A much better day

Monday was another first for Lia, with a visit to Chuck E Cheese with Tia and their cousins.

Tuesday we enjoyed just staying at home and relaxing and showing a little attitude

and Wednesday we had a very brief chance to try out Lia's new umbrella
followed by a wonderful dinner with friends.

Well, as frustrated as I was about the fact that Lia's heart surgery was rescheduled, I have to admit I would MUCH rather be spending today like this:

laughing and playing baby dolls,

putting hair up in two little pigtails for the first time,

and welcoming big brother home from church camp.
I also had to post this photo showing off two VERY expensive and beautiful sets of teeth. Brandon just got his braces off last week after almost three years and Lia had her dental work completed last week and I'm just beginning to get those bills in the mail today.

So it looks like we will have another week to play and have fun.

Our all day pre-op will be next Friday, Aug. 6th and then the heart cath on Mon., Aug. 9th and the Fontan heart surgery on Tues., Aug. 10th. This timing was not in OUR plan, but we are trusting that it is definitely in HIS plan.
It will, however, be that much closer to school starting and will require a big juggling act on our part, but we are believing that Lia will do great and heal quickly!
We have been told that if ALL goes well we can hope to be out of the hospital in 7-10 days.

Please pray that things go smoothly, there are no complications, and Lia heals quickly so that she can begin pre-school and mommy and daddy will not have to miss too much work.

Out of my hands!

I just called the hospital to ask a question about Lia's heart surgery for this week. Low and behold I got a call back from the nurse saying that our surgery had been cancelled. What?! It appears that when I called the cardiologist's office to ask them if there was enough time between the dental work and surgery they did not relay the correct information to the hospital. They didn't seem to understand that it had already been scheduled. The surgeon's office thought we didn't have the dental surgery and thus the heart surgery was cancelled. (All dental work MUST be taken care of before heart surgery.) Now, no one called to tell me this! How was I supposed to know this? In case you are wondering, I am not happy about this, but there is NOTHING I can do about it. Right now I have a choice to make: 1)Realize God has a reason for this and make the most of enjoying today or 2)continue to have the attitude I have right now! So, I am going to put on my big girl panties, put a smile on my face and get my focus back where it needs to be - on the ONE who makes the final plans! Thanks to a dear friend for the reminder of how Satan wants to steal our focus! So, for those of you who were praying, please continue to do so, because this means we are getting that much closer to school starting. For my facebook friends, I love your comments and would love for you to leave them on my blog as well since I hope to have this blog turned into a book in the future for us to keep record of our journey so that Lia can read it when she is older. Thanks for the love, support and prayers!

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2

It doesn't make sense!

Does it make sense that we would adopt an infant of another race with a future of unknown medical needs? This was the same year that David broke his back and spent 2 weeks in a hospital, 3 months in a back brace, didn't work for 6 months and I wasn't working.

No, it didn't make sense!

Does it make sense that we would travel around the world to adopt a little girl of another nationality with a congenitial heart defect?

No, it doesn't make sense!

Does it make sense that we would fall head over heals in love with two little girls when we could be thinking about an empty nest in the near future?

No, it doesn't make sense!

Not only does it not make sense to the rest of the world, it doesn't make sense to us either! The only think that does make sense is that our heavenly Father has shown us a way to take and He has taken every step with us, leading us and providing all we have needed.

Francis Chan says,

"Having faith often means doing what others see as crazy.
Something is wrong when our lives make sense to unbelievers."

We know that there have been many times that our friends and family have thought we were "out of our ever lovin minds!" But, we desire to live our lives fully surrendered to our Lord whether it makes sense or not to the rest of the world. Sometimes there are days that are just plain HARD and frustrating, but we wouldn't trade one of those days for the chance that we might have missed these precious sisters loving life together.


Please take a look at the rest of these beautiful photos we had taken today in the right side bar of my blog. We think the photographers had great subjects to work with,
but we think they did an awesome job as well!

Crazy Love

I didn't realize I didn't hit the publish button the other night so here it is a little late.

If you happened to see my blog on Thursday night you might have noticed some crazy things happening. I have been using a free background from The Cutest Blog on the Block, but decided to try using Shabby Blogs since they sent a message saying that backgrounds needed to be changed or deleted by Friday due to something with Photobucket. The only way I could figure out if I liked it or not, was just to try different ones. Consequently, my background kept changing and I hope it wasn't causing trouble for anyone reading.

Speaking of crazy, I have to give a shout out to a new book that I just completed, Crazy Love. This book, by Francis Chan talks about our lives as Christians. One quote says,

"Our goal as people who follow Christ should be no
less than becoming people who are madly in love with God."

It was given to me by a sweet friend that I have known for years. You can check out the Spicer Family blog by clicking on the link. I promise you will be blessed and amazed at their love for children and desire for every orphan to have a forever family.

Calm before the storm...

Monday morning started off nice and calm, sharing a cup of coffee with my special little mei mei(little sister in Chinese). Every morning she asks me for coffee
in the sweetest little voice. Not wanting to really give her coffee,
I sneak her warm milk with a tiny bit of coffee just for the color and taste.
She loves it and it is the only way she will drink milk.

The calm was quickly left behind when I got a phone call at 11 am saying I needed to be at the hospital by 1 for pre-op. After quickly getting ready we made it there, spent two hours getting ready and discussing the type of anesthesia for surgery. On our way home, Brandon called saying, "Mom, we have a big problem!" Not something I wanted to hear at that moment. He had gone outside and found our sweet horse, Boogie, who we have owned for 13 years dead. He was about 26 years old and was great with the kids. Burying a horse isn't quite like burying a dog, but thanks to a good friend the guys got it done while I consoled Tia.

Tuesday morning began at 4 am as we went to the hospital for Lia's dental surgery. She had to have 3 fillings and 2 caps and due to the fact that these were into the nerve she needed anesthesia. Giving this to her with a bad heart brought much concern to the medical professionals, thus the reason for sending us to the children's hospital. Surgery took about an hour and a half and she did great. Her 02 levels are staying about 83-85 and each doctor would explain to the next that this was normal for her. She did NOT like the cap on her tooth or the iv line and wanted both of them OFF when she woke up. Unfortunately, the cap has to stay til the baby teeth come out.

She was well loved by all of the nurses and doctors caring for her. Mimi brought her a stuffed angel, Doctor Lantzy brought her a stuffed bear and the nurses gave her plenty of stickers.

Thank you for all of the prayers, calls, texts, emails as we went through this tough day. We are so thankful for the many people who are walking this road along with us and
praying us through.


Today I had to leave her with her siblings while I went to work planning for next school year. Since I have only left her for a little while since June 1st this was rather difficult. She only cried once and I told them to give her ice cream and it would all be ok. It worked and she had a good day, but was standing at the window when I drove up. What a joy to see that sweet face peering out the window and when I say, "I love you," she says, "I love you more!"

English has come so quickly for her and she is learning new words everyday. I am constantly amazed when she says a new word. She loves to play with a bottle in the
bathtub and tonight she was looking for the top and said, "Mommy, where's the top?"
Up to this point, we have done fine communicating, but it has been
one word at a time along with lots of pointing.

Two special females

Here is the latest update on two of my favorite females who need answers
to prayers in the weeks ahead.

Prior to our cruise, my grandmother started having some health troubles. Since she is the one who blessed our family with this cruise, she wanted to go anyway. When we returned she spent a few days in the hospital and is now going through therapy to regain some strength.
The days ahead will help us know whether she is able to return to her previous assisted living home or not.

This last week we were supposed to have Lia's dental work done at Dr. Hoffman's office under the care of an anesthesiologist due to needing to be sedated. I got a call from the anesthesiologist on Sunday evening saying that he would not do this in an office setting. It must be done in a hospital. Since our dentist does not go to the hospital, they were wonderful and quickly got us into Dr. Lantzy's office yesterday. We will be going to Cook's Children's Hospital on Tuesday for dental work. Lia will be completely sedated and although it seems minor, there is nothing minor when you have a heart condition and anesthesia. This, however, must be done prior to heart surgery. Hopefully we will be home the same day and ready to play again by the next day. This will give us one week to have fun before we go for the
BIG surgery the following week.

If you happened to read my last post about God's promises I will show you exactly the picture He gave us that next evening. Now if that isn't a confirmation that He hears us, I don't know what is. I hadn't seen a beautiful rainbow in a very long time and here it is right above my house the same time I was dwelling on His promises!

It would be such a blessing knowing that you are praying for us in the days ahead as we go through some pretty tough days. We know that when God calls us to something that He will equip us with all we need to accomplish it, but we also know that He hears the cry of
His faithful servants heart.

How will they know?

Having the opportunity to teach our children about loving the Lord is probably the greatest blessing we could ever experience. Each of them will have to make that personal decision to accept Him or reject Him one day, but what if they were never given the information. Kinda like me giving you a gift, but you never open it. It saddens me to know how many other precious children sit in foster families and orphanages never hearing His word while we sit in our homes and churches never going to tell them because it might cause us some discomfort.


I remember the day each of our children accepted the Lord as their savior and were baptized and the joy that filled my soul. The day Tia was baptized I remember saying what a relief it was to know that all four of our children had a personal relationship with Him. Little did I know that there would ever be another darling little girl to fill our home with even more laughter and love. I guess God knows my spiritual gift isn't evangelizing (which was confirmed during a spirtual gift analysis in Sunday School today) so if He sends these babies to me He knows I LOVE to share His love with them. Just in case you are interested in your own spiritual gift you can find a easy to use analysis at lifeway.com.

So this morning we headed back to church for only the second time since coming home from China. We didn't know whether Lia would stay in Sunday School or not, but decided to attempt it. What a joy it was when she walked right in and went to play with her new friend, Alli. We left and went to our own classes and came back to check on her. One hour was enough and she was ready to go. She acted like she wanted to stay, but quickly started to cry so we took her into "big church." She is such a good girl in church and sits and colors and watches everything that is going on. She loved carrying her bible that had her name on it and was given to her a few weeks ago. Once we got home I tried to get a few snapshots as she was loving looking at her bible(even though it may have been upside down). Her favorite book is her book of bible stories that Mimi gave her and she loves to read about Noah and the "big boat." Pretty good story to start with, I think, since it tells of God's promises to us!

After getting home it was time for another favorite: playing with big brothers. What a blessings to have three big boys that love their little sisters so much and gladly play with her.

Don't you just love the new outfit, from Sunshine Square?
Lia's favorite of course since it had ice cream!

Cruising and comments

My two beautiful girls!

and three handsome young men


and the man of my dreams!

Now, I am just wondering:

Does she look happy or not?

Why on earth would I ask that question?

Well, here goes.

After returning home from an amazing cruise with 22 members of our family there was a comment that I continue to ponder. While we were shopping in a craft area in Jamaica a lady who was trying to get us to purchase some of her wares began asking me which ones were my kids. After I explained to her that all FIVE of them were mine she kindly said how good it was that I had adopted and gave me a sweet smile. Then another Jamaican lady sitting next to her asked me, "Why didn't you adopt another one like Tia?" This question obviously was referring to the color of her skin. I had the opportunity to tell her that God led us to Lia in China this time. She said, "Well, is Tia happy?" I asked her to clarify what she meant and she said, "Is it ok that she doesn't have a sister that looks like her?" I kindly told her that Tia was very happy and this satisfied her questions but she made one last comment, saying, "Next time you need to get another one like Tia." Well, I appreciate your concern, but next time I have promised God that I will go wherever He leads me and it doesn't matter the color of skin! From what I can see these two sisters look pretty happy!

I am blessed beyond measure to have a family that is able to see this and realize that love is truly color blind and knows no boundaries.
We had an amazing trip, compliments of our generous grandmother, Nannie, on Carnival Conquest to Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel.


Is there anything better than having a cousin's hand to hold?
I must ask, who coud argue with this look?