One home...Many hearts: Happy, thankful, and having fun!

Welcome to our story...

God has richly blessed us with a big, fun family...
We have 10 children... 3 homegrown & 7 born in our hearts!

Blake... our oldest is 25 and has a heart for the Lord. He enjoys; church, family, mission trips, making music, playing guitar & drums at church, and writing.

Brianna Faith... is 21 and has a compassionate & tender heart. She's a wonderful big sister. She began talking to us about adoption when she was 11 yrs old. She is "Faith in motion"

Brent... is 17 - he's an awesome guy! He's in highschool. He has a special heart for family and God. He loves sports! Brent loves to laugh & is full of life!

Bethany Lidia... now 15, joined our family in August 2006 at 9 yrs old. She's from the beautiful country of Guatemala. She started school for the very first time (at 9 yrs old) and is now in 9th grade. Lidia's passion is sports & dancing!

Benjamin Ross... 15 yrs old. We first saw his picture in April 2007 & came home in May '08. Ben is deaf, but his special need is that he needed a family. Ben loves making home-runs & hanging out with family & friends. Ben is from Tianjin, China.

Briella Xiyao... our beautiful 15 yr old daughter from Fujian Province, China. She joined our family in July 2009. She's always wearing a big smile! She has a passion for the deaf & very proficient in sign language. She loves basketball!!

Bellamei Ying... our Inner Mongolian princess. Bellamei is 14 yrs old and held my hand for the first time on July 18, 2011. She has melted into our big family seamlessly and it is truly an honor to be her mommy.

Brinley Grace FuChuan... is 9 years old and joined our family in July 2007. She's from Jiangxi Province, China. She has the most gentle, sweet spirit... she's an angel!

Bayla Shea Chao-Yu... our youngest. She's 9 yrs old, 5 months younger than Brinley. Bayla's from Hunan, China & came home at 11.5 months. She's bright, funny (and spicy!) We can't get enough of her hugs & kisses.

and our caboose... Braxton Emanuel Jordan - 8 yrs old? (see post below) He's from Guangdong Province and is now officially our son!

Saturday, July 18th, 2009

We arrived last night to our final city here and checked in to The White Swan Hotel... as beautiful as ever. The flight was short and pleasant and Briella was thrilled, especially during take-off and landing. Lidia loves it here in Guangzhou! We've met many families here that are from the states and have had lots of fun with them, walking, shopping and then going to dinner with another family. Their son reminds me so much of Brent. They adopted a 10 yr old girl that was just so scared and we could see her quietly weeping. Briella became friendly with her and they became friends, just chattering away in Mandarin. That is the family we had dinner with and it was a good time. I believe Briella really helped her to feel more comfortable.

The GREAT news is...... Briella had all her medical evaluations this morning and her chest x-ray was perfect. This is great news and means that her positive TB skin test was a false positive from her previous vaccination. Yay! She will now be granted a visa to come home. She also had 4 vaccinations and not a flinch. She has had a perfect transition so far... she is very sweet, playful, shy at first, smart, and confident. She has not shed one tear the whole time. She's already learning some English words.

Here are some things on the agenda for the next few days... paperwork, a museum trip, our consulate appt, swearing in ceremony, the zoo, and getting her visa to come home. We are fitting in a little shopping, swimming, and visiting. A few of the shop owners remember me from previous visits.

Love to all of my kiddos back home and thanking God for all of my blessings

On the way to the airport. Lidia has small hands... Briella's are TINY

1st airplane ride was a big hit!

Beautiful sunset above the clouds

A new boat for Mike.... well, it IS bigger!

Breakfast at The White Swan Hotel... one of the best amenities here

4 shots and a chest x-ray equals a clean bill of health!

Briella did so well with all the medical stuff, including 4 trips to the hospital in her province

Lidia sewing some little silk pouches at a local shop