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!

The Annual Father-Daughter Dance!

Speakers on!!!!!

Birthday?

We are in the process of having Braxton's date-of-birth officially changed. Upon coming home in October, the pediatrician said she believed his birthdate to be off & ordered a bone age test. After doing that test, and getting a statement from the radiology center, the pediatrician & our dentist, we've completed paperwork to have his birthdate changed to reflect a more accurate estimate. If everything goes through, he will have just turned 8 on February 1. They backed up his birthdate by 16 months. Braxton has no idea how old he is, so this shouldn't be too confusing for him. Once we know for sure that it will go through, we'll tell him how old he is! We thought Bayla would always be our baby, but now may become a big sister, and she seems fine with this :)

Activation Day!

January 28, 2013 Today Braxton was "activated". This means that his sound was turned on for the first time since having cochlear implant surgery on January 4th. He was excited and playful. His reaction to sound was very positive! He liked it and was not overwhelmed at all (this is a good sign). People often ask me if he's always THIS happy. Yep! He has a sweet personality and he's always smiling. When we returned home from Chapel Hill, he and Ben went all around the house making different noises/sounds like; the piano, running water, ice maker, etc. He was so cute, just laughing as he played the piano keys! February 21, 2013 (update) Braxton has been activated for about 3.5 weeks now & is doing great. We go to Chapel Hill every 2-3 weeks for volume increases and he continues to complete all the volume programs without any issue.