we packed him up tonight with as much as we can send in 2 suitcases. I am definitely sad that he is leaving, but know it is best for the kids back home. Corinne and I will be counting down our 5 days without him. We are having a good trip and Mia is doing so great, but we are ready to be home.

We had a couple minor issues with Mia today, but nothing unexpected. It's just hard with the language to explain things to her. Overall, we cannot believe how brave she is and how happy she is. (Hollie - you have met your match with bubbly, social butterfly. You two are going to have great fun together.)

We did move another step forward at bedtime. She blew kisses to me and smiled when I said I loved her in Chinese. We can't wait for her to understand the depth of our love and more importantly the depth of God's love for her.

Isaiah, Josiah, Kaden, and Lydia - We love you all and miss you lots! Daddy will be home Monday night and Mommy, Corinne, and Mia on Friday night. We are so proud of how good you are all doing while we are gone. Hugs and Kisses!!!