Silver Dollar City Fun

I took the kids and our friend Megan to Silver Dollar City for a fun day on Wednesday. It was really Katie's first time going and they had lots of fun.

Otherwise, not much is new. We are all well and enjoying the beautiful Spring weather.

Love from Missouri,
Lori

我的心脏是残破的。My Heart is Broken.

My Heart is Broken.
(Wo3de xin1zang4 shi4 can2 po4 de.)





Fifteen thousand have died in and around Sichuan Province in central China after a devastating earthquake. Though my friends in Beijing are alright and not injured, my heart breaks for the country that I love second only to the US. Somehow the faces that I see feel like family to me. I am stunned and aching over the incredible magnitude of the loss there. Outside a demolished building in Dujiangyan - parents mourn as the bodies of their children are pulled from the wreckage of the middle school there. Estimates are that 900 children were in the school at the time of the earthquake. For many of these families, this is their only child. This child was to have supported them in their old age and visited the monuments of the ancestors on Grave Sweeping Day to burn incense for them.

Since our visit to China for three weeks last May, its people have rarely left my mind. I have prayed for the last year that God would show me how to serve Him in China. If I could, I would move there to do full-time medical work. If I could, I would adopt again. Right now, neither of these things are a possibility for us. What the future holds for me is in God's hands but He knows that my heart is willing to go and to work where He would have me be.

I wish I could go now and help the wounded and the grieving. The government is allowing foreign aid but not foreign relief workers in at this time. Right now, I do what I know God has given me to do. I pray for China every day. I send financial help when I can. I keep my eyes open for ways He has for me to help.
I look into the the beautiful brown eyes of my daughter and I hold her close. I struggle to learn Mandarin.

Someday if I am honored to be called to do a different work for God in China or for China, I will be ready.

Here is a wonderful link to information about this tragedy:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/chengdu

Here is a link to for sending help:
http://www.networkforgood.org/topics/international/earthquake/china080512.aspx

In the face of this tragedy, God shows me how good He is. I have been praying for sometime for Seth, a baby at the Foster Home we visited. We have sponsored him for awhile and I secretly dreamed we could adopt him. I emailed all the special needs agencies and amazingly, I found his file. I had contacted the agency and they were thrilled to find an interested family. They had his file for some time and hadn't had any really interested families. I prayed about it and it was obvious that we can't adopt again right now (maybe never - who knows). So, I was a little sad but I started sending out messages about him on the adoptive family email groups I am a part of. I have had a tremendous response!! The adoption agency called me today just gushing with excitement. They have had ten families interested in him!!! Seth will have a Mama and Daddy to love and care for him forever and God is so good.

Lord, pour Your love and comfort out on China and her people.

Lori

Forever Family Day - One Year Together!

One year ago yesterday, Katherine Joy Huihui was in my arms for the first time.
Big, somber brown eyes - she just searched mine and I can imagine she was thinking, "what in the world is this?" She saw a photo album with pictures of us once but I am sure she didn't know what was happening when she was driven 4+ hours with one of the orpanage workers to a strange building. All she had in the world was a small photo album with pictures of herself and the clothes she was wearing.
She was led in by the hand into a room where four couples were and two babies with some nannies were there already. Suddenly, this big smiling blindingly white lady was talking to her and holding her and showing her toys. What a weird thing...now they keep saying "Mama and Baba."

She cried just once and was very solemn and quiet. She wasn't upset when the orphanage worker left. The orphanage worker was just quickly gone and didn't seem too terribly concerned either. She fell asleep on my shoulder and when she woke up we were leaving down the elevator for the van. As we waited, I showed her flowers - fresh cut and beautiful in a big vase in the lobby of the government building. I smiled and showed her the flowers and let her smell them. Then I got the first smile - she liked flowers. After that - ANY time we were in the hotel lobby or anywhere that there were plants or flowers. She would get so excited and point and stop and show me flowers. So, we first bonded over flowers.

The last few days we have spent quite a lot of time doing family things. Late one night we were sleeping together (I know, I know...but they are only little so short a period of time) she rolled over and beamed at me and said, "I wush you Mama."
The first time she said it without being prompted. She is such a great kid. We love her very much.

On Friday, I received a nice email from a gentleman who had adopted a little girl from the same orphanage as Katie. They had visited the orphanage a month or two before we were there. I had left a message on their blog some time ago and he had just received it and was so kind to email me back. They hadn't gotten a lot of photos of Maonan but sent me just a few. Amazingly, the one they took of their daughter's crib has a little girl lying down with another baby sitting up in the crib next to it. The little girl lying down is Katie Hui. She looks hot and bored.
I'm glad she came home not long after this.

We spent yesterday in KC with the Clarkson family and the Smith family. The youngest member of the Smith family was adopted from MaoNan - Katie's orphanage.
The youngest member of the Clarkson family was there in that room meeting her Mom one year ago yesterday as well. We had a WONDERFUL time. Seeing these two wonderful families and sharing stories and memories was priceless. The kids had a BLAST. They played and ate and had so much fun. Thank you, Janet, for hosting us and for being such a wonderful friend.

So now we are in the last few weeks of the school year and headed into the summer. Everyone is doing well (exept Alex's bad cold) and happy to be able to swim again soon. We all went swimming in the hotel pool on Friday and they LOVED it.

I am a very, very blessed Mama with THREE wonderful children. (and a great husband)

Happy Mother's Day to everyone.

Lori

Another Red Thread....

We had a wonderful opportunity to get together again with a family from South Carolina last week. Their daughter, Emmy, is one month younger than Katie and from the same orphanage in Maoming City.

The girls really hit it off again and had a wonderful time playing.
They are both growing so much, it is amazing.

The first two photos are from Sept. 2007, the first time our families met.

A Smile to Brighten Your Day

This is Seth - when we first met him, he was quite blue from congenital heart disease and he couldn't walk at all.



Now, as you can see, he is active and pink and glowing. He had surgery for his heart defect last Spring/Summer and I had asked many to pray for him. It was touch and go but he did very well. We sponsor him at the Foster Home and get regular updates. This photo made my day!

He is apparently going to have another heart surgery in six months. It will be a dangerous one as well but I think God has special things in store for this little guy.

I love you, Seth!

One of My Favorite Authors...

I found the coolest quiz on a dear friend's blog. (Thanks, Crystal! It's scary how alike we are.)

Take the Quiz here!

I have been working my way through a book I bought in September (in KC at a medical conference)....the Complete Works of Jane Austen.
She has always been one of my top three favorite authors of all time but I hadn't read that many of her works.

Since January (or before even) on Masterpiece Classics on PBS they have been broadcasting all of Jane's novels adapted into movies. My husband has TiVo'd them all for me and he actually has watched over half of them with me! He was quite shocked that he enjoyed them. I own quite a few of the "old" adaptations of several of her movies but I hadn't seen most of these newer adaptations. They have been quite good. I'm behind in my viewing lately, though, so poor Eric gets to sit through "Emma" and "Sense and Sensibility" very soon.

I simply love "Pride and Prejudice" but honestly my favorite Austen heroine is Anne Elliot. Not surprisingly, we are apparently the most alike. If anyone has not seen or read "Persuasion," I highly recommend it.

Lori

Spring Break

It is Spring Break this week and there has been no school. Eric didn't have work either and managed to keep his sanity all week somehow. We took a trip to the zoo and the park on Thursday. It was a warm and lovely day. The big highlights were feeding the fish, goats, and giraffes!

Today we had Easter Egg hunts and Easter baskets after church.

Happy Spring!!