Time off is GREAT!

     We have had such a wonderful time together over the past week.  Time off and time as a family is so nice.  As you can see we haven't really had a quiet moment but that is ok.  Scott and I have slipped off for a date or two.  It was my prayer that the kids really know why we celebrate Christmas.  Sam and Katy are just beginning to understand the things of God since they spent their lives not knowing about Him.  However and interesting fact is that Katy told me she prayed every birthday, or maybe more like a wish, but she used the word pray.  She would pray for a family.  She has her family now and is spending her first Christmas with us.  She is soaking it all up.

      I love the kids smiling faces and happy hearts.  I love the fact that God used this family, with no special gifts or talents to love a child that had nothing.  It is a true miracle.  The bible talks about God giving us power.  Not the super hero kind really, or maybe it is!  There is no way we could have done what we have done without it.  God has given us the power to do things that we never dreamed possible.  We look back at the past 5 yrs and have to laugh.  We have added 5 children in five years.  Who could do that accept one injected with a reckless faith and complete power from God himself.  I look into their eyes.  All of them.  Bio and adopted and am just amazed.  I couldn't have dreamed this up in my best of dreams.  Ok, now if you are thinking that things are easy and fun all of the time......well they aren't.  We have kids from hard places.  Kids who never knew real love until they came to us.  They are learning, questioning, testing and healing.  I have mentioned many times before that on most days we fall into bed at night in complete exhaustion.  You cannot imagine how many socks this house wears in a week and the shoe buckets are over flowing.  Oh and if that wasn't enough we added Sam's golden retriever to our family in December.  Her name was Annie but I think we have all decided to rename her Chewy.  She loves Barbies, Ugg boots, kids hair, clothes, fingers.....well just about everything but her really nice chew toys.  I have heard screams from downstairs.  There are at least 5 kids sitting on the very back of the couch while Annie, I mean Chewy, is trying to play.  I think it is play but it looks more like attack to all of them.  I have no idea what they will do when she realizes she can jump on the couch.  hmmm.

We have ice skated, built gingerbread houses, sledded, watched movies, slept late and just relaxed.  After the break is over we will jump right back into it all.  High school basketball will be in full swing and Josh will begin college.  Leah will be playing indoor soccer and on and on.

We are hanging on for the ride but if you wanted to send a prayer our way after you read this we would love it.

           Meet Annie. 

Josh's 20th Birthday.

We finally all have matching stockings.  A very sweet patient of Scott's made them all.  They are beautiful.

Sam showing his figure skating ability.

Gingerbread houses.

Golden Santa.  Joel works at a thrift store and I visited a couple of times.  I guess both times I commented on the golden santa....so guess what I got for Christmas.  I love it.

Scott took the brave and adventurous ones sledding at Rocky Mountain National Park.

Life if Full and Good

Ok, seriously.....have you ever seen anything cuter than this?  We have been looking back over our last few years and were totally amazed at the cuteness of our children.  I know, I know that is a little bragging but just look!

We have just celebrated 8 yrs with our sweet little Ellie.  Her adoption really changed the whole course of our lives.  She is smart, strong, full of energy, shy at times, loud at times but kind and gentle.  She taught DonLi most everything he knows and then MeiLi as well.  She has become the solid friend and sister that Katy so desperately needed.  She is a true blessing to all of us.

Moving onto our now 13 year old son, Samuel.  His birthday happens to be on Ellie's Gotcha Day.  We think about that.  When we were in China getting Ellie 8 years ago Sam was still with his biological family.  Somewhere between 5 and 6 he was left on his own and went to live in an orphanage until we adopted him 5 yrs later.  Well he isn't an orphan anymore but does suffer from the hard life he had along the way and  that is why this crazy family got him a Golden Retriever puppy for his birthday.  Now if you were just kind of wondering if we were crazy this will seal the deal.  We will bring the puppy home on Dec. 5th. Just in time for her to chew the Christmas Tree down and unwrap every gift under the tree.  Samuel is very excited.  Our hopes are that he can have a wonderful new best friend to play with and train.  To love and be loved by.  To run, walk, and play countless hours of fetch with.....and of course to pick up millions of pounds of dog poop in the back yard.

Samuel is so kind and special.  I asked Scott the other day how in the world can we love this boy who came into our lives at 11 yrs old.  We didn't speak the same language, we were strangers, and we were from two totally different cultures.  His answer to me was.....Easy.  And you know what?  It is easy to love him.  Life isn't always easy with him, but the love is there and he knows it.

That brings me to another boy that we have become really fond of.  He lives in the same place as Sam and Katy but he has the same cranial deformity as MeiLi and amazingly we think he looks like DonLi.  No he isn't going to be our son but we want so badly to find him a family that can love him like we love Sam.  He is 11 yrs old.  We have met him and he is very sweet.  If you are at all interested or might know someone who is please let me know. We are praying for his family to be found.  They are out there I just know it.

A blog wouldn't be complete without a story about Katy.  Oh, my is she learning and growing more precious every day.  She has come a million miles in school so far.  Her reading amazes me as well as her understanding.  Just about the time I think she is really getting it she will say something like tonight.  I told her to eat her food and she responded, "Can I just eat the fish?"  "I don't want to eat the grass."  Well, Katy it is called salad or lettuce and ok you don't have to eat it.  

Some bumps in the road

We have had some wonderful weeks of Fall.  The weather is cooling down some, the trees are beautiful and the mountains are getting snow.  Beautiful for sure.  The kids have jumped into school and are doing well for the most part.  We have our struggles with the ones learning to read and write.  Katy is loving school and making many friends.  She just wants to do everything that all the other kids do in the class.  The only problem is she has only been here 6 months.  She is a perfectionist and she has no time for not getting things just right.  She is learning and growing in many ways.  For instance....when someone bumps into you, you don't grab their finger and twist.  That isn't a very good way to make and keep friends.  Also, when you talk and disrupt class your mom and teacher WILL talk and then you may just find yourself....well....in a little trouble.  She learns quickly and so wants to do it all like she should.  We love her more everyday.  She has definately spiced up our lives.  We were missing something in our family and she was it.  DRAMA.  It has been interesting to say the least.  Katy has a full understanding of her life in China and why she was where she was....without a family.  I mentioned  how she wants everything to be perfect and with that she wants herself to be perfect.  Well, I think she would just settle for no physical problems at this point.  She gets so sad asking why God made her with something that will affect her and be hard the rest of her life.  It is so difficult to try and help her through that and give her strength to know it will all be ok.  One of those pieces of adoption that you really don't think too much about and when you are faced with it you then turn around and wonder why also.

Now for the bump that hit our family this week.  I was having a wonderful Wednesday when my phone rang with a call from school.  The principal was calm as he was telling how MeiLi fell from the monkey bars and broke her arm or shoulder.  She couldn't move it so they had call 911.  Ok, I was there in less than a minute.  I ran to the playground to see her laying in the ground with DonLi and Ellie crying their eyes out over the top of her.  MeiLi was screaming in pain.  One look at her arm that was no longer looking like an arm and I knew it was broken really bad.  The ambulance came and starting an IV an gave her pain meds just so they could move her.  It felt like a lifetime on that ground.  Praying and trying to calm her down.  We were off in an ambulance to Childrens hospital.  I called Scott and firmly said, "you have to come now!"  He sometimes gets the choice on whether to join me for a kids activity, and I knew he was giving a talk to a bunch of Dr's but it was no choice this time and we later laughed at how I said it.  MeiLi had surgery Thurs. morning to pin her arm back together and then we moved on with life again.  We felt so blessed through it all.  Within an hr 3 or more people brought food to our house.  The next day gifts and many cards from school came home with the kids.  MeiLi is loved and there are many, many kind people that go to our school.  Completely wonderful.  I wouldn't recommend braking an arm but to be able to see such kindness was wonderful.
As MeiLi lay in pain and was moved around she didn't want to let go of me.  She needed to know I was there and going to where she was going.  I just have to say that I feel so blessed and fortunate to be her Mama.  I thank God with all that is in me for bringing her to our family.  He showed us more than a little girl with a facial deformity.  There is a very good chance had we not heard God's voice that we were to go get her that she may have never gotten a family.  We made the decision to adopt her without even knowing all that was wrong with her.  WE just knew she was our daughter.  People might ask how we would know something like that.  The first time we saw MeiLi was while we were waiting to go get DonLi.  I was looking through photos of kids in that orphanage.  This is the first time we saw her.  She is on the left.

I remember the first time we saw this picture we said, wow, I wonder what is wrong with that little boy.  As we waited longer we continued to find pictures with her in them.  When we traveled to get DonLi we were able to visit these little children.  I wanted to hug them all.  I tried but they really didn't like that since they had never really been hugged before.  I remember praying for MeiLi that God would send her a family.  I knew it would be difficult for a family to step out and adopt a child that didn't look like other kids.  Scott hugged her and this is the photo we have of that moment.

Now don't give us too much credit here.  Scott is hugging her like a daddy hugs his precious child but not once through that day did we think we were to be her family.  Not until a yr later this photo arrived from a family that was visiting the kids.

Ok then.  My first thought was "Oh wow, she is a girl" and then came the small voice.  This is your daughter.  I want you to go and get her.  I sat there and cried because it was so clear.  I emailed the photo to Scott.  His first words back were, "we need to find out if she is getting a family"  The rest is history besides our fight to get her file so we could adopt her.  It took much persistence but she was our daughter and we had to do whatever we needed to do.  Yes there were many times as we waited to travel for her that I wondered what we had in store for us.  Little did I know that she would be one of the highlights in my life and every life that she touched along the way.  She is perfect in every way.  Yes, she is a little wide set and crooked here and there but her precious smile and beautiful heart is like none other.  Like I said, I am VERY blessed to be her mother.  Oh and by the way.  The name MeiLi means beautiful.  Perfect for such a wonderful little girl.

We love you sweet MeiLi.

What have we been doing???

A little bit of this......

4th of July fun with 3 American girls....

best brothers and friends.....

A road trip to with my 16 yr old boy, Joel, to Kearney, Nebraska for a basketball tournament....

Fun trips to the park with dad while mom gets some alone time.  They have to send pictures so the whole time I am wishing I were there.......

A trip for the girls to get our nails done......

We took a trip to Dallas/Tyler Texas to visit Scott's family.  They hadn't met Samuel or Katy.  The kids had fun flying and it went amazingly smooth.  Here they are waiting in the airport....

Big brothers are great.  Joel carried Katy's American doll and pink backpack through the airport.....

We were able to visit Scott's old stomping ground.  We were so proud because Scott's nephew, Shannen, who just graduated from DBU was able to give us our tour..... 

A fun filled 10 hour day at Six Flags.  About 3:00 I wanted to sit down and demand someone take me home.  I decided against that and sucked it up and pushed on.  The kids had a really great time......

It was interesting.  We had the chicken group and the non chicken group.  I will let you guess which this is.......notice that you don't see Katy in this group.........

This is one of my favorites.......

There were a few rides that the chickens and non chickens rode together......  it isn't the coaster above.  That was totally for the non chickens.....

  

We survived and the chickens even lived to talk about it.......whew!......

Moving on to Tyler to spend some great time with family.  Not only has our family grown but the rest of Scott's family is doing pretty good also.  These are cousins, nieces, nephews and even great nieces and nephews.  They all had so much fun together.  This is Scott's sweet sister, Susie.  I just love her.....

We had a great surprise when Scott's nephew, Aaron brought his firetruck by the house.  The kids had a great time climbing in and out of the truck and trying on the helmets......

Luke Aaron is named after his cousin Aaron.  Just some family trivia.  Most of our kids have a name that belongs in our families.  It is special for them to connect with.....

We all love Popo.  He is such a huge anchor in all of our lives.  He plays and lives like he were 20.  Thank you Popo, for all the love that you have blessed this family with.  You taught Scott how to be the best dad and husband in the world.  I couldn't ask for more.....

The grown ups plus a few little guys slipped away for a Mexican dinner.  So much fun...

Another fun get together was with my nursing school roommate and Scott's medical school friend.  Ken and Shannon we had a great time catching up.  We have such fun memories with you guys......

Now we are moving into the school shopping season.  I took the 4 girls out for the whole day of shopping.  They learned what it means to shop til you drop.  We were all very tired but what a fun day we had....

More fun at the park but this time I tagged along.  Someone had to kill the bees that threatened our picnic....

We have had tons of swimming.  Katy loves, loves, loves to swim.  Aunt Jan spent the day with her in Texas teaching her how to swim.  She is like a little fish now.  Jan she loves you so much.  That was great time for her.  As a matter of fact Katy cried to stay with Jan when we left.  I think she is happy she came home with us but likes to call and talk with Jan.

Luke and Leah swam on the swim team this summer.  Tonight was the final party....

And finally we have probably had the most of this.  Tons of Dr. visits and evaluations this summer for Katy.  Whew.  It started out a bit rough but she has done so well.  She has had a rough life with a medical condition called Anal Atresia.  It just means that her bowel plumbing inside and out really didn't form correctly.  I am honored and proud to be her mama through this.  Her life is going to be a quality life because of the medical care we are able to get for her here.  This is one of those times that floods me with complete peace and satisfaction.  There is nothing like being able to help a little child in this way.  The love and bond that we are building as we walk this path is strong and growing deeper every day.  When she gets all upset not wanting to do some tough medical stuff I just ask her, "Katy, do you trust me?"  She hesitates and then says yes and calms down and we move on.  Katy is a mess.  She is full of life.  She is loud.  She is beautiful. She is determined.  She is stubborn.  She is kind. She is very smart.  She loves her family. Each and every one of us. She was an orphan with absolutely no hope. Her orphan status would have affected her until the day she died.  She would have had a hard life with her medical condition.  But God loved her so much that he sent this crazy family to scoop her up and place a beautiful crown on her head and call her our own.  She now knows that there is a God who loves her and cares for her.  She accepts that as the truth.  I am blessed like crazy.  Katy will start school for the first time here in the US.  She is nervous and excited all at the same time.  She will do great and those lives she touches will never be the same.