A Little Glimpse of Our Hope

I belong to a yahoo group of people who have adopted or are adopting from Hope's orphanage. I met a family online from there who was going to travel to pick up their daughter. I asked them if they visited the SWI if they would mind asking to see Hope and get a few pictures for me. Pictures become so priceless when the wait is so long. They asked to see Hope, and the SWI workers found her and brought her up to meet them. She captured their hearts in a short amount of time. That was great for me to hear! My favorite picture that they got of her is the first one in the post below that introduces her. They also got a short little video clip of her exiting the room. She says bye-bye! I have watched it at least 100 times since I got it yesterday morning, and I have memorized every little detail! God is really showing up in some amazing ways to confirm that this is the journey that he planned for us. I am in awe of how he works so hard to reassure me continually that Hope is part of his plan.

Happy New Year!

 

 

 

These are my other favorites that I didn't use in the Christmas Card. I always have a hard time picking just one picture of LeeLee, she is so fun to take pictures of. I was freezing when I did Hunter so I literally took 2 pictures, and they looked the same. He has such a classic little smile. I hope it never changes! Happy New Year to all my friends and family

The $5 Christmas...So Fun!

Starting in October, the kids started diligently praying to be able to adopt a little girl whose face we had just been drawn too. It looked like for a long time that wouldn't be a reality, but we secretly hoped it would be! All three of them agreed that they would just ask Santa to bring her for them instead of receiving any gifts (that melts the heart of this mother, just so you know.) Every year, our kids are allowed to ask for three things, they open three gifts just like Jesus got three gifts from the wise men. This really helps me to keep Christmas focused on the right thing instead of the wrong thing. So this year, when we realized that adopting Hope could be a reality, the kids instantly were willing to give up Christmas and donate any money that would have been spent to bringing her home. However, still wanting to do something, but realizing that the budget is tight, I decided we should do $5 gifts. They had so much fun shopping for things they might want that cost $5. I was so proud of them for their choices as each one of them picked something that they will truly love and value. I have never seen this much anticipation as they had about seeing what $5 gifts they got. We had so much fun, and I am proud that my kids were just simply grateful to be getting anything at all! They know that the true miracle of this Christmas is that they will get to share their lives with another sister. They have been warned that by adding another sister, they will have to do without some wants, but their hearts are so big, that the desire to give is greater than the desire to have! I love my family!

We are expecting....a little girl

I am so excited to finally be able to announce that we are adopting a precious little girl from China. We think her name will be Hope Lina. She is five years old, and currently resides in a Social Welfare Institute. She seems to have a fun hearted little personality. I have been overwhelmed the last month trying to get all the paperwork in order, but all the hard work was rewarded this morning when the Chinese government issued us a preapproval to be able to adopt her. Unfortunately, we still have a long wait ahead of us. We hope to be able to travel for her sometime this fall. Please pray that all our paperwork will be processed quickly, and that this precious little one will be safe and well cared for til our arrival. We look forward to going on this journey again as we first hand know the blessings that are in store.

Halloween

The kids have to dress up as book characters for school. Noelle knew right away that she wanted to be Pippy Longstocking. Hunter wanted to be Stick Kid, but unfortunately I couldn't find the book any where. He loves Where's Waldo, so I suggested that. We couldn't find the striped shirt, so I striped on real quick with red duct tape. He looked perfect. His costume was a big hit a school especially with the older kids. It was so good for Hunter to have one of the best costumes. He was really holding his head up high when I was at the school later in the afternoon. I bet next year there will be alot of Waldo's running around. LeeLee loves Tink, and she knew she wanted to be her. That worked out well since Noelle was Tink several years ago. They trick or treated at Tita's house. That's where the picture of the three of them was taken.

Generations Halloween

This year we had some major conflicts with our annual pumpkin carve, so it was a little turnout. I love watching the college students compete with each other. Thanks BDot and Tracey for being our judges!

Sea World

This was the day for all Noelle's dreams to come true! She loves penguins in a big way and I worked out a suprise for her to be able to go in the penguin exhibit and pet real live penguins. She was so excited. I don't think I have ever seen a smile like these from Noelle. We all loved seeing Shamu! It brought out the kid in all of us! Hunter was ready to go fishing!