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!

24 Hours to Activation !!!!!

posted 1-8-2009
If you want to witness pure joy & delight, just look at Ben's face :o)
Here he is just 1 week after his cochlear implant surgery, with his surgeon Dr. Craig Buchman, UNC Chapel Hill Children's Hospital. Picture Ben giggling as he skipped into the operating room. This pic is his 1 week post-op... he healed so fast and easily.
(you can click on pics to enlarge)
This time tomorrow, we'll be in Chapel Hill for Ben's 1st activation. Ben has been counting down these last 4 weeks since surgery, and now he's counting down the hours. He's asking a zillion questions about anything and everything that has to do with his activation and about hearing in general. His questions are excellent and are an indicator as to his desire, anticipation, and intelligence. I have told him that learning to hear will be slow... as we've been told. There will be 3 activations, 2 weeks apart... to ease him into it. I told him that the professionals say we'll have to be patient... he disagrees... maybe we'll just have to let Ben show us :o)

I plan to post a video of his first moments of activation. We are letting all the kids miss school tomorrow, because they all want to be there in the room with him. Hopefully the room will be big enough for all of us! (Mike, me, Brianna, Brent, Ben, Lidia, Brinley & Bayla)

We'll be back home in the evening... ready to begin witnessing Ben's miracle, and seeing him discover a whole new world he always dreamed about...
Thank you God

3 comments:

Michele said...

We'll be praying for you all! Can't wait to see the video! Don't worry...before long he will tune out his parents voices just like all the other kids! : )
Thanks for the update
-Michele, Brad and Carly

Melissa Ward said...

I'm so excited for you and especially Ben. I can't wait to see the video.

Melissa

Anonymous said...

We were all in tears here in Florida as we had a chance to hear about Ben in these first few hours!! It is a miracle and we praise God for all that He has given to our family with this wonderful young boy. Mike and Lisa have been pointed in the right direction and God has been their strength and joy! I spoke to Ben on the cell phone as they were heading home. I said, "Hello Ben, this is Grandma! I love you, I love you!" All the kids in the car responded that he had said "grandma" and "love you. . ." I knew that he had actually heard me for the first time ever!. Love, Grandma Jocelyn