Don't you just LOVE her new 'do?

What I LOVE even more is the reason behind the 'do.

Katie has spent the last couple of years growing out her hair to donate to Locks of Love again.

On the eve of her last day of school, she went out to celebrate by making her "donation."

I LOVE her heart.

I heart this girl!!!

How about a pic? Everyone is looking at the camera. Every one is smiling. What you don't see , is me on the other side of the camera, jumping up and down like I have ants in my pants while running around in circles, waving my arms around like I'm trying to put out a fire, yelling boogity boogity boo-boogity boogity boo, as the neighbors stare on in wonder, no doubt thinking to themselves.." I guess 7 finally put 'er over the edge."

Ha. Shows what they know. I was this cuckoo before kids. So there. Hmmpf. wait....?

Well, one of them anyways. It would take a while to work on the rest. ;)

I have figured out why I have been so lax in sharing info about Samuel. I think because he is older, I feel like the information is not mine to share. Does that make any sense to anyone? Anyone adopting older kiddos feel the same way?

When my kiddos were little, I would stand around with other moms as our kids played at the park, we would not hesitate to share things about our kiddos. Sarah isn't sleeping well. Bobby has a temper. Rachael has been constipated for days, and she finally pooped (then we would all cheer.) For real. Told you I was a dork and I find joy in the little things. ;)

But as my kids get older, I am more guarded about sharing anything personal about them. I am kind of funny that way. Of course I wouldn't sit around and talk about their bowel movements, sheesh. But, I feel like so many things are theirs to share, should they wish.

And I think this is the root of why I can't seem to bring myself to share what little info I have on Sam. I feel like I am telling his secrets. I feel like he should be the one to let you know if he likes math, or what he wants to be when he grows up. You know what I'm sayin'?

So this is something I have been struggling with. Trying to respect a story that is his to tell, while wanting to share him with all of you who will pray for him, cheer him home, celebrate each acronym with us, and no doubt be a source of great support through this wait.

I decided I feel comfortable sharing a little bit about how God led us to him, which will in turn allow me to share a few things about this sweet little Big guy.

Long story short, I was catching up on reading some blogs( a very rare occurrence these days), and I was perusing my dashboard to peek at some posts for some of the blogs I follow. As I was scanning the list, trying to find out how far I needed to go back to catch up, there was this picture of this sweet boy on my dear friend Andrea's blog. And he caught my eye, right away. Something about him just spoke right to my heart. I didn't even know who he was. I can't remember if I even knew what the title of the post read. Whether there was any hint in the post about why his sweet little picture was up there. I just new I needed to click on that entry ASAP.

When I did, it took me to a post written by Andrea petitioning for this little big guy's family. And in that post, there was a link to the LWB blog. With my heart racing, I clumsily clicked over to the blog, to find a beautiful post describing his sweet little personality and it was accompanied by 3 adorable pics. I just started crying. Somehow through that little post, I just knew this might be our little big guy. And those sweet little dimples...don't even get me started. They ended the post with " Could he be your son?" ummm...a thousand times YES! In my heart, I just knew I could be looking into the face of our little big guy. And when I showed his picture to Jeff, he felt the same. again... tears.

For the next couple of days, there was alot of praying, and many e-mails exchanged with a few friends at LWB to try to track down information on the little Big guy, so that we could find his file on Monday Morning, as he was on the shared list. This was something we had yet to experience. The shared list. I didn't know what to expect. I had no clue that weekend, as I stared at his picture over and over again, throwing around names to see if it was "the one" whether or not his file was even still available. But somehow I just had this peace. Thank you Jesus for the Peace. Otherwise 5 extra pounds could have found their way to my behind from the stress eating that would have ensued. NO doubt.

So Monday morning we called our agency and asked if they could identify his file and see if he was locked in or not. As soon as she discovered that he was not locked in, we spent the whole day filling out the necessary paperwork for the agency, writing our LOI, scanning, faxing, sending and resending all the necessary documents needed before we could lock in his file. All the while hearing from our rep at Wacap that several people had asked to see his file that morning alone. And yet.... Peace.

5pm that day... The e-mail came through. The file was locked and our LOI was on its way to China!!!! Less than two weeks later, we received Pre-Approval from CCAA to be the parents of this sweet little big guy! An Xi now had his forever family. And we now had a new son!!! Praise Be to God!!

So our little Samuel An Xi waits for us in the Guandong province. The same province that his little brother Johnathan is from, though a different city. Our little big guy is being loved on by a foster family sponsored by Love without Boundaries. And it goes without saying that we are so grateful for the care that has been and will continue to be provided to him while we work as fast as humanly possible to get our big guy home! Samuel will turn 7 this July, and it is our hope that he will be home only a few short months after his birthday!!

While we wait the kiddos continue to pray for him, make him care packages, set aside toys they think he will like, clear out drawers and start to fill them with clothes they think will fit him, weighing in on what they think we should take to China to make him more comfortable, drawing thousands of pictures to send to him, debating about which sports they think he will like, voting on whether we should get him a superman or a batman toothbrush.. so basically, they are finding ways to keep busy. There is rarely a moment that goes by that they are not thinking of their brother and preparing for and anticipating his homecoming. As are we. CANNOT WAIT!!! :)

Fyi- There are so many little ones just like Sam that wait in China for their forever family who would be blessed immeasurably through being sponsored in Foster Care. Love Without Boundaries has a wonderful Foster Care program and they could always use more sponsors to make a difference in the lives of these kiddos, just like someone has done for our little big guy, Sam. If you head on over to LWB, you can donate through this site there. For Mothers Day, they are encouraging people to donate towards sponsorship as a way to honor their Mothers. If you choose to do that, they will send an adorable card to your mom letting them know that a donation has been made to LWB in their honor that will go towards making a difference in the life of a child. What a beautiful way to honor our Mothers this Mother's Day!

Thanks for wanting to know more about Samuel, and for loving him and our family enough to keep after me until I filled you in a bit more. You guys are the best, and we are blessed to call you friends! Love you guys!