Four Fingerprints of God

Shepherd's Field

2012-01-29T05:23:00.000-08:00

Kevin and I invite you to watch this heart-warming video interviewing Tim and Pam Baker as they talk about Shepherd's Field, our Philip's China home.

May it touch your heart today.

Another week of seeing how to take Jesus with you!

2012-01-18T17:24:00.000-08:00

Here are some cute pictures of Sophia's turn to have our children's church's Jesus doll spend the week with her. It is such a cool way to show the children how they can have Jesus with them at all times. Love it!

In Matthew 28:20, Jesus said,

". . . and surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Sweet beautiful girl

2012-01-14T12:50:00.000-08:00

Such a wonderful week full of joy!

2012-01-01T08:13:00.000-08:00

This past week after Christmas has also been

filled with such joy!

So many visits with so many special people . . .

Grandma with four of her five grandchildren.

Our nephew Michael came later but was not feeling well enough for a picture.

He had had knee surgery just three days before!

Gram with all of her grandchildren.

This doesn't often happen that they are all together at once!

Breakfast with our dear friends Lisa and Michelle

Lunch with Aunt Susie who is working on a

sand art project with Philip in this picture

Then there were the things we forget to take pictures of such as dinner with our sweet friend Minh, another dinner with our good friends Chris and Martha and their daughters (whom Eli couldn't take his eyes off of the entire evening thinking that Chris and Martha's 20-something year old daughters where just there for him!), spending New Year's Eve with Tim and Anna, and their family including Aaron who came home fron China to his forever family last March, and many other fun things.

We pray that Sophia long remembers all of the wonderful things she took part in during her first Christmas home - celebrating the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, being with family and friends, and doing so many fun things is sure to leave its fingerprint on her heart!

Merry Christmas everyone!

2011-12-25T20:25:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas from our home to yours!

This is the first Christmas since 2005 that we haven't been waiting for someone else to join our family! Our children are home!

Thank you God!

The gingerbread cookies have returned!

2011-12-23T06:09:00.000-08:00

Working very hard to design just the right trap to

catch their cookies!

As it happened, our friend Luke stopped by yesterday morning and offered his

expertise on setting gingerbread traps. Each year at his school, the first graders

make gingerbread men who always run away for a bit, and Luke was able

to offer valuable insight into how to best catch them! Wonderful timing!

Carefully testing the traps

Yay! They have returned, and the traps worked!

We are happy to report that our cookies have come home but not before they were spotted far and wide!

The grandmas kept an eye out for them yesterday but did not see them; however, many other people did! Kevin's sister said they were by her school, our friend Cheryl called to say they were crossing a street where she was shopping, and four other people left cute comments letting us know they had also spotted them.

Laura (our China travel buddy from Utah) said, "BTW, I think I see your missing gingerbread men in my backyard making snowmen!"

Three sweet bloggy friends also left comments saying:

Debbie: I saw them running through the snow in our backyard in Colorado, but they were so fast I didn't have time to get my camera!

Sharon: I saw them riding the Space Needle to view the beautiful mountains! They looked like they were having a ball! They said they were going to grab a Starbucks coffee before they caught their next plane ride!

and

Anne: They decided to run up into British Columbia and visit us Canadians before heading back. My little dog chased them, and as I was trying to catch her, they yelled "Merry Christmas" and ran off to their next stop!

Wow! It seems our little cookies headed north then west in our city and then skipped west across our country and north up into Canada before heading home! We found one lone little one at our local park yesterday afternoon, and the other three tired but happy cookies were found in our traps this morning.

Thank you to everyone who helped spot our cookies. What a fun time we had hearing your comments.

Merry Christmas from our home to yours!

A Christmas Mystery! Oh My!!

2011-12-22T06:21:00.000-08:00

Oh my!

We read The Gingerbread Man story yesterday.

We baked the gingerbread cookies, too.

Then today we discovered that 4 of the cookies

have run away! Oh my!

Discovering the note telling us that the cookies

have run away to discover the world. They

said they will be back before Christmas!

Where could they have gone?

Calling the grandmas to see if they have seen the cookies.

Telling Grammy all about it.

Does Grandma know where they went? Sophia keeps saying,
"The book is right. The book is right!" She was listening
as the grandmas read the story yesterday!!

Three little children busy designing ways to get our cookies back!

Can you help us? If anyone reading this post today happens to see our cookies, could you leave us a message telling us about the sighting?

I will post as soon as we have found them.

Thanks for your help.

Gingerbread Houses, etc.

2011-12-21T11:43:00.000-08:00

It has become a sweet tradition at our home during the Chrismas season to decorate a gingerbread village with both grandmas.

Today was the day!

First, both grandmas took turns reading the Gingerbread Man Story . . .

Then the decorating of the houses and cookies commenced!

We decorated,

and decorated,

and decorated some more until . . .

the village was complete

and the cookies were all iced.

Now we can sit back and relax.

I sure hope those gingerbread cookies don't decide to run away!

Scenes of the season

2011-12-18T20:16:00.000-08:00

Decorating our family tree -Yes, that really is a bed in

our family room. It's where our oldest sleeps since we

needed his old room for Sophia!! :)

All three of our little ones sang in the children's musical at church.

Eli is supposed to be a sheep (in the front row), but they couldn't

find his ears! I guess he is making his own!!

Sophia, Philip, and Elijah wild with excitement over all the

holiday festivities! So heart warming to see such joy on their faces.

To tell you the truth, having all of our children home now makes Kevin and

I want to run with reckless abandon and exquisite joy, too!

Even our big boy was in a Christmas musical which he also directed at our church.

Always a treat to hear him sing!

Elijah tenderly holding a baby Jesus doll his

Sunday School teacher had given him. So sweet!

Participating in a Christmas party craft time with fellow homeschoolers.

Stopping by our favorite park to check out an indoor bee hive after

studying about bees in school. The weather was perfect for enjoying

an afternoon outdoors later - one of the perks of homeschooling!

Adorable Eli in his preschool program.

Enjoying a night at the zoo with all of the Christmas lights and holiday cheer!

We are wishing you all a

Merry Christmas and happiest of New Years

from our home to yours.

It is with great joy that we celebrate this season

of Christ's birth!

Quick update

2011-12-07T05:08:00.000-08:00

I am happy to report that Elijah and Philip did very well yesterday with their ear surgery, and Philip did not have to have those horrible nose stints put in. He just had the steroid shots and some stitches up in his nose to help it's shape.

Thank you for all of your prayers, and thank you to God for a great outcome. Now on to the Christmas season!

Prayers for a great outcome

2011-12-05T20:18:00.000-08:00

Posting tonight about Eli and Philip's surgeries tomorrow. They both are needing to have their ear tubes replaced (third set), and Philip is going to receive steroid shots in his nose and lip incisions to help break down the excessive scarring taking place. He will also have a little stitch inserted inside his nostril to help his nose shape and those stints put back in for a time. The doctor actually wants him to keep the nostril stints in for up to 6 weeks! Yikes! That may be difficult to do because he is SO active all the time.

Could you please pray for wonderful outcomes for both boys as they enter back into surgery? I realize that it is minor surgery compared to what they have undergone and what they will need in later years, but even minor surgeries turn mommy and daddy's tummy upside down. Philip and Eli are also a little bit anxious remembering previous yucky recoveries.

A little of this and a little of that

2011-12-03T19:55:00.000-08:00

Kevin had eye surgery last Thursday and was still home on Friday to recover. He got to spend some lovely time with our littles helping me homeschool. We all enjoyed this time with him.

He is doing well, by the way, and his eye is continuing to heal.

Our precious little ones at the zoo.

Complete joy!

There is a fellow Shepherd's Field mom traveling to the village soon, and she has asked fellow Philip Hayden families to send pictures of their children who once lived there to her. She is going to design a bulletin board in the village of children now home with their forever families.

The above three photos are some of the pictures we took of Philip to send to her. His smile melts our hearts. His eyes pierce our souls. And the amazing way his coming as changed our lives leaves us speechless at times!

A time to ponder

2011-11-29T16:31:00.000-08:00

I just had the most amazing few moments a little while ago. I was needing to purge some of our receipts from several years ago, and as shredding them takes forever, I usually don't find time to do it often. As my three littles were taking a break from schooling, playing in the family room, I commenced to shred as many receipts as I could in their short break from doing school work.

Curious to know which dates of receipts I was shredding, I quickly glanced at the date at the bottom half of one and discovered it was from a Marsh grocery store dated March 21, 2005. Wow, that brought back such strong memories!

That particular month, as well as the entire year of 2005, was such a momentous time in our lives. Our oldest son (and only child at that time) Ted was just finishing up his high school career in the spring of 2005, edging closer and closer to heading off to college. That year from the previous December on was spent readying him to fly, so to speak, off into his young adult life.

It was a year of letting go of Ted for his dad and me, going through all sorts of rituals to accomplish this bittersweet task which included attending the senior nights of each of his activities - choir, band, cross country, swimming, honor nights, and on and on. Ted enjoyed his high school years and participated in so many activities, and with each one that ended, there was always a night or time to honor the seniors who were moving on.

Kevin and I would arrive at each senior night event and shed a few private tears in our car before heading into the school. Then we would put on our happy parent faces and march in to see our only child recognized in some way along with the other seniors. Oh, the tears we shed as we let go little by little! Oh, the memories that were made. Such a precious time!

But March of 2005 was an especially exciting time for us. Kevin and I took Ted to New York City during spring break for a graduation present. In fact, we flew out of Indy on March 28th of that year.   Ted loved NYC and had already been twice before, once when we toured during the summer after 9/11 and once when he and his dad spent a week serving in a men's homeless shelter in the heart of the city the summer before his senior year. Both times had left deep impressions on us all.

Seeing Ground Zero and taking in the devastation 9/11 had wrought upon the city first hand forever broke our hearts at innocence lost. Our little family of three had traveled to NYC the summer after 9/11 to in some small way do our part to show support to all of the residents. We will never forget that visit and what it meant to us.

Then the summer before Ted's senior year, Kevin and Ted served at the Bowery Mission - a homeless shelter for men in the heart of the city. This trip left Kevin's heart forever committed to following Christ. Somehow seeing men healed and following Christ after seeing how they once had been, for each person who worked at the Bowery Mission every day had once been homeless and in desperate need somehow but now had had their lives turned around in the saving grace of Jesus - seeing that transformation first hand helped Kevin realize just how miraculous a life could become after giving it over to Christ.

Kevin, who always knew of Christ but had never really committed his life fully to him, committed his life totally to Jesus in NYC during that misison trip. And that has made all the difference to him and to us. More on that in a few minutes!

So going back again to New York City was a sentimental journey for us all, and boy did we enjoy our visit in the spring of 2005 at the end of March. It was a grand way to send off our only child into the world! Little did we know God was setting things in motion we had never ever fathomed. Little did we know that we didn't have an only child. We just thought we did! For in that month of that year our little Philip Bao was born on a cold spring morning on March 19th in a little village in China - half way around the world. We did not know then what we know now! Since that time in the spring of 2005, we have been blessed to bring home not one, not two, but three beyond precious children from China.

Not only was our Philip just a babe that March of that receipt I happened upon this morning, but also our Sophia was about a year and a half old living with her Chinese mommy and daddy and going about daily life without a clue of things to come. And our Elijah wasn't even a gleam in his China parents' eyes yet.

We came back from that trip, graduated Ted, sent him to college the next fall, and then our world changed! At first Kevin and I just went through the days missing Ted so very much, but God soon used that longing for more childhood memories to take us on an amazing journey.  Looking at the receipt today stirred intense memories of what had been and what was to come.

In December of 2005 God stirred our hearts to believe that he meant to give us another child. As 2006 came, he definitely led us into a journey to bring home a child from China. When we received the referral information on Philip and saw that his birth date was March 19, 2005, we counted back to what might have been his conception. Do you know what we found?

We found that this wonderful treasure from the east was probably conceived around the time that Kevin gave his heart to Christ at the men's homeless shelter in the middle of New York City! Oh how God works out the details of our lives when we follow him.

With all of the excitement of the last three year's worth of adoption journey memories and how very much our lives have changed course,  I don't take time often enough to remember the wonder of the beginning of this journey we have experienced. Today, looking at those receipts from a time in our lives when WE HAD NO IDEA of the blessings to come, it just made me stop and remember the beginning. What one little piece of paper can do!

And I am left with this thought as well whenever I remember that time in our lives back in 2005 - just as we were letting go of Ted so he could fly, a Chinese mommy, whom we will always love so dearly for choosing life, was letting go of her little son so he could fly. That child was our Philip who was the beginning of our journey into the miraculous world of adoption.

Our Father in Heaven, we can never thank you for the miracles of all of our children. For the rest of our lives, we will give thanks.

Ephesians 3:20
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

My girl

2011-11-26T20:33:00.001-08:00

My sweet, sweet daughter and me!

HaPpy ThAnkSgiViNg!

2011-11-24T06:53:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving from our home to yours . . .

As I type this, our four children are piled on the sofa happily watching the Macy's Day Parade.

It doesn't get any sweeter than this!

Eyes glazed over watching the parade.

There are precious smiles - on command!

So thankful for a country where we can worship our Risen Lord the way we want! So many places around the world that isn't the case.

So thankful our beautiful children (all four of them) are home and surrounded by their forever family - forever!

So thankful for my amazing, loving, and giving husband who is my soul-mate and the great love of my life. The greatest joy of our lives is following God's path together.

So thankful for our families (moms,siblings, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, cousins) and friends who sprinkle our lives with huge toppings of love.

So thankful that we had dads who were so wonderful that their absence is still such sorrow. So many people do not have that, and we will never take that for granted. We grew up loved dearly by our moms and dads, and we treasure those relationships and memories.

So thankful that we still live in a free country.

So thankful today for so many things . . .

Wishing you a blessed day.

A time of re-direction

2011-11-21T05:41:00.000-08:00

Ted had a moment yesterday with his siblings.

Since his bedroom is now in our family room, one of the few rules he has for his sister and brothers is that they are not allowed on his bed unless he says so. It seems they like to use his bed to catapult off of and, if given the freedom to do so, would fling themselves on it and bounce off of it several times a day. So it is the one thing that Ted really doesn't want them to do.

But of course, they do it constantly, and he is reminding them constantly not to do it.

So last night he had just had it and said again to stop getting on his bed to his little brothers. Thankfully Sophia wasn't doing it, but Eli and Philip were. Ted looked at me in exasperation and asked what he could do to stop this. His dad and I said he could take away a favorite toy for a time. He thought this might be a good idea since he had already tried time outs and those clearly were not working.

With Ted in the lead, our two little sons followed him back to their bedroom to retrieve a "favorite toy" to be taken away. I watched from behind and had to stiffle a giggle. Eli and Philip looked, for all the world, like they were marching in a parade, willingly and happily following Ted. Once back in the bedroom, I could hear our littles saying things like, "You can take this toy," or "I don't play with that one. You can have it!" Ted, trying very hard not to laugh, kept reminding them that he would choose, and not them. But after a few minutes of this, he excused himself and came to ask me quietly what he should do since they obviously were not the least bit upset about this supposed punishment! I thought he should go back in and take control and choose what he thought they would not want to do without. He went back in and chose their pumpkin flashlights.

Before he chose those, however, Philip offered to give Ted some money as his punishment. Just a few days before, Elijah had deliberately torn his jeans after I had asked him not to, and so I said he would have to pay for new jeans since he had destroyed his old ones. When Philip offered to give Ted some money (about which both littles have no.idea.whatsoever.about.the.value.of.it!), Elijah happily shared that he couldn't do that because Mommy had already taken his away!

Honestly, it was a hoot listening to both of them and seeing Ted's flustered approach to it all. Ted handles his classrooms and his school kids so well, but two little determined Chinese brothers can bring him to his knees! (And truth be told, they bring their daddy and mommy to their knees as well at times! But, shhhhhh, don't tell them!).

So, if I had to guess about the effectiveness of last night's "re-direction," I would have to say that we need to come up with different techniques. Wouldn't you agree?

And by the way, Elijah asked me yesterday just when it was we were going to go get his new jeans!

Jesus goes with you wherever you go!

2011-11-16T14:49:00.000-08:00

Philip got to take a Jesus doll home with him recently from his children's church time. His assignment was to document taking Jesus with him throughout the week. Here are some pictures of his time with Jesus.

What a wonderful way to help children visualize how taking Jesus with you all the time can make you happy and left feeling very loved. This assignment led to many talks this week about keeping close to Jesus all the time.

A school activity

2011-11-09T13:54:00.000-08:00

One of the perks of homeschooling is

getting together with other families

for fun and educational activities. Our homeschool

co-op calls these activity days "events."

Today we participated in a Native American

time at an area library where we played Indian games and made some of our own games to take home.

We even had a cornbread cookie! Yummy!

The event coordinator gave each child an arrow head

which will go into my treasure box instead of each of my children's! Go figure - now why wouldn't I let my littles have their own arrow head to have and hold!?? Philip was practically salivating over how sharp each one was! :)

After we left the library, we headed to McD's for lunch. An older lady sitting beside us commented on how well behaved the children were and how

you just don't see that often these days.

(Whew - I am so glad it was today

she saw my littles instead of a few days ago!)

Anyhoo - this very sweet lady proceeded to ask me

if I was the nanny for these children!

Now, Kevin and I have often been mistaken

for being grandparents to our littles, but never, ever have I been mistaken

for a nanny!

That kind of tickled me!

I guess (wishful thinking perhaps on my part)

that being mistaken for a nanny instead of a grandma meant that

she tought I was youthful looking??

I think that is surely what she meant, don't you??

A birthday celebration and an anniversary

2011-11-07T16:37:00.000-08:00

November 1st marked mine and Kevin's 31st wedding anniversary! Never in our wildest imagination on our wedding day back in 1980 could we have imagined the joy God would give us in blessing us with our four precious children, three of those amazing treasures later in life!

Ted surprised us with an offer of babysitting his little siblings and paying for our night out! What a sweet thing to do. We, of course, took him up on the offer and slipped away yesterday evening to dinner at Outback and then took in the movie "Courageous" (which we highly recommend). We had a lovely evening. Thanks Ted! That was incredibly wonderful of you to spoil us!

Below is another picture of one of our October birthday sweeties. Eli is being sung to by his preschool teacher and class while we brought in B-Day treats for everyone. He looks a bit overwhelmed but quickly perked up when he saw Philip and Sophia pop into the classroom.

Three cute little trick-or-treaters!

2011-10-31T18:52:00.000-07:00

Singing about Christ and a costume party

2011-10-27T09:32:00.000-07:00

Here are our precious littles practicing their parts for

our church's children's Christmas musical. They are so cute to watch

as they practice. No one is on key or even singing the same word at once,

but they each give it all they've got to sing these sweet songs.

Here is our littlest car of the family. This was Elijah's first costume day

at preschool, and Kevin got to take him and see all of the cuteness of the morning.

I was with our biggest car (Ted) while he was having dental surgery.

What a privilege to be parents to our four amazing children.

Happy Birthday Elijah Jiehao

2011-10-23T19:07:00.000-07:00

Today Eli is 4! We now have age 4, 6, 8, and 25 year old children living in our home, and it is wonderful!

We love you Elijah Jiehao. We thank God your China mommy chose life for you!

Birthday Breakfast

Waiting patiently for his gifts.

Now Eli has his own photo album to match Philip's and Sophia's.

Opening gifts at his family party.

She is officially 8 today!

2011-10-16T19:46:00.000-07:00

Wow, we can't believe Sophia is 8 today! Last week we celebrated with a big family party. Today it was just the six of us. Kevin fixed her pancakes for breakfast, we had a quick bite at Wendy's for lunch, and I made her a yummy Italian dinner tonight along with cake and ice cream.

Sophia seemed to enjoy her birthday, but when she was opening her presents today and last week,you could tell she didn't quite know what to make of it all. With as many birthdays as we celebrate around here, she will quickly get used to them! :)

Happy Birthday to our sweet and beautiful daughter. Thanking God for bringing Sophia to us forever.

First "Happy Birthday" party for our girl

2011-10-09T05:34:00.000-07:00

Lovely special people

came to celebrate

our lovely special daughter's

first birthday home!

Happy Birthday Sophia.

We love you so!

Loving Homeschooling

2011-09-27T11:46:00.000-07:00

We are loving homeschooling. Wish I had discovered it sooner! It is such a sweet way to raise your children.

Hello from our family

2011-09-20T13:32:00.000-07:00

We have been continuing to settle in and are now stretching out a little with our Miss Sophia.

Kevin and I took our littles to an apple orchard recently because I am doing an apple unit in homeschooling. So fun to be teaching these three - what an amazing priviledge it is to be doing so.

We are also continuing our work to get our team to Philip Hayden's Shepherds Field Children's Village next summer to serve for a week at our Philip's China Home. Below is a picture of some of my cheer section for our walk-a-thon held last Saturday!

A beautiful day for an awesome cause - James 1:27

Here are some of our peeps from our group before our "Walking to China" walk-a-thon.

Sophia's adjustment period is going so well. At times, and really not very often, Sophia will get a far away look in her eyes and go away from us emotionally for a bit. She does have times of grief evidenced by emotions written all over her face and the tears that fall, but she also is marching forward, loving being enveloped into her new forever family. We look forward to the day she can tell us what she is feeling so we know how to best help her. For now, loving embraces and plenty of family bonding time will have to suffice.

She is a treasure beyond compare, and we are all so happy to have her home. She completes our family. All those years of longing for another child to join us have vanished.

Thank you God for your amazing blessings.

Quick "Hello"

2011-09-11T16:19:00.000-07:00

A quick update on the happenings around here. . . .

Our littlest son is doing very well now with adjusting back to our "real life." He took some time to adjust, and he acted out quite a bit in Ch*na and here at home, but now he is having so many happy times again and really making an effort to control his behavior!

Way to go Eli!

Philip is doing well but came down with a fever of
101 shortly after we took this picture today. Will be calling his doctor first tomorrow morning!

Our newest Ch*na treausre is adjusting amazingly well! We keep pinching ourselves to make sure this is really happening. Both Philip's and Eli's initial bonding and adjustment period did not go smoothly at all, so we are a little bit dismayed that Sophia is adjusting so well! Thank you God for this gift! We will happily take it!

Even though it has been a fairly easy transition for all of us, at times it has been difficult for our daughter due to some physical issues. She is on medicine to treat ringworm and another medicine to treat intestinal parasites! Then a couple of days ago, just two weeks after coming home, she did have to undergo dental surgery.

Our dentist felt it was best to put her "under" to take care of everything at once. (Sophia had to have a tooth pulled, four cavities filled, caps on two teeth, etc.!) Ouch! The night after and the next morning were a bit rough, but then she bounced back. We notice that she doesn't wince each time she eats now! That is a praise!

So, all in all, life is getting back to "normal" - whatever that is for our family anyway! We are enjoying having a houseful of little squeals and peals of laughter, feet running here and there, and lots and lots of hugs in between! Saying that our cups runneth over would be an understatement!

A day at the zoo

2011-09-06T15:51:00.001-07:00

We took a field trip to the zoo today. . .

A perfect day with perfect weather . . .

And trying to squeeze all of the goodie of the daddy being home a few more days before he heads back to work.

An Enlightening Conversation

2011-09-04T09:15:00.000-07:00

For some reason, Philip's legs look so very long in this picture. They aren't really that long! Hee,hee! Funny pic.

On the way home from church today, the following conversation took place.

Kevin: What did you do in church today, Eli?

Eli: Payed (played) and payed some more and had nack (snack).

Me: What Bible lesson did you talk about, Eli?

Eli: Bout amals (animals).

Kevin: What story? Noah and the Ark?

Eli: Nope.

Philip: Adam and Eve?

Eli: No bout Eve. Let me hink (think) bout it. Peas (please) be quiet. It was bout heep (sheep).

Philip: Oh, you know that story about brothers Cain and Mable? One killed the other and was really sorry about that? Was that the story? (Maybe Philip said that because this story, Cain and Able, took place in a field and Able kept flocks?? - good thought!)

Eli: Nope. It bout heep.

End of story!

First Day of School and This and That

2011-09-01T19:47:00.000-07:00

I am beginning a tradition, like my dear friend Joli, to take a picture (or pictures) of our darling littles the first day of each school year to document their school days.

Here are some of those pictures of our first official day of homeschooling. We have "technically" already started school because of all of those really cool field trips in Ch*na and because yesterday we just kind of happened into beginning school, but today was our "official" start day.

We had so much fun, and Kevin gets to be a part of it since he is still on adoption leave. There was so much singing and dancing going on today, you might have been tempted to think we were the VonTrapp family.

Almost, but not quite! Hee, hee!

After seeing the dentist today, we found out that Sophia has to have several things done in her mouth including a tooth extraction, two cavities filled, silver crowns on those teeth, some bonding on two more teeth and a few other things, too.

Would you pray for our sweet daughter next Friday, September 9th, as we have these things done? Our pediatric dentist feels that she would do better being put under for a brief time at the hospital to have all of the things done at once instead of continually bringing her into the office, giving her gas, and doing each procedure separately.

That is also the day the I am taking Philip back to his surgeon to see if steriod shots in his nose incision would benefit his scarring, stopping it in its tracks.

It will be a busy day!

Jet Lag - uggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh

2011-08-29T14:50:00.000-07:00

We are settling into life with four children. That part is absolutely wonderful.

The jet lag . . . not so good. Our bodies are definitely still on Ch*na time. Our littles wake up every single night after about two hours of sleep and do.not.go.back.to.sleep for hours! Yuck! We are all feeling the effect.

Some scenes from our life now . . .

Mommy is loving playing "girlie" things like Barbies and such.

Sophia keeps drawing her new family . . . so sweet!

Prayers are needed for our little guy. He is really

having difficulty adjusting to this new reality and jet lag.

These two enjoy each other's company. Now we are working with them to include Elijah, too!

We are home!

2011-08-27T21:09:00.000-07:00

We are home! Thank you God for your protection on our return trip. We are tired but so happy to be home where we belong!

A Thank You to All

2011-08-07T20:35:00.000-07:00

Our little sons want to say a big

"Thank You"

to all of you who sent us donations

to take to Philip Hayden's Shepherd's Field Children's Village.

(And we do, too!)

Shepherd's Field is where our Philip lived happily in China

for three years before we met him.

Families whose children once lived at Shepherd's Field sent donations of shoes,

school supplies, bandaids and such. While a sweet young lady who once lived as

an orphan gave us many hats she personally knitted for children still orphans. A couple

of people from our church even gave us shoes to take to the village.

Only two more days and then Kevin, Philip, Elijah, and I fly across the world.

Our first stop will be to stay at Philip's China home, Shepherd's Field.

We are all pretty excited about that!

Then the next stop will be to receive our Sophia Yilin! She has a little less than a

week until she is an orphan no more!

So very excited for the journey. Follow along at:

myadoptionwebsite.com

IN ONE WEEK!

2011-08-03T05:43:00.000-07:00

We will be here!

Oh my!

Our adoption website is up and running

2011-07-29T20:22:00.000-07:00

Our myadoptionwebsite.com site is up and running!

Yayhoo!

Click here to go to it.

While in Sophia's site, you might want to also click on an update I just did for Elijah.

I think this makes it official!! :)

Countdown continues

2011-07-28T04:07:00.000-07:00

The countdown to Ch*na continues . . .

13 days to go!

Oh my!

Such a sweet day today

2011-07-23T13:55:00.001-07:00

Today was our adoption agency's annual picnic. We have so much still to do (to get ready for Ch*na) and went back and forth on whether we should go or not.

Oh my, are we glad we did! It was such a sweet time.

First we got to hug our favorite adoption coordinator,

the lady who puts up with my too numerous to count questions each day,

the one who patiently tells me the same thing over and over because

I just can't quite take it all in,

the lady who gives us the wonderful news each time we go to the next

step in our adoption process . . .

This is that amazing lady and her beautiful daughter

Then we got to hook up with some of our travel buddies from Philip's trip,

Cathi, Ken, Lucy, and Mary Rose.

It is always a joy spending time with them.

Here they are with their little dog, too! Mary Rose, standing

with her daddy, came home from Ch*na the same time our Philip did.

She also is from the same province as our Sophia is from (Shaanxi).

Lucy, Mary Rose, Philip, and Eli

Four treasures from the East!

Then we met, for the first time in person, a family who

is with our agency and who has a daughter from our Philip's Ch*na home.

We have hooked up online and through telephone calls, but we have never met

them in person until today.

Two mommies with their Philip Hayden treasures!

Their family and ours

Sarah, Emma Grace, Rick, Matthew, and Andrew -

what a joy to meet you today!

And Sarh just happens to make hair bows - beautiful ones!

She brought us a bunch for our litte girl! Can hardly wait to see our daughter

wearing them!

We also met a delightful family who recognized us from our blog. It
was so sweet of them to stop and chat. They had lunch with our group as well.

They live in town and will be a play date sometime soon.

And then, as if the day could even get
better, our friends (another family from Philip's

travel group) gave us a dollhouse - a really big Barbie dreamhouse!

Wow, that made it really soak in that our daughter will soon be here,

a part of her forever family, forever!

What a day! So glad we decided to go to the picnic. So glad we are part of this miracle called adoption.

WE HAVE TA!

2011-07-19T13:07:00.000-07:00

We have TA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Travel Approval)

Details to follow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Both Hands Project Part Two

2011-07-14T19:12:00.000-07:00

We spent another amazing day working with our team of volunteers last Saturday to help the widow.

Click on the youtube link below to watch our video.

Thank you to all of the wonderful people who have given generously of their time and/or money to help the widow and the orphan. Thank you God for allowing us to to do this Both Hands project. It has touched our hearts deeply.

ONE HAND FOR THE WIDOW.

ONE HAND FOR THE ORPHAN.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6ttGmXxNUI

Article 5 was delivered last night!

2011-07-11T10:25:00.000-07:00

We got news today that Article 5 was delivered last night to the CCCWA in CH*na!

Whoo-hoo!

Next thing we are waiting for . . . our travel approval!

Then it will only be 2 - 3 weeks after getting travel approval that we step on a plane to travel to Ch*na to bring home our Miss Sophia Yilin.

Praying our TA comes before August 1 when the rules change that would make us have more post-placement visits, and therefore more expenses.

Praying for cheap airline tickets - around the middle and end of August, the price of a ticket seems to be pretty expensive! Yikes!

Trusting God to work out the details!

God Bless America!

2011-07-04T12:22:00.001-07:00

We spent a wonderful couple of days this holiday weekend celebrating with some special people.

Having a cookout with our moms

Visiting with our dear friend Lisa.

Meeting a new and adorable little cousin

and her sweet parents

Big boys playing at the park - too funny!

Along with Aaron and his big sister (whose husband is riding on the bee with Ted!)

Sliding down a slide

or just standing there.

It was a beautiful weekend all around!

Happy 4th to everyone. God bless America!

One hand for the widow, one hand for the orphan

2011-06-28T18:39:00.000-07:00

We had a blast June 18th painting Pauline's basement and washing her windows.

We love, love, love our Both Hands project (through Lifesongfor Orphans)!

And we love, love, love the widow and the orphan even more!! :)

How very wonderful to get a chance to help a widow while earning funds for our journey to Sophia Yilin!

One hand for the widow. One hand for the orphan!!

Check out the pictures below to see the harding working, smiling faces of dear people living out James 1:27.

Oh, happy day!!

This was Part One of our project. Part Two will take place on July 9th. Won't you pray with us that it goes as well?

So far our Both Hands total reaches above $2,000! Yippee Jesus! Thanking God for all of the people who have donated thus far! Each and every one of them is helping our daughter come home!

We are well on our way to reaching our $6,000 goal! The first $6,000 will go for our orphanage donation and our humanitarian fee to our agency. So when you donate, you are also helping those precious children left behind.

If you would like to contribute to our adoption fund, you can go to:

http://www.lifesongfororphans.org/bhProj.html

Click on our picture, and you can read our family letter, and then click the donate button to donate to our fund!

James l:27 says, "Religion that God our Father accepts is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

Happy Gotcha Day Philip!

2011-06-23T18:29:00.001-07:00

Three years ago today we were in Ch*na meeting Dong Bao for the first time.

He was not so sure he wanted a forever family, and he was really sure he did not want to leave his Ch*na home, Shepherd's Field!

Three years later, Philip is really sure he belongs to his forever family and we belong to him!

This is how we spent his Gotcha Day today.

Hanging out at McCormick's Creek State Park, enjoying the day, and later having cake with big brother Ted - it doesn't get any better than that!!

Happy Gotcha Day our much loved Philip Bao! We cannot imagine life without you. You make us rich beyond compare!

Oh how we love you so.

Finished product!

2011-06-21T19:38:00.001-07:00

Some pictures of the finished product . . .

My, oh my. . .

We can hardly wait to have her home!

This room has been a labor of love.

The comforter was made by Janet's mom, the Sophia picture was given to us by a sweet bloggy friend, and the "It's a Girl" picture is from some of our dear friends from Philip's travel group.

We bought the pretty little lamp the summer before we received Philip in a wonderful little shop in Michigan (back when we thought we were only adopting a girl and had no idea about our little boys!). The dress hanging on the closet door was given to us by more of our dear friends from Philip's travel group, and the "Daddy's Little Girl" frame is from one of Kevin's student's family.

So many people helping to welcome our little girl home, so much love to give her.

Nesting

2011-06-19T10:35:00.001-07:00

We are "nesting" at our house big time!

First of all, our big boy had to move out to our family room! We are calling him "Cinderfella" because he now has to sleep by our hearth. He is ok with being out there though because he has a bathroom all to himself, and he is farther away from all of us at night! :)

We also painted Sophia's room . . .

It is a very "pink" room now for our little girl.

All we need is to add our little daughter.

Hopefully that will be soon.

The growing up of our daughter

2011-06-10T05:02:00.000-07:00

As any waiting adoptive parent knows, the children we haven't met yet but hold dear in our hearts continue to grow up before our eyes as we wait, and wait, and wait.

Some pictures make our hearts leap to see such a smile.

Some pictures make us chuckle seeing the playfulness of our someday-to-be-home children.

And others make us long to hold these precious children in our arms and help them begin their transition to healing, to belonging to our family.

Dedication Sunday

2011-06-05T08:49:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday was Baby Dedication Sunday at our church.

Somehow we had missed the first two Dedication Sundays for Elijah and just now were able to do it. God's timing was perfect, as always.

That was the same day our dear friends Tim and Anna chose to have their new son Aaron dedicated.

In fact, we were the only two families first service.

You may remember that back in the winter Tim and Anna traveled to China to bring home Aaron.

So two little Chinese treasures were dedicated to our Lord this past Sunday.

Standing on the altar with our boys, looking out at all those smiling, loving faces of the congregation, made us teary!

How amazing that our two little boys and our older Philip could be standing up in a Christian church half way around the world from where they had been born while their families who love them and an entire congregation could promise to raise them to know Jesus!

Eating lunch afterwards at Cracker Barrel with Aaron and his family.

Newest picture of our sweetie

2011-05-30T20:10:00.001-07:00

Here is the latest picture of our Sophia Yilin. Seeing her sweet face makes us want to take the next plan to Ch*na and bring her home!

The day after for Philip

2011-05-27T07:01:00.000-07:00

This is Philip a day later and playing at home.

I wanted to post this picture to show you the results already!

We are thrilled! Even though he is swollen and a little bloody, we can easily see the results.

His lip is in line right now and straight across, not at all pulled up with a ropey scar. His one nostril has been moved out a little to help it be more like the other side.

As you can see, he has clear plastic stints in his nose to help keep the scarring at bay there. The doctor said that the inside of his nose was horrible scarred. He may have to wear these stints more than one month. They are held in place by a big blue stitch.

We so appreciate your prayers for our little son yesterday. They played a huge part in the success of his day. We ask for continued prayers for his healing, that God will heal his wounds without the large, ropey scarring. Then all of the beautiful work He allowed our doctor to do yesterday will stay in place!

Praying for Philip today

2011-05-26T07:13:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone,

Could you lift our Philip in prayer today?

He has his lip and nose revision in a couple of hours, and we could use prayers for:

A calm and non-frightening time for him. . .

God's handiwork through our doctor's hands. . .

That the surgery does what it needs to do . . .

That is - to open up his nostril and to remove the large scarring that is pulling up his lip and collapsing his nose.

Will you pray for a wonderful outcome for our precious middle son?

We know he will need to deal with other surgeries along the way and a bit of disfigurement because of his cleft lip and palate, but we are praying for a beautiful and wonderful outcome for Philip. He is just so handsome anyway you look at it, and we want him to have the best chance for that possible! We also want him to be able to breathe better and speak easier than he does now.

Thank you all . . .

OUR BOTH HANDS PROJECT - Lifesong for Orphans

2011-05-23T12:06:00.000-07:00

James 1:27

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the word.

This is not a post I ever thought I would need to write when we began our first adoption journey and even our second.

And admittedly, we have struggled with needing to do this. . .

But then all I have to do is take a look at the picture of our beautiful little girl needing to come home to the arms of her loving family . . .

and remember the STAGGERING number of orphans worldwide

(anywhere from 146,000,000 to 186,000,000)

That's millions, not hundreds, not thousands,

and that is a conservative number because will we really ever know the EXACT number of children around the world living without a family?

AND SUDDENLY I CAN WRITE THIS POST!

We are doing a fundraiser to help our beautiful Sophia Yilin come home . . .

And the money raised will first help go towards paying her orphanage donation (which everyone who adopts from Ch*na must pay) which goes straight to her orphanage and benefits those children left behind.

You can read all about it at the Both Hands site which is

http://www.lifesongfororphans.org/bhProj.html

and click by our photo - the exact one at the top of this post.

Our project for Both Hands entails helping a lady (in our case it will be three ladies) who are widows with some needed projects around their homes while collecting sponsorship money to help bring Sophia home!

It is like a 5 K run, but instead of running, we will be working!

To help a widow

To help an orphan come home

Both Hands

One for the widow

One for the orphan.

This and That

2011-05-18T10:49:00.001-07:00

Here are just a few pictures of what has been going on at our home.

Helping Papa put Sophia Yilin's bed together . . .

Better than watching "This Old House" which, by the way,

Philip loves to watch!

It's midnight and he is still up after having helped Papa with her bed.

He was so excited, and he just couldn't get to sleep!

Wonder if he will be that excited when she comes home! LOL!

We LOVE this man! We don't know anything more about him other than he works for Fed Ex and has delivered each and every one of our China treasures' Letter of Acceptance.

He seems part of our family now! When I see that it is Darryl delivering them, I run to get the camera and fly out the door. I probably scare him. Poor guy!!

New twist to "The Little Drummer Boy!"

Who could ever get mad at a sweet face like that?

More BIG News From Our House

2011-05-09T12:04:00.000-07:00

Letter of Acceptence!

Ch*na has officially approved us to adopt our Sophia Yilin!

We could travel in as little as twelve weeks!

Thanking our God for such a quick turnaround time. Our LID was 4/12/12, and our LOA was dated 5/6/12!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Big News at Our House!

2011-05-07T06:16:00.000-07:00

This is really big news at our house . . .

After a year-long-search for a full-time teaching position . . .

Ted has found a great one!

The story is quite remarkable and really makes for a Memorial Box Monday, but the news is too good to wait until Monday to share!

When we traveled to Ch*na to bring home Philip, we met another couple (Christine and Steve) who was bringing home their daughter. We had a lot in common with this couple because they were both teachers and were also bringing home their second child.

We have kept in contact with Philip's travel group, and we even shared our blog and facebook each other.

Well, last August when Ted was deeply discouraged about not finding a full-time job yet, he was at a small church service on Sunday night where his friends were praying for his job situation for a long time.

That same night, Christine happened upon my blog post about Ted's lack of a job.

Christine called the next day and said that even though she knew the last thing that Ted probably wanted was to work in preschool (he is licensed to teach English in secondary education and has a Theatre directing major as well), she was in desperate need of a teaching assistant for the coming year. Would he be interested?

Oh, yes, and she mentioned she had seen our blog the night before.

Right when Ted's friends had been praying!

The timing was too perfect, too Godly, to ignore.

He took the job and has loved every minute of it! Working with little kids (the ages of his brothers) has been a joy to Ted this past year. He has learned so much from Christine and built strong friendships with Christine and her family and many staff members. He also taught a puppet class once a week to little ones and co-taught a theatre class to middlle school students with another teacher he once worked with at Ball State! In fact, the middle school students are putting on a play in a couple of weeks with Ted helping to direct them.

For the last couple of months there has been a hint of a job prospect at this school, but nothing substantial, so Ted has been job searching big time! He has sent out so many resumes and followed up and even gone to job fairs, spending almost every free moment job searching. It has been exhausting for him.

That all has come to a halt because yesterday he was offered a full-time teaching position for next year at the school he has come to dearly love!

Only God could have orchastrated such a year for our oldest son. It has been a year full of not only learning from the teachers at the school, but mostly learning from our God. Ted has learned obedience to God from fasting and praying and waiting to see where His leading takes Ted, even when the way did not look clear. He has learned that trusting in our Lord trumps everything and is the only way to go!

When he took the assistant position last August, it was not a full-time job with benefits or even in Ted's field of study,

But God . . .

What a great year! What a great God we serve!

Hooking up again with Linny's call to pray and fast

2011-05-03T16:12:00.000-07:00

Our dear friend Linny, of A Place Called Simplicity, is calling people to fast and pray for many who are in need of prayers. Click here to read her post about it.

We are honored to pray for the many families who will post on her blog today.

The network of adoptive families around the world is such a close-knit bunch, and we are so touched to be a part of that bunch.

We love the orphan and the children who are orphans no more!

Won't you join in prayer on May 4th with us?

This is a picture of our daughter who is waiting for us in Ch*na.

She is 7-years-old and needs to come home.

We have been very delayed in getting our adoption tax credit refund this year and have had to send in all kinds of documentation. Each time I have phoned, I have gotten someone very nice but no response as to when the refund might be coming. This has gone on a long time. Finally, some kind lady today had me call the taxpayer advocate office.

They took our case and said they would help us speed things up.

Could you pray with us that we receive that refund soon? It will help in this adoption so very much.

Could you also pray for our friend's husband who is currently in Ch*na right now receiving their two new sons, ages 4 and 12. You can visit Lori's website here. Please pray that God will give her husband an extra ounce of strength and stamina to do this solo. He is very tired but happy.

Wonderful, marvelous, amazing things happen when God's people join together in prayer.

Won't you join with us today?

Awww - another birthday at our house - guess who?

2011-05-01T16:53:00.000-07:00

Guess who had a birthday a couple of days ago at our house?

I'll give you a hint.

He loves The Andy Griffith Show,hence the reason we went to The Mayberry Cafe for his birthday.

Another hint -

he loves to hang out with his family and he takes

such good care of all of us . . .

Still another hint -

he shows such a wonderful example of what following Christ is all about

by the way he lives his life

Still another hint -

we all are crazy about him and love him dearly

If you guessed Kevin, you would be right!

Happy Birthday Kevin (also known as Dad and Papa)

You are the greatest!

Sweet family time over Easter weekend

2011-04-25T11:49:00.000-07:00

A story with Papa

The boys and their candy haul. For some reason Elijah's feet look huge in this picture! Hee, hee! They are not really as big as they look. Must be the perspective of the picture.

Mommy's candy haul!

The placemats Philip, Eli, and I made that tell the Easter story of Jesus.

What a handsome young man!

Cute little Eli is doing so well after his palate surgery. His arm bands are to keep his fingers out of his mouth!

Christ the Lord is risen!

2011-04-23T20:43:00.000-07:00

How I love celebrataing Easter - it reminds us what God's love is all about.

Thank you Lord Jesus for giving us life!

You gave us a gift we can never repay and don't even deserve.

Your love knows no end!

Our two precious little sons love to learn about Jesus!

Coloring Easter eggs is a fun way to remember the new life we have in Christ.

Sharing time with big brother is so very special, too. Ted learned to love

Jesus when he was only in second grade. He helps point his little brothers to our Lord.

Eilijah is home

2011-04-19T08:51:00.000-07:00

Thank you for all of your prayers.

Elijah is home now and resting comfortably.

Actually, he is playing and running around, and we are trying to get him to rest comfortably!

LOL!

Prayer need for our Elijah

2011-04-17T04:07:00.000-07:00

Our youngest son, Elijah, is having surgery tomorrow.

He had surgery to close his palate a year ago,

and mostly it worked.

But his palate split a little and shortened since that time.

He also lost both tubes in his ears recently.

Could you join us in praying for Eli's surgery to go well tomorrow?

His surgery last year was pretty rough on him - very painful and frightening.

We are hoping and praying now that he feels secure and loved with us,

that this surgery will somehow be easier.

Nesting

2011-04-14T05:02:00.001-07:00

I know I haven't blogged in a little bit

since receiving our very good news

about being

DTC . . .

We have been busy nesting for our Sophia Lin.

We bought a bed with trundle and a new dresser.

All white!

My mom made a beautiful comforter . . .

In shades of pink!

Not a hint of blue here!

(That's actually a picture of her bed but not her comforter.)

Some big news!

2011-04-03T04:06:00.000-07:00

That's right!

Dossier to China!

Whoo-hoo!

An armful of boys! How sweet!

2011-03-30T05:27:00.001-07:00

Not much is sweeter than scooping up an armful of our little ones

fresh from waking up in the morning!

Too sweet for words!!

Birthday Boy

2011-03-22T07:35:00.000-07:00

Our amazing, loving, curious, funny, handsome, and adorable little boy

is not so little anymore

Philip turned 6 on Saturday, and we celebrated his birthday in style!

First we ran with the cheetahs at the zoo.

Then after eating Chinese food at a wonderful buffet,
we came back home to open presents.

Finally, the next day Philip had a big family and friends party.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET BOY. WE LOVE YOU SO!

Aaron comes home to his forever family!

2011-03-18T05:50:00.000-07:00

A tired but happy Mommy and Daddy with their new son.

Welcome home Aaron!

Aaron meeting his sisters and brother - a family of six now

Our two littles meeting their new friend.

Aaron really liked our sign!

Philip and Elijah watching Aaron in amazement.

Aaron's night!

Wonder what Aaron is thinking at this moment - all these people!

Yep, Aaron. All these people to love you forever. We are so glad you are home!

Helping Them Come Home

2011-03-16T19:52:00.001-07:00

This post is linked with one of our dear bloggy friends' family website. Linny (click here to read her post about helping orphaned children come home to their forever families) is an advocate for orphans all around the world and the families who are called to bring them home.

She has issued a call to pray and help families in the midst of the adoption process and for those families to post on their blogs about their needs.

We are one of those families in the midst of the adoption process. We are "paper pregnant" and are waiting for this beautiful little girl, our daughter, to come home.

Our prayer needs at this point are . . .

That our I-800A approval would come quickly and that we would be able to send in our dossier soon~

And that we would have the funds needed to complete our adoption of Sophia Lin! God has provided thus far with funds from a garage sale, a jewlery party, and the many generous and loving people who have sent us donations. We are humbled and awed at His great power! (We are also waiting to receive word if we qualify for a Lifesong for Orphans project to help widows and orphans at the same time. This would help us raise money to pay the orphanage donation for Sophia Lin.)

God is good and has led us all the way . . .so we are trusting in Him to provide the provisions needed and to lead us to China once again to bring our daughter home.

Thank you, sweet bloggy friends, for praying with us today. If you would like to donate to help our Sophia come home, just leave me a comment with your e-mail or website address.

Red Couch Photo of a precious new son

2011-03-15T04:15:00.000-07:00

Look at Aaron's sweet little face . . .

And the happy faces of his dear parents, Anna and Tim . . .

These three precious people fly home in two days!

We can hardly wait.

And Aaron? He doesn't know how amazing his life will be . . .

Surrounded by his forever family of loving parents, sisters, and a brother . . .

Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and a whole lot of friends . . .

And the best part, really . . .

Learning to love Jesus every day from now on~!

Thankful Thursday

2011-03-10T05:09:00.001-08:00

Thanking our God for our three amazing, wonderful, handsome sons at home . . .

And our beautiful daughter half a world away!

More pictures of Aaron

2011-03-07T14:01:00.000-08:00

Just had to share sweet pictures of Aaron and his parents.

Ok, our youngest sons are, hmmm, shall we say

"lively"

Very sweet, loving, and adorable but "lively"

Just a bit . . .

They keep life interesting.

So when Anna and Tim were leaving to travel to Ch*na last week, we told them that if Aaron was really well behaved, well . . .

If he was really well behaved, just make up something ornery that he would do to make us feel better.

LOL!

We are so excited to say that they don't have to make up anything!

One of the funny things they wrote home about was that while in a Chin*se governmental office,

Aaron proceeded to throw his shoes over the ledge, and Tim had to run down to get them!

Oh happy day! Aaron will be right in the mix with Philip and Elijah when he gets home!

Watch out world!

There is one less

2011-03-05T10:54:00.000-08:00

Right now in China are some very dear people.

They are our friends Tim and Anna and now Aaron!

Just a few short days ago Aaron met his forever Mommy and Daddy!

Oh happy day!

One excited Mama on her way to China!

One happy Papa with his new little son!

There is one less,

One less,

One less lonely orphan in the world tonight!

Thanking God for helping Aaron find his forever family!

Won't you keep Anna, Tim, and Aaron in your prayers as they continue this journey to bring Aaron home?

Our new family picture

2011-02-25T13:30:00.000-08:00

We just had a new family picture taken by

our sweet friend Megan.

When we look at it, we can't believe we have

been blessed with three such wonderful sons!

Next family picture will have Sophia in it!

Thankful Thursday

2011-02-24T04:07:00.001-08:00

I am thankful for these two precious little boys

who will always be our sons (and brothers)

Two cute for words . . .

Often very goofy . . . nothing boring about our days.

Philip and Elijah, your family loves you so!

Moe, Curly, or Larry??

2011-02-20T18:53:00.000-08:00

All right, all you 3 Stooges fans . . .

I think we have Curly living right here with us!

The resemblence is uncanny!! LOL!

:)

(Our nephew took a picture of Eli off of our blog and spliced it with Curly's. It took him forever to do this because he was laughing so hard that his hands were shaking. We have been giggling ever since we saw it. What a keepsake!)

New glasses??

2011-02-18T19:30:00.000-08:00

Like Eli's new glasses?

I think Claire is a little surprised! What do you think?

Happy Birthday Ted!

2011-02-14T14:27:00.001-08:00

Today is Valentine's Day.

Not only do we adore this holiday to tell the special people in our

life how much we love them,

but it's also Ted's birthday!

Not just any birthday this year though.

Ted turned 25 today.

That's a quarter of a century! Yikes! That must mean

he has really old parents! LOL!!

We all love and adore you Ted. You have such a sweet spirit and

such a wonderful way about you.

You are the best Valentine's present we ever received!

Happy Birthday Teddy Bear.

Sweet bloggy friends . . .

Won't you leave a happy birthday message for him?

He thinks our little boys are the only ones who ever get comments on their posts.
Won't you surprise him today??

New toy room

2011-02-12T12:49:00.001-08:00

This is our silly little boy posing for the camera in our toy room, I mean dining room. Yep, that is a bib over Eli's head. Yep, he still needs one since he is an incredibly messy eater! (Hence the reason he is still in a high chair! :)

After celebrataing Christmas at our home and with exteneded family, we couldn't even walk around in our family room because of all of the toys Philip and Elijah had just been given! Good problem to have though! So Ted and I worked hard to move all of our little guys' toys and such out into our dining room at one end. That end wasn't really being used anyway. Now it is! Big time!! It just took some new cabinets (you can see them off to the right) and a whole lot of organizing!

We have our family room back, for the most part - that is if you don't count the train table, mountains of blocks, and various other little toys here and there that still reside in the family room! LOL!!

Do you know what one of the really terrific benefits of this organizational project is? Philip and Elijah keep their toys straightened up so much better, and they have found toys they didn't even remember having! How cool is that??

Thanks Ted for helping your dear old mom get organized! Now all we have to do is squeeze in mountains of girl's toys soon! Won't that be fun!!

Chinese New Year

2011-02-06T20:30:00.000-08:00

We spent a fun night with some of Philip's travel group

celebrating Chinese New Year.

Does anyone notice how very big Elijah is getting??

We are thinking by age 5 he may be taller than any of us!

No kidding!!

Gotcha Day for Elijah Jiehao

2011-01-31T17:15:00.000-08:00

Look at that sad expression on this precious little boy's face.

This picture was taken of Elijah when we took him

for his first haircut home last February.

Look at him just one year later celebrating his first

"GOTCHA DAY" Anniversary!

Loved dearly by his mommy and papa . . .

And his brothers . . .

Now all we need is our Sophia Lin home . . .

2011-01-26T09:55:00.000-08:00

Once a year in preschool, Philip gets to bring home

the classroom stuffed animal for a weekend.

The idea is to play with the animal and tell about it in a classroom book,

complete with pictures of the time together. So that is what we are doing

this weekend!!

Sunny liked playing in the tent with Philip.

He even enjoyed the tunnel!

So fun to see life through the wonderful imagination of a child!

A prayer for our daughter

2011-01-20T19:54:00.000-08:00

I read the following poem on another family's website. It just captures what we are feeling right now, and I had to share it.

A Prayer for My Child

May you be safe and sleep soundly through the night,

May you be safe as you wake to the morning light,

May you feel our love from far away,

May it comfort and protect you through the day.

We will pray for you, our little one,

Until our time of waiting is done.

We will pray that the Lord keeps you safe from harm,

Until the child of our hearts becomes the child in our arms.

Anonymous

Doesn't this picture just tug at your heart?

CIS here we come!

2011-01-16T12:08:00.000-08:00

CITIZEN AND IMMIGRAT*ON

HERE.WE.COME!

When I left off sharing about how God was providing for our adoption expenses so far back on December 19th, we had one more home study expense and then the huge CIS expense due in pretty quick fashion since our homestudy was almost completed.

Well, I can tell you that it was nothing short of a miracle~!

Nothing like we have ever expereinced before~!

Checks began pouring in to cover the remaining homestudy fee so that by the time we needed it, which was the.next.week, we had it!

Then the checks began to pour in to cover the Citizen and Immigrat*on fees that would be needed shortly after the homestudy was completed.

We received checks from travel buddies, blog buddies, family, and friends alike.

It has been simply amazing and so humbling to see God work on Sophia Lin's behalf~!

Kevin even went into his school over Christmas break to check something and happened to see a check in his mailbox for $438! Just sitting there! It was a stipend that the school system had given to him. What a surprise!

And yet it wasn't really a surprise because we are learning that

when God says he is going to provide,

well,

He provides!

One of the sweetest things ever happened a little after finding Kevin's check when Philip, who had been watching and listening to us as we received check after check, quietly went over to his piggy bank and removed $2.

He came running over to me with eyes full of excitement and said,

"Here. Take my money to use for Sophia, too!"

Thank you dear sweet Jesus for your abundant provision.

Thank you to all of you sweet people who felt called to give to our Sophia Lin.

Our cups runneth over.

He is ours!

2011-01-14T04:26:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a big day in the life of Elijah Jiehao and us, his forever family!

We had his last post-placement visit home that will give a report to Ch*na on how he is doing in his new life.

Now he is really, truly offically ours!

Our youngest sons with our wonderful social worker, Diane,

who helped bring home our second Ch*na treasure.

Happy little boys - happy Mommy and Papa!!

Later on we met big brother and went out to eat to celebrate this special milestone!

Oh happy day!

Fun in the snow today

2011-01-11T16:26:00.001-08:00

It was a perfect day to play with snow.

First, we played with snow in the house! How fun - especially since Mommy didn't want to go out in the cold. But once Papa came home, we built a snowman outside.

A snowball for Elijah

and a snowball for Philip,

And if snow is this much fun,

Well, then . . .

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Happy New Year from our family to yours

2010-12-31T06:04:00.000-08:00

Trying to get a picture for our New Year's greeting was a little tricky.

It seems that our littlest had a bit of difficulty striking the right pose. Hee, hee!

Here, take a look and see what I mean.

Not there yet.

Still not there.

Almost . . .

Finally!

Happy New Year everyone!

Elijah's first Christmas home

2010-12-27T20:33:00.001-08:00

Here are a few pictures from Elijah's first Christmas home, surrounded by love, enjoying celebrating Christ's birth. What a Christmas!

From baking a birthday cake for Jesus,

Reading the Christmas story,

Waiting patiently to open presents,

Taking time to hug the furry children,

Helping Papa,

And Teddy, too,

to the beautiful extended family celebrations at both grandmas' homes,

It will be a Christmas for our treasured memories.

The significance of the moment wasn't lost on anyone within earshot at Gram Bourke's when Philip proudly announced that Elijah should go first since it was his first Christmas home. There wasn't a dry eye to be had.

His first Christmas home, his first Christmas ever.

His first of many to come.

Merry Christmas everyone.

From our home to yours . . .

2010-12-24T06:58:00.000-08:00

We are wishing you all a very Merry Christmas.

Celebrating the birth of Jesus is a highlight of our year, and to think that our Elijah wasn't here last year with us. Instead he was in a cold and stark orphanage receiving only minimal attention to his needs. And look what a change a year makes!

Missing and remembering our dads and other loved ones who are not here on earth this year, but celebrating with our precious loved ones who are here with us.

Giving thanks to God for our wonderful Savior - Christ the Lord!

But the angel of the Lord said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord."

Luke 2:10,11

MEMORIAL BOX MONDAY

2010-12-19T15:53:00.000-08:00

This post is a Memorial Monday post. I wrote our first one here. Our God is so good to us. When we see Him working in our lives, we want to find a way to memorialize it just as the Israelites did. Then, because we often tend to forget about the miracles He sends our way, we only have to look in our Memorial Box to remember His goodness. The following story is a good one to remember.

Our home study is moving right along. Today is our last visit with our social worker, and then she will have it ready for review!

Whoo - hoo!

Next stop will be CIS for our fingerprints and clearance from our country to adopt from China.

But first there was this little thing about the fee that is due today.

It is a smacking $800 - which in light of how much an adoption costs from start to finish isn't that much really.

But for us . . .

Right now . . .

And at Christmas time, too . . .

It was going to be tough to come up with.

So we have been praying. . . . . . . . . . Knowing that when God leads, He provides.

We had raised part of the amount through the jewelry party Becky (my sister-in-law's sister) had given us. We were so humbled and touched by Becky's gesture and by the sweet people who ordered from her. Some people even gave us a donation instead of ordering jewelry, and that went into our fund a well. How amazing to be walking along in church or opening a card I had received in the mail to find a donation to our adoption!

Still, as of Thursday night we were about three hundred short.

Wondering how He was going to work it out.

Then the phone call came that Ted's clarinet we were having repaired to be sold would be ready by this weekend, and the profit would be a little over what we had expected.

But, still, a little short.

Then we opened up a Christmas card yesterday from a sweet family from our church. It seems they also had enclosed a check for our Sophia fund. That amount helped make up the shortage.

We will be putting a small piece of jewelry, musical note (for the clarinet sold) and a Christmas card into our Memorial Box to remind us of God's unfailing promises. Where He leads, He will provide.

What a nice Christmas surprise!