Tia....6 months home

Six months ago, little Miss Tia walked into our lives
...and our family hasn't been the same since!!!


From orphan....to daughter

From grieving....to singing

From Daddy-is-my-lifeline and Mama stay away....to Mama's girl

From quiet....to will she ever be quiet?

From avoiding certain family members....to openly accepting love from all her siblings

From serious and sullen....to silly and teasing

From laying down quietly at bedtime....to 15 minutes of off tune "Jesus Loves Me" before falling asleep

From sleeping in Mama & Baba's room....to sharing a room with Kian


As we journey day by day, we don't always see the changes. But if we look back over the last six months with Tia, we are amazed by the transformation. We are so blessed by our little but mighty girl!!!

In the last few weeks, we have seen an independent Tia emerge. She tries to dress herself, doesn't want help with certain things, and likes to pick out her favorite cup, dress, etc. We have lots of teaching and training going on! Counting to five....adding "Happy Birthday" to her song list....moving into a new room with Kian....rocking and feeding her "meimei" (baby)....just a few of her latest accomplishments!

....little Miss Tia....

.....Tia and Zoe.....

.....celebrating Preston's 12th birthday.....

....Chantel has her arms full......

.....a visit from Mark and Judy.....

  .....bigs and littles enjoy a day of swimming.....

.....Tia and "JJ"

.....Ashlyn's bridal shower....

        .....wedding dress fitting..........flower girl and escort practicing.....

.....helping Ashlyn clean and move shower gifts into her and Will's new apartment.....

.....sitting like "Etell" {Chantel} ....

 .....loving summer....

....a visit with Sarar.....

.....Kian is 7.....

....very thrilled to sleep in her new room {Ashy's old room}....

....Tia & her goofy brother....

.....feeding "meimei"....

....{I am so loved}....

Ashlyn&Will......{7.9.16}

A few glimpses of Will and Ashlyn's wedding......

The happy couple have returned from their honeymoon and are settling into their new home together! Here are a few pictures of their special day. We will not have most of the professional photos for a few weeks, so some of these pics are not the greatest quality. 

In Honor of Fathers

Let's honor and remember all the fathers, both biological and adoptive,

who have poured themselves into their children, just

as our Heavenly Father pours Himself into each one of us who believe in Him.

Our family is growing again.....

This time....a son-in-law!! Ashlyn and Will are anticipating their wedding on July 9, 2016. 

We are all very excited and blessed to have Will join our family!

Tia is doing so well! It is absolutely amazing the difference in our little girl from when we brought her home two months ago. Her easy smiles is what stands out as the biggest change.

 She is so much more relaxed and free. Seeing her personality emerge is so much fun!

 Tia is a delightful little girl and sooo loved!

Kian and Tia have lots of fun together! We were quite amused watching him try to help her drive his remote control car! He let her drive it until it got hung up somewhere and then she would hand the control back to him to get the car "unstuck"! 

Big brothers are so much fun!!!

Much to the delight of Ashlyn and Chantel, the other area where we see an enormous change in two months is Tia's interaction with them. She now runs into their arms instead of pushing them away....smiles at them instead of scowling....and squeals with delight as they hug and love on her!  She no longer scans the room to make sure they are not around before

 entering....so freeing for all of us!!

Thank you to all of you who have prayed for Tia and our family in this area!

Prayers have been answered! 

Tia is a constant chatterbox! And she doesn't just chatter to herself...she wants a response from whoever is nearby. She will tug at our arm until we look at her and repeat whatever word or phrase she is saying! Her vocabulary is growing daily! She still calls herself QiaoQioa (chowchow) and her current favorite thing to do is to be a helper. We constantly hear her say "QiaoQioa helper" as she helps one of us (or thinks she helps) do a task.