An old tradition

When my brothers and I were little, Dad took us out for doughnuts every single Saturday morning. While we don't go nearly as much with the girlies, every once in awhile, they get to enjoy our old tradition. Yesterday was one of those days... our Dun*kin Don*uts breakfast was delicious... Kate likes the little chocolate munchkins while AnnaClaire's favorite is glazed with chocolate and sprinkles :)

And just because they are so cute, here's a picture from last weekend. They love having camp fires!!

Thank you...

Thank you for all of your sweet comments from yesterday's post. I really do appreciate it. Anonymous/Beth Ann, thank you for leaving your name. I think that is great that you have found 5 of your sweet kids in the US. However, I really don't feel the need to argue about God's calling to our family, so I will just leave it at the fact that our family was called to China, and THAT is why we have adopted from there. You could make your argument about "bringing 4 children home from China is keeping 4 children from coming home from the US" for any adoption from any country. I can't say enough that God has called us to China, and that is where we have found our precious ones. It's not the open adoptions keeping us from the US, it is simply that our hearts--and my siblings-- are in China. When we bring Grace home, we will have completed 4 adoptions in 4 years for 4 kids with "medical needs." I think it is great when people adopt from anywhere! No matter where kids are from, they all deserve a chance at a FUTURE, and chance to know a God that loves and created them! They all deserve a Mommy and Daddy to tuck them in at night. Your 5 kids did, my 4 siblings did. Where they are FROM doesn't matter. What matters is that between our families NINE of the 147 million orphans have found love and LIFE. I don't feel like I need to explain myself anymore, so I will just let these 4 pictures, my 4 amazing siblings, do the talking for me...

AnnaClaire Chenhui, 4 years old, adopted at 13 months from Hunan, China
Katherine MeiLing, 2.5 years old, adopted at 19 months from Jiangxi, China
Charles Dashan, 4 years old, waiting in Chongqing, China
Grace TongJiao, 10 years old, waiting in Jiangsu, China

I'm just saying.

I'm going to ask this, and please don't take it as rude...

Do you really think it's fair to her, TongJiao, to make her wait even longer for a family simply because you want her and will have to wait until after Charlies home to officially do much of anything? Why should she sit in an orphanage longer, when another family could have possibly wanted her, and just not been as quick to move as you were, or didn't find her until moments before she was removed? A family that is paper ready for her, and could possibly pick her up in the Spring/Summer verses having to wait until the fall/winter? That just makes her suffer longer.

Another thing, quite frankly, she's an older child... What ever happened to thinking about the children here in the good ole US of A who live in foster homes, group homes, institutions, etc... all waiting for a family... All who could easily be in your home within weeks or just a very short few months? I'm curious what makes your family think the children of china are so much more important or special than the children of the usa?

-Anonymous

Dear Anonymous,

Isn't God good? He burdens all of our hearts with different things. Isn't is great that people are drawn to all different places in the world to care for orphans? God calls some to Russia, India, Ethiopia, Taiwan, Korea, and the list goes on. Our family feels burdened for all of the orphans of the world. They ALL deserve families. NEVER have I said that orphans in China are "more important" than those of anywhere else. However, God has clearly called OUR family to China and we are thankful to have precious children from there. It sounds as though YOUR family has adopted children in the USA who are in foster care and need families. How many children have you brought home? Just wondering.

As you have mentioned, quite frankly, Tong Jiao IS an older child. Unfortunately, families do not flock to adopt older children. Often, older children are on lists for close to a year before a family comes forward to adopt them. Before Grace was on our agency's list, she sat for close to 3 months on another agency's list with not one family willing to bring her home. Even now, out of the 40 + files from the list she was on, only a handful of kids have been matched, and she is the oldest of those kids. I can assure you that if there had been another family interested in her file right away, our agency would've allowed them to review her file first. However, there weren't any other such families. Yes, maybe another family would've come forward 6 months to a year down the road, but they might not have even been paper ready. Oh, and by the way, she's not suffering. She's been with a loving foster family for NINE years. She looks so happy and is so healthy and we have no reason to believe that she is suffering. In the grand scheme of things, summer vs. fall/winter really won't make much of a difference. What DOES matter is that our sweet girl has a FOREVER family. And pretty soon, she will know that.

I'm going to ask this, and please don't take it as rude...

Actually, it IS rude to leave a less than nice comment and not even sign your name to it. If your comment was truly sincere, you would not have been afraid to sign your name.

I'm just saying.

Please pray...

As you probably know by now, there was a terrible earthquake in Haiti. You can read one story about it here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/cb_haiti_earthquake. Well. I am supposed to be flying to Haiti in exactly a month with a team of 32 from my school. Now, we are unsure if we will be able to get there and are still waiting to hear on that, and if we are going at all. Please pray with me that God would make a way. I feel like we are needed there now, more than ever. Yet, if it's not safe and if the airport is still not open, we cannot go. Please pray. And more than that, pray for those people who are among terrible devestation... They need God so much right now!!!

Charlie's site!

Charlie's website is up and running!!! You can see it at www.tochinaforcharlie.com! We really had no preferences for what it looked like- just something boyish! Love what he came up with... Bay*lor colors to match the picture on the homepage! :) So now Charlie officially as his website! It will mainly be used for when we go to China, but I've posted a few things there!

Basketball Game!

Last weekend, there was a Bay*lor basketball game at South Carolina, so we all (minus Drew, who had to work) drove up to Col*umbia to support Will's bears. It was a good game, Bay*lor won, and the girls looked absolutely adorable in their cheerleader outfits... AnnaClaire cheered so loudly "just like the weal cheeweaders" and was so excited to get to meet the ga*mecock mascot, who shook his head at AC's outfit :)

My Katie Cakes~

At 2 years and 10 months old, she has finally hit the 20 pound mark!

She is also starting to potty train, and is doing very well with it! She loves wearing big girl panties like "Claire!"

She loves all puzzles and is extremely good at them.

She's the baby of the family, probably always will be, and she fits her role perfectly.

She adores her older-by-16-months sister, which I love to see, as it was long in coming. But now, they are the best of friends and have so much fun together.

She's ALL girl and loves everything girly... dolls, dressup, anything pink, jewlery... you name it.

She is amazingly cute (when she's not in her pout mode) and she has an infectious laugh.

She has a sweet heart and is always looking out for others.

She is strong willed and she constantly amazes me with how far she has come in the past 14 months... (the below picture is her in China... a facial expression she had our first few months home, too.) She is my sweet baby sister, and always will be, even as she nears three. I just love every single thing about my teeny-tiny, sweet voiced, tender hearted little girl.

Introducing Miss Grace TongJiao!

With the decision to adopt our sweet Charlie, we were sure our family was complete.

Absolutely positive.

However, whenever someone asked Mom, she would always reply with, "we think this is it... but never say never!"

Sometime in November 2009, as we were paperchasing for Charlie, the file of a beautiful little almost 10 month old girl went on an agency's list. She was absolutely adorable and we were in love. However, we knew it would be impossible to adopt her because first of all, she was a 10 month old girl. And second of all, she was listed on another agency's list and we were already, of course, in the process of adopting Charlie.

Ever since sweet "Sophie" made her appearance into our hearts, we knew we had another girl in China and that shortly after we came home with Charlie, we would go back to China.

We were finally DTC for Charlie on November 24, 2009 after frantically going around DC and ending that little trip, which should've-been-2-but-ended-up-being-4 hour drive, in Delaware, where we ourselves gave sweet Diana our dossier. Looking back, that decision was important.

A day after we got an email with our tracking number for our dossier, the day before Thanksgiving, we saw a post on our agency's yahoo group that the files of all the new "Camp Ox" kids had been added. You see, the week before, some of the staff from our agency had been at a camp in Jiangsu, China. This was the third trip that year and basically, they were getting to meet kids and received referrals for many of the kids they met-- boosting the chances of these kids to be matched. (mostly older kids or younger kids with major SNs)

12 new files had been added, one of those being a list of all 40+ of the children.

Mom and I were scrolling through it (with NO intentions of having our hearts captured, we really were just looking at all the precious kiddos!) All of the kids were oh-so-adorable. Then, we got to number 30. She was a beautiful older girl and had been given the name of Norah. I first noticed the huge and bright smile she had stretched upon her little face. I then noticed her birthday. November 25, 1999. She was celebrating her 10th birthday that day. With no family.

Mom commented how sweet she was and I commented how it was her birthday. After looking through the rest of the kids, we went to look at a few of the full referral files they had posted. Of course, the first one we looked at was sweet "Norah." We opened the file to see 3 more beautiful pictures of this little girl and found out that her name was Tong Jiao. We immediately fell in love with her precious smile. However, it wasn't until later on in the file that she truly made her way into our hearts. She had a very detailed initial referral report telling all about her. She sounded like such a good girl... so very sweet. She had been in the orphanage for her first year of life and had been in foster care with a LARGE foster family ever since. Then we got to it... the sentence that changed our lives. A sentence that read... "Because of being raised in a large family, Norah would like to be adopted by a family with lots of children. She has no fears about coming to America and would love to be adopted." You see, when at the camps, our agency had interviewed the older kids and asked them if they would like to be adopted and what they would like in a family.



She said that she wanted to be adopted by a family with lots of children.

Our family... 2 older brothers, an older sister, 2 younger sisters, and a little brother...

We.Couldn't.Get.Our.Minds.Off.Of.Her.

Mom and I just looked at her and talked about her all night. I think Mom couldn't even sleep. She was trying to figure out sleeping arrangements if we could bring sweet Tong Jiao into our family! We were also looking at another agency's list (VERY randomly) and saw that Tong Jiao's referral was also on their page. Mom emailed our coordinator, thinking that by doing so, she could be saving a family from heartbreak. (of finding her file only to find out that someone ELSE on another agency had already sent in LOI.)

Uhhh. That'd be our family.



The next day was Thanksgiving and we still couldn't get her out of our minds. People were posting on the yahoo group saying, "oh my! have you seen Norah? I'll definitely be advocating for that cutie." Yet, no one was reviewing her file, no one was saying anything about how they saw her in THEIR family...

We went to the park to take Christmas pictures and afterwards, Mom, Dad, the little girls, and I stayed to play at the park. We talked about sweet Norah... we came up with English names for her... we talked about where she could sleep... we talked about how in the world we could possibly adopt twice in one year........

We got home and checked to see if she was on hold. Still no. We showed Dad her pictures, and he too, fell in love.



We were in love. There was no question about that. Her age seemed scary, but we looked at those pictures, we read that description, and God revealed to us that she deserved a family "with a lot of siblings." She's 10, but that doesn't make her any less-deserving... in fact, that might even make her more deserving... She has waited 10 YEARS for a forever family.



On Friday, I got home from black Friday shopping and heard Mom and Dad talking about her. I remember saying, "I was thinking when I was driving home and we HAVE to go adopt her. Or atleast do whatever we can to try." I convinced Mom to atleast email and ask... I think I was the one to type out the email! :) We explained that we had unintentionally fell in love with sweet Norah. We told her that she didn't see how it was possible, that she knew we couldn't do a concurrent adoption (our agency just stopped allowing 2 adoptions at once) but that we wanted to know if they would hold her file until we came home with Charle. We decided that with a no, God would be closing the door... telling us it's not meant to be. Yet if we were told yes, which the odds were totally against a yes, than we would trust that it was God's plan. He would work out our fears about the age, he would allow us to come up with decent room situations, he would provide for us to adopt twice in a year. Later on Monday, we still hadn't heard anything and so Mom emailed back just to see if the email had been received. A few LONG hours later, Mom got an email back. They were about to go into a staff meeting and would talk about it.

We waited all afternoon for a response. Of course, a new shared list was coming out and they had a whole bunch of new "camp ox" kids to post and match with families... Crazy would be an understatement for our agency that day. We did go on the other agency's list to see if "Norah" was still on their list, as she had been earlier that day. She was gone. Not on hold. Not matched. Completely gone. Which meant that our agency must have said something. We kept thinking that maybe they had said something because they had matched her... with us.



Finally, on December 1st, we heard back. There was a short email.....

I'm not ignoring you!!!! SORRY!!!!!!!!! I am seriously losing my mind right now.
Lets discuss logistics. You've reviewed the medical right? Are you approved for 2 in HS and CIS?
As dedicated as you are driving up the dossier, we tend to think you'd get this child home fast. :)
So, I'd say this is a yes.

Short... and to the point. YES. YES. YES.

Mom emailed me four little words with a whole lot of exclamation points, as I was at school. The email read:

You have another sister!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Is God not AMAZING?



Yep. We are absolutely crazy. But you know, I don't care WHO thinks that. We're not trying to impress ANYONE. All that matters is that there is a PRECIOUS 10 year old girl on the other side of the world... and she has no FAMILY. And maybe the timing isn't perfect for us, but we're trusting God. We're stepping out in faith because we fell in love with this little girl. And she needs a family. And more, she wants a family with lots of siblings. And we have 6 of those.

So there you go.

Our LOI went to China on 12/15 and we received PA on 12/22 (Yep... that was what the anniversary post was about!!! 4 years after deciding to adopt a baby girl from China, we received notice that we were approved to adopt for the FOURTH time! God is GOOD!) Oh and, we didn't even have a month off of paperchasing, because we are doing it again already!! We'll have everything ready so that once Charlie is home, we will have a one month post placement visit and homestudy update, and then wait for approvals to go to China and get Grace!!! At the moment, we're thinking we'll go by the end of 2010. However, it all depends on how quickly we can get our sweet little Charlie home!!! Come on LOA!

We've got a long time to wait for her. But, God's timing is perfect. And we are trusting Him. Because He knows best.

I have another sister.

I.Am.Blessed.



Oh! And I know you want info about her!

Her name is Tong Jiao (Jiao means beautiful/lovable!) and she was born on Nov. 25, 1999. She lived in Nantong SWI in the Jiangsu province from the time she was released from the hospital until she went into a foster home in Dec. of 2000. She has lived in that home ever since and is treated as if she was "born into the family." She has the sweetest description, but it's too much to post, so here's a portion of it...

Grace has been in the foster home since she was 1 year old. She has been taken care of by grandparents. She has very close relationship with her foster family. She is very happy and gentle. She has smile on her face all the time. She does not easily get mad and she is easy to comfort when she is upset. She has very good habits, put clothes on by self, take shower and wash face by herself, pack the school bag by self and help to do cleaning, cooking at home. She loves to do things and never complains. She is a good student in the kindergarten and school. She enjoys going school every day and attending all kinds of activity. She is polite to her teachers and loves her classmates. She wants to do anything she can to help people.

Doesn't she sound AMAZING?!

We've decided to name her Grace TongJiao (she is called Tong Jiao, even though Tong is her surname). You might remember me saying awhile back that if we adopted a boy, he'd be Charlie and if we adopted another girl, she'd be Grace! Well, now we have both... Charlie and Grace coming home in 2010!!! Prayerfully, we'll have Grace before she turns 11!!!

Oh. And did I mention that she PERFECTLY bridges our age gap? 6 years older than AC, 6 years younger than me...

Hook 'Em! HORNS!!!!! updated~

Well, the game is over, and as you may or may not know, Co*lt Mc*Coy was injured and out of the game at the very beginning. Surprisingly, they came back and made it close before the backup QB (who has played in just a few games when they were up by a LOT) gave up some turnovers. In my eyes, I don't believe that it was a fair game at all, and I feel so terrible for Co*lt. However, I think his words at the end spoke volumes. I wish I had written them down... but basically, he very emotionally gave God the glory, stating that he didn't understand WHY, but he knew that God had a reason and was trusting that. He gave God the glory after his hopes and dreams of the past few years were dashed. In my eyes, that makes him a true winner. Just wanted to share, as I think it was such an encouragement.

Oh and now I'm putting this below Grace's post so it can be at the top of the blog, as it wasn't there long :)

CHARLIE celebrating his birthday :)

Mom checked her email one last time before going to bed tonight... and look what was in her inbox :) :) SIX new pictures of our sweet boy celebrating his birthday... and they were taken TODAY!!! Praising God tonight for some joy amidst the sadness of celebrating without him...

Oh. And is he not THE cutest little boy you've ever seen?!?!? I'm in love!!! Happy birthday, my sweet little brother! I love you!

An Important Interruption~ A sweet boy is turning 4 today!

Today, our sweet Charlie turns FOUR in China! It was hard not being with him, but we were able to send him a cake and little care package and are really hoping for some pictures. Despite him not being with us, we did celebrate in honor of him... dinner at P*ei W*ei and a cookie cake. Someday, we will be able to show him that even though he wasn't home for it, his fourth birthday was his first having a family and that we love him so much, despite the fact that we've never even met him.

We love you so much sweet boy and hope you had a great birthday! SO wish you could've been home for it, because we are just missing you so much today!

p.s. I promise Grace's whole story and info about her tomorrow, but today is Charlie's day! If you want to wish him a happy birthday, please do :) I'll save all the comments to show him someday!

The smile that captured our hearts...

But even before I was born, God chose me and called me by his marvelous grace. Galations 1:15

more details coming:)

I'm really enjoying all of your guesses...

so keep them coming :)

Some of you guys are getting extremely close. It's actually almost scary how close some people are getting.

Anonymous, I couldn't believe that you remembered the little girl I fell in love with in China! Sadly, although she is at an *amazing* home, the children are not often made paper ready due to concerns with the government. It's so very sad, as I would do anything to bring her home.

Maybe this can confirm some ideas...

Remember when I posted this about a month ago? I was indirectly hinting to something...

And remember this that I posted on Mom and Dad's 25th anniversary? There's something in the background of the picture that was strategically placed there. Of course, no one noticed, because no one knew to look for anything. Look again! hint: enlarge the picture

That really big hint I was talking about... and yes, there IS a picture...

Not a dog...

Or a puppy, for that matter.

And last time I checked, I won't have a sister-in-law anytime soon.

Nope.

Oh and remember that bunk bed picture I posted a few days ago? They aren't to make room for Charlie, who will be taking over Will's room...

Stay tuned. Tomorrow's hint is big.

Notice anything?

Our Christmas decorations are coming down today... but before they do...

Do you notice anything looking a little different from the Christmas decoration pictures I posted a week or two ago?





Maybe this one will help you...