What a beautiful day we had today. After months of cold and winter weather we had a day that felt like spring. We took the girls along with Andrew and his girl friend Kim to the Children's Museum today. It was our first trip to visit here and we really enjoyed it. I believe the two big kids had fun too. You should have seen them playing the Dance Revolution game, they drew a bit of a crowd at one point.
It made it up around 80 degrees today and was a wonderful day to be out and having fun.
After the museum the girls got out to ride bikes for a bit and Laura even skated a while. We are hopeful that it stays warm and we can get out and enjoy the outside. Maybe then we will have more to post about and more photos to show. Have a great week everyone.
Wow hard to believe that one year ago today we arrived in the US with Maria. Last Tuesday January 4th was her 1 year anniversary of got ya day (the day we received her in China). We had actually met her on New Years Eve when we visited New Day.
It amazes me to see how much Maria has changed in the past year. Her language is excellent. She is learning to read and write. She is getting stronger and more self sufficient all the time. Amazing what a year, some love and medical treatment can do to change a child forever. Granted we had a wonderful head start with her thanks to all the wonderful work done by New Day before we received her in China.
We have been blessed over the past year in so many ways. We have also seen struggles including the loss of the girls papaw (Forrest dad) last week. We are thankful for the time all of our children have had to share with their grandparents and are saddened that only one grandmother remains for them now.
We look forward to many great things this new year and look forward to seeing what God has in store for our family this year.
We are thankful for this day when we celebrate the birth of Christ. We enjoyed having the whole family together for the day. This was Maria's first Christmas with us, last year at this time we were getting ready to leave for China. When we started with the stockings Maria thought that was great and was content with the few items in her stocking. When she realized that all the stuff under the tree was to be opened too she was thrilled. Everyone had a great day and received something special.
Enjoy the rest of this Christmas holiday season.
Andrew and Maria enjoying a winters day nap after gift opening.
This weekend we were blessed to travel to see some very dear old friends on Friday evening and while in their town we were able to spend an afternoon with a wonderful family that adopted Kevin. Kevin is Maria's best friend from New Day in China. Photo below is of them in China as we were adopting Maria. The second picture is of the door to the room that they shared with Melody
Maria had been asking to see Kevin for months and we are so glad that we finally made the trip. Kevin's family seemed like old friends and we really enjoyed our time with them. Funny thing is it turns out they only live 11 miles from our very close friends the McCoy's.
It was great seeing Kevin and Maria back together and knowing that they will be able to stay connected. The Ferrill's (Kevin's family) have 8 children and our 3 girls had a great time playing with everyone. All in all it was a wonderful day and we are so glad that Maria was able to get her wish and see Kevin, quite a Christmas reunion.
We now slow down and are ready to enjoy a wonderful Christmas as a family. The girls know the true meaning of Christmas and we love listening with them to the story of the birth of Jesus. Our prayer for you is that you stop and focus on the true meaning of Christmas and celebrate the Christ Child.
6 years ago today on a cool Sunday, Robin and I were in Nanchang China about to meet our first beautiful little Chinese daughter. When we met Laura she was so scared and wanted to go back to her foster mom. She cried so hard and we cried too. She wanted nothing to do with daddy and little to do with mommy. She was bundled up like a little sumo wrestler and as we removed 5 layers of clothing to find this tiny beautiful little girl.
Shiyan from Bethany came to our room to check on us and gave us the best advice we could have received. She said simply "You have been a parent already, just love her". Later that first Sunday evening while I was out doing paperwork Laura started to warm up to Robin and played with stackable cups and began to smile. Thankfully Robin grabbed the video camera and let it run so I could see the beautiful transformation take place. By Monday afternoon she had bonded to both of us and did wonderfully the rest of the trip.
We thank God for Laura and all of our children and we thank God for the miracle of adoption and the ways it has transformed our family.
Happy Gotya Day Laura, you are truly a blessing to us. Attached are a few photos from referral, gotya day, day after and from this year. Amazing to see how love can truly change a child's life.
Well Thanksgiving has come and gone. We are thankful for many things including the newest member of our family Maria who joined us in January.
For Thanksgiving this year we traveled to Kentucky to see family. It was a wonderful trip and we enjoyed time with dad's family and visiting with friends. We were also blessed to get to spend a couple of hours with Robin's sister, brother in-law and two of their kids as they passed through that area.
It was wonderful having time with all 6 of our kids and for them to spend time with their grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins etc. Now we are back to the routine and will get into the Christmas spirit. Last year at this time we were preparing to travel to China, dealing with recovery from surgery etc. so we hope that this Christmas season will be a bit more relaxed and look forward to having all of our children in the same location.
Sunday the 7th will be Laura's 7th birthday. Last night we celebrated with several of her friends over for a fun evening and sleep over. The girls all seemed to have fun and I know Laura had a blast.
Here are a few photos of the big evening. Robin made the Barbie cake. It was an interesting project but turned out great.
What a fun weekend. Saturday night we went to the fall festival at the church where Aaron is on staff. Andrew and his girlfriend Kim helped us with the girls. Stephen and Aaron worked at the event. It was great to have the entire family there.
Sunday night we attended the Fun Fest at our church and it was again great. Here are a few photos of the girls so you can see how cute they were.
Andrew and Kim dressed up as a killer bee and a spelling bee for a party they went to.
October 16th is a special day at our house. On October 16th 2004 we saw Laura's picture for the very first time. Little did we know but on that very same day another little girl was being born in China that would later become our daughter Shiyan. And to make it even better in just 2 days it is Robin's birthday (can't tell you what year she was born).
So today we had a birthday party for Shiyan. A number of her friends were there, there was food, fun, playing on the playground, gifts and all the normal birthday stuff. Shiyan made it clear to everyone that this was her day and she enjoyed every moment of it.
It was great having all 6 of our kids together for this event. Shiyan is the first to tell us that she loves it "when her whole family is together".
So now for the next few weeks Laura and Shiyan are both 6. Laura will have her big day soon and be 7. We are truly blessed to have all 6 of our children.
This weekend we did a quick getaway to Memphis. It was a great Saturday. We started by going to the Peabody Hotel to see the marching of the ducks, a truly time honored tradition. The girls loved it. We then rode around on the trolley to see the city which was also a big hit.
The afternoon was dedicated to early Christmas shopping. Boy did Robin find some bargains. We had the stroller loaded down with her bounty of goods. Then off to dinner at one of Robin's favorites Joe's Crab Shack. Then more shopping. All in all a great day.
We made it to our hotel and settled in. We got the girls bathed and into bed and were ready to rest when I hear Shiyan scream "MARIA IS HURT" I ran into the other room and saw she was crying and she had blood on her face. I turned on the light and quickly grabbed her up to see what had happened. By the time we made it into the bathroom I had blood running down my arm. I was still unsure where she was cut or how badly. Robin was in the shower and I yelled for her to come help. By this time I found blood running from her head. I put a towel on this and applied pressure. Once Robin got there I had her take over the pressure so I could start cleaning her looking for other cuts. We found that all the blood was coming from the back of her head. She managed to soak a towel in blood before we got it under control. It seems that she had raised up from her little bed and threw her self back and in the process went off the bed and hit a flower pot with her head.
All this said to paint the picture of how quickly our relaxing weekend went to crazy. Once mommy rinsed off and got dressed we packed everyone up and headed to the hospital about 1 block from our hotel. When I walked in the ER carrying her the receptionist said "Oh My" and got us a Triage Nurse pronto. Maria's shirt back was covered in blood. It took from shortly after 10 pm until 2:30 am for them to run a CT, get a room, clean and suture her up. She was such a trooper, by the time we made it to the hospital she was smiling and her normal self, other that hair that was bloody and a little bump on her head. She did not like it when they sutured her and it took mommy and two nurses to hold her down so the doctor could sew her up.
So finally about 3 we made it to bed.
Bottom line everyone is fine, just tired. Maria is happy and doing fine. She will get sutures out in a week at her normal doctor. Just goes to show you when little girls are being silly and doing dumb things they can quickly get hurt. It was interesting explaining to the hotel clerk that though our room looked like someone had bled to death that all was fine and not to worry.
Wonder what we can do for our next getaway weekend????
Well Maria's dental work is done. It was great she did not even have to be put to sleep or anything. We were in and out of the hospital in under an hour. Her Dentist was great with her and talked to her and reassured her through every step. He feels like he can handle most routine things in the office now since she did so well. Docs that are not familiar with her case tend to freak out at her low Oxygen Saturation levels so he took the overly cautious route which was fine by us.
Looks like the next step for Maria will be a cath either late this year or early next year depending on the cardiologist schedule. We will be glad to close that fenestration and hopefully see some improvement in SAT levels. For now we just want to slow down and enjoy the fall.
We will try to get some updates pictures out her in the next week or two for you to enjoy.
Well the theme this week is teeth. Before vacation Laura had a loose tooth. She really did not want to have it pulled. We had her wiggle it, we tried bribery. Last Monday at the cookout, Andrew's girl friend spent most of the evening trying to pull the tooth. Lots of major drama. Well finally Tuesday evening we managed to get the tooth extracted. She cried a lot but it was soon over and she was better.
Now this week Laura has a dentist appointment for a routine cleaning. But then on Friday Maria has to go back to the hospital to finally get the dental work that they were going to do back in June. Due to her heart condition the dentist is not comfortable doing the work in his office so will do it as out patient. If all goes well we should only be there a few hours. Please say a prayer for Maria and us as we face this next little hospital procedure.
Everything continues to go well. Every one is healthy except two of the girls have ear infections that are being treated. The college boys are doing fine. Home school is going well for the most part this year. Forrest is fighting tendinitis so trying to give the left arm a rest and hoping the medications kick in so we can avoid a shot into the joint. Seems this is now often referred to as computer elbow, I guess 10 hours a day on a computer is catching up with me.
We will post more updates after this weeks procedures. Thanks for your continued prayers.
Wow it is Labor Day, summer is over. We finally were able to take our family vacation last week. Well 4 of the kids got to go and 2 were in college. We went to Destin and had a great time. There are photos from vacation posted above. Maria was not wild about the beach or ocean. She loved the pool and warmed up to playing in the sand. Laura loved the Lazy River Ride. Shiyan is such a adventurer and loved everything.
Andrew has been back at college for a couple of weeks. He has a Chinese room mate this year. Tomorrow some of his friends and international students are coming over for a cook out.
Aaron is back in college. He was at the big college football opener last night in Atlanta. He was able to tour Chick Fil A corporate offices and met Mr. Cathy himself.
We will hopefully slow down a bit for fall and be able to enjoy the cooler weather. Have a blessed holiday weekend.
On Monday of this week both Maria and Shiyan had checkup's with the cardiologist. Overall they are both doing great. Shiyan has a valve leaking a little bit but they are just going to watch it, she does not go back until 1 year from now.
Maria continues to do wonderfully and goes back in 3 months. We will be scheduling her next Cath to remove the fenestration later this year. Maria will also finally have her dental work done on September 17th. This will be done at the hospital just to be safe. They hope that she will not have to be put to sleep and if so she should only be there a few hours.
Laura is doing great. This week has been the week of loosing teeth. Shiyan lost another tooth and Laura has one that is very loose but she is afraid for us to pull it, this will be her first lost tooth. The dentist said to let it go for 2 weeks and see if she can work it out, if not he will pull it.
Two of the boys are back in college, Aaron is living at home and Andrew moved back to the dorm this week. Stephen is still doing home school for his 10th grade year.
Life is good and God continues to bless us richly.
Hard to believe it is August already. The summer has flown by. Maria continues to do wonderfully. She went back for a checkup this week and they are pleased wit her progress.
She is happy and getting stronger every day. We are so thankful for her healing and progress. School starts this week for us so we will see how she comes along in that area too.
Maria is home from the hospital. She is doing great, playing and having fun. The incision looks very good and seems to be healing.
Since we like an interesting life, Sunday is our oldest Andrew's 22nd birthday and we had planned to have some of his friends over for a cookout tonight. So home from the hospital and cooked dinner for about 15 college kids. Life is good.
Now for the weekend to try and rest up and get back to the routine.
Kevin, Maria is ready to come see you soon. Lets get some plans together.
Another day of progress. Maria continues to do wonderfully. She is happy playful and mostly all smiles. The incision is looking better every day. The Docs came by today and are shooting to get her out of here on Friday.
We are so thankful for our medical team here they have been great and have been very good to Maria. We do look forward to getting home though.
We have been very pleased this week with Maria's Oxygen Saturation levels, we are in the upper 80s and for her that is great. We now hope to make it up into the 90s after the next procedure later this year. That one will not be nearly as complicated as the previous surgery.
Thanks for your continued prayers. God is GREAT and has blessed us in so many ways. We know He is in total control of this situation and trust Him to provide for everything we need.
Maria continues to do great. She has a wonderful attitude and has been so sweet. Yesterday she met Miss Mississippi and was actually on the news last night. She is also in a news story that the hospital posted on line.
We now know what infection we are fighting. It is a stong one but the meds we are on are working. The incsion is bigger than we expected but looks great. It looks like we will be here at least a couple of days longer depending on how everything goes.
Pray that the infection is cleared from her body and that the incision heals quickly.
Maria is back in her room now. Surgery went well. The infection was fairly superficial. They cleaned it out. She will be in the hospital on IV for a few days. Had a bad reaction to an antibiotic last night which was a scare for a few minutes. Just waiting for her to get back in a better mood now.
Maria is back in the hospital. Last week she started getting an irritation at the bottom of the incision. The Doctor cleaned it Thursday and last night it started looking infected. Today Robin took her to the doctor and they wanted to admit her for IV antibodics. Not sure how long we will be back in the hospital.
The current plan is to open her chest tomorrow morning and debread it (sounds like no fun at all) We will post updates as we can. She is doing fine right now and is very happy, (Thank GOD)
