Prayers for an amazing family

Maria Chapman and her daddy

I am completely saddened and at a loss for words by the news I heard this morning.

The Chapman family have adopted three little girls from China and have lost one of their angels in a tragic accident. They have done so much work for the children of China.

Please give your children an extra hug today and tell them you love them. Most of all, please pray for their family while they go through this difficult time.

Daniel's Double Digits!!

Daniel with puppies



Daniel with Jamie Moyer (Ex-Seattle Mariner)



Daniel turns the big 1-0 today!! Ten years ago at 10:40 a.m. our gorgeous son was brought into this world. He weighed in at 6 pounds 3 ounces and was 18 inches long. I will never forget the moment I first heard his cry....it was the most amazing thing in the world. Similar to my pregnancy with Kelsi, Daniel's was also full of surprises (3 months of bedrest). After being on fertility pills again, it was confirmed we were finally pregnant! At 18 weeks along, I had an appointment to get an ultrasound done to see how things were progressing. Kevin and Kelsi were in the room with me (in fact, Kelsi was sitting on my doctor's lap while he was performing the ultrasound....they just adored each other). Dr. Sand asked us if we wanted to know what we were having and we said "yes of course"! I've always believed that it's easier to plan ahead - and you're never disappointed. I remember him telling us "well congratulations - you're having another little girl"! I think my mouth must have dropped open because I just "knew" I was pregnant with a boy...having another girl never even crossed my mind. The three of us left the doctors office went out to dinner to celebrate. The very next day my dad and step-mom sent me a dozen pink roses with a card that read "Congratulations on another daughter". I have to admit it was a little difficult trying to wrap my mind around having another little girl when my instinct was telling me I was having a boy. A week later I was sent to the University of Washington to see a specialist because my blood pressure was creeping up too high already and it needed to be addressed. Upon check in at the UW - they said they had a new ultrasound machine and asked if we'd be interested in having one done (no charge of course) because they wanted to try it out. We didn't pass that offer up and the next thing we knew we were looking at our baby. The technician asked if we already knew what we were having and we told her it was a girl (at least Dr. Sand said he was 90% sure). When she put the wand over my belly she immediately said "Ummmm....you're not having a girl....it's definately A BOY". I think our little Daniel was trying to "show off his stuff" to make sure we weren't going to rush out to buy pink for him.

Daniel is truly an amazing kid and has the biggest heart of anyone I know. He has a gift of being very athletic, smart and a great sense of humor. Let me tell you...he is all about sports...and it's something that I think he was born with...he just loves any type of sport - but has a bigger passion for baseball and basketball. When he started school his teacher said she wanted to start a book of "Daniel-ism's" because he is so funny! People get the biggest kick out of watching him play sports because they don't expect to see what he can do because of his size. When we went to China to get Maci, he was probably more excited than all of us put together. He literally could not sit down in the van when we were going to pick her up at the Civil Affairs Bureau...he kept jumping up and down. We were all laughing at him. He was truly beaming with pride to finally hug the little sister he had been waiting for, for so long.

Daniel, we hope you have a happy birthday. We are so proud of you and love you so much!

A wild couple of weeks

It's been a "wild" couple of weeks around our place since I last posted.

Kelsi ended up injuring her left knee, four days after her birthday at a friends house on a trampoline. We previously owned a trampoline for a few years and the kids spent hundreds of hours on it without ever getting an injury...but the one time she goes over to someone's house and gets on one...she got hurt. She ended up in the ER that evening and has been on crutches ever since. She saw an orthopedic today and they have an MRI lined up for Monday afternoon with a follow up again on Wednesday to give us the results. Hopefully, she did not tear anything, but it's a possibility which would require surgery. We're praying that she only dislocated her patella and with a few weeks of rehab, she'll be back to full activity. She only had three weeks left of her fastpitch season....so to say the least she's been really down not being able to play. She does attend every practice and game to cheer her teammates on - but does find it really hard to just sit and watch.

Daniel got his two pigs for 4H last weekend! So, once again we should be seeing a couple "pig rodeos" in our yard just like last year when they managed to escape. Trying to get two pigs back into a pen is one of the hardest things to do. He has not named them yet. He had "Ketchup" and "Mustard" last year and everyone thought those names were hysterical. Who knows where he came up with those names so I'm anxious to see what these two little pigs names will be. Daniel has been playing baseball games 2-3 times a week and is loving every moment of it. I'm not sure who looks forward to it more...him....or me! I love to watch him - not only is he amazingly talented but he plays with heart and everyone comments about it. I am so proud of my kids for always giving it their all when they do something.

We received notification for Maci's early entrance for Kindergarten testing. Hopefully she'll be testing right after school is out for the summer and we can begin preparing her for her first day of elementary school. Although her birth date is only five weeks after the cut off for Kindergarten they have offered to test her because of her circumstances. Unfortunately we will never know her exact birth date. When she was abandoned in the lobby of the children's hospital, she was extremely sick. She was checked and immediately sent to the orphanage where they said she "looked" like she was five months old...and assigned her a birth date. According to her surgeon in China that I still am in contact with, as well as our pediatricians, they believe she is at least a few months older than her given birth date. I would give anything to find out her real birth date because it is something that a person identifies with their entire life. Although she will be the youngest in her class, developmentally and socially she is definitely ready.

Well I'm off to get some cleaning done around here since we haven't been able to get much done lately.

My baby is 15 years old today!

Our daughter is 15 years old today. Honestly, where does the time go? When I was younger, I use to question when people told me how fast time goes...but now that we've got three children...it really does!

I clearly remember each moment 15 years ago today, as though it has just happened. It was a Monday morning and I had been on bed rest, in and out of the hospital, for over a month, with toxemia. Our baby wasn't due for another 5 weeks. My adventures off of bed rest always led me to the doctor's office. I was going in to the doctors office for my checkup and after a few minutes taking my blood pressure and reading my platelet level results from the day before...the doctor said "go immediately to the hospital...do not go home and get anything....you go directly there...we have to get this baby out as soon as possible". Once we checked into the hospital they quickly whisked us away to get me prepped for my c-section surgery. In the meantime, Kevin was trying to call everyone to let them know they needed to get to the hospital if they wanted to be there when the baby arrived. The doctor eventually came in to tell me that he was going to put me "all the way out" instead of just having a spinal for the c-section....since it was too dangerous to risk me having a stroke. In the middle of having a bunch of nurses franticly running around my room trying to get me ready for surgery, I was watching the Branch Davidian's compound burn in Waco, Texas. Once I was all prepped, they told my husband that he could not come into surgery with me because they were going to put me out and most men can not handle seeing their wives in that condition. Of course Kevin said "absolutely not"! He was going in the room and there was nothing they could do about it. My wonderful OB was known to wear a hat on during his deliveries....one side was blue and the other side pink. We had already known we were having a little girl, but he kept his hat on in the middle until she was born...just in case. :-)

They went to put me under and I remember the last thing the doctor said was "it must be a girl because girls are the ones that tend to cause the most problems to their pregnant mothers". I laughed and the next thing I knew, I was in recovery trying to wake up and my husband said..."we have a beautiful daughter....and she's perfectly healthy"! There she was...5 pounds 2 ounces and 19 inches long. I immediately cried with happiness while trying to stay awake.

You see, we did not know until that moment that we were going to have a healthy baby. I had to be on fertilities pills to get pregnant and we had already had one miscarriage (which is another story in itself). I was always getting poked and prodded by needles and so I didn't know months before they were actually doing some routine testing that can detect if you are carrying a baby with downs syndrome.

I received a phone call the day before Thanksgiving from a nurse at the doctors office. She told me that normally a woman of my age has a 1 in a 1,500 chance of carrying a baby with downs and my test results say that I had a 1 in 150 chance...so they would like to offer me a amniocenteses test. She also advised me that I could risk losing the baby too if I did have the test performed. To say the least, I was stunned. First, because I didn't expect a phone call from the doctors office the day before Thanksgiving when we were going to fly to Reno the very next day on a vacation...but with that kind of news? She did tell me that I could call my doctor the next day if I had any questions because he was on call. That evening Kevin and I talked about what to do. We didn't give it a second thought that we could not risk losing the baby by having a amnio done, but most of all, we agreed that God gives you only what you can handle and if He felt we would make wonderful parents to a child with a disability....then we would love that child no matter what! The love we would have for our child is unconditional and we never doubted that.

There were so many "strange" things that happened leading up to her delivery...for example, there was a house that burned down right across from the hospital that my room was overlooking when I was on bed rest; there was a bomb threat in the hospital; once she was born they had to move me to a room that was for quarantined patients that had two doors you had to pass through. But all through that...we were so blessed with the most amazing nurses and Dr. Kesling was absolutely the best! The nurses kept telling us we had the most beautiful baby...in fact a couple of the nurses took their own pictures of Kelsi and put them up in their locker! There was one nurse that had made only one hat in her life and was waiting for that "perfect" little girl to give it to....well.....she gave it to Kelsi! After she was born, my hospital room was pink from one end to the other with bouquets of flowers, balloons, clothes, gifts, etc. We had so many visitors too!

Due to my blood pressure not going down, they kept me in the hospital for five days. Kelsi was ready to go home way before I was - but we stayed there until the following Saturday and on that morning when we left the hospital she weighed in at a whopping 4 pounds 12 ounces. Just a little peanut...a beautiful little girl that we were blessed to be her parents.

Kelsi May...happy birthday sweetheart. We are so proud of you! You are an amazing young woman and so beautiful - no just on the outside, but the inside too. We love you with all our hearts!!! No matter what...you'll always be our little girl.

Finally Friday

Smile....it's finally Friday!

This picture was taken sometime before we received Maci. Her SWI did some "professional" photographs of her and some of then even appeared in their annual children's calendar! We feel so blessed that we have many photographs of her before she was placed in our arms.

Why a red thread?

"An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place, or circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle, but never break." -- Ancient Chinese Belief

During the wait of receiving our daughter I wore a little red threaded bracelet around my wrist - 24 hours a day - 7 days a week. Some people would ask me if I wore it because I was practicing the religion of Kabbalah. Instead when people would ask, it gave me the opportunity to share my belief in adoption. Once I saw our daughters face for the first time, I put the bracelet on and swore I wouldn't take it off until I had her in my arms.

You see, two and a half years ago we were blessed with a second daughter....and she is from China.

Although my husband and I were blessed with two biological children, we always knew that someday we would adopt a child. We never knew when or where, we just knew it was something that we shared in our hearts long before we were even married.

The journey to our daughter was the most amazing experience for our entire family. I hope this blog will enable us to share our family's story of adoption along with our crazy and very hectic lives.