Happy Birthday Natalee!

It's hard to believe but our little girl is now 8 years old! Happy Birthday sweetheart!

We are so proud of how you do your best in everything. We love that you have a heart that desires the things of God and strive to honor and please Him. You are a wonderful big sister. Daddy & I have been so blessed having you as our daughter, you bring us joy and laughter!

We love you like crazy cakes, Happy 8th Birthday!

Megan's adoption video shown at her dedication service

Megan's Dedication

Yesterday, on my Mom's bday and National Orphan Sunday...we had Megan's dedication. We stood before the Lord, our family, friends and church and asked for God's guidance...His grace...His favor on Megan and on us as her parents. It was a wonderful day and such an honor to bring our daughter before the throne of grace and dedicate her to God...to give praise for her life...and pray for her that she would have a heart for the things of God.

Afterward we enjoyed a wonderful meal together and then watched our travel video. And, to add to the great day - we had incredible weather - in the 70's (totally uncommon for this time of year here). The kids had a great time of swinging and playing ball too. I've attached the video we put together to show at church - never mind, it won't seem to post. So....I'm working on an alternative.

We hope that our story will somehow impact, even just one other family/person/group...to be moved to care for the orphans. Adoption is a wonderful gift from God, we are so blessed by how He provided a family for us. Adoption is also part of His great plan as we are all His adopted sons and daughters.

Pumpkins & Trick-Treat Fun

I came across this great pumpkin poem and thought I'd share it with you all. It's a great prayer for each one of us this fall season!

The girls enjoyed carving pumpkins, especially Megan - she loved playing with the pulp & slimy stuff (which totally grossed her Dad out). :0

Pumpkin Prayer - by Liz Curtis Higgs

(cut off top of pumpkin)

Lord, open my mind so I can learn new things about you.

(remove innards)

Remove the things in my life that don't please you. Forgive the wrong things I do and help me to forgive others.

(cut eyes)

Open my eyes to see the beauty you've made in the world around me.

(cut nose)

I'm sorry for the times I've turned my nose at the good food you provide.

(cut mouth)

Let everything I say please You.

(light candle)

Lord, help me show your light to others through the things I do. Amen

Last night was "trunk or treat" at a church nearby and although we are not huge into hall*oween at all we have enjoyed allowing the girls to dress up and go to this event at the church. The weather was terrible rainy & windy so we weren't going to go...but after some "please Daddy, can we try" in their sweet little ways....we decided to try it - with no guarantees of participating if it was still outdoors. But...the church was prepared and all events were inside, thus making for a fun evening. When we got home the girls decided they had to "inventory" their goodies just like Daddy used to do....and then...the trading and bargaining began. "I'll give you my .....for your.....no, that's not good enough....I'll give you my ....for your ...." :) Too Cute to watch them bargain for their favorites. And of course, they each shared with mom & dad too.

We hope you all have a fun fall enjoying the beauty of the season that our Heavenly Father has created for us!

Happy Gotcha Day #7

It's so hard to believe that seven years ago we were in China standing in the hallway of the Dolton hotel watching 10 other families become parents - some for the first time like us - others for a 2nd, 3rd, even 5th time. It was a moment I will never forget! Ten months old...she was wearing several layers of heavy clothes....she laughed and played with my mouth....she cried and cried when Daddy tried to hold her...until three days later she began to trust him and allow him to hold her and ever since she's been Daddy's little girl.

We say this often ...but it's SO true....we are incredibly blessed! God has so richly blessed us with a family...children to raise to know and love Him, to serve Him and impact the world in His name. It's an awesome responsiblity and we are thrilled that we are Natalee's (and Megan's) parents!

We celebrate this day...our family day...the day that God had ordained for Natalee to become our daughter. We love you Natalee! You bring such joy to those around you...always giggling...dancing and singing....enjoying life! You are a special treasure to us!

Natalee and her China gift - a large butterfly kite.

Fall Stay-cation

We've been able to enjoy a little "stay" cation these past few days. There was no school Thurs & Fri so we decided to take the girls on little day trips. Thursday we went to the zoo - of course the one where you can feed the giraffes was already closed - big bummer for Megan as she was eager to do something she'd never done before. (She kept reminding us..."I neffer feed giraffe in China, my poa poa neffer did too.) But, the major rain held off and we were able to enjoy watching the lions and chimps at our local zoo.

After the zoo we found a great Chinese restaurant for lunch and then due to the rain went to the mall. Megan had a blast riding on the carousel. We enjoyed a treat from A*W - to which Miss M drank almost 1/2 of it by herself. "Weelll...I was phirsty daddy." :)

We had hoped to go to the pumpkin patch that day too but the rains came and we had to wait until today. The weather was cool, but dry and actually sunny too. We had a great time. Megan had her first horse drawn hay ride and stroll in the pumpkin patch.

It's been some nice days off our regular schedule and being able to spend some extra time together!

Home 6 months

Home six months is hard to believe. I know I've said that many times before...but really it seems like yesterday we were hugging and holding our daughter for the first time in China....and yet it seems like she's been a part of our family forever. We waited 39 months to get Megan's referral and during that time it was hard! We shed many tears over the wait, wondering how long Lord would it be? We had to redo our paperwork too many times than one should have to - really do my fingerprints ever change???

But....God is amazing...he wipes all those feelings and memories away when we are given our children! The hurt and wondering have been replaced with joy and wonder! We have been so blessed!
Megan was pretending to be working just like mommy on the computer. :) Below she was my salsa helper. Last Friday night Kyle & Nat had a daddy-daughter date and so Megan & I made 18 pints of salsa. She really liked peeling the tomatoes - thanks!

Natalee & Megan last night at the Pumpkin Festival :)

On the News

Yesterday we had the honor of being part of an all-American picnic with our adoption agency and several officials from CC*AA and orphanage directors interested in special needs adoption. While at the picnic we were asked to share our experience with the local news station. Here is the link to the final piece that aired last night. http://www.fox17online.com/news/?track=nav

Scroll down the page and click on "china adoptions 9-20-09".

It was a wonderful experience to share with these officals just how happy we are with our children, many of whom have had various health needs. The officials said they were happy with seeing our children and hope to see many, many more being adopted and finding their families.

Megan & Daddy with an Orphanage director from Guizhou province. Mommy & Nat (along with friends) with an orphanage director from Hunan province.

First days of school

With bittersweet emotions....Natalee excited but not wanting to be gone from her sister....Mom excited but not wanting to be gone from her daughter....school began. We are so blessed to be able to have Nat attend Cal*vary school and completely support it's mission and having our daughter schooled there. But, nonetheless, it's still hard to see your little girl going off to school, being all "grown-up". She fully enjoyed her day, her teacher and being in 2nd grade.

Megan did really well and only asked about 3 dozen times when we would go pick Natalee up. Today she helped me with a huge project and was quite proud of the work she did. I'm looking forward to some one-on-one time with Megan and she's looking forward to doing "school" with Mom.

Praying that the school year is filled with new experiences, good times, safety, laughter, and draws us closer to our Savior..... for you and your family too!

Blessings!

Home 5 Months

Happy Labor Day! Summer is winding down and school is beginning again. We've celebrated five months with our wonderful blessing, our daughter Megan! She is so full of life....joy...and love! Often she wraps her little arms around our necks and says "I luzz you sooo much!" Just a silly thing that she recently said to me....coming out of her bedroom after getting ready for bed she said..."mommy I has nose on my hand". I was confused for a minute and then I realized she was talking about a booger - we started laughing - that's Megan - just too cute!!

Megan helped Daddy cheer on his favorite team today.....and they WON! Wow - maybe it will be a better year for Daddy and his Wolverines! Megan shows us how she cheered.

Two weeks of fun stuff!

This past week we had VBS at our church every night, and of course, I never thought to bring my camera. :( Both girls loved all the fun and Megan especially loved the music! It was a great week of learning more about God's plan for our lives. The theme was Mystery @ 12627 (Colossians 1:26 & 27) and it was really neat how the writers created this whole "mystery" at a museum to teach the kids about God's plan of salvation and His love for each one of us. It really was a great week, I just don't have any photos. (I'll have to get some from the official "photographer".)

The previous week the girls and I were at Chinese Culture camp. It was so much fun! Megan was in the xiao ban class (little kids) and Natalee in the da ban class (big kids). They had 3 class rotations and then group games. They had a language class, writing class and culture class where they did Chinese brush painting, papercutting, Chinese knotting, and dance. I was a helper and also took Chinese cooking class. We made some delicious foods and plan to make several of the dishes again.

One of the really neat things in Nat's writing class was that her teacher not only taught them various characters, but in doing so, he presented the story of creation. It was really incredible how through the Chinese characters the Bible could be presented. Her writing is in the photo below on the left, sorry it's not the easiest to see. The girls really enjoyed learning more about their birth country and asked when we could do that again! :)

Right before Chinese camp we had taken the girls to Dutch Village here in our area. It was a beautiful summer day and we all had a great time. Megan loved the swing with Daddy and then they got to walk a goat named Peanut. Actually, the goat waked Megan most of the time. She thought that was so much fun! Later on that day I called her "peanut" as I've done many times before and boy did I get the look. She said, "I not peanut...that's the goat!" Oops. It was a wonderful day to spend together.

4 Months with Megan!

To those that follow our blog and have hoped to see more updates or photos - I'm sorry! I have not been very disciplined these past few months. In fact, in all honesty....I'm not the same since being home with Megan (which is not all a bad thing). Having gone through international adoption (a 2nd time)... seeing the huge need of families for children...leaving part of my heart in China....struggling with understanding the selfish, "me...me...me/gotta have more stuff" society in which we live... has been somewhat hard. My routines are all off and I haven't felt the best physically...but..... I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE having our "baby" home with her forever family!! I am so BLESSED to be Mom to another amazing little girl who challenges me to be a better person...and the laughter and joy she brings to our family is wonderful!

So...I'm hopeful that I'll be more disciplined (not just in blogging but exercising...avoiding too many snacks at the wrong time of day....prioritizing my day....)

Well....on to the update of this past month. Seriously, it feels like I just wrote the last post but in reality it was a month ago. ugh.

July 3rd we took the girls to the zoo and then fireworks later that night. Megan loved the zoo...but didn't care too much for fireworks. After the first blast she told Daddy that she was done and ready to go home. She made it through without any tears but just snuggled up to Daddy and tried to go to sleep. On the 4th, after their bath, we did sparklers and Megan thought that was "ahh-some".

Megan has been trying to gain more confidence in riding her scooter....playing "base-a-ball" has been a favorite and she's getting really good at hitting the ball! She's also a good helper for me from time to time. :)

We took our first "road" trip (to WI) with Megan for our China reunion with Natalee's adoption group. She did pretty well on the trip, only asking within the first 15 mintues on the road if we were almost there. How do they learn these things??? It must be part of all kids' genetics. We had a great time with our China family! Megan especially loved her first swim in a pool...watching a dvd in the car...seeing penquins at the zoo....and making new friends, especially Mr. Jimmy whom she adored and had wrapped around her finger.

WE ARE SO VERY BLESSED!

Home 3 months

Where does time go? It's hard to believe that it's already July 2nd! We have been home with Megan for three months now. There are days that I hardly remember she's only been home a short time - she has adjusted so well!

She is speaking very well, mixing her English and Chinese words. She has no trouble getting her point across. There have been a few times, especially if you're talking to Megan on the phone, that she just sighs heavily and hands the phone to her JieJie (big sister) for her to interpret - it's quite cute. My MIL thought she kept saying "chocolate cake" when Megan was telling her about her birthday but she was really saying "chuck e cheese" - too cute! :) She often say's "holdjewme" - or "hold you me" meaning she want's to be held or picked up. When Megan says "No" - which can be often depending on the day - it comes out "Noah". We are so blessed by our spicy yet caring, fiercly independent yet dependent, talkative yet contemplative, humorous yet serious daughter. She brings us a new depth of joy!

Shortly after her birthday we decided that since she was talking about her foster family in positive ways and telling us things they did together - that we would show her some photos. We had sent two cameras to China before we traveled and they took photos of them together - they are priceless! Megan loved looking at them and got quite excited to see PoaPoa & YeYe (her foster parents). Then we thought we would watch the video of our trip. It was going really well until the part of hearing and seeing PoaPoa and YeYe - that's a whole different set of emotions when you actually see & hear your loved ones that you miss so much. She became very, very quiet and had such a sad look on her face. We talked about the adoption and how God has brought us together as a family - forever and she understood but still wanted PoaPoa & YeYe. She told Daddy later that night, "I go PoaPoa's house far away"....Kyle said "well, some day we'll go back to China"....she interrupted and said "Daddy, we take big plane to PoaPoa". Wow - she get's the fact that she is far far away. It was a sad converstion but we just showered her with lots of love and understanding. It was probably premature to show her the video, we should have stuck with just the photos. I guess hindsight is 20/20.

The girls have enjoyed playing in the sprinkers on the hot days we've been having. Now today, as I post, it's the third day in a row that we've had temps only in the mid 60's - what a drastic difference from a week or two ago!

Happy 4th Birthday Megan!

Lunch & fun time with Mom, Dad, & Nat at Chuck e Cheese. Megan loved all the games & rides!

Our Chinese class summer picnic. Megan celebrated her birthday with friends at the park. She enjoyed climbing the sand dune several times and saw Lake Michigan for the first time. I think it was probably her first time experiencing sand too. At first she didn't like it on her feet, but once she took her shoes off she was fine.

Opening presents. She kept saying "why" when we said she had presents waiting for her when we got home....but, it didn't take her long to rip into them and find the gifts waiting for her.

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl! We have been so incredibly blessed to have you as our daughter! These past few months have been so much fun getting to know one another better. It's amazing how God works....He knows exactly what we needed - each other. Megan you have a wonderful personality...full of life and love...your laughter fills our home and our hearts....we love you! Hope you've had a wonderful birthday and that you'll always know how very special you are to each one of us and to your Heavenly Father.