Adoption and Pizza

What do adoption and pizza have in common? Actually, nothing! In the oven as I type are 5 pizzas that were skillfully assembled by my brilliant children for their lunch.

More importantly, tonight Jeremy, Jonathan and I will be speaking at a Bethany information meeting tonight. The information meeting is showcasing many children specifically from China and from Africa that are paper ready for adoption. All these children need is a loving family to open their hearts and home to them. We were asked to come and share our adoption experience. As of last count there were 45people scheduled to attend. Please pray that some of these children might find their forever family tonight. If you are interested in attending the event please call Bethany or myself to get the details.

Spring is in the air!

Following the example of their sister...

These 2 little monkeys decided to try and climb a tree...

I'm pretty sure this is a first for this little monkey!

Of course, I told them to be careful as I was snapping pictures. For the record, this is more like a bush and they were never far off the ground.

Is this normal?

Yesterday, when I saw what Jonathan was doing I just had to laugh. When we were first home, we took Jonathan for a general evaluation at Children's Hospital. While we were there they asked if Jonathan ever lined things up like cars or blocks. I just looked at them and laughed and said "What boy doesn't?" What they were attempting to convey to us was that this behavior is normal, but if it got out of control like compulsive lining up they could help us.

Like all of my kids, Jonathan has a great imagination and loves to play by himself at times. I'm not sure where all the other kids were while he was doing this, but for at least a few minutes he had the playroom to himself.


This picture with ultra man in it is for Jonathan's friend Everest.

Personally, I thought it was really cool how he has ultra man, batman, and playmobil guys all getting along.

So, what do you think? Do we need to seek medical help?

One year ago

It was one year ago today that we received the very unexpected call from our social worker telling us that she had a file for us to look at. This was the first photo we saw of Li Futing. We immediately fell in love with him and went full speed ahead to make him a part of our family. It is so hard to believe that was only 1 year ago. In so many ways it seems like he has been a part of our family forever. In reality, it has only been 3 months since we have returned home from China. We have come so far in the last 3 months and we still have far to go. We have settled into a routine that works for us. We are continuing to work with Jonathan and his grasp of English. He has learned so many words in 3 months. He has learned and will continue to learn the most important things which are that God loves him unconditionally, we love him unconditionally and he is a part of our family forever. He is our blessing sent from God.

A day in the life

It is snowing here once more. Ben and Jordan tried on bathing suits and then decided to model for us as they drank lemonade.




All 6 of us taking Emma for a walk in a very wet snow!

We began 2010 by celebrating Tyler's 9th birthday on January 14th.

A month later on February 14th, we celebrated Amanda's 11th birthday

Then because we felt life was getting a little too mundane we adopted Emma from the SPCA. Actually, Amanda has been begging for a dog for years. She has demonstrated responsibility. And we ran out of excuses. So, Emma has joined our family. God answered our prayers and Emma is a great dog. Very laid back and low maintenance as far as dogs go.

We then celebrated Chinese New Year at Bethany's Annual Celebration.

We made Dumplings

Ben peeking out from under the Dragon's Costume

We watched a performance of the Dragon Dance- Jonathan sobbed and was scared to death of the Dragons

Trying out Chinese yo yo

The next day- Sunday, February 21st Jonathan was dedicated and prayed for by Pastor Tom at our church. We were honored to have family and friends surround us as Pastor Tom prayed for Jonathan and our family.


That is the last 2 months in pictures. As all of those events have unfolded I have continued to wonder more and more about Jonathan's past life. I have often asked Jonathan "did you have toys when you lived in China?" and other such questions. He will just look up at me and say "huh" and we move on. My bloggy friend Shirley wrote a post about the shape of her daughters head. We have always thought Jonathan's head is a little distorted but never really gave it much thought. After reading her post. I now wonder how many hours Jonathan just laid in a crib, not being picked up or moved. Based on the shape of his head he spent a lot of time just laying flat on his head. We will never fully know Jonathan's story before he became a part of our family forever. I do know that now he is a happy, healthy 3.5 year old boy who keeps us on our toes.

Everyday Life

Me- "Jonathan, tomorrow to celebrate Chinese New Year we are going to go to the Chinese Buffet! What do you want to get to eat there"
Jonathan- "Pizza!"
Now keep in mind we have cooked Chinese food at home, but have not gone out to a Chinese Restaurant yet. This will be quite the experience for all of us. Besides being Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day, it is also Amanda's 11th Birthday (yes, she was born on Valentine's Day). Thankfully, Amanda loves Chinese food and is more then happy to have her birthday lunch at the Chinese Buffet. (Yes, we are getting off easy having 3 celebrations with one lunch out :)

We also had another success this week as Jonathan went in the car with Mom mom and Ben to help watch the other children during Bible study at Mom mom's church. Each Tuesday, Mom mom has asked Jonathan if he wants to go with her and each week he has declined. This week he decided he was ready to go with her. He is very comfortable with Mom mom and Pop pop and I figured with the extra security of having Ben with him he would be just fine and he was. He had fun with all of the kids and loved that they catered to his every want and need. It will be interesting to see if he goes with her again this Tuesday.



Jonathan LOVES trains and is getting quite creative at setting up the tracks.


Jonathan loves Amanda. He thinks his big sister is the best! He loves to do anything with her even if it is helping clean the guinea pig cage.


Jordan made it to about 11:00 and then fell asleep watching the opening ceremony of the Olympics.