One home...Many hearts: June 2011

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!

6/27/11
Today I received this message from my agency..

Hi Lisa,
The orphanage told us that Guo Ying received her care package and she is very, very excited, and wanted us to say thank-you to you. She knows that she will be adopted soon.

This just made my heart smile. Ying finally just received our care package we sent on 5/31. She opened the box and discovered she has a forever family, coming to get her and bring her home. She has our pictures, our letter, and some gifts we sent. I have been praying that she would receive the news with joy in her heart. I'm sure she will be very nervous, leaving the only life she's knows for 12 years. I cannot wait to finally get that call telling us we have "travel approval"!
I want to go get my sweet daughter and bring her home. When I think of her, I think of a rosebud.. just waiting to bloom.

6/26/11
We are in our 2nd week of summer deaf camp. Ben, Briella, Brinley & Bayla just love it every summer. It is 4 weeks long (4 full days a week). Tomorrow Lidia's going too, to try to help out the camp counselors maybe. Signing all day is really great practice for the hearing kids. Ben & Briella got to go to a "Ropes Course" at Camp Caraway in Asheboro last week. They had great fun and apparently it was kind of scary and challenging... although Briella did master it. For Ben, it was a breeze. Ben & Briella also went to VA to visit & tour the International Learning Center there. A young lady from our church is a deaf missionary and has been there for several weeks now getting trained for her next mission trip - a 3 yr mission to Asia. The kids found it very interesting.. here are a couple pics from the trip and one of the girls at a BBQ/swim party we went to at Eddie's house.