Many people ask, "Why China?"

We know we were first introduced to the China program years ago through friends of ours who attended an informational meeting on adopting from China. At the time, the process to adopt from China was fast, less than one year from start to finish for a non-special needs baby girl under the age of one year. Fast. We tucked away that knowledge and went about our daily lives.

We did not consider domestic. We believe in domestic adoption and certainly support domestic adoption, but it was not to be for our family. I have spent numerous hours volunteering for child advocacy groups and childrens shelters. I spent a year working with a little girl at a local childrens home. Some say, "Why go to another country to adopt when there are children here waiting?" To fully grasp why one would choose to go to another country over the United States is just too much to get into - there are many factors and when discussing this topic, one has to be willing to accept that adopting domestically is not for every family. In our world of adoption, we hear a lot of families state that they chose to adopt from a specific country because that is where their heart was. I find this, for our family, to be true. China just felt right. It was easy to picture. I saw this perfect little olive-skinned, dark brown eyed, pigtail baring little girl in my dreams. I wanted the dream. And Ryan agreed.

I read the other day that 37% of all Christian families consider adoption. Only 1% adopt. If all Christian families adopted, there would be no orphans. Something to think about for sure.

Pryce recently asked if we were going to adopt again. Our answer to this question right now is, "No." To say that we will never adopt again is a bit much for us both to swallow, but right now we want to dig deeper into local and international missions. After talking with Pryce about this, he sighed and said, "Well, when I grow up, I am going to adopt." Adoption is life changing, for everyone involved.

An observation I have made since bringing home Maddox is this: Colin is taken with this little girl. We all are, but Colin goes out of his way to help her, play with her, laugh with her....he is just smitten. I said to him one day, "You are so proud of her and that makes me happy." And he looked at me and said, "Well, I am actually proud of her (pointing to MK) too!"

I asked the talkative MK if she just liked to hear her voice - she talks non-stop, no kidding. She smiled and very seriously said, as if she was doing me a favor, "Oh no, mommy. I talk so much so you can hear my voice."

Maddox is now saying, "Mo!" for "NO!" and "Moe" for "More" and "bye, bye" and "hi" and her own version of "I love you."

Happy Birthday Maddox!

Two years old.

A Family. Her Family. Her Forever Family.

A sister. Someone excited to see her learn, excited to teach her new things, excited to share a room with.

A brother. One to make her laugh. One to take her outside. One to jump on the trampoline with. One to dance with.

One brother. One to help her. One to hold her. One to show her how things work. One to cheer for her.

Two years ago today, we vacationed with friends at the beach. Unbeknownst to us, on the other side of the world, a baby girl - our little Maddox - was born, tiny and frail.

Look at her now....so sweet, so charming, and she has such a heart for her babies.

She is the icing on the cake.

Two years old. Three homes. Three primary caregivers. Two surgeries. All in two years.

Again, look at her. How happy. Shining with joy.

Now with her forever family. Forever. And she fits right in.

And her mother is so glad that her birthmother decided on life. So very glad.

Happy birthday sweet girl! We love you to pieces.

Four and a half months later, and Maddox doesn't recognize or respond to the Chinese language. Interestingly enough, we were visiting our neighborhood pool today and there was a Chinese lady, her mother and her sister, all of which speak Chinese. They were talking to one another right in front of Maddox and she never blinked an eye. I asked them what language they were speaking and they said, "Chinese." I pointed out Maddox to them and they immediately started ooohing and ahhhing over her and telling me how adorable she was. Then, they started speaking in Chinese to her and she just looked at me and began to whimper - it was too much and they were kind of close to her, too close in her opinion.

Three little ladies.....

and their SIX China babies!

Over the weekend we did quite a bit of celebrating with our Maddox. Shhhh - she will turn two on Wednesday, TWO, and I, of course, just want her to stay ONE for a wee bit longer :) Donna and Ashley drove the, ahem, two hour drive over from Atlanta with their families to be with us! We were so excited to have them and could not wait for them to meet our peeps and for the girls to play and swim and just hang out. These two will always be special to our family! We are all woven together through our stories. Donna's family was the first family we followed in blog world to China to adopt their little girl with cleft lip and palate. This made a huge impact on our decision to switch to the special needs program back when the special needs program was not nearly as popular as it has become now. And Donna has a wealth of adoption knowledge that has led me through both of our adoptions. The neat part this time around is that Donna and I were on the same timeline - she found her baby girl a few weeks after we were matched with Maddox. We ALMOST traveled together but instead missed each other in the air - we were on our way home and she was on her way there! And Ashley, her family takes our family full circle. We met in line for fingerprinting in Atlanta - two strangers, same hearts for adoption. We had been matched with MK, they were applying to adopt a healthy baby girl from China. We got MK. They waited. They met MK. And continued to wait. I got Ashley in contact with Donna and not too long after, Ashley's family found their little Junie. When they accepted Junie's referral, we were in the process to adopt again from China via the special needs route. We were not 100% sure that cleft would be a need we would choose - our main concern being finances later for surgeries, COLLEGE, etc., and it will all come to a tip around the same time! I remember seeing Junie's sweet little face in her referral pic and knew that no matter the worries, we COULD do cleft and one month after they traveled for Junie, we got Maddox's referral!

Our friendships will last a lifetime and our girls' stories will be told that much longer! Love you guys!

Tea For Two

Sharing tea is definitely fun for two....

and these little ones have been playing more and more together.....

so a tea party was in order to continue building the bonds between these little ones....

and we could not forget their special babies.....

and then it was over too quick, the "tea" was all done and the girls were ready to move on.

Fwd: (no subject)

Pudding makes for great entertainment!