"Baby Yum"

Andi says "baby yum" when she sees something she wants to eat..

We hear "baby yum" numerous times during the day...

John's Big Buck

John shot an eight point deer!! 185 pounds!!

Yes, the deer head is being mounted!!

Andi and the boys will ride around and around on these "cars" -- always coming up with a new game or way to play.

Notice Emma is in Thomas' shirt. Emma went to China with us. Andi held onto Emma's pigtails when at the Civil Affairs office.

New Year's Day in Florida

2012 and our baby girl is home!!

Fred, the elf, is lots of fun to have around during December.
A girl elf also showed up this year. She has not been named yet.

Christmas milk appears in the refrigerator this time of year. It is either red or green and has a vanilla taste.

My boy is growing up!!

This is what Andi brought down from her nap. She always gathers up blankets and toys when you get her out the crib... a fun girl...

For the last few years we have put luminaries out for the neighborhood on Christmas Eve.
The boys put out over 500 bags to line the whole street. Mr. Phil, neighborhood boss, oversees the "worker bees" -- makes for a beautiful street.

Andi and GG dance with Santa. She would not hold Santa's hand herself but wanted everyone to hold his hand.

More Christmas Photos

The boys performed a short "play" of the nativity story at church--Thomas (wise man), Steven (shepherd), John (wise man), and Andi (an angel, of course). I had no idea that Andi would be in the play -- what a wonderful surprise. Yes, she wore her pink crocks to church with a Christmas dress! She loves her crocks...

Andrew and his buddies went flounder gigging one night! So good to be out of school!!

The Catch of the Night!! We had some delicious fried fish!

Christmas

Making gingerbread house or eating candy?

Andrew and Andi

We both love sweets

We rehearsed what will happen when we visit Santa, but Andi was still not happy to see him even if he gave her a candy cane.

Love these kids!!

Pretty Girl

She is the prettiest little girl in the world---her heart is precious!

I just can't get over that God has blessed us with this sweet girl.

My heart is full...

Cookie baking

John and Andi had fun baking sugar cookies!

Best with lots of sugar on top!!

Andi is very creative--pecan cookies anyone?

Two Inches in 6 months!!

This sweet girl has grown 2 inches since she has been home.

Her personality and willingness to give love and to be loved has reached to infinity and beyond.

Just amazing....

Boys remind me of funny stories that happened on our China trip

We touched down in America in Detroit. The first immigration lady said "you will not be making your next flight connection. The connections are too close together when you have to go thru immigration especially with a new american immigrant (our Andi)."

I just about cried right in front of her. I wanted to ask if she realized what we had been thru in the last 14 days. And I can not take any longer not being united with my family. I had thoughts of renting a car if I had too. I am going to get home soon!!

I went to the next immigration officer to hand him the big thick brown envelope that we were to leave completely sealed up until this point.. And here we are, the officer opened the envelope and is looking thru the papers/forms/signatures that are in it..

I am thinking "Oh please let everything be there. Please."

I ask this officer if we can make the plane. He says that he is doing his best to get us on it.

Oh, good, someone who is helping.... Finally, he is thru with the package and points to the direction of our gate. But he says as we are gathering all our luggage that the plane is boarding and is on last call.

We grabbed our bags, do a double count to make sure we have them all, and off we run. Our gait is at the end of the terminal!! The loud speaker is calling last call!!

I tell the boys to go ahead and run to the gait. Tell them that I am coming with the baby. Run, boys run.

Steven is in the lead with John and Thomas not far behind. I am carrying Andi which she does not help support herself on my hip. So it is really carrying a bag of potatoes that is slipping. Plus I have my own luggage in tow.

It doesn't look good. I am going slower and slower because of baby Andi. The lady is about to close the door to the plane.

I quickly run by a lady mopping the floor and ask if she can carry the baby for me. She actually says yes! I tell her to just keep up as much as she can and I tell her the gate number. I go off running hoping to catch the plane then to beg them to wait on the lady carrying my baby.

While I run, I look back to make sure she has baby Andi... she does but looks winded already. I yell encouragement to her. She smiles and says she is doing her best.

Finally I catch up with the boys as we approach the gate stand. They ushered us in BUT wait on our baby. "Where is she?" gate lady asks. That lady walking fast and breathing really hard is bringing the baby.

I sent the boys onto the plane and waited for Andi. The lady was so out of breath that she could hardly get the name of her supervisor out her mouth. So she wrote it down on paper for me. I kept thanking her over and over. What a blessing she was to us for her to lay down her job and incarnate into my world.

These are the bags we took.

And this is how we got Andi thru the airport--in her backpack. But when we went thru immigration they made me take Andi out of the carrier. I did not have the time to get it back on properly and to put Andi back into it. We had no time to spare. So Andi was sitting on my hip.

What Ya Doing, Baby?

Playing Tea

As soon as I started to set the table, Andi came running to help. She found the punch cups, climbed up into the chair, and said "sit" and "eat."

I treasured the time with our sweet girl.

It gets better! As soon as Andy came home, she took his hand to lead him to the dinning room to "sit" and "eat" -- Daddy and his girl:)

Boards and Blogs

Oh what a fun Thanksgiving last year was. To ponder on our little girl. To look at her face over and over..

I spent a lot of time searching for information about her SWI (Social Welfare Institute). I became a member of the Yahoo group for her orphanage. I could see photos of the buildings and of kids that had been adopted from the same place.

I researched the area. I even tried to Google Earth the SWI but could not really find it.

Through the searching on the internet (really God provided) a connection of another family that had received a referral on Thanksgiving day for a little girl from the same orphanage. Because of their paperwork being further along, it looked like they would travel before us. Oh, someone would possibly get to see our baby and give us updates and photos prior to us traveling. Wow---such a small world--
God is in the details!! so cool..

Then there was the forum for adopting families on our agency website that really was a gift to me. Some precious friends for life and eternity have been made thru the boards. I started following their blogs. I really was able to know about the steps in the adoption and the China trip via these blogs!!

This week last year

With finally receiving a referral, it brought on some really in depth heart to heart conversations with Andy. It was real now-- A photo of a sweet little orphan girl--that would be ours..

I cried asking Andy to go over to China to get her for us. It would be hard to leave someone in charge of 4 boys while we both were all the way across the world. We didn't have family to keep them. So I felt like I should stay here while he goes-- especially since he could take care of her medical needs and he is a super loving father...He would do great..

I really, really do not like to fly. I really, really do not like leaving the boys for so long. I get really stressed out going on vacation at a beach in our own town--much less a trip to China. It made perfect sense for Andy to go. He travels all the time for business. My experience in flying is that I get stopped in our local airport for not taking my phone out my pocket!!

The actually trip was so sweet because I saw how God's hand was in all the details. I did not have to fret. God was in charge. He was making the way. So really this was me wrestling with God--would He provide for me or would I have to act like an orphan and do it on my own. Wow---God blew me away with his goodness and mercy and kindness and pursuit of me during this trip!! I still like to "sit" in remembering His goodness to me with the details of this adoption of our precious girl.

God pressed into my heart more and more of what it means for me to be adopted into His family. That I did nothing for Him to want to pick me--nothing---worse yet, I was full of sin and sin against the God Almighty. But He chose me when I was still in my sin. I can call him Papa God and come boldly before His throne because of my older brother, Jesus!

That I was no longer an orphan--that He would pursue me--run after me over and over because my heart is prone to wander... How can that be? that I would wander even after He so clearly demonstrated His great Love for me. If I were a writer I could write a beautiful book of the great things He did and is still doing for me, but I have to ponder them in my heart because writing is not my gift.

This time last year

The list from china came out during our Sunday night since they are twelve hours ahead so I was anxiously waiting for the "call" monday morning from our adoption agency (which is on pacific time). So really the call shouldn't come until after 12 noon, but the director of the china program called me around 11am. She said she felt like she had a file that might be our little girl---that the referral photo showed lots of personality. She read the file over the phone for me then sent it via email. I asked her not to send the photo because I knew I couldn't be objective about her medical needs (meaning would her special needs be something our family could handle)if I saw a photo. She said she would attach it at the end of the email if I changed my mind.

Of course, I couldn't wait to see her photo---done deal. She looked like our baby. The boys even said she looked like a Godwin boy. To see your baby for the first time is amazing joy. She was perfect!!

I called and emailed andy for him to review the file. It was a crazy hectic busy day for him at work. The panic of how to get the doctors to review the file quickly during Thanksgiving week began. But God opened doors of some very compassionate doctors that said they could provide the surgery she needed, if surgery was needed.

We only had 48 hours to submit our letter of intent.

We submitted our LOI on Wednesday prior to rushing out the door to travel to SC for Thanksgiving. We did request follow up medical info from her orphanage--sometimes the translation of a Chinese medical chart can not be so clear. Andy being the physician knew way too much of how quickly a heart problem can be dangerous to her health even prior to us bringing her home. But I was ready for her no matter how serious---felt peace knowing Andi was ours. I was praying for andy's heart to softened to this child no matter what the heart defects were--but still wanted him to get all the advice from all his doctor friends so we would be prepared medically or better yet for them to tell him they would go for her!!

Look No Hands

John took Andi on a wagon ride. She loves to live on the wild side---no hands!!

Gamecock Girl

Andi has known to be a Gator Girl, Tiger Girl and now a Gamecock Girl thanks to Aunt Eva..

Wonder what she will wear for the USC vs Clemson game?