Imagine My Surprise!

I was reading the Chapman's assistant Grace's blog entry about the Shaohannah's Hope dinner this past Saturday night. She was showing the decorations used for the dinner. Imagine my surprise when I saw Ming's picture up on the stage. Shaohannah's Hope chose Ming as one of their 'kids' 2 years ago when he first became available on our agency AWAA's site in August 2006. Shaohannah's Hope has called thousands of people to pray for Ming these last 2 years and also gave us a grant to bring Ming home. We will be eternally grateful to them. If you are looking for an organization this Christmas to donate to, I strongly urge you to consider Shaohannah's Hope.

Here is a copy of the picture that I sent Shaohannah's Hope of Ming that they cropped down. It was taken back in July on a family trip that we took to a park just outside of Spokane. We actually had already posted this pic on our blog back on July 31st. And now it's being featured at a Shaohannah's Hope dinner. Too cool...

September & October

We're sorry if we haven't been keeping this blog up as well as we had hoped. Our intention is to update this on a regular basis. The problem, though, is that life with 6 kids going 6 different directions...well, we're just not getting to this quite as often as we would like.

But...I (Jody) am getting to it tonight while the sheets finish drying and before we hit the bed exhausted.

I'm going to include a bunch of pictures from the past 2 months. They're a random sampling of life these past couple of months. I also posted them on my facebook account.

We ended the summer with a camping trip to a place called Liberty Lake. It's right near the Washington/Idaho border, on the east side of Spokane. We found a nice campsite, and had a great time. It was Ming's first experience like this with us, which was special...

Mitchell's birthday. These were his breakfast cinnamon rolls. It takes a while for Mitch to wake up in the morning. Trust me...he smiled when he got his presents.

We went mini-golfing for Mitchell's birthday. Ming got a hole in one on his very first hole of mini-golf ever played. How cool is that.

Mitch had a great time as well.

Jamae's first day of pre-school. Adorable.

Daddy couldn't let go.

Ming's first day of school. Sixth grade.

It didn't take him long to meet some cute girls.

Ming's 13th birthday. He chose an ice-cream cake. He's most definitely a Bowser.

Caryn's birthday...with her cutest youngest daughter in her lap.

Jesse's half birthday. That's right...we celebrate half birthday's, complete with half a cake. We look for any reason we can to celebrate. Jess turned fourteen and half.

Jay is preparing for graduation. He is a senior you know.

Mitchell and I were running in his school's jog-a-thon.

Madison in a fall soccer game. She's a terrific player...and a blast to watch.

Jay with his homecoming date Mallory. Cute couple.

Another beautiful fall Moses Lake sunset off of our front porch. God puts on a show almost every night.

Answered Prayer!

Adeline Charlotte Shaw came home yesterday! What an answer to prayer. After 9 long weeks (3 weeks of Alisa in the hospital before Addy was born and then 6 weeks in the hospital since Addy has been born) they are finally together again as a family in Moses Lake. We are thankful to God for the answered prayer to have Adeline come home this week. We ask for your prayers for their family as they adjust to having Addy home.

It's that time again!

Madison started her 6th season of soccer today. We traveled to Walla Walla and the Tri-cities for two great games to start the season. It is so much fun to watch Madison as you can tell that she is really having a ball! We are looking forward to a great season.

A Double Blessing!

Today was a day that we have waited for and anticipated for a long time - for two very special reasons. Today Alisa met Ming for the first time and we were able to meet Alisa & Scott's sweet daughter, Adeline.

For two years now, Alisa has prayed fervently for MIng. She first saw his picture on America World's website about the same time that I did. God put Ming on Alisa's heart in an intense way- so intense that she could not stop praying for a forever family to be found for him until she found one for him. Imagine our surprise when we realized that God intended our family to be Ming's forever family and that Alisa had been praying for our family all along. Alisa has continued to pray for Ming the nine month that it took to process our paperwork. While we were in China, Alisa was admitted to the hospital for pregnancy related problems and was not able to meet Ming when we brought him home from China. How fun it was for her to meet him today.

On Monday, Alisa delivered Adeline Charlotte at 34 weeks! We have been praying for Adeline since December when her mommy and daddy told us about her upcoming birth - of course we were expecting to meet her in late Aug/early Sept. It was a long 7 months for Alisa and we were so excited to hear about her arrival on Monday. We were so thankful to visit with Alisa & Scott today and to be able to meet Adeline. She is absolutely beautiful! We continue to pray for her as she adjusts to this world and grows stronger each day - hopefully to come home soon.

Adeline Charlotte Shaw


Alisa with Ella & Elijah


Ella watching Ming play his DS

After we spent time with the Shaw family, we took the kids to the Riverside State Park. We discovered this park in May when we went to Spokane for Celebrate Life Day! I love all the sights, sounds, and smells this park offers. The smell of the pine trees, sound of the rushing water from the river, and the beautiful suspension bridge over the water. We picnicked here in May, but today we went back to hike. It was a fun, relaxing way to end a day full of blessings.

A beautiful park


All smiles!


Mitchell enjoying the bridge


The winner!


Beautiful sisters


A relaxing day

Amazing!

We can't believe that we have been home two weeks already. We spent the first week trying to get back on Washington time. That is never fun! It's amazing that the body doesn't always want to sleep when you tell it to and wants to sleep when it shouldn't. Thankfully we had only one night when Jamae and Mitchell decided at 2:00 am that they didn't want to sleep anymore and should be up for the day. We had many nappers that first week, especially Ming. I think he was physically and emotionally exhausted. Thankfully that is all behind us.

This week has been full of summer fun. We have been swimming which is a favorite of MIng. It was fun to watch his face as he experienced our Surf & Slide Water Park for the first time. He loved the water slides, the lazy river, and even tried the flowrider. We told you he was brave. He got in line with Jody and Mitchell, but after watching a few people surf, Jody said that Ming wasn't so sure he wanted to try it. After some urging by Jody, he jumped on and did great! I was really proud of him. He's working very hard on his swimming because he wants to go off the diving board and go on the drop water slide. I'm thinking that will be next summers adventure. Ming was very excited to see that Jay was a lifeguard, although he didn't believe that really was Jay sitting on the chair until Jay raised up his sunglasses.

Yesterday was Jody's day off. Ming grasped quickly the concept that 6 days Father works, but on Thursday no work! Yeah! We went disc golfing. Ming told us that he played frisbee in China, but never disc golf. He was really good. He has a great throw. I'm getting the impression that he is a natural athlete. He can also ride a bike. Our first day home he jumped on a bike and was off. No need to teach him how ride. I'm not sure when he learned or how often he has been able to ride a bike, but he sure knows how to ride. He's full of surprises.

We really enjoyed attending church on Sunday for the first time with Ming - something we had thought about alot the 9 months we were waiting to bring him home. Of course our thoughts always centered around how Ming would react to attending church with us, not knowing if he would even know what a church was. Now we know that Ming attended church in China. Besides saying to me as we walked into the service, "No- English!", he handled the service great. Jody showed a slide show of our time in China and Ming seemed to enjoy seeing himself on screen. I think it was good for him to see the whole trip together like that, hopefully getting a better understanding of how thankful we are that he is now part of our family. Jody and I were also blown away that Ming was singing the songs - we believe in English. We have to believe that he was reading the words to the songs off the screen. We were amazed.

We allowed Ming to call his children's home in China soon after we got home, so he could let them all know that he is safe. This is the third time that he has called them - the first time was the day after he left Living Hope and the second time was the morning we were leaving China for Hong Kong. I think he wanted to say goodbye. This time he was very excited to call. I can imagine that he misses them very much. We could tell that he talked to many different people and used the word for amazing alot. We can only hope that he was telling them over and over how amazing is his new life and family.

The language continues to be a huge barrier. We so wish we could sit down and have conversations with Ming, but that will come. From what we can tell, he is adjusting great. The last 4 weeks have been amazingly smooth. We are so thankful for the easy adjustment to Ming becoming a Bowser. He is working hard on his english. Here is a picture of Jamae teaching him through one of her computer games.


The patient & adorable teacher


Thanks for your continued prayers. We are so excited to be in this journey!

Planes, Trains & Automobiles

After 7 flights, 5 hotels, unknown miles, and many different modes of transportation...we have arrived safe and sound back in good ole Moses Lake. Thanks be to God.

Our last 2 days at the Hong Kong Disney proved to be a wonderful time for our family. It was a perfect ending to what was, in many ways, the perfect trip. The main thing was the Ming seemed to have the time of his life. I believe Caryn mentioned in an earlier blog that when she told Ming that we were going to Disneyland, he actually teared up. My sense of it was that our time there was everything he hoped it would be. The rides, the shows, and just the energy of it all. And we capped it all off with a late night swim before the piano shaped pool closed down at 10pm.

Caryn and I then stayed up way too late getting everything packed back in our bags for a very long day of travel. I think we got 3-4 hours of sleep before the 4:45am alarm jolted us back into the land of the living. We were down in the lobby by 5:45am for our taxi ride to the airport. And thus began our "Two Friday" day. The first Friday was the 14 or 15 hours of air travel that took us from Hong Kong to Tokyo, and Tokyo to Seattle. We landed in Seattle at 9am, less than an hour after we took off from Hong Kong (taking into account crossing the international date line). It's a good thing we had our time travel glasses on!



Touching down in Seattle began our "2nd Friday"...and it also was essentially the moment that Ming became a U.S. citizen (made official when customs stamped his passport and cleared him for entry). The weather in Seattle couldn't have been more perfect...80 and sunny. It truly was a wonderful welcome back to the States. We were all worn a bit slick, but not too bad considering the journey. Customs took a bit longer than we anticipated, but the great news was that by 11am, we were claiming all of our luggage, and being greeted by the Bailey family who brought our car back to the airport for us...complete with some nice fruit and delicious chocolate chip cookies (thanks so much!).

We still had a 3 hour drive up and over Snoqualmie Pass, and down into the Columbia Basin. But not before the joy of $4.40 gasoline, and some Starbucks. The drive...and in fact ALL of our travel...was smooth and completely uneventful. You really can't ask for more than that. We rolled into a pleasant and wonderfully sunny Moses Lake around 3pm this afternoon.

The rest of the day has been: 1) fighting off sleep, 2) showing Ming his new home, 3) fighting off more sleep, 4) enjoying a delicious meal compliments of the Alcorns, 5) getting our PJ's washed, 6) allowing the kids to play off some pent-up energy (they got some sleep on the flights...Mom and I didn't get a wink), and 7) just now getting them all tucked down for the night with Ming in the bed that has been waiting for him since last September 15.

As a family, we thank God for his watch-care over us.

We also thank all of you for following our journey, and holding us up in your thoughts and prayers. We have been completely blessed, and are acutely aware of your support. This concludes one chapter, and begins another. We can't promise a nightly blog as we've maintained these past 2 weeks, but we'll update regularly...so please check back often. Ming is a very brave young man...more brave than any of us realize. He has faced all of these massive changes head on and full of courage. We have no doubt that will only continue. Please pray that he gets a handle on the english language in a God-accelerated manner. And pray for our family as we now work him smoothly (we hope) into the operating systems of our family.

And one more thing before we finally put our heads on our pillow after being up somewhere around 32 hours...if God is tweeking at your heart regarding adoption, please at least be willing to pray about it. There are so many children in this world that are longing for a loving home. Ming is one of millions. He and Jamae are two that God intended for our family. Might He be intending one for yours? We are the first to admit that it is a HUGE leap of faith. But that's precisely the life that our Master has called us to. We follow an unpredictable carpenter. And what a ride it is.

A Quick Post On The Way Out

We just arrived in our hotel after a LONG day at Disneyland. The weather is beautiful tonight and we have decided to go for a quick swim before it closes at 10:00. Our internet window also expires in 40 minutes at 10:00, so to please the kids we've decided to blog about our day at Disney when we get home. We knew you'd understand.

Our flight leaves very early in the morning and many long hours later we will arrive in Seattle! We'd love your prayers on our trip home.

See you in America!