With Thanksgiving in our hearts

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good!

His faithful love endures forever.

Psalm 107:1

Audrey's First Thanksgiving

Today was our first Thanksgiving with Audrey, and we enjoyed celebrating the day with my (Julie's) family. We celebrated with Aaron's family this past Sunday. I think it very appropriate that Thanksgiving is the first holiday we are celebrating as a family with Audrey because our hearts are so full of thanks to the Lord for blessing us with her. We waited so long for her and can't imagine a day without her now.

Today I am mindful of the many things I have to be thankful for. I am blessed in more ways than I can even count. I have an amazing husband, 2 awesome kids, wonderful family and friends, and a job working in a ministry I love. I am thankful for freedom, good health, and life's many simple pleasures. Most of all I am thankful for Jesus who died for us and gives us eternal life and a relationship with Him even though we don't deserve it. I praise Him for the work He has done and continues to do in our lives. I am thankful for His body, the church, that I am forever a part of.

I hope your Thanksgiving Day was as Happy as ours!

Cardiologist Visit

The visit went well. The doctor confirmed the diagnosis she received in China back in March that we received with her referral. He was able to give us more detail of her condition. She does have Tetralogy of Fallot and the VSD (hole between the ventricles) is large but he did say the size was not a concern. He said he was able to see how much the ventricle is blocked leading to the valve and said it was “moderate”. This blockage is a thickening of the muscle, not some sort of build-up. So the VSD will need to be repaired as well as this blockage.

This is open-heart surgery. The doctor said she is old enough and strong enough to have the surgery now, and while we don’t need to rush; there is no need to delay either. So, he is going to forward her medical info to a surgical team at Vanderbilt and schedule the surgery for, mostly likely, before Christmas or right after.

Audrey will have her first visit with her Pediatrician on Wednesday. This doctor has also adopted a little girl from China and will be able to advise us as to whether or not Audrey will be adjusted enough to her new home life for the surgery this soon. If she feels that we need to delay the surgery and that it is safe to do so, we’ll then talk to the Pediatric Cardiologist about postponing it a month or so.

Obviously we didn’t get the answer we were really after, but as I said before, God has this all in His hands. Open-heart surgery on a 15-16 month old baby is serious and sounds scary, but we trust God completely. Please continue to pray for her and us.

Please also pray for Alex. He is still recovering from jetlag and is behind on the school work he needed to do to catch up. He was absolutely great in China, but at the end of each day there he was tired and didn’t get to do much of the work assigned while in China.

Well post how the Pediatrician visit goes sometime Wednesday evening.

Please Pray

On March 30th of this year a doctor in China diagnosed Audrey with Tetralogy of Fallot, a congenital heart disease. As far as detailed info from China, we do not have much. We had spoken to a Pediatric Cardiologist here in the states when we first received her referral. The doctor said, based on the info we had been given, he couldn’t tell us much more and we would know the extent of her heart defect when seen by a Pediatric Cardiologist when we get her home.

That is today at 9:30am. I meant to post this yesterday, but didn’t get the opportunity.

We have been told that this is the most common heart defect in children, but it is not minor. The doctor we spoke to here said it could be corrected with one surgery and never have a problem again or she could have multiple surgeries with little to no effect.

Please join us in praying that the doctor today runs the test and says, “We didn’t find any evidence of this condition. Her heart is fine.” This would mean either the doctors in China were incorrect or God intervened. I believe if this happens it will be because God heals her heart. This obviously is our first prayer.

If she does have this condition, please pray that it is as minor as it can be and that all treatment will be successful.

From the time we received her referral, we’ve had no doubts that God has chosen her as our daughter, regardless of any “special need”, and we have had no doubt that God has her heart, her lip and every one her needs in His hands. Please pray that we continue to be this faithful.

I will report back later how the appointment goes and what the test results are. Thank you for your prayers.

Last Day in China

I didn't get to post this yet because we didn't have internet in our room the last day and were busy getting home.

For our last day in China, we started with group pictures in the lobby of the hotel. This is all of the families in our travel group.




After the group photos, we headed to the US Consulate to say swear to the fact that all documents provided and all answers to questions were accurate. It was kind of an odd moment, mostly because I expected something more formal, you know he says a phrase, and we repeat, and continue doing this until we’ve repeated some ”swearing in” type of thing. The director did all the talking and then all of the families (there were lots of them) said, “yes” in unison. This finalized all of the official business in China.

After this we headed back to the hotel to hang out and pack. We went to dinner that night with several families and ate an authentic Chinese restaurant without the help of guides. This was a fun experience. We laughed a lot and we all hope that the waitresses understood that we were laughing at our own inability to communicate and not theirs. They were great, as everyone we encountered was.

I did have to snap a couple of pictures from the menu. My apologies to those with a weak stomach.
After dinner we headed back to the hotel to pack. We finished packing, emailing parents and checking out by about 12:30am and had to be ready to leave by 6:00am. It was a busy, but fun day and tough to say goodbye to our new friends. We miss you all.

Homecoming

Well after nearly missing our first two flights due to long security and a ridiculously short layover in Tokyo, we survived the 22 hours of travel and made it home safely. Thank you to all who have been praying for safe travel.

We arrived in Knoxville and were met by all 4 grandparents and our friend Heidi Hodges and her kids. It was great to see everyone. We spent a little time letting Audrey meet everyone, actually a little too much time. We missed baggage claim and they locked our bags up.

We left the airport and stopped at Crackerbarrel for some much needed American food. We weren’t really that sick of Chinese food, we just missed food from home and couldn’t wait to get some sweet tea.

We then headed home and Audrey got to meet her Great Grandmother, Gaden (Gladys actually, but Alex presented her with this name when he was Audrey’s age), and Audrey’s Great Aunt Randi.

Please come meet Audrey when you can. Just give us a call and make sure we’re here and awake. Our days and nights are still turned around a bit. It is great to be home, and Audrey is still adjusting well. Thank you all for your prayers.

Audrey meets Nu Nu (Aaron's Mother)

Audrey meets Mom Sandy (Julie's Mother)

Audrey meets Papaw (Aaron's Dad)

Papaw & Nunu (Aaron's Mom & Dad)

Mom Sandy & Daddy Jim (Julie's Mom & Dad)

Audrey meets Gaden (Julie's Grandmother)

I like my new bed

Home Sweet Home

The Firstborn - Keeper of the Family Birthright

I know I said that was probably the last post, but I woke up a little early and I had been meaning to post this.

Many people reading our blog know our son Alex, but some of you have met us online through this process and know so little about him, and our posts have been pretty one-sided between our children for obvious reasons. We have been blessed with two wonderful children, so I thought it was time to tell more about Alex.

Alex is 16 years old, which we both swallow hard before saying that because knowing his childhood years are almost behind him, is still something for which we are not ready. As a baby he was a lot like we have seen in Audrey so far – very laid back, very affectionate, and very playful. As he got older we realized this was a very imaginative child as well. This may have come from being an only child. He used to play all sorts of games he’d make up. Ask his uncle Matt about “rescue chair” sometime.

Alex is very smart. He’s great at all of the math they’ve thrown at him and this year we discovered we have a budding artist. So far all of the material he’s faced in school has been no problem. He’s taking honors classes and turns in fantastic test scores. He doesn’t do much homework, which lowers the grades a letter or so, so we do fight that battle.

He gets the intelligence from his Mom and his academic laziness from his Dad. I take full credit for these genes. I was very lazy academically speaking.

Alex also has a good sense of humor. He makes us laugh a lot with the things he comes up with and from what we can see he has the same affect on his friends. Like his Mom, he can be quiet on the outside, but get to know either of them well enough and they talk all the time. So he gets the reputation sometimes as being shy.

Alex main athletic endeavor is skateboarding. He has been doing this for a few years now and is really good. He’s always telling me new tricks he can do. He keeps threatening to run track. I hope he does. Skateboarding has produced more injuries than we’d like, but no more really than other sports might have. Just pray for his safety, because like I said he’s constantly trying new tricks.

We are really proud of our baby boy/man. Alex decided to follow Jesus at 7, so he’s been a believer for a while, but as we see him turn into a man, we also see his faith grow. I can’t say enough of how much we love our son and how incredibly proud we are of who he is. This is not to say we don’t struggle over things with him. He is a teenager after all and trying to claim his independence a little earlier than Mom and Dad think he’s ready for. But if we step back and see past the issue of the day, we see a terrific young man with whom God has blessed us, and we are privileged to be his parents.

Almost Home

Well, we’ve been mostly just hanging out, which has been good. We’ve spent a good bit of time at the city park across the street and a little sight seeing. Today we went shopping on Shamian Island where we did some Christmas shopping and souvenir shopping. Alex and I got a couple of cool Chinese formal shirts. I don’t know where and when we’ll wear them, but they’ll be good for special occasions like Chinese New Year with Audrey – she has several formal Chinese outfits. We’re shopping for Julie’s tomorrow.

That’s pretty much it. We are down to 34 hours before our flight home. We fly Wednesday morning at 8:30 (7:30 pm Tuesday for most of you) to Tokyo, from Tokyo to Detroit, then Detroit to Knoxville. We are scheduled to land in Knoxville at 3:30pm on Wednesday. That’s 3:30pm for you and us.

It has been a great trip and I can’t imagine the Chinese people being more welcoming and kind. As much as we have loved it and benefited, we are very ready to be home.

I don’t know if I’ll get a chance to post before we get home, so I’ll give the rundown of when you’ll have chances to meet Audrey. If you are in Knoxville already and want to come to the airport, we’d love to see you. If you want to come by our house sometime, just call first. Don’t worry about whether or not we’re sleeping off jetlag - we have no idea when we’ll be sleeping, so anytime may be a good time. If it’s not a good time, we’ll either not answer the phone or just say so, but we do want to see you all and let you meet this wonderful baby girl.

If all goes well, we’ll probably make it to church on Sunday, if nothing else we’ll at least be there long enough to introduce her to Sunday school. We’re not sure if she’s ready to be dropped off at Sunday school. This might be a little overwhelming for this little girl whose life is continuing to be flipped upside down, but she’ll get there over time.

We look forward to seeing you all soon.

Aaron, Julie, Alex, & Audrey

Medical Exam Day

Everything official so far has been adopting Audrey in the eyes of China. Today we began the process of bringing her home with a medical exam. The results of this exam will be given to the US Consulate so they can be assured she is healthy for travel and not bringing any diseases to the US.

On Tuesday we meet with the Consulate, swear an oath for her citizenship and fly home on Tuesday. Tomorrow we're sightseeing and shopping on Monday.

Audrey did as well as could be expected at the medical exam. It was very much a clinic - bright lights, and sterile environment. I think there were about 30 children being examined between our group and others. They herded them through fairly quickly.

After that we went to the Friendship Store. It was very much like a big city department store. We got Audrey a Snoopy bib and another hat. We got us some snacks and drinks. When we got back to the hotel, Alex and I had a little time to head over to a nearby park and play some ping pong. The park had about 8 outdoor tables, with one open so we took it. We played each other for a while until a local guy wanted to play us. I played him four times and Alex played him twice and his wife twice. We never won a game against either of them. I'm proud to say I got my beat soundly in China.

I got to talk to the man for a while. He explained to me that he got to play today because it was Saturday and the rest of the people were there everyday, because they are retired and that they are much better than him. I'm glad I didn't play them. This man was very nice and very interested in us. I cannot say enough how wonderful the Chinese people are.

We finished the night with a meal at the Japanese Steakhouse in the hotel. Audrey got to eat ice cream, we think for the first time. Check out this video below and pay close attention to her eyes.

All smiles going into the clinicIt's starting to look like she knows what's comingThis is pretty much how it wentSorry Alex, I know I told you I would put this picture on, but come one, you're smiling Here's another video of Audrey walking with our help

Please keep praying for us and our travels, and please keep praying for Jeff and Naomi and their family.

Jeff and Naomi

I'm sorry to follow one post immediately with another, but I want to ask you lift Jeff and Naomi in your prayers. They have been with us in our traveling group and the girl that they were to adopt ended up having much more sever medical issues than they had been told or that they were prepared to handle, so after meeting her they had to have the heart breaking task of giving her back.

They have 3 kids at home. The oldest is 10. They have been in this process for 4 years, so for the majority of their kids lives they have been praying for and anticipating a baby sister. The whole family is hurting badly over this. Please pray for them.

They are working with our adoption agency and the Ch*nese government to see what their options are. They still desire to adopt and feel the same calling to do so as before, but they are remaining faithful to whatever God's will is.

Please lift them up in prayer and ask that God will work a miracle and allow them to adopt a baby while they are still here.

Here's their blog address: http://lydiahope.blogspot.com/

Thursday 11-13, Nanchang

Today was the day they wanted to take us outside of the city. We waled around a village and visited with some of the nicest and most wonderful people. They had so little, compared to what we have, but seemed very happy.


There were a lot of emotions associated with this visit. It was hard thinking of how comfortable and easy I have it and seeing others who don't. It was very humbling and I am thankful for it. I also felt guilty because I felt like an invader coming into their homes to take pictures. They didn't seem to mind at all. So many people came out of their homes and up to us to greet us and see our babies.


Our guide told us that 70% of Ch*na, this is their lives. So being the math nerd I am, I quickly did the numbers - there are 1.3 Billion people in Ch*na so 910 million people live in poverty. That's almost exactly 3 times the entire population of the United States. Take everyone in the US, multiply that times 3, and that's how many people in Ch*na live like this. Keep in mind that as far as land size, Ch*na and US are virtually the same size.


It was another very sobering moment. It was hard to leave, because we came in looked at there lives, and left them to them. This was probably the hardest part. The whole bus ride back, I kept thinking what can we possibly do. I don't know the answer to that. The government doesn't allow "missionaries". For now, please join me in prayer.


I've always known there is much poverty around the world and have even seen it in other countries, but it's so easy to forget until confronted with it again.


Here's kind of a guided tour around the village:


This is a row of houses. You can see the individual doors and windows along the way.



This is the front door of someones house.


This lady invited into her home. She was very welcoming and very sweet. This picture is actually her standing at her back door.


This is the wall in her living room.

This is her kitchen.

This is another shot of her living room.

This poor lady. She was so interested in us and the babies and very much willing to grab onto to you or the babies and followed us nearly the entire time. Most of the other people when they saw her pointed at her and then pointed at her head. One of our guides, Lineker, told us that she had "mental problems" and "not to talk to her". We disobeyed. We kept a tight grip on Audrey, especially when she tried to take her from me, but we let her talk to us and Audrey.



If the other women saw her reach for us or a baby, they would smack her arm very hard and chastise her.
Even though, we couldn't speak the same language, one way I found to interact that was great for both of us was to take their picture and then show it to them. I wish I had a way to leave the pictures with them. There were dogs and chickens everywhere.

This is a view of one of the fields where they work.

This is a shot of where they dumped some of their trash. You can see it is very close to one of the houses.
This is last picture I got as we were getting ready to leave. After looking around Julie & I realized how much what we were looking at looked like the background of the latest pictures we got of Audrey before we came to Ch*na. Audrey is one of those rare orphans who spent her entire orphaned life in a foster home and not an orphanage. We are still thankful that she had a foster home, because she most like got more personal attention and an opportunity to bond with her foster mother, much more than she would have in an orphanage. But we both feel strongly that she did spend her first 14 months in a village similar to this one, and we wonder if any of the babies we saw are foster babies.


The first picture here is a baby we saw yesterday. The second picture is the picture of Audrey I was referring to.

After we got back to the hotel, we did what all rich/spoiled people do when they have free time - we headed to Walmart. Three other families and us headed out walking. It was a beautiful day and only about a mile or so to walk. There was a city square right next to walmart with a large monument to the Communist revolution. Nanchang is where the Communist revolution started in Ch*na.

This is our Walmart group,minus Jeff who took the picture. Thanks Jeff.


Audrey slept most of the way to Walmart...

...but woke up in time for lunch. This is a common sight around a shopping area, hundreds of bikes & scooters.
I've mentioned before how people treat us like celebrities. Here's one of the girls in our group getting her picture with a local lady who wanted a picture with her.

After we got back from Walmart, we took a short break and then joined the other families for a time of prayer, which was great. Thanks, Steve for suggesting this. We then decided that we'd had enough Ch*nese food, so Mike & I headed by taxi to Pizza Hut and got 6 large "American Specials" - pan pepperoni pizzas.

Tomorrow we head to our last location in Ch*na, Guangzhou, after we get Audrey's passport. We'll fly out around 1:00pm, midnight for most of you, and land about an hour later. So we get to ease her in to flight travel a little. In Guangzhou we meet with the US consulate to begin the process of making Audrey a US citizen and take care of necessary paperwork for her to come home with us.