Thanks so much for visiting us during our journey, Jim, Trina, Nick, Jesse, Catherine and Faith!
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Home Update - May 8, 2007
The first thing we would like to say is THANK YOU for your prayers. We have really felt God’s help in this journey, especially the end of it while trying to get Faith back to England. Immigrations was a nightmare. The next thing I, Trina, would like to say is thank you for your patience while waiting for us to update. Yes, we returned to the United States Nov. 30 but then we had to do the necessary paperwork to get Faith to England. She was doing great, I mean great!!! Six weeks after we met her, she was eating anything, sleeping through the night, scheduled naps, and playing in her crib when she woke up. Then the nightmare began. We had to return to England!!!!! We arrived in England on January 5. Faith retreated into her shell. She stopped sleeping, laughing, and did not want anything to do with Nick. This broke his heart. The great news now is she is doing wonderfully. She is a very happy and healthy baby. We are truly blessed with our children. They all play well together and the older three completely dote on their new sister. She has already understands many English words and can sign thank you, please, more, and all done. She can say bye-bye, hi, and eye (while pointing to her eye). She started to walk March 1, and is everywhere at once now. She is completely amazing. All any of us have to do is show her something one time and she can do it. We think she is a genius, but we could be biased. She is very affectionate. She loves to be rocked. She will hug us and pat us on the back while doing this. She gives kisses and will blow you a kiss. She will sniff at us while scrunching up her nose to tell you she love you. I, Trina, taught her to do this without realizing it. I would sniff in her ear, wink at her and tell her I love her in both English and Chinese. Now this is what she does to us. She is completely terrified of talking toy animals. She now weighs 25 lbs. This means she has gained 7 lbs in the six months we have had her. She loves the snow and ocean. She flew well from China to America and from America to England. (Tip, if flying on long trips, upgrade to business class, worth every penny.) At first she was petrified of our Great Dane but now she lays on him and plays with his ears. I know many people have said this but I am going to say it again. “She fits perfectly in our family!” She loves books and at 12 months she would sit for 5-8 minutes while you read books to her IF she gets to turn the pages. This is great for me, Trina, while homeschooling. Faith loves to sit and listen while Catherine reads to her every morning out of her bible and, believe it or not, Faith will sit there and listen for as long as Catherine will let her set on her lap. She has finally come around to Nicholas. She will let him feed her, rock her to sleep, and play chasing games with her. Jim is getting ready to deploy, so we are going back to Oregon for 3 ½ months while he is gone. We will be at my mom’s again, so hopefully Faith will remember where she is and not be too upset. We have been asked by many people if we would do it again. The answer is yes. This has been the most incredible experience of our lives. All of us have been changed forever. God has and is developing Christ-like characters in each of us using this new blessing. When we began this journey I thought our family and life was pretty complete, but looking back I can definitely see that was not true. Faith brings so much to this family that words can not explain it. She also brings out so much love and compassion in us and those who meet her. We are constantly sharing our story with strangers. So the answer is YES, we would do the paper chase, waiting, and saving again.
