Boys love wrestling!

Early morning wrestling between Daniel and Samuel. Daniel ALWAYS makes sure to keep Samuel on top. It is so sweet!!  I especially love their smiles!

Notice the cars in Daniel's hands. This is his normal.

Boys are so fun!!

"Teacher"

God bless Teacher (Lao Shi) for so faithfully teaching the children Mandarin Chinese and for always bringing goodies for the students 😃.

And, here's a picture of a week's worth of homework:

Practice! Practice! Practice!

Yard Sale

Our family was shown a tremendous act of kindness today! After hours of work and planning by the Parsons family, they donated all the funds from their yard sale to our adoption. We are awed! And, they invited our family over for the afternoon to spend time with them--after their very hard and hot day of work! God bless John, Beth, and their children for all their donations, time, and work!!!!

God bless the Parsons family!!

#6

China has pre-approved us to adopt this little guy! He will be around 3½-years-old when we adopt him and a virtual triplet with Daniel and Samuel. 😍

We have been asked over and over again if we are crazy. The answer is "Yes!" Crazy in love with a Savior who gave EVERYTHING because He loved us so immensely. So, in our passion to love Him back, we are taking care of His little lambs--by feeding, serving, and loving them.

God bless little guy as he hangs on while Daddy and Mommy get all the paperwork done!

We would appreciate your prayers for our family as we walk the path God has led us on. Thank you!

Dental work

Daniel had his day with dental work today and did great. He had to have 6 teeth reconstructed. It seems to be our experience that all of our children who were adopted from the poorest province in Ch*na have come to us with their teeth in poor shape. (The enamel never hardened in utero. The dentist assumes it is from poor nutrition and no prenatal care.)

Little guy is coming through his anesthesia just fine. How precious our little guy is!!

Daniel's Recognition of Foreign Adoption

Things have changed here, so now we have to wait over a year to apply for a child's "Recognition of Foreign Adoption"! So this month, Daniel finally had his special day at the courthouse.

With our Judge: 

Now Daniel will be issued a "Foreign Born Florida Birth Certificate", which will make things a lot easier for him as he enters school, college, and gets a driver's license. One more thing off our "To Do List" 😅.

Birthday Children

We have enjoyed getting to celebrate Hope and Andrew! Since they had one weekend between their birthdays, we took the opportunity to concentrate on them with lots of fun.

Hope is now 8, and Andrew is now 7!

Fun was had by all! 😊

Samuel

His first selfie:

 His new favorite toy:

 His awesome laugh:

His beaming smile:

Samuel is a smart boy who loves to be busy and climb everything! If you're not careful and watchful, you will find him climbing over the couch, up ladders, and up the shelves of the pantry! If you see him carrying a step stool, beware! He's getting taller so he can begin his climb on something!

The boy keeps me hoppin'! He's fun to watch and fun to listen to!

My new favorite thing is to listen to him sing. Oh, how I LOVE it!!!! I will try to capture a video soon. He usually stops, though, if he thinks anyone is paying attention to him.

So, since our last update on Sammy, his kidneys are still bleeding--though much less quantity now. His nephrologist thinks it may still be the effects of the HSP, which attacked his kidneys.

In addition, his congestion remains. In the mornings he sounds like he has bronchitis. The doctors have worked together to decide it is safer now to start his vaccinations rather than to wait any longer. Up until 6 weeks ago, he had not had even one vaccination. He is on a schedule to get all of his vaccinations caught up by June 12th. Poor little guy! He now completely comes unglued when he sees a nurse or doctor.

Also, Sammy is still struggling at night. He still has lots of nightmares. He loves to sleep with someone, and Cherish and I often team up to help him through the long nights. Sometimes, he cries out through the night but each time can be quickly comforted and returned to sleep. Sometimes, however, he's up much longer. Those nights, Derek and I take turns cuddling him and helping him feel safe.

Orphans live through more trauma than any of us can imagine. It takes time for a little one to finally pass through the nightmare stage.

God bless little Samuel!

May he feel safe and completely loved very soon!

Cherish

Our Rose.

It's hard to put Cherish into words.

She is 10-years-old and wise beyond her words.

Her heart is completely for her God, her family, and orphans.

Her heart is beautiful!

Cherish told me this week while looking at her siblings: "I think it is so amazing how we are all from different moms and different cities, but God put us all together and made you our mom." I said, "It amazes me too, to the point of tears sometimes."

Me: "So, when would you like to return to China--to either visit or live?" Cherish said: "Never. Unless you're there. I only ever want to be where you are."

Her kind words warm my heart!

Any time you find a child crying in our house, you will find Cherish there working to comfort the child. She is my heart in a small body. (I have to sometimes "fight" her for the job to comfort, because she is so taken by her brothers!)

Here she is after consoling a crying Daniel. They fell asleep together on the floor.

If you ever visited our house at night, you would very rarely ever find Cherish in her bed. She is almost always (like 98 days out of 100 days) in one of the boys' beds comforting one of her brothers. She is in love with her little brothers and finds comfort in being with them!

Pretty much, if you see Cherish, you'll find her with one or more of her brothers:

They are smitten with her as well.

Cherish, beautiful inside and outside!