Changing lives...

Yong, Duan Li

A picture of Alyssa in her orphanage (2004)

I've been thinking a lot about the children at Alyssa's orphanage. Alyssa was one of those children and it amazes us everyday how incredible she is. Every child still living at her orphanage needs the love of a family and the opportunity to flourish, to love, to be loved, to be stimulated, to be told they are truly the most cherished. It is our family's prayer to have each child in Alyssa's orphange adopted or, for those who are not able to be adopted, be loved in a foster home in China.

So absolutely precious

When I think about the children still at Alyssa's orphange I think about how far Alyssa has come with the love of a mother, father, brothers and a wonderful extended family. We truly believe the nannies and caregivers at the orphanage love and cherish the children as much as they can. But, it is an overwhelming task to care for many, many children and to provide their basic needs on a daily basis. When we adopted Alyssa at 15 months, she was not able to sit up on her own, she couldn't walk or crawl and she was very scared. Over the next few weeks and months we saw a beautiful little girl emerge. She was full of sillyness, laughter and loved to be teased by her brothers. Within 4 weeks she was running everywhere and was speaking a few English words. She would offer her arms to us for hugs and kisses and wanted us to snuggle with her in bed at night. Her eyes would light up when her brothers came home from school and she would run to the door to see Daddy home from work.

Our dream would be for every child to have this. This is our family's prayer.

2 weeks after Alyssa was adopted - definitely Daddy's girl!

One night when Chris and I had gone out we came home to see this touching sight! Alyssa had been nervous because we had gotten a babysitter so the boys decided to sleep with her so she wouldn't feel alone
There's nothing like brothers to teach you how to have fun!

Hugs and sillyness with mommy

SHE IS LOVED