Sweet times as a parent...

Yesterday when we came home from church Isaac asked me if he could talk to me alone.

Given the past few days I was afraid he was hurting again but that was not it. THAT seems to be normal now, thankfully!!

With tears in his eyes he said he wanted to be baptized. So I asked why he wanted to be baptized and he reminded me of a time when he was 4 and he and his sister were talking. He was asking her how to become a Christian. She called me in the room and Isaac and I talked about sin. We talked about how our sin separates us from a Holy and perfect God. And that because God loves us He didn't want to be separated from us so He sent Jesus. And Jesus took the punishment, death, for our sin so we wouldn't have to. But because Jesus was God's Son He didn't stay dead so we can overcome death and sin too.

At 4 I really didn't think he understood because of how he responded and talked but he insisted he wanted to become a Christian so I prayed to Jesus with him. I never wrote down the day or anything but he has gone back to that day ever since to say he is a follower of Jesus, a Christian.

So yesterday he did the same only he was very broken over his sin, not any one sin in particular, just his sin. He was also broken over the fact that he wanted to be baptized to show he is a Christian.

After we looked at several Bible verses together and talked about them, we prayed together. It was such a sweet time (in my bathroom... seems to be the place of choice for alone time with mom!)

He told his sisters, then his daddy on the phone (who was gone working another storm duty stint for work)... Isaac is getting very excited and we are excited for him.

Here is one of my favorite verses that He and I talked about-

"But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners Christ died for us." Romans 5:8

Please also pray for Joy, I have a feeling this is going to spur her understanding of the gospel forward. She is close... since being in China she doesn't ask 5 times a day "Is God real?" "How do you know Jesus is real?" Being in China really did what I prayed and hoped it would. Kind of intertwined two very different lives and helped show her God's working in both of those lives, her life.

Last night she came downstairs after being tucked in and said she wanted to call her Nai Nai today to tell her about "Jesus and heaven and stuff." So we'll do that but as I left her room I told her that whenever she is thinking about these things and Nai Nai that she can always pray, asking God to show Himself to Nai Nai. That Nai Nai will watch the movie and read the Bible we left her. To that Joy said, "I already did!" Sweet girl. She has so much being processed in that mind of hers. I am overcome with the losses she has experienced at times but also by the courage God has given her. And her acceptance of us as her forever, permanent, always be yer mama and baba family.

As always sweet and exciting times in our house! Thank you Jesus for working in our lives in ways I couldn't even imagine or dream!

More girlie girl sleepover photos

The girls have had a great time! So have the boys for that matter, to give the girls some space I've let the boys play the Wii ALL night and day! (And by the way the sensitive area on our "I" is looking and feeling a little bit better! PTL!)

Joy's Birthday and a trip to the ER

And no it was not Joy in the ER. It was this precious kiddo of ours....

My morning started out to I-man rustling around in the bathroom looking for medicine and a band aide.

Unfortunately by the time I staggered in there he had the band aide already applied to a very sensitive area.

Oh yes you read it right. So I had to get it off and try to figure out why in the world that very sensitive area was swollen and red. I thought "bug bite, infection, ??"

So I watched it throughout the morning and ended up calling our pediatrician.

They proceeded to tell me to get him to the nearest ER as quickly as possible. Why hasn't anyone ever told me that these kind of symptoms can mean very bad things (like twisting of the insides??) And if you don't get them into surgery within 4-6 hours you can loose that area. I would think this is something any mom to boys should be told don't you?!

So after all afternoon in the ER the twisting was ruled out and most likely a bug bite or infection of some sort is ruled in.

What does that mean for our little guy? 5 bottles of antibiotics and some cream.

So when he asked for two cheeseburgers, ice cream, and a lemonade from McDonald's AND a toy from the drug store while waiting for his truck load of medicines to be ready I said what any of you would have said...

YES!!!

We got home just in time to start Joy's friend birthday party. Here are some of the festivities. I'm just glad I opted for store bought cupcakes instead of making anything today! Joy is so excited to have friends here for HER birthday! Wow, there is never a dull moment around here.

And here are the photos from her family party last weekend. She has loved all the attention! Last year we had just returned home from China so her birthday is a bit of a blur. Now if I could just recover from the crazy ER experience and enjoy her birthday today that would be wonderful.

Grace made her some door decorations. I thought it was very sweet of her and Joy loved them.

Getting Ready for Joy's Birthday

I thought I'd start with some pictures of Joy from when she was younger. These pictures are a true treasure.

 This is the youngest photo we have of Joy.

Very grateful to those that documented parts of her life with photos that we and her can enjoy!

Not only do these photos show different stages of her life they document God's hand in her life when she had never heard His name. Many people in these photos and those that know them prayed for her and were a blessing to her. 

We already celebrated a party with her last weekend with family. Tomorrow she gets to have some friends over for a sleepover. I admit that as she was getting ready to blow out her candles I had a twinge of pain for the birthdays I missed with her.

But if there is one big thing I have learned through adoption is that my children are really not my own. God allows many things and people in their lives to show Himself to them. None of them are really mine, they are His and I am grateful to get to parent all of them no matter if they came to us by birth or through adoption. We are blessed to call them our sons and daughters.

We love you Joy and are grateful to get to see the wonderful young woman you continue to be!!

Yi's birthday and we are going to miss her

We had a party for Yi and Sharon on Friday! Wow it was fun and some great food! I am going to miss this dear friend this summer....

 We also took a trip to the zip line! Very fun!!

I am praying though that Yi will meet some Christians in China that will share their lives with her. We had another great conversation and questions about the Lord after the party and everyone left.

Her friend Sharon is going to be spending two weeks with us in June. That will be fun!

Picking Strawberries with Friends

 TNT AWANA awards night! Grace's last year in AWANA. She was sad but excited to be going into the youth group... how did that happen?!



Want to help????

Look at these cute, precious kids....

Please help us spread the word about these kids. There are people who met them that you can see here. One of the people who got to meet them is our friend and social worker!

The user name is Serving and password is Children to learn more about their trip (make sure and capitalize the first letters).

Thanks so much!!!

This week....

We received our finalized home study and sent off for the next step, USCIS approval. Always something exciting and trying. Enjoying adoption paperwork, which I was determined to do, is like telling yourself you'll enjoy a root canal. You rush to wait seems to be the name of the game. My best guess for meeting Samuel Zhi Zhou for the first time... Oh let's say maybe December or January. Who knows really... God does! We'll just rest in that!

Here is a photo of me and the kids after opening Mother's Day gifts. Clayton had to rush out of town for work.  He called my dad to ask if they could take the kids to buy me some gifts for Mom's Day. So my parents took them to get gifts, Thanks mom and dad!

The great hair cut... and I don't mean me as the hair cutter... I mean there is a story for this hair do. Joy has off and on wanted to try short hair since coming home. You see in China it is not looked fondly upon for girls to have short hair so she was scared to actually do it. I think it made a statement for her and I both and I'll just leave the story there. I think she looks quite beautiful and it's not because she has short or long hair! 

 The kids at AWANA awards night. We are so proud of them all for learning God's Word.

 Grace and Faith participated in the Bible Bee and got 1st and 2nd place!! Great job girls! Isaac did the Bible Bee too but I think got a little nervous in the finals. It was a good experience for him though and he was a pro for awards night saying his verse very confidently!