Hope for Orphans @ Hopewell

This is the logo for the Orphan Ministry God has allowed us to start at our church. We are going to be having two informational meetings on Sunday, Nov. 7th and Nov. 14th from 5:30-6:20. If you live in our area and have thought about adoption or orphan care before please plan on attending. The first meeting we will get to here from different people that are in charge of foster care in our area, a couple that has adopted domestically and cross culturally, and us (international adoption). We'll look at the differences in these 3 things as far as cost and experiences. We will also talk about specific and tangible ways families can be involved in orphan care for those that are orphaned spirtitually in our communities.

Orphan Care can be more than just sending our money overseas or to local organizations. I am convinced God wants more than that and I am definitely convinced that we grow more in our relationship with Him when we are willing to get our hands and feet involved in Orphan Care. Wherever God leads is where we all must learn to go! Our lives will never be the same after investing in those without families, physically or spiritually.

The meetings will be help at Hopewell Baptist Church. Directions to our church can be found here. Blessings and may we all look for God's purpose for our lives for today and DO IT!

"Nothing is impossible with God." Luke 1:37

After Mary said this she also said that she was the Lord's servant.

I pray that every believer would be found as the Lord's servant in ophan care. Our theme verse for this ministry is "God sets the lonely in families" Psalm 68:6. It's obvious from His Word that this is His plan and His desire. Again, let's be His hands and feet!

A Fun Braves Game

My parents took us to a Braves game with my sister and her daughter. We also went to the

Varsity to eat before hand...mmmm! I have had my weekly intake of grease for sure.
We also stayed to see Kutless, a Christian band, after the game.
The kids and adults all had a great time.

H Plori Bacteria and School

I have  tried all summer long to get doctor appointments done and alot of fun in so that when school started we'd have most of our mornings free and we'd feel refreshed. Well....

The best laid plans is the phrase that comes to mind.

After deciding to start school, then take a week to go camping I thought, "Okay this is it." Now we can focus.

That was before H Plori hit me last Sunday night. For those of you that aren't familiar with that bacteria well, I hope you never are. Stabbing pains in my stomach, sleepless nights, and of course not the best homeschooling days. For a day I thought I had a stomach virus. When it got worse I thought I needed gull bladder surgery. So I made a doctor appointment which was strange in and of itself since the only two times I've gone to our primare care physician is when I needed him to fill out our adoption physical forms. Thankfully his physicians assistant was on top of things and thought to test for this bacteria. The bottom line is it is a bacteria that eats away at your stomach causing ulcers. Sound fun huh?! Well, now I'm on two antibiotics (that have their own lovely side effects) for 14 days!

Gotta love best laid plans!

Life happens in a house of 7 people. It just usually involves one of the little people in our home.

Maybe next week will be more "normal" or maybe this week was "normal" and I just need to adjust... always something new, never a dull moment!

Here is a photo of the girls and I doing Chinese class. Forgive me if I look a little under the weather. I think this was Tuesday and I didn't get to the doctor until Wednesday.

Here are some photos of our church's summer musical. All the kids did a fantastic job! Joshua has come so far that he is even standing on the stage. Our parents came and our friend Yi that we always enjoy being around. Tomorrow Yi, the girls, and I are going to a new Asian market to get some food. It'll be fun!

Why do sweet boys like this not have families?

Honestly, this question is keeping me up at night. Praying, journaling, praying some more! More thought provoking questions for midnight are,


"Why are kids like him born in countries without good medical care?"


"Why can't more families that are able to bring more kids home to a forever family?"


"Why can't we do a better job supporting birth families so that they don't have to make hard decisions that give their kids the title orphan?"


Sorry to be a killjoy but it is late and I'm just being honest. Before you go and get all spiritual on me I do realize that even though my finite mind can't understand it somehow God is glorified in tragedy and that He is still on His throne and that He is most definitely trustworthy to answer or not answer all and any of these questions. I'm just having a hard time wrapping my mind around it all when I think of all the what if's with my own children... those born under my heart and those born in my heart.


This little guy is definitely worth staying up late praying and advocating for though....

Our Camping Trip

We decided at the last minute to take a camping trip the week everyone else in our area started school. It proved to be a really fun and relaxing time. Great way to kick off the school year.... A VACATION! Here are some photos of the fun and then I HAVE TO get on those school plans!

A friend of ours is always so kind to let us borrow the boat but because of the busyness of the summer we haven't used it. So this was a first for Joy and she LOVED it! She really enjoyed tubing, laughed when she fell off, and of course always enjoys swimming! Now she keeps asking when we can go on the boat again.

This was the first year for Isaac to tube also and he had a great time. He is really proud of himself for being brave enough this summer to do both slides at the waterpark, the tube, and the diving board. Lots of first for everyone I guess. Joshua just keeps telling us when he is 5 he will do these things. That seems to be the magic number in his mind!

I'd like to know what Joy is thinking in her profile picture. She looks deep in thought for sure.

Fun Days!

School is continuing on. We seem to be settling into a groove. Starting early and then getting a break I think will prove helpful. It's allowed me the freedom to think about changes, what worked, what could work better, etc.

Sweet story! Today when Joy was reading her stories in Mandarin she put the book up to her nose and smelled deeply. I asked her, "Does it smell like China?" She smiled and said yes. I bought this particular book in China. It makes me think about everything international adoptees leave behind. Yes, they gain forever families but they leave familiar faces, smells, foods, sites, language, and many more things.

Clayton and I were talking about how easily the kids all learn Chinese and English. Joy has started whispering in my ear if I ask her what a certain word is in Chinese. She must be embarrassed for whatever reason so I feel the need to learn faster and make it more of our lives if we are truely going to become somewhat bilingual like we'd like. So... Clayton had the idea to make learning Mandarin just another part of school. I have some My First Chinese Readers Vol. 1 that I got from our friend that is from China and teaches here. You can order them at China Sprout and I believe there are 4 volumes. So... after hitting the panic button upon the idea of one more thing to do for school I decided it would be doable maybe not every day but at least 2 or 3 times a week. The girls and I did two lessons this morning after everyone was done with everything else and had a blast. I think it will be good bonding time for the 4 of us then they practiced on the boys and taught them some new words. We are going to try to use conversations in public so Joy isn't the spotlight. So she can see that we all enjoy using the Chinese language. I'm amazed at how many characters I am even starting to recognize after listening to her read and following along most everyday. It's encouraging to see progress! Fun times indeed!

And this is what our table looks like every morning! Oh how I will look back on these days and say... Only God! As I am typing this Faith is humming Amazing Grace in the living room....

And here are some photos of Faith at horse camp at the end of July. She had a great time!

Isaac watching his sister! Always up in a tree or anything else he can climb up!

The 1st Day of School

We survived and thrived through the first and second day of school. I had decided to do a three day week this week and then we are going camping next week. I wanted to try to see what was working and what I needed to change before starting full force on the 16th. Everyone did super well! Minus a few changes that have to be made I think plan A will work for now. We are enjoying doing fun stuff when school is over like going to the water park that will only be open a few more weeks and we are meeting some friends for some back to school put-put! Pray for me... I'm not sure how managing 5 kids with golf clubs is going to go over! :)

We are also continuing to muddle through the adopting out of birth order issues. It is still hardest on Faith and even though most of the time her and Joy are great friends and siblings they still have their intense moments. Faith just bluntly says she wanted a younger sister and even though Joy acts younger and is considerably smaller the feeling is still there. The two girls' personalities are SO similar that they are the most threatened by one another. Joy wants ANYTHING that Faith has which bothers Faith. I have had to get very blunt with Joy and just tell her that is something Faith had or got when Joy was in China. They both have had different experiences and there really isn't going to be any making up for lost time. Joy has things and experiences that Faith won't have also and she can be glad for those. At some point she will have to realize and accept that also. We have done our absolute best at getting her things that all the girls have and I realize she just wants to make sure she is loved as much as every one else... but it wears at me for sure! I've taken her upstairs and showed her the amount of dresses she has (which is more than her sisters) when she was pouting about Grace getting new one from a grandparent. To that she looked at the closet and said, "OH!" Glad my point was made. Other trickets and things just can't be duplicated though. Like I said most of time they have such a great time together but everyone just wants to know that they are loved the same as they were or as much as everyone else so we are grateful for these times to reassure them even though the moments can be mentally exhausting! In so many ways it is similar to birthing a child! The new child really does require more attention initially. We have been blessed at Joy's easy transition so it has minimized the issues that could be. Even if God would have added a younger child to our family there would be adjustments to be made so the bottom line during the hard moments is "Did God lead us to this point?" "Absolutely so He will supply all of our needs... including those of the children that have been in our family for longer!" In Him alone do we trust for everything!

We are super excited over an opportunity to start an adoption ministry at our church! More details including a cool name and logo to follow in the days ahead. One of the really fun parts is that we know 5 different adoptive families in our area that go to 5 different churches so the hope is that we can work together to impact more people and in turn more children in forever families! God is good to give us the desires of our heart when our hearts are focused on Him for sure! Now would someone please adopt the little guy in the picture to the right! I stay up most nights praying for a family to bring him home!!!