Good mood...





As you can see, Cokie's in one. Especially for a kid who just had a bunch of staples pulled out of her head and is about to have some more put in soon. We are planning on taking her to a plastic surgeon in Tennessee to have some more work done on her scalp.

DSCN7793

DSCN7782

DSCN7783

DSCN7780

DSCN7774

DSCN7795

DSCN7787

DSCN7836

DSCN7831

DSCN7830



DSCN7755

DSCN7752

DSCN7759

Bret likes to sing in the teen choir at church and she sang with them last Sunday in the sanctuary.








DSCN0038




DSCN0040


Before church.


DSCN0012


DSCN0004

DSCN0014

Our church has three traditional and contemporary services each Sunday.  The contemporary services are held in the gym at the same time the traditional services are being held in the sanctuary.  Our preacher preaches during the first half of the contemporary service and then runs over and preaches during the last half of the traditional service.  I can't imagine how wore out must be Sunday afternoon.  That's a lot of talkin'!  

We can dance if we want to...

Stafan just took a big growth spurt and it happened overnight.  I think he only had one pair of jeans that still fit and not many shirts.  He was basically living in a few pair of sweats.   

DSCN9983 

So Saturday we went to the mall, and  luck was on my side.  When we got there, Gap was having a great sale! 
DSCN9987

I heard Shepard say, "I'm going to try and grow real fast, because I don't want to get all the hand-me-downs. OK, about the title. Mike went with us and he was watching the kids... I thought.  Fast forward to tonight (two days after our trip to the mall).  I decided to go through Cokie's I-thingy and found the video below.  Lyric had done the recording.
  I showed it to Mike, and from the look on his face, it was obvious he'd never seen it.  So much for counting on him to keep an eye on the kids at the mall. 

 

DSCN9990
We can dance if we want to
We can leave your friends behind
Cause your friends don't dance
And if they don't dance
Well they're no friends of mine

And all the people said. . .

Amen!

DSCN9988
Boone saw a teachers' aide from his school last Sunday at church. Boone isn't thrilled with church, because I keep him in big peoples' church with me since he doesn't know a lot of English yet.  Pryor likes church.  He doesn't know a lot of English yet either, but I send him to Sunday School class with Stafan and Shepard.   Anyway, this is the conversation Boone and I had when he saw the teachers' aide:

Boone: "Why she here?"
Me: "Why are you here?"
Boone: "You make me."
Me: "Don't you like church?"
Boone: "No."
DSCN9989
He does, however, like being the only kid that gets to go with Mike and me to Panera Bread every Sunday morning.  That is our Sunday morning routine.  We drop all the kids off for Sunday School and then we had to Panera for an hour.  We then go back to Church where the older kids join us for church while the younger kids attend childrens' church.  For now, Boone tags along with us.  And he loves his souffle.

DSCN9992

DSCN9997
DSCN9999

DSCN0011
Ran into 4 of my oldest sister's girls at church.  From L to R, Lacy, Avery, Erin and Lain.  They are all very sweet girls (even if Erin can be a little ornery).
DSCN0020
After church, it is off to Steak n' Shake for lunch.  As you can see I don't do a whole lot of cooking on Sunday.
DSCN0022

DSCN0025

DSCN0026

DSCN0028

DSCN0030

DSCN0031

DSCN0034
I am a firm believer in Proverbs 22:6 (as well as the rest of the Bible):  "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."  And society has gotten so bad, I cannot even imagine not taking my kids to church every Sunday.



DSCN9961


DSCN9976

DSCN9973

Every time he gets in the shower I hear this:




Her story

Wuhan, Hubei  China 1998

Every 2.2 seconds another orphan ages out with no family to belong to and no place to call home 


Scan 40Scan 39


Scan 38

These were police sitting in the middle of the road.  They would point at people who broke the law and the person had to pull over. We were actually in a taxi that had to pull over.  Our guide told us our driver did get a ticket and "as soon as he dropped us off" had to go pay his fine.  The driver appeared to be very unhappy.  I'm sure the taxi driver was poor enough already.  

Scan 37
As long as I live, I will never forget how about the only thing I saw was little, red, dirty taxis with the exception of commercial white trucks.
Scan 47

Driving has greatly improved since 1998, but then again they literally had few driving rules.  It was like the lines on the streets meant nothing.  We were in total shock. 

Scan 46

OK, a few other colors, but not many.  During the middle of the night I would look down out of our hotel room.  The drivers would be washing their taxi in the road with only a bucket of water. 

Scan 29

Scan 33

You could, and still can, walk around the roads (alleys) and watch people eating their dinner, brushing their teeth etc...  They didn't like us staring at them,  but sometimes it was hard not to. 


strollers


 Lael wrote a paper for school the other day.  She wrote about her memories of being an orphan.  She was almost 4 years old when she got out.  Back then most everyone was adopting the "young as possible healthy infants." The people above were Canadians staying in our hotel.  


lael referral

Lael (Bian Yuhong) is now a freshman in college.  Lael's paper is below.
  Scan 48


 Scan 49
 

 Scan 50
 

 Scan 51

Scan 52

Scan 36

Scan 44

Scan 41



Scan 45

Tiananmen Square


Scan 43

This purse proves it was 1998!!

lael bkfst
lael ws buffet


Scan 31

We were in one of the red little taxis, when I heard our guide let out a scream.  The motorcycle beside us just fell into our taxi. 

Scan 42

Scan 34

Mike thought he was so cool. : - )

Scan 32

Lael was totally intrigued this cup did not leak.

Scan 30

We finally made it to Guangzhou and the beautiful White Swan.   Back then it was so nice!

IMG_9942-Edit(2)

It is estimated there are between 143 million and 210 million orphans worldwide (recent UNICEF report.)
  
The current population of the United States is just a little over 300 million… to give you an idea of the enormity of the numbers… (The current population of Russia is 141 million)