One home...Many hearts: Travel Day 1

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!

After a very long 24 hrs of travel, we are here in Beijing and have settled into our hotel (The Traders Hotel). Our 1st flight was delayed, but everything else went perfectly. We got to ride in 1st class to Chicago & business class to Beijing... what a luxury (thank you Kim & Jeff!) My uncle Ron came and picked us up at the airport in Chicago and we went to IHOP nearby for a couple hour visit during our layover. It was great to visit with him!

Here are a few pics from our 1st day of travel. My good friend Tamera is blog-sitting for me and will post my messages & pics to our blog, since I can't access it here in China.

I was really happy when I turned my phone back on after landing in Chicago and I saw a text message from TJ, a 16 yr old boy that is from the same orphanage as Ying. He was adopted almost 3 yrs ago. I found his family (on-line) through one of the adoption forums I'm on, and TJ was nice enough to talk to us on the phone the night before I left for China. He said he periodically calls the orphanage to talk to his foster sister that he misses, and he told us that he also spoke to Ying last weekend. She told him that she has a family coming for her, but she didn't know when exactly. He said she sounded happy. Anyway, I told him if he called there again in the next couple days, to tell Ying that I'm supposed to get her on Monday, and to tell her that I love her very much. He did call her that next night & her reply was that she loves us so so much and that she's so excited. How great to know how her heart is feeling.

We're going to bed very soon, as we are exhausted. Will sight-see tomorrow around Beijing.