A Girl's Gotta Have a Tutu!

Overflowing with Blessings!

Stay tuned for pictures of her in a tutu!!!!!

Since last week when we received pre-approval, we have been blessed with over 40 pictures of our sweet Louisa! There is a wonderful mission team that spent the last 5 days at Lulu's orphanage and they have provided us with incredible pictures that have allowed us a glimpse into our daughter's world and her personality. One kind woman even emailed me about her development. She appears, from a Mama's point of view to be developmentally on track. She uses her hands very well. She is shy and serious. Her feet do appear to be clubbed. We want to thank Makenna, a beautiful 13 year old, for loving on our Louisa so many hours. We look forward to connecting with them when they return so we can keep her updated on Louisa. What blessings these photos and information have been. They will sustain us during this LONG wait. Ugh...I can't even wrap my brain around the wait. Do you think if I just showed up they would give her to me now?????

Because we have sooooo many pictures we will post a few over several days time so as not to bore you. By the way, we think she is just BEAUTIFUL!

LOOK WHAT WE FOUND AT THE BEACH...........

Introducing......

Louisa Margaret Hatcher

Born Chen Xiangying

April 19,2010

Waiting for us in the Chenzhou CWI-Hunan Province of China

Yes, can you believe it? I still can't! One year ago I would have NEVER imagined this! But God had plans........so, this may be long-sorry, but it is important. So get comfortable.

Let's start at the beginning. Last Monday morning I awoke to our first day of vacation at the beach. It was early and I was by myself. I poured a hot cup of coffee and sat down at the computer to check emails real quick and then catch up on my favorite blogs. I never made it to the blogs. There in front of me sat an email from our agency stating they had locked a file for us and we had 48 hours to decide. I froze, but my mind went 90 miles an hour in 90 different directions. It is Memorial Day, we are on an island with not even a grocery store or gas station, we have NONE of our adoption "stuff", this is a surprise, etc.... Then I opened the file. There she was. She stared out at me as if asking "Are you my Mother?" My eyes quickly scanned the file for her special need.....there it was, just what we had wanted. I read on, no red flags of caution jumped out at me, in fact it all looked really good! "Hold your emotions in check, Amy! Remember how hard it is to get attached to those adorable faces only to find out the needs are greater than we can handle." You see we had already looked at several files, with great regret and hearts of heavy sadness we had declined those. (That is a post for another day!) I could not get attached to this child, only to turn her down. So began the frantic 48 hour scramble. We did ALOT of praying, we had some wonderful friends and doctors come through for us on short notice and on a holiday too, and we were able to get her file reviewed. All gave the thumbs up! So with encouraging prognosis for her condition and God's peace in our hearts we sent our Letter of Intent to adopt -Tuesday the 31st...with 24 hours to spare! Now this is funny, remember we are on an island with nothing! We needed passport photos-have those at home-does me NO good on the island-I quickly blow dried my hair, sand, salt, sweat and all, brushed on some mascara and blush stood against a white wall and Julia took a lovely photo of me and then Will on her cell phone. We texted those to Will's phone-his has email-and he emailed them to the agency. Next, we had, luckily, a family photo on my ipod touch. We promptly emailed that to the agency. Our agency then emailed me a mock letter of intent that I copied and changed to fit our needs and emailed back to her. DONE! We celebrated that night with ice cream and watched as the sun went down into the sea....looking as far as we could and wondering if Louisa was watching that same sun rise across the world.

Ok, so now for the "heart" and "mind" part. Remember, I told you this was long. A couple of years ago, before we found Xin, I had a "vision". No, I am not a kook but I did "see" this in my mind's eye. God appeared to be showing me a little girl with an upper body limb difference. Her name was Louisa. I was her Mommy. Fast forward...... we found Xin. We felt very certain this was the child God was calling us to at the time. I wondered what that could have been-maybe I am a kook? So we moved forward with Xin, brought him home and no secret here, struggled greatly with his adjustment. I am not a depressed person, but I must say, these first few months with him home were some of the lowest times I have experienced. I was angry at God, I was running with fingers in my ears not listening to a word He had to say to me. This was hard and I wanted no part of "hard". Yes, this is a pretty bratty attitude, completely ungrateful. I am not proud but it is how I felt at the time. One day in January, a file of a little girl came across my computer. I stiffened and said "NO WAY GOD!" Not adopting again! She caught my eye though, and my heart. God pursued me hard. He pulled those fingers right out of my ears and spoke. With great trepidation I listened, I prayed and then I let Him have my life plan back."I am yours God. What do you want me to do?" I remembered my "vision". My little girl with the limb difference,my Louisa. "Oh, I see now! NOW You want me/us to get THIS little girl! NOW not THEN!" So we did alot of praying, talking and soul searching and we took His hand and He led us into adoption #3. The files we turned down were hard but none of them had a limb difference and I knew God had that for us out there waiting somewhere. So, what do think our little Louisa's special need is? Yep! You got it! She has an upper body limb difference. She is missing some fingers on both hands and some toes too. She may have clubbed feet as well. From what we were told she probably has Amniotic Banding Syndrome. This is where little bands from the amniotic fluid come loose and get wrapped around parts of the baby, not allowing limbs to grow. She may have a surgery on her hands to enable better usage of fingers and she may have to have her feet casted. But hey, Mia Hamm, Olympic soccer player, had clubbed feet at birth.

For those of you that think we are crazy, or we have bitten off more than we can chew, know that we go into this with lots of forethought and knowing that God stands beside us. Our decisions might not make sense to some of you, but it doesn't matter. We try to lead our lives following what God desires for us. You see,He is just so darn smart! He gave me this "vision" BEFORE Xin. If it had been AFTER Xin, I would not have paid attention-remember I was running from God with fingers in my ears? We are ALL so excited. We think this will help Xin greatly. He will not be the "new" kid. She will. He likes that. He also sees how we talk about her, pray for her and put her picture up-just like we did with him. He gets to experience it first hand!

We are humbled, grateful and overjoyed that God is allowing us to parent this little girl and call her a Hatcher! We hope to travel within the next 6 months to bring her home to her forever family. All of our paperwork is done. Just waiting on our approval from our government and then off our dossier goes to China. We welcome prayers for Louisa and for us as we all move into this next phase of our lives as a family of 7!

A Week at the Beach

This is where we stayed...boy did we love those porches!
My sweet beautiful big girl!

Xin was really good at hitting the ball.

Jaida and Xin played on this slide over and over and over.

Love these kids!

Everyone gets around by golf carts on the island-our big hunker of a cart!

This was at the end of the island at sunset.

They truly adore each other!

At sunset.

We watched until the sun went "down".

My babies...aren't they cute?!?!

There was NO beach at high tide!

The other end of the island.

This is my favorite picture!

Sheer Joy!

Feeding the deer that were everywhere.

This was in the front yard.

From the rooftop deck.

We just returned from a week at the beach with Will's family. We had 14 in all staying in one very large and very beautiful house on Fripp Island SC. We had a wonderful time! Way too many pictures but I couldn't help myself....sorry!

Endings and Beginings

Xin's pre-k teacher
Lunch and swimming with good friends.

We took a picture in this same spot 3 years ago when this sweet family departed for Germany. My how the kids have grown! And we added 1 more!!!

The little kids finished their pre-school program last week. We were so proud of Xin as he came a LONG way this past school year! The big kids completed all their subjects over the past couple of weeks. Soccer ended-thank goodness! Speech ended yesterday. And spring said goodbye as we hit 98 degrees this week. So began summer......swimming, Eagle Sports summer conditioning, cookouts, Popsicles, no schedules. Our good friends, the Rhodes family, visited us this week from Germany and we had a fabulous time catching up. We miss them terribly already as we had to say good-bye to them way too soon!

As I will miss the cooler temps of spring and the beautiful flowers that grace the south during that time of year, I welcome summer and all its lazy days, fun-filled days, beach vacations, time spent together as a family and those sweet little tan bodies and freckled faces that appear on my children accompanied by the yummy smell of coconut scented sunscreen. Happy Summer!

A Marvelous Day

Yesterday was Family Play Day at Augusta National Golf Day where Will is blessed to work. Once a year after the club is closed they have a family play day. You can play the big course, the Par 3 course, fish, ride around and just observe and they also serve you a fabulous lunch with a wide assortment of yummy foods. Will took me and the big kids out yesterday and we spent the whole day enjoying each other, attempting to play "golf" on the Par 3 course and eating way too much food. We had some really good shots and then some laugh out loud until you are crying shots. Of course Will impressed us with his skills. We had a MARVELOUS time spending the day together in such a beautiful place. We are truly blessed!

Mother's Day

Six years ago I sat in the 1st grade classroom- on those tiny little chairs that don't really fit the bottoms of Mamas- of my oldest child Julia. We had a Mother's Day Celebration. These are always so sweet and the teachers do such a great job of making us Moms cry. So I was already teary when I realized that someday I would be sitting at one of these for my other daughter (we had just put in our application for Jaida) and motherhood would take on an even deeper meaning. Well, little did I know that 6 years later I would have 2 adopted children and I would be sitting on those tiny little chairs again in the classroom of my son. We arrived today and the children were all seated quietly, I don't know how she does that, awaiting the arrival of their Mommy. There was a lovey table adorned with flowers and goodies. There was a shelf nearby with gift bags. We found our tiny little seat and on it was a crown our child had made for us to wear. Xin had the biggest smile on his face and he kept waving and blowing me kisses. They started to sing some songs about Mommys and how they tuck us in at night, give us kisses, give us hugs.......oh how it hit me. The tears began. This little guy had only had a Mommy a few short weeks last year this time. Wow! I am his Mommy and he is singing to me and smiling at me and blowing me kisses and I am wearing his crown. God gave me the privilege to mother him. I can't say I have done it all right over the past year. I have second guessed myself a thousand times in trying to figure out what this little boy needs and how to give it to him. But I am his Mommy. God chose me. Xin has a Mommy now. He can celebrate this day now and he will always have someone to blow kisses to and make hand print art for. Adoption is amazing!

Motherhood is amazing! I started this role somewhat later in life than most. I never really liked the career thing. Marketing major, sales job, good money, meeting lots of people....but empty really inside. Then they handed me Julia. I knew this was what God created me for-well, maybe not right away, maybe after the c-section pain subsided, the mastitis went away and she slept most of the night. What a privilege and an honor it is to be a mother. God blessed me with 4 children and I could not be more fulfilled. I have a wonderful mother who blazed a clear trail for me and showed me that it is the greatest job of all! So to my wonderful mother, my mother-in-law, my sister, sister-in-laws, friends, I wish you a very Happy Mother's Day and a heart filled with gratitude for the position God has placed us all as keepers of His creations.