We're going to China!!

Friends, I've been holding off on writing this blog because it doesn't feel real.

We were floored to learn from the travel coordinator at our agency that we could travel the end of August! We are still waiting for some paperwork to come back but we've been told this documentation comes through very predictably.

We anticipate receiving Article 5 on August 5. Then we need travel approval to get into China. That paper is generally taking between 4-10 days. Even if it takes longer than expected, we would have it by August 19. Most families travel 3-5 weeks after travel approval. But not us!

I MAY have already started packing....

We are leaving early in the morning August 29! Trent and I will be flying to Beijing first (with a short layover in Hong Kong) where we will spend a couple of days with Ruthie's amazing foster family.

They keep a little country house (similar to how Lancaster families keep a cabin in the mountains). Their country house just happens to back up to the Great Wall of China. You know, no big deal. We are so thrilled to recover from our jet lag in the company of these friends.

From there we will go to Heidi's province. She is from Jiangxi which is in southeast China and we are eager to see a different part of China. The area she lives in has a tropical climate (similar to Guangxi where Ruth is from) so we are anticipating a hot, humid week. I think the summer we've had in Pennsylvania has well prepared us for this trip.

Heidi's adoption will be finalized in her province. From there we will take her and fly to Guangzhou, Guangdong where we will spend a week. One of the main purposes of the second week is getting her visa to get back into the US. Once we have her visa we can come home. We fly home on Friday, September 13.

China has been coordinating international adoptions for many years and the process in-country is remarkably smooth. There are lots of appointments, much waiting around in office buildings, but all-in-all, our last experience showed us it is run like a well-oiled machine.

Trent and I are so grateful to our niece, Zoey, who is putting off accepting a nursing position until after we come home from China. Can you imagine a heart like hers? Our girls are thrilled to have their cousin live with them, do fun things with them, and make lasting memories of their time together. Ruthie is excited because "she didn't get to stay with Zoey last time" since she was the one being adopted, and Caroline was quite a bit younger so doesn't have much memory of that time.

Thank you all for your continued love and support. We appreciate all of you and can't wait to share her photo with you all for the first time, very, very soon!

As before, I hope to blog daily during our trip. It is still to be determined whether I'll have success sharing the blogs to Facebook but will try to have someone here do it for me if I'm unable to do so.

Ruth's 11th Month Home

Since Ruth's birthday fell midway between months 10 and 11 I will try to keep this post brief.  If you have read anything I've ever posted about Ruth, you will already know that Ruth is a delight to our hearts.

Last speech therapy with Miss Julie.. she moves up to the 3+ program

She is loud. Bossy. Opinionated. Determined. Competitive. Driven.

On a mission

No more crib!

I can scooter AND sweep. What can you do?

Tire Swing Queen

I can skate, too!

Cousin egg hunt!

Learning to write the letter "t"

She is also sweet. Snuggly. Affectionate. Tender-hearted.



If girls are sugar and spice, I'd say she got an extra dose of spice.

Locking Carrie and cousin Matteo in the chicken coop. 

She's just right.



Ruth loves singing (loudly) at church. She adores music, dancing, and flowers. She loves her chick, "Baby" and almost all foods.


Being outside is her favorite. We learned she seems to have a pollen allergy, but that drippy nose and cough won't stop her from wearing dandelion crowns.



We've been amazed, humbled, and awed at how well Ruth fits into our family. We are grateful we followed the will of the Lord and trusted in him throughout Ruth's adoption.

Pretty sure I have a picture of all 5 of my girls making this face.

Since I can't imagine being able to say it any better, I'll close with what George Muller wrote in his autobiography, "We are never losers from doing the will of the Lord."

Happy 11 months home, my darling!

Considering cleft

As promised, I intend to write several times in November, National Adoption Month, about Ruth’s medical conditions.

Today I am starting with her cleft lip and palate. Ruth was born with a unilateral (meaning one side) right, cleft lip and palate.

Ruthie at 7 months old

 Cleft lip and palate is the most common birth defect, occurring approximately 1 in every 700 live births. If you are on Instagram I encourage you to search the hashtag #1in700 to see many beautiful people from around the world, and read their cleft stories.

Not all clefts are created equally. Clefts can occur as just the lip or just the palate or together. They can vary widely in severity. They can affect the gumline, but do not always. Children can have missing teeth, malformed teeth, and be prone to cavities. Some children have hearing difficulties or multiple ear infections which are frequently solved by putting tubes in their ears. Feeding difficulties are also common. Occasionally clefts occur in conjunction with another birth defect. 

What should you expect when adopting a child with cleft lip and palate? From our personal experience I would first of all say, joy! Second, a strong spirit of determination and will. From a medical standpoint I would prepare for multiple surgeries throughout your child’s life. 

When adopting from China it is very common that your child will have had at least one lip surgery before you bring her home. Depending on the success of the surgery and the severity of the cleft, your child may need revision surgeries as she gets older. Sometimes the nostril collapses after a lip repair so that will again be something addressed by a plastic surgeon. The soft tissue of the palate can generally be repaired with one surgery. If any fistulas develop post-op your child will need to undergo the palate surgery again. If the cleft goes through the gumline, your child will need to have a bone graft. This typically takes place when your child is school aged. Basically you can anticipate at least two surgeries, but very likely it will be more than that, plus orthodontics. 

If your child has cleft palate, you can anticipate years of speech therapy. I met someone recently while at the Lancaster Cleft Palate Clinic who was adopted at age 3 from China. She is now a lovely 8th grader and this is the first year she has not needed speech therapy. I joked recently that I will gladly endure 12 years of speech therapy since Ruthie potty trained so quickly and easily.

When I have it typed out like this it seems like a lot, but keep in mind all these things are spaced out over the years of their childhood. It is helpful to have a cleft clinic nearby. After surgery, most children will only need to see the cleft specialist once a year. 

At this point, I would say that Ruthie’s cleft lip and palate are not a big deal. Like many children with medical conditions, she is strong and determined. While she may at some point be self-conscious of her scar, we intend to fill her so full of confidence and self-respect that it is not an issue. 

Close up of Ruth’s scar. 

We love our Ruthie! The next post will share more specifically about Ruth’s cleft. 

Ruthie’s fifth month home!

Five months home!! This month had its share of ups and downs. 

We endured nearly three weeks of a soft food diet. We all did this together as Ruth was extremely jealous if we were eating something she couldn’t have. This included no forks. We ate spaghetti with spoons. It was an adventure. 

We went running several times at the rail trail. I was sick with a head cold which made it rather difficult to do all the things I normally do. Mamas shouldn’t be allowed to get sick. 

As Ruthie recovered from her surgery she was extra snuggly and I was able to rock her to sleep several times. As much as I would have loved for her to never need to go through surgery it was a really special time of bonding for us. 

I may have missed the first two years of her life and never rocked newborn Ruthie to sleep, but I am doing my best to make up for it. 

These two are as inseparable as ever. Caroline would really like Ruthie to share her bed. We’ll put that off as long as possible. 

Ruthie enjoyed her first Lampeter Fair and milkshakes. You can’t be a Lancaster girl without going to the fair. She missed the Solanco Parade as she was having surgery that day but we look forward to taking her next year. 

She was very proud of this chip clip that she won at the fair. 

The fall isn’t complete without going on some tractor rides around the yard. 

Fun with sisters!

Ruthie often yells “mom, Mom, Mooom, MOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM” while I’m driving. When I glance back usually she is holding hands with these two sisters. *I was the passenger when I took this photo on the way to church.*

Ruthie was a trooper through a busy month of soccer four times a week between Abbey and Maggie. 

Running at the rail trail again!

Two pony tails! They look so cute but she doesn’t leave them in long. 

Loved our soft tacos on National Taco Day!

Of course, it wasn’t all fun and games. Here she is crying because I had to grind up her meatball while on the soft food diet. 

After-dinner books with daddy are the best. 

Red neck swimming in our retention basin with some frogs. 

Sister snuggles under a beautiful blanket made by Trent’s Aunt Joyce. 

Ruthie and her cousin Matteo. We had the joy of taking him with us one morning as we ran errands. Ruth is a year older than Matteo, to give you an idea of just how small she really is. 

Adorable, hand-holding cousins. 

Ruthie loved this hat we found at Party City. 

I thought she would like this barrel train ride at our church’s 300th anniversary celebration. 

I was wrong. 

Ruthie learned how to use a straw this month! This may not seem like a big deal, but for a child with cleft palate it’s a big accomplishment. 

As you can see, she is proud of herself! Learning to form a suction was a big deal and we made a huge fuss over her. She absolutely loves using a straw!

And anytime she eats some of my favorite foods I have this huge amount of pride and love wash over me. Here she is eating beans, meat and cheese casserole with a big pile of sour cream. 

Wednesday nights we spend with Trent’s parents and brother. It’s always a relaxing evening for me. Ruth is playing with a yo-yo with Uncle Troy. 

Gorgeous evenings at soccer practice. 

Playing with fuzzy caterpillars. 

It’s a rare treat for some people to know their extended family. These four girls are third cousins and they had so much fun together. 

Birthday party for cousin, Gavin. Most of these kids are cousins but there are a few friends mixed in there. 

She was very compassionate when Abbey sprained her ankle. 

Could there be anything more fun than flying down the driveway into the retention basin in this car? She submits that there is not!

Most of the children were thrilled to have caught this possum even if they were hoping for a squirrel. 

Ruthie has been doing more creative play this month. She has enjoyed taking care of these babies at Grandpa and Grandma Hess’s. 

Typical Wednesday night. 

Again, a sweet, compassionate heart towards the ill. This time it was Maggie with pink eye and then some viral infection. 

Her blood condition has a tendency to make it difficult for her to overcome illness so it’s important we shield her as much as possible to sick kids. Obviously that’s hard to do in a big family. However, I’m grateful we don’t have to put her in daycare and that we homeschool so (normally) our older kids stay quite healthy during the school year. 

Happy five months home, Ruthie V.!

We had to work really hard this month to get a good picture as she was a wiggly worm!

Oh, and almost most importantly, Ruthie potty trained this month! She is amazing! As long as there is a bathroom nearby I take her everywhere we go in underwear. She still wears a diaper for nap and overnight, but I’m totally impressed. None of our other kids potty trained easily or well. Ruth was amazing. Such a gift to this mama! 

 We are eager to get her evaluated for speech therapy in November. Our lives are busier, nosier, livlier, more compassionate, and all around better because Ruth is in it. We love you baby girl. So much!