Our Dumplings

Here they are... Caleb and Madeline.

Meet Caleb

We spent the Fall of 2006 paperchasing and finally completed our dossier in December of that year. We submitted our dossier to China and were officially logged in January 31, 2007. Fast forward a few months, we received our referral for Caleb on July 10, 2007 and traveled in October/November 2007 to bring him home.

We fell in love with him immediately.

{At the Guanzhou Social Welfare Institution, January 2007, 2 years old}

He has been the light of our lives. He’s so easy going.  (We knew this even in China.) He has a great sense of humor.  He loves all things baseball.  And he’s so smart.  It has been such a joy to watch him blossom after finally having a home of his own and a mommy and daddy to love him. We truly can't imagine our lives without him.

{April 2012}

Meet Madeline
In the fall of 2008, we felt the Lord calling us again to adopt another child. This time we felt led to bring home a little girl. It took us several months to paperchase because of new immigration requirements. However, we finally sent our dossier to China in March 2009. In October 2009, we saw her face for the first time and KNEW she was meant to be ours.

{Jingmen city Children's Welfare Institution, October 2009, 18 months}

Madeline is fun loving, spirited, and all-girl.  She's loud and opinionated and quite a hoot.  She loves to dance and swim.  It has been amazing to see her relationship with Caleb grow.  They play together all the time and truly enjoy being together.

{January 2012}

Meet Havalah

{We don't know who you are yet, dear Havi.  But we wrote you a letter.  We can't wait until the day we finally meet!}

Dear Precious Little Havalah,

We feel so blessed to be called your family. We don't know who you are yet, but we know that Lord has hand-picked you for us. And us for you. We have been praying for you for quite some time now:

that peace fills your precious little heart, that your mind rests in the knowledge that you will one day have a family of your own, that your nights aren't so lonely or cold, that a gentle hand wipes away your tears when they fall, that your boo boos are kissed and bandaged up, that you know the love of your caregivers until we arrive to bring you home.

Yes, precious girl. One day, when you least expect it, your world will be forever changed. You will be taken from all you have ever known and then begin your life with us, your forever family. You will be sad and traumatized, and we recognize that. How you cope with this transition, only time will tell. Our prayer is that God will equip us to help you the best way possible. One thing we know for certain, we will be there for you...to be patient, kind, and, most of all, loving to you. In fact, we already love you because God has called us to be your parents. We are so blessed to answer His call. We pray also for your birth parents, that God may give them peace and comfort to know their daughter will be loved and cared for by her forever family.

We can't wait for the day that we can finally hold you in our arms and kiss your sweet face. Some day soon, as the Lord has designed it, our hopes and dreams will be realized. In the meantime, our love for you, precious one, will only grow. We love you, dear Havi.

love,

Daddy, Mommy, Big Brother Caleb, and Big Sister Madeline