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!

6 More Days

Ben & I are leaving on Tues, Oct 2. We'll arrive in Beijing the following evening. We'll fly to Guangzhou on Oct 7 and meet Braxton on Oct 8! Another family was there last week - they just adopted a 12 yr old boy from the same orphanage. They visited the orphanage & took this picture...he knows we're coming!

Travel Approval

9/17/12 - Today we received the official travel approval! Ben and I are leaving on October 2. I shared the news with Ben when he arrived home from school - his face lit up :)
Lots of details to arrange now & we will be making a special side trip to Tianjin to visit Ben's deaf school. He boarded there during the week & went back to the orphanage on the weekends. Deaf school was more like his home there. In China, students are in the same class every year (together) and with the same teacher. Ben's lovely teacher will find out tonight that we are coming to visit. She has no idea and I'm sure she'll be surprised - she was very fond of Ben. We're expecting an update on Braxton any time now, and hopefully an updated picture!