Obviously, by now you know we were blessed to welcome home our 7th daughter in March!  Twenty-five years ago when we said "I do", we never in our wildest dreams thought we'd be parenting seven children.  I wanted a career.  Phil thought two children would be nice.  However, bit by bit the Lord changed our hearts and our dreams.  And His dreams for our lives became our dreams for our lives. 

Or family...now plus one more...

By now you also know Savannah Faith, like our last 3 daughters, will need two open-heart surgeries.  Because of her heart condition we were able to expedite her adoption.  Due to the stepped-up time frame and despite Phil's side jobs and my fundraising efforts, we still found ourselves with a financial shortfall when travel time came.  We were able to borrow the remaining funds, but while in China we were blessed to hear from Lifesong for Orphans that we were the recipients of a $2,500 matching grant for Savannah's adoption. 

This is another Ebenezer stone to add to our family's ever-growing pile as testament to the Lord's faithfulness to our family.  (I Samuel 12:7) "Thus far has the Lord helped us."


Every dollar gifted towards Savannah's adoption will be matched dollar for dollar and is tax-deductible for the donor.  As Phil jokingly says, if we are able to match this grant we will have a "free and clear title" on Savannah Faith before we begin the summer medical procedures which will include her heart cath and 1st open-heart surgery.


Soon you may be receiving our adoption announcement in the mail with this same information on it.  We are praying the Lord will move in the hearts of some to come alongside our family, once again, and make a gift of any amount to the Savannah Faith adoption fund.  You can donate by making checks payable to Lifesong for Orphans (write preference: Horton #3362 in the memo line) and mailing them to PO Box 40, Gridley, IL 61744 7b. You can also just click on the "Donate" button on the right of this blog to donate via PayPal.


So many of you have already blessed us by taking care of our children, making meals for us, giving to us financially (either for this adoption or a previous one), and for that we are SO thankful.  It's overwhelming to us how the body of Christ has met us in such tangible ways.


Savannah Faith (2 1/2) is continuing to amaze us with her willingness to love and be loved.  We have a long road ahead of us as she learns to eat food (she will still only take a bottle), walk (she is in physical therapy two days a week) and get healthy physically (she has her heart cath scheduled for May 15th), but her giggle will light up a room. 

We are thankful the Lord has changed our hearts and dreams over the last 25 years and is allowing us to parent our seven daughters.  Thank you for being a part of that dream!

We're Home...Medical Updates & Family Traditions

Last Saturday we made it home after saying a sad good-bye to Elvin, our wonderful Guangzhou guide.

Savannah Faith was a champ on the 26 hour door-step to door-step trip.  She even slept part of the time.  I wish I could say the same.

Upon our arrival in Charlotte, we were greeted by Phil, the girls and my mom.  We made quite the sight at the airport.  A mass of screaming, giggling girls, exhausted adults and overfilled luggage.

When we arrived  home, sweet friends of ours had dropped off a "Welcome Home Savannah" cake and balloon.  I was so touched by their thoughtfulness.  When you are bringing home your 7th child, it's not always celebrated...

The rest of this week, we just recovered from jet lag and ran from Dr.'s appointment to Dr.'s appointment.  The most important visit was Savannah Faith's pediatric cardiology appointment.

We discovered that in addition to her diagnosed condition of Transposition of the Great Arteries (TGA) and pulmonary stenosis, she also has hypoplastic right ventricle.  This means that Savannah Faith is a functioning single ventricle like Isabelle and Lily Rose. 

Dr. Bradley, here we come for another Glen and Fontan.

Of course, this is NOT what was listed on her paperwork or what we had planned, but the Lord had it all orchestrated before the foundation of the earth.  It was no surprise to Him!

We are so thankful that we've been down this road before, and that a first time heart parent did not adopt Savannah Faith thinking she was a TGA toddler.  (That typically only requires a one time surgery and is repairable.) 

Single ventricle children require two palliative surgeries and are just that...palliative.  Long-term prognosis is unknown.  That is our "normal."  So this is not new stomping ground for us. 

Savannah Faith will be in good company and will have two sisters to teach her the "ropes" of Glen/Fontan procedures.  All in a day's work!

Today we carried on a family tradition of dying eggs.  I always struggle with the tradition and how to make it Christ-centered. 

I didn't have to worry this year.  My "big" girls had it all figured out.

With pens poised...

they began writing praises to Him in the languages they know.

From left to right...Michaela put to use her Siswati which she learned recently serving in Swaziland for three months (you can read about it here http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2919769437313367323#editor/target=post;postID=4205469893230608187 ). 

AnnaGrace wrote in Mandarin.  She purchased a side-by-side Mandarin to English Bible while in China and began teaching herself some Mandarin. 

Next is Farsi.  Torie is taking Farsi in college this semester.  She hopes to go on the mission field to the middle-east, sometime after graduating from college and Paramedic training.

And finally, all our girls know some Spanish, so they included Spanish as well.


"After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb....
And they cried out in a loud voice:  Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb."  Revelation 7:9a,10


So thankful that Christ not only died on the cross for my sins, but conquered death and rose again and now sits at the right hand of God our Father and intercedes for me!! 


So thankful it's a message for all people and all nations.


Cause for celebration this Easter Sunday.  He is Risen!  He is Risen Indeed!



While I pondered the spiritual truths of Easter, and the older girls were concentrating on getting their translations correct, let's face it....

our younger girls were just making sure they got their squiggly lines and their colors just perfect!

Beautiful!

Photo Shoots: Models and Brides

When Phil and I Skyped yesterday, he asked about the model and wedding photo shoots I mentioned. He hasn't been back to China since our first adoption in 2001 and couldn't picture the photo shoots on Shamian Island. We thought it would be fun for me to post a Day on Shamian Island.

 

This morning was a typical day. First we saw a Chinese sports model posing in her different athletic outfits.

 

It seems that each model on the Island typically has a specialty...shoes, handbags, sports outfits, regular clothes. You get the idea.

Next we saw the line of purses. We never did see the purse model. Maybe she was finished with her photo shoot before we arrived on the scene. They looked like they were inventorying the bags as we walked by the area.

 

After passing the typical female models, we saw a first. A male model. He had a great sense of humor and even posed just for me.

 

 

Next we passed multiple bridal photo shoots.
 

 

Our guide explained to us that brides and grooms contract with photographic studios as far as twelve months in advance of their wedding. The studios allow the brides to borrow dresses for their sitting portraits. Strangely (to us in the States) these are NOT the dresses they will actual wear on their wedding days. The photos are taken and if for some reason the engagement is broken, the bride and groom split the photo package. Evidently this is not uncommon. 

Another interesting departure is many times the dresses are not white.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the photo shoot day, the bride and groom may pick a traditional package which includes just photos in their wedding dress and tux, or a complete package which includes non-traditional photos. We saw one bride, earlier this week, in shorts, combat boots and her veil. We're assuming this was part of her non-traditional package. Today we only saw traditional dresses.

 

 

I had to laugh when I saw this bride taking a break for lunch. Who can blame her. These photo shoots can last hours.

 

The highlight of the day was our first sighting of a Russian model. Elvin, our guide, told us that Shamian Island had become a popular place for professional Russian models. We saw that first-hand this morning.
 

I'm sure we've seen this model on the front of some magazine. Although the other models we've seen on the Island looked like professionals, this model clearly worked on an entire different level. Instead of traveling witht just a few "helpers", she traveled with an entire entourage.

 

Not only was their a photographer and light crew...

 

but she also had a complete wardrobe, 20+ pairs of shoes, jewelry and a wardrobe changing crew to help her.
 

 

She knew exactly how to pose with no coaching.
 

 

And after a 5-10 minute shoot in each outfit, she did a quick change right there on the street behind her handy, dandy black curtain that her assistants held for her.
 

 

She knew how to pose as if she was walking in a door, walking up stairs (foot in mid-air without looking awkward), leaning on the wall, etc. Just like you see in the professional magazines.

They touched-up her make-up after each outfit change which took an amazingly short time...maybe 2 minutes. It was astonishing.

 

Although I admit it was fascinating to watch, I couldn't help but think of the verse in Proverbs...

"Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised." Proverbs 31:30

I pray that Phil and I will not be influenced by the world but instead will train our daughters' to pursue beauty as they run hard after the Lord and His truths. Only then will they truly be beautiful as they shine His light to those around them.

 

After watching the hoopla, we set out to take a few last photos before we leave the Island tomorrow.

 

 

After just two photos, our little princess fell fast asleep in MIchaela's arms.

 

Trying to decide what to do next? Well you didn't have to ask me twice. We went to my favorite spot, Starbucks, and got a nice cup of coffee to relax and enjoy the rest of the afternoon.
 

 

Tomorrow we head to Hong Kong on the train for a quick night's sleep in the hotel. Then on to Chicago for a connection to home sweet home in Charlotte.

Just Hanging Out & A "New Normal"

Today we were scheduled to go to nearby Springs, but the weather was not ideal.  It was raining.  Since Savannah Faith has significant wheezing, I decided it was best to stay indoors and hang out at the hotel for the day.  We are rescheduling our outing for tomorrow, weather-permitting.

It has been a great day to get to know Savannah Faith a little better.  We've discovered she is a VERY suspicious eater.  She has yet to allow any food to cross her lips, despite the fact  I know she was eating some at the LWB Healing Home. 

She will drink her bottle, but ONLY from the one bottle that was delivered with her.  Every time I make her formula in one of the new bottles I brought from home, she looks at it with disdain and shoves it away with force.  I'm not worried about her eating.  She has thighs that would make any sumo wrestler jealous. Too funny!

She loves to play with her toys.  One of the bellboys at the hotel gave her a toy turtle yesterday.  That has now become one of her favorites.  She likes to blow raspberries against it.  Don't ask me???

We brought a singing phone from home.  She enjoys listening to it too!

She wants nothing to do with crawling or scooting to get her toys.  She enjoys sitting and reaching for toys but will make no attempt to get to them if they roll out of her reach.  I think our physical therapist, Nikki Degner, who has helped with all our girls upon their arrival in the States, will have her work cut out for her again.

I realized today that our family is accustomed to a "new normal."

We met another adoptive family in the lobby today. 

They, also, were adopting a little girl.  Almost three years old. 

Just a few months older than Savannah Faith.

The couple adopted through the regular route (their little girl has no special medical needs) and are over the moon at having their first child!

After receiving their daughter, a running, chattering, potty-trained, developmentally on-target almost three year old, the mom came over to me and with both pity and compassion in her eyes said,

"It's okay.  I'm sure she (meaning Savannah Faith) will be alright." 

Savannah, developmentally a 10 month old and the size of a 12-18 month old, happily sat in my lap, unaware of the drama playing around her.

I confess at first I didn't know what the mom was talking about.  Then it struck me.  She thought I was comparing our two girls and was worried about Savannah Faith. 

The thought NEVER entered my mind.  This is our "Normal."

After adopting three previous "heart" daughters, we understand the developmental delays that accompany their diagnosis.  In China, heart children are protected by their ayis.  They are typically kept sedentary out of a false sense of helping them.  Of course who wouldn't, instinctively, keep a child still who turns blue every time they become active!

Due to this inactively and the subsequent lack of stimulation, our heart children come to us with significant delays.  Some of our daughters have caught up quickly, others are still playing catch up.  All of them have needed some combination of physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy in addition to their open-heart surgeries.  That's our normal.

So Savannah's lack of willingness to try to crawl, let alone walk, although concerning, is not alarming.  It's just our normal.  And I celebrate for the mom of the developmentally on-target toddler/pre-schooler.  But stand amazed at my warrior who not only has survived abandonment and an open-heart surgery already in her two short years but is willing to accept me, without question, as her forever mom!

We love you Savannah Faith!  Welcome to the family.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Savannah Faith is a Horton Girl!

We started the day by worshipping at Capital Community Fellowship in Beijing, China.  What a blessing to get to worship our living Savior with believers half way around the world.  The church is a registered church and is open to all foreign passport holders.  It is attended by about 500 people and is multi-national. 

The praise team was made up of five members from five countries. That's what it will be like in heaven! We heard a great message, and it was such an encouragement.

Following church we boarded a train for the two and half hour trip to Jinan, capitol city of Shangdong Province.  We arrived at the hotel at 5:45 p.m. on Sunday evening, and Savannah Faith Yuandian arrived at our hotel room at 7:00 p.m. 


The moment we all had been anticipating finally arrived.

Diandian (as the ayis called Savannah Faith) was a trooper and never shed a tear.  She even gave us a few giggles on her first evening with us. 

I was surprised though.  She's the first of my Chinese princesses to refuse my bribe of Cheerios's on Gotcha Day! 

This morning we introduced her to the stacking cups.  The stacking cups have made every trip to China since Sarah Mei's adoption trip in 2007.  We started with twelve cups, seven years ago, and are down to only seven cups, but they continue to be a favorite toy!

After a little playtime, we gave her a bath.  She enjoyed the water and clearly it wasn't a new experience for her.  She has a "zipper" (what we call the girls' open-heart surgery scars) to match Sarah Mei's, Isabelle's and Lily Rose's zippers.  Thankfully, Love Without Boundaries provided her first open-heart surgery, the BT shunt, which provided her body with the oxygen it needed to grow while waiting to get the States for further assessment and open-heart surgeries.

The rest of the day was spent running from office to office filling out the necessary provincial adoption paperwork to make her legally our daughter and to get her passport to allow her to travel outside the country. 


One of the pieces of paperwork required putting Savannah's footprint on it.  She wasn't that impressed with the process!






One of the joys of the day was to see her interact with her ayi (nanny) from Heze CWI. Although Savannah has been in the Love Without Boundaries Healing Home since October, she spent the first two years of her life in an orphanage where she clearly had a special bond with one nanny. The love between the two of them was obvious, and I was so blessed to get photos and even an e-mail address to give to Diandian one day.

We finished up the paperwork around 4:00 p.m. at which point we were all ready to be back at the hotel. We spent the rest of the evening relaxing and getting to know Savannah Faith a little better.

She is full of funny expressions and the best giggle around! She loves to be kissed, and she's a bit on the laid-back side. Why stand, when there is perfectly comfortable carpet to sit on.

 

 

 

She has a great sense of humor, and she can be quite chatty in a toddler gibberish...ma, ma, da, da. You get the picture.

 

 

Mom got kicked off at this point, so I will finish up this post. Dad, the three little girls and I got to skype with Mom, Michaela, Annie and Savannah this morning. It was great to get to see them all and listen to little Savannah blow raspberries. Hopefully Mom will send me another blog post soon with more pictures!

Packing or Procrastinating?

Well, I packed Savannah Faith's suitcase.  That's the fun one!  Mine...that is another story.  Maybe I will get to it tomorrow.  After all, I have six more days until my plane leaves.  Plenty of time.


The last days have been filled with making arrangements for the three girls I am leaving behind,

making meals and freezing them

(okay, maybe Michaela has been doing more of that than me),

getting caught up on all my accounting work for my job,

and picking out a paint color for the little girls' room. 


Did I mention Phil is going to paint the bedroom while I am gone.

I am sure he will have plenty of time.

He will just be holding down the fort,

keeping up with the three little girls,

working full-time,

doing the laundry and

making sure the girl's make it to their speech therapy appointments. 

Did I mention he is my HERO!  I love that man!!



The most exciting thing I have been working on the past week is learning more about photography. 

For my birthday, Phil, my sisters and mom went in together and purchased a new camera for me.

It is amazing!

I am determined to get it off Auto!  



I want to perfect a few new techniques to "take" with me to China!

If you are looking for a great tutor,

check out Nancy at Ordinary Miracles & The Crazy Nine

http://nancyvnjourney.blogspot.com/p/photography-101.html -

She's not only a fellow adoptive mom and homeschooler,

but also a very gifted photographer and teacher.



So when I should be packing...



I just might be coercing my girls to be my "subjects"

and my dog to pose...

I am learning about f-stops and bokeh...

However my girls might be starting to lose their patience...

I can't wait to take photos of Savannah Faith.  Can't you just see her with a little dress on and a bow in her hair.  You're almost home sweet one.

To Ask or Not to Ask....

That is always one of the hardest questions for us when adopting another child.  Do we let me people know that we need help financially to bring home our daughter, or do we just wait on the Lord in Hudson Taylor fashion, make our requests known only to Him and see how He provides.

We have done it both ways.  Sometimes asking for help: Sometimes staying silent.  Last time we were blessed to be awarded a matching grant which gave us a great platform to petition our friends for assistance.  We were blessed with over $16,000 with gifts.  That went a long way to bringing home Lily Rose.

This adoption we chose not "to ask."  But I confess that we're just two short weeks away from traveling, and we are still $10,000 short of our adoption funds.  Don't get me wrong.  We are not panicking.  We know the Lord owns the cattle on a thousand hills and $10,000 is nothing to Him.  But we have decided to place the need out there in case someone wants to help us.  What a blessing that would be!

I must stop here and say three families stepped forward earlier in this adoption process, and without knowing we were in need donated a total of $7,000 towards our adoption.  I can not tell you what an encouragement and blessing that was to us.  After selling scrap gold, selling household goods on
E-Bay and Craigslist, selling a vehicle, and refinancing our home we had nothing left to liquidate.  Their gifts allowed us to keep moving forward for Savannah Faith when we were not sure what was going to happen next.

And with this sweet facing waiting on us...

 

 

we wanted to keep moving forward!

Now, next week CWTS (China Women Travel Service) needs their money wired to them to book our travel in-country and we need the money to carry with us to pay for Savannah Faith's visa fees, passport fees, and other in-country fees by March 1st - our departure date.

So here I am, "asking".  If you have ever considered supporting adoption but were not sure how to go about doing it, this is your chance.  You can make tax-deductible donations to our adoption fund by writing a check to SouthLake Church and mailing it to 13820 Hagers Ferry Rd, Huntersville, NC 28078.  Just put "Horton Adoption" in the memo line.

If you would like to give a gift instead, to benefit our adoption, you can purchase coffee at this link https://justlovecoffee.com/about/beneficiary/hortonadoption/ and $5.00 a bag will go towards our adoption. 

Or take a look at the necklaces below.  E-mail me to purchase your favorite one for $24.00.  We will receive $12.00 a necklace to benefit our adoption.  (If you live locally in the Charlotte area I'll deliver it to you.  If you live out of the area, I will mail it for an extra $5.00 postage added.)

 

 

 

 

Asking for help is always uncomfortable.  I like helping others SO much better than I like asking for help.  But here it is.  Our plea for our daughter.  She needs to come home.  To have open-heart surgery.  To find love and hope.  We would love to have you be a part of "Team Savannah".