One home...Many hearts: 7/26/11

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 morning was our Consulate appt and everything went well. Tomorrow we will receive her visa to come home. We will leave the hotel Thurs morning at 6am and head to the airport. We have an 8am flight to Beijing, then a layover there until 4:10pm when we take off for Chicago. Then, 1 more flight from Chicago to Charlotte will bring us home (almost 30 hrs later). Can't wait to see everyone at the airport! It will be late, probably either 10pm or midnight, depending on how quickly we get through immigration in Chicago. The girls are doing great, and we are enjoying the swimming pool every day. Here are a few pics, that include 1 of my girls with Ann Marie, the other 12.5 yr old that was adopted by a family that is also with our agency. Ann Marie is from a different area of China than Bellamei. Actually, they are exactly 1 week apart - Bellamei being the younger one. We went to a park and I am always fascinated by the geriatric crowd, just going to town working out on the exercise equipment and the ladies doing dances together (all at the park). It was REALLY hot though! I took a video of Bellamei dancing & singing in our hotel room. Hopefully, I can find a way to get it on the blog. I can't wait to arrive home and see all my other sweeties! Not too much longer now :)