A beautiful poem about a mother's love

Different Kinds of Love

There were two special women, they never knew each other.
One you don’t remember, the other you call mother.
Two very different lives together make yours one.
The first one like a shooting star, the other like the sun.
One gave to you the gift of life, one showed you how to live it.
The first one gave a need for love, the second was there to give it.
One gave you roots of heritage, the other your good name.
One gave you seeds of talent, the other gave you aim.
One gave to you emotions; the other calmed your fears.
One saw your first endearing smile, the other dried your tears.
The first one had to give you up, it was all that she could do.
The other prayed for her own child and then was led to you.
I hope you see my precious child, that you’re the product of,
not just one but two hearts, with different kinds of love.
By - John Trapani

Have you been tagged - think about it....

I was tagged by another August DTC friend, so here it goes...

I am... a born again Christian who has been blessed with the most awesome husband in the world with whom I have had three fabulous children with one precious blessing on it's way from China!
I want... to live in a world that is peaceful
I wish... my children will continue to follow the Lord all of their lives
I hate... when people pass unneccesary judgement on others
I miss... the days when my children were little wee ones
I hear... singing, giggling, laughter and talking from my children
I wonder... when we will get to meet our fourth child
I regret... placing heavy weight on what others think of me
I am... not a quiet gal
I dance... crazily
I sing... and I love it - but it does not sound lovely!
I try... to be the best mon and wife I can be
I am not... always flexible and patient...a work in progress
I make... the most of my time by being very busy!
I confuse... my children with the many things to do for the day
I need... a date with my husband!
I should... be doing the many left over tasks at the house
I start... to write, but seldom finish
I finish... the tasks that are the most important to me (not necessarily the most urgent!)

quilt letter

To our wonderful family and friends,
As many of you know, we are adopting a baby girl from China. After months of chasing paper, our dossier is complete and now in China. We hope to have our referral for our baby girl in 2007. We have decided to name her Sophia.

We are creating a 100 wishes quilt to give to our daughter when we bring her home from China. We would love good wishes and/or prayers to be included.

To welcome and celebrate a new life, a tradition exists in the Northern part of China, to make a bai jia bei (100 wishes quilt) to welcome and celebrate a new life. It is custom that the family and friends contribute squares of cloth along with their wish for the baby. The quilt is then passed on from generation to generation.

How to contribute: There are two pieces to contribute

#1 Fabric: Choose a machine washable, 100% cotton fabric. It can be new or used/meaningful. Cut an 12X12 square. We are hoping to get lots of bright colors

#2 Wish/Prayer: This is the fun part! Use an index card and glue a one inch scrap of your fabric to it with your wish for our precious Sophia. Your wish can be simple or elaborate, handwritten or typed. It can be something you wrote, a favorite poem, bible verse or quote. You can even place a picture on it if you wish! Please remember to include your name on it. These wishes/prayers will be put into a album for our little girl to cherish forever.


All of the notes will be put into an album and when we look through it we will be able to match up the wish and the fabric on the quilt.

If you have more than one person in your family who would like to participate, PLEASE feel free to send more than one quilt block and prayer/wish. Remember, we need to collect 100 squares, so the more the better. Children are welcome to be contributors to this project!

We know that you all have busy schedules, but we hope you will be able to help us create this special keepsake to help preserve some of the Chinese culture for our daughter. This will be so incredibly meaningful to us as well as to Sophia as she gets older.
Love always,
Adam, Lisa, Savannah, Tyler and Brayden Hopp

OUR MIRACLE DAY!!!!

What were you doing on August 7, 2006 at exactly 11:47am? I can tell you that I was at Target with my boys completely unaware of the miracle going on across the world. It was at that exact time that our dossier arrive in China. Now we are officially DTC! We are one step closer to holding our sweet Sophia and bringing her home to a forever family to call her own. As we opened the letter we cried and cried and Adam made a comment that it was exactly the same excitement that we had as we saw each positive pregnancy test. We feel pregnant with this little baby - our hearts are already with her and we love her beyond measure. We feel so fortunate and blessed to know that in the near future we will have our precious baby girl in our arms forever!!!!!! Hooray!!!!!

WE ARE DTC AUGUST 1st!!!!

Ok all of the sweat and tears and agony and calling Fed Ex with various tracking numbers has finally paid off. We mailed all of our last documents to Americans Adopting Orphans. We feel so blessed at this wonderful miracle that God has blessed us with. Already, although we do not know what Sophia looks like or what her little personality will be, we sense the fact that she is out far far away in China waiting for her mommy and daddy to come and bring her home to be with her forever family! We already love Sophia. Many would never understand this, but the wonder and love we have for Sophie stems from God's call on our lives.
Many have asked have asked us why we are adopting. We look like we have our hands full (the other day a woman from church stopped me and saw me and my children and asked me if I run a day care). I had to laugh, as all she saw was my little angels! It made me think of the very moment that God vividly revealed His plan for us. Adam and I were at a Steven Curtis Chapman concert and watched a music video that had screens that displayed children who were homeless and without forever families. I cried and cried and asked God what I could do. He planted a seed that night and this seed has been planted and ha began to bloom. After telling Adam about this call, he felt totally overwhelmed and was not ready to jump like I was (much like most things in our life). At this moment from October 2004 to now, I prayed. I prayed like I have never prayed before. I asked that God would make us like minded or that He would make it obvious that adoption was not for us. We talked infrequently generally about adoption, but never with any conclusion until April 2006 when Adam and I were on the couch just talking. He turned to me and pretty much out of the blue told me that he was ready. Ready for what? He was ready to adopt our baby girl from China!!!!!! I cried! I laughed! We hugged and embraced for a VERY long time. God is so good. He has taught me patience as well. But look at what He has done! Look at what He continues to do! Our children are so excited and already debating who gets to hold Sophia first.
Being DTC is a huge hurdle to get through as we are one step closer to meeting our daughter. We love you so much Sophie!!!!