“An invisible red thread connects those who

are destined to meet, regardless of time,

place, or circumstance. The thread may

stretch or tangle, but will never break.”

An ancient Chinese belief


Our family made the decision to adopt in June 2009. We pursued a special needs adoption, and we were blessed with a referral of the most beautiful girl on May 21, 2010. We originally started this website to fundraise for our adoption expenses by selling tutus and hair bows. Our fundraising efforts coupled with a grant from Lifesong for Orphans were a tremendous financial blessing. We traveled to China in late October 2010 to meet our daughter. Now, Emma Grace is home... forever.




Thursday, December 30, 2010

Saving Levi and the Philip Hayden Foundation

Our Emma Grace lived at the Shepherd's Field Children's Village, part of the Philip Hayden Foundation. PHF was started by Tim and Pam Baker several years ago. You can read about their story at their website, www.chinaorphans.org. After seeing the orphanage where Emma lived the first 8 months of her life and knowing that she spent one month alone in the hospital for heart surgery... we knew that she was truly blessed to have been transferred to PHF at nine months old. It is certainly not your typical orphanage. The houses are decorated to look like actual homes. They have bedrooms, eating areas, and living rooms. They have a huge play area outside and absolutely beautiful grounds within a gated community. You can't help but fall in love with the place and the kids.

I first heard about the book, Saving Levi, from a volunteer at PHF. It took me awhile to get my hands on the book, but after reading it, it made me fall in love with the people of PHF even more. A quick rundown: a baby boy, about 6 weeks old, was found burned and abandoned in a field. One man (after many passed by...) took the baby to the Civil Affairs office. Tim Baker and John Bentley, who were doing orphan relief work in Langfang and starting an orphanage received a call about the baby and were asked to take him. They did, of course, because they turn no baby away. John's wife, Lisa, took charge of this baby's care and the book is about their fight to save Levi. It is an amazing journey of how God saved this little baby's life. What I found particularly touching is that every doctor they encountered told them not to waste their money, the baby was going to die. But, the Bakers and the Bentleys refused to give up and would spare no cost in saving this little guy. Those people started the PHF and it is that type of mentality that drives their care.

Speaking of PHF, they have stumbled upon financial hardship this past year. They are not able to take in any more orphans until they increase their sponsorships. They are searching for 500 more sponsors. For $35/month an orphan will be fed, clothed and provided around the clock care in a loving, Christian environment. We have toured the children's village, talked with the people, and spent the day with them. This place is amazing. They will send you a newsletter every month as well as updates about your child. I can think of no better way to spend $35 a month!

Ball Pit Bliss

Go here to see a cute video of my little ones. They were enjoying a Santa gift... the beloved ball pit. This is our 3rd one... each of our kids has had one, but it always pops from too much rough housing, go figure. Wonder how long this one will last!

I don't want people to think that I don't care enough about my older ones to blog about them. I actually keep a family blog where I update about our crazy family and all the fun happenings around here, but I keep it private. This blog is only used to update about our adoption experience with Emma Grace. If you would like access to our family blog, shoot me an email.

Looking forward to a new year!

The day after Christmas we went to visit Rick's family. Here is Emma Grace with her new doll stroller from Grandma and Grandpa.
On Christmas day we went to my parent's house. They got her a car and she was very proud of it!
Christmas morning- Emma Grace with her new baby doll
Emma and Timmy with baby Jesus- Christmas Eve at church
smooching under the tree with her little brother
The best gift EVER came on Christmas Eve- Emma Grace received her certificate of citizenship!
Emma Grace looked adorable in her Christmas dress. I took these pictures and then realized how it was not very smart of me to use a black drop when she was wearing black tights and has black hair. Oops! Oh, well.

Emma Grace had a wonderful first Christmas with her family. We were so thankful to have her home this year. She really didn't understand what was going on (neither did our other 1 year old) but she sure is enjoying some new toys now that it is all over with.

Emma is growing and changing so much. I was watching video of her from China and I couldn't believe how skinny her face and neck looked. She has gained over a pound since she has been home. This girl LOVES to eat. We thought we would have to smash up all the food and maybe even give her baby food due to her palate... but this girl can eat anything. I am amazed that she can gum up just about anything, even with a huge hole in the roof of her mouth. She WANTS to drink from a cup, but because of her open palate she is not able to suck. I give her a sippy cup without the stopper and she will drink from that... but she soaks herself. It is messy, so we normally only do it at dinner before she gets in the bath. She smiles so big when I hand her the cup. She also wants to walk. When we first got Emma, we went to stand her on our legs (while we were sitting) and she would buckle at the knees or her legs would fly out to the side. She didn't know how to keep her legs under her or how to put weight on them. By the end of our China trip, we could see a difference in her strength... she had pulled up to her feet twice and would let us support her and stand her on our lap. Now, this little firecracker pulls to a stand all day long, she cruises down the couch... and she will walk while holding on to our hands. That is a HUGE improvement! Her feet are incredibly weak, and her physical therapist feels that corrective shoes might be in her near future. Emma wants to walk so bad that she will get on her knees (butt off the ground) and walk that way. I am hoping and praying she walks by her 2nd birthday. We have 7 months and at the rate she is going, I know she will do it. When we first got home from China, she would watch Timmy climb the stairs and just sit at the bottom. Now, she can get to the top before he does! She is using signs and even saying some words. She will say "uh" for up and "mah" for more. She also says ma-ma. Once her palate is repaired, the speech will come along. Emma continues to be a champ at sleeping. She sleeps 12 hours every night in her own crib and in her own room. She will cry for a few minutes, then pop the thumb in and settle down. She has adjusted so wonderfully to our family that it feels like she has always been here. Monday will be a huge transition for her. She starts with the babysitter! This will be the first time that I have "dropped" her off with someone not familiar and left her for a significant amount of time. The lady watching her is AMAZING. She is loving and nurturing. It might take Emma a few days to realize that mommy always comes back, but once she does I think she will be really happy there!

We are looking forward to celebrating 2011 with our family of 6. We are so thankful that Emma is home and will be here to experience every day of the next year with a family.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Tutu Cute!

I just love seeing my little girl in a tutu. Whenever I see a tutu, I will always think of my Emma Grace and our labor of love to bring her home. Enjoy the pictures!





Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Finally Finished!!!!!

Click HERE to see Emma Grace's GOTCHA day video.



Monday, December 20, 2010

Her heart is GOOD!


Emma Grace was born with a VSD. It was repaired in China when she was 8 months old. When we first found out, we were a little upset.... but looking back that was probably her ticket to Philip Hayden, and for that we are thankful.

Today Emma had her appointment with the pediatric cardiologist to check the work that was done in China. They did an EKG and a heart ultrasound. Emma's heart was successfully repaired in China- the doctor said she looks great! He had a lot of great things to say about surgeries he has seen out of China, so that made us feel better. There was one small issue- her aortic valve was leaking slightly (um, I think that is what he said....) but this could happen with a normal heart when someone has a cold... and she did have a cold. SO- he will check her again in 6 months, but overall, she looks great! If she is all clear in 6 months, we just have to follow-up every 2-3 years. Other than that, she has no restrictions on her activity! We have been worried about the bone sticking out of her chest. Our pediatrician thought she might have been born like that, however the cardiologist feels that it is from the heart surgery done in China. He said that it is COMMON for a child to heal in that way and that it will possibly get better over time. But, it might not... regardless, he said that we need to let her grow and see what happens with it. In the future, there are things that can be done (not quite sure we would do anything....) but it was comforting to know that a chest can heal in that way and that it can get better over time. Great news today!

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Saturday, December 11, 2010

An Emma Grace Update...

Timmy and Emma before church
2 weeks out from surgery

I haven't updated in awhile. Things have been so busy around here! Emma is doing well. Her lip is healing nicely, although we had a few hiccups to deal with in the last few weeks. She had her surgery on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Everything was looking great and 2 days out from surgery she didn't need pain medicine anymore. Wednesday I went back to work and my mom watched her. At some point during the day, the stitches in Emma's nose popped out, so now we are back to a flat nostril. I wasn't that upset about it because the big issue is the lip... as long as that stayed together, I was fine. Then, Thursday night I was putting laundry away and Rick was on kid duty. I hear a thud and screams and I knew it was Emma. Rick immediately tells me that she hit her head, but her lip is fine. He brings her into the room and she has a mouth full of blood. My response (while yelling...) was "YES SHE DID HIT HER LIP!!!!" I was so upset. Just above her lip split open a little bit and was bleeding and the bottom of her lip (the part the rests on the bottom lip) was bleeding and appeared to be split. We called the doctor, which was stupid because he couldn't do anything. He told us to bring her in the next day, so we did just that. He looked at her on Friday and basically told us not to worry. He is doing her palate in March and he said that if he needed to clean it up a little then, he would. He also said that he almost always has to adjust the lip a year later, so that one way or another it would be fine. So, for now we let it heal. The docs comment to me, "Don't worry, we make faces look better here." HAHA! Now that the scab is gone it doesn't look as bad. It will not heal in that perfect line that was there before the accident, but I guess we can't complain. We have been putting vitamin E oil on it to help with the healing/scarring.

We had another scary incident happen with our little Emma, and it was before the lip accident. On Monday I noticed that she was wheezing while she was breathing. I didn't think anything of it, but I kept wondering if I should take her to the doctor to have them look at her. By late afternoon it got worse and by the time I put her in the bath that night, she was almost squeaking while breathing. When I took her clothes off I noticed that her chest was going up and down really hard and fast and I knew that wasn't normal- she was working way too hard to breathe. She has a repaired VSD (heart condition) and I was worried that it could be something with her heart. Rick got home from work and agreed that we needed to do something. I called our pediatrician and she could hear her breathing over the phone and told us to take her to Kosair (children's hospital). Rick took her and I stayed home with the other kids. They had to give her 2 breathing treatments and suck her lungs out and finally let her go home. They feel that it could be asthma, but said she is too young to diagnose asthma. We now have the breathing treatments at home if that ever happens again. Poor little girl- she had a rough week!!!

Emma Grace is adjusting so well with us. It feels like she has been here forever! The first few weeks she was beat up pretty badly by Timmy, who would smack her in the face and take her toys. Well, the joke is now on Timmy because she learns things fast. Now she is the one doing the smacking and taking the toys. She is so rotten. She takes things from him and then holds it in front of his face to tease him. When he reaches for it, she yanks it away before he can get it. It is her new favorite game.

Here are some things to mention about Emma:
*She can throw a ball harder than any toddler I have ever met... it is fast and hard, so look out if you are in her path. She will play fast pitch softball, I am certain of it.
*She will give her baby kisses
*She loves to eat food and drink her bottle.
*She can do "SO BIG" (raises her hands in the air) when we say "how big is Emma?"
*If we say "where is Emma?" she covers her eyes to play peek-a-boo
*She responds to her name Emma just about all the time
* She is so observant and picks up on things SO FAST!
*When she sees us in the morning or when we get home from work, she starts bouncing up and down and claps her hands
*She hates wearing bows in her hair
*She has 3 brothers that love her dearly!
*She pulls up on toys and the couch ALL THE TIME with very little effort (woohoo- big improvement in her one month home!)
*We have a firetruck toddler bed and she can actually climb into the bed! (this is how the lip boo-boo happened, she fell out of the bed after she climbed in it)
*She was evaluated this week and will begin physical and occupational therapy in the next few weeks. She will receive speech therapy after her palate is repaired in March.

We are completely in love with this little girl!