To Tell of His GRACE: November 2017

Thursday, November 30, 2017

Kaylee Grace ~ China Heritage Trip

So many emotions leading up to this trip! Many times when change is ahead our girl struggles more than normal. Going to China was a big deal for our girl! She went back and forth deciding if she even wanted to come with us. Kaylee is one of the most emotionally mature people I know. So much trauma early on, so much to process through the years and by the grace of God, He has healed her in deep places. We hoped coming back to China would replace some of her hard memories with good memories - learning about the history of her birth country, having fun as a family, and of course getting to experience the moment we got Kai.

The moment we first saw Kai ~ she was the first one in the room and she ran outside to get us to hurry, excitedly telling us she saw him waiting for us on the couch!

Here she is with Daddy in Guangzhou

All in all, I know Jesus had a plan for her coming and this trip will lead to deeper healing in her sweet life. But there were some hard days for her - I'm sure all the smells brought back memories, even if it was just at a cellular level. She regressed back to some old behaviors we haven't seen in a long time ~ and we were able to teach her in a whole new way how to battle with praise! She knows Jesus rescued her, she knows He healed her, and she's learning that He is the only One who can sustain her and keep her in His perfect peace :)

We learned all about the Pu'er tea trees in Kunming and got to make our own tea (poor little Kai, this was the day he was admitted to the hospital as he just kept feeling worse)

Green Lake in Kunming

Exploring China with Sissy

At the top of Canton Tower - highest tower in China and 2nd highest in the world :)

Visiting the Chen Ancestral Hall.....last time she was here she was in the baby carrier the whole time :)

She is SO ready to get home! She misses Kaleb so much ~ those two haven't been apart since Kaleb and Khloe came home in August and they are both missing each other (face-timing every day) :)

The best part of her time here was meeting Callie ~ a sweet, new friend from Georgia who was adopted 3 years ago from China as well. These two had the best time together ~ we will have keep them in touch for sure. The Ficken's family was in our travel group from the beginning and we had the best time with them!

It was such a great experience for all of us to learn more about Kaylee and Kai's birth country. We lived in Haiti for 4 months, so we were able to not only learn about Kaleb and Khloe's birth country but actually experience it. This being our 2nd time in China, we feel like we got to experience the culture much more than the first time and learn more about the rich history of China. So thankful for our time here and we are all so thankful to be going home today!

So thankful for these two old-steadies ;) They helped make China FUN for Kaylee!

Sunday, November 26, 2017

To CHINA for Kai ~ 2017

Four and a half years ago we were here bringing home Kaylee Grace.....and now she's here with us enjoying learning more about her birth country.

She had a lot of mixed emotions leading up to this trip and the whole first week we were here, but she's really enjoying it now that we are in her province!

We really had no idea what to expect with Kai. We asked so many questions on all his updates and got pretty vague answers, so we came with no expectations other than to meet him where he was in his place of need and love him with Jesus' love as best we could. We were told he really didn't eat and that he only said two words (Mama and Baba). I was already planning on connecting with Kaylee Grace's feeding therapist when we got home to begin to get him eating. We left for the civil affairs office Monday, feeling unsure of what was ahead. All we knew was that we had seen Jesus move mountains before and we were about to see Him do it again!

We got up to the civil affairs room and walked in and he was already there - just hanging out on the couch all by himself! We got down on his level, brought out some toys to grab his attention and fell in love immediately! What a sweet spirit this kid has! We could tell right away he was sick. He had a rash and cold-like symptoms. None-the-less he came right into my lap, let us feed him and didn't even look back when we left.

We went back to the hotel and he continued to feel worse. We'd see little bits of his personality here and there but poor guy! He just felt awful!!

We ended taking him to the hospital at his orphanage (he was in foster care up until the last 3 days before we got him....they took him back to the orphanage to help him transition away from the foster family- so hard!) He had to have IV antibiotics for 3 days - he had scarlet fever :( Bless his heart, he was SUCH a trooper! We are so thankful that his orphanage treated him rather than us having to spend the week in the local hospital. They treated us so well.....they fed us great meals, kept our room nice and warm and took great care of our little man!

We left his province with 3 rounds of IV antibiotics in his little body and some oral meds for us while we are in Guangzhou. He feels SO much better and it has been so fun to see his adorable little personality come out more and more. He is the cuddliest, sweetest, most gentle little love-bug ever! Super chill all day long! We are having so much fun with him.

He eats absolutely everything.....so feeding therapy is now off our list ~ yay! He sleeps like a champ! He rolls with everything.....SO full of JOY all day long. Everything is a game to him ;)

We were trying to teach him the sign for "more" - we kept signing it and saying "more" over and over. Finally he just looked at us and said "MORE!" out-loud and so enthusiastically! We were all laughing so hard - he didn't even use the sign he just went straight to the word, lol. Now he does both the sign and says "more". He says mama, dada, love you and more. He tries to copy anything we tell him to say and seems to understand most of what we want him to do :)

He for sure tries to be stubborn here and there but for the most part we just tell Kaylee to do what we are asking and he will copy her......he loves her!!! He loves us all but we can tell he has a special affection for his China sister ;)

We cannot wait to get him home to meet Kolson, Kaleb and Khloe (wow, Khloe and Kai are going to have some crazy-fun times with their similar fun-loving personalities). We have 4 more days here so we are soaking up this time with him and loving every minute of it!

All I can say is that we came here feeling so unsure of what the Lord had ahead of us. In many ways it felt like we had no margin at all......and the thought of adding a 7th child (with down syndrome, which we admit we really didn't know much about) was sometimes overwhelming. Now that we have him it just feels like Jesus gave us the most lavish gift! I can't explain how blessed we feel to be entrusted with this child......I'm telling you, if anyone is considering adoption pray about down syndrome adoption! You have no idea what a crazy, lavish blessing it will be for your whole family!!!

Thank you all for praying and loving our family in so many different ways!