Happy Adoption Day Jamae!

Once there were two women who never knew each other. One you do not know. The other you call Mother.
Two different lives shaped to make you one. One became your guiding star; the other became your sun.
The first one gave you life; the second taught you to live it. The first gave you a need for love; the second was there to give it.
One gave you a body, the other taught you games. One gave you a talent. The other taught you aims.
One gave you emotions; the other calmed your fears. One saw your first sweet smile; the other dried your tears.
One found a home for you that she could not provide. The other prayed for a child; her hope was not denied.
And now you ask, of course you do, The question others ask me too: This place or your birth place-which are you a daughter of?
Both of them, my darling - and two different kinds of love.



On Jamae's adoption day, we are reminded of the love that her China mama had for her and the sacrafices she made. We are eternally grateful that she gave Jamae life and that God placed Guang Xue Ru into our family. What an awesome journey we have been on these last 3 years.

Jamae's 4th Birthday

Jamae was so excited to celebrate her birthday. She has talked about turning 4 for months. She promised me that when she turned 4 she would still be my babycakes. She is all girl - constantly talking, playing dress-up and putting on makeup. She loves spending time with her friends, helping me in the kitchen and going to church. Every morning she greets me by saying, "Mom, what do we get to do today?" She has become very independent but thankfully stills loves to snuggle up with mom & dad. She has a special bond with her sis "Nani" (Madison) and would follow her around all day if Madison would let her. We continue to be amazed by this beautiful gift God has given us. Happy Birthday Jamae

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas this year! Jody's mom and dad as well as his sister, Becky and niece Michelle and nephew Tim came to visit. What a great time we had. It is so much fun to have family visit when we live so far from all our family.
Enjoy the pictures!






Christmas Eve




Did Santa come?





Happy Birthday Jesus!


Opening Presents!

Happy 18 Years!

Christmas Baking

We always enjoy our traditional Christmas cookie decorating day. It was fun to have Tim join us!







Don't they look great!

Jay's OSU cookie

She Ming

Today our family submitted our acceptance to adopt She Ming from China!! Ming is a 12 year old boy who is currently living in an orphanage in Fuzhou, China. I'm sure you are wondering how this all happened.
Our family first became aware of Ming on our agency America World's website a year ago September after seeing his picture on the waiting child list. We adopted Jamae through AWAA back in 2004. Our friends, Scott & Alisa Shaw are also in the midst of adopting a daughter from China through AWAA. It was back in the fall of 2006 that both Alisa & I became aware of Ming and began praying for him. This past spring, Alisa asked our Orphan Ministry team at the church to also pray that Ming would find a loving Christian home before aging out of the system at age 14. Ming continued to be on my heart and I couldn't believe that a family had not stepped up to adopt him. I started to wonder if our family was supposed to consider adopting him. Last summer, I started to work on a Bible Study that I was going to be leading in the fall called, "What happens when women say YES to God". God made it very clear to me that he wanted me to step out completely in faith and say YES to something that He was going to ask me to do. I didn't know at the time that something was adopting MIng.
Then in September, AWAA informed us that on September 15, they were going to have to release Ming’s profile, at which point he could be adopted out through non-Christian agencies...or more probably be released to the streets. The evening of September 14, Jody called a family meeting. We discussed whether we were to be the family that would step up and take him in. Following a time of prayer, we unanimously agreed that the reason nobody else had stepped forward after all of those months was because Ming was meant to be in our family. On the morning his profile was to be released, we put a hold on it and declared our intent to adopt.
Since then, there has been a whirlwind of activity. We’ve submitted the necessary paperwork, undergone a home study, and been fingerprinted. We also submitted our paperwork to tell China that we are accepting the referral of Ming. Today that paperwork was sent to China. Now we just need to wait to hear from China that they have accepted us to pursue Ming's adoption. We hope to hear within a month.
This is obviously a huge leap of faith for us. We are well aware of the many challenges of adopting an older child, and it will be interesting to have Ming fit into the middle of our family (Ming is 5 weeks older than Madison). But the bottom line is that we believe God has ordained Ming to be in our family in just the same way that He has our other five children. We certainly need your prayers and encouragement. I look forward to updating you on our journey!

Oh Christmas Tree...Oh Christmas Tree

Today was our annual 'pick out our Christmas tree' day. It started out with breakfast at Perkins (not many places to choose from in Moses Lake). Then we started on the 45 minute drive to Wilson Creek. Since moving to Moses Lake 5 years ago, we have ended up at a different Christmas tree farm each year. Last year we decided that we had exhausted all the farms here in town and needed to move to a neighboring town to find just the perfect tree. We searched for just the perfect tree...
Did Jamae find the perfect tree?

Or maybe it was Mitchell...

Madison found it!


We had a great morning! A day we will never forget...especially when the tree fell off the roof of the car!

Love & Diving or is that Love of Diving?

Jay definately loves diving. Districts was really fun for him. It was great for him to accomplish his goal of going to districts this year. Four guys from his team went to districts which were held in Ellensburg which is just over an hour from here. He went over with the team on Friday but the divers didn't actually compete until Saturday. That gave them Friday to warm up and have fun! They spent the night in a hotel and then were ready to compete first thing Saturday morning. We all traveled over Saturday morning to watch him. He was competing against 20 other guys in 11 dives. Jay did such a fantastic job. Not only did he accomplish his goal of qualifiing for districts, he made his personal best score. Diving is now over, but Jay has plunged right into gymnastics. Not only is he taking classes, the gymnastics center has hired him to teach two classes of boys tumbling per week. Jay is also working on his lifeguard certification so he can be a lifeguard at the pool this summer.



Jay at districts with his friend Chad. Notice the bleached hair! The district boys either bleached their hair or shaved their heads. I'm glad Jay chose the bleaching. We are getting used to it now.


Love was in the air yesterday! I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day. We have a family tradition of sending the kids on a scavenger hunt for a present. When Jay was 3, I sent Jay on his first scavenger hunt for a Valentine present. He loved it so we have kept the tradition. This was very simple was Jay was 3, now it is a complex process. The hunt took me a few hours to put together. Each child gets their own hunt, with the clues getting harder for each child. I am happy to report that I was able to stump the oldest 3 with some of my clues. Usually, each child does their hunt seperately but this year the 4 oldest wanted to compete with each other so they all went at the same time in a race. Mitchell was the winner. We had a lot of fun.


Mitchell looking through his bag of Valentine goodies from school.


Jamae opening her Valentine present after going on her scavenger hunt. After opening the present, she wanted to go on another hunt for another present. Wouldn't we all like to do that.



Chinese New Year is Sunday. The year of the pig! We spent last Saturday night celebrating the new year with the other chinese adoptive families in our community. Jamae enjoyed having another excuse to wear her chinese silks.


Jamae and her friend Susannah


We send you all our love this Valentine week!