Orphans

A friend sent the link to this video to me. Please watch it and think about the words you will read. ~Sharon

Bailey's New Hat

Dee made this cute little hat for Bailey. Brinley has a purple one. Bailey absolutely LOVES her new hat! Thank you, Dee!

Dear Santa

Brinley was soooooooo excited to write her letter to Santa! She and daddy took care of that task Thanksgiving night. She asked for a new baby bed for her mei mei, a camera and "a Jeep like Lilly's".

Sadness in South Carolina

Our hearts go out to the families of the Carolina and Clemson students who died in the tragic fire in NC over the weekend.





Lauren Mahon
Cassidy Pendley
William Rhea
Justin Anderson
Allison Walden
Travis Cale
Emily Yelton

Kelly

Yesterday a 14 year old girl in our community collapsed and died while out jogging with her dad. She attended the same school our boys attend.

Our hearts just break for Kelly's family.

Life can end so quickly. Yesterday she left school just like all of the other kids but today she wasn't there. The flag was lowered in her memory but Kelly wasn't there.

Hug your kids. Hug your husband. Tell your mom and dad that you love them. Be kind to your neighbors. Forgive. Live. Life is so short.

Bailey Surgery Rescheduled

Bailey's surgery has been rescheduled for November 6. Please keep her in your prayers that all will go well this time.

Not Bailey.

Last night I asked Bailey her name. This is what she said.

Enter today!

KuKu Nest is giving away a cute set! Check it out!

http://www.5minutesformom.com/2443/kukunest/#comment-423010

Please Help Jake!

*********UPDATE!!!!!!!!!***********
Jake's family has found him!!!! He will be coming home soon to join his sister who is also from China!!!! Congratulations to Chong Xue and his new family!!!!!!!!! :)



This is "Jake". Isn't he just about the cutest little guy you have ever seen???
He is available for adoption through Hawaii International Child. http://www.h-i-c.org/

Jake lives in Guilin. He is currently in foster care and he is 4 years old. His special need is "ambiguous genitalia". He has had chromosome tests and he is 100% boy! He will need some reconstructive surgery.

If you or anyone you know might be interested in bringing Jake home please contact Janet Jin at Hawaii International Child. She has one month left to find his family. You can also contact me. I have his file and I have Janet's permission to share it in order to find him a home.

Our family does not qualify to adopt Jake because we have not been married for 5 years yet. Even though we have adopted twice from China we still do not qualify to adopt again until May.

This is part of Jake's file:
Being with teachers another kids, he is now getting more active and outgoing. He plays happily and is more and more handsome. He is good at mimicking. He can mimic details in daily life, like carrying baby at the back and go shopping at vegetable market and wash vegetable and cook vegetable. He is more and more skillful at riding bicycle. He can turn around adeptly. He is the famous rider in the class. He likes to be clean and handsome. He often says his cloth pretty. Whatever paining or playing with toys, he likes to pick up the bright color. He is friendly to his peers. After he helps other kids, he will say proudly ‘ I am the big brother’. One thing to note is that he can concentrate on the same thing for a while to finish it. He can participate some activities that last long. He likes to play with play-doh. He is very good at pressing, rubing and twisting it. He makes crackers and peppers with play-doh. He can associate his artcrafts with the things in real life. E.g. he puts flake of different sizes on the string and will say it’s a phone. He will pretend to make phonecalls , holding the middle of the string. He can say a complete sentence which is understandable, like ‘ feed the candy to rabbit’. He can have simple language communication with adults. If there is something unsatisfying, he will cry for a while, but easily get comforted or reasoned. He will calm down.

Please help me find Jake a home!

No Palate Surgery Today

This morning Bailey was up and at 'em. Of course, she kept telling us she was hungry but we couldn't give her anything because of her surgery. After we arrived at the hospital she fell asleep. Many times she will take a short nap around 9:30 or 10 so we didn't think anything of it. Something was different this time, though. We could not wake her up. We tried showing her toys, tried tickling her, tried talking to her. Nothing would work. She would open her eyes and go right back to sleep. I tried showing her a doll stroller and some dolls but she just turned around and layed down on the floor and was out again. When Dr. Giles and the anesthesiologist came in and we told them what was going on, they tried to wake her too. No luck. Dr. Giles decided right then that he wasn't going to do her palate. He said he wanted things "perfect" to do that surgery. We finally got her to wake up a bit and they decided that they would go in and put her tubes in and draw some blood. Bailey was so upset when they took her from me. So, Dr. Giles picked her up and said, "I'll carry her." He was able to put her tubes in and he said that her ears were absolutley FULL of infection. So much that the infection just drained out when he cleaned them and put the tubes in. He gave her a double dose of antibiotic through her IV while she was still in the ER. It wasn't long before we were called back to the recovery room. She was still sound asleep. Her blood sugar was low so they gave her some glucose. Within about 10 minutes of getting that glucose, she was awake and talking to me and looking at pictures of her brothers and sisters. They gave her a purple popsicle that she devoured. After a while in recovery we were taken to another room to wait. Bailey never had a fever. In fact her temp was 97.4. The nurses offered her two packs of cookies. She took both of them and ate them. Backyardigans was on and she started singing with them. What a day for her! We are hoping that we never have to go through that scare again. She is taking a nap now. I know she is really tired from all of this but I just want to go and wake her up and make sure she is okay.
I was so scared during all of this. T E R R I F I E D! I just thank the good Lord for watching over our little Bailey Shay today........and everyday.
We'll try for the palate surgery again in a few weeks. Thank you so much to everyone who said a prayer for us today. Thank you for all of the emails this morning. What an awesome bunch of friends we have! Hugs to all of you! ~Sharon

Cleft Surgery Tuesday

Bailey has her palate surgery Tuesday morning. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers. She is such a little sweetheart. I wish I could explain what is about to happen to her. I know she will be fine but it hurts my heart to know that she has to go through this and that she went through her lip surgery without us.

I'll update our blog just as soon as possible.

Thank you for your prayers!

Back To Business!

My eBay store and my website http://www.my-little-pretty.com/ are open again! Time to get ready for the holidays! :)

I hope you'll come by and visit!

Bailey Sings

Bailey Shay sings several little Chinese songs for us everyday. She does little hand movements and dances with them. So far, this is the only one we have been able to catch on video. I love it! Bailey Shay is one sweeeeet baby! She is such a blessing! Two months ago we were on our way home from China with her. Hard to believe it has been such a short time. It seems like she has always been with us.

Our Paulonia Princesses

While we were out playing in the front yard under the big Paulonia tree we decided to take a few photos of the girls. I'm so glad we did. Just look at how cute they turned out!

Baby Dedication..........and photos!

Bailey Shay was dedicated at church Sunday. She was such a good girl as Pastor Freeman annointed her little head.

After church we had dinner at Granny Mae and Boss' house. Yummy.....of course!

We took this opportunity to take some photos of ALL SIX of our kids! Whew! It is tough just getting them all in one picture! So, while Josh and Kristen were here we got our chance. (Kristen is still wearing her "Betty Boot" but didn't have it on for the pictures. LOL)

Of course, with this many kids, you always get a few really funny photos along with the nicely posed images!

What's wrong with Kristen?

I have had several people email and ask about Kristen. Thanks for asking about her. She has nerve damage to her foot. Brice has a huge remote control truck that he was playing with about three weeks ago here in our kitchen. The truck ran into Kristen's heel and she was in immediate pain and it turned white and then blue and purple. We put ice on it and did all of the right things. It didn't get any better. So, now she is in the air cast and we found out this week that she has now has a condition called Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy that is pretty rare but it was brought on from the accident with the remote control truck. Who would have thought a toy could be so dangerous? The doctors are sending her to physical therapy and they put her on Lyrica. Last week she was here at our house and she just wasn't herself. The medicine makes her depressed and she cries alot. Marty hugged her and she started crying and her head started twitching a bit and she moved her hand up beside her head to push her hair back and she couldn't put it back down. Scared us to death! So, now she has an appointment with a neurologist on October 9. Same day Bailey has her palate surgery. So, as soon as Bailey is out of surgery, Marty will leave and go to the doctor with Kristen.
Thank you so much to everyone who has asked about my sweet Lola. Please keep her in your prayers that all will be well.

Help HTS!

Jenny Bowen of Half The Sky is trying to secure a spot as a torch carrier in the Olympics in Beijing! She will be allowed to have 8 children with her during the run if she is chosen. Can you imagine the publicity this would bring to Half The Sky???

Please vote for Jenny and pass the word on to everyone you know! You can vote at this link.

http://pub1.chinadaily.com.cn/olympics/torch/members.shtml?mid=212

Two Months With Bailey Shay!

On July 23, we met our sweet Xin Ru. She was scared and not quite sure of who we were or what was going on.

We gave her a baby doll. When the orphanage workers left, Xin Ru bolted for the door but suddenly turned around and ran back. She grabbed up her new baby doll and made another run for it.

Two months later Bailey Shay still carries this baby doll named "Mei Mei" everywhere she goes.

She has come such a long way in these two short months. She loves all of us and gives us hugs and kisses. She sings songs for us in Chinese and does all of the little hand motions that accompany the songs. She loves green beans! She and Brinley have become better friends.

Of course, this is still a work in progress but things are so much better between these two little people than they were in the beginning. They play "shopping" and they play in their sandbox and swimming pool all day if we let them. The love the tree house and the tire swing.

We are so very blessed to be the parents of SIX awesome kids and everyday we count our blessings!