Xin Hue News Broadcast at Sophie's Orphanage

The Xin Hue news station is doing a special in China about Hearts and Hands International while Ken is in China. Our little Sophie is in the end of the video as she is leaving to get her cleft lip repaired. They are going to finish the special on April 30th. We heard they followed Sophie to the hospital and filmed there as well. They were filming at the orphanage again on the 30th and we can't wait until Ken posts it on You Tube and we are hoping for new pictures soon!!!! We received our I 171 and the Assistant Stork is sending it to our agency this week. We are praying we will be DTC next week and be able to bring Sophie home sometime in Aug. or Sept. The waiting is the hardest, we want to jump through the screen and hug Sophie everytime we get a new picture. We are so blessed to be getting these pictures,updates and videos, it makes the wait a little easier.

Our Sophie had her lip surgery

We are praising God for the wonderful news. Sophie had her surgery on Thursday and we got the report that it went very well and she should be released from the hospital in the next few days. We are so grateful to Ken for being able to be there with Sophie and send us the update and photos of our cutie. It was so hard knowing she was going to have this surgery and we would not be there to hold and comfort her. We are so thankful for these pictures and for Ken's ministry, Hearts and Hands International that provivded the surgery.


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We found out about Hearts and Hands ministry through a lady who was on the Xin Hui Yahoo group. Her daughter had been in the orphanage there and they live in the same home town as Ken and his wife Nita. They had wonderful information to share with us and got us in touch with Ken. He saw Sophie's picture and knew this was the baby he had scheduled and funded the surgery for. He has given us updates and pictures and it has been such a blessing.
Sophie is beautiful and we were surprised at how chubby she looks in the pictures, especially since she was only a little over 3lbs at 10 days old.
Mrs Feng is the orphanage director at Xin Hui, she seems like a wonderful lady who has such a heart for all the children in her care. She went to visit Sophie in the hospital and arranged for an Auntie to be with Sophie 24 hours around the clock while she was in the hospital.

My baby boy is 9!!

Eamon had his birthday celebration this week. We had a family party on the actual day and he opened family gifts and had an icecream cake. We were in China last year for his birthday, so he really wanted to have all his friends here for a sleepover. We all went to the Monte Mare pool and the kids had a great time on the slides and going off the high dive. Then we had everyone back to our house for dinner and a bunch of boys spent the night. Rylan made a fancy and very yummy 4 layer oreo cookie chocolate cake with chocolate and sour cream frosting. After cake all the boys wanted to run off all that sugar in the backyard. It was sooo wet outside from all the rain we've had, but this isn't a concern when your a boy. They had a lot of weapons they can't use inside and so they had to go out to the woods behind our house. It's really not a party for boys if there are not weapons involved. They were soooo muddy when they were done, but I was told this was the highlight of the night. I got in bed around 1am and it sounded quiet upstairs, but at 6am they were all awake and I could hear them playing the Wii boxing. I'm so glad Eamon had his last birthday in Germany with all his friends before we move back to the States. We are all going to miss the great families and friendships we have had here. It is going to be sad to leave, but I'm glad we have all the memories.

Happy 9th Birthday Eamon !!!

Make a scrapbook - it's easy!

Playing In The Rain

We had just gotten back from the Commissary that's grocery store for you non military people. It had been raining all morning so Hadyn just scooped Grace out of the car and they ran and jumped in every puddle in the driveway. We unloaded all the groceries and they were still out there having a great time. It was such great joy to just sit by the window and watch them.

Family Day April 2, 2008

WOW!! I can't believe it's been an entire year since we were in China and held Grace for the first time. It seems like the months have flown by,but it also seems like I can't remember a time that Grace wasn't with us. She has grown and changed so much since that day. She is such a joy and we are so thankful God has given us this precious child. We celebrated the day by all going out for Chinese food, which we all love and then Grace opened a few gifts. At the restaurant Grace sat between the boys and sampled all of their food. It is great to just sit and watch the boys love and care for their sister. She always gets us all laughing. She loved all the spicy food and when we would say chinese food she would associate this with China and she would say Sophie, China. She thinks the only place to travel by plane is to China. One of her friends who is 2 flew to the States and I was telling Grace we wouldn't see her at church, because she had flown on an airplane to the States. When we got to church on Sunday she looked for her friend and said her name and then said, she flew on an airplane to China. I just smiled and thought it's OK if she thinks everyone goes to China. I can't believe in a few months we will be traveling again to China and this time with Grace to bring her sister home. The journey of adoption and knowing God has had these babies chosen to be in our family since the beginning of time and that He would have us travel across the world to bring them home is just so amazing.

Rylan's Piano Performance

Rylan got to play at a real German castle as a finalist in a recent piano fest. Please hit pause on the other music about half way down on the right so both don't play at the same time.

Making Pies at Mrs M's

Mrs M is so great. We had a break in the coop schedule on Tuesday and she invited my boys up to learn to make yummy homemade pies. Rylan and Curran had a great time and actually brought home the apple, and bannana cream pies they made. They were delicious!!!

Easter Eggs

Rylan and Curran said they would help Gracie decorate eggs, but from this picture I think they had a good time making their own. We got all different color dyes to decorate
the eggs, but we all enjoy getting q- tips and putting the dye/ food coloring on them and then decorating our eggs. We had always done this growing up and you can really make some cool designs. Just look at the neat design Gracie made. The trick with her was getting it on the egg and not on her sweater.

Easter 2008

Gracie learns new words!!

Gracie is always happy and she likes to tell you what she thinks. Today I came down to fix breakfast and Hadyn and Eamon were doing their reading. Grace got her phone and started pushing the numbers and repeating what it said. I can hear her and the phone one,one two,two she says all the numbers in order until she gets to nine then I hear her pushing it over and over again and instead of her saying nine she is saying mine,mine,mine. This is very funny and pretty accurate. Gracie has also discovered the word "no" and she knows if she says it we will all stop and look at her and someone will tell her to please say no thankyou or please don't. She has all 4 brothers and mommy correcting her. (poor thing)

She has also started saying another lovely phrase "go away" If she is playing and she doesn't want you to play with her she will look at you sweetly and say go away. She isn't mad when she says this and is amazed that these words provoke such a reaction from us. We tell her this is not a nice thing to say and she must be kind with her words. We have also told her she will be disciplined if she says this. That night when we went up to put her to bed after rocking, cuddling, reading books, singing ,prayers and everything else that goes on at bedtime, we say goodnight. She usually goes right to sleep. We are downstairs and can hear her talking. We both go up stairs quietly and stand in the hall to listen. She is saying go away, go away, go away in different voices with funny reflections. We crack up! We hope she is just getting it all out before tomorrow. She is really an easy child and does try to please us. When she does something she knows is wrong she will tell us I'm sorry and it is sooo sweet. She also tells us I love you so much, always !! This age is so great and we are enjoying all the fun new vocabulary words Gracie is learning both the good and the not so good.

Painting

Most mornings our schedule is the same, everyone is up around 7am and cheerfully comes down stairs after chores for breakfast. Well we aren't all always cheery, but we do get up. The boys eat and I teach Bible then the boys start math and reading. Grace goes from puzzles to books to coloring then she usually spends time with her glue stick and glues different size sequins on paper and uses stickers. She has gone through some stickers!!! Then she likes to paint and I try to convince her that we could do something else,but today I was feeling extra crazy, so I let her paint. I have to stand there the entire time or she may paint the entire kitchen. I remember our two oldest boys when we lived in Arizona. It was hot and they wanted to paint, so I sent them outside and they stripped down to their underware and painted each other.They were having a great time, but then that got old, so they decided it would be more fun to paint the house and they did, until I came out and stopped all the fun. I know that Grace is probably standing there with her paintbrush looking around at all the things that would be fun to paint, so I always stay close when she paints. She had a super time mixing all the colors and we have a big string around her room so we can hang up all of her masterpieces. She has done more artwork than all the boys combined at this age, I think this is a girl thing.

Gracie painting

Our last piece of paper work is finished!!!

I know the picture looks blurry, but that was the state we were in at 2am. Whooooo!!! We just finished our last document for our dossier to China. Our homestudy is completed and on it's way to get authenticated. Last time we did this process it took over 9 months. This time it will be 6 weeks start to finish. We pray there are no glitches at the end. We spent a lot of late nights up drinking cappachinos to stay awake and finish the paperchase. We are so anxious to travel and bring our daughter home. We are all going this time so the trip will sure be different than the last. Since Sophie is from Guangdong we will stay in the same place for the entire 2 weeks. The boys are so excited to be traveling with us and Gracie just keeps repeating Sopie China, Sopie China. I don't think she has any idea what is about to happen. She really thinks having a sister is a great idea, but when we get to China and start holding and loving Sophie she may change her mind.

John Piper on adoption

Polish Pottery

A bunch of great ladies from church planned a fabulous trip to Poland to shop. I so wanted to go, but I still haven't left Gracie for longer than a date night. This was a long 2 days of being away and we have done a ton of attachment work to get to where we are now. I sadly decided I should stay home and was sad to miss out on all the great fellowship. I gave Mrs.M 80 Euro to get me a big soup crock and what ever else she saw. She came over Sunday night with a huge box full of Polish pottery. Yeah!!!! I am so excited at all the stuff she was able to get. She picked out the cutest tea sets for Gracie and Sophie. Grace couldn't wait to have tea with daddy. When I tucked Grace into bed that night she said Mrs M tea set, so I know she really likes it.



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Trippstadt Hiking

Saturday was warm and sunny, so we went on our favorite hike to Trippstadt. It is a really beautiful walk with little wooden bridges which crisscross over a stream. The boys like it because they can climb up the cliffs and hang from all kinds of trees. Grace fell asleep in the car on the way there, so she rode in the backpack for the fist hour. She loves the pack, but I got her out so she could run around some. She loves hiking and just being outside. We took some pictures and then she was walking on a flat part of the trail next to the stream and she just slid right in and was soaked up to her waist. She was shocked how this could of happened to her,she didn't cry but was definitely stressed, because of the freezing cold water. We stripped her down to her onsie and barefeet and then I had to carry her the rest of the way. I definitly got a work out, this girl is solid and not at all petite. She loved it and I ended up sticking her feet in the sleeves of her jacket on the way back, because it was starting to get cold. We stopped by the BX on base to buy her some pants, because we all wanted to go to our favorite pizza place for dinner and the boys insisted that Grace needed some bottoms. The BX has no clothes nothing but a pair of shorts so we bought them. This girl does not get cold. I think after being in so many layers in China for so long she is happiest when she is naked. She has started stripping down at night whenever I put her in footed pajamas. It is getting to be spring, so I just packed them all away, maybe Sophie will like pajamas with feet. Anyway, it was a great day and I'm glad Grace doesn't fall apart, even when things don't go as planned.

Hiking

A Snow Day!!

Well it wasn't actually a snow day. We schooled in the morning and were to leave for coop classes at 1pm. We got the call around noon no coop. My kids all say what are we going to do-- like we have to plan something, we just couldn't catch up on school and stay home. We call the M's and they come over. Mrs.M rarely passes up an offer on happy cappies at our house. The kids played Wii and Play station and probably killed several thousand brain cells in the process,but they had fun. The picture is how we spent the afternoon. We are kind of a sad bunch, one child has been sick for two weeks,one had a bad fall which resulted in a huge bruise and another just had his eyes dilated and can't see.