Adopting Our Lily

Adding to our Family Again! Check out our new blog

2011-03-04T23:34:00.000-08:00

We are adopting our third daughter from China!

Click on "He Gives Us Joy" in the upper right side of this blog.

Wrapping up 2010

2011-01-08T22:32:00.000-08:00

Lily & Emily's First visit to the snow---ever!

The girls enjoyed going down the hills on the dish and sled. Nobody hit any trees!

Lily was disappointed that she couldn't make snow angels, the snow was way too packed.

This is Lily's acting debut! She was the cutest little lamb ever!

Right in the middle of the play she asks, " mom, do you have a mint?" Not sure where that fits into the nativity scene?

Christmas morning at our 3rd oldest son's (Aaron) house. Lily received a play guitar and as you can see, she loved it!

Lily is very much into horses! Ever since she road one she wants everything horses! So, she got what she asked for!

Both of the girls received new bikes. They love them. Lily was riding through the house on her "magenta" bicycle, her favorite color.

Four dolls

We have a neighbor who poses as Santa every year. It took Lily quite a while to warm up to the idea of sitting on this guys lap! I think she was freaked out by the "Ho Ho Ho's". Who goes around talking like that anyway?

Halloween - Prairie girl, colonial girl team up with the incredibles!

Mom made both the outfits for the girls. Very Cute!

Lily turns Four

Check out the horsey cake, mom made that too.

Matching dolls, too much fun!

Lily has been asking for bitty baby twins...one happy girl

Playing Catch-up

2010-10-21T22:21:00.000-07:00

First day at School, Show and tell

All dressed and ready for their first day of school (with our homeschool group) This is Emily's third year and Lily's first. Emily LOVES school, she wants to do school year round.

Lily had her 2nd Gotcha Day on Sept 1st and Emily had her 7th on Sept. 16th

In So. California we don't get snow so Lily is making "sand angels". This is the same kid who would not even stand on the sand when we first got her.

Lily's First Visit to the American Girl Doll Store

This was Lily's first visit to this store (and daddy's). We all had a fun time checking out all the dolls. We splurged and had lunch there. Lot's of Fun!

This is Felicity's Horse, Penny. According to Lily, every horse is Penny

The other night I found Lily standing over her 6in. plastic horse, in bed, trying to ride the horse! Like I said, she's crazy about horses.

Ventura County Fair

This Summer we had a foreign exchange student from S. Korea come and stay with us for 3 weeks. We had a great time with Lydia. The girls enjoyed having a "big sister" for a few weeks.

Lily Loves Horses

We have friends at church who have a horse and during a visit to their house Lily got to ride her with help. Anyway, since that day she has been head over heals about horses. When we went to the fair she HAD to ride the horses.

Dress up, Singing Songs, and Performing for the Family

Fun in the Kitchen

Our Beautiful Lily

2010-07-30T23:21:00.001-07:00

Isn't she just the cutest thing in the world? Of course there's no bias here, it's just a fact!

Our little flower is beginning to blossom.

Although her name is Lily, she sometimes reminds me of a rose. she's beautiful yet she does have some "thorns"!! Don't ruffle this girls feathers, or boy, you'll get an ear full. Lily is going to be a very strong person, she is not afraid to speak her mind even if she knows she's going to get in trouble for it. But she totally blows us away sometimes with the depth of thought that she has.

The other night she got in trouble and was sent to her room. I went up there to talk with her and make sure she understood why she was being punished. We got into this long conversation about God. At first she said, "well, where is He, I don't see Him?" I told her, "God is like the air, we don't see it but we know it's there". Then she put it into her own words. "Daddy, you mean it's like this, if I looked into the sun I would be blind, right, and if I can't see that doesn't mean that things aren't still there right? like if I am blind by the sun and I can't see my pillow, it's still there, right daddy? So, that's the same thing with God, right daddy, I can't see Him but that doesn't mean He isn't there, right daddy?" Then she said "We're blind to God, right daddy?" "Uh, yeah, Lily, that's right, you got it girl!"

We're blind to God, isn't that the truth, until He opens our eyes we can't see Him!

It's amazing how kids GET God so much easier than many adults. Like Jesus said, we must be like a child.

Introducing Joshua David

2010-07-28T23:11:00.000-07:00

Okay, here are the vitals that we have so far. Joshua was born July 27th, he weighed 7 lb. 8 oz. and is 20 in. long. Time? around 8:30pm but will post the exact time when we find out.

Joshua is spending a couple of days in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Cedars Sinai just for observation after his arrival via C-section. Mom is doing fine! Dad, well, there's still hope that he's going to pull through...Ha!

Half Her Life

2010-07-13T22:28:00.000-07:00

This coming Friday Lily will have spent half her life with us!!

It is hard to believe that she has been with us for 22 months. Lily has changed in so many ways, yet still remains Lily. The sweet little girl with the cute curly hair. In fact, she barely has more hair than when we first got her. She actually got her first official haircut last week!!!

Here is what she looked like on Gotcha Day September 1st 2008

Below are some recent pictures of Lily

Silly Faces in the tub

Lily's first swimming lessons this summer

Just being cute!

Lily Singing

2010-05-27T22:01:00.000-07:00

Lily loves to sing this song, it's the Hawaiian song in the Lilo & Stitch Movie. We just had to post this.

March / April Update

2010-04-26T14:52:00.000-07:00

March and April fun

The kids had a lot of fun in their new play room. Lizzy likes to pretend that she is eating just like the big kids. It's just so cute to watch them.

We went to Kn*tt's Berry Farm on Easter break. The girls had a lot of fun. Lily is a little thrill seeker.

Jerry just loved this picture he took at Kn*tt's.

Lily loved meeting "noopy" as she says it, still having trouble with S-blends. She now has a stuffed Snoopy that she sleeps with. This is the first stuffed animal that she has wanted to have in her bed with her. She is a " love on my blanket" type of girl.

This is the girls in their Easter dresses that I made them. Finally, I made the time to sew them matching dresses. It's something I have wanted to do since I knew we were adopting again. The girls love that mommy made them.

The girls love to wear matching outfits. They still ask almost daily to match each other. I never thought it would last this long.

These girls love each other so much.

A Quick Post (it's been a long time)

2010-02-22T23:03:00.000-08:00

It has been quite a while since we've posted some pics so we decided we'd better at least put up a couple pic's.

Below are "The Girls" Our granddaughter and her two Aunties who just adore her.

A couple of weeks ago, in between rain storms I took the girls hiking in the mountains near our home. This was Lily's first hiking experience. Lily enjoyed hiking and of course she had to have a "walking stick" like her big sister. The only wild life we say was a gopher!

The girls love to "perform" for us. Each of them take turns introducing each other....."And now, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, introducing, all the way from China...Emily! Lily is accompanying Emily on the piano and the little music box next to her.

Lily looks so serious!

Today Lily was upset because her mother and big sister were baking cupcakes and she wanted to help. She kept trying to "help" and almost pulled the bowl full of baking mix off the counter. Being upset she went into the living room where I tried to convince her to let me read her a Dr. Seuss book. She proceeded to tell me that I can't read her a Dr. Suzzy book, it's only for girls to read! I didn't know Dr. Seuss had a sister, Dr. Suzzy, anyway no book was read because I'm not a girl.....

Christmas

2009-12-30T22:27:00.000-08:00

As we are surfing all our favorite blogs we notice that most everybody is buried in snow. This is what Christmas is like in California! It was about 70 degrees and clear as a bell. We don't want to cause anyone to struggle with envy but this is the main reason why people like to live in California.

Emily and Lily had fun making and decorating Christmas cookies

This picture says it all about this little ones personality!

She is totally in charge of this project

This was the BIG present for the girls this year. Our daughters were very excited to get to practice their driving. Lily actually did pretty good in the living room because she could only go straight backward and straight forward, no steering required. outside was a different story.

Here they are speeding down our driveway. Emily actually figured out a 3 point turn around on the sidewalk....I was pretty impressed.

The last time we posted we mentioned that our church was trying to provide 500 children in India with a new set of clothes. The plan was to take a special offering in an effort to raise $4000.00 in about two weeks. Now, just to give a little background, our church had already sent an offering of over $20,000.00 in August of this year. You would think with the economy being bad and the fact that we are only about 70 members strong including children, we could not expect the body to be so generous. But God had other plans! We were able to send over $9750.00 to India!

One thing we are learning is, when you touch something that is close to God's heart He will abundantly provide and bless. We read about how He provides for families miraculously in order for them to adopt. Clearly God's heart is for the fatherless and he moves upon hearts in order to meet their needs. He is an Awesome God!

Finally We're Updating our Blog

2009-12-02T22:50:00.000-08:00

Our son Aaron works at Nickelodeon in Burbank as an artist. Every year the studio decorates for Halloween and allows their employees to invite family to join in on the fun. Each show decorates their work area in a different theme and it's always a lot of fun for the kids. This year our daughter in-law, Lauren made Toy Story costumes for her family and boy were they cute!

Buzz Micah!

Bo Lizzy!

Don't you just want to squeeze those cheeks?

This year Lily asked...Why we do pumpkins? Well, I don't know...but it's fun!

Our two little Mermaids!

Emily turned 8 November 28th! Wow! She was only 21 months when we got her, now she's all grown up and savin China as she puts it. (a line from Mulan if you don't recognize the line)

Such a happy girl. Emily is such a joy and special person. She really enjoyed her birthday!

Mom spent hours decorating a "Little Mermaid" cake for Emily....can you say tired hands?

Emily had a "sleep over" on her actual birthday...her first one. The girls had a great time making Christmas ornaments, decorating Christmas cookies and of course eating them.

Emily wanted to show off her blue tooth (teeth)!

The Lord continues to grow the passion and desire to help orphans in our hearts. On Orphan Sunday I (Jerry) preached at our church about the 147 million orphans in the world and how it is our call as Christians to meet their needs. Our church supports an orphanage in India which has grown over the years from several hundred children to 3500 children. We have helped them purchase the land and buildings for schools and living. Recently we asked if there is anything we could do for the children for Christmas. The Director, Samuel said he and his wife Mercy had been praying for clothes for Christmas for 500 of the little ones. As it turns out these children only have one set of clothes. They wash their clothes every three days and while their clothes are drying they are naked and cannot go outside until their clothes are dry. Can you imagine that? How many sets of clothes do you have? Anyway, after Orphan Sunday one of the ladies in the church was moved to do something for Little Lights (the name of the orphanage in India). So, she is working with all the children in the church to raise the money ($8/child) to purchase one set of clothes for these 500 children. I am confident that God will meet their needs as He has done time and time again.

Lily's 3rd Birthday! (more pics to follow)

2009-10-17T22:43:00.000-07:00

The day before Lily's birthday our church had a father daughter dance. Both the girls had a blast. The theme was western attire and we learned to square dance.

Lily was so happy to get her own doll house. She wants to be just like Emily who got her doll house when she was 3. Lily was so cute this morning asking, " Am I 3?" She was really hoping to be 4 or 5, but three is definitely better than 2 in her book.

Lily is posing in front of the presents for Micah and Lily. She was so excited it was hard to get her to stop for a minute to take a picture.

These pictures are out of order because we were having trouble getting them to post on our blog. This is Lily playing with her doll house.

We had pasta, a favorite of both 3 year olds. Micah was being his goofy self. We can't imagine where the goofiness comes from. Of course not, Aaron.

Sorry for the double pictures. It's better than no pictures.

Micah, Kaitlyn, Lily, and Emily.

Lily enjoyed the day and got some very nice gifts.

Today Lily turned 3!!! Of course she tried to convince Micah (her nephew who is also 3) that she is turning 4! He didn't buy it. We had a combined birthday to celebrate both Lily's and Micah's birthdays. There were about 35 of us all together at our son Aaron's house. Quite the crowd!

Orphan Sunday-November 8th

2009-10-11T22:58:00.001-07:00

Orphan Sunday from Christian Alliance for Orphans on Vimeo.

Fun at the Park (trying out the new camera)

2009-09-11T22:10:00.001-07:00

September 11th carries a very negative connotation for most Americans after the horrible events 8 years ago. However, for our family September 11th, 2008 is exactly one year from the day we arrived home with this precious little girl! I don't know if you can see it in her face but this little one is full of spunk! She is a very strong willed little girl, she thinks she can do EVERYTHING. We constantly hear her say..."I do it, I do it", even when it's something that is impossible for her to do. Lily is becoming more loving and affectionate. It's strange both our daughters did this backward hug thing. When you ask them for a hug they would come up to you and then turn their back to you. We would have to turn them around and say, no, this is how you hug.

After our trip to Catalina Island, where I broke our old camera, we had to purchase a new one. We bought a Nikon P90 which is still a pretty basic point and shoot camera but it does a pretty good job. I got some practice in at the park the other day. The girls love to ham it up for the camera.

I love taking pictures of children when they don't know the camera is on them. You can catch them deep in thought, or making some funny face, their little faces are so precious.

We thank God for bringing Lily into our family, she has brought a lot of spark and liveliness that's for sure. Emily and Lily are becoming really good friends and sisters. Their play together has improved and grown. It's a joy to sit back and listen to them just giggling up a storm as they play together. We are truly blessed!

Celebrating Gotcha/Family Day 2009

2009-09-01T23:10:00.001-07:00

One Year Ago Today this precious little one was placed into our hands to become our daughter. It's hard to believe that one hear has passed already. We have been so blessed to have Lily in our family. Yes there have been growing pains and struggles but all of this is part of God's design to cause greater growth in all of us.

This picture is out of order but I'm too tired to try to fix it. I know that if I try I'll end up deleting it or something. Lily loves ice cream and cake....well....ice cream mostly

Daddy brought home Chinese food for dinner and Lily said, "Thank You daddy for making me Chinese food". I actually get credit for making edible food! (inside joke, I can't cook)

Emily and Lily have grown to love each other more and more. Emily is a great big sister. Almost every day the play a game Emily calls "Family" where they pretend to be the mommy and baby etc. We usually end up with Emily's entire bedroom contents in our living room.....eeek! Don't worry, we make her clean up the mess.

I just had to include this picture of Lily. We had to purchase a new camera since I recently broke our old camera. We bought a Ni*on P90. At first I was having all sorts of problems with the pictures being blurry, color distortion etc. I was ready to return the camera until I got online and started reading tips from current users. Anyway, I took this close up of Lily and really like it.

After raising 5 biological sons, then adopting two daughters from China you would think that we would be done with thinking about adoption. BUT GOD has continued to fill our hearts with the desire to help orphans in whatever way He sees fit. Our church supports an orphanage in India called "Little Lights" where over 3000 children are cared for, fed, taught about Jesus and prepared to go out into society with a real education. Recently we were blessed with the priviledge of participating in a special offering to help them purchase the final plot of land on their 10 acre compound. It is a blessing to help these children whom God cares for so dearly.

Lily's First Vacation - Catalina Island

2009-08-21T22:37:00.001-07:00

Eighteen years ago today we visited Catalina. ( Yes, that means today is our 33rd anniversary) It was our 15th anniversary. We always intended to bring the kids to Catalina. we finally made it last week. The girls loved playing in the sand.

The captain of the glass bottom boat was kind enough to take a picture of us after the ride. We got to see lots of fish,kelp, and sea weed.

Lily is driving the Under the Sea boat. She seems to think sticking out her tongue looks good.

Lily's first time playing miniature golf. She came in first place. Was it beginners luck or daddy's help?

This picture says it all. Fun! Fun! Fun!

We had dinner with this beautiful view. Lily is showing her beautiful tongue pose again.

The girls wanted to take their pictures with these two bald eagles. there are over 50 real bald eagles living on the island.

We had a fun trip and went on quite a few tours. We saw seals, sea lions, flying fish, and several kinds of local fish. The water was sooo blue. Lily seemed to enjoy the trip, but missed the dog. She wanted to go home and see her " baby dog".

July Events

2009-07-30T22:24:00.001-07:00

Friday we went to the park. The kids had a great time climbing on the rocks. Of course, they had to fit in a snack time. Can't go any where without the snacks. Kids without snacks :( no way!

Lily is taking a little break from the climbing. The kids played hide and go seek.

We had a wonderful visit from our friends Debbie and Lillian. They moved to Mississippi 2 years ago. Lillian, Emily, and Lily were having a blast. The time went by way too quickly.

Lily swinging during our visit with Debbie and Lillian. Lily really loves to swing.

The girls enjoying the swing set with Debbie watching in the background. Boy do we miss those two.

We went swimming at Jeremy and Jen's house on the 4th. No Jeremy and Jen and no fireworks. We had a barbeque and swam. We opted out of the crowds at the park and just had some family time. ( Yes, we took over our son and daughter-in law's house with their permission.)

Lily Re-Adopted and visit to the Beach/Magic Mountain

2009-06-27T22:06:00.000-07:00

This Friday we completed our re-adoption of Lily. In California (the most bureaucratic state in the union) we have to re-adopt our child in order to get a California birth certificate. Plus, due to the great government efficiency it will only take 18 months to get it!!! Anyone who wants big government ought to think twice...

We went to Magic Mount*in recently with our kids, grand kids, and daughter in-law. As you can see, our little Lizzy is very stylish sporting her latest purchase in shades...

The kids had a great time in the "kiddy" section. We also found out that Lily is a little dare devil when it comes to rides, she loved the little roller coaster and this ride. It's a bus that goes around and around, up high then down low.

We went to Carpenteria Beach and found that Lily does not like to get her little feet in the sand. Notice in one of the pictures that she is standing on a beach towel because she didn't want to touch the sand....nor the water for that matter. But, she didn't mind putting her peanut butter and jelly sandwich in the sand! Yuck!

One Year Ago Today We Received "The Call"

2009-06-09T22:42:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that one year ago we received "the call". I had been watching the "rumor queen" site and knew that the call was coming. The phone rang and our caller ID said the name of our agency. I knew it was the call. The conversation went something like this. Agency " you have a daughter! She is 8 months old." Me "really? That young? When is her birthday?" Agency "October" Me "October, what day?" Agency " the 17th." Me"that's my grandson's birthday. What year?" Agency " 2006." Me "she's not 8 months old. she's 19 months old and exactly the same age as my grandson."

I asked if they could email me a picture. They could not. We would have to wait until Tomorrow to get the picture along with all her info. I waited all day for UPS to deliver that package. UPS came and picked up packages for our company, but no package. About 5 pm still no package. I began to cry. Ok I finally got a hold of my self and we ate dinner. As we were eating dinner along comes the UPS truck again at about 6 pm. There was our long awaited package with all the info. about our precious daughter.

Here is the referral picture we received along with several others which are shown on our blog. She is about 1 year old in this picture so it didn't even give us a good idea of what she looked like at 19 months.

This is the day we got Lily in Nanjing China at 22 months.

This picture was taken on May 30th of this year. Our happy little girl loves to swing!

One thing we would like to point out for those who may be working on their second adoption is that the second one was completely different than the first. In other words, God did certain things during our first adoption process to confirm His direction for our lives in the adoption but He did not do the same thing for the second, but none the less confirming of His will. For example, when we received the referral call and found out that Lily was exactly the same age as our grandson, it was God's way of showing us that he hand picked this little one to be part of our family. Jerry had been saying...."I don't care how old she is as long as she's not YOUNGER than our grandson" Well, she's NOT younger than our grandson.....she's exactly the same age!!! God does have a sense of humor and the joke was on Jerry!

Miscellaneous Happenings

2009-05-28T22:38:00.000-07:00

Today was our youngest son, Nick's 17th birthday. Emily turned 7 1/2 today. Nick was giving Emily a thank you hug for her birthday present. We will have a big family celebration this week-end.

This picture is for Kevin. That is Lily's best friend from China. He just got a new scooter . Too bad they live in another state they could ride scooters together. Lily is waving hi to Kevin.
We hope you enjoy the picture Kevin. Have fun on your scooter!

The kids are all piling on top of Aaron. They had a lot of fun together last weekend.

Lily was pretending to be a bride. The girls like to play wedding after being in Jacob and Jolina's wedding earlier this month.

More Pic's from Jacob and Jolina's Wedding

2009-05-07T21:40:00.001-07:00

Here is Lily hanging out at the bar waiting for her drink, well, not really, it's actually a baptismal in the church.

Just another beautiful day in California. Great day for a wedding!

This is a picture of our extended family

The Happy Couple

The "not so happy" couple

Lily gave up on Micah decided to have some fun on her own

Jacob & Jolina's Wedding

2009-05-03T21:33:00.000-07:00

May 2 Jacob and Jolina said " I do"

Emily, Micah, and Lily were ready for the wedding. They were practicing what they were supposed to do. Emily was great at getting the two year olds to practice.

Enzo, Lily, Emily, and Micah all going up and down the aisle before the wedding practicing. They did this all by themselves at practice. At the wedding everyone except Emily needed help down the aisle. It's a lot more scary with a church full of people.

Here comes the bride! Jolina walking down the aisle with her Mom and Dad.

Lily and Emily were so cute watching Jolina coming down the aisle.

Lizzy decided to sleep through the whole wedding. Lauren's Dad, Mike (a really good Grandpa by the way), is holding our sweet little grand daughter.

Jacob and Jolina are exchanging their vows.

It was really hard to get a good picture with all the kids in it. Micah had been sick all week and he wasn't going for it. We were all laughing at all his cute funny faces. He definitely takes after his Dad.

This is Floyd, our daughter-in-law Jen, our goofy son Jeremy, and baby Lizzy. Jeremy always makes faces at me when I take pictures. Maybe next time he won't make funny faces if he knows I'm going to post them on our blog. Not!

Jolina is having the first piece of cake. They are such a sweet couple.

The three girl's outfits matched.

Nick with his friend Sam. He didn't want any pictures, but I wanted to show that he was there.

Aaron was dancing with Emily. Lauren was dancing with Lily. The girls loved the dancing. Lily kept throwing herself on the floor. Her own version of break dancing I guess.

Christy holding Lizzy. Jerry holding Lily. Lily was loving on Lizzy. She loves her niece.

We are both happy to have our new daughter, Jolina. What a blessing!

Lily's First Visit to the Zoo

2009-04-21T21:27:00.001-07:00

We are embarrassed to admit that we have had Lily for 7 and 1/2 months and this is the first time we took her to the zoo! We decided to avoid the crowd at the L.A. Zoo and we went to the Santa Barbara Zoo (easier on the legs too). It just so happens that Lily turned 2.5 on the 17th, the day we went. Emily is funny at the zoo. she goes around holding her nose saying "Eeewwww" they stink. Let's get away from here" She's such a princess.

Behind this picture of the three girls there is supposed to be a snow tiger, you have to enlarge the picture to see it.
After we were home I asked Lily what her favorite animal was, she said the elephant. Unfortunately the picture of the elephant didn't turn out too great, so we inserted the Giraffe.

I had to throw in this picture of our little flower. The other day Lily and I were playing in the back yard and I decided to put these flowers in her hair. She loved it and was willing to pose for me while I ran into the house to grab the camera. What a cutie!!!

Easter-Family-Friends

2009-04-16T22:40:00.000-07:00

A play date at the park with friends.

The girls were so cute in their matching outfits. They love dressing up.

Lily loved the chocolate in her Easter basket. She has a real sweet tooth and would have nothing but chocolate for breakfast if we let her.

The girls had a lot of fun decorating eggs. The look Lily is giving Emily is a classic "Lily look".

Our friends who adopted 3 children from Ethiopia were out visiting. Emily and their daughter Kali really hit it off. The next day Emily asked if she could have Kali over. Unfortunately they live out of state.

Here's the whole group. We had a really nice time. If our three families would of had all our children here there would be 18 "kids". We only had 10 this day. We are all truly blessed.

Continuing to add to the Hammersley Family

2009-04-06T23:01:00.000-07:00

We're on a Run! We are about to add our 5th daughter (3rd in-law) to our family. We just continue to be blessed with beautiful daughters.

Below are pictures from the Bridal Shower held for Jolina (center), our newest, soon-to- be daughter-in-law

Of course Lily had to get in on the action and help open presents.

Emily loves to give gifts, she went into her bedroom and put together a gift for Jolina. Jolina loves Hello Kitty so Emily gave her some of hers.

Christy wouldn't brag about making this beautiful cake, but I can. The cake is made up of cupcakes decorated like flowers.

As I said, we are very blessed!

Lily's and Micah's First (early) Easter Egg Hunt

2009-04-04T20:58:00.000-07:00

Lily didn't know what to do with the eggs. She started to get the hang of it when they were almost done hunting for eggs.

Micah's sweet Great-grandma had an early Easter surprise for Micah , Emily, and Lily. She gave them all baskets and had eggs hidden in the yard. The eggs had change in them. Lily held up a quarter and said "dollar". At least she knows it's money.

Lily has been saying the cutest thing. She likes to tell us, "I love you too much". She also has a new favorite book it is Dr. Seuss' ABCs. We put her "reading" it on U tube, but are having trouble getting it uploaded to our blog. Hopefully, we will be able to do it soon. She is getting really good at recognizing her letters.

Kid Fun!

2009-03-19T22:04:00.001-07:00

This interesting event happened when we visited our son Aaron and our new grand-daughter Lizzy. The kids started having a blast pulling Emily around by her tights. The hard wood floors make for a great bowling alley also. After the leg stretching event we played bowl the kid down the hall way (gently, of course). Sorry, no pictures of that event.

She's got Hair!!!

2009-03-19T21:59:00.001-07:00

We decided we can't wait until Lily's hair grows so we helped her along a little. We had Emily stand back to back with Lily and draped Emily's hair over Lily's head. Doesn't she look lovely? She's going to be even cuter when she has some locks on her head, in about 10 years or so.

6 Months!!!

2009-03-02T21:36:00.001-08:00

This is Lily on the day she was placed into our arms. September 1st, 2008 in Nanjing China.

Now, if you take a close look you can see one hair that has grown!!!! Actually, maybe a few others too. But, sometimes we look at her and wonder if her hair has grown at all. Her face has filled out a little more and so has her vocabulary.

Our two little treasures!

Six months ago Lily was placed in our arms. She has been an amazing little girl. She never seemed to grieve, except the day we visited the orphanage. She has become more and more attached to us. She is definitely a Mama's girl. Lily has a sweet disposition, though she can be quite stubborn. For the most part her orphanage behavior is gone. She doesn't pinch, pull hair, or spit anymore. She gets along with her sister most days. She has days when she just wants to battle it out with Emily. Thank God those days aren't too often.

Lily can now sing the ABC song with very little help. She is recognizing some of the letters and is finally remembering some of the colors. She just did not seem to get the concept of colors. She now will sit and listen to a book being read. I don't think that she had books read to her in China. She used to want me to "read" a book to her and then stick her face in my face and wonder why I was talking like that. Of course, then I couldn't see the book to read it. The look on her face was just so funny.

Lily has just become more and more dear to us. God has truly blessed us with her. We are enjoying having her in our family.

God continues to draw our hearts toward orphans. On the side bar of our blog we have added a link to No Hands But Ours. There are peoples testimonies listed under "family stories". There are some amazing stories of how God worked in people's lives to connect them with a special needs child. We have been blessed and encouraged by these stories.

The stories we read on this site remind us of what The Lord did when we were waiting for Lily. We had been praying for God to bring people in her life who knew Him and would love her and care for her. We prayed this often. Then, the Monday before we were going to leave for China we received a comment on our blog from a person who actually volunteered at Lily's orphanage! They said, I know your Lily, we call her JuJu. They said they were praying for her and loved "Dad" like we did. They had been volunteering at the orphanage and had been praying that "Dad" would bring a family who would love her like "He" did. We were so blessed that God, in His awesome power had orchestrated it so that these people were there loving our little daughter for us until we arrived!!! WE TRUELY SERVE AN AWESOME GOD!

Loving baby Elizabeth

2009-02-21T22:14:00.000-08:00

Lily loved holding her niece. She did not want to let go of her. The look on her face was so precious.

Lily was very gentile with Lizzy.

Emily was so excited to be an Aunt again. She was so happy to be able to finally see and hold Lizzy. We have two nurturing, loving little girls. We are so very blessed.

Aunties Again! Elizabeth is Born!

2009-02-18T21:18:00.000-08:00

Yesterday baby Elizabeth was born at 5:33 pm. Lily and Emily are both aunts again. The girls are going to have a lot of fun together. They both love babies.

This is Elizabeth at one day old. She weighs 6lbs. 12 ozs. Look at all that hair. She almost has more than Lily.

Here is Mom, Dad, and big brother with baby Elizabeth.

This Micah holding Lizzy(Wizzy as Micah says it).

The kids are waiting outside the hospital. They are sitting on a bike rack. Emily and Lily have to wait one more day to see their niece because the hospital only lets siblings in the maternity ward to see the baby. The girls are really looking forward to tomorrow so they can see Lauren and baby Lizzy. We can't wait to see their reaction. They both screamed with joy when I told them over the phone that Lizzy was born. Lily was probably just copying Emily, but it was really sweet.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2009-02-14T21:15:00.001-08:00

Our Two Valentines

Valentine's day is Emily's favorite holiday. It's probably because she is such a loving little girl.

Lily loves her new puppy. She also loves chocolate. It's the one thing she ate today without a speck left.

The girls both loved dressing up in their new heart clothes. Lily is starting to enjoy putting on new clothes. She is starting to notice what she is wearing.

We had our second Social Worker visit this week. She will be sending a 6 months report. Yes,we will soon be parents to our sweet little girl for 6 months. March 1 it will be 6 months since Lily was placed into our arms. The wait was sooooooo long, the time with her is flying by!

January Events (Gymnastics, Chinese New Year, and B-Day)

2009-01-27T22:04:00.000-08:00

The highlight of gymnastics is getting the stamp on the hand.....and the foot.....and the tummy...you get the picture.

Lily started "Mommy and Me" gymnastics last week and she really likes it. It may have something to do with the fact that big sister does gymnastics...but she likes it!

We went out for Chinese food on Chinese New Year. Lily got to renew her noodle slurping skills!
Today she was going around the house saying "Happy New Year", the only problem is it comes out sounding like "Happy Noodle!"..........Happy Noodle to you too Lily!

The people at the Golden Tiger are getting to know us and they come over and help the girls practice their Mandarin.

This is Lily's 2nd cousin Carlee. She is one month younger than Lily but as you can see she is quite a bit bigger. This is the first time they have met.

Ashlee (in the middle) is getting the full beauty treatment from the two year old experts!

Paige (in her mom's lap) is the birthday girl, she turned one. Paige is another of Lily's second cousins.

Our Kitchen Helper(s)

2009-01-17T21:57:00.000-08:00

We bought the kitchen helper so our girls can help without getting hurt. Lily loves to see what I am doing in the kitchen. Now she can see without getting too close to things and I can actually cook without holding her. In this picture Lily and Emily are washing their hands and playing with the soap bubbles.

Lily loves to be wrapped in my (Christy's) robe with me in the mornings. Lily and Emily are doing the same thing with their babies as I do with Lily. It was so cute to watch them imitate me.

Lily's First Christmas - 2008

2008-12-27T21:09:00.001-08:00

These pictures are from Christmas Eve at Grandma & Grandpa Lapair's house. This of course is Lily's first Christmas with us. She loved opening gifts, she even wanted to open her sisters gifts. Emily let Lily help her with some of her gifts.

At the top of Grandpa's Christmas tree is an animated angel. Lily didn't notice it for quite a while but once she noticed it she was fascinated by it. We are sure she thought it was real. She was saying good-bye to it as we left. We lifted her up to get close but she didn't like that at all....too close!

Christmas morning the girls received a new wagon which they loved. As you can see by the pictures, it was a big hit with all the kids. Good thing they could all fit in.....even a place for the dog! If you look behind Micah you see a little space where the dog is sitting.

Happy 7th Birthday Emily!

2008-12-10T23:29:00.000-08:00

On November 28th Emily turned 7! We celebrated her birthday last weekend because two of her older brothers just bought houses and were in the process of moving in on her actual birthday. Emily continues to be a tremendous blessing. She is being a very good big sister. She is learning patience, she's teaching her sister things, she watches over her to protect her etc. Thank God for our daughter Emily!

Mom's Little Helper

2008-12-10T23:12:00.001-08:00

Lily loves to help her mommy. Today she was helping to fold laundry. She actually folded this dish towel all by herself. Lily is constantly saying..."Help you?". It's a blessing to see such a good heart in such a little child. We celebrated her sister Emily's 7th birthday on the weekend and I had to set up chairs and tables etc. to get ready for the party. Lily of course, had to help daddy carry in the tables and chairs. It takes twice the time to do things with a little one holding on to everything.....helping.

We have had Lily now for over three months. Her vocabulary continues to grow and she continues to adjust quite well. We just can't seem to get her hair to grow. The only part that wants to grow is the hair on top of her head! Her hair on the sides and back is still the same length it was when we first got her....how does that happen?

Ready for Take-Off!

2008-11-28T22:16:00.001-08:00

Lily decided she needed a helmet to ride her tricycle. She saw her big sister Emily wearing a helmet on her two-wheel bike so she had to have the same. The only helmet I could find was this motorcycle helmet. It was so comical I just had to take a picture. Lily could barely navigate with this thing on her head!

Update

2008-11-23T21:39:00.000-08:00

Fun & Play

The two girls are our neighbors.

Emily & Lily were taking turns pretending to be operating a food stand.

This is Lily's first visit to the park. We have a nice park near our house and Lily seemed to really enjoy it. There has been so much going on it's hard to believe it took two months to get to the park. This was a very nice day, no winds or fires!

Lily continues to learn new words. She is getting better at communicating with us and experiencing less frustration. She has lots of cute sayings now, when she wants to be picked up she says "uppy-down", she calls her yogurt "yo", so in the morning we hear her saying, "mama, yo", she calls a Kleenex an "achoo", oatmeal is "o". She tends to leave off the ends or beginnings of words. Book is "bu", Micah is "cah", her brother Nick is "ik". She still mixes Chinese and english words, sometimes I am daddy, other times I am baba.

All in all she is doing very well. Lily is a very strong-willed child and when she does not get her way.....let the battle begin!!! Of course this is where we have to remember we are dealing with a two year old who had no parents to tell her what to do. We can tell that she did receive some correction and discipline, for example, if she thinks she did something wrong she will put her head down and become silent. We have to kind of coax her out of it by making her laugh or something. She is showing signs of learning right from wrong and is starting to "get it" with some things. It's just going to take a lot of patience and repeating things again and again. Generally Lily is a very happy little girl, she wakes up happy and is full of smiles. She is also starting to pretend with us. Lately she has started this thing where she plants her face in a pillow and starts sobbing...pretend...then she tells her mother to do the same. She gets a big kick out of us making a fuss over her. She pretends with her dolls of course, they have to have their poopie diapers changed.

Two Months Home!

2008-11-13T22:30:00.001-08:00

Home for Two Months, November 11th!

Lily is doing very well. She is now able to count to 10 with her cute Chinese accent. She is learning her ABC's and colors. She has become proficient at bossing her sister around!!! Of course Emily does not stand for it one bit! In other words, they act like sisters...

Our family has developed a very strange tradition at birthdays (we just celebrated Aaron's B-Day). Our sons have decided to modify the traditional "happy birthday" song. Instead, they do this thing that can only be described as a pack of wolves howling to the tune of happy birthday. Lily is giving her opinion of their singing abilities.....She's plugging her ear!!! But sort of listening too. It's one of those things you just have to be there to appreciate....or not!

Lily and Micah are going for a drive, she's in his lap. They went for quite a few laps around the house and seemed to thoroughly enjoy the ride.

It's hard to believe that we've been home for two months already! Lily's latest feat is that she is beginning to learn how to ride a tricycle. She seemed to catch on to it very quickly. The only problem is her legs are not long enough to reach the pedals all the way. She can barely reach and pedal but she totally gets the concept of pushing to make herself go.

Yesterday we had our first visit with the social worker for post placement. She was quite impressed with Lily's level of understanding of things. The next visit is in Feb then August of '09. We plan to re-adopt Lily so that she will have a California State Birth Certificate.

Lily's First Halloween

2008-11-02T18:27:00.000-08:00

Halloween at Nickelodeon in Burbank

Our son Aaron (Micah's dad) works at Nickelodeon as a storyboard artist so he gets to invite family to their Halloween celebration. It's pretty cool, they decorate the entire studio in different themes based upon the various shows that Nickelodeon has. The above character is from Kai lan, one of Nick's cartoons.

Both Micah and Lily were fascinated by the dry ice in the fountain. Lily is supposed to be a butterfly

This is Lily's very first hotdog! It wasn't a big hit!

This display was part of Fairly OddParents, it was supposed to be a giant fish bowl and the balloons were supposed to be the pebbles at the bottom of the fish bowl. The kids had a blast kicking the balloons around. They also had giant caldrons of candy filled with every kind of candy you can imagine.

Lily Singing

2008-10-26T20:28:00.000-07:00

Lily likes to sing so we captured it on video. It took me some time figuring out how to upload to YouTube but it's finally there. We hope you enjoy her singing as much as we do.

We think she is singing a Chinese song. We just wish we knew what she is singing.

Lily is learning so much. She can count to 5, knows many of her body parts, is copying us as we say the alphabet, knows what many different foods are, and many other things. When Emily is doing home schooling Lily wants her turn to do school. She says, "Lily's turn,Lily's turn." She is like a sponge and learns so quickly.

This is Christy. I want to thank everyone who has been praying for me. I am doing much better. I am able to get around without crutches and was able to sleep much better the last 3 nights. I am still having a hard time going up and down stairs, but the pain is minimal. I do not have rheumatoid arthritis. The doctor thinks it is some sort of inflammatory arthritis. We are still hoping to know for sure what caused the inflammation. I am very happy to be able to take care of my family again.

Lily & Micah's Birthday Party!

2008-10-18T22:26:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Lily & Micah!

The Theme: Strawberry Shortcake & Cars (The Movie)

We're sitting here nice and patiently, can someone give us some cake?

Tonight we all gathered at our daughter-in-laws parents house and celebrated Lily and Micah's 2nd birthday. All in all there were around twenty five our thirty of us. Both Micah and Lily had a great time. The pile of presents looked like someone had just bought out Toy's R Us!

Lily did great when it come time to open presents. Usually at her age they open one or two presents and then lose interest. She kept opening and opening and seemed to really enjoy it! Of course, who wouldn't when you're being showered with really cool gifts. She loved the stuffed animals. Ever since we've been home she's tried to take possession of some of Emily's stuffed animals, now she has two of her own. Lily also received lots of very cute dresses and outfits. It's so much fun to have a girl that we can dress up.

Of course neither Lily or Micah really had a clue that it was their birthday, but that didn't stop them from having a great time!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LILY!

2008-10-17T22:22:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LILY!!!!!

WE LOVE YOU!

Lily got her first car on her 2nd Birthday! When she got in the car she sat down and looked puzzled as to why it didn't go! She had no idea that this car ran on Lily power!

We know that the law in California prohibits youngsters from having passengers but it doesn't say anything about dogs!

Lily looks so disappointed in this picture, it looks like she's saying "I'm sitting here but it won't go!" Later in the day she had fun when the car was moving under "Emily" power. Emily was pushing her around the house.

We wanted to do this comparison picture with Lily wearing the same dress Emily wore on her 2nd birthday. Lily obviously is a little taller than Emily was. Either that or the dress shrunk.

An Update on Christy's knee situation

As it turns out, both of Christy's knees swelled up. The left knee started swelling about 6 days after her right knee. After multiple visits to the doctor and specialist it seems she has some form of arthritis. At this point the doctors are waiting for more test results before they have a sure diagnosis. However, Christy is now starting to be able to walk without crutches and is getting around a whole lot better than a week ago. We want to thank those of you who have been praying and ask you to continue to pray for healing, direction for the doctor and the right medication to help Christy return to a normal life.

Also, thank you to our church family who have been a tremendous blessing and help to us during this time!

Tomorrow we are having a combined birthday party for Lily and our grandson Micah. This will be a first for all of us. Of course neither one of them have a clue what their birthday is but we are sure they're going to have a blast!

She's Officially a Citizen!

2008-10-12T20:30:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, October 9th we received Lily's Certificate of Citizenship! She is officially an U.S. citizen.

Saturday, October 11th marked our being home for one month. It's hard to believe that we've been home for one month already. This has been quite a month so far. Lily continues to do just great. She has adjusted to our family and fits in like she was born into it. Of course we believe she was hand picked by our Heavenly Father to be part of this family. Lily is a very special little girl, she is smart, thoughtful and funny. The other day Christy was lying on the couch and Lily noticed she did not have a pillow for her back, she ran into the other room and came back with a pillow for her mothers back. What a sweety!

Lily has found her Profession!

2008-10-08T21:43:00.000-07:00

We think we have a doctor in the family! Actually two, Emily has been saying for quite some time that she wants to be a doctor . Of course, she's been saying she wants to be a mom, a painter, a doctor and a toilet cleaner!!! We keep telling her that if she's a mom she'll have that last one covered. Don't ask us where she obtained that aspiration, none of us are professional toilet cleaners! Lily looks so cute in this little doctors outfit. I think she remembers her visit to the doctor in China where they thoroughly checked her out :)

For those of you who are praying for Christy, please continue to pray. The healing process is moving along but fairly slowly. We have been very blessed by the help we have been receiving from our family at church. People have been bring meals, cleaning our house and helping watch Lily and Emily. It is an absolute blessing to belong to a body of believers who put flesh on their Christianity.

Thank you to all at Tree of Life Christian Church for all your help!

Lily continues to blossom like a little flower. She continues to amaze us at her level of understanding. She is a very bright little girl. Of course we're not at all biased.

Request for Prayer

2008-10-06T23:09:00.000-07:00

To all the believers who have been following our blog I would like to request your prayers. My wife's knee went out on Friday and she can't stand up or bear weight on it. We went to the doctor today and they said she has osteo arthritis in her knee and that it was probably aggravated by over activity. Please pray that the swelling and pain will subside and that she will recover quickly.

God's timing is amazing! We are so thankful this didn't happen while we were in China. Also, The Lord put it on the heart of one of our friends to arrange meals for us (even though we've been back for 3 weeks). She had no idea that Christy's knee had gone out but she had arranged for dinners for the next two weeks. It's always comforting in the midst of a storm to know that He's in it with us!

Thank you in advance for your prayers.

By the way, Lily is doing great! she is such a blessing to us and we are so thankful to have her in our family.

It's already been One Month!

2008-10-01T22:05:00.000-07:00

Two Aunties and a Nephew

Tuesday, Sept. 30th Christy was watching our grandson Micah while our son and daughter-in-law went for an ultrasound. They were checking the baby out and........finding out that we're having a GRANDDAUGHTER!!!! We didn't think it could actually happen....a girl being born into the Hammersley family! Needless to say we're very excited to have another girl in the family! She is due to arrive in February. Pretty soon there will be three girls running around the house. EEEEEKKKKK!

It's hard to believe that we have had Lily for one month already. She was placed into our arms in Nanjing China on September 1st, 2008! She has done so well it's hard to believe. This little one is so smart and quick to learn. She is one of those kids who just "gets it". Several times people, strangers, have said how obviously smart she is. She is incredible at communicating even though there is a language barrier. It's so cute so see her use all kinds of hand gestures to make sure we know what she is trying to say! and trust me, she makes sure you know what she's trying to say! especially if she's mad (which isn't very often but it's cute to see her insistence). Lily is such a happy little girl. She just seems to be so comfortable with us and she is becoming more and more affectionate. She often comes up to us and gives hugs and kisses, she kisses the dog, her dolls, our hands, etc. My favorite time is when either Christy or I have been gone for a little while, when we get home Lily gets so excited, she runs up to us and gives us big hugs and kisses.

When we were in Guangzhou staying in the Westin Hotel we went to the play room on the 9th floor. We noticed that Lily liked to play with pretend plates and utenciles. This has continued here at home, so, yesterday we brought Emily's little pretend kitchen down stairs for Lily to have. As you can see she loves it! She played for quite some time just arranging the plates and cups, pretending she is feeding her doll, talking on the phone. Very Cute!

Sister Play

2008-09-27T22:49:00.001-07:00

Emily and Lily are having a lot of fun together. Today Emily was pulling Lily around in this little tractor and trailer. At one point Lily was kicking back with her feet hanging out the back looking like.....Okay sis, keep pulling!

You spend hundreds of $'s on toys and they get more fun out of a box!

If you look closely the word juju bee is written on the chalk board. No, Lily hasn't advanced that far yet but it does look like she just wrote it. (Lily's nick name in the orphanage was Ju Ju)

Today I was pushing Emily and her neighbor friend Lia on the little green tractor you see in the picture. Lily was in the house and just having a fit to get out. Finally Christy let her out so she could join in on the fun. We couldn't fit three on the tractor so we had to move to the wagon. I pulled them around the back yard pretty fast and Lily was yelling like crazy....she loved it! I think she's ready for Magic Mountain!

Home Two Weeks - Incredible!

2008-09-25T22:31:00.001-07:00

It's hard to believe that we've been home for two weeks already. This two weeks make the two weeks in China feel like a month! We really did enjoy our time in China this time much more than the first time five years ago.

Time has just flown by! As you can see, the girls are getting along quite nicely. Lily loves to copy Emily or get the same treatment from mommy or daddy. In other words, if Emily is getting her hair braided, Lily wants mommy to fuss over her hair! If Emily gets a hug from daddy, Lily wants a hug from daddy.

We have already received some of the lab tests back from the doctor and so far everything is fine. there are still some tests that they have to do but so far everything looks good.

Lily is completely adjusted to California time. She goes to bed at 9pm and wakes up at 7am, then takes a 2-2.5 hour nap after lunch. Of course she can't sleep without her wawa (doll). She is starting to demonstrate some very girly behaviors (which we thouroughly love-remember we have 5 sons!). The other night she was holding a doll and was moving its arm, making it wave bye bye to us. Tonight she was reading a book to a doll, moving its hand and pointing to pictures in a book telling the doll what they were. Of course every picture was an owl according to Lily.

In California there is always more red-tape and paperwork. When we got back we received a 35+ page document from our home-study agency..........whew! Most of it didn't even apply to us but we had to read it and initial every page........supposedly a result of the Hague requirements.

All in all things are going great! We are blessed to have Lily and continue to see more and more of her little personality each day.

Lily's first visit to the doctor

2008-09-23T22:06:00.000-07:00

Today we finally got Lily to the doctor. We were having a battle with our insurance company about the fact that an adopted child should be added to your insurance immediately. There is a Federal Law OBRA'93 that mandates that an adopted child be treated the same as a biological child. Anyway, we got her added and she went to the doctor today.

How did she do? She did great! The doctor examined her and she cooperated really well. Then the doctor ordered blood tests....eeeekkkk! images of a child screaming bloody murder flooded our heads. Well, surprise! When the lab tech needed to put the tourniquet on Lily started wrapping it around her arm herself. Then she let out a little fuss when she got poked and that was it! At first the lab tech thought she was going to get a fight from Lily but she was quite surprised when she not only cooperated but tried to assist her! After the blood letting it was all over. I say blood letting because they took about 9 or 10 vials of blood! It didn't seem to phase Lily one bit, she was ready to run around after her visit to the doctor.

By the way, she does weigh 22 lbs (remember they weighed her in China and we thought, no way did she weigh 22 lbs) and is 32 3/4 inches tall. she was in the 25th percentile for height and 5th percentile for weight. That's pretty good considering that our daughter Emily was below the scale completely. Of course this is based upon an American growth chart rather than a Chinese chart.

Another interesting fact. When we received Lily's referral it stated that she had a deformity in her ear called pre-auricular fistula in her right ear. Well, when we got her she didn't have anything externally noticeable. Today at the doctor visit she checked Lily's ears and everything looked normal! We don't understand why the medical report from China said she had this congenital issue but there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with her ear at all!!! We'll probably never know why this happened. We have our own theory, we had stated in our homestudy that we would accept a minor special needs child, and our natural born son has a deformed right ear. The CCAA knew that our son has this ear issue and may have matched us with Lily for that reason. Whatever the case may be, we know that God has sovereignly placed this little girl in our home. Of course, the fact that she shares the exact birthday Oct 17th 2006 with our grandson helps a little too!

Some Fun

Our MacBook has a program called Photo Booth where you can take pictures of yourself through various distorted lenses. Lily saw Emily doing this and thought it was funny. She got her turn and sat in front of our laptop cracking herself up with all the funny pictures. Below is one of her best

Lily's first Church Outing

2008-09-21T21:22:00.001-07:00

Checking out the California Beach Scene!

Today our church was celebrating it's 20th anniversary. We went to the beach and had a great picnic and cook-out. Lily preferred her yogurt!

As seen above, Lily had to try on everyone's hat or sunglasses. She was snatched up by all the young girls and they just loved her. She seemed to enjoy all the attention. As we have said before, she is very extraverted and doesn't seem to have a problem in new situations.

When we walked down to the ocean she just looked at it for quite a while. She seemed to be in awe, she made several comments about it in Chinese and pointed at the waves. I have no idea what she said, probably something like....Wow! We let the waves come up and touch her feet and as you can see she liked it.

After a couple of waves Lily decided to sit down in the water and got full of sand. She didn't seem to like being all wet and messy.

Home one Week

2008-09-18T21:18:00.001-07:00

We've been home one week and one day already! It's great to say that Lily is doing great! We are getting her sleep pattern adjusted back to what is was in China (if only we could do the same!) Man, is it age or something? it's just taking so long to adjust back to CA time. Our biggest battle so far is trying to get Kaiser health insurance to cover Lily immediately. What a hassle! They don't want to cover her until Oct. 1st even though the OBRA'93 law states they are supposed to.

What kind of progress has Lily made so far?

She's beginning to speak english quite well
She has diminished her hitting, hair pulling quite a bit
She is coming up to us and giving us big hugs and kisses
She is beginning to eat some new foods like Pizza!
She is handing us things that she knows she is not supposed to touch (most of the time) although she still can't seem to keep her hands off of computers etc.
She has warmed up to the dog to the point where the dog has to run away from her
She went on the potty once after waking up from her nap dry
She is beginning to show an interest in books, she actually let Christy read her a book today

Overall Lily is doing very well and we can only expect her to do even better next week. Things are going to be a little different when daddy has to go back to work.

At Home Day 6

2008-09-16T22:37:00.000-07:00

No new pictures but just a little to write about Lily. Today was our daughter Emily's Gotcha Day so we told Emily we would take her out to dinner and she could pick the restaurant. Emily picked a Chinese food restaurant we have been going to. We ordered Emily's favorite, soft noodles with veggies plus several other dishes. Lily ended up eating like a horse! She loved the soup, she slurped it up like it was going out of style. She figured out how to use chopsticks to eat her noodles and she shoveled the beef and chicken into her mouth like she was back at home. Then, at the end of dinner the waitress brought over some ice cream, Lily loved it! The ladies at the restaurant tried to speak to her in Mandarin but she would only respond by pointing or acknowledging yes or no. She seems to get pretty shy around strangers, at least for the first few minutes. Anyway, we believe we've found Lily's favorite restaurant too.

Also, I took Lily with me to work to pick up my paycheck. Of course everyone wanted to meet her. At first she acted very shy and didn't interact much but within 5 minutes or so she was giving high-fives and blowing kisses to people. She really is quite a social little one. We are sure that God is going to use this quality for His purposes sometime in the future, much like her sister. To have two outgoing daughters was not what we expected God to give us, but, His plans and purposes are far above our own. Our logic was that God would not give us TWO outgoing girls but we don't know His plans for them, only He does.

At Home Days 3 & 4

2008-09-14T21:55:00.000-07:00

Day 3 at Home

Lily seems to be feeling quite comfortable here as you can see in the picture above. She's just relaxing in her little chair and enjoying all her new family members, including our dog, Ginger.
Yesterday Lily was warming up to the dog, then this morning she acted afraid of her again. By the end of today she was chasing the dog and the dog had to run away from her!!! Lily even puts her face down near the dog so the dog can give her a ching ching (a kiss). Tonight Lily wanted to hold the dog and the dog wanted down, she couldn't understand why she couldn't keep the dog in a head lock.

We finally got Micah and Lily together for this picture. Remember these two were born on the same day. We think he weighs at least 10 lbs. more than her and as you can see he is almost a head taller.
Lily is also getting along really well with Emily. They sat and played with this pretend cash register for quite a long time today. Lily is quick to give Emily hugs and kisses. There is still the occasional hair pulling or push, but nothing like at first.

No, she hasn't become a California girl already. The phone is dead but Lily doesn't know that. My son Jacob gave her this phone because she stole his real one and wouldn't give it back. He was trying to talk to his fiance on the phone and Lily was running around the house with his phone in her hand and we could hear his girlfriends voice on the phone as she ran through the house, Lily.....Lily....Ju Ju......anyway, you get the picture. So Jacob gave her one of his old phones and she was quite happy with it.

How is Lily Doing?

I would say overall she is doing very well. She is eating most of what we give her. She has almost completely adjusted to the time difference (way better than mom and dad have). She seems very happy. Since we have had her now going on two weeks we have seen a decrease in the hitting, pinching etc. Once in a while she will still just freeze up in frustration or anger. Usually associated with not getting her own way. But even this behavior has seemed to diminish in duration and frequency.

When it's nap time, she says good night to everyone, gives kisses and goes right down. She has been doing better at nap time than at bed time. She has gotten very upset at night so we tried something different. We found that she does better if someone stays in the room with her for a few minutes to assure her that we are still there. It seems that she is used to someone being in the room when she sleeps. This is where visiting the orphanage helped. We visited her sleeping area and the kids were actually taking a nap at the time of our visit. The ayi (nanny) was there in the room with the kids. It appeared that she was making sure they stayed in their beds. So, based upon that we figured she's probably used to having someone in the room when she falls asleep. So last night and tonight we stayed in the room for a few minutes and sure enough, she fell right to sleep.

We have had quite a few visitors, just family but we have a big family. We have been judging how Lily does with groups of people. We would not have had people over if it seemed to upset her or bother in any way. So far she has done remarkably well. She is a very social girl as the Ayi's and volunteers at the orphanage would probably attest.

We did skip church this morning though. Mostly because Christy and I are both still exhausted from not being fully adjusted to the time.

Lily is quickly learning words in english. She is a very quick learner and seems to understand a lot. I'm sure she will be speaking in sentences in no time at all.

First Day Back Home

2008-09-13T05:44:00.000-07:00

Lily and Micah Hit it Off!

This is actually a make-up kiss, earlier Lily got mad at Micah for something he was doing and she sat there, holding up her little index finger waving it in Micah's face, scolding him in Chinese for something he did that she didn't like. Of course we were not able to capture it on video, but it was hilarious!

Lily is not quite sure what to think about this ball of fur that moves

Lily is starting to warm up to Ginger our dog. She actually asked to hold her!

We were very blessed by our sons and daughters-in-law who had cleaned the house, mowed the lawn, and did the laundry. Lauren & Aaron made us a welcome home sign, bought us groceries and dinner and brought balloons to welcome us back. Of course we were exhausted but we were also very happy to see everybody. Since we had used the iChat while we were in China Lily already recognized everyone, including Ginger. Lily seemed to warm up to everyone quite well. Of course, she is a very social little girl anyway.

We are still trying to adjust to the time change. It is difficult to switch back from day to night etc. Our first night Lily went to bed at 9:30 pm or so, then woke up at 11 something. We stayed up with her until 3am then she slept until 11 am! Please pray that we all quickly adjust back to California time.

Thank you all for your prayers for the plane trip home. We could not have endured as well as we did without them. After being awake for 22 hours your nerves get a little frazzled but because of your prayers we did pretty well.

We will continue to post pictures and update the blog for family and friends to view and especially for you waiting families. We know how hard it is to wait and wait and wait. We waited about 3 years for Lily. When we started this adoption the wait between log in and referral was only 5-7 months, boy did that change in a hurry! We were logged in in January 16th, 2006 and we got Lily September 1 2008. But, the wait is worth it!!!

We Made It Home!

2008-09-12T02:04:00.001-07:00

Touch Down!

(We had to touch Lily's feet on U.S. soil to make it official! )

After what seemed like two eternities, we finally made it home to California. Lily did great on our flight from Guangzhou to Tokyo (4.5 hrs). She took a nap and played the whole time. On the flight from Tokyo to Los Angeles she stayed awake for the first 5 hours (flight total hrs 9.5). We had to get pretty creative to keep her entertained and quiet. We had brought some toys but she didn't seem interested in them for very long. I have a watch with little dials that go around with the push of a button and I can't tell you how many times I pushed them and watched them go "round and round" with Lily. Hey, whatever works to keep her from screaming her head off on the plane. Finally, after ~5 hrs she conked out for about 3 hrs.

Above, our grandson models his new outfit, hat and all. Micah and Lily are exactly the same age. We will post a picture of them together when we can get them to hold still. He towers over her.

Leaving this Morning

2008-09-10T14:21:00.000-07:00

We are leaving this morning for home. Please pray for us. We have about 16 hours of flight ahead of us and when we get home the day will just be beginning in California, so we covet your prayers.

Thank You,

The Hammersleys

Our Last Group Dinner In Guangzhou

2008-09-09T05:34:00.000-07:00

Dinner at the Full House Restaurant

Tonight the entire CHI group had dinner together courtesy of CHI. It's nice to get together with other adoptive families and exchange stories and experiences. Several in our group speak Mandarin and are able to communicate with Lily. Tonight she seemed to get very frustrated and at one point she started crying. We had a similar experience this morning at breakfast. Lily wanted something and I wasn't getting it. She got so frustrated that she went into kind of a shut down mode for about 5 minutes then she got over it. We know this will get better over time. She's going to have to learn english because it would take us a lot longer to learn Chinese.

Medical Exam Day / Shopping Day

2008-09-08T05:33:00.001-07:00

Medical Examination Day

The medical exam, as you may have heard, is quite a brief, very cursory exam. It consists of three parts, the ENT visit (pictured above) where they determine whether your child can hear or not. The lady squeezes a squeaky toy next to your child's ear, and if they turn their head.....well, their hearing is fine! Lily did great here, the lady explained everything she was going to do and Lily just let her do it. She even turned her head so the lady could examine her other ear. She even opened her mouth so they could put the popcicle stick (official term) inside. Next we went on to the Weigh Station where they weigh your child (soaked diaper and all). Again, the lady explained everything to Lily, she showed her the temperature probe, that it wouldn't hurt her and Lily let her put it under her arm. Then, they put her in the fish scale with her two pound diaper.....Yep, 22 lbs! Not! Then we went to the "Medical Surgical" room. This gentleman did not explain hardly anything to Lily but she did just great. She even managed to knock the guys glasses off when she grabbed for his stethoscope. I think we have another doctor in the family.....Emily being the first. Well, anyway, for you waiting families, it will be one of the highlights of your stay! especially for those of us who are in the medical field!

THEN OFF TO SHOPPING

Shamian Island is probably the most convenient place to do your shopping for souvenirs. You could spend pretty much an entire day there. The best shop is Jordan's. Jordan is such a nice guy and he really puts his heart into his work. He has very reasonable prices and the quality of his work (etchings, chops) is very good.

Lily did especially well during our 4-5 hours of shopping. She didn't complain one bit. She just sat in the stroller and looked adorable! Many people stopped us and commented on how beautiful our daughters were, they loved Lily's curly hair, they also say she's very smart.

Again we were stopped by some Chinese ladies and they asked all sorts of questions about the girls and again thanked us for adopting them.

A Fun Day in Guangzhou

2008-09-07T15:21:00.001-07:00

Lily is finally letting Emily help her and play with her without hitting and pushing her away. She realizes that Emily is going to be nice to her and not hit her or take away her things

The Westin has a great play room with tons of really fun toys for the little ones. There were a lot of toys that we've never seen before. Anyway, Lily and the other little ones had a great play time. They actually did quite well in getting along with each other. no hitting etc. Lily tried out quite a few of the different toys that you can sit on or ride. She seemed to really like to play with the cups and forks and spoons. she liked pretending she was feeding herself and others.

Lily did really well in the water. At first she was a little afraid and would not let daddy hold her, only mommy. Later she let daddy play with her and even let him put her on her back. It took quite a while before she was ready to get out of the pool.

Another Breakthrough

Today at dinner Emily was standing in front of Lily and had her hair right there for Lily to pull. Lily grabbed her hair, looked at us then let go without pulling her sisters hair. That was great! Before she would have just yanked her hair and then laughed. She's starting to get it. She's starting to see that Emily is not a threat to her and that she (Emily) is being nice to her and she doesn't have to always be on the defense. Emily has had her own struggles with jealousy and has been somewhat impatient with Lily's behavior, but she's very aware of it and communicates her feelings to us when it happens.

God's Faithfulness

2008-09-06T15:35:00.000-07:00

I would like to take time to thank God for all the awesome things He has done on this trip. Christy and I have been praying for a long time that Lily would be loved in the orphanage and be able to receive love when she comes to us. Well, He has answered that prayer in abundance. First of all, He provided volunteers at the orphanage (some being christians) who have been seeing Lily for the past year. One of the volunteers chose to focus on two of the children, one of which was Lily and they prayed regularly for her. They had been praying that God would bring a christian family to love and care for Lily, so it's like she was sandwiched in prayer. Also, Lily was one of the favored children in the orphanage. All the Ayi's seemed to know Ju Ju, everywhere we went there was someone else who knew her and had cared for and loved her. Now, she has begun to really warm up to us, she's coming up to us and giving us big hugs. She's kissing us without having to be told to, it is a blessing to see God's faithfulness in the life of one little child. It shows how much He cares individually for each one, to the extent that He will move on the heart of a family all the way around the world to come and bring that little one into their home that He has chosen for them. AWSOME!

Secondly, we are traveling with a very nice group of families. Many of which are first time parents, they have been able to ask Christy questions and draw on her experience as a mom. You can just see God's provision for them. Also, we were the only family who had been here before when we were in Nanjing, so it seemed to help the other families when they had questions. It also helped us in not being so intimidated by everything, I think we have been able to enjoy things more since it's not totally foreign to us.

We have also been able to enjoy the Chinese people. We seem like such and oddity to them, these caucasian people walking around with two Chinese girls, but they are always friendly and very nice to us and the girls. Several times I would see a Chinese man or woman give us the "thumbs-up" sign like they are happy to see their chinese daughters getting a family.

Off to Guangzhou

2008-09-06T06:08:00.001-07:00

(Emily is a real trooper on airplanes, she especially likes the take offs)

Today we flew to Guangzhou for the final leg of our journey. In Guangzhou we will complete the U.S. part of the adoption, the medical examination (this is where they hold up a bell or something next to the child's ear, and if they move their head when is sounds, "Yep, your hearing is fine")

Lily fell asleep after our "lunch" on the plane. All I had to do was tell her it's time to sleep and I placed her head on my shoulder....voila....she was out. I was even successful in passing her off to her mommy.

Who couldn't love this little face

Lily is checking out the view from the Westin Hotel, it's quite spectacular.

We were absolutely blown away by our room here at the Westin. It is HUGE! It is also very nice. Very modern decorations, Japanese style sliding doors to the bathroom, flat screen television, marble desk and more.... Really nice!

A Little Note about Lily

So far, everyone who has encountered her have noted how very smart she is and how well she communicates to them. She speaks Mandarin and Wu dialect and some english. Someone had been teaching her some english words. You should hear her say pillow, she says peddo, it's so cute. She says car, bed, shoe, Emmy, bye bye, and will repeat just about any word you tell her to. Of course she doesn't understand what it means but that's only a matter of time. She does have some bad behaviors, such as hitting, pinching, spitting, yelling, but what do you expect from a child who has had very little one on one instruction and training and no parenting at all. Over all she is very well behaved. She is beginning to initiate kisses to her sister rather than hitting her. She has been coming up to Christy and myself and giving hugs and kisses, overall she is doing quite well considering how aware she is about what's going on.

Special Dinner with Nancy and Tai

2008-09-05T06:42:00.000-07:00

Nancy and Tai took us to a very nice restaurant in Nanjing, just a short walk form the hotel. They ordered many different dishes and they were all delicious!

This is our last night in Nanjing so we had to say good-bye to Tai. Tai (not sure of spelling) was a very sweet lady. She made our visit to Nanjing very special.

Finishing up Paperwork

2008-09-05T06:38:00.001-07:00

More Paperwork

This afternoon all the ladies met with Nancy to finish up our paperwork. All the dads got kiddie duty. We thought it was going to be only one hour, it ended up being over two.

Visit to Nanjing City Wall

2008-09-04T22:29:00.001-07:00

This is one of the inner courts within the wall

Nanjing was the capitol of China at one point. The ruler built a wall around the city for protection. The wall is 19 miles long and the average height is 39 ft. On top of the wall it is wide enough to drive a car.

The lady on the left is Thai, she is our tour guide while in Nanjing. She is a very sweet person and has made us feel very welcomed. She lives here in Nanjing and has been giving us a good education on Chinese history.

At this site there are 4 gates for protection. During battle the soldiers could stand above and throw stones etc onto their enemies.

Tonight is our last night in Nanjing, tomorrow we fly to Guangzhou. Tonight Nancy and Thai are taking us to a nice restaurant for dinner. It has been a huge blessing having Nancy here since we knew her from 5 years ago. It's nice to have a familiar face and she is a very helpful and sweet lady.

Thank You Nancy!

Visit to Nanjing Museum

2008-09-04T00:25:00.000-07:00

Today is kind of a low key day. We visited the Nanjing Museum. The highlights were the intricate Jade carvings and the loom woven designs. We also did a little shopping of course and Emily got her first souvenir.

Today we Visited the Wuxi Orphanage

2008-09-03T05:59:00.003-07:00

Visit to Lily's Orphanage

The Wuxi Social Welfare Institute

The Wuxi Social Welfare Institute is a beautiful facility where Lily lived. It is the largest orphanage in the Jiangsu Province. It also serves as a hospital and retirement facility for the elderly.

The picture below is of lunch that was prepared especially for our visit. The gentleman in the photo is one of the directors of the orphanage. The lady is the head Ayi of the orphanage. We were not expecting to be treated so special but we learned a lot about the orphanage in our conversation with the director.

This Ayi (Nanny) is one of two that Lily called Ma Ma. She was very attached to them and they were very attached to her. In fact, this nanny did not want to let go of Lily. She is the one who gave Lily the Jade necklace she wears.

The nanny in this picture was Lily's first nanny. She is showing us that fact that Lily knows exactly where her "special" cup is supposed to go.

This was Lily's special chair. She went right in, pointed to the sticker on the chair and sat down.

The little boy in the picture is Lily's best friend, she calls him "big brother" in Chinese which sounds like (guh guh). This little boy also has found a family who is waiting to adopt him.

This couple, Bill & Rainy volunteer at the Wuxi orphanage along with many others from the Wuxi International School. We met Rainy on-line

When it was time to say good-bye to the Ayi's, Lily waved to us as though she was staying with them and this little part was over. The separation was somewhat difficult for both parties. Later this evening, when we put Lily to bed, it seemed to hit her that she missed her Ayi's and wanted them instead of us. It was very difficult to listen to her cry for them as she lie in bed. We had to pick her up and comfort her quite a bit before she could actually fall asleep. We knew we were taking a risk of this happening but in the end, the information we gained from the Ayi's was worth it......at least that's how we feel at this point.

Thank You for Loving Chinese Babies

2008-09-02T00:20:00.000-07:00

I wanted to make sure I post this. Yesterday when our family was eating dinner in the hotel restaurant two very elderly Chinese ladies came up to our table and asked if our daughter was a Chinese baby, then they asked if Emily was a Chinese baby, we said yes, then they said, "Thank You for loving them". We were very moved by their comments. You could see that they truly appreciated our loving their Chinese daughters.

It is our privilege!!!

Official Chinese Adoption Today!

2008-09-02T00:01:00.000-07:00

We're all getting ready to go back to the government building to finalize the adoption as far as the Chinese government part is concerned. This is an exciting time, this makes it official!!!

This is one of Lily's Ayi's who cared for her in the orphanage. We thanked her for caring so much for our little flower. She seemed to love Lily very much.

When we got to the government building we first sat at one desk and completed the Adoption Registration, then we went to the next desk and completed the notary, then finally we paid the orphanage fee. We had to carry a stack of money that was literally about 4 inches thick.

After the official work was over we all got to go to the supermarket where we could get things we needed for the babies. Just going to the store is quite an adventure. People stop and talk to you, look at the babies, pick them up and make very nice comments. The Chinese people love babies and have been very friendly to us. They appreciate the fact that we love Chinese babies too.

GOTCHA DAY!!!

2008-08-31T22:42:00.000-07:00

Here's Lily!!! She is the cutest and sweetest thing in the world!! No bias on our part at all! She cam walking into the building, she talks up a storm and has the most adorable face. As you can see she has wavy hair (she actually has hair!) and she was very loved by the Ayi's at the orphanage.

Right away she was smiling, laughing and kissing us. She called me Ba Ba and Christy Ma Ma.

Emily and Lily hit if off right away. Emily had Lily laughing and playing with her.

We took Lily to the hotel restaurant and she proceeded to make a huge mess at the table. She has a great appetite and eats just about anything you put in front of her. She if very good at communicating her wants and desires. It seems she's used to fighting for herself. When I put my hand in front of her so she couldn't grab at things, she pinched my hand, like, move it buddy!

I just put Lily down for a nap while Christy went to do paper work. She cried for two or three minutes then was out like a light. I hope and pray that she continues to do so well, we are just blown away at how well she is doing so far.

I am confident that we can attribute a good part to everyone's prayers.

Tomorrow We Get Lily!

2008-08-31T05:20:00.000-07:00

Today we flew from Beijing to Nanjing (2hr flight) and are staying at the Manderin Garden Hotel. Nanjing is a beautiful city, mostly new buildings and apartment complexes. It is supposed to be one of the more rich provinces in China. We found out today that our CHI coordinator here is Nancy who was our CHI coordinator 5 years ago in Guangzhou. She actually recognized us! We are all very tired and still have not gotten enough sleep. Emily has been doing great under the circumstances (lack of sleep), she only had one little melt down. We have really been enjoying the group we are traveling with. Most of us recognized each other because of our blog posts and pictures etc. The families that we are with here in Nanjing are all first time parents except us. Emily has really taken to Milena and Konstantin. They are both really nice people and they just love Emily. They are originally from Bulgaria but now live in New York. The others we are with are Pat and Wai-Ling from New Jersey and, Michelle and Daniel from St. Louis.

Tomorrow we are supposed to get Lily at around 10:00 am. I say around because they are bringing the four children from four different orphanages and Lily's orphanage is one that is several hours from here and depending upon traffic etc. One nice thing is they will video tape our receiving Lily for us then give us a DVD to take home.....COOL! That's nice because nobody gets left out of the picture.

We've found it a little hard to post only because by the time we're back in the hotel room we're so exhausted it's hard to do anything. Hopefully since we are going to be here for 6 days we'll get some sleep and some more time to post.

Tomorrow is a big day, will try to post pictures as soon as we can, we know everyone in our family wants to see what Lily looks like now.

Good Night for now!

Sight Seeing in Beijing

2008-08-30T05:32:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Beijing on Friday at 11:00 pm after being delayed in Tokyo for an hour due to thunder storms. While we were in Tokyo we met up with several adopting families and Emily met Arianna, they instantly became friends.

On Saturday we visited the Forbidden City, here are just a few pictures.

The Great Wall is quite a climb. It is very steep and there seems to be no end to it.

Sorry for the shortness of this post. We are very tired and hopefully we will get better sleep tonight but we wanted to at least post something.

Leaving in the Morning

2008-08-27T22:08:00.000-07:00

We are leaving for China in the early afternoon tomorrow!!! This last week has been quite a whirlwind of events but we are finally ready to go. We were especially blessed to be able to correspond with some volunteers at the Wuxi orphanage who know Lily. Her nick name at the orphanage is Ju Ju. They say she is very bright, outgoing and beautiful. We are hoping to be able to meet these volunteers when we are in Jiangsu but we are not sure of our schedule. We will be getting Lily on Monday, September 1st.

We will try to post often, presuming no problems with uploading to our blog.

Those In Wuxi

2008-08-25T07:47:00.000-07:00

Christy and I would like to thank those in Jiangsu who volunteer at the Wuxi orphanage for commenting on our blog "Adopting our Lily". We so appreciate your information and your loving care for our daughter. To "Lori" we tried to email you but we could not access your email. To "anonymous" Thank you sooo much for the information, we did send an email to you.

Big Sister & Little Sister Outfits

2008-08-18T22:35:00.000-07:00

Emily wants to be "Twins" with her little sister. She can't wait to wear these matching outfits.

Lily's Room All Ready.....Just need a Baby!!!

2008-08-18T22:19:00.000-07:00

The kite is an authentic hand-made, hand-tied kite from China.

Ginger has this look on her face like.....well, where's the baby?

Lily's bedroom is actually an adjoining part of our master bedroom (this was a feature that sold us on this house), it used to be a dressing/powder room. It works out perfectly, she has her own little space and we maintain some privacy (hopefully!). Christy used some of the decorations from the shower to finish the room. It looks great!

Our son Aaron painted the closet doors before our daughter Emily came home from China in 2003.

Baby Shower for Lily, August 2nd

2008-08-08T22:53:00.000-07:00

We were extremely blessed by our daughters-in-Law who hosted an awesome baby shower on Saturday, Aug. 2nd. Lauren, Jennifer and friend Colleen decorated Lauren's parents house with Chinese lanterns, fans, Asiatic Lilys, paper goods etc. Christy was very blessed by the shower.

Counting Down the Days

2008-07-26T07:23:00.000-07:00

Here we are 33 days away from leaving to China...but who's counting? (every single family who's in the same boat, that's who). Christy and I have been so blessed by all the people submitting comments on our blog. We never expected non-family to check it out. Of course Christy has been checking out many other family's blogs, following their story and trip to China, so I guess we shouldn't be surprised.

Some friends of ours who live in Arizona are currently in Ethiopia adopting three siblings ages 12, 10, and 6. They took their entire family of 4 biological children with them. What a blessing to be able to take them all to meet their new siblings. According the Theresa, the mother, Ethiopia is a major culture shock. People are bathing on the streets, begging, poverty everywhere, so sad. For all of you adoptive families, don't you find yourselves wishing you could just adopt the whole lot and bring them home with you?

God Bless all you families who are currently in China getting your child, and for those who are waiting, and waiting, and waiting, remember, it's WORTH THE WAIT!

2008-07-12T16:13:00.000-07:00

Well we received our flight confirmations and e-tickets yesterday. We will be leaving for China on August 28th and returning September 11.

We will be flying with Northwest Airlines. We have to lay over in Tokyo both coming and going, so, we'll get to see a little bit of Japan. I (Jerry) wanted to at least fly business class on the way home but it would have been way too expensive >$8000 for all of us. The lap seat cost for Lily is based upon 10% of whatever the going rate is for a ticket on that particular day, so we're paying around $200 for her lap seat for the trip home.

Here is our exact Itinerary:

Leave LAX Thursday, August 28th at 1:20pm

Arrive Tokyo August 29th 4:30pm on Friday

Leave Tokyo 6:45pm Friday

Arrive Beijing 9:35pm Friday

In China: Leave Beijing Aug 31

Arrive Nanjing Aug 31

Leave Nanjing Sept 6th

Arrive Guangzhou Sept 6th

Leave Guangzhou to Tokyo Sept 11th

Arrive Tokyo @ Sept 11

Arrive LAX Sept 11

In China we do not have our "In-country" itinerary yet

2008-07-06T20:22:00.000-07:00

This is a test. We are testing our new Mac Book that we bought in order to take with us to China.

We should be receiving our travel confirmation dates this week so please be praying for the best flight, time, and price.

Thanks

Traveling in Late August

2008-06-20T22:06:00.000-07:00

We received an email today telling us that we will probably be traveling August 28th and be in Beijing August 29th. Soooooo, we get to wait more! We have to wait until after the Olympics are over which end August 24th.

We also received an email giving us more detailed information about Lily. She was 5.06 lbs when she was born and 18.5 inches long.....Tiny!

Proud Mom & Dad

2008-06-17T23:08:00.000-07:00

We are very excited to be the parents of our little Lily (Xi Yan Juan). We are hoping to hear very soon when we get to travel to China and get her. So far our agency, CHI has made no indications that travel will be affected by the Olympics. We are hoping to go as soon as late July to early August. We will be updating this blog (as long as I can figure out how to do everything) on a regular basis so that family and friends can follow our journey. At this point we believe we'll be traveling into Shanghai then on to Jiangsu. We're not sure about any of the travel arrangements at this point.

We did want to thank all who have posted comments on our blog, it is a blessing to hear all your words of encouragement. Also, we would like to encourage all those who are waiting for their little blessings. Please be encouraged, your child will be worth all the waiting!

We Finally Got Our Referral!

2008-06-10T19:14:00.001-07:00

Lily is from the Wuxi Social Welfare Institute in the Peoples Republic of China. They say she is a deep sleeper (yeah!) She likes music and is an outgoing child.....Oh Boy!

WE RECEIVED OUR CALL!!!!!

2008-06-09T10:52:00.000-07:00

Today at 10:17am we received a call from Children's Hope International telling us about Lily!!! Lily was born on October 17th, 2006 (exactly the same day as our Grandson!!!!)Can you believe that???

Her Chinese name is XI Yan Yuan (don't ask us how to pronounce it)
She weighs 18 lbs and is 28 inches tall (TINY!!!)

She was born in the Jiangsu Province in China, which is on the northern coast. We are waiting for a scanned picture of her. As soon as we receive it we'll post it.

PRAISE THE LORD!

REFERRAL IS COMING!

2008-06-05T21:59:00.000-07:00

This is actually a re-posting of a message earlier today but I'm learning (or trying to learn) how to automatically send emails when something of significance happens in our adoption.

Possibly Referral to arrive on Monday

2008-06-05T13:57:00.000-07:00

We just received word that China has sent a package via DHL and it should arrive on Monday! Most likely this means it contains our referral.......FINALLY!

Still Waiting to hear something

2008-06-02T21:01:00.000-07:00

Some rumors are in the air but nothing absolute yet. We are expecting to hear something any day now!!! We both have been visiting the "Rumor Queens" website to see if anything definite is being said but just bits and pieces of information....maybe this or possibly that........waiting can be so hard sometimes......

Still Waiting

2008-05-26T22:14:00.000-07:00

I don't know what happened to the original post for this date (I'm still learning how to work this Blog). Anyway, we are expecting to hear something either this week (end of May) or the first week of June. It's hard not knowing when we are going to actually GO but if we at least have a picture of Lily we will feel like we're a lot closer to getting her.

Teaching on Orphans

2008-05-11T14:51:00.000-07:00

GOD’S HEART TOWARD THE ORPHAN

James 1:27 “Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and keep oneself unstained by the world”.

“Visit” does not mean, just go visit them and you have fulfilled God’s desire. It means meeting their needs on an ongoing basis.

If James is summing up true religion, why does he choose caring for orphans and widows to sum it up? BECAUSE IT’S GOD’S HEART!

Remember the context of James, He is exhorting Christians to be doers of the word.

GOD CARES ABOUT THE ORPHAN

DEUT 24:17-22 Read

Vs 18b “therefore, I am commanding you to do this thing

God reveals His heart toward the unfortunate, His people were to act in faith and not take ALL the harvest but purposefully leave some for the alien, the orphan, and for the widow.
In an agricultural society, their crops were their source of sustenance and income, and they were COMMANDED BY THE LORD to set aside some of their “income” for the alien, orphan, and widow.

How does this principle apply to our generation? Do we have a harvest? No, So, are we excused from obeying this principle? I don’t believe so. We can take some of our “income” and use it to care for the unfortunate, the alien, orphan and widow.

Job 29 1-12

Vs 12 is the reason Job was honored in his community

POINT: I believe that each one of us are called, in some way, to help the orphan and the widow. AND there may be someone out there whom The Lord is calling to bring an orphan child into your home and CARE for them.

“I would adopt if I knew I could adequately provide for the child.”

The Challenge

I challenge you to show me in the Bible where we are to obey, based upon God showing us the means of provision prior to the step of faith. And, even if you can, I will show you 10 instances to your one where God called His people to act in faith PRIOR to knowing from whence the provision would PRACTICALLY come.

· The walls of Jerico – did God tell Joshua how?
· Peter walking on water – did Jesus tell him how?

I SAY A RESOUNDING NO!

As these men were OBEDIENT to The Lord, The Lord provided the miraculous!

What is the criteria for our obedience to The Lord?

Is it age ?
· UnBiblical perspective - Lord, I can’t add another child to my family, I’m too old.
· Biblical Perspective - Abraham was 100 years old

Is it means?
UnBiblical Perspective – Lord, when I have the means (money, strength, ability, etc.) to obey you, THEN I will do what you ask me to do.
Biblical Perspective – “Lord, if that is you, bid me to come” Peter; Joshua, marched on Jerico by Faith
·
The Biblical criteria for obedience to The Lord is, if He tells you to do something, DO IT!

The world is never going to see just how great our God is if we do not, through our faith, demonstrate how great and awesome He is! In other words, FROM THE WORLDS PERSPECTIVE, HOW ELSE ARE THEY GOING TO SEE HOW AWSOME AND POWERFUL OUR GOD IS UNLESS IT IS DEMONSTRATED THROUGH HIS PEOPLE.

April 29, 2008

2008-04-29T22:16:00.000-07:00

We are still waiting to hear if January 16th, 2006 is included in the next round of referrals. We highly doubt that our log-in will be included but you never know...

Our Story

2008-04-14T23:25:00.000-07:00

Journey to Our Second Daughter:
We are posting this site for our family and friends to be able to follow us on our journey to our second daughter, Lily, from China.

Brief Summary:

God gave us a desire to adopt many years ago (greater than 15). Then, when His timing was right, He showed us to move ahead with our first adoption. It was clear that God was in it because everything fell into place. We adopted Emily in September of 2003. When we were in China Jerry said, “I think we are going to do this again”. I said, “I don’t think so”. It just seemed like a lot to do again...God obviously had His plans.

At the beginning of 2005 I began to feel God wanted us to adopt again. At church the women were studying a book called “Don’t Waste Your Life” by John Piper. The words in the book really spoke to me and I knew we were called to adopt again. A few weeks later I bought a book for our daughter Emily. The book was “Shoey and Dot” by Steven Curtis Chapman. The book came with a DVD about adoption. To me it was a confirmation of what I already knew in my heart. We are to adopt again.

Jerry wasn’t so convinced. After I told him of my feelings he began waiting for God to give him the same convincing evidence/conviction similar to when we adopted Emily (God had made it abundantly clear to both of us that we were to adopt Emily). He (Jerry) was somewhat confused as to why his wife had such a strong conviction about adopting again and he seemed to be getting nothing from The Lord by way of confirmation. He decided to speak to our pastor Tim. Tim told Jerry that many times in the Bible God gave the burden for children (or to have a child) to the women and not the man, there are several examples in the Bible of the women of God crying out for a child like Sarah and Hannah. Anyway, Jerry came away from that meeting with a different perspective and we began the process to adopt our second daughter, Lily.

We started the process in July 2005 after our 3rd son, Aaron, married his wife Lauren. When he moved out it meant we no longer had too many children living in the house, and we were able to begin the adoption process. You are allowed 5 children living in the house including the adopted child. Since we now had 3 sons and 1 daughter living in the house, we had a VACANCY!

We worked on the required paperwork (our dossier) that had to go to China and it went to China on December 20, 2005. The dossier was logged in on January 16th, 2006 in China. That put us in line waiting for our daughter. At the time, the length of the wait from “Log-in” to “referral” (the date you received a picture and profile of your daughter) was between 6-8 months. It is now taking over two years. God has used this time to show us more about the situation of orphans around the world and especially in China. It has been a long hard wait but it is ABSOLUTELY WORTH IT!
As of today, April 14th, China has given referrals up to the log-in date of January 9th, 2006. Our log-in is 1 week away! China has been processing around 5-6 log-in days per month, so, we hope to receive our referral at the beginning of June and hope to travel to China in about 8 weeks from then to GET OUR LITTLE BLESSING, LILY!

Our Family as it was in 2003

2008-04-12T11:32:00.000-07:00