A Little Boy Wants a Family

Isn't he adorable? No we are not adopting him. But I am hoping that there is someone out there who will.

I am advocating for this little who so wants to have a family. He has been in a group home in Beijing. He is 5 years old and was born with meningocele in his lower lumbar. He can run and walk but has incontinence with bowel and bladder so he wears a diaper. That is about the same description we had on Sophia one year ago and now she is home with us and we are so very blessed. His file is with Holt. You can check it out at

http://www.holtinternational.org/cgi/photolisting/display.cgi?ID=B10_28&Index_re=0

I have been in contact with a volunteer at the home, Lisa. He is the last of the children left from when she first arrived 4 years ago and he so wants a family. Can you imagine seeing other kids for the last 4 years finding their families and no family has come for you? His needs are so managable.

If you want to find out more infonformation about him you can contact Holt or my friend Lisa at ajrassi@gmail.com. They have more pictures and are wanting to help in finding his forever family. Please pass on this information to anyone who may be considering adoption and pray that his family finds him soon.

Sophia's First BIrthday with Us!

What a great day we had. Our Sophia is now 6 years old( it took us a little while to convince her that she was turning 6 because in China they are 1 once they are born so in China she would have been 7. But she trusted us that in America she was turning 6 and seemed fine with it). It was so nice to know that even though we missed the first 5 birthdays plus her birth, we will miss no more. Sophia has been counting down to her birthday and has been very excited. She had an idea of what was coming because both Russ and I have celebrated our birthday's since she has been home but they were simple compared to what she was going to have. We had a party on the weekend with my parents, brother and his family. There was cake, ballons, and presents and she did great. The only thing that was too hard for her was the sing 'Happy Birthday". Once we all started singing, she tried to hold a stiff upper lip but started to cry. I think it just reminded her too much of her foster family. So needless to say, no more happy birthday singing.

Thursday was her actual birthday and along with more presents and dinner at a Chinese restaurant, she got her ears pierced. Oh she was soo excited about this. She has been asking me since we were in China and I kept holding her off until her birthday to see if this is really what she wanted. Since she does not have much continence towards pain, I was concerned that once she felt any pain, she would break down cry and pull away, causing more pain. So all day we talked about it and I was up front that it would hurt but only for a little bit. I kept asking her and she still wanted to do it. So later that evening, we all went to the mall and she got her Hello Kitty earing. Aren't they so cute. They fit her to a tee. She did fairly well but the anticipation was what really got her. She had tears rolling down her face and I kept asking her if she wanted to go but NO she wanted those earings. So I held her in my lap and we had two people do it at once( they were great). Once it was over, I think she was surprised that it went so quickly and that the pain was gone.

We then went to a Chinese buffet for dinner. This was she could pick out what she wanted. Once she finds someone who speaks Mandarin she takes the opportunity to catch up on all the talking she can. She talked about how she really likes her new family(yea) but that she worries about her foster family and how they are doing. She tries so much to take care of everyone that I am sure at times she feels guilty( like when we were singing Happy Birthday) about enjoying her new family. I have told her many times that it is ok to miss them and be sad and I know there will always be those feelings, it is just helping her get through them.

We had to tip the waitress a nice tip because Sophia was talking her ear off. They poor girl was being so nice to listen and talk back even though she was trying to keep working the other tables - like I said, our little girl likes to talk, watch out when her english improves. So here are a few pictures to leave you with.

Princesses, Buzz, Secret Agents and Clone Troopers, Oh My!

Trick or Treat was a great time for the kids. It did not take long for Sophia to catch on. The funniest thing is that we explained that once we were dressed we would go get candy. So once she was dressed, she went over to our bowl and started taking the candy out of it! She loved going door to door and ran around with the older boys as Micah and I lagged behind; Micah like the candy but is really more interested in talking to people - such an extrovert. Here is a picture of 4 of the kids. Olivia went with her friends as a princess! Finally after how mayn years, she dressed up as a princess.

Sophia had a great first week at school. She is always a little hesitant going to school in the morning but oh so excited when I pick her up. I am ever amazed at how she just continues to pick things up. Today she started a sentence with Can I.... Usually it is Sophia..... We have been working on learning site words from school and some of them are me, my, I... How do you explain to her that they are the same but different? But she is picking it up. What was really great is that on Friday her class had a field trip to a pumpkin patch. Micah and I also got to go and we had a great time.
And then there was the Jack o Lantern carving... I think the picture explains it all. I love living new experience with the kids!
And then today, we lost another tooth! So we are officially wanted our two front teeth for Christmas, but as you can see, one is on it's way.

We have some tough moments at times but I would not consider them anything different than what we would go through with your biological kids. Things have finally calmed down a little from sports and we are getting to spend more family time together. We watched Up the other day and it was just fun watching Sophia and how she would react to things.

We are getting ready for her birthday in 10 days! Wow it was almost one year ago when we first saw her picture and now she is with us and fitting in so well. We have been so blessed by God and are so thankful for every little thing.