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!

This 1 min video shows how we've GROWN!

Happy Mother's Day

5/13/12 I really enjoyed today! This morning started out with receiving an email from Blake, from Scotland. So nice to hear from him while on his mission trip there. He said he is really enjoying himself - and that the people there are so nice & are very receptive to learning about God and the freedom in Christ. In fact, he also mentioned that he would love to move there! He said the people and culture is so awesome and the church there (called Destiny) is very much like his church in Greensboro (called Daystar). He went to a traditional Scottish dance party, phonetically pronounced (A-Keel-Ee) and said it was very interesting, with some guys wearing kilts, traditional music, and you have to pick a girl to dance with each time. He said it was tons of fun. I can't wait to hear more about his trip when he gets back. Then, we went to church. Mike had to work, but I went with all the kids & Brianna and Brandon came. I won the gift for the "mom with the most kids"! First Pastor Bo awarded the gift to the oldest mother there. Then, when he said the other gift will go to the mom with the most kids... every person there at deaf church turned around and looked at us! That was fun :) We then went to lunch and had a blast. Mike got off work pretty early and met us at the restaurant. Brianna & Brandon gave me a BIG picture frame collage. It has 18 picture openings! This is a great gift and I will sure fill it up :) Here are a few pictures from today, at church and then at the restaurant. In closing this post, I'd like to share my heartfelt thoughts on all the amazing moms in my life. To my own beautiful & sweet mom... I didn't get to see you today but will be seeing you soon. You're always on my heart and I appreciate you so much. You're an angel who always has a big smile for everyone :) I want to be just like you! To my mother-in-law (Jocelyn).. you are a loving and strong lady, with a heart of gold. You are so devoted to your family, with abundant energy and enthusiasm for life. Thank you for being a beautiful mother in my life. To my grandma Josephine and my grandma-in-law Frances... I can imagine you both looking down from heaven today and smiling on the families and the legacies that you both still have here on earth. I miss you both but know that someday we will celebrate all our days together again. To the birth mothers of my 6 adopted children... I think about you on this day and honor you. Sometimes I wish you could see how beautiful your children are and hear their laughter. I'm so thankful that I have been given that privilege and wish you could know that I cherish every one of these children with every cell I have. These 6 kiddos are such beautiful people, inside and out, which tells me that you must be too! Happy Mother's Day.

Caution!

5/11/12 Brent has finally gotten his lerner's permit! Please exercise caution now that Brent is on the road with you! I'm kidding... he seems to be pretty good so far :)

Catch - up - video

This little video is a compilation of several different memories we've made over the last 4 months or so...

(posted May 2012)

New Praise & Worship Team

Ben, Briella & Bellamei have joined the new youth praise & worship team at church. Here is a video of their 1st little performance. The video isn't great quality, but still enjoyable. They practice twice a week, and perform every Sunday morning. They will also perform for the hearing church too, as well as other churches or functions. A few of the other members are not in this performance.. I think there are 8 kids total.