Touching

Just please watch this video and let it touch your heart.


The following list was posted on one of my on-line groups the other day and I thought I'd share it here. Some of these statements show a little humor, but there is a lot of truth in these words.

You know you're an adoptive parent if:

1. The fact that there are 143 million children without a parent to kiss them goodnight has ever made you lose sleep.
2. You realize DNA has nothing to do with love and family.
3. You can't watch Adoption Stories on TLC without sobbing.
4. The fact that if 7% of Christians adopted 1 child, there would be no orphans in the world is convicting to you.
5. You spend free time surfing blogs about families who have experienced the blessing of adoption.
6. It drives you crazy when people ask you about your adopted child's "real" parents.
7. You have ever been "pregnant" with your adoptive child longer than it takes an elephant to give birth (2 years!)
8. You had no idea how you would afford to adopt but stepped out in faith anyway knowing where God calls you He will provide.
9. You have ever taken a airplane ride half way around the world with a child you just met.
10. You believe God's heart is for adoption.
11. You realize that welcoming a child into your heart and family is one of the most important legacy's you could ever leave on this earth.
12. You know what the word Dossier means and you can actually pronounce it!
13. You have welcomed a social worker into the most private parts of your life.
14. You shudder when people say your child is so lucky that you adopted them, knowing full well YOU are the lucky one!

Easter Morning

As promised...Photos of Hope in her Easter dress!


Here she is...ready for her first Sun/Son-rise Easter service.



Enjoying her first Easter breakfast (provided by the youth every year and delicious) - She LOVES grapes! Score one for the youth!

Checking out Gethsemane's Garden this year

"Hope? Where are you going?"

"Hey Mama! I'm under the altar table. Maybe I shouldn't be here, but aren't I still cute?"

"I'm ready to play too, Daddy."

Dancing to "Grandpa's horn, tuba" (insert lip buzzing here) ;)

~ So Sweet ~

Easter Blessings

Good afternoon on this Saturday before Easter. Yesterday at our community ecumenical Good Friday service we heard a number of ministers from local churches talk about their moments of "meeting" Jesus. One of them was discussing humility and serventhood. I was reading in Luke this morning and was reminded of this: "...you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." (Luke 14:14)

Amazing that Jesus lived as a perfect example to us, was crucified on our behalf, and then after this..."But when they [Mary Magdalene and Mary, mother of James] looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away..." (Mark 16:4) He still promises to us that we will be somehow repaid for our humility.

Incredible. We have so much to learn.

Praise God for Easter. Of course we honor Jesus today, His presence in our lives, and His introduction to Hope this year. With the celebration of another special holiday we also can't help but remember how lucky we are to be Hope's parents. We still have to pinch ourselves some days to realize that she's really home.

Happy Easter Everyone! Here are some spring smiles from our house to yours.

P.S. Most of the pictures are uncropped and unformatted. I just know that people want photos so here they are...the originals. :)

Here is Hope in one of her aprons and a favorite hat (look familiar Melody?).

Here is Hope trying on a play hat we picked up at Target in the dollar section. Ready for Easter. We'll see if she actually leaves her hat on tomorrow.


Mad about coloring!

A couple shots from the egg hunt at Grandma and Grandpa's. This girl loves her "M's"!


These are from this morning's walk. Thanks to the Easter weekend snowfall, we were able to get these cute photos. Now - enough snow already! Where is spring? ;)


Although this post says 2:46, it is really 8:45. I started this post this afternoon, but had some trouble loading the last couple of photos so I came back to it this evening. Now it is off to bed. That sunrise service will come pretty early, but there is nothing like it. :)

Blessings to you! - Beth

Sentences!

OK - So my genius of a daughter has been combining words for a while now, but as of yesterday...

Ready?

Are you sitting down?

...Hope is speaking in 4 word sentences! I can't believe her language explosion. This is crazy! I was so excited to tell Ron, and he turned around in the car and said to Hope, "Has anyone ever told you you're still a kid?" We just can't believe how fast our little girl is growing up.

So I got to Mom and Dad's to pick up Hope after work yesterday afternoon and she had to show me her new puzzles that they got her to play with. Hope likes to take the pieces off the puzzle and put them in another container. She had a bag and a bowl to choose from. At the time, she chose to put the pieces in the bowl so my mom was going to take the bag and put it away. Well, Hope looked at her and very clearly said, "I need the bag." WOW! Knock me over!

Then later, Hope decided to "bump" down the stairs on her own. Call me silly, but I usually like someone to be near her if she's going to go down the stairs. :) Funny right? :) Anyway, my mom went to get her to bring her back up and Hope said, "I heard some puppies." SO CUTE! She was just on her way to find the puppies. AH! My big girl!

I can't believe this girl. She amazes us every day. I can't wait to see what she's going to do tomorrow. :)

~ Here she is ready to talk my ear off...and I can't wait to listen! ~ (Don't remind me I said that when Hope is 13 and I'm singing a different tune. All I know at this moment is that I can't get enough of her sweet voice.)

"Thankful Thursday"

Good evening everyone. I wanted to thank everyone for such wonderful comments and sincere condolences over the loss of Ron's Grandpa. We loved him very much and had a special family weekend celebrating and remembering his life. It takes quite a lot of words to sum up 101 very full years of life.

There has been some talk about the emotional year we've had. We have lost 5 special people during this past 14 months or so. We've experienced some deep sadness, but we've also shared some of the most amazing joy we could have ever imagined. This year has been incredible in so many ways. Only God knows how we find the strength to keep going through tough times we confront. I think that is the point. Only God knows how to guide us through challenges and how to balance those challenges with sweet, precious, tender, happy, joyful, moments that sustain us as time goes by.

I feel like most of my recent posts have been about sadness and asking for prayers, etc. Tonight I just have to "balance" all of that with some of the blessings in my life.

We passed a milestone on Tuesday. Hope was placed in our arms 9 months ago (June 4th)! Can you believe it was that long ago already? It feels like just a couple of weeks ago we were climbing the Great Wall, standing in the Civil Affairs Office in Nanning, and shopping in Guangzhou. Time FLIES! Hope is our little girl. She was absolutely meant for our family and we are in LOVE! I was just reliving our 'gotcha' moment today with a friend and it is so fresh. I was in tears as we were eating lunch. Tears? Yeah, imagine that. :) So - To our baby girl: We love you very much and feel so blessed to have you home. Now, as we watch you grow so quickly from baby, to toddler, to adorable little girl, please know that you are home. We prayed for so long to have you join our family and sometimes I still have to pinch myself to see if it is true that you're really here. God has orchestrated an amazing journey for us and I am excited to see what He has in store for our family next. This I know for sure, we'll travel His road together.

Guangzhou, China - Hope's 1st birthday, day 10 with us, and some of our first smiles ~

Home in WI after 9 months and FULL of smiles and laughter ~

Hope had a fortune cookie this week after lunch one day and I'd like to share her message here. I've said it before here, and Hope's grandpa says it all the time..."She just makes people smile." Check this out:

This post will be continued. I have been saving up for a while I guess. It just seems like I have a lot to catch up on here. For now I just want to leave you with this:
More Shapes ~

Puzzle w/Farm Animals, Signs, Sounds, etc. ~

That's our smart girl! We're so proud. :)

I also can't sign off tonight without saying one more "thank you." I saw a good friend of mine today and was reminded in so many ways about what it means to be a Christian. When faith, values, and life's priorities are in order, happiness exudes. I am so proud of my friend for being strong, for growing so much this year, and for being open and excited about what lies ahead. Thank you for helping me to remember to think before I speak/act and to not take anything for granted.

Good night - Beth

Goodbye Grandpa

Today we say goodbye to our beloved grandpa "Hoot." He's resting in absolute peace tonight. Grandpa loved his family. I pray that he can now see his new great-granddaughter's beautiful smile through clear eyes and that he's smiling right along with her. I'm just so happy that he got to meet Hope and that she was able spend a little time with him.

Peace.

Ray Heutmaker (Grandpa "Hoot") - 101 yrs. old

Emilee

Dear family, friends, and fellow bloggers - I'm asking for more prayers. On Tuesday (19th) of this week, there was a very tragic school bus accident in southern MN that took the lives of 4 young students. This beautiful girl was 9 yrs. old. She was adopted through the same agency that we used and joined her family from Anhui Province in 1999. Please take a moment to ponder her picture here, read a bit about her life, and pray for her family and all those who've been affected by this tragedy.

Here is an article that sort of sums up the accident. It should have never ever happened. The driver of the van that collided with the bus was unlicensed. So SAD!

Thank You! - Beth