The Fair Comes to Town....

Election year = lots of parade candy!!!

Changing Destinies

About a year before we adopted Jia, we reviewed the file of another little girl.  At that same time, I met Lisa who was reviewing the file of her daughter Faith.  We became friends via the internet, as we thought we may have the same timeline and travel together.

Needless to say, that didn't happen! But still yet, Lisa and I keep in touch!

Their family has an amazing testimony regarding Faith's adoption and healing.  You can learn all about it by watching the 700 Club!

My DVR is set to RECORD!!!!

I can't wait to watch it and pray God is glorified through their testimony!

Mei Mei for us!

We are thrilled to introduce you to our new

 daughter/sister!!!

We have chosen the name Jemma, and are still undecided on a middle name.

Jemma currently lives in foster care in Liuzhou, Guangxi China.

She will be 3 in October.

She has the same special need as Jia.

We received our PA for Jemma on May 16th.

Tomorrow is our final visit with our social worker and then it will take her 3-4 weeks to get our homestudy all wrote up.

We have a few other documents to gather and then we will submit our Dossier to China.

It's been a long time since we've done this and I haven't been staying up to date on all the timelines.  I do know there are some extra steps this time around we didn't have to do with Jia.

I refuse to obsess over RQ and just take it one day at a time this go-around!  I feel much more relaxed and able to trust God's timing and provision.  However, I am freaking out a tiny bit about having a 3 year old again!  (she will be 3 before we get her home) 

I love this picture that shows off her chubbiness!  And Jack already has her pegged for being a Tomboy since she's wearing overalls!  Time to pack up all the dresses!

The kids are all excited and ready to have her home!

Momma is to!  :)

MaoGang Reunion 2012

Last weekend we had our 1st MaoGang Reunion! 

14 families were able to meet in Kansas City at the Great Wolf Lodge

 and spend the weekend getting aquainted.

This was such an amazing weekend for our daughters.

It was such a blessing watching them play together and get to know one another.  They all got along so well and seemed to find someone they 'clicked' with!

We kicked off with dinner at the T-Rex Cafe at Legends.

My sweet friend Aimee from NC offered to make scrap book pages of the girls.

She included their referal pictures, a picture of their family and some favorites of each girl.

The page also incuded some fun facts about each girl.

As you can tell, it was a big hit! 

Saturday was crafts at Kaleidescope and the

Hallmark Visitors Center.

Saturday night one of our awesome families hosted a picnic at Wyandotte County Lake.

I dare say this was the highlight of our weekend. 

The location was beautiful. 

The weather was nice.

The kids could run.

This is Jia and Gracie.

Remember when I said all the girls found someone they 'clicked' with?

Well Jia clicked with Gracie!

They were inseperable!

Another awesome mom had matching shirts made for all the girls!

And yes, Jia has one. But you know that would require wearing pants or shorts.  And my girl wasn't to thrilled with that.

I do wish we'd at least slipped it on over her dress for pictures. 

After the group photo's of the girls, we took pictures of each individual family.

Here's is Jia's scrapbook page that Aimee made!

The weekend was just so great.  There just aren't words to explain how it felt to see all of these girls together.  I believe 7 of the families that were at the picnic were the first families from America to adopt from MaoGang!  They all travelled together in 2005!

Some of the little girls would have been in the orphanage the same time Jia was, but none of them seemed to remember.  However, they will all remember eachother from the picnic!

God is good!