Our Story

Many new friends, co-workers and our new church family have asked about our adoption story and I feel that now is the right time to post this on our blog. I am blessed each time that I am able to tell our story about Mary Beth and I have also been blessed with a public voice from above to go out and speak about our story. It gives me pride to know that this is what our Lord and Savior wants me to share with everyone and know that I am working for Him.

This is our story:

Charles and I had been married for 7 years when we found out that we could not have children on our own. It took us another 8 years before we decided that we would start looking into adoption. In July of 2004 we drove down to Jackson to a conference that was being held by another adoption agency and walked in with a big smile on our faces and walked out crying. We had thought about going to Russia (cost $50,000. we could not do it) then to Guatemala ($30,000 we could not do it) and our last choice was China ($30,000 we could not do it). All of this information was just thrown at us as we were walking out the door that day and that is the reason why we left with broken hearts and in tears.

Then a co-worker of Charles' gave him a card to CCAI and Charles called and requested the package from them. Each time I was handed something with China on it I would push it to the side. You see for me I did not want to go to China. I was in control and I was not about to go to China. Then one August night in 2004 Charles and I sat at a table in a restaurant eating and all of a sudden I looked at him and said "you know I think we can do the adoption with CCAI". He just looked at me and said "well if you think we can we will go home and you can research it and let me know". I said OK and as soon as my feet hit the door that night I was on the computer looking things up and seeing what I could find. That very night around midnight I started thinking to myself "hey they sent us a package" so I tore our house apart and finally found the package. As I sat on the couch reading in nothing but peace and quiet the Lord reached down and placed his hand on my left shoulder and said these words to me "Go to China and you will find your daughter waiting for you there - Go there and she will be waiting". I felt the calmest that I have ever felt before and at peace with what he was telling me. It was a feeling like I had never felt before in my life. I had such a natural energy in me that night until I could not go to sleep. I sat there and thought to myself "Oh they sent us a DVD" so there I went again tearing my house apart until I finally found it and sat down and watched it. I placed all of the information on the table for Charles to read the next morning when he got up. So at 4am that next morning I finally started feeling sleepy and went to bed. When I awoke at about 10 am I ran down the stairs and looked at him and asked "Did you read all of the information that I left out for you last night"? He looked at me and said "No that is your job and you just tell me what I need to know". Now, mind you the night that we sat at the restaurant and I brought up CCAI it is like the thought of us NOT going to China was pushed out of my mind and I really didn't think about all of that again until after our paperwork was finished and on the way to China. I just said thank you Dear Lord for changing my mind and pointing us in the right direction.

On November 8th, 2004 we received a phone call stating that we had been accepted to start our adoption for our daughter. On June 30th, 2005 our paperwork was logged into China (which was our LID date and would be a date that we would never forget and would also be a date that we could not wait for them to say that CCAA had reached for referrals). When we started the process to adopt our daughter we were told that the wait time after your dossier was logged into China would be 5 to 6 months. Therefore, we calculated that we would be leaving somewhere around late January early February of 2006. We of course were fooled again when all of a sudden CCAA decided that they would slow things down. We did not receive our referral until August 1st, 2006, but we were so thankful and understood that it was all in God's time and not in ours - even though this control freak wanted to stay in control of things, but couldn't. The more I tried to control it the longer it took. From the time that we were accepted until we traveled was 21 very long months. I wrote nasty letters to the adoption agency (CCAI) and bless their hearts they are such wonderful people that they would just send back this very understanding and caring letter to me. CCAI has been and still is a wonderful company with employees that have such loving hearts. We could not have asked for a better company to go through to receive our daughter. They held our hands from the very first moment that they received our paperwork until even now. We had great representatives while we were in China and they took great care of us.

So, now everyone knows how Mary (came from my mother) Cameron (came from our nephew that we lost too soon and loved so much) Elizabeth (is a name that I had picked out from a long time a go, but is also a family name) came to be our daughter - by God's great hands and our love, faith and hope in Him. He is the Almighty and He can work wonders if people would just stop, slow down and look around them he is right there with you every day in every way and will work through you; if you will allow.

We hope that everyone has a wonderful, peaceful and joyous Christmas!

Interview with China-Babies

I had the great pleasure of being asked to do a audio interview with China-Babies last week. I was very thrilled to be able to do it. China-Babies means a lot to me and several other adoptive families and they are a great company to work with. If you are interested in listening to the interview you can click on the link below or you can go to the right of our blog and click on China-Babies New audio interview up.

http://www.china-babies-dev.com/landing/interviews.html

Mary Beth's History Report

We sent off several months ago for Mary Beth's history report and it finally came last week. Just in time for some of our family to get to see at her birthday party. We contacted a company called Chinababies that actually has reps. in China that will go and research your child's history through the orphanage that he/she came from. We were very glad to get pictures of Mary Beth when she was only 2 days old and it was actually on the day that they found her. You can see that they wanted to make sure that she did not get cold and was bundled in layers of blankets and one adult size coat. We were also happy to hear that the foster family that had her while she was in China loved her very much. She was their first and only foster child. They said that they loved her so much and when the orphanage came to get her it broke their heart. In one of the photos that we got that was taken inside of their home they still have her baby items.

I just wanted to share these pictures with all of you and for all of you to see how pretty she was at 2 days old.

Mary Beth's Birthday Party

We had Mary Beth's 3rd birthday party on Sat. the 22ND & we all had a blast. Our preacher's daughter Landrie came over & stayed with us that morning & entertained Mary Beth while my mom & I got everything ready so a big THANK YOU to Landrie for doing that. We love Landrie & we were proud to have her in our home. We all met at our church life center & had great food & lots of fun. Mary Beth received a new Dora couch from her GiGi, the Tinkerbell movie & Tinkerbell jacket from Mamaw & Papaw, Giant color/paint book from Uncle Chuck & Aunt Sherry, Princess Tea set & Cinderella coloring book from Aunt Nikki, a puppy with it's own carrying bag from Uncle Craig & Aunt Libby, Baby doll with a crocheted dress from Ms. Nell, a Camo shirt, another shirt & pants from Uncle Lee, Aunt Angie, Allison & Hillary, a baby doll & writing board from Holly Brook, 3 dresses, a shirt, a set of pj's & a pants outfit from Landrie, a Play Doh set from her friend Charlie Ann, a Curious George & Curious George book from Ms. Laura & family, a doctor's kit, how to tell time clock & learning to write you letters book from Mommy & Daddy. So she pretty well racked up on the gift section of her birthday party.

So a BIG THANK you to all that came and sent presents to our precious baby girl! We have had a different project each night so far playing with all of her new stuff. She is having a blast.

Tomorrow will be her offical birthday (Thanksgiving Day) and we will be in Coffeeville with my family and we will celebrate again with cake. This time the cake will be homemade and she will get to help me fix it tonight before we leave in the morning.

Halloween and Mary Beth's Surprise

We had a wonderful Halloween. First we celebrated at our church on Halloween night and enjoyed Trunk or Treat with all of our church family. Then we went on Mary Beth's first ever hayride. It was great! She looked so cute in her little Snow White outfit and crown. She still loves to put that dress on. The hayride took us on back roads that we did not know were there, but is was so much fun to see Mary Beth enjoy it as much as she did. Now, when we pull up to the church and we are not dressed in our Sunday clothes she thinks we are going on another hayride.
On Saturday after Halloween we were invited to Liberty Baptist Church for their Fall Festival. Mary Beth loved having her face painted, throwing darts at the balloons for a prize, throwing the basketball and going fishing for prizes. They had a blow up castle there for the kids to bounce around in, but Mary Beth did not like the fact that there were other children in there. Then all of a sudden she discovered that no one was in the bounce castle so off she went. Then others started coming in and she loved it.

On Sunday after church she got a very big surprise. We held the secret all week long and did not reveal it until we got to the Bancorp South Arena. Then we walked up to get our tickets and then we told her as we were walking in the door what we were about to do. We took her to see Mickey, Minnie and friends on ice. She was so excited. She had her picture taken with Mickey and Minnie and she got to see all of her favorite characters. She loved it!! It was the greatest thing getting to see her with her eyes glued to every move that the skaters made.

Soon we will be celebrating her 3rd birthday. It doesn't seem like she should be 3 yet, but she is getting to be such a big girl. She loves to cook, clean and she really enjoys our new church that we are going to. She loves that she has her own children's church and that she goes where she is suppose to go every Sunday morning and mommy and daddy go to their grown up church. It is just wonderful to be able to share God's love with everyone there. He truly speaks through this wonderful group of people. Everyone there is very interested in finding out about Mary Beth and how she came to be as are other's in this world. I will be sharing our story with everyone that would like to read it again soon here on her website. The Lord is working wonders in all of us, but he has given me the gift of being a mother to Mary Beth and has told me to share her story with people and that is what I am doing. I have been asked to speak at our women's group and our children's church and I have also had the pleasure of sharing her story with our daycare owner's church women's group. It is amazing how the Lord works in all of us and he has given me the ability to do something that I thought I would never do and that is to speak in front of a group of people. Thank you Lord for working through me!!!!!!

Enjoy the Halloween pictures and the Disney on Ice photo. We all hope to hear from you soon.

China Milk Scare and Boo-Boo Kitty

A few weeks ago we received an e-mail from our adoption agency telling us that the melamine milk scare could go all the way back to 2004 and that we needed to have our daughter tested. Well, we went on October 10th to have the blood test and the urine test done. The blood test came back fine (that was for kidney function), but the urine test came back with infection showing up. So, the doctor gave us medicine and told us to come back in a couple of weeks to be tested again. So we are happy to announce that the infection is gone, but we will continue to keep an eye out. So at this point and time we do not have to have the renal ultrasound done. THANK YOU SWEET JESUS!!!!!!!

Now I have to tell you about Mary Beth and the blood test. Yes it was horrible to have to hold my child down while someone stuck a needle in her arm to draw her blood, but I knew it had to be done. However, Mary Beth jumped about the time the tech put the needle in her arm so the tech had to dig for the vein. During this time I am trying to hold her down, but comfort her all at the same time. She looked at the tech and in a very demanding voice said "LEAVE ME ALONE" - "I SAID LEAVE ME ALONE RIGHT NOW. So, just about the time I was ready to tell the tech to quit she hit the vein and I told Mary Beth to look that her blood was coming out; she stopped crying and screaming. Then on the ride to daycare that morning she asked me "Mommy do you and Daddy have to have that done"? And I said yes baby we do. She looked at me in the mirror and said "Mommy, I don't want another noodle stuck in my arm ever again". Bless her heart I couldn't do anything but sit there and laugh about it. The reason why she said noodle though was because the tech used a butterfly needle on her with the small tube and she looked at it and thought it was a noodle. Well, once we got to the daycare she was proud to show off her bandage to everyone. She is a brave little soul and a sweet one too.

Just 2 days before all of this happened I had to break down and tell her that her kitty cat had passed away. I will tell you that is one of the hardest things I have ever done before in my life. Just the day before I had told her that we were going to take her Boo-Boo to the doctor to see if he could help her and the next morning Charles got up to start getting ready for work and found her in the floor dead. Once Mary Beth got up and we were getting ready for school I sat her on the bathroom counter like I do every morning to fix her hair and I looked at her and said "Baby Mommy has something that I need to tell you and I want you to listen really close to me" and she just looked at me and said "OK Mommy". I told her that the night before that Jesus came to our house and took her Boo-Boo home to heaven with him. Of course that child broke out into a full squall and I broke down as well, but then I grabbed myself and tried to stay composed. I told her that we all knew that Boo-Boo had been really sick and that Jesus came and took her home with him so that she wouldn't be sick anymore and that now she was healthy and happy and that Jesus needed another kitty to love and he picked Boo-Boo. She looked at me and said so my Boo-Boo is not in my house anymore and I said no baby she's not and she said my Boo-Boo is in heaven and I said yes baby she is. She looked at me with tears streaming down her face and said "I want to go to heaven to be with my Boo-Boo". I told her that Jesus has a time for all of us to come to heaven and that right now it was Boo-Boos time, but it was not her time. Bless her little heart she sat there and started singing Jesus Loves Me. Lord I cried and cried. She then asked me where her Daddy was at and I told her that he was at work and she said "I want to go see my daddy". How on earth could I tell her no? I didn't care if we were late for everything that morning I was going to take her to see her Daddy and I did. She took it all better than I thought she would, but she is so understanding and listens to every word that you tell her. We are truly blessed to have such a wonderful child. The photo above is of her and Boo-Boo having their tea party just a few days before we lost Boo-Boo. I am so glad that I took that photo!

Please keep all the children that are in China and the ones that have been adopted that might not be as blessed as Mary Beth with the melamine scare. Those poor babies have a long road ahead of them and we need to lift them up to our Lord and Savior.

Little Lady Photos and 1 family photo

Here are what I would like to call the Little Lady photos. These were taken the same day as the cheerleader photos. Hey we had to have something for the Grandmother's - we didn't want them to feel left out. Also, there is one and I do mean only one family photo. It is not that great, but Mary Beth sure does look cute in it. ENJOY!!!

Cheerleader Pictures

We had these pictures taken back in August and we set out to have these pictures taken for one person in particular - THE ONE THE ONLY PAPAW. We even called these the Papaw pictures. Although Daddy wouldn't admit to it, but he wanted these for himself and bragging rights as well.

We hope that you will enjoy these few little photos. They are great or at least I think so. Yes I have the right, I AM THE MOMMY!!! :-)

Mary Beth dancing while we were on vacation

This is Mary Beth showing us how to dance while we were in Knoxville on vacation.

Day in the park for best friends

We had a fun filled day with Ms. Jan and Charlie Ann. It is always good to be able to get the girls together and let them have fun with each other since they only get to see each other once in a while.

They truly enjoyed playing at the park, feeding the fish and the ducks and then after the park they got to go to McDonald's and play in the playland area.

We are looking forward to getting together with Charlie Ann and her family this weekend at her Gotcha Day/Halloween Party.

Our New Site

Hello everyone and welcome to our blog. We have decided to let the other website go so that we will be able to add things as we would like and it not cost us out the nose for doing so.

We will be adding new pictures soon so please bare with us as we get everything set up.