In Awe

Today I just sat staring at my computer. On it was a blog post from Becky, our travel mate in China. In her post was a picture of Jada (if you followed our journey-Mei mei to us) and her sister Chloe. Jada's eyes were so happy and sparkling-oh and her smile could just brighten any dark room! Why am I in awe, well I remember what little Mei mei looked like on Sept. 15th when her whole world changed. I can't even begin to tell you how happy I am for that little peanut! She has such a wonderful family and I know that they feel blessed to have her. It is just amazing how God aligned the stars for us to be able to share family day with them.

On another note, please say some prayers for some Bethany families in China now. One family the Lentz's are having a tough time with their son, whom I believe is 4. He is having a hard adjustment. It is so hard to be so far away from anything familiar and it is just plain and simple not always an easy or fun trip. I pray for E their son and that he is able to turn a corner soon and that they can all get the rest they need!

So Blessed

We were so blessed to have a beautiful adoption shower from my woman's small group and our church. There were many things that we needed for Gabe and some that we wanted for him, but financially put on the back burner. It was such a blessing to get some of these things. Everything was wonderful, but some of my favorites were the spoon and fork sets we received. We didn't have any of the small toddler ones and Gabe really struggles with his fine motor to hold the larger versions of these and eat his food. This has made a huge difference for him!
Gabe had a good time opening all the gifts, but it was a little overwhelming. His reactions to things were amazing to watch. Here are a few pics from our shower, and thanks again to everyone for their gifts to us. God has truly blessed us with wonderful friends in Christ!!


This was not one of Gabe's gifts, but he enjoyed eating a snack from this baby car seat! LOL




Playing cars with a new friend Trinity.


Helping sissy open a gift.

He is so cute...How could...

Anyone not want him? That is what someone said recently about our Gabe. I never thought I would be the type of adoptive mom who would find herself thinking these questions-I am the "whats done is done" thinker. But, after hearing this I find myself looking at this precious child and thinking those exact things. I am not going to pass judgment and I truly believe that he was wanted. I believe that his Chinese family wanted him, but there is a reason and only God know what it is, as to why they could not keep him. And most importantly - we wanted him! We will always want him. I never want him to feel un-wanted.
I am so sad for his birth mom who will never know how much he is loved. He is beautiful and so loving! When he hugs, he grabs on and puts his whole body into it :-) His hair is so soft, yet growing like crazy, so it is sticking up. He loves to giggle. Sometimes he looks at Jay like "who are you?" when Jay is acting silly. He can put is car down before his nap and it is the first thing he grabs when he gets back up. He lights up the room when he walks into it and says with gusto "HI!". Oh how I thank God every day for him and I pray for comfort for the woman who will never get the chance know him.

Halloween Fun

Gabe is still under the weather. He seemed much better, except for this terrible cough that comes with this bug. He even went 12+hours without a fever, so I thought we were done with it. Well, not quite. The cold air really agitated Gabe's cough and when we got home, his fever was back :-( Gabe had so much fun for his first Halloween. He had the words, "tricka treat" down pat! This am, he came to me with a piece of his candy saying, "ticka treat lalanana" Not sure what the last part ment, but he wanted me to open his treat! We didn't go all out on his costume and it was hard enough getting the other two in costumes when you have had sick kids for over 2 weeks! It ended up being simple and perfect for him.
Here are the pics of school parties and our Halloween fun!

Oh hummmmmm

Jay finally went back to school after missing 5 days of school and now Gabe has it. Not sure what it is, but it is this virus that is getting everyone. It is a 5 day + fever, sore throat, and a terrible cough (that can last up to 3 weeks!). So, I really haven't gotten any good pictures. In a few days I will get Halloween pictures up, but today I thought I would post a couple of China photos that I didn't post while in China.

Our travel group having dinner at the Italian restaurant in Guangzhou.


The artists in the brocade museum in Nanjing.

Gabe and I sharing some cuddle time.

Our night time view from our hotel in Nanjing.

What we were up to...

Tim was at work-so no pic of him and I was behind the camera, but here are the kids after school yesterday...


And my beautiful Jo was at her desk doing her homework-no complaining, not a peep for over an hour getting the job done! Gotta love that!


Jay was on day #5 of this virus/flu and he was in our bed eating a banana. Man it takes a lot of energy to eat when your sick!


Mr. Gabe was putting the dinos in the dumptruck (as he says, "dump-a-truck-a"). Very important work...

Welcome Home Gabe!

My family had a small Welcome home party for Gabe yesterday. Honestly I was so worried about it. I was worried that it was too soon and that he would go to everyone and cry when they had to leave-he had done this a few times now and I was worrying about attachment. But, he did great. He hugged a few people, but then came right back to me and didn't seem overly wanting to go to anyone except me and Tim :-) Yeah! He didn't get a nap, so towards the end he was falling asleep on my shoulder. It was a great party-my mom and sis are great!!