Our family

Today is November 7, 2010. We are wanting to capture every moment possible. Time is moving fast and we want to make this a place that we document yesterday, today and tomorrow. Daddy is 36, mommy is 35, Ethan is 9, Gracie is 6, Miles is 4 and Jia is 3. We recently moved to the lake house in Altamont, MO. We love live the Lord and being parents to our four special children!

Happy Birthday to our sweet daughter!

First family photo of 6 :)

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Gracie and Jia swimming
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Miles and Jia hanging out by the camp fire.
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Dancing by the lake, how she loves music:)
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Getting ready to camp out....ps, Mommy and Jia slept inside!!
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All ready for a boat ride. She LOVED it!
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Love this face
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A smile that will melt any heart.....


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Love you Daddy

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Sweet little Jia will be 3 tomorrow!! We feel so blessed that she is home and that we will be able to celebrate this special day with her. The first of many!!! She has been home a little over 2 weeks and we met her for the first time three weeks ago. She has warmed up so much in that time and everyday we see a little more of her personality shine through. She is a funny, sweet, kind, playful, smart, beautiful and happy little girl. She is still sleeping with us at night, and only wakes for few moments at a time. Her english improves a little more everyday and she mimics almost everything we say. She loves her big sister Gracie (who wouldn't........ when she gives her everything she wants and carries her everywhere she wants to go) :). Ethan is very gentle and kind to her, he is so proud! Now Miles, he's a funny little guy.......I guess you could say he likes her ok, but is probably the only one who doesn't give into her every want and desire......we'll just keep it at that:) LOL He's coming around, I just think he really took the roll of being the "youngest" very serious, and it's a little tough for him to pass the torch!!


All are home and all is well

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Thanks to everyone who has been able to stop by and greet Jia since her arrival. A shout out to Tom and Sue for coming and staying here in Missouri which allowed our kids to stay at their home while we were in Korea.It's Wednesday night and we've been home since Monday afternoon. Each day Jia has become more comfortable and secure. The kids have been playing with Jia so much. Grace has really taken a mothering role. It has been so good to watch the interaction between all the kids. Tonight Jia was singing and dancing - very loudly. It was so funny. Here are a few photos from that last couple of days.

Happy Days are here again!

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This will probably be our last post before we leave tomorrow morning (it is Sunday night May 16). Today was another improved day. We saw Jia's smile return. After breakfast we went shopping, but around lunch we saw signs that she was done. We decided to go back to the hotel and hang out and maybe let Jia catch a nap. Well hanging out was good, but Jia did not want to nap. By the way if it isn't obvious we are pretty much letting her get her way - ."Happy Jia happy family" as they say. We'll reign her in when we get home! Jia loves to sing. She put on some headphones and rocked out. Before we left Sarah downloaded some Korean children songs. Jia knows some of them. Jia was just singing away - very loudly! She wasn't embarrassed to let us watch. She can be very funny. Anyway, we have discovered she likes to eat soup and some yellow pickled things. Don't know what they are but she ate some yesterday at the Chinese restaurant and I found some in the convenient store here in the hotel so I bought them for lunch. I also got her to try twizzlers, oh and she loves those too. I had to hide them because we would like to save a few for the flight home. Jia found mommies heels and wore them around. Jia definitely has a nack for high fashion model poses. Oh ya I asked Jia for a kiss and she came and gave me one! Big progress. I boasted to Sarah that Jia kissed me and immediately Sarah asked Jia for a kiss and Jia ran over and kissed mommy as well - but I was first! Jia found the baby lotion and lathered up. I mean really lathered up. She basically put the whole bottle of lotion on her tiny little legs. She's really slippery now. We are gonna go out for a Korean dinner tonight. We have found some good dishes we like, you just have to get past some of the unpleasant smell that we are not accustomed to in the states, but it's not that bad. Thanks for your prayers we really have felt them. Please pray for the flight - that Jia will do well and for our safety and a timely arrival home. We are ready to get back.

One Day at a Time

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The common area outside our hotel. Friday afternoon
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Mommy and Jia taking a walk
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It's so good to see her smile:)

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Monday night's PJ's, notice the silver shoes she had on right until it was time to crawl in bed.
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Next morning, ready to go.....notice the same PJ bottoms......:)....and yes, that is what she had on ALL DAY!!!


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Yesterday's morning mourns ended up turning into afternoon and evening mourns. Our hearts broke for her as she cried off and on all day. We stayed in and just held her most of the day. She is starting to prefer me (Sarah) and TJ just grabs any moment that she will give him. Today (Saturday) started out pretty good. She made it through breakfast without crying and most of the morning for that matter. Today instead of just being sad, she seemed a little angry. She would have NOTHING to do with me doing her hair, she would cry and rip out the pig tails I tried to put in, so we decided to go for the natural look. Then it was time to get dressed and she insisted on wearing her pj's.....I tried to convince her, but it REALLY upset her, and in the end we compromised (she put on a white t-shirt and wore her pj bottoms.......(Ethan, Grace and Miles.......don't even think about asking to do this...LOL:) I decided this was not a battle worth choosing, she has loss control over so much in the last couple of days, I felt like I needed to let her have a voice in this. We then went to a "river" that runs through the town just a 5 min taxi ride away. ( I would give you the name of it, but Jia is looking at the tour guide book and I don't dare take it away to look.....:) We ate Chinese for lunch and it was pretty good. Then we walked back to the hotel. Jia was ready for some quite time when we got back. We relaxed, but she never fell asleep. We ate in our room (some deli sandwiches from downstairs) and then went for a little walk, it was so busy, we decided to come back to the hotel. I don't think I can explain what happened next. Maybe another day...... In short we had the hotel employees translate some things Jia was saying and in the end we all ended up in tears. Please keep praying for her broken heart.

Here are some pictures from yesterday and today capturing a few moments of Jia's personality coming through:)

Friday morning - mourns

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After a night full of giggling and laughing, the morning has been quite a different story. In addition to learning that Jia is not a morning person, Jia is dealing with grief. She has been quite sad so far today. She will have moments of happiness, but then slip into a period of sobbing. It is really sad to watch, but we know this and are holding on to this truth:
"And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them". Romans 8:28 NLT
It's amazing to ponder the thought of how everything in her life, her biological parents life and so forth matched up with everything in my life and Sarah's life for us to meet up as a family. It is simply so complex. It's not by chance but God's will-no doubt. A masterful plan. Thank you Lord!

Jia is ready for a family; one that won't leave her, it's impossible right now to communicate that to her or anyway for her to comprehend - even if it could be communicated.

So today were gonna take it easy. Right now she is napping on Sarah's lap and when she awakes we'll figure out what to do. Tomorrow if she is doing better and is up to it, we may go out for the day. We'll see.

A few more photos

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And so we meet......

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Today we met. Allot of things to write so I'll hit the big events. We were to meet at the Holt office at 1:30pm. We arrived around a 1/2 hour early. We saw the building and decided to grab a quick lunch. We turned back to a bakery we saw when we came out of the subway. As we turned around Sarah saw Jia holding hands with her foster mom walking towards the Holt building. Sarah was at a loss for words and couldn't signal to me quick enough. By the time she got the words out to me I saw the back of Jia Turing a corner. It was like a movie - a movie of a love missed; or something like that. Anyway Sarah's heart dropped. When lunch was over we walked into the building and went up to the 2nd floor. Their Jia was, sitting on the lap of her foster mom, getting some photo's taken. We went to a private room for our meeting. I (TJ) took a seat on the floor. Jia sat on my lap. I gave her some candy (yes a planned bribe). Later she saw Sarah's bracelets and headed to take them. We were told that Jia is a princess an all girl - kind of girl! Her and Gracie should get along great! The meeting went well, but the end was heart breaking. The good bye between the foster mom and Jia was as sad as any good author could have written. The moment was full of grief and yet hope. Jia's foster mom-a strong christian has been praying for this day. I asked the foster mom what inspires her to be a foster parent. Her answer should not have been surprising, but was still overwhelming. She said Gods love for her and his grace towards her, gives her the desire and strength to do such a job that is filled with reward and at the end sadness when the time to say good bye comes. She has been fostering for 10 years. She will definitely have rewards in heaven waiting for her.

We took a cab back to the hotel. Jia had a tear in her eye as she fell asleep on Sarah's shoulder. All you can do in a moment like that is pray for God's peace. I believe he is comforting Jia. Sarah couldn't delay showing Jia some of her new clothes. Jia was excited and kept saying "yeh poo dah", this means pretty. Jia dived in and put on some shoes, a pink skirt, tights and of course sarahs jewelry. We played around for a while and blew bubbles. We were told Jia's favorite food is pizza or in Korean - pija. Pizza it was. We found an Italian restaurant and off we went.

After dinner it was bath time. We video skyped the kids and Jia was in full action. As a matter of fact while I'm typing Sarah and Jia are in bed, but Jia isn't slowing down. She is jabbering like nobodies business. She is repeating everything we say. God has been good! This should be no surprise.
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Here's a few more photos from yesterday. One photo is Sarah attaching our lock to the cable at Seoul Tower. One photo is a view from the tower. The photo of the tower - I (TJ) had to lay on my back to try and get the whole tower in the photo. The last photo is a picture with us and our guide Jina (pronounced Mia).

While we are patiently waiting......

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Seoul Tower....beautiful view!!

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Our lunch

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The throne room

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All dressed up!

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We are assisting in the guarding of the palace! lol

Tomorrow we meet our dear daughter, Jia!! Today, while we waited for our big meeting, we passed the time with some more fun sight seeing:) Here is a QUICK (because I'm too tired to go into detail....lol) rundown.

After breakfast we met our kind tour guide (a college student, that volunteers for Holt). We also had the privilege of meeting, and going on the tour with, another family who is also meeting their son tomorrow. They are a great couple, and we feel blessed to have been able to meet a such a nice family (they brought their sweet daughter Gracie with them to Korea). We began the tour with a trip to the Gyeongbok palace and then ate a delicious Korean lunch. After lunch we had a little tour of a shopping area near our hotel. We then proceeded to the Seoul tower which is an outlook point over the city of Seoul. The Seoul Tower is the #1 spot for engagements in Seoul. There are cable wires and fencing that people attach a lock to and then throw the key off the mountain. It signifies eternal love, because the lock can never be undone. We brought a lock from home and attached it to symbolize our love as a family. We kept one key to save for Jia and threw the other one over the rail....although it landed in a grass area by some steps......lol....maybe someone will brush it off a little further into the wooded area:).

The pictures you have all been waiting for will be posted tomorrow!! Please be praying for a great meeting, that she has an easy transition and will feel comfortable with us. We are also praying that her foster family has peace as they say goodbye to sweet little Jia.