more pics....

and more pics...

Kiah walking her doll on Christmas morning

The kids with their 2 of their 3 cousins in PA

Jake (4) , cousin Juliana (4) , Kiah (22 months) and Katelyn (15 1/2) holding Kirsten (14 months)

Stuntman Jake

Jake, Juliana, Kiah and Katelyn

Jake on his bike on Christmas morning

more pics...

Jake's loot from us

Some of Kiah's loot

Thinking of Luke in China

Kiah on her gift from Santa.

Christmas Morning!!!

Jake happy with his Doodle Pro!!!

Kiah amoungst the chaos.... she is still opening her first gift of the morning while Jake was almost at the last gift! She carefully tore each piece of wrapping off the gifts.

What Santa left!!!

Kiah and Jake playing with Diego's Rescue Center

Christmas Pictures!!!

Daddy and Kiah surrounded by Kiah's gifts at Gram's house on Christmas Eve.

My sister Danielle and her boyfriend Allen

Nicole, Brandon and Katelyn at Gram's house on Christmas Eve.

Daddy and Kiah checking out the information highway.

After wrapping gifts this evening I noticed a bag missing.

As I walked into the dining room, this is what I saw.

When I opened the garage door Kiah spied her bike helmet. She wanted to wear it around the house so I gave it to her. She immediately thought we were going to go bike riding, hence the look on her face and the tears. She doesn't understand that it is WINTER! There is no way we are getting on a bike until SPRING!!!

Just a couple pics before Christmas!

We took these pics after Kiah's bath the other day. We happened to be talking about the Middle East and we thought it would be cute to see what Kiah would look like if she had to wear a hijab. DARN CUTE!!!

Hugs!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Have a glorious Christmas Season!!!

Just for Kris.....

I thought I would follow suit and post my answers to this... especially for Kris!!!


A is for age: I am a young 35. (35 is still young, right?)
B is for Beer: never liked the stuff
C is for Career: Computer Engineer
D is for my Dog's name: Don’t have one. I *think* about getting a cute little chihuahua. (READ: small poop to clean up). I even have names picked out: Chica for a girl and Carlos for a boy. (We chose Carlos because my husband’s first name is Charles…. And he is 100% AGAINST getting a dog!)
E is for Essential item I use everyday: computer and hey… TOOTHBRUSH!
F is for Favorite TV show: Hmmmmmmmm. I don’t really watch TV much… pretty much a Netflix girl but I really like Iron Chef America. (embarrassing… I know)
G is for favorite Game: I always liked Hungry Hungry Hippos.
H is for Hometown: Arlington, VA
I is for Instruments I play: oh my. This brings back that dreadful feeling of “pretending” to play the recorder when I was in elementary school.
J is for favorite Juice: Anything red.
K is for who's butt I'd like to kick: Can I choose 2??? Paris Hilton and Britney Spears… just because they are NOT role models but young kids ADORE them.
L is for Last place I ate: Unos Restaurant
M is for Marriage: Yes and happily. (even though I wanted to kick his butt this morning. HEY! Should have used that for “K” above!)
N is for my name: Hmmmmmmm…….
O is for Overnight hospital stays: several
P is for People I was with today: co-workers and family.
Q is for Quote: "The things that are impossible with men are possible with God.” Luke 18:27
R is for biggest Regret: not telling someone how much I love them.
S is for Sport: HA!
T is for Time I woke up today: 4:40am. OUCH!
U is for current Underwear: this would fall under the “TMI” umbrella.
V is for Vegetable you love: broccoli
W is for Worst habit: hmmm. I’m sure my husband and kids could answer this better than I could.
X is for X-Rays I have had: a couple.
Y is for Yummy food you ate today: Haven’t had any “yummy” foods yet but I think I am planning some Cold Stone Creamery for after lunch!!!
Z is for Zodiac: LEO!!!


I promise to post more pics soon!

Christmas Thoughts....

Music Video:

I am filled with thanksgiving, joy and pride as I look at my beautiful children. I think of the journeys we all took to be together. I remember walking into that cold orphanage in St. Petersburg and holding Jake for the first time. It just took 1 backwards glance at the children left in the playpen to make my heart ache. The same thing happened in China when we were picking up Kiah. The total number of abandoned girls and boys around the world desperately waiting for families is overwhelming. Oh my heart. I look at all the joy that Kiah and Jake get from the simplest things.... that free cookie at Target. And I so wish that all the children waiting for families around the world could experience the joy of that 1 cookie from Target, that 1 hug after getting a boo-boo, that feeling of belonging somewhere and having someone to love you. So tonight I post a Steven Curtis Champman video called All I Really Want for Christmas. The tears roll down my face everytime I listened to it and it makes my heart ache all the more as we wait to bring our son home from China. I urge everyone to search their heart and soul to see if maybe there is room in there for one of these precious children that need a home so badly. It will be the best journey you will ever take.

Katelyn's first big christmas party

Katelyn went to her first real Christmas party on Saturday night. We spent the afternoon running to the mall to find a dress. Katelyn actually did "dress research" and she chose to go to JC Penny. Wouldn't be my first choice but after trying on 8 dresses Katelyn settled on the black sparkly one. It was listed as $50 but when we went to the register it rang up as $19.99!!!! DING!!! WOO HOO!!! She wore shoes she already had!!! WOO HOO AGAIN!!! And she looked gorgeous as she walked out the door.

Ready for breakfast with Santa Claus

We took the little ones to Breakfast with Santa Claus. They had a spread of muffins, bagels, pastries, juices, etc. Jake and Kiah had no idea WHY they were there. They just knew they got to dress up and EAT. The kids busied themselves with coloring christmas pictures when all of a sudden they heard gasps and a loud HO HO HO. All the color drained from Jake's little face as he was plastered against a book shelf. He didn't move a muscle! Santa made his rounds saying HI to the kids. Jake didn't say a word. Santa then made himself comfortable on a sofa on the OTHER side of the room. I then heard a tiny little exhale from our man Jake. He was quiet for a long time after that. Kiah observed everything quietly but stuck right by my side. It was then announced that Santa was ready for visits with the kids. Jake didn't want to go at first but then he saw the lovely parting gifts the other kids were receiving (x-mas books and candy canes). So, Jake changed his mind and we all stood in the winding line to see Santa. Jake wouldn't get closer than 5 feet but he did tell Santa what he wanted (a razor scooter and a star wars vehicle) and made sure to say that he had been a VERY good boy. Kiah wouldn't get closer than 8 feet and refused to speak AT ALL. We left shortly afterwards with Jake tripping on the sidewalk and falling into Kiah. Both hit the ground. Jake was trying to see Santa's sleigh which was "parked" on the roof of the clubhouse. The fall took his mind off the fact that he couldn't get a good view of the sleigh or the reindeers.

By the way.... it is quite clear that Santa has been on either the Atkin's diet or the South Beach diet because he is looking very lean. :-)

Oreos are just good!

here's more...

Would have been a great x-mas card pic if only Jake and Kiah were wearing more clothes.

Jake (in his underwear....again) posing in front of the tree.

Peace and Love

The professional troublemaker (katelyn) with her willing apprentice (kiah).

New pics!!!

Beauty shop girls...

Katelyn took the time to curl both her hair and Kiah's hair. No special occasion... just bonding time.

It's just not Christmas if you are not wrapped up in garland!!!

See my curls!!!

Jacob... Jacob... Jacob....

Yes... he is using his underwear as a storage area. That is KIAH'S dora backpack and a Jake's Batman sword stuck in that underwear. Something tells me Kiah is NOT going to be happy when she finds out where her Dora backpack has been. And let me add.... that backpack is made of plastic... not cloth... OUCH!!! I can't tell if that is a smile or a pained look on his face!!!

Either way he looks mighty proud.

New PICS OF LUKE!!!

We received some new pics of Luke!!! We were SO SURPRISED to see how much WEIGHT he has gained. He is a CHUNK!!! And boy does he have a head of HAIR!!! AMAZING!!!! 2 traveling families gave the SWI asst. director a list of the kids who have waiting parents. The asst. director took pics of each of the kids and emailed them to one of the families here in the states. All of the kids look very healthy and the orphanage looks fantastic! The playroom has tons of toys!!! A family who traveled in July has reported that this specific orphanage currently cares for over 300 children, of which over 90% are considered special needs. Each room of babies had multiple caregivers hovering around. The caregivers seemed very loving and familiar with the kids. This is so comforting to this mama's heart!!!

It really is amazing to see these pictures! It really reminds us that our new son is literally… on the other side of the world. I mean, people use that terminology about things all the time. They say things like …"I've parked my car in the parking lot over there on the other side of the world". Etc. etc. etc. But in this case… it is true. When we are awake… he is asleep.

Some people have asked if it is harder going through the Non Special Needs process and NOT knowing who your daughter is while you wait…. Or going through the Special Needs process and knowing who are son is while we wait. I think waiting for Kiah was harder. You don't know who you are waiting for… your just waiting. You are spinning your wheels trying to make time go by just wondering. It is hard to know that Luke is over there… you wonder if he is being fed, taken care of, having his diaper changed, being played with and loved by someone. But we are getting pictures of him frequently. We sent a cake for his birthday in October, we send him care packages each month. I would have LOVED to do that for Kiah. We are very lucky that Kiah had such a loving foster family who was fulfilling her ever need.

We can't wait to hold our new boy in our arms and complete our family.
All praise goes to the LORD!!!

Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you.
1 Thessalonians 3:11

Cleft Video.

I wanted to post the above video created by Love Without Boundaries (LWB). Earlier this year, before we even knew about Luke, Katelyn and I did a cleft bottle fundraiser. We chose 20 families and Katelyn sent a letter out to each family explaining how cleft babies are unable to get proper nutrition from regular bottles due to their lip and palate issues. Cleft babies need special cleft bottles in order to get proper nutrition. Our fundraiser was very sucessful and we were able to purchase more than 2 cases of cleft bottles. LWB offered to ship these bottles to China for us and they then distributed the bottles to needy orphanages throughout China. Now that we are bringing Luke home, those cleft bottles mean even more to us. Luke was born in October 2005 and received surgery for his cleft lip in March 2006. When he arrived at the orphanage at the age of 4 days, we believe he had not been able to eat since his birth. He was jaundiced and crying uncontrollably. The orphanage was able to feed him with the help of special feeding equipment such as these cleft bottles. I truly THANK GOD for organizations such as LWB. They make such a difference in the lives of children in China.

Thanksgiving Pics.

Jake in his Thanksgiving "Best"

My sister Danielle

My brother Aaron jamming out in the "band" with Kiah on tamborine and Jake on accordian.

Kiah just up from her nap.

She's got that "where are we going???" look on her face!

Here are some pics from Thanksgiving Day!!!