Reflecting on 16 years

Today is Nathan's 16th birthday. I cannot believe that time has passed so quickly. I know that all parents feel that way when they look back on their children's lives, and it is certainly true. We have been so blessed by Nathan - he was such a cheerful, beautiful little boy, and has grown into a wonderful young man. He has always been a caring person, one that is so faithful to his friends. He is growing into being a wonderful brother and friend to Faith, and I am sure that he will be even more comfortable with Molly Yingjin, since he now has some experience. I sometimes wonder how we got so lucky and so blessed to have him in our lives, and I thank God for him each and every day! I can't wait to see the young man he is becoming - and I hope and pray that he continues to grow in his faith.

You are the poem I dreamed of writing, the masterpiece I longed to paint. You are the shining star I reached for in my ever hopeful quest for life fulfilled. You are my child. Now with all things I am blessed.

Paperwork, paperwork!

After a whirlwind week, our paperwork is off to AWAA to be sent to the Chinese Embassy for the final step of our dossier. We are hoping that since CCAA is back on Monday, our LOI (Letter of Intent) to adopt Wu Ying Jin will be sent, then to follow with our dossier in the next couple of weeks. It has been a quick trip this time around. We applied to AWAA just before Thanksgiving, were accepted in early December, started our homestudy on Mike's birthday (December 26) and now our paperwork is mostly done. We feel that God is definitely working with us! We couldn't believe when we received our referral, and hope that things go quickly so that we are approved by the Chinese government to be Ying Jin's family. We look at her picture every day and can't believe how beautiful she is. We have definitely been blessed with wonderful children. Please keep Ying Jin in your prayers for health and safety and for an easy transition to our family. We are anxious to travel and meet her.

Faith's 2nd Birthday

We can't believe that Faith has been with us a year and that she is now 2!! (Except of course for constantly hearing her beautiful voice saying "I do" or "mine" or "No!") We had a small party with a few close friends to celebrate and have some cake and ice cream. Faith loved her gifts and has been spending time playing with them every day since. It has been a whirlwind the last few weeks with Gotcha Day anniversary on Feb 13, Adoption Day anniversary on Feb 14 (and Valentine's Day too of course), Chinese New Year and Faith's birthday on the 21st. On top of all of that, we received our referral for our second daughter, Wu Ying Jin, and have been frantically trying to get all our paperwork together to send our dossier to China. It has been an incredible journey this last year, and such a blessing! Stay tuned for more to come.


Faith opening her gifts


Trying out her new trike! She loves the bell!


Blowing out the birthday candles - wonder what her wish was?

Faith's Gotcha Day Anniversary

Wow! We can hardly believe that it has been one year today since we received our beautiful little Faith in our arms. We have been looking at pictures and reliving the moment all weekend. We can't begin to describe the blessing that we feel having her as part of our family, and the joy that she has brought to all of us. As we waited last year for her referral and fretted over the wait, those that had been there before us assured us that all would be in God's perfect timing. All we can say now is Amen!

A silly moment for our 12 month post placement picture

Big brother and little sister

Getting ready for those teenage years!

I'm ready to go to China!

Isn't she beautiful!

We are so blessed to announce that we have received a referral of a beautiful 5 1/2 year old girl from Wuzhou SWI in Guangxi Province. Her name is Wu Ying Jin. We have decided to name her Molly Yingjin (but we are going to let her decide if she wants an American name). We are praising God for sending her to us, she sounds like she will be a perfect fit for our family. We are in the process of reviewing all her paperwork and getting things back to AWAA, but we feel that God has placed her with us, so it's pretty much a done deal :)

We love that smile!

Her referral says that she loves being outside.

Trying to look so grown up

New Picture

peek-a-boo

Our New Blog

If you've followed the link from our babyjellybeans website, welcome! We have switched to this new website to continue the story of our growing family. Thanks for coming and enjoy the ride.