
It is with great celebration that we announce our referral of Fu Hai Xia. She is 30 months old and currently resides at the Jiaozuo Children's Welfare Institute in the Henan Province of the P.R. of China. She has a repaired cleft lip and palate. Her estimated birth date is December 25, 2005. She is beautiful and we hope to travel to make her our own in "Octoberish". Our hope is that travel will fall between Caitlin Birthday on Sept 19th and Thanksgiving.
We received her referral on the 12th of June. I had prayed I would be out of school so I could devote my full attention to the referral and I was. My dear friend Tracy and I were sitting on my porch watching kids play in the dirt when our call came in.
I had sent an email to our agency saying I thought I would like to decrease my age limit back down to 24 months from 30. But if the perfect little girl came along age was not a deal breaker. Pam, from CCAI called the next day and said "I need a hard and fast answer on age" I said "really, I don't want to do that". And then my overworked, on summer break, brain kicked in and said "why, why do you need a firm answer?"
"Well, I may have a very good reason why but I'm not telling you if you will have to say no beacuse of her age!!!!!!!!!"
"No age isn't that big of a deal, we are looking at development and severity...blah, blah, blah..."
The last thing I remember was her saying "SO, do you want me to call back with your real call!!!!"
Then I started yelling at my husband to get on the other phone, my girlfriend Tracy was in tears. And then of all things it took sooo long for her pictures to come through the email and Pam wasn't getting off the phone with us until we saw her pictures. I just love that woman. She knows us better than we know ourselves sometimes.
So for all of you still waiting. Trust the CCAI ladies. They will hang in there with you no matter what.
There are a couple families travelling to our Daughter's orphanage right now and we hope to get some more pictures of her. We only have 3, aside from the 2 lip and palate pictures. We have emailed a man named Brian Stuy who finds children's finding adds. The finding add is the announcement made in the local papers with the child's picture to attempt to give the birth parents one last chance to reclaim their child. Which of course would do them no good because they would likely be promtly tossed into jail and wouldn't get to raise their child anyway...
So we hope to get that in the next two weeks or so. At least that will allow us to have a picture of her as an infant.
She was estimated to be 5 days old upon abandonment and arriving at the CWI. What a start for her. It is truly a miracle that these children are able to live in the elements for who knows how long before they are found, taken to the police and then to the orphanages. Their little lives are protected and touched by God because only He knows where they will go in life. And this little one will bless our lives and be our second miracle baby!!
Oh, I almost forgot. Her name. Fu means good fortune or blessing. Hai means Sea, and Xia(/Sha/)means Rosy Cloud. We will be naming her Samantha Paige HiaXia.
Thnaks for following along with us...
Steven Curtis Chapman and New Hope (Sammy's Foster Home) Unite to Open Maria's Big House of Hope
The Waiting Child Video from LWB
Heartbridge Healing Home at New Hope-Sammy's Foster Home!
New Love Without Bounaries Video
Saturday, June 28, 2008
WE HAVE A NEW DAUGHTEER!!!!!!!!!!
Sunday, June 22, 2008
The Jungle
Well Spring has sprung and after about 4 days of work on my Jungle flower bed in the front of the house it is actually looking pretty good. I love this time of year and am so happy to be on summer break. Maybe we'll even have some good news on the adoption front soon. Caitlin is growing like a weed and having a great time. Check out the slide below for some fun spring pictures.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Devastation in China

The whole world has watched as China attempts to recover from the earthquake just a few short days ago. I thought it would be appropriate to set a link here for both information and an opportunity to donate if your heart is compelled to do so.Our adoption agency is currently collecting for the relief effort and it is of course a tax deductable donation.PLEASE say a prayer for these families who have lost children and other loved ones as well as for the many babies who are now without families. My heart aches for these people. The devastation is incomprehensible to me.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
14.5 more days to go...
Well I have 14.5 days to go until summer vacation from school. I am very much looking forward to time with my sweet girl. I need the summer break every year and this is no exception. Here are some pictures of Mother's Day Weekend. Specifically the Mother Daughter Banquet at Church. My husband got the honor of serving us and Caitlin and I sported funny fashions for the show. Check out my "Shelf Bra" and Caitlin's "Flour Sack Dress." Such good clean fun! On a serious note, we took a break from the medical side of our China Adoption process for a little bit. Since March basically. We re filed our checklist yesterday and eagerly anticipate "the call". We have no idea when it may happen as there are all kinds of extraneous circumstances, not the least of which is the major earthquake and the Olympics. Besides whomever is waiting in line in front of us who may be willing to accept a child with similar needs as those we checked.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Just some recent pics
on a lighter note
Spring may have sprung here on our little lake. The frogs are back. They made their debut tonight and are croaking away as I type. Listening to the frogs at night is by far one of our most favorite things about living in the boonies on this tiny lake...
it's been awhile...
Well it has been quite a while since I last posted. We have had a couple ups and downs in our journey towards adoption recently. We are currently trying to make some decisions about the path we will take. The Chinese Government has mandated that all agencies that have a Waiting Child program are to participate in one shared list. Which means that all 51 agencies will fight to "lock in" kids from one very large group of children and families must respond to a referral within 48 hours. I think this is bad for families and encourages people to make decisions too quickly. So we are evaluating whether we want to be involved at all. If we choose not to we will stay in the traditional program and forge ahead as originally planned.