Three Amazing Families

This week our family has been enormously blessed by three very special families we have met in this blessed journey of adoption.

The Hurst Family contacted us after we became the official family for "Edward and Percy." Katie Hurst was the one who started the Edward and Percy Fund on Facebook and advocated faithfully for them and all this, mind you, while in the hectic process to bring home her own precious child from China. Yesterday was "gotcha" day in China for little Simon Hurst. The Hurst family has been a blessing to us and we are thankful for the effort they have made for our little ones. We are rejoicing over Simon's adoption!
If you're interested in their story, here's the blog: http://riversandmiles.blogspot.com/ 

Actually, there's more to this story, the Hurst Family found little Simon on the blog of The Martins. Sonia  Martin posted information on her blog about little Simon hoping some family would become his forever family. Sonia is in China right now accompanying another friend on her adoption journey to China. She was able to meet the Hursts and be there to photograph when the Hurst family received little Simon into their lives...Amazing, right? Yes, but it gets better...

The Martins have adopted three precious boys from China. Two from the same orphanage as Daniel and Matthew. One of these just happens to be Matthew's best friend and the Martins just happen to live near us!  We met them and they were wonderful. Joshua enjoyed getting to hang out with Chinese boys! While it took a bit for them to warm up, the ice was smashed into smithereens when one of the Chinese Martin boys bridged the question:

"Are you adopted?" To which Joshua graciously responded:

"Yeah. I'm from China." Three pairs of surprised Chinese eyes stared at the other set of Chinese eyes.

"You're Chinese!?!"

"Yes." Yes, the great meltdown. No more barriers. They had a great time, and the little Martin whose best friend we are adopting was willing to tell us a little about Matthew.

Us with the Martins (the little one in red is Matthew's best friend)

Oh, wait, it gets better...Sonia is going to visit Daniel and Matthew's foster home on Wednesday and is taking a package from us! Sonia will be the one to tell our little boys that they have a forever family! She will be taking pictures of them and videoing them when they open our package. This time next week, we should be able to show you all updated pictures of our dear little boys.
You can follow Sonia's journey in China at http://www.cheaperbythehalfdozens.blogspot.com/

The last family we had the opportunity to meet is the Seitz family. They also live very near us! They have 20 children- 4 biological and 16 adopted. They have adopted from the US, Vietnam, Ethiopia and China. Morgan and I had the opportunity to eat dinner with them last week and talk to them about their adoption journeys. Most of their children are grown, but we did meet a few. We were touched by their dependence on God for all things, their humility, their faithfulness, their wisdom and their love. They are a treasure chest of information for us! They brought their last two (13 year old girls from China) home in December.

We are very thankful for these families and what they mean to our family! And, just to close with two very precious faces (well, I think they're unbelievably precious).

Daniel-our handsome son

Matthew-our handsome son