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!

Braxton is a Jordan!

Today was the official paperwork day and Zhong Xi Bin is now Braxton Emanuel Jordan. We had fun today and Braxton is learning signs very well. I brought math flash cards and he knows addition & subtraction, although he doesn't really know regrouping. I know he'll do well in school because I can tell he's very bright. He seems thrilled to be signing with us - big smile when I praise him for getting the sign right. He's already learned to sign several colors and much more. Tonight he took a shower in the bathtub - my gosh did he love it - he was all giggles. He did a pretty good job washing himself and is very ticklish (like Briella!). He's got a healthy appetite! He eats lots of veggies, fruits, etc. He's not picky. We went to a store that's a branch off of Walmart here and we found lots of goodies - some are edible presents (don't cringe - the people who they're for will love it) haha. Everywhere we go, the merchants comment on how handsome Ben is and so tall. They tell him that he's like a TV person. Good thing he doesn't let this go to his head. He's humble as ever. He and Braxton were PATIENT while we shopped this afternoon/evening. We took a taxi over to Shamian Island and spent lots of time & had dinner there. I had to ask Ben 3 times to pose for the picture of him flexing his muscle for the merchant. She was commenting about his height & how handsome he is so I made him show her how strong he is too! He doesn't like to show off, but he's just so darn cute :) Mike, notice the straw hat on the boys? yes, I bought it for you! I just hope it comes home in 1 piece. I'm picturing you wearing it mowing the lawn. You'll be the envy of all the other men in the neighborhood! We saw Adele Madison again today from Madison Adoption Agency. Our appts have been at the same time, same place. Tomorrow afternoon we'll go for Braxton's medical visit. I have a signed waiver for the immunizations, since he's under 10, it's optional. But, he will have the TB test here as well as a physical. We also apply for his passport tomorrow. I have a cute short video of him laughing - I'll try to get that to post soon. That's all for today. To Mike & the kids - I miss you so much!

3 comments:

Our family said...

Lisa, So glad to hear that things are going so well. I did hear back from Love Without Boundaries and they said they would contact Zhongshan SWI and try to get this little boy to Shanghi for surgery. Please find out what you can and check out his personality for me. He is so stoic and sad looking in his pics. I suppose he has good reason to be. COngratulations on another beautiful addition!
Jan

Anonymous said...

He does seem so happy and he is so adorable! Reminds me a little of Jake - same size, hair. Anyway, have a great trip!

Traci

Salvador Family said...

Hi Lisa!
It's so good to see you with Braxton! Brayden was excited to see his picture tonight and shouted Xi Bin!! We feel like we are right back in China looking at your pictures of everything! Hope you are enjoying your stay! Please tell Elsie and Sarah hello from us!
Blessings,
Tina