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!

We're in Beijing

Lidia and I are now 4 nights into our trip and all is going well. We flew into Beijing and did some sight-seeing there for 2 days, while we got used to the new time zone. We were able to fly 1st class to Chicago, then business class to Beijing... thank you Kim & Jeff !! It was awesome :o)

This evening as I post this, Lidia is sound asleep and I am pensive in the still silence... thinking about meeting my new daughter tomorrow and humbled that God would entrust me once again to have the privilege of being mama to another beautiful child of His. Briella Xiyao has waited 11 long years for her forever family. I wonder if she has butterflies too!

Yes, I am a little nervous... but mostly just in awe. I've learned that the very sweetest blessings anyone can receive are the ones that come by way of true faith. The more I trust Him, the sweeter life gets.


Lidia learning how to stretch silk

After my 4th trip here, my guide finally clarified for me what this sign means...a place of mental rest for the emperor and empress...Mike, maybe you can build one for us?

Our guide takes us to the Forbidden City

Lidia goofing around at the jade factory

Touring the historic Hutong area

Getting ready to climb the Great Wall

Pretty steep!

Working up a sweat now.

Stopping at the top to catch my breath

What a place to take a rest!

Yak meat anyone? We found this at the airport while we were looking for a breakfast snack...

View from the van as we got closer to our new hotel

A couple views from our hotel room

Beautiful area

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