Random Photo Montage...

Random sounds much better than lazy, right? It sounds so much more creative to say I am putting together a random montage of photos, but truly I have been too lazy and a bit distracted by some extremely sad news in our local community, so I haven't posted in awhile. So here are some photos I found sitting in the dropbox on our computer.

Kaia's volcano before it erupted at school. The note on the front reads Real reason dinosaurs are extinct, which referred to the volcano and the army man holding the bazooka in the back left of the scene!

Guess what Jaelyn's favorite color is? That's right, the teacher didn't say anything about having to look real! The grading wasn't based on life-like, and besides, doesn't the song say purple mountains majesty?

Mike took a picture of Josh on national TV! The WSU game was on ESPN Halloween night. Seeing Josh on TV was definitely more exciting than the blow out game!

Jaelyn wanted to be a pirate for Halloween. Cracks me up...no one hardly blinked an eye at the hook on the end of her arm!  And the bird on her shoulder really chirped, but was dead by the end of the night.  Kaia was originally going to be a zombie hula girl, but changed her mind at the last minute, so we quickly put together Little Red Riding Hood.  Oh well, lots of candy is what counts, right?

153 Million...

That is the stunning number of orphans around the world! Today is Orphan Sunday. I/we cannot help them all, but if everyone does their part towards the call to care for widows and orphans, then we do not have to do it all alone!

Today I need help advocating for four sweet children from the Chaoyang Orphanage that I have spent time at over the past seven summers. Two of them I have advocated for previously, but Min Bo still does not have a family, and it turned out that QianHong was not actually on the list at that time, but is now. I am also happy to share that Isaac from my previous post is waiting for his family to come bring him home, most likely in the next two months!

However,  so that I can advocate for their forever families, I need help locating them on either the shared China list, or agency specific lists. Here is some current information I have on them. If you find them on a list, or are interested in learning more about any of them, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Min Bo,  whom his foster family calls Timotai...

His birth date is April 29, 2002, which makes him now 11 years old. He has Cerebral Palsy. He has been living with a foster family through LIGHT, which through my contacts, I can ask for further updates.

Qian Hong, also known as "Michaela" 

Her birth date is January 10, 2008.  I am not sure of her exact diagnosis, but I know that she has all four limbs affected.  She has full use of her hands and feet, but there is some bowing of both radius in her arms and her legs are bowed. Again, she is in foster care through LIGHT, and more information is available.  How can you resist that smile? She was adorable when I first met her in 2010, and still that way!




Greatly on my heart since visiting with her again last summer is ZhaoJing, whom is called Jing.

She is actually still at the orphanage and has been the list for quite some time now. In fact, she has been on there so long that her paperwork had to be renewed. She has recently been asking why she doesn't have a family, as she has seen several of her friends leave with their forever families. This breaks my heart! She has myelomeningocele/spina bifida repaired as an infant, but unfortunately this has not helped her incontinence. I am guessing this may be why she is still on the list, but it is my best guest that she could be helped here in the States! Other than that she runs around and seems as physically capable as any other child. She is smart as a whip, and would thrive in a family. We are in the process of trying to hire a tutor for her since she will turn 7 on December 21. Typically that is when the orphanage sends the more able children to boarding school, but because of her incontinence, they will not.




Lastly is YanYan. She is actually not yet on the list, but please keep your eyes open for her, as she is supposed to be on there soon.

We are told that the paperwork is sitting on the Provincial Office's desk, awaiting approval, so should be any time now. She is also living with a foster family through LIGHT. Her birth date is Dec. 18, 2006. She has severe hypospadias / ambiguous gender, but quite a bit of information is available on her. Here she is looking over a scrapbook of her life that was put together by a caring LIGHT volunteer. Some of the photos were from my previous trips to Chaoyang. Isn't she beautiful?

Please help spread the word, and be sure and post a comment if you have any information.

Meet Yuzelca...

I just realized that I have never introduced Yuzelca! For over 10 years we sponsored Lizeth from Bolivia through Compassion International. We were saddened when she suddenly dropped from the program just months before she was 18. Since she shared an exact birthdate with Joshua, we celebrated many milestones along with her (birthdays, holidays, the deaths of her mother and grandmother) and watched her grow up into a beautiful young lady.

That feeling of loss for me was probably why I neglected to mention Yuzelca when we were assigned her to sponsor.  We were mourning Lizeth, whom we intentionally selected as a family, because of her shared birthday.  With Yuzelca, we just received a notice that we would be sponsoring her in place of Lizeth.  I feel bad now, because we didn't warmly embrace her. She was young, not old enough to correspond like we had been with Lizeth.  I know it wasn't her fault, and didn't we start with Lizeth when she was that young (or just a bit older)?  And we have even received correspondence from both her parents, which is sweet.

So now I want to make up for lost time in introducing her, and doing a better job of corresponding with her. This is not a very good photo, as I had to scan a small photo for this. But notice anything in this photo that makes her a good fit for our family?

Yep, this young sweetie in South America, Bolivia to be exact, is wearing a Chinese dress! Don't you just love it?  Perfect;)

Birthday Fun....

My birthday celebration began Saturday night, as Mike, the girls and I headed to the local corn maze for some flashlight hide-n-go-seek.  We spent over an hour in the maze hiding from one another. Tell you what, Mike and I don't stand a chance against our petite, flexible nine year olds! They can crouch down into tiny balls and hold that position for more than 15 minutes! And who knew they could keep silent for so long!

Sunday, my actual birthday, we spent some time with the dogs hanging out at the beach. With Fall definitely in the air, we basically had the place to ourselves.  Someone forgot to tell the dogs it was cold though, as Cocoa had a blast in the water, and even Romeo got his paws wet.  I love this selfie that Mike shot of the two of us, capturing the girls in the background playing with the dogs.  Although Kellen was with us for part of the day, I missed both my boys...

Fall Festivities...

There is definitely evidence of Fall all around us. First off, the pumpkins! Kellen's girlfriend and I took the girls out to the local patch to pick theirs out. Just look how beautiful last weekend was...

We missed Josh during the carving, as it was one of his specialties! However, as is also tradition, I did roast the seeds and send some to him to enjoy.

Other signs of fall in our house?  Although this is the first time in eight years that we don't have a high schooler involved in homecoming, that doesn't stop Mike from participating! Here he is on Tacky Tourist day. I say he played the part well...

And here was the homecoming football game. You can barely see the visiting bleachers through all the fog.

Now we are heading to find our way through the corn maze in the dark, using flashlights. Sounds like fun to me, but I better go bundle up!

Everything Mike!!!

These past two weeks or so have been all about Mike, and we are proud of him! First of all, he flew back to his hometown for dual purposes; his 30th class reunion, and being inducted into his school's hall of fame for being on the state championship football team, then following that up by winning the state wrestling championship at 142 pounds (almost 30 years later he would return to the championship with his son, but he was nearly 20 pounds heavier!). Unfortunately he accidentally deleted the video of the speech he had to make at the inductee ceremony, but here he is proudly modeling his new t-shirt...

Four days later he celebrated his birthday. But since his birthday fell on the day parent/teacher conferences dragged on lasted until 8:00 pm, we had to make sure it felt like his birthday, so we surprised him by adorning his desk with a balloon bouquet!

The next day he continued the celebration by driving to visit Joshua for Dad's Weekend at WSU!  Josh's gift? A WSU Dad sweatshirt.  The problem with that?  You see, Mike and I are both diehard Beavers, as we graduated from OSU.  Who was WSU playing against Dad's Weekend? Yep, you see the dilemma.   It was difficult for Mike to wear the sweatshirt, as at first he first wanted to walk around with just "Dad" showing...

But he decided to "sacrifice" for his son...

Josh was happy to be one of the first students through the gates so that he could earn his Cougar Super Hero Cape. Doesn't he look cute...

A compromise was made at the game. Dad wore the sweatshirt the first half, but kept his head warm with his OSU beanie. The second half got too cold, so he had to layer up.

And to cap off the past two weeks, the Beavs pulled off the win. But Mike says the best thing was definitely spending time with his son. Can't wait for Mom's weekend, but I have to wait until next April!

Love This Girl...

Fingernail painting was on today's agenda. The girls begged to do it on their own, and assured me they would not make a mess. With me standing nearby, I let them have at it. Kaia's nails got painted a pattern of Seahawk green and blue. What was most fun though was watching Jaelyn paint her own nails. Who said the brush is the part that has to move? She is such a great problem solver....skills that will do her well later in life! And her nails turned out great!