8 Years Ago!

June 19th marks a very special day for our family! It is the day that our "firecracker", "spicy girl" joined our family! Our lives were changed forever! We had been blessed with two amazing sons and God chose to bless our family with one more gift! We are thankful for the impact that this beautiful young lady has had on our life! We have seen her grow in amazing ways! She is the youngest of the group that was adopted that day! We have seen her caring heart from the very first day! When other babies would cry, she would want to go see why and help them if she could. We have seen her accomplish great goals in her education and also her athletics! We have seen her passion grow in her heart for Jesus and her relationship with Him. We have seen her love for China grow each and every day! We have seen her love for her brothers grow greatly! Yes, they have their days, just like any other siblings! But there are the days that you see them laughing together, reading together or watching movies and playing games together! God has done a wonderful thing with those three! We are blessed to be her parents, but our hearts still think about the decisions of another person that is still very important to our lives! We don't have any information on this person and don't know a thing about her...but truly are thankful for the decision that she made 9 years ago! We don't remember what life was like before Hope came on the scene! We think of this sweet baby that was placed in our arms 8 years ago and the thoughts that must have been going on in her head...and compare that now to the amazing young lady that you ALWAYS know the thoughts that are going on in her head! She has become quite the chatter box (most of the time)! Life continues to get exciting as we watched the sweet baby that couldn't walk when she first was placed in our arms to now doing toe loops on the ice as she trains to compete in different ice skating competitions! Our hope is to be able to take her on trip back to "her" China soon as her questions and her thoughts are needing some processing that I feel will only be answered by taking such a trip! She is truly a treasure to all those that meet her! Love ya Baby of Mine!

5 Years Later!!!

5 years later she got the chance to meet some of her most favorite people in the world!!! We are truly blessed to have her in our lives!!!

Where has all the time gone?

As I looked at the calendar today, I noticed that 5 years ago, we were getting the last few things squeezed into suitcases getting ready to head to China!

We would never fully know how that trip would change our lives FOREVER! It would be hard to leave our boys, but knew we had to!

I still find myself thinking about a mother that probably struggled with a decision for 9 days about a precious little girl before she made a most difficult decision. A decision that would change her life, the life of her little girl and our family! My heart still hopes and prays that she has a peace about her daughter and somehow knows that she is doing well!

Our hearts were full of excitement about such a journey! But once we arrived there in China, we were walking bundles of nerves and excitement. Walking through a country that holds so much history and wonder, riding through to different spots along to way until the day we would take a 2 hour bus ride to a city that held our precious gift! To see the beautiful farm land was simply breath taking! To see the people so very friendly, but cautious. I did leave a part of my heart there in China! A love for the people there! A love for a mother there! A love for a heritage that has become part of our family heritage! Rich in culture!

We have come a long way with our little girl in this journey of life! We have watched her learn to walk, talk, play, write, color, read, and become a very confident beautiful girl! She went from not wanting to talk to anyone to a non stop talker (sometimes!) She never ceases to amaze me at her zeal for life! She totally enjoyed going to school for the first time this year! A school that she was very comfortable with...the same school that both of her brothers attended...so she was very knowledgeable of her surroundings and the people!

So to the mother in China..may you know in your heart of hearts that your daughter is a beautiful young girl that reflects the sunshine in her smile, makes the angels in heaven smile when she laughs. She is a reflection of you! Although we don't know a thing about you, we know that you are a beautiful lady because your little girl is a reflection of you!

Happy Fall and Thanksgiving!

Well I am truly sorry that it has been this long since I have written on the blog!

Life is moving very quickly!!!
School has started and having 3 children in 3 different schools has been a little crazy but fun!

Kindergarten is a blast! We just recently had our parent teacher conference and needless to say it was full of giggles!!! We have now had it said that she is a little teacher! We already knew that she was a "little mother" taking care of everyone, but now she is "helping" her teacher by keeping the students quiet and helping them with problems! She absolutely LOVES school! She really enjoys riding the bus to school! Since I'm working there in the afternoons, she comes home with me!

Last night we were reading a book that she checked out from the library and she was READING for herself some of the words!!! It almost made me cry! My sweet little baby is growing up!!! A funny happened in the care the other day! We had picked up big brother from school and I was letting him know that I was working later on Wednesday because I was working the S-H-O-T clinic at school. This is what we heard from the back seat..."Am I getting a shot at school tomorrow?" We just looked at one another and shrugged our shoulders and Phillip said...Mom you have now entered the part of life you don't like...you can no longer spell to try to not let us know what you are talking about!!!!

We pray that each of you are having a wonderful fall and in a few short days have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!!!

4 Years ago TODAY!!!!

4 Years ago today, we were in the heat of Fuling, China! We didn't seem to mind the heat at all. We were about to become a family of 5!!! We made our way the 2 hours on the bus to the Fuling SWI. When we got there, we waited and looked around. They had just fed the girls lunch and were getting them bathed and ready! Then the time came and they brought the girls out! What a beautiful sight to see...7 little girls in matching outfits!!! They were simply precious!!!

A lot has happend in four years! She went from only being able to sit by herself to she skips everywhere she goes!! She chatters non stop! She laughs and giggles! She is such a girly girl who loves to spend time doing her hair...painting her fingernails, looking for new purses, shoes...the WORKS!!!

She is no longer a little baby, but a big girl getting ready to head to Kindergarten in the fall!! She is so excited about heading to school! It will be sad to see her head off to school, but to see the things that she has learned to do and accomplish in the last 4 years!

We are very proud to be her family!!! And we know that God is the one that placed this precious little girl into our lives!!!

The picture that we used today is one that one of our travel familes happen to catch! What a precious treasure to have for her!

We love you Hope!!! We are glad to be your Forever Family!!!

Sum, Sum Summer Time!

Well Summer is off and running at our house! We have entered a new phase in our house! Every child is now registered for school in the fall! What a place that is! We are now the parents of a High school Jr., and 6th grade Middle schooler, and a big KINDERGARTEN girl!!! She is sooooo ready to start school!

She went for her kindergarten screening and did great! She tested at age 6 for a lot of things! That is awesome since she hasn't had her 5th birthday yet! The funny part was that she showed her Fuling spicyness a bit. She had 2 age Three marks on her paper and the lady explained! She was given those marks because she REFUSED to skip and to mobile skills with her fingers! I had to laugh because those of you that know her knows that she SKIPS just about everywhere she goes!!! She even skipped from the time we left the door of the builing to every place we went after her screening!!!

The other thing she did that left the lady scratching her head was that she had to do a picture cut out. She left no white on the edge of the of the dinosaur! Then the lady said, but this is the funny part. The lady looked and said, in all of my years of doing this, I have never had a child cut in between the legs of the dinosaur. I asked her why she did that and she looked at me and said..Well that way if he needs to go somewhere, then it can walk!

She is getting used to the boys being home each day for a few weeks! Then she is enjoying sleeping in just a bit!

We have hit summer full speed ahead! We have gone to Branson a couple of times already and she is full on for the rides at Silver Dollar City! She was a little sad when she found out that she wasn't quite tall enough to ride this one roller coaster! But thrilled with the fact that she only has about 1/2 inch to go!!! So hopefully by the end of the summer!!!

I will try to do better about posting this summer!! :o)

Chinese New Year pictures

Happy Chinese New Year!

Today we went to celebrate the Chinese New Year with our international adoption group. It was lots of fun! Hope wore her pretty purple silks that I found for her in Chinatown, NYC last spring. She looked beautiful!!!

There were all sorts of crafts to do. She made a necklace, an Ox puppet (since it is the year of the Ox! There was Chinese music by the MSU students, Chinese Ribbon Dance, children singing in Chinese, The Chinese Dragon made an appearance, great food and lots of fun! We sat with some dear friends of ours, The Paces. The girls had a great time eating noodles and fortune cookies!!

It is so great to be able to get together and celebrate such a wonderful culture and heritage of China! The children all looked beautiful in their beautiful Chinese outfits!

I'll be posting a few pictures in just a little bit!

Hard Question!!!!!

I have always heard from other adoptive families that the hard questions come. Well last week the first hard question came. I was not expecting it at all! We were on the way home from taking Stephen to school. We were just a couple of minutes from the school and I heard in the backseat.... "Mom, where is my China mommy and why can't I see her anymore?" I was stunned!!! My first smart answer was.."I don't know!" Then I thought for a few minutes and told her, PRAYING that she would understand, "Your China mommy still lives in China and she couldn't take care of you like you needed, so she took you to your orphanage (she knows about her orphange)until Mommy and Daddy could get there to bring you home." She said..."OK!" I sighed a huge sigh of relief that she was ok with that answer.

We have always been very open about Hope being from China. We read about China, watch movies about China, read adoption stories...so she is very aware that she is adopted from beautiful China!

My mind wonders what questions will be next, when they will come, will I be ready for the answer????? I will cross that bridge when we get there!

All I know for now is that this little girl is thrilled to know that she will be able to go to Kindergarten in the fall!!!

Merry Christmas 2008 Pictures!!!

Merry Christmas!!!!

Well here we are just a couple of days away from Christmas and excitment is filling the house!!!!

All of the trees are up! Santa visit has been made! Cookies are baked! It has been fun to watch Hope get more excited about Christmas as she gets older! She actually sang in the children's program this year! But...she did spend a lot of time trying to make the little girl that was standing beside her to turn around and watch the teacher. It got quite funny at times!

She has helped wrap gifts! She was in charge of the taping, the picking out of paper and sometimes writing the gift tags! She is doing great on her writing!

She has enjoyed seeing all of the Christmas lights around town this year! She just gets excited about it all! She is really excited because grandparents will be here this year for Christmas! No traveling for our family this Christmas as school got out tooo late to make it!

She has really taken to singing Christmas songs as well! She LOVES Santa Clause is coming to town! She is really having a fun time dancing through the house and singing! She is quite the little Christmas girl!

This year at our annual pilgramage to Bass Pro to see Santa...the boys asked her if she was going to talk to Santa..she said NOPE! She didn't...she did shake her head when asked a question..but that is progress! The boys asked her if she was going to sit on Santa's lap...she said NO I'M NOT!!! But she did. Poor Santa...Stephen had to sit on the other leg so that Hope would sit on his leg. When Hope realized that there was no where for Phillip to sit, she might as well give in and sit on his lap. She did!!! She even smiled for the picture!!!!!

So as we get ready in the next few days to celebrate Christmas...from our house to yours...Merry Christmas and may your new year be richly blessed!!!!

I'll try to get some pictures up...but the computer is having a hard time today!!! :o)

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!!!!

Well it has been awhile since I have posted on the blog! Things have been a little nuts around here.

Thanksgiving has come and gone and we have eaten the last of our turkey! We went today to Branson to see the play Noah. It was wonderful! We were truly blessed to have great seats right near the aisle. So when the animals came in to go to the ark...they walked right by where we were sitting! That just thrilled Hope beyond all measure! She was sooooo excited!

We have started to put up our many Christmas trees in the house. Hope was the first one to get hers up! She turned off her light and squeeled and said:"Now, Santas Quause" can come and bring my gifts and put them under my tree!!! I said..well, no Santa doesn't come for 3 more weeks. She said OOOOO..ok. So when we put the family tree up in the family room...she just clapped and said...NOW Santa has the tree he can put the gifts under! She had taken a nap when I put the kitchen one up. Fred and I had gone out to do a little shopping. When she woke up and walked into the kitchen, she screamed..PHILLIP!!!! Come Look!!! There is another tree in the kitchen! She is really getting into the decorating!!!!

But as we have just celebrated Thanksgiving, I wanted to share a few things that I'm truly thankful for!
1. My daughter's birth mom. I know that it was not an easy decision to give this precious girl away.
2. Fuling SWI. This was Hope's first home for the first 11 1/2 months. Hope was loved and taken care of.
3. My husband: We are getting ready to celebrate 18 years together. I'm truly thankful that God confirmed to his heart that a China adoption was the way to go for our family.
4. My amazing sons: They were very supportive of having a little sister in the house. They truly love her!
5. Our Spicy Fulinger! What joy she has brought into our home with her wacky sense of humor! She is a joy to be with (most days... :o) )
6. My wacky family! They have welcomed Hope with open arms and hearts from the very start!
7. Last but surely not least: God, for bringing our precious daughter into our family! He knew what he was doing when he brought this sweet little girl into the world and bringing her half way around the world to join our family!

I pray that each of you will have a wonderful holiday season! And I'll be posting pictures soon!

I need SLEEP!!!!

I discovered last night that it is harder to get people to sleep when there is no power than if the power is on! Our power went out last night from about 8:30pm to about 11:30pm or so. Phillip and I came in from band practice and the lights were still out. Stephen was laying in the living room floor just talking!!! Hope was the one who opened up the front door and welcomed us into the party!!!! Needless to say I thought it would end quickly....NOT!!!

I finally took Hope to our room to see if that would help. I layed down with her. She tossed, turned, did a potty run, got back in the bed, played with my hair, played with my face, held my hand, wanted to know why I couldn't read her a story, did I know that power was out???, it went on and on! Finally just when I thought she was asleep, the power comes back on!! So we got up to close the windows, turn off the lights that people had left on and here she came...wanting to know if it was time to get up!!! I told her that I was just helping to get things ready for bed.

I don't know what time she and I finally went to sleep...but at 5:45 am this morning...I started to get up so that I can spend a few minutes with Phillip before he leaves for school. Thinking that she was very asleep....I made my way down the hall. At 6:15 AM!!!!...Here comes Little Britches...Mom is it time to get up??? No...lay back down here on your sleeping bag. So I layed down on the couch, she was on the sleeping bag and then at 6:30!!!!! Stephens alarm went off 1/2 hour early!!! She said...well his clock went off...it's time to get up!!! I told her to lay back down we still had a little bit of time! So we went back to sleep for a few minutes.

I'm hoping for a good nap time today!! But I guess my posing question would be..."Can you ride a bike at the gym and sleep at the same time?????"

I don't want chool to tart today!!!

After a good summer break hanging out with her big brothers. Hope proclaimed this morning from the breakfast table (still half asleep!) I DON'T WANT CHOOL TO TART TODAY!!!! She either didn't want to get up early because school started back to school today or she didn't want to see her brothers leave her for the next several months! Phillip had already left this morning before she got up. So she will be excited to have everyone back this afternoon!!!!!!

My little Band Girl!!!!

Just thought I would share a couple of pictures of our little band girl!!! It is fun when your big brother is on the drumline in marching band and you get to hang out with everyone in the band because you are cute!!!!

Hope got to hang out at the last band camp a few days! She had a great time! They are doing a show this year featuring music from the Rise of the Samurai Warrior. They are calling the show the Year of the Dragon! So in celebration of all of that, the color guard girls made Hope an honorary color guard this year! The gave her a flag for her birthday and everything!

She has her outfit all ready and wanted to go to band when it was finished today!!! Needless to say she was a little sad when we told her that there is no band today!!! So she is really looking forward to the season getting a great start next week!!!!!

CHI Reunion 08

More Pictures coming!!!!

Well I still have a few more days of pictures to add to the blog! We have been very busy trying to get ready to go to St. Louis this weekend for the Children's Hope International annual reunion! It is a chance for every family that has worked with Children's Hope to all come together together! We are excited about going because 2 of our travel families to Fuling are coming and we all enjoy getting together! We wish that more of our Fuling family could come this year, but we will miss them and hopefully next year they will be able to make it!

We will be posting pictures of the weekend hopefully not long after we get home!! But may be a little slow in doing so as we will be back on the road a few days after headed to SC! Hope will be spending some one on one time with her Maw Maw Ruth. It is hard when we live here in the Mid west and the rest of our family lives back East. So Hope is looking forward to going!!!!

Hershey Chocolate World

Gettysburg Party!

Another birthday party and a vacation!!!!

Well now all of the birthday parties are over for Miss Hope! She had her last party with Fred's Mom and family while we were on our vacation! I'm not sure if the retirement village knew what hit it!

On that Saturday, our family arrived a little early to have a visit with Grandma Bubbles (I'll share how she got that name later!). Then a little later Fred's two sisters and 8 year old niece Hannah came. Uncle Jeff came a little later. I think we had enough food to feed a small army!!!! We also had cake!!!!

After lunch, Hope opened her gifts. She got some very cute clothes that she has already worn and is enjoying! She really loved the Hannah Montana PJ's from Aunt Sherry and Uncle Ray!!!!

After cake and clean up, it was off to the movies! Our family went to see Prince Caspian. It was a great movie. Hope didn't make it to the end. It was dark and cool and somewhat quiet! The perfect combination for Nap taking!!!! So for the last 35 minutes of the movie Hope took a nap! After the movie was over she was awake! After we got outside, they spotted a pet store! So off go Aunt Joyce, Hannah, Hope and Stephen to check out the pet store! We saw strollers for doggies and thought of Jackie and Gracie (two very special dogs in Hope's life!!) But we sent Debbie a message and she said that the dogs didn't need a stroller!!! So no stroller!

Then it was off to dinner! It was a great day! A good time was had by all!

I'll get a slide show up with some of the pictures hopefully soon!