Some favorites-

Brian mentioned when he read this that this blog may be missing the bio element......in other words - Where are our other kids????
Here are a few pics from Florida. We celebrated Thanksgiving down there with my parents, Brian's parents and his Aunt and Uncle.
We love visiting the villages!!!!
I'm still missing Ethan- I will have to hunt a few down in my other harddrive later.

Baby Cayden

As you must know by now my faith is strong and I do believe in miracles. This little one is not even Asian!!!!! His name is Cayden Robert and he is my newest nephew!
Twenty nine days ago my pregnant sister in law called my brother at work. She was not feeling well and so they went in to the hospital and had a stress test done.........The story gets complicated. Cayden is soon born 7 weeks premature. Several days later things get worse and he is air lifted to Denver Childrens Hospital.Cayden fights for his life and his parents stand by helpless to the battle their tiny premature son goes through.
The miracle is that my oh so tiny nephew is still alive today. He is a fighter- I am so so Proud of his mommy and daddy.

I can not link Cayden's website publicly. My brother is a police officer and I would hate for some rotton bad guy to find his password protected website on my blog- but if you are interested in little Cayden and his story feel free to let me know by e-mail. My brother keeps us updated and has become a writer in his spare time at the hospital. Here is the latest news written yesterday and copied with permission form my brother.

As we have for the last five weeks we keep this little fighter in our prayers. We are hoping now he will soon start to eat more independently so they can all head home. His mama and daddy are living at the Ronald McDonald house until Cayden can leave.

January 17, 2008 9:00pm


Cayden is 28 days old. Tomorrow he will start his 5th week of life. Tonight he also weighed in at 5 pounds 1.3 ounces, his original birth weight. Today he achieved a couple goals. Tomorrow he will also reach his 37th week gestational. That means he would have been inside Keri's tummy for 37 weeks and would have three weeks left. At 37 weeks gestational a baby is considered full term. A baby who is born at 37 weeks is no longer considered to be premature. That combined with his rising weight is good news.

Today Cayden had a busy day. They did an ultrasound to check his kidney. They also did a procedure where they gave Cayden an IV so he would take on more fluids. Then they gave him a catheter so his urine would go into a bag. The fluid they gave him had a special dye in it so that as the fluid moved through his system they could see where it was going. The main goal here was to check to see if the kidney that was affected by the blood clot was working better, not working, or staying the same. We learned that it was not working better and that it was not doing any worse. The other kidney was fully functional. Many people live with only one kidney. This procedure will also be used as a baseline for future tests. We are expecting him to do the same procedure at one year.

Cayden obviously had a little more activity today then most days. Therefore he was a little worn out today. In order to do the procedure they had to give him an IV. After the procedure they opted to not take out the IV line and to keep it in. We were not to fond of this decision. In our parent minds we felt this was a step back. We thought he was done with IV's and needles in the arm. We judge Cayden's improvement based on the removal of wires and tubes from his body. Now today they add one more. In addition to that they bandage it up and put a small piece of foam on his arm to help protect the line. It takes up his whole arm. He looks sicker.

In all reality he is not any sicker. Keri agrees with the nurse that once a good line is in it is general practice to not take it out. Keri's nursing brain, and my common sense brain says that this IV line in his arm doesn't make him sicker. Nurses and Doctors like to keep these in as long as there is no risks of infection involved. Why not, if the need comes they have easy access to inject medicine or fluids. If we really insisted they would take it out. I think Keri's nurse brain and my common sense brain will override the parenting brain and keep it in. At least for a couple days.

One thing you will see in pictures I have added is a thing on his right leg. On his upper thigh they inserted a "port" that is used when he gets his daily lovenox shot. Instead of poking him with the shot every day they can use this port to give him the shot. It works pretty well. It still causes pain but reduces the poke part of the shot.

Still working on the bottle feeding. Cayden is making it very frustrating for us. We know he will pick it up and that we need to be patient. While we are excited for his 28th day birthday it is also a measurement of how long it has been since we have been home. We are anxious to go home and sleep in our bed, eat food at our house, and have Bandit there to greet us. We are hoping Cayden picks up on the bottle feeding sooner than later.

All and all Cayden is doing well. In order to show Caydens progress using pictures as we start to count his age in months I have added the link "Caydens first Months" to the baby albums page. I have added pictures of a bath we gave him last night, of his arm with the IV, and of the "port" they installed for his daily lovenox shot. Hope all is well outside of The Children's Hospital.

Change of heart....

As this adoption consumes our hearts not so long ago another one did.
If you would have asked Brian three years ago if we would have five children, two by adoption he would have laughed uncontrollably.....He never would have spent the money, the time or of had the patience-
And then one day in January of 2005 he saw Zachary Yang Tu.
He soon consumed our hearts as did our three biological children. I can only say that my husband not a person of strong faith at the time was humbled by this small Chinese miracle.

We are not special nor wealthy. Our home is not huge.We already had three healthy beautiful children. Really no reason to adopt.......Except- the hand of God lay on our minds and hearts and we knew without hesitation that we should .

In return, We have been rewarded tenfold by the joy in our child's eye!
Exactly three years have passed since that day that we found Zach.
Our lives, touched so deeply by this strong boy. The process of paperwork, the travel to China without Abbie and Nolan. Finally, holding him in our arms. Coming home on the airplane across an ocean and a life left behind. Watching him grow and learn to love. Walking first with a walker, then crutches and now a leg.
If you asked Brian today.......he would laugh and say we are a bit crazy! Then he would tell you the money was well worth it, the time was found and his patience challenged but stronger and then he may show you a picture of our waiting daughter in China.......

View the link below -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGEPjFfP5TQ&feature=related

Pictures for the Grandparents-

Take note on how the girls touch one another. Fun and loving - Sisters.....

1. Playing around
2. Best friends and Director, we think she may be wearing the heart locket we gave her for Christmas. It looks like a thin chain on her neck???
3.Nanny, diector, Hai Z, Hai P, and another nanny. Bear and paper we sent her in a care package!
Taken between 11/14- 12/17-07

Monday-1/14/08

The weekend chaos at our house was different than most. Our typical weekend consists of a Friday night drive to North Lake . A fat filling layover at Wendy's or perhaps if the happy meal toy is just right a stop at McDonald's. Upon arrival at the lake and unloading of the car the kids are off to set up their stuff and Brian and I are left to enjoy a drink and conversation.
After the craziness of the holidays I am ready for weekend R&R and that does not include driving and unpacking!
This weekend we nested.... A bit early I realize but once I have something in my head it's hard to stop. So we spruced up the girls bedroom. I had complete overhaul in my mind. Something fresh and new. Abbie has done pink and green for all six years of her sweet life. I was picturing lavender and yellow.... After much conversation with Abbie I realized it WAS after all the room she and Audrey were going to be using for the next 6-9 years and if pink and green were what she liked- pink and green it would stay. I broke after hearing " I hate Purple" ten times.....It would be easier to NOT have to paint!
So we have new pink and green bedding with just a hint of yellow ( for me).
The truth is after seeing the room Audrey has now. Where she has gone to sleep for so long curled up next to her bed mate and best friend. I realized it is all she has ever known and for her it may be everything she has. Pink and green and yellow and lavender are colors......
As I sat filling her new shelves with the books and toys we have waiting to give her, I wondered if we can fill all she has missed out on. She knows nothing different than that room and the friends that has been her only family for so long. God has trusted us with a huge responsibility. I pray we can provide her with all that she really need and not fill her with things she does not.
As I sat looking at her new but empty bed. I could hear Abbie breathing quietly as she slept. I folded clothes friends have passed along for her and organized them in her drawer. I imagined her in China, now alone with out her friend and I prayed she had someone. A quiet, deep loneliness filled my heart.
I wonder now as I did while we waited for Zachary, WHY does this take so long?? Maybe God gives us these moments to fill our hearts with unconditional love for our waiting child. I know he knows what I do not but the pain of the wait fills our days and our selfish impatience grows as our worry about her well being does. We hope you will keep our sweet lady bug in your prayers and hearts while we wait this time out.

Late last night Brian and I checked our e-mail to find that our new found friends had e-mailed us . They passed on a glimpse of our sweet daughter that we have not been able to see yet. Pictures of her playing and being silly with her friends. Pictures of her and the webkin we had sent her. Group shots of the kids from several years ago and even a few of her in her Bedroom with her best friend!
This morning there were even more pictures......We can not even begin to express our gratitude for sharing with us a piece of our daughter and her life in Zhu Hai.

Make New Friends But keep the Old.....

One is Silver and the other Gold-
A song all Girls Scouts are taught at one time or another. It came back to me as I was putting new badges on Abbie's Brownie smock today. It seemed fitting given our excitement .
It was a great joy to meet Kristy today. She is the new mamma to Audrey's best friend in China. She has only been home a week! Kristy and I talked for hours and caught up on so much. I can tell she will be a dear friend to us and be instrumental in the rest of our process. We can not believe how lucky we are to find her and her husband ( as well as the others on the board) and to follow them in this journey. Two old friends will now always be able to stay in touch. New friends made by the old......

A picture given to Kristy and Steve of our daughters- Audrey is in the middle.

Updates On Audrey!

Zhu Hai Pin

Current measurements

Height: 131 cm

Weight: 22 kg

Head circumference: 51.3 cm

Chest circumference: 58.5 cm

Current condition: Zhu Hai Pin’s current condition is good. She knows she will soon go to her new home. She is anxiously waiting. She is happy, well behaved and more communicative with other people she encounters.

Here are the pictures sent to us last month with her height and weight update!

Here is the letter Audrey just sent us Monday. Brian ran it down to the local Chinese restaurant to have it translated.

Translation: How is my family? How is my bigger brother? How are my younger brothers and my sister? When am I coming home? Please bring clothes and food with you. I am excited to come home.

We are not sure if there is more or if she wrote it herself...I hope she is not disappointed to find out that Ethan is younger than her! ????

Gifts......

I really have so much to update I do not even know where to begin. I have hardened my heart and pushed this adoption process to the back burner for so long now. Of course Zhu Hai Ping has been in our hears and minds and not a moment goes by that we do not think about her but getting her seemed so far away that I could not bear to let myself enjoy this process.....
Today God reminded me of how rewarding this journey can be....I am a member of an Zhu Hai Orphanage forum. Well an invisible member anyway. Today I needed a connection to Our Zhu Hai Ping.... I have been feeling very emotional and wanting her home more desperately each day. I posted a message and almost instantly a women wrote back that she was the new mother of Zhu Hai Zhen. Home only a week. Zhu Hai Zhen is Our Zhu Hai Pings best friend and bed mate......
When I prayed today for my daughter I had asked for a sign that I knew she was o.k.- God must be chuckling over my joy of finding not just a sign but of finding her very best friend.
I am now waiting on a call to learn more about Zhu Hai Zhen her lovely mamma and daddy and her friend -our waiting Zhu Hai Ping .