An Orphan's Wish

I have talked about An Orphan's Wish before when we were in China and shortly home. An Orphan's Wish is the group that helped raised funds for Joy to have her surgeries in China and has helped us talk with Joy over Skype since coming home. They have people in Guilin that are literally the hands and feet of Jesus as they care for orphaned children. The States side of An Orphan's Wish is doing an event called 100 Sponsors in 100 Days. The little boy to the right is the precious little one that our family is blessed to sponsor. We are hoping he will find his forever family soon! If you are interested in being his family please contact us at adinn@comcast.net. He sounds like such a sweet little guy and is our Joshie's age.

The cool thing for us is that An Orphan's Wish will have a drawing at the end of the 100 days. Whoever of their volunteers gets their name pulled out of hat gets to go to Guilin, China and see those there in action and love on the precious children!! If you do sponsor a child from hearing from us just put our names in the message box after you sponsor a child and we'll get our names, (Clayton and Angie Dinn) in that hat and have a greater chance of getting to go to Guilin and love on those babies! Cool huh?

So if you are led to sponsor one of these precious kiddos first of all know that your money does go toward a worthwhile cause. It is $35 a month and you receive great updates on your sponsored child. 98% of all funds goes directly to the kids. When you think about how $35 is just one meal at Chili's or Applebee's (or McDonald's for us) it really puts it into perspective. We have been priviledged to get to know those that run An Orphan's Wish in China and they are amazing, God-loving people. Similar to here the government only provides for the bare necessities for orphaned children. So it is our job to help care for orpans no matter where they are born. That they can grow up to know the love of Jesus through people like you and I. Go to http://www.anorphanswish.org/ and see the kids in Guilin in need of sponsors!

An Update on a Very Busy Summer and Lots of Pictures!

Two weekends ago we met some friends in SC for a weekend of camping and here are some of the fun pictures. We swam in the lake, swam in the creek, hung out, and hiked. We enjoyed visiting with friends we only get to see a few times a year and some more friends that we see often. Our friends from NC hadn't met Joy yet and my friend's name is Joy so our Joy thought that was cool that someone else had her name.

 

We went to my cousin's wedding this weekend and even though the drive was long the kids enjoyed the wedding with all the festivies. They liked, well the girls anyway, getting dressed up. We enjoyed swimming at the hotel, seeing relatives, and we also went to Dinosaur World on our way home. On our way back to GA I told Clayton how exhausted I was from having been SO busy this summer and driving distances out of town for two weekends in a row. Our kids get along so well for the most part when it is just them but when we add other kids to the mix it tends to frustrate all the girls. I think Grace and Faith are so patient with Joy normally but when they have friends around they just don't want to take the time to understand her and explain things to her. Joy ends up feeling lost in all the English chatter. I think Joy gets exhausted from constantly trying to figure out what others are saying. So it lends itself to some stressful, less than desirable attitude times from all three girls. Clayton and I end up hanging out with Joy a lot but I still think it is hard on all the girls. I told Clayton I have to wonder what Joy thinks about us dragging her EVERYWHERE so quickly after coming home. For the most part she seems to look at life as an adventure and has just done so well it has been easy to keep a busy pace... but we have to do a better job at stopping before the breaking points. This week we are having some much needed time at home.

Last week some time the girls realized that there was a bird building a nest in the birdhouse that our boys made. It was so sweet to see Faith and Joy looking at it for the longest time just talking in the versions of English, Chinese, and sign language that we do these days. All those times I wondered what our new daughter would be like and longed to see her interact with her siblings came flooding back to memory. Though times are not always the easiest with language barriers and sibling rivalry we are so glad ALL of our kids are part of our family. Parenting and adoption are definitely not for the faint of heart but it is so worth the blessings we have!

Summer Fun

We spent the 4th of July at Clayton's parents house and the kids had fun shooting off and watching what I call red neck fireworks. I'm just glad everyone still has their limbs and we aren't doing skin grafts for burns. There is a reason these things are illegal in GA but on the other hand if you/we are dumb enough to do it.... Anyway the kids had a fun time.

Here are the pictures of our local aquatic center where we can be found at least two days a week! Joy and Isaac are still so proud of themselves for learning to swim. They all have a great time swimming!

 

We also had a surprise anniversay party for my wonderful parents in June. The kids actually kept the surprise which was really miraculous if you know a few of my children. I keep telling myself that there willingness to talk about anything will be good in teen age years but for now I'm just glad we were able to do this for my parents without anyone accidentally letting them know ahead of time.

Wow... we are all looking at the camera. I've almost given up hope that everyone could be looking at the camera and smiling at the same time. One out of two isn't bad for now!

This is what we've been doing this summer....

Joy and Isaac have learned how to swim. We got a membership to an Aquatic Center about 20 minutes from our house. Probably not the wisest financial decision with medical bills unpaid but it IS VERY fun. They are all loving the outdoor waterpark area and it also has two indoor pools that we'll enjoy in the winter and now. They love jumping off the diving board. Joy and Isaac in particular are SO proud of themselves. Unfortunately I do not have any photos yet. In light of having to remember lunch, towels, etc. for all of us I just keep forgetting our camera. Next week though I'll get some photos and post them. They are so precious in the new found fun!

We are enjoying our summer! Joy has amazed us with her persistent character. The fact that she has learned to ride a bike with training wheels, without training wheels, spent the night at a friend's house with her sister for the first time, is learning another language (while I desperately try not to let her loose her Mandarin), and learned to swim all in about 6 weeks is pretty incredible. God has allowed so many good things in our lives.

The girls are having their share of jealous, competitive moments but overall are improving in their adjustments toward each other. We are trying hard to spend time with each of them alone and together. Any ideas on sibling jealousy would be welcomed. Overall we know it is better now than when we first came home so we are happy with the progress. Being the fact that we now have 3 preteen girls in our home jealousy and competition may just be a way of life for the next few years or decade! I try to keep all the wonderful times they spend together in my mind when I am sitting on one of their beds while they cry and vent to me.

We were able to talk to Joy's China family again Tuesday and that is always such a blessing. Our good friend, Yi, who is also from China and here on a work Visa will be moving closer to us at the end of July. We are so excited to be able to see her more. She has been such an answer to prayer in the first few weeks and months home and I'm sure will continue to be a great friend to our family.

Pictures to follow next week... I promise! I'm attaching that camera to my purse!