Sunday Snapshot : Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year.

We ate. We smiled. We rejoiced. We traveled. We shopped. We did not take many pictures.
But it was lovely.

We all had a wonderful time and enjoyed the fun that came with the festivities. We watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, Read a story, Prayed, said what we were thankful for, and then headed to the relatives. We have so very much to be thankful for this year. Our health, Andrew, Family, our growth, that we lived, loved, breathed another year. So very much to be thankful for.
I truly adore the holiday season. Thanksgiving is in a close race with Christmas. I love just relaxing, being thankful, and not worrying about all the gift giving. {even though that is fun!}
This year was Andrew's first Thanksgiving. Last year we so desperately wanted him Home. We were so anxious to finally have that precious blessing in our arms and this year we were able to! So sweet.
I hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful and you were able to step back and see how much you have to be thankful for.
Oh and I also hope for those who go black-friday shopping you have recovered. My Mom and I are still working on that! {We didn't go to bed on Thanksgiving night! Yes, we are one of those "crazy" people. But it was so fun!!}
;)

Hugs,

So very thankful this year, have a blessed Thanksgiving. So thankful that Andrew is here with us this year! God is good!

There in the presence of the Lord your God, you and your families shall eat and shall rejoice in everything you have put your hand to, because the Lord your God has blessed you.

-Deuteronomy 12:7

Sunday Snapshot : 10 months of Crazy Lovin'

10 months ago a little boy was placed in our arms.
 

A sad, scared, little boy with a long journey ahead of him.

We were scared. He was scared.

We didn't know him. He didn't know us.

We loved him more than anything. He didn't know what love was.

Here we are, 10 months later.

He is a happy, joyful, beautiful little boy who is going through his journey strong headed and ready to take on the world.

We are no longer scared. He isn't either.

We know him and every little thing about him. He knows all of us and can lovingly call us all by name.

We still love him to the end of the world. He now knows love and loves back.

God is so good. SO. so. so good.

Keep on with your crazy lovin' little self baby.
We love you and are so proud of where you are now.
xoxo

Beauty Will Rise

A woman in China is pregnant. She is scared and does not know what to do. For nine months she watches her stomach grow and grow. The day finally arrives for her to give birth to the baby that has been growing in her belly for the past nine months. The woman did the only thing she knew to do. The thing that was best for her child. She left her.
On a busy bridge in Chongqing a little girl was left. She was wrapped in a sleeping bag and placed in an open bamboo bookbag. Within a few hours the baby was found. She was taken to a police station and put in the Xiushan Social Welfare Institute. She would spend the next nine months there....

On July 1, 2007 this little girl along with many other babies boarded a train to come all the way across Chongqing. After a long {12 hour} train ride this little girl would be carried off the train, into the civil affairs office and placed in the arms of her Family. The family that God had planned for her all along. The family that was taking this little girl to be their daughter was the plan before any of us were created. God knew that this would be her story. God knew that her birth mother was just the beginning. God knew that the family that walked out of that building with little Lai Lai was the family that God had intended for her from before she was conceived. The family that was praying and waiting for her before she was even born. The family who loved her more than the world and could not wait to spend the rest of their lives with this little girl. That Family was us. We were so very blessed with Anna Grace and cannot praise God enough for her.

This little girl had an amazing beginning. A beginning many people will never, ever be able to relate to. A beginning that is tearful, hard, ugly, bad, precious, important, and through it all beautiful. This little girls story would inspire many others to add a child to their family. This little girl would come all the way to America to live and be loved. This little girl is my beautiful sister.  This little girl will have a long road ahead of her. But from the ashes and things from the past I am certain that through it all Beauty will Rise.

Lydia Faith comes HOME!!

After God has moved so many mountains for this precious family to bring their beautiful 14 year old daughter home! Last night Lydia Faith came HOME and we were all there to welcome her! I absolutely LOVE going to welcome homes. Last night started out super sweet too. We got to go meet up with another one of our Travel Buddies and some family and friends for dinner. We went to our favorite Chinese restaurant, ate, talked, took pictures, and then headed for the airport! We waited for a good 40 minutes for their plane to land and then the best part of homecomings arrived! Watching Lydia touch her sweet American soil!! They Last night was for sure amazing! Lydia is absolutely breath taking and is so very sweet! She became my best friend pretty quickly and was hooked to my side. I LOVED every minute of it! Taylor and I ended up chasing her around tickling her! We do not speak the same language but Love knows no boundaries! It was the most fun I have had in a long time.
Welcome Home Lydia, Kathleen, Steve, AnnaGrace, and MonkeyClaire MollyClaire! ;)
We love you guys!!!

Here are some of my favorite pictures and a video of them all! Videos are always more fun...right?!

Andrew

Our precious Andrew has come so very far. In 9 short months he has went from a very sad little boy to a very happy one!

On January 21, 2010 when that little boy, scared, unknowing that his world was about to be turned upside down and shaken unbelievably hard. You could see it all on his face. I was the first to ever meet Andrew Hudson. I was the first to touch his hair, take in his beautiful little face and just love him {from afar of course, I couldn't hold him!} On the elevator we took up to the rooms you could see it in all of the little ones faces. Unknown fear. They had no idea why they were being taken to this place. What was going on? Some knew.
Andrew walked right off of that elevator. He held his little head low and just walked right into the arms of my Mom, never looking back.

The journey of Andrew was hard, I am not going to lie. We had a lot of hard days and a lot of good ones making the hard ones worth it.
We dealt with grief hard. The kind of grief no 3 year old little boy should have. Tears on both behalves and a lot of prayers begging God to heal hearts. He did. God was so very faithful. Andrew is a precious loved Child of God. Jesus loves him so very much. We love him so very much!

Andrew has made so many improvements in the last few months. He loves his family. He is HAPPY to have a family. He now KNOWS what a family is. He now HAS a family. He is no longer without an Earthly Father. He has one who loves him more than the moon and stars and would do anything for him. He knows that too.

Andrew is a cleft affected child and his language is finally coming along SO well. We are so so so proud of our little man! He is proud too. He is doing so well in speech and is coming along beautifully.

Andrew is such a huge blessing to our Family. We didn't deserve him. God placed a beautiful, precious gift into our lives that we did not deserve. He gave us a child that was HIS. He allowed us to hold this special little boy in our arms, kiss his boo boos, love him unconditionally, teach him about Jesus and how good He is, to love and never leave, to always play with and to always adore.

Andrew is not the lucky one, We are.

Orphan Sunday

Today is Orphan Sunday. In honor of this I would like to share God's amazing, mountain-moving power that is our Adoption Story.

Our complete family-Fall 2010

When my parents were married my Dad mentioned International adoption to my mom. He had always wanted to adopt a child internationally. My Mom {ever-so-kindly} shook him off. Her plans were quite simple. 1 girl. 1 boy. perfect American family. Who could want more? In 1995 they had their first child, a little girl. Ashton. {hehe} in 1998 they had their second child, a little boy. Adam. God had answered my Mom's prayers! She had two beautiful, healthy children, one girl, one boy. God had other plans though, and certainly a sense of humor.
In 2002 my Mom found out she was pregnant. She had another little boy, Hayne. There we go. Brothers and a sweet girl. Perfect, Beautiful, a complete family. Who could want any more?! Certainly not Hal and Angel ourlastname. They were completely happy with the wonderful life they were living. Oh what plans God had!

the bio kids.

In 2005 after a Spa Day that my Dad had gotten my Mom for Mother's Day our lives were rocked. My Mom called my dad {almost kidding} and said "Hal, I think we have a daughter in China." All my Dad said was "I have been praying you would say that." So the process began! On August 21, 2005 we sent our Application to Adopt to the CCAA* in China! We were adding another child to our family! In May of 2006 our precious, spunky, wild, oh so beautiful 3 year old brother, Hayne was attacked by a dog. It was a terrible attack and by the Grace of God and my wonderful Grandma, Hayne was OK. The dog took 30% of his lip and we were told he had a long road of surgery and recovery ahead.{similar to a cl.cp child} We were devastated. How could we possibly bring another child home when we had a baby who needed so much surgery? God knew. After 1 week in stitches we were told would never hold we went to the doctor and fell on our knees in gratitude towards the Lord. Our sweet Miracle Boy was completely fine. His lip looked beautiful and the doctor said he had nothing to do with Hayne being OK. God was the only reason that Hayne was ok. God had plans all along and KNEW that Hayne would be ok and HE KNEW that we would still need to go get our Anna Grace from China...Little did we know, Hayne's attack was God opening our hearts to something we did not even know about!

Finally after a 2 year wait which seemed to last forever on May 1, 2007 we received the referral of a beautiful 7 month old named Xiu Fu Lai. This precious girl was our daughter! On June 29, 2007 we left for China and on July 2 we held our miracle baby in our arms for the first time! In that very moment in Chongqing, China love took all of us in and we were FOREVER changed! All by a almond eyed, 13lb, baby girl. She stole our hearts and would inspire us to fight for the Orphan and follow God's call. Oh how amazing He is!

We spent 1 1/2 years loving on our beautiful Princess and taking in all of her sweetness. We were a complete family. A beautiful, perfect, blessed, and completely done family...so my parents thought. I was positive there was another child in China that was supposed to be a ourlastname. My parents completely disagreed! Four children is PLENTY! I continued to pray and beg God to open my parents hearts and reveal the child God had for our family. My Mom said if we ever go back "a little girl, cleft lip and palate" My Dad said "a little boy, 3 years old."

I prayed and on May 1, 2009 exactly two years to the day we saw Anna Grace's precious face God showed us another little face. My Mom was looking at a new agency list with a friend that had just come out. She went to the bottom of the list to number 46 and it took her breath. She knew this was her son. She quickly went to my Dad's office and showed him the file. He agreed. They sent in to view his file and we fell head over heels in love with a 3 year old little boy with a cleft lip and palate! We were in awe! God had revealed to us a child that matched what both of my parents had invisioned.

We waited and waited. He was gone from the list and we gave up hope of this child ever being ours. We found a peace and just assumed it was not His will. We got an email on June 7, 2009 from our agency. It simply said "Sometimes Gods plans aren't ours. Would you be willing to view the file of this little boy?" My mom was at my Dad's office {she works there sometimes} and dropped to the ground {not literally} she was in shock. She started yelling "No. No. God you already told us no! How can this be?! Hal! Hal! Come here!" My dad and mom decided to view the file. They fell in love and prayed. They prayed a lot for the next week. Praying God would direct their paths and show them the way that was meant for our family. God showed us more and more everyday that this child was meant to be our son. With every prayer they became a little more sure! So on June 15, 2009 they sent their LOI to China to adopt the precious Chang Jian Hui who had stolen every single one of our hearts. Through our Journey to Andrew there were many, many mountains on January 19, 2010 we left for China to bring our precious boy HOME! We spent 3 1/2 weeks in China with our newest little one falling more and more in love. God clearly intended for Andrew Hudson to be our son and brother!

We are now a happy family of 7 and Done...(well we say we are..You never know with God!)
God has blessed us through the miracle of adoption! It is has changed every single one of us and has made us all better! We have been so blessed and hopefully you can be too! There are over 147 million Orphans in the world tonight...Could one be waiting to call you Mommy or Daddy? Do you have extra space in your home to make room for another little life? Could you be the HOPE a child is so desperate for? If our family would have ignored God's call we would have missed out on two of the greatest blessings {other than myself..just kidding} in the World. If we would have went with the crowd and went with the norm we would have missed this beautiful, wonderful, perfect, messy at times, big, Jesus filled, Orphan loving, eyes opening blessing. And that would be heartbreaking.

I will not leave you as Orphans, I will come to you -John 14:18

The Princess

One thing you know about Anna Grace if you know her is she is always smiling and has a sweet look on her face. {Oh and a bow in her hair but that is not important.}

Anna Grace is the definition of joy, seriously. Every morning she wakes up in a happy place {well most mornings} and she LOVES life. Anything she wants she gets. She has such a sweetness about her no one can get the nerve to say no! She is the Princess of the ourlastname Family. She is the one who everyone is completely smitten with. I still am and have held her in my arms for 3 1/2 years.

The reason I am saying all of this is to tell you about her heart. A child asked Anna Grace in no way shape or form of being mean but they are kids so they ask... "Why are my eyes blue and big and your eyes small and black?"
Our sweet girl simply replied "Because Jesus made me that way!" I love her precious heart. She has said the funniest things lately!

Last week she went up to my Mom and had this conversation {I quite honestly adored it}
Anna Grace : Mom, I want a baby sister!!
Mom : You told me last week you didn't want one
Anna Grace : Well, I was young then I didn't know, now I do and I want a little sister!
Mom : you have a sister, right there {points at me}
Anna Grace : Mommy not her. I want an actual little sister!
Mom : you can have a baby panda {toy}
Anna Grace : Oh Mom I don't want a toy!
I was dying laughing at all of this-She is constantly "rocking the box" and I couldn't love it anymore!
I am so thankful for my little monkey!

 

Anna Grace, 
you have changed my life in so many ways. You have taught me to love and how to really love. You have taught me to always have a grateful heart and to be joyful in all things. You shine Jesus through your little life sweet girl. Keep shining baby, keep shining. 
I love you bunches
Jie Jie

{Soon to come a post on the PowerRanger, JianHui! yes, we still call him jianhui!}

Wordless Wednesday