We are an ordinary family that was brought together in an extraordinary way.
Rick and I were married in 1978. Our first daughter Michelle was born to us in 1979. Kristi followed shortly behind in 1980, and Ricky made his grand appearance in 1982. We were young, poor, and happy parents to our three adorable (& quite active) kids! Seven years later, in 1989, Adam was born. We truly believed that our family was complete then. I didn't know any other families with FOUR kids! Life was busy, fun and unpredictable.
We felt like Michelle, Kristi, and Ricky did a good job of breaking us in as parents, and by the time Adam was an active elementary school kid, we thought we were getting pretty good at this parenting thing. Perhaps that was the first nudge from God?
As Adam was getting older and spending more time away from home with school, sports, and friends, it suddenly hit us that our house would soon be quiet and without small children. We weren't ready for that.
Thankfully, the Lord had other plans for us. He led us to investigate various ways for our family to grow, and through a dream in the summer of 2001, He showed me that adoption was the right path for us. We somehow knew that our next child was waiting for us in China, and we submitted our first application to Dillon International at the end of October 2001. By May 2002 our dossier was submitted to China, and on June 30th, 2003, we saw our precious Ashlie's face for the very first time. On July 16th we were on a plane for China and we held that sweet, tiny 9 1/2 month old girl in our arms for the very first time on July 20th, 2003!
We were in love with our new daughter, and it didn't take long for us to realize that we had enough room, and enough love, for one more child. We started the paperwork for our Allie in December 2003, and her dossier was on its way to China on July 16th, 2004 (at about the very moment that our oldest daughter Michelle was marrying her Leo!) On January 11th, 2005, we got "The Call" and saw our beautiful Allie's sweet face for the first time. On March 9th we left for China, and on March 14th we held our 11 month old Allie in our arms. We were in love again!
Life suddenly felt very full and our family felt quite complete. You can imagine our surprise (and I confess, our resistance) when we realized that the Lord had other plans. It took a lot more prompting from the Lord this time, but we ended up sending in our preliminary application for Annie on December 31st, 2005. Our paperwork was logged in at the CCAA on June 6, 2006, and we settled in for a long wait.
Something was different this time, however, and I felt that God was still pushing. I slowly realized that God had a new plan for us this time, and that Annie most likely was a special needs child. I even sensed that her special need was going to be a heart condition, and I started trying to prepare Rick for that possibility.
The Lord blessed me with a wonderful husband!! When we received "The Call" for Annie on December 13th, 2006, Rick and I were both ready to accept her referral immediately. We learned that she was born in July 2005 (just after we got those first hints that God wasn't done with our family yet), so she was already 17 months old. She was a special needs child, with the heart condition of a small VSD. She too was adorable! It took forever, but we finally had permission to travel and bring our baby home 5 1/2 months later. On May 31st, 2007, we headed for China again, and on June 4th we finally held our girl in our arms. The photo above was taken at the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou, China, immediately after our swearing-in ceremony for Annie. We've already battled chicken pox and other bugs since we returned home 3 1/2 weeks ago, but life is SO GOOD!
We have been incredibly blessed.
We are an ordinary family, brought together in an extraordinary way.
I hope you enjoy following along for stories and pictures of life with our "Magnificent Seven."
Rick and I were married in 1978. Our first daughter Michelle was born to us in 1979. Kristi followed shortly behind in 1980, and Ricky made his grand appearance in 1982. We were young, poor, and happy parents to our three adorable (& quite active) kids! Seven years later, in 1989, Adam was born. We truly believed that our family was complete then. I didn't know any other families with FOUR kids! Life was busy, fun and unpredictable.
We felt like Michelle, Kristi, and Ricky did a good job of breaking us in as parents, and by the time Adam was an active elementary school kid, we thought we were getting pretty good at this parenting thing. Perhaps that was the first nudge from God?
As Adam was getting older and spending more time away from home with school, sports, and friends, it suddenly hit us that our house would soon be quiet and without small children. We weren't ready for that.
Thankfully, the Lord had other plans for us. He led us to investigate various ways for our family to grow, and through a dream in the summer of 2001, He showed me that adoption was the right path for us. We somehow knew that our next child was waiting for us in China, and we submitted our first application to Dillon International at the end of October 2001. By May 2002 our dossier was submitted to China, and on June 30th, 2003, we saw our precious Ashlie's face for the very first time. On July 16th we were on a plane for China and we held that sweet, tiny 9 1/2 month old girl in our arms for the very first time on July 20th, 2003!
We were in love with our new daughter, and it didn't take long for us to realize that we had enough room, and enough love, for one more child. We started the paperwork for our Allie in December 2003, and her dossier was on its way to China on July 16th, 2004 (at about the very moment that our oldest daughter Michelle was marrying her Leo!) On January 11th, 2005, we got "The Call" and saw our beautiful Allie's sweet face for the first time. On March 9th we left for China, and on March 14th we held our 11 month old Allie in our arms. We were in love again!
Life suddenly felt very full and our family felt quite complete. You can imagine our surprise (and I confess, our resistance) when we realized that the Lord had other plans. It took a lot more prompting from the Lord this time, but we ended up sending in our preliminary application for Annie on December 31st, 2005. Our paperwork was logged in at the CCAA on June 6, 2006, and we settled in for a long wait.
Something was different this time, however, and I felt that God was still pushing. I slowly realized that God had a new plan for us this time, and that Annie most likely was a special needs child. I even sensed that her special need was going to be a heart condition, and I started trying to prepare Rick for that possibility.
The Lord blessed me with a wonderful husband!! When we received "The Call" for Annie on December 13th, 2006, Rick and I were both ready to accept her referral immediately. We learned that she was born in July 2005 (just after we got those first hints that God wasn't done with our family yet), so she was already 17 months old. She was a special needs child, with the heart condition of a small VSD. She too was adorable! It took forever, but we finally had permission to travel and bring our baby home 5 1/2 months later. On May 31st, 2007, we headed for China again, and on June 4th we finally held our girl in our arms. The photo above was taken at the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou, China, immediately after our swearing-in ceremony for Annie. We've already battled chicken pox and other bugs since we returned home 3 1/2 weeks ago, but life is SO GOOD!
We have been incredibly blessed.
We are an ordinary family, brought together in an extraordinary way.
I hope you enjoy following along for stories and pictures of life with our "Magnificent Seven."
2 comments:
I am thrilled that you are officially a blogger. I love reading your posts and I'm excited about getting to see pictures of those precious girls, and I can't forget Adam, he is such a cutie. You'll have to post pictures of your other 3 sometime, although I have seen a picture of your daughter on you BJB, I'm not sure which one it is but she looks just like you. I just wanted to welcome you to blog world. Love you and hugs.
You KNOW we'll be avidly following along! I'm so excited! Your introduction was beautiful. I just never get enough of hearing how the Lord works for His precious children. Awesome!! Bring on the photos... :-)
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