November 13, 2015 Christmas, Hannah, LWB, New Day Foster Home, other ways to care for the orphan 0 Comments

One of my most vivid memories from childhood Christmases was the year my parents took us kiddos to the store to buy clothes and toiletries to donate to a local homeless shelter. We shopped as a family, gave as a family, and in the course of a few hours one Saturday afternoon, my brothers and …Read More

October 12, 2015 Hannah, orphanage realities 1 Comments

I have a rather comical relationship with one of the nannies at the orphanage. I’ve been back in the USA for about five months now (getting a 2nd degree in nursing, in case you were wondering) and this nanny (I’ll call her M Ayi) and I have had many a chat on weixin, a Chinese …Read More

September 26, 2015 Chinese Culture, Chinese Holidays, Hannah 2 Comments

The perfect season has arrived to China. It’s not hot and muggy anymore, and it’s too early for the coal heaters to be running and clogging up our lungs with coal dust. The fields of corn are being harvested and streets are lined with a festive yellow. Corn corn corn. As far as the eye …Read More

July 25, 2015 China trip, Chinese Culture, Hannah, July/August 2015 Feature - Going to China! 1 Comments

Hao chi (好吃) is how someone in China is going to affirm, “This is yummy!” It’s pronounced “how chur” and all you have to do is add a “ma?” to the end to make it a sentence. Chinese food. Either you love it or you hate it, right? And then maybe you love the food, …Read More

June 13, 2015 Hannah, orphan ministry 1 Comments

Amy Carmichael wrote, “But God is the God of the waves and the billows, and they are still His when they come over us; and again and again we have proved that the overwhelming thing does not overwhelm. Once more by His interposition deliverance came. We were cast down, but not destroyed.” Over the past …Read More

May 13, 2015 Attachment, Hannah, siblings 0 Comments

Ten days before my 10th birthday, my little sister was born. But I didn’t know her. I didn’t know what she looked like or how long it would be until I would meet her for the first time. For those first, long, ten years of my life, I prayed for a sister. I begged for …Read More

April 13, 2015 Hannah, orphanage realities 1 Comments

She stands in the middle of the room, children at her feet. Some are fighting each other for her, the rest are begging to be picked up. A little girl with albinism sees me standing in the doorway and runs over, arms spread wide and high. I bend down and pick her up and within …Read More

February 13, 2015 Chinese Culture, Hannah, orphanage realities 1 Comments

We were advocating domestic adoption around the table. Somehow I had been seated to the Director’s left – the most important seat, and one much too auspicious for comfort, and our chopsticks clinked upon the same plate of celery and mushrooms. He turned to me and looked me square in the face. Of course I …Read More

January 13, 2015 Hannah, orphanage realities 0 Comments

January 4, 2014… I mean 2015. Where does the time go? I have my ticket. I’m flying back to China on the 9th, a Friday afternoon. By the time you all read this I will have been in the good ol’ PRC for about three days, and will hopefully be sleeping soundly (why are you …Read More

December 13, 2014 Chinese Language, Hannah 4 Comments

Language. It’s not something that any of us can really ignore, is it? When my first two little sisters came home they weren’t even a year old, and so our words were not nearly as important as our tone… it didn’t matter that our Chinese was very non-existant. We taught some sign language to make …Read More

November 13, 2014 Hannah 0 Comments

Today is my youngest sister’s second “Adoption Day”! Aren’t anniversaries like this the best? Because it’s National Adoption Month right now, Orphan Sunday was two weeks ago and World Adoption Day was last Sunday, it’s been hard to not think about adoption. Similarly, it’s been hard not to think about my sweet sisters. I still …Read More

September 27, 2014 adoption realities, Hannah, orphanage realities 1 Comments

I’ve been in America since May, which means that I haven’t been to an orphanage since April, which means that it’s been many months since I last took pictures of orphans. Because of this I’ve had some extra time (ha! Is there any such thing?) to go through old pictures. Y’all, I’ve taken a lot …Read More

August 13, 2014 adoption realities, Hannah 1 Comments

I’ve often sat in front of a blank computer screen and wondered what in the world to write. What do I have to say to you? Each and every one of you readers: pre-adoptive parents who are wading through the trenches of paperwork and up to their necks in notarizations and acronyms; traveling families who …Read More

July 13, 2014 adoption realities, Hannah 2 Comments

Twenty-three years ago she made her mother-in-law angry. Cora had just given birth to her first child, a daughter, and the news did not bring any celebration into the household. Her husband’s mother was angry; the older woman fumed and refused to hold her new granddaughter. As the weeks past she finally agreed to hold …Read More

June 13, 2014 adoption realities, Hannah 1 Comments

Making a difference is one of those things that everybody aspires to do. I sure want to be one of those people… someone who is dynamic and passionate and yet caring and sweet-and-happy-all-of-the-time, all at the same time. Don’t you? It’s hard. It’s really, really hard. Sometimes I can hit three-out-of-four. I can be dynamic …Read More

May 11, 2014 adoption realities, Hannah, orphanage realities 2 Comments

Over the past ten months I have watched baby after baby arrive at the orphanage we work in. In my first four years of orphan care work in China we were working with a foster home – a place of healing and hope, where orphans with medical needs that the orphanage could not handle arrived …Read More

March 29, 2014 Hannah 0 Comments

They call her “little white one” and the name suits. She’s a pretty little thing and can flit about like a little pixie at times, her snowy white head bobbing here and there, her cold wet bottom peeping out of quilted pink split-pants. She’s a little singing fairy at times, but usually… she’s crying. When …Read More