Life Is Good

Keane learning English with Rosetta Stone

Hope doing school with the chickenpox

Gracie loves to read

Goofy boys

Happy birthday Curran

I love to see Keane laughing

Now that we have been back from China for two months,we are settled into a routine and things are really going great.  Keane fits into our family perfectly, God has truly been gracious to us. Keane is  diligent with all his school work, and one of his favorite things is  READING.  I really can't believe it, but he picks up his book every day and will read and read.  He has read 10 books since he has been home and the first few weeks he wanted nothing to do with reading or books.  All the books are in Mandarin and he loves the stories.   He is now happy to help around the house and is learning that we don't sleep much around here. He has his schoolwork for each day, and will work until it's done without complaining. He is starting to really enjoy guitar lessons and has started NCFCA a speech and debate club.  He got up in front of the class yesterday and read his speech. It was great to see all the kids giving him high 5's and encouraging him. He is also playing soccer and even though he had never played,he is pretty athletic and seems to be enjoying it.  I think he likes being busy and I am still amazed that the orphanage director said he was introverted.  She obviously didn't know him.  He has been copying passages from the Bible in Mandarin and English and we are praying Keane will see more and more of Christ and put his trust fully in Him.  It is great to see Keane come find Dad before bed and ask for prayer   We just found out he lived with a foster Grandma way out in the country until he was almost 9, then he came back to the orphanage for open heart surgery and to start school.   He said it was very poor area, but the grandma was kind to him. I can't wait until his English gets better and we can hear all these stories in detail.   I am so grateful to the people in Keane's life who taught him to love.  He really has such a wonderful spirit, I love this boy.

Liam is funny,full of energy and loves to climb on everything.  He was with the Half The Sky program in China, and he is not delayed at all. He loves to play with the girls and they had the poor kid dressed in a tutu with wings yesterday.  We may need to go back to China for a little brother!! The next few weeks we have doctor appointments. We had Liam's spinal cord ultrasound this week, and what a huge praise to God that everything is normal, and he does not have an opening in his spine.  Liam goes to the urologist and heart doctor in a few weeks, and we are praying for good reports.  Keane will also have his heart ultrasound done.  His repair was quite extensive and we want to make sure it has healed well and no other surgeries will be needed.

Curran and Hadyn had their birthdays last week and I added a bunch of pictures.  I need to get some pictures of Keane on his new roller blades.  He went to the skating rink for the first time a few weeks ago and he loved it,so we got him a pair of roller blades and he has been practicing and falling a lot less.  It has been so fun to watch him do new things for the first time,swimming,skating,guitar,jumping on the trampoline.  I think about all the joy we would be missing out on had we not took a leap of faith and adopted Keane.  We are so blessed to have such a wonderful son.

Liam

Please let me go swimming

Another cake

Happy 17th Birthday

Hadyn's birthday party with friends

Lots of boys!!! 

Liam turns 2

Liam and Mike have their birthdays 2 days apart,so they can now celebrate together. We let Liam open some presents early and I quick baked a cake. Liam didn't care what day he was celebrating his birthday, and had a great time opening presents. His nannies from the orphanage said he loved balls and they were right. He loves to throw them, chase them,bounce them, and will take everyone else's ball and try to hold as many as he can.

Our New Doodle

Keane had been had been saying he really wanted a dog,so Mike and I went out and surprised all the kiddos this week with our new Doodle, Bella. She is a super mellow puppy and she doesn't shed. Now to start training her.

Home School Field Trip to Tampa Aquarium

I am finally going to start blogging again. It's been way too long.

We went to the aquarium with our home school group and had a great time. We got to touch the sting rays and a baby alligator. The kiddos really liked the getting wet and sandy part outside. Keane and Liam are adjusting so well. I keep waiting for that honeymoon period to be over,but I am now realizing after several months being back from China that God has blessed us with two easy going kids.




I absolutely love getting sandy



Ready Set GO

Liam says," If my sisters can do it, so can I."

Love that slide

Hope and Grace touching a stafish

A Fun Day

Keane and Eamon get to touch a baby alligator

Hadyn touching the sting ray

We love these cute penguins

I think Keane should touch it

Keane and Liam at the Cardiologist

Keane and Liam both have a VSD, a hole in the ventricle of their heart. We knew of this before we adopted them, but were not sure how big Liam's hole was. The report also stated that he may have a tumor near the valve. Keane had a very large hole 1.5 cm that was repaired when he was 8 years old in China. After we met with the cardiologist and they read the ultra sound pictures, they told us that both boys have the exact same type of membranous heart condition, and that the hole was almost in the exact place.

Praise God both boys will not need surgery. The Dr said the open heart surgery that Keane had through the Tomorrow Plan in China was done correctly, and that he will not need to come back for another two years. Liam still has the 4mm hole,but the Dr was still hopeful that it may close on its own. He has to go back for a check up in a year.

Welcome Home Party For Keane And Liam

Our Amazing friends had a welcome home party for Keane and Liam this week. These are the same families that did so much to help us with, The Both Hands fundraiser. We are blown away by each families generosity and love. We had told Keane the story of the true miracle it was to bring him home and that so many people were praying for him. We are so blessed!!

Keane and Liam had a great time at the party. Liam loved all the yummy food and enjoyed being chased around. Keane wanted to make sure I had his American flag shirt washed for the party, which makes my heart smile and I told him to definitely bring his yo-yo. Keane is really good at doing all kinds of yo-yo tricks. When he was in China he brought one black glove with him, and we asked him, Michael Jackson, and he said nooo! He kept pushing his hand up and down. He finally showed us in one of the stores in Guangzhou, that he can yo-yo, and really well,so we left the store with a fancy yo-yo. This kid is really fantastic at it, and we were wondering if they give any kind of yo-yo scholarships.LOL He put on a great performance at the party. The funny thing is the director of his orphanage said he was really an intovert,which is soooo far from the truth. Just look at the pictures.