One Year Ago Today.....

Happy Gotcha Day Anniversary Lainie!!

I've tried all day to think of words that would adequately and eloquently describe our emotions today as we reflect on Lainie's "Gotcha Day". I've decided there are no words. Perhaps the pictures will say all that needs to be said.

Then........(May 14, 2007)

Now........ May 14, 2008
************************************************************************

Then........

Now.........

*************************************************************************

Then..............Now.....................
*****************************************************************************

How did we celebrate Lainie's Gotcha Day Anniversary ? With Chinese food of course. We picked up Chinese take out and took it to our local park for a perfect family picnic. Everyone enjoyed the food and then we headed to the playground equipment. As I watched her there, it was hard to imagine that this was the same hollow-eyed baby that we first held a year ago. Love has transformed her into a vibrant, energetic and confident toddler. What a mighty God we serve.

Lainie received two gifts from us today that we purchased last year in China. A pair of squeaky shoes and a scroll that had her Chinese name and birthdate with the city of her birth all in Chinese. We had that done by an artist in China during our trip. Squeaky shoes!

Having brothers and sisters is so much fun!

Happy Anniversary Lainie! We love you!

Chenzhou Sisters

Lainie, Lilly and Sarah Mei

These three precious girls were orphanage "sisters" in Chenzhou, China.  Lainie, Lilly and Sarah Mei now all make their home in the Carolinas.  They were on the same Special Needs List with Christian World Adoption.  They each also had the same heart defect.  Lilly is the oldest.  She was two in October.  Sarah Mei was 2 in January and Lainie was 2 in February, so they are all just months apart.  I remember vividly the day that we first saw wach of them on the SN list.  It is just amazing to us that God brought them all the way from the other side of the world and placed each of them right here together in the Carolinas.  I know that they will always share a special bond and we are so thankful that we all live close so that they can visit frequently. Although they don't remember their time in China together, they were family for each other before we became their families.  They heard each other's first cries and first laughs.  What a beautiful thing it was to see them all together.  Once orphans .....now loved beyond measure by families

  "This is the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes."  Psalms 118:23

What a group!  Lainie, Lilly, Sarah Mei with all of their siblings!

Happy 2nd Birthday Lainie! (and other updates too)

Lainie is two! We had a great day celebrating her first birthday in our family! She woke up to find her kitchen set from us and she LOVED it. Later we had a big birthday bash at Mamaw's house. It was incredible. She had a great day! She has really learned lots of words in just the last few weeks. We are seeing so much more of her personality develop every single day. We are still daily amazed by the miracle that God has worked in our lives.

So cute in my birthday outfit!

Two, two cute!

Mommy's girl......

Cooking utensil's for my kitchen set from the Svensons.
Cousins and friends singing the birthday song!

Ladybug Cake

I love my kitchen set!

While I am drying Lainie's hair she sits in the bathroom sink

and plays with my makeup.

It is adorable.

Lilly came for a visit in January.

Our "Lovebug" had a stomach bug on Valentine's Day so we

didn't do much celebrating......ugh!

Yes, we know she is beautiful! Yes, we know we are blessed.

Home for Christmas

How blessed we have been to have Lainie home for Christmas this year. It was last December that we first saw her picture and knew that she belonged to us ! It has been an incredible year as we've watched God's amazing display of His grace in our lives!

Enjoy these pictures of the holidays!

Lainie's favorite gift has been her tea set... I think I've been "served" about 1000 cups already. And, it just won't do until you've actually pretended to take a few sips.

What's more fun than presents ? Shopping bags of course !

Posing for the Barbee Christmas Card....





Posing again for the Russell Christmas Card.....

Helping Jillian open presents....

Hanging out with cousin Honor in Mamaw's Pantry...

Lainie was an angel in the annual Barbee Cousins' Christmas Production.... She was more interested in Katie's cell phone than she was in the baby Jesus!

We received this picture of Lainie last January..........

And look at her now.......A special thanks to Shelby and Katie Bryant who hold me accountable for keeping the blog updated.

Ladybugs, Power Rangers and Phantoms! Oh My!

October was a very busy month. Jillian and Trey finished up playing tournament softball/baseball. Trey hit his first homerun over the fence. We are proud of them both. We now have a month off before basketball starts for Trey, Jillian and Will. Lainie and I will continue to be the ultimate cheerleaders and concession stand connoisseurs. (We can tell you what ballfield across the state of NC have the best concession stands and prices). Lainie's favorite item has been Nachos and Cheese. She loves anything that you can dip! Many of our friendly fans have discovered that if you aren't watching closely, she will even try out your cheese dip too.

We had a great time on Halloween night. Our neighbors, The Hatleys, arranged a hay ride for us. The kids had a great time trick or treating in the neighborhood and with family and friends. I know that Halloween is a controversial holiday for some, but it has always been a very fun family night for us. It is the one thing that all of our kids, despite their age differences, enjoy doing together. Our neighborhood is buzzing with activity. Mostly families walking together from house to house. What can be so bad about that ? Surpisingly enough Lainie wasn't even scared by any of the costumes. She did completely object to the hat portion of her ladybug costume, so I had to improvise and put pipe cleaners in with her pig tails as antenna.


Lainie with her Grandparents



Think you might be interested in Special Needs adoption? Our agency still has a few cuties waiting for their forever families. Check out the link to the right for Christian World Adoption. You never know.......

September Update

I realize that I am now a month behind in updating the blog. Needless to say since school has started back, we've been a little busy. I've been tempted to stop the blog, but I remember how the blogs of other adoptive families gave us encourgement during our process, so we are keeping it going in hopes that it will provide the same for other families.

Here's what Lainie has been up to:

She has learned several new words: mama, hot, dada, bye-bye, hey
She can make a rooster sound and a doggie sound.
She has several "signs" that she uses: all done, more, drink, and love you.
Her favorite toys are: her baby stroller, the remote, the telephone, her laughing Elmo, baby dolls and an ink pen.
She loves to sleep with her "pinkies" - a pink teddy bear and a pink blanket.
Lainie's favorite foods are: fruit, white doughnuts, ice cream, any kind of noodle, fruit roll-ups (She's located these in the snack drawer - I've had to find a new place for them or she just brings me one after the other to open for her.)

She can also dance - and it is a funny, funny sight!

She loves her new sitter and we are so thankful that God provided us with the perfect childcare. She is absolutely spoiled there and we love it!

God continues to be faithful to supply our every need. Lainie has been a gift. It makes me shudder to think what a blessing we would have missed if we had dismissed this part of his plan for our family.

And by the way.... Our agency has recieved the files of 20 special needs children from China. You can look at photos and read medical information on their website - there's a link on this page.


Enjoy the pictures.........

Lainie loves her babies!


first ponytail


pushing "pinkie" in the stroller


hanging out with my brothers and sister

Lilly's Visit

Lilly and Lainie

Last weekend we were blessed with a visit from Lilly Bryant and her family. If you will remember, Lilly was Lainie's roommate in the orphanage. From looking at the pictures that Jan and I were given from the orphanage, it appears that their cribs were side by side. Our families traveled together in May to bring both of these girls home. Lilly was sick while we were in China and spent almost the whole trip in the hospitial, so we didn't get to see the girl interact like we had hoped. We have been anxiously awaiting Lilly's visit. Her surgery to repair her VSD went great and she is now healthier than she has probably been her entire little life. What a blessing it was to see these girls together in their matching outfits. Jan had brought these to China for them to wear, but that didn't happen. Lilly was definitely very interested in Lainie, but Lainie wasn't sure about the big crowd in our house. We are so grateful that God chose this precious family to be a part of Lainie's life forever.

We had hoped to get together with two other Chenzhou girls who also shared their room, but SarahMei is awaiting her heart surgery on August 17 and AnnaClaire was on vacation. God was so gracious to put these little girls from a little town in China all within a short driving distance of each other here in the Carolinas. They knew each other before we knew them. They were each other's first friends, who touched each other first and heard each other cry and laugh for the first time. What a blessing it will be for them to be able to stay connected through the years.

Lainie has been with us 3 months now and it seems like forever. When I think about all of the fear and I had that almost kept us from adoption, I shudder to think at the blessing that I almost missed. I've learned so much about the faithfulness of God and the way that He cares for his children. I've learned so much that I would have missed otherwise. And then of course, there is this precious child who makes me smile every single morning when I walk into her room and see her smiling face. I feel so unworthy to have been chosen by God to witness this miracle. So unworthy and so incredibly grateful.

The Barbee Bunch with The Bryant Bunch - Now that is a Big Bunch!!!

Shelby Bryant with the girls.

Playing side by side.... again.

Lovely Lilly

The weekend exhausted Lainie. Here she is relaxing with Trey when it was all over.