Settling in

There are so many other things I should be doing... Our house looks like it got hit with a toy bomb. Food on the floor. I haven't done my hair all week, but I am freshly showered - ahhh. Life is very good though. Family life is very much agreeing with Matthew. He has started to find his voice and talks more than just a whisper. Everything is "Mama Mama Mama" which is music to my ears. He points to his nose and can say "nose" to have his nose wiped. Matthew has tried several times to put on two pairs of pants at the same time which he can just about accomplish on his own. He is sleeping better, but somehow ends up in our bed around 1 am. He loves to go outside, I think he is amazed that there can be so much grass in one place and this is Ohio in February!

It is so cool seeing the new things that Matthew does each day. We would love to take credit for all his amazingness, but someone has definitely loved our boy during his early life in China. We are so thankful to the people at Show Hope and Maria's Big House of Hope, because they gave our boy hope, medical care and lots of love. They raised Matthew for 15 months of his life before he was transferred to the city orphanage run by the government. I sat at the table in tears yesterday thinking about all of this and Matthew came over to wipe my tears away. He loves to share his food with us and to have his boo boos kissed (which was so adorable until he bit his tongue).

We have been humbled by all the love shown to Matthew by all of you. Isn't amazing how someone so small can capture your heart? Sadly there are thousands of Matthews waiting in China. Some have asked why we didn't we just adopt a child from the United States? To us, all children deserve a family and our call to go to China was unmistakable for us. If you have ever stepped foot into an orphanage, you would never ever doubt the huge need there is. An orphanage is not place for children to ever live and I doubt you would have let your pets stay the night at the city orphanage that Matthew lived at the past 5 months. The orphanage care givers do their very best with what they have there, but it was so sad to see all those little ones (700+ children at this particular orphanage) in their cribs for the night by 5:30 pm. No one to kiss them good night and no one for them to call mama and baba.

I would like to ask you to pray for these little ones left behind. There are lots of sponsorship programs to consider, too. You can even take a volunteer trip to help at Maria's Big House of Hope. It took us 17 years to figure out that adoption was for us, so today is great day to start praying about it even if you think there is no way ever that it could be for you. Anyway, we encourage you to take a gander over to some web pages just to see some of the faces and to check out Show Hope.

http://www.ccaifamily.org/WaitingChild/WaitingChildProfile.aspx
http://www.hopefosterhome.com/babies/index.htm
http://www.showhope.org/OrphanCare/SpecialCareCenters.aspx