His mercies are new every morning...

These new days with 4 little (1 not so little =0)ones are FULL. That is the word of the day around here, but cannot be said without being - FULL of His MERCY and joy- or I wouldn't make it through! Through the busy crazy moments and tantrums, the moments full of precious interactions with brothers and sister, full of little surprises of His grace through meals from friends and family, blessings and prayers of encouragement.

Thank you for the beautiful sign boys! This sign as well as dinner in the crock pot and an 'extreme makeover' to our garage by my amazing father-in-law Pat, and a spotless house and reorganized cabinets by Thelma were waiting for us upon our return- and the list could go on about all our family! You are amazing. Thank you!

First moments home. Does she look scared to you? =0)

First visit at U.W. -with pediatric adoption specialist, Dr. Davies

Again....does she look scared to you?? Who laughs and smiles at being naked in a cold doctor office?

For those of you wondering, we took a day trip to Seattle this last Monday and had visits with Glory's doctor at U.W. , who is amazing and so great with Glory, and also a team of doctors that will help through all her surgeries to come if needed.  Yes, that is correct, if. We are not afraid to say we are always asking God to go ahead and get ALL the glory if He would like to just heal her without surgery, because He has the power to just do that! And if He chooses otherwise, the talented and compassionate medical team at Children's would be great to work with. Through the whole day Glory was amazingly happy and calm. The only horrible, heart-ripping part was having her blood drawn at U.W. This was necessary to see what kind of things she could have without us knowing, and also show which vaccines she was given in China.  But after those horrible minutes of being poked, she really allowed us to comfort her and she really seemed somehow more responsive to us. She was so exhausted from crying and the trauma of that i think, she 'passed out' in the car ride on our way over to Childrens, where we went next, and then ate just fine and laughed and bounced the rest of the day! I think we were more tired than she was by the time we headed over the mountains, and i really could be making this up, but she SEEMED to be happy to be home and went to bed immediately and i didn't hear a peep out of her! I am waiting for reality to set in and for her to start crying at everything because she just seems to be too easily comforted.....so i will just say THANK you God right now, and thank you for praying for us!
  We were just told today that her lip surgery is scheduled for January 3rd. We will go over for a pre-op appointment on the 31st and then go back and stay the 3rd and 4th. A week later the doctor would take out her stitches. Later in the year would be the more complicated surgery and healing of the palate.

Amazing Dr. Davies-They hit it off quickly, he is SO good with kids!

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Here are a few snapshots of our days filled with His glory and mercies!

Seriously??  Could she GET any cuter??

And this guy...I think there is more mischief in the Lewis household than i know what to do with...

...Does ANYONE know how to take a picture of 4 kids at the same time happily looking at the camera??I would love any tips....

This might be how most days go....

I LOVE these days!  My Reedy making art...music to my heart.

Brotherly love seems to have gone even deeper when we were gone. Judah wants to be with his cool amazing brother Zeke that can do almost ANYthing!=0)

First official daily walk, with Glory. Love it!

 

Home Sweet Home

Hello from America. Wow, it is so good to be home!  The plane flight was so much better than expected. Glory was a trooper and even slept for 4 hours on our long flight!  She doesn't sit still really. ever. But she didn't cry much the whole day of travel. We were amazed and SO thankful!  My mom picked us up at Sea-Tac and Glory slept the whole drive home. Again, surprise thank You Lord.=0)  The boys and Papa and Grandma were there on the porch to greet us and all piled in the car to mob Glory before we could take her out of the car-seat.  Didn't even phase her.  Last night, late night, was pretty rough, and we are all so tired, but today was so much fun giving the boys their new Chinese outfits with the dragons on them, and all getting to know Glory. She seems to like them all and loves climbing over Zeke and Reed, laughing at anything they try to do to entertain her. It has been a sweet day. Thank you again for posting Riann, while we were in China. What a blessing!  And thank you to all our friends and family who 'prayed us home'.  And now I will go to bed dreaming of a peaceful night's sleep!

Visa, park, and zoo!

It's official! We're on our way home-Glory's visa in hand.

 

 

 

 

I know i am really going to miss these strange signs when we get home... 

.....I hope they really meant PLAY ground...  

 

 

 

Our one chance all week to get out without the rain, we headed to Liuhuahu Park. It was huge, and beautiful. Meandering paths, Pagodas, bridges, impressive gigantic trees with massive root systems, open air-free!-'gym' , and plenty of locals that either found us openly amusing or just worth discreet whispers. Or maybe it wasn't Glory in the arms of some white Americans they were glaring it at all.... maybe it was the fact that i finally broke out the shorts i brought and there is not a single other human in China wearing shorts in November in public?? For the most part, we honestly have been pleasantly surprised at how friendly or indifferent most people are when they see us. There seem to be very few people just on vacation to China where we have been. Most non-Chinese people we have seen are either business men or families who are adopting chinese children! So we really stick out, even in this huge city!

 

 

Our last meal with Chad and Mandy and Micah from Virginia. These sweet friends that we met on this life-changing adventure, as well as Sarah and Dan from Oklahoma will forever be part of Glory's story. Each new day's challenge or joy was multiplied by sharing with these special people, families. Thank you Lord! 

 

 

 

This is inside what seemed to be a museum for huge rock formations, but since there was NO information that we could find in English, your guess is as good as ours by looking at the pictures!

 

Appearing to be a huge Chinese feast, if you look closely... everything is made from rocks! ...strange, but impressive. 

 

Dragon shaped rock- just for you boys!

 

Hmmm. That's sad, it looks as though Dan and i will be the only ones entering 'Happy Land' today. (this was just one entrance to part of the zoo that had amusement park rides)

 

And another...for 'the boys' (a roller coaster that went through this huge crocodile tunnel)

 

 Well, what do we have here? Why yes, you are correct, that would be Dan hiding under a giant mushroom with a real 'happy land' smile on his face. The mushrooms worked a lot better than our leaking $4 umbrella we bought on the street!

 

Well, since it was our last day in Guang Zhou and we had heard so many great reviews of the local zoo, we figured it was our last chance to go and we couldn't wait for the rain to stop. So boys, the first thing we saw were flamingos. Oh yes, this was the best part- the zoo was amazing and only cost $3 a person to get in! It has seemed so random how cheap some things are and others so much more than the U.S. go figure.

 

 

Praising God for every bit of this trip to China. The good, the bad, the ugly, and the Glory!  Not really excited about the hours of travel tomorrow, but is so worth it to walk into our house and bring 'sister' HOME!  So long for now....

Out and about

Hi again everyone. This time i have just written a little something below  most pictures.  Tomorrow we have our consulate appointment and the next day we get Glory's visa. Saturday we head home! Yay!  She is doing much better. Thank you SO much for your prayers and encouraging comments! We can see them  through gmail even though we can't respond back.

 

 

 

"Dinner"...before it makes it to the table!

We have seen so many strange phrases or funny misspellings when they are trying to write in English...it often doesn't work out very well.

 

Breakfast with Glory -- always sweet indigestion! This little peanut never stops moving. She will fit right in with our household of busy boys!

 

Um...no, thank you!

 

I know this is blurry of her, but it is the only picture with that adorable headband where she is smiling -- I just had to! The pink one she had on before this lasted about 10 minutes before she tore the flower off!

 

Arabian restaurant down the street from our hotel. Great food. Great company. Our new friends also adopted from Nanning Province.

 

 

 

Not sure why, but Glory seemed afraid of the fish!

 

 

 

French influenced Shamian Island -- US Consulate used to be here so there are many tourist shops. We did find some great treasures to give Glory some day. It was a fun rainy day...like the day before.

 

 

 

Getting out of the rain for a minute on this veranda by Starbucks.

 

Traditional Chinese boat. We had dinner on board with several other adoptive families and cruised the Pearl River while admiring the amazing and beautiful skyline of Guang Zhou.

 

Below deck was a tiny maritime museum.

 

 

Tallest tower in Asia until Japan built one a bit higher in recent years.

 

 

Daddy's girl for sure!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Best meal on the trip -- Thai, of course! Sorry Chinese food fans!

 

 

This man is testing the carved "chop" he made us, for Glory, that has the character for Xia, part of her name. It is just like a stamp with special ink.

 

Another artist busily painting "Glory" on a sheet of paper, for another treasure to hang in her room. Yes, I see we might be getting carried away here...what is a girl to do though?

 

 

Yes, this is a smile! I don't know if it was all the people, attention from being so stinkin' cute in her little  Chinese outfit, or all the crazy western Christmas decorations!