Thanksgiving 2012

This year's "thankful tree"

We spent this year at my sister's house up north. What a fabulous time we had!!!!!!

A little "gaming"

A little crafting

My Jaida blessing

My Julia blessing

My Sam blessing

My Xin blesssing

And my newest and littlest blessing Lulu. So very thankful she was with us this Thanksgiving!

A little hiking......

to the top of a "hill" to see this view of Cincinnati

The crazy 8 cousins!

Trying to organize a family picture with all 16 of us.....sweating a little after this!

Xin lost his 1st tooth on Thanksgiving!

And Hamilton lost another too....a busy tooth fairy that night!

More hiking....because oh my did we/I eat ALOT!!!!

My blessings!

She had to walk too!

  The Purple People Bridge goes across the Ohio River to Newport KY.

It turned bitterly cold at the end of the week and we knew we were up north!

Jungle Jim's...a HUGE Intl market.

Two dorks straddling two states!

My sister has great shoes and my "girly girl"clomped around in them constantly and even fell asleep in them!

We had such a wonderful time and thank my sister, her husband and son for allowing all of us to take over your gorgeous home for 5 days! You were the perfect hosts....and oh my... 1 more day there eating your fabulous cooking and I would have had to go to the fat farm!

So thankful for time together. Hope you had a blessed Thanksgiving!

Orphan Sunday....do SOMETHING

Today was Orphan Sunday. It is the day we are supposed to let it sink into our minds and hearts that there are 147 million, 163 million...you get the picture ......LOTS of orphans in this world. They are all real people. Created by God. For His purpose. But it is so easy to turn the other way and do nothing. We go about are busy and very blessed lives here in America and put those little faces out of our minds because after all, there are so many what can we really do to help?

Some are called to adopt and many are not. But that is not the end of the story. There are so many ways everybody can do SOMETHING.

go on a mission trip to serve the fatherless
financially support someone who is adopting
financially support an orphan for their basic needs
send an orphan to school
supply the needs of an orphanage
pray for the orphans
support a family adopting through acts of kindness
show the love of Jesus to an orphan
help fund a medical procedure desperately needed

This is just a short list. And there are many organizations that handle all of these suggestions-Visiting Orphans, Shaohannah's Hope, Half the Sky, 147 Million Orphans,  Love Without Boundaries, etc
But PLEASE do something.

As I look at my three raven haired cherubs running around our home, I so often forget they were once orphans. I see them as my children. Simply mine. Occasionally, I am reminded of their start when I catch a glimpse of a photo of them taken while living in the orphanage. It breaks my heart every time and I must look away. They are not my children here in these photos. They are pale, thin, blank- eyed, lifeless children. These are not the kids that fill our home. These 3 are loud, funny, smart, mischievous, beautiful, love-filled and FULL of life  and they resemble nothing of their former selves. Thank God. But there are so many that still need us. PLEASE do something in honor of these little lives. Think about it, talk about it, pray about it as a family and do something that will change the life of an orphan... and give them hope.

In honor of my three dearly loved China babies.

Halloween 2012

A teenage bear

Spiderman!

A beautiful ladybug

My crazy kids!

One cute little cow (note: Sam wore this as a 1 yr old-I added the bow for Lulu :))

Check out the tail

Chinese opera man...Sam purchased this entire costume in China this winter

The big girls

She LOVED the entire night! "More house. More candy!" "Lulu walk" "I hold"-said because NOBODY could touch her pumpkin full of candy...even when it got heavy for those 2 little fingers, she carried it all night by herself.

The neighborhood crew

Discovering....wow you really do get candy!

I love this "holiday". The kids are so excited and it is just simple fun. We always have a little "party" with our neighbors afterwards with drinks and appetizers and the kids trade candy and eat way too  much of it....oh well...it is one fun night! Hope you had a Happy Halloween!!!!!!