Chris and Melissa

A week after Molly came into the orphanage Melissa walked in the doors.  She was planning to foster another little girl but instead ended up leaving with Molly.  She took her home, named her Hylah Jessie and loved her like her own.

She had been through so much before Melissa got her.

Melissa then met and married Chris who loved her like his own as well.

Most orphans don't get this kind of love.

You can see in all the pictures how much they love her.

I also can see a difference in Molly when she is with Melissa and Chris vs pictures taken in the orphanage.  The sparkle is gone but quickly returns when she is with them again.

Melissa loved/loves this girl so unselfishly that she took her back to the orphanage this past spring to give her the chance to get paper ready and find a family.

There are so many waiting children in China.  The chance for older children, especially those with special needs, is slim at best.  Their future in China is grim.  At 14 they age out of the system and all chances are lost if they don't have a family by then.  14 and no family.

Thankfully Hylah Jessie had so many people that loved her and weren't going to rest until she had a family.  There were several people involved in this and lead us to our Molly.  We are beyond thankful for all of them.

Max was just home and we weren't looking to adopt at this point.  But, we kept going back to this little girl with a tragic yet amazing story.  All of which we don't really even know yet.  We kept asking if another family stepped forward yet and no one had.  We didn't want her to wait any longer.  We emailed back and forth with Melissa and even got to skype Melissa and Chris.

When we prayed and searched deep we couldn't find one reason not to adopt her.  Well I guess money was one but God has that covered.  

Molly is currently in the orphanage but they got her for a visit recently and soon will be bringing her back home until we can come and get her.  I can't tell you what a blessing that is.  The wait will be easier knowing how loved and taken care of she will be.  She will also freshen up on English and be as ready as she can be to come to the US.  It will help make her transition to our family as easy as it can be.

But, Melissa and Chris have a lot going on right now aside from Molly!  First Chris shares a birthday with Molly and second Melissa's is today!  The most important thing is they are expecting their own little girl any day now!  Sweet Rayna is going to make her entrance into the world at any minute.  She is going to have the best parents ever!

Happy Birthday Chris and Melissa!  I can't wait to see pictures of Rayna in your arms!  You guys will always be a part of our family and we are so thankful for that and for you guys!

Happy Birthday Molly

I can't wait to snuggle with her myself!

We love you Molly Kate!

There are so many people in China loving on her until we come!  What a blessing!

I think she will love having brothers and sisters!

Her and Chris (her foster dad) share a birthday!  That is so special!

People love this little girl!

Older pictures.  How cute is she?!

Half way around the world a very special girl is celebrating her 9th birthday in an orphanage.  Thank God it will be her last one there and she will be home with us next year!  I can not wait to celebrate it with her.  It is so hard to not have her home but God's perfect timing.

Here we sit at home.  Everyone is here because of the big blizzard we got over night.  The snow is going to blow all day so they will likely be home tomorrow and rest of Christmas break as well.  Oh how I wish Molly was out playing in the snow with them!  She won't know what to think!

We have been so blessed the past couple of weeks with donations to bring her home.  One wonderful and amazing family donated all the money they would have spent on Christmas gifts to us.  Can you believe that?!  So humbling.  Then an old friend mailed a check with her Christmas card and a co worker gave Larry a check.  Again it is so humbling.  We were blessed to be able to save and pay for our other two adoptions on our own.  We are still doing what we can to save as well.  We have gotten incredible deals on Christmas gifts and it blows me away every time.  God definitely provides!  We just won't be able to come up with the full amount on this adoption so are so blessed by the generosity of others.  I also have been getting orders for name puzzles and that money goes straight to the adoption fund!  As hard as it is to take money I just remember it isn't for us.  It is to bring a beautiful girl home and give her the one thing she has been asking for...............a family.  We will do whatever it takes to make her wish come true!

Happy Birthday Mia!!!

Mia turns 4 today!  So hard to believe my little peanut is 4.  It is our 2nd birthday with her.  I can't not express how much I love her.  She is just the sweetest little girl.  We are so incredibly blessed to have her in our lives.  I can't imagine our life without her.  Because of her we went back for Max and continue to adopt.  We see how amazing and wonderful the children sitting in the orphanages are.  They just need families!  Everyone that knows her falls in love.  How could you not!  I just went through pictures and just posted some random ones to share.  She has changed and grown so  much since coming home in every way!  God was showing off when he made Mia!!!

 This is the first time I held her and at a mall in Hong Kong that sameday.

First picture we saw of her and knew instantly she was our daughter!  We had seen several other waiting kids but when we saw this picture I burst into tears and said she is ours!!!

The next picture is right before she came home when she had just turned 2.  Oh how my heart broke that Christmas because we had hoped and prayed she would be home by her Birthday and Christmas and it didn't happen.  We later found out she spent it in the hospital in Hong Kong.

Just cute ones from her time in the orphanage.

When she came home and still liked Santa!  Not happening this year!  She will tell him bye bye from a distance!

 I can't believe how much all three have grown since she got home!

Never hard to get a thumb sucking picture of her!

Sometimes (ok most of the time) she doesn't cooperate for pictures.  At    All!

She still does this in her carseat and Max now joins in!

This was at the same time she would pretend she couldn't do anything for her PT when he came and then as soon as he left she would do this stuff.  Nice one Mia!

 

She knows she is pretty!

We love you sooo much Mia and are so blessed to have you in our lives! I thank God every single day for you!

We finally got our package for Molly out the door yesterday.  Hopefully it makes it there and hopefully before her birthday and Christmas for sure.  I hope she understands how much she is loved.  Oh how I wish the process didn't take so long.  We worked really hard to find things we thought would mean something to her.  Maddie and Macy were a big help.  If they loved it I figured Molly would too.  Melissa has told us so much about her so we tried to include things she would like.

Hopefully she gets this happy when she gets the package!

Here it is all ready to be shipped!

 

We made some fun necklaces for her.  If you click on the picture it should make it bigger so you can read them.  We have a few with the name Molly on them and just a few others we hope she likes.

We heard she liked mermaids and Maddie and Macy thought these looked a lot of fun.  Both wanted them too!

Maddie and Macy keep telling me I am too emotional because it was hard finding the perfect cards for her without tearing up.  It was hard but I found the perfect cards!

 

The birthday card was just perfect as well.  When you open it it plays music and below is a picture of the song it plays.  I love it!

Everything together.

A couple animals she liked and hopefully she likes them as much as her sisters.  The pig got a lot of loving before it was mailed.

She likes to fix hair so we found some pretty hair bows and rubber bands.

A frame family picture, minus her of course :( and some fuzzy warm socks with her favorite color, yellow!

Here is the photo album of family and the house.  I just made a small album so it was easy for her to hold and share.

I can not wait until she gets it and hope it is special for her.  It is so hard shopping for your child for birthday and Christmas and only being able to get enough to fit into a small box.  It just seems wrong.  But I guess atleast she knows she has a family coming for her! 

Will update more later about the progress on the adoption, as slow as it is.