Is it a GIRL or is it a BOY???

Let the FUN begin!!

Katie and Andrew will find out what they are having on Thanksgiving Day!

Hopefully, we will be skyping with them and share the JOY!

Hubby and our crew in China will be sleeping at that time and will find out the wonderful news once the wake up!

Either way, we are blessed!

We will share with YOU soon after that!
(That would be after they tell everyone in the whole world that they have ever known... BUT, I am sure they will be telling them quickly!)
hint, hint
cuz ya know... I gotta tell my peeps!

So here is babies back side... pretty cute!
I know!
Look at that sweet little ear on the left and that precious right arm reaching up!

And here is baby once again in a 3-D pic... which all of our children at home quickly reacted with a
ewwwwww!
Sorry honey!
You're a photographer...
 you know that baby will have better pics!

Obviously, those fontanels need to close a bit  ; - ) !

So here are our guesses!
The happy couple have vacillated a bit.
First they said boy and now they say girl...

What do you think "it" is?

Can't wait to tally it up and report the results!

After this!
Is the Name Game!!
Oh My,
we are going to have sooooo
much fun!

(Melissa LOVED her birthday wishes! Thank you!)

Which One?

Oh My!

They look so much alike!

Which one is Melissa?

Oh Mom!

You know!

I'm the one "without" the really cute boots!

I think she may be giving me a hint!

What do you think?

She could have given me so many other answers!

BUT NO-

 she is the one without the boots!

Sweet Melissa has been our 

"hold out".

First it was Madeline to say

"I love you"!

Then it was Mia!

It was hard for her to say but she did it and we know she means it 

(most of the time)!

But Melissa wasn't planning on saying it.

She was just fine without saying it...

4 months went by

then 5 months

then 6 months

then 7 months...

every night we kissed her goodnight and said

"I love you".

On September 1st we told her-

 when we say 

I love you

you say it back...

She giggled and said it.

And every night since then our girl says

"I love you".

It has finally become easy for her to say!

I am a believer that the more you say kind and loving things to others the more it becomes second nature- in other words the more you feel it and the more you live it. 

We decided to give it a try 

and 

it worked!

Today is her first "for real birthday" with her forever family ; - )

We already had the party but would LOVE to read birthday wishes to her on her day!

If you can please comment!

Thank you!

Ready or Not...

Here we come!

and guess what!

We are NOT ready!

About 2 months ago I had a dream.

I dreamed the boys had arrived home and we did not have their bed set up or their clothes ready or anything else ready.

I'm a little afraid we are going in that direction ;-)

YIKES!

As you know it has been a busy time 

BUT 

God has taken good care of us!

The bunks arrived this last weekend and the mattress will arrive tomorrow!

I haven't found the new sheets for the beds but then I haven't looked real hard ;-) either!

They are somewhere in a box!

The closets systems will be installed tomorrow.

That is one of the areas that is significantly smaller in our new home.

I know the  Lord will provide and somehow they will work out.

Actually the first time I looked at this house I said "no

the bedrooms and the closets aren't big enough", it's not the right house.

But then, after only a few days the Lord impressed upon my heart that it would work out and that this is where HE wanted us!

I prayed that somehow the bedrooms and closets would be bigger than I was thinking.

The second time we looked at it 

I thought

This WILL work!

We can do this!

(I just LOVE our Lord!!)

Anyways to make a long story a little shorter we need to get the clothes in the closets and then fine tune everything else in the boys bedroom so it "appears ready"! 
At least to little boy eyes (which they often don't notice the details so I think we will be okay)!
We'll just tell them that everyone uses home dep*t boxes for night stands ;-)!

No more folded toppling piles of clothes on the floor!

Hubby has been very busy with work- trying to get to a point where he can travel to China.

He is not as available as he sometimes is but that's okay.

We will always "be busy".
You can't have this many children and not feel busy.

BUT what matters now is how we handle it, just joyfully do what we can each day

and 

 make sure the "to do list" doesn't take over our lives 

(and 

steal the joy we have).

We still have another moving truck load or two to bring over. 

Our new garage 

has many boxes in it 

and

we 

live

 in

 Minnesota!

It has

already

snowed 

here!

Yes, we were

"THAT VAN"

driving down the freeway with

4 inches of snow on our roof and hood of the car.

It's so embarrassing!

Chunks of snow were flying off our roof onto the road behind us...

If we slowed down/stopped suddenly the snow from the roof would come barreling down our front window, which made ALL of the children hysterically laugh!

In other words

 we need to get our vehicles in the garage ASAP!

Before Hubby leaves for China or this lady (that would be me) will be scraping and shoveling way more than she wants too!

Of course then there is the packing ;-)

We have purchased a few clothes for Ben but nothing is in the suitcase yet.

Yikes again!

Praying to get a ton done in the next few days!

We have our flights!

We went through "adoption airfare" and it was sooooo simple!

With every other adoption journey we have booked our own flights but there was no time with this adoption trip so a friend recommended them to us!

We didn't have to spend hours on the phone with the airlines, just one email and voila!

Thank you Tabitha!

Trusting GOD!

The truth is READY or NOT we ARE going to go get our boys!

PS- they probably won't even notice if things aren't quite perfect!

(Hoping to post some pics with this post! If I don't push publish now, it will go the way of so many post and never be on the blog 
;-)

Orphans No Longer!

This is what we did on Orphan Sunday...

At first I felt bad because I wasn't doing anything special for that day.

And when I began to put up the photos for this post I realized that 

we were doing something very special for this day.

Three more orphans came home this year!

And three more orphans were celebrating their first birthday with their forever family!

(They do not celebrate birthdays in China.)

This little girl has never had a pile of presents just for her!

And the same goes for this sweet girl!

And of course neither has this dear child...

Sam has adjusted to his new life... without a problem!

He doesn't miss a beat and tends to be the life of the party!

He is a hoot!

The big kids were admiring our photos from Disney!

We had the time of our life!

Since Hubby and Mark are leaving soon for China we decided to have a joint party before they left!

(one more attempt to streamline things during that time)

Thank you Mark for accompanying Dad to China!

You are a wonderful big brother and you have a heart of gold!

So happy Auntie Barbie could join us!

Let the fun begin!

Sometimes it is hard for the new children to know how to accept gifts.

In the past we have found that they gave their gifts away.

Sometimes it can be too much pressure and they get over stimulated- and they begin to hide and giggle.

We talked about it beforehand.

How to open, how to act and how to say thank you!

They are did such a great job and were very gracious.

They took turns opening and admiring the other persons gifts.

They said lots of thank you's!

And of course Sam likes to help out...

even when Luke may not want his help!

We don't like to overdue the gifts but these children needed "their time" to celebrate!

Auntie Barbie gave Mia a gift card to Claires!

Looks like pierced ears will be in her future!

 Johnny has been injured all soccer season. He has been cheering on his teammates (character building)... he can hardly wait until next year when he can be on the field too!

No way!

You got Molly!

And you got Saige!

WoooHoooo!

To heck with the personal space!

The crowd continues to get closer and closer!

YAY! It's just what you asked for big boy!

And we have Caroline!

Time to unpack the other children's American girl dolls!

Let's Play!

Her very first bike!

Now all the newbies have their own bikes!

We ready for next spring!

Oh wait... we still have the rest of Fall and Winter - Oh ugh!

With so many we have to divide up and eat at different spots!

Some were at the counter.

 The littles loved their table!

The rest of the family was at the large round table.

Madeline and Luke chose an ice cream cake!

Mia and Melissa chose chocolate cake!

Happy Birthday Mia, Melissa, Madeline and Luke!

They loved having the Happy Birthday song "sung to them"!

Now it's time for bed!

We are so very blessed to be their Mommy and Daddy!

To be able to tuck them in each night!

Sleep tight dear children!

There are so many children that need parents or a parent.

Someone to love them and to take care of them.

Someone to tuck them in bed at night.

Please consider adoption.

Put your trust in HIM!

(Sorry this post is soooo lonnnnggggg! I guess that's what happens when celebrating 4 birthdays at once!!)

Trick or Treating!

I know this evening is over with but I just wanted to get the pics on the blog!

The kids had a blast!

We go trick or treating over at our friend Karen's house!

She lives in a perfect neighbor filled with kids!

The weather was perfect- cool but not too cold!

Most of them ended up taking their jackets off!

Kelly (Billy's girlfriend) and her doggy Penny joined us!

They love running from house to house!

We traveled in a pack and kind of invaded one home after the other.

I love being outside with the kids!

I love the evening adventure!

I love seeing the children laughing and giggling!

But...

I don't love the massive amounts of candy!

It was my motherly duty to check out their candy and I was appropriately punished...

Need to get into the dentist for the filling that just came out...

Bummer!

We have already packed the candy away and placed it high on a shelf.

They have eaten a ton of it and had so much more still left.

Nothing Like Canceling Dinner at Our House And. . .

Forgetting to tell the people we invited!

Oops! 

We knew we were not organized enough and we were sooooo tired!

Some of the kids got the memo but not all of them!

As it turned out we needed to take a break and our guest were uplifting!

They also helped us to feel more at home in our own house!

It turned out to be a fun evening and good for everyone!

We are amazed at how well we fit here!

Things I thought would be a problem are not a problem!

God took care of everything!

And the drive "in" is beautiful!