One of Eliza's pictures from the orphanage
Grace and her friend in Hanzhong
What made you decide to adopt from China?After adopting two girls from China, with great success I might add, I'm surprised that people still ask these questions. Imagine someone asking an expectant mother, or a mother of young children, why she chose to have them. It does seem to be a rather personal question to ask people. But, as I think about it, I think it is because not everyone sees the possibilities before them. Many people wouldn't have even entertained the notion of adoption, much less from another country!
I know for us, we had talked about adoption many years before we actually adopted. Maybe the idea had to grow on us for a while until the time was right. I know I felt that after our first three children were born and waiting a few more years for another to arrive, someone was still missing. With our fertility issues, it was evident that those missing family members weren't coming easily! I'm not sure what exactly happened, but it seemed that adoption kept coming up as we met people who had adopted, in particular from China. My own brother had recently adopted a darling baby from China when we were going through this stage. I would just keep running into people who'd adopted and it started me thinking that maybe we could too. Mike also was pretty close to several people who'd adopted and so it didn't seem to strange of an idea to him either.
Now, this sounds very easy, but there were many prayers given and thought taken about what was right for our family. It is definitely a leap of faith, but you know when it is right! Then there is that whole timing issue. You may know it's right, but sometimes it takes longer than you thought or a completely different path than you expected!
I think that there are many people out there who really could adopt but just don't think about it seriously. So many children need families and would bless the lives of their new families immensely. I know I can't imagine our life without our dear girls from China. As many others have said, "Why China? Because that is where my daughter is!"
Monday night we made wantons and Doug and Cheryl's family brought noodles. We had a great dinner together. Kirk and Zach really love the wantons and they helped tremendously. Grace also wanted to help so I taught her how to fill them and she loved it!
Olivia's georgous hair! It looked so pretty that day, I just had to take a picture before it got messed up.
and Valentines Day...and President's Day. Three holidays in two days! I had strepthroat Sunday, so it wasn't quite the fun holiday I was expecting. We had our big CNY party with the local China adoption families the week before, so we had already had a nice party. Thank goodness!
