Lots of Pictures!

Beautiful Sage
Sweet Sawyer
Makenna & Grammy

Our Silly Malaine, she celebrated her 5th birthday yesterday!
Our Angels

A view of our kitchen
Dinner anyone?
Sage and her Daddy

Sweet 5 year old girl!

Our nightly entertainment, the kids would put on plays.


Today is our last day. It is good to be able to say we went on vacation with 27 family members and all had a FUN time! We are blessed, we know that. We are sad to leave that is for sure. We are excited though, on our way back we are going to stop and visit w/ some of our "china friends" so more pictures soon.

Pictures!

Sage part fish! If someone is under water, she sticks her face in and looks around!
Our entire family! What a happy crew!
Dinner at The Blue Parrot, outdoors on the water.
Doing flips into the pool, Part mermaid? Our Chinese MerBaby!

Sage with her Papa at Sunset
Us with my parents

From the top Sawyer, Colby, Alexis, Malaine, Sage, Jaylyn, Dalayna, Makenna holding Adley
The back view of our house, you can see the pool is on the side and we are literally on the sand.

Hello From SUNNY Florida!

Need to have Mark add some pictures, but thought i would post an update. We are having a fabulous time! The house is stunning, nicer than anything I have ever even walked through. It is 3 levels and we have the top floor, which is so beautiful. Even with 23 of us here, it does not feel crowded at all. The weather is perfect. Everyone is getting along great, and the kids are in heaven with their cousins. This has been the most relaxing vacation for us. The hardest decision I have made is should we lay on the beach or by the pool! We are just steps to the sand and the pool is literally out the side door. We go from one to the other and back again. There is nothing on the island, but that is fine with us. The first night we ladies drove to Walmart and someone on the island told us it was 35 miles. 35 miles turned into over 2 hours, which was not fun, though our ride home was much quicker. Still, an hour to walmart is to much!
Malaine is now swimming just as well as her older siblings, jumping in and swimming the length of the pool. Sage, well Spicy Girl is Spicy! You don't let her leave the house w/ out her swim vest on. She is doing FLIPS into the pool! She scares all of us and yet it is amazing to watch this tiny little girl diving in! She is sleeping great of course. Our bedroom has a walk in closet that is as big as her bedroom at home, so that is her room. The only bad thing is the mosquitos at night are bad and she is covered.
Anyways, having a wonderful time. If you ever need a place to go, this is perfect!

Watch Our Florida, Here we Come!

Me near an ocean? No sitting for Mommy! Do you like my beach hair do? (and no, there is not a chip in my hand, of course not!)

For months, our family has been planning a large, VERY large family vacation. And tomorrow is the day! We are heading to St George Island, Florida. We are staying here and we are all very excited! 17 adults, & 9 children. It is my parents and their siblings along w/ my cousins & children. Sage's first trip to the beach!! The ocean, the sand, a pool and SPICY GIRL!!! Yes, we will be keeping a close eye on her. She will live in her lifevest and maybe even a leash! ha! We are also thrilled because while there and on our way home we get to see some of Sage's friends from China! Check back for pictures, I think we can post there!

Happy Birthday Makenna!

Makenna Kaylee, 10 years old. Is it possible that I am old enough to have a daughter who is now double digits? A child who is quickly moving towards the teenage years and leaving behind those sweet baby days? AHHHH!!! Happy Birthday to our oldest, A beautiful daughter, a wonderful big sister. We love you and are thankful for you!

Orlando

No pictures to post, but I did have a fun time! I went w/ 3 girls for the MOPS Convention. If you have a child under 1st grade, and have not heard of MOPS, I encourage you to RUN to their website and find a group. I was invited to my first MOPS meeting while pregnant w/ Makenna and living in a new city w/ no family. It was such a HUGE blessing for me, I promised if I was able to move back home, I would start a chapter at our church. We were able to move back home and I did start a group. Still going strong and as my husband believes, I continue to have children so I can guarantee my spot in the group! HA!
We stayed at the Gaylord Palms, which was very nice. The convention was in the hotel. I think there was almost 6000 Moms there! Matt Redmond led worship, Sara Groves sang, amazing speakers, wonderful encouragment, dinners where I just worried about ME! Sleeping w/ no little bodies crawling in the bed. Very fun!
My favorite workshop I attended (actually I attended 2 by the same speaker) was by a mom, Lysa TerKeurst. Have you heard of her? Please go and check out her blog. I did not realize it, but I had heard of her through the grapevine. She was on Oprah awhile back w/ her story about adopting teenage boys from Liberia. I had not seen the show, but the story was amazing. She was amazing. First, if you can go to her blog, you can watch the oprah show clip. www.lysaterkeurst.blogspot.com If you have the chance, get one of her books. I finished one on the plane home called What Happens When Woman Say Yes to God. That is my prayer, that I am always willing to listen, and hear and have a heart that yearns to say YES!!
Fun to get away, but I was happy to be home. Mark did great with the kids, as if we worried he wouldn't! He is Super Dad for sure. (though my parents did take the 3 to the lake for part of the time) 4 kids, doing the homeschool, working and not a complaint!

When You are a Spicy Girl..........

Walking on the table makes sense


Sitting on the table also makes sense, till caught!
The couch is a perfect canvas
Or the desk and chair for artwork?




Hands are good for all that creativity Climbing is good exercise



Jumping on the couch is fun
Big slides are fast
Climbing on the bar stool on the tile by myself, why not?


When we landed in Hunan, the first thing we heard from our guide was, oh Hunan Babies are Spicy Girls. We just laughed and during our time in China, we knew she was wrong. Our Sage was just perfect and so easy. Then we hit american soil and Sage began to move. And she grew. And she has fulfilled her nickname w/ a capital S! Ms Spice is a VERY busy little girl. As you can see, she is always on the move. She makes me tired, she makes us all tired! Now being number 4, I know this age is busy. And we all swore Malaine was part monkey as a baby because she was always climbing. But this, just watching her will stress you out! She does not stop moving until she crashes in her bed to sleep. Amazingly, she has not climbed out of her crib yet, I dread that day. You can't turn your back on her for a minute, which makes it interesting when you are trying to be teacher to Makenna and Sawyer. But along w/ the spice we get a whole lot of sugar to. She has the sweetest little voice ever. She loves to talk and her favorite word is mama, which I get to hear a million times a day. Her new thing is to grab my face and talk to me, which is just to sweet. And even when spicy, she does it w/ a smile. Sigh...
Sugar and Spice and everything nice, that is what our Sage is made of!

Sage meets Lilly!

Lilly and her mommy Renee

Beautiful Lilly
Being Silly
Rule #1, don't touch the pacifier!



Hello All, I am 11 months old today!





We were finally able to meet Lilly this week. She is BEAUTIFUL! It is an amazing thing when you wait forever w/ someone for their baby, pray for them and then finally see them in person. Someone who shares such a history, and walked where we walked. Mark came upstairs and thought she looked very much like Sage one year ago. And she really does. From the way she looks to the way she acts. It was almost shocking to me really, bringing those memories flooding in.
Sage was not quite sure about this little person who resembled her and was bold enough to crawl into her own Mama's lap! I have not seen her show jelousy, but Lilly brought it out! Maybe it is the chinese sister thing? That or the fact that we were way past nap time and so she went to bed through part of the visit!
We are so thankful Lilly is home w/ her family, isn't her mommy glowing? Prayers answered in God's perfect timing.

Malaine Starts School!

Malaine is offically a preschooler now! She attends 3 mornings a week and so far is loving it. Our pastors wife is her teacher and she loves Ms Sheila. She is also thrilled because she gets to see her cousin Jaylyn at school. (pictured above) Along w/ the fact that her grandma works there and so she drives her part of the time. Life is good for Ms Malaine Shaye!

To come I promise: Celebrating all 4 kids birthday--Meeting Ms Lilly who is home from China!--Are we surviving homeschooling--A day in the life of a spicy girl-- AND I am heading to Orlando for 5 DAYS for the MOPS convention. Moms only. Mark is going to be working, teaching, parenting, cooking, surviving w/ 4! Will post pictures!

Annah's Smile!

Good news from Annah Land! Kathy says that prayers are being answered and that Ms Annah Blu is full of smiles and I love you's! Here is a quote from Kathy..

"She has been so sweet today. She was babbling to me and I asked our guide what she said and she told me she said she loved me in Chinese.I asked how to say it back and Helen told me how so I repeated it and she said it again and smiled and hugged me. My heart sung. She has made a 180 and were loving it. She likes to hold hands, throw kisses and wrinkle her little nose."

I am sorry, Kathy has a private yahoo group, or I would pass on the link to you. But thank you for your prayers and know they are working!

A Sweet New Face

While we waited for Sage, I joined a Yahoo group of families all around the world who shared a Log in Date near us. All different agencies, all different reason, but all on the same road to China as we were. Waiting together. They had a secret pal program you could join, and you would get randomly matched up w/ another waiting family and then you could secretly send them encouragement. They sent me the name of who I would send to, and her name was Kathy. She lived only 2 hours from me. At first I had hoped for a family in Australia, or somewhere cool! But instead I was matched w/ someone almost near home! But wow, what a blessing that match turned out to be for me! Kathy is AMAZING! When we were matched, she was in the process of going to China for her 5th child, her 3rd from China. She went to China for Kenzie long before I left for Sage. While I waited, she cheered me on, encouraged me and was just a sweet reminder every day of why the wait would be worth it. She has the biggest heart and I really just love her!

As you can see, her family is growing again! She is in china now getting their new baby, the final promise that God has for her. A beautiful baby girl, who is very close to Sage's age. Ms Annah Blu. But poor Annah is a very Blu little girl! She was in foster care and is grieving very hard. Kathy has said she stands by the door and just cries to go. I have been heartbroken just reading her post's. So, if you would, please pray for them. That Annah would allow them to just love her, hold her, touch her. That Kathy and her husband would have peace. And pray for their kids back home. It is one thing to leave 3 children behind, 5 is a different story! Kathy knows, she has been to China 3 times before, that this is natural. But for mommy's who wait for months and months to hold those babies, it is hard to be patient.

Ms Annah Blu, your forever family now has you!