Singing about Christ and a costume party

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

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!

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

Lovely special people

came to celebrate

our lovely special daughter's

first birthday home!

Happy Birthday Sophia.

We love you so!

Loving Homeschooling

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

Hello from our family

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"

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!