English :)

  It amazes me how fast Henry is picking up on English. Here are some vocabulary highlights:

1. "I is Henry" (We have tried and tried to fix that one, but for some reason, he won't change it)

2) "Mommy cooking yummy" (He says this a lot. He isn't picky AT ALL. The only thing we have discovered that he doesn't like is macaroni and cheese)

3) "Lillybilly" (This is supposed to be little bit, another one we are working on)

4) "How are you, Henry?" "Blessed".

5) "Alli, you, me, twenty work (makes the sign for money) go China, say 'Hello Henry Teacher!' teacher say 'Ni hao, Henry!' Me say: 'Chinese, I don't know. English.'"
  Over all he is really funny and eager to please.

 Painting faces on the fourth of July

A little monster :)

Update

  Sorry about the lack of updates here lately. But I'm sure you can imagine how hectic it has been here lately. Henry is picking up on everything really well. He started school this week. After much debate Mom and Daddy decided to send him to public school. I worried him all day, but I knew Preston and Daddy and all the other kids from church would be looking out for him. Daddy said he started out in tears but ended up laughing. His ESL (English Second Language) is really good with him and you can tell he has already won everyone over :)

Home At Last!

   Oh. Wow. I never could blog in China, so I have A LOT of catching up to do.
   Day One, May 31st: We were NOT prepared to go! We got our travel approval two hours before we left. I was up until eleven or so the night before we left, trying to make sure I was completely ready. We got up a little before two in  the morning and stuck everything in the car to take off. I wasn't tired then, because I was so excited! Preston and Mama slept the whole way to Roanoke, though. Our first flight was the best. It was from Roanoke to Detroit. It was still early and everything was pink and misty. It was also my first time flying. The plane from Detroit to Beijing was much bigger, but we had a lot less room. Everybody was packed in like sardines. We had a joke going, whenever we passed the First Class, or Sky Priority or whatever they call it, one of us would say "Oh, look at all the happy rich people! Doesn't it just make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside?". Ha. After thirteen hours of nonstop movies and junk food, I wasn't feeling so great. The plane was too dark and crowded. As soon as the plane touched the ground, I was in the lavatory throwing up. Yep, that was my first impression of China. Finally it was time for our last flight, Beijing to Hangzhou. We met our guide, Mr. Wan. He reminded us of my grandpa, Pop, so whenever we talked about him in our hotel room we called him Pop. Daddy also nicknamed him George. I don't know why. I guess he just looked like a George to Daddy. Mr. Wan's (or Pop's, or George's, or whatever you want to call him) English was very good. He was really smart. He knew all about plants, and history (Chinese and American). We got to our hotel and crashed, but we woke up before five. The time in China is exact opposite from here, so while it was 5 am there, it was 5 pm here.

   Day Two: On our itinerary this was marked as "rest". That's exactly what we did! We woke up and ate, went back to our room, and crashed. We slept through lunch and ate supper at the hotel. Of course, we hardly slept that night.

   Day Three: We went to West Lake part of the day, slept the rest.

   Day Four: Free day. We walked around some. As in we walked around the West Lake. West Lake is considered to be the best natural beauty in China. It covers three square miles. We rented a little tiny motor boat and went out on the lake.

    Day Five: Gotcha Day! Henry was supposed to meet us in our hotel lobby at 11, but because of the long drive from his orphanage (about five hours) it ended up being more like 1. He walked in with his vice director of the orphanage and two other people (I don't really know who they were). He took one look at us and burst into tears. The vice director was very kind. You could see how much she loves the kids. He hardly ate at all the first two days, and was very quiet.

   Day Six: This day started out like the day before, with Henry mostly crying. After lunch we finally got a translator on the iPad to work. I've heard Google Translate is mostly unreliable, but I guess it made sense to him because he has been smiling ever since!
  Day Seven: From then on it was good. Henry was all smiles...

Written From the Detroit Airport

Lots of miracles since yesterday!  The travel approval came middle of the day, the visa came at 3:30, and finally at midnight we got our consulate appointment - 2 hours before leaving for the airport!  Much much celebration going on!  Now we are in Detroit at the airport, after a 5 hour layover we will fly to Beijing then on to huangzhou - should be in Henry's province by tomorrow afternoon. Pretty much everything that can go wrong has gone wrong since the beginning of this adoption --- and yet look how far we have gotten - all by the grace of God!  THANK YOU for all the encouragement and prayers - because the odds have been stacked against us since the beginning but we feel like thesis going to happen!
There are a lot of little birds inside the building and Daddy and I were feeding them but Mom told us to stop. There's also this red train running through that looks really cool :)
I want to put pictures up but the iPad is being very difficult. I will try again soon but may have to wait until we get home. I hope not :(
Will post more when we get to Beijing.

Getting Ready!

   We have our Travel Approval!
   We fly out a 6 tomorrow morning, meaning we leave here at 1. I would write more but we are really busy and I need to get some rest. Also I don't know if I will be able to post in China, but I will put up a lot of pictures and write some very long posts as soon as we get back.

PLEASE KEEP PRAYING!

   Things are not looking good at all right now. We have our airline tickets purchased for May 31st at 6:10 am, but yesterday they told us our VISAs had been denied! The courier said this had never happened before, they didn't deny it until the last day because we didn't have information on our hotels yet. We sent the information, but they are closed on weekends AND Monday because of Memorial Day. The courier           said in cases of extreme emergency they will get it through in one day. This is a case of extreme emergency! But by the time we have it overnight-ed it still won't be here until Thursday, and that will take a lot of things going perfectly. It seems like NOTHING is going right! It is so frustrating! Ugh! We need a miracle, but we've been saying that the entire process, and so far we have gotten all our miracles. God is good, all the time. PLEASE KEEP PRAYING! I cannot say this enough!

Zane

   We got a phone call Tuesday and Henry's best friend, Zane, had passed away. He had a family waiting here in America who were at about the same phase we are. Henry and Zane went to get their passports together. Zane had been climbing on some things when he fell. We need to remember his family and everyone who loved him in our prayers. We are afraid we will not see Henry's famous smile for a while now.

Jaynelle Vocabulary

  I thought I would take the time to go over some basic "Jaynelle-ese" today:


1. The past form of chase is "choost". As in "Jesse choost me!"

2. Children=Childyen

3. On that note, room=yoom. As in "Our bedyoom is messy!"

4. She frequently cries out "Halleyulah!" Pronunciation: Hall-eh-yool-ah.

5. All S's should be pronounced as a TH.

There you have it! You now have some basic knowledge of Jaynelle-ese!

Consulate

   I'm not really sure what it means, but Mom says we have our Consulate Appointment June 11th. I know that's a big step, but like I said, I try my best to figure out what is going on so I can put it on the blog, but I don't really understand what all the adoption phrases mean. I do know TA (Travel Approval for those of you who are like me and all this confuses you) is the magic word though! Unfortunately, we are still waiting on ours. On the bright side we have child care lined up! A huge Thank You to Devin and Ashley, not to mention   G.G, Pop, and Grandmama! Also we have found people to take care of most of the goats,all but two does and their babies (Swiss, Parmesan, Rachel, Leah, and Ruth).
   The kids are getting so excited for their new brother! They have been begging to be the ones that give him his stuffed doggy. They are so cute! They all four have that Worrell habit of jumping up and down as fast as they can when they get excited. Preston has it too, and still hasn't entirely out grown out of it. Apparently I don't have that gene. They're also giddy that Ashley and Devin will be staying with them! At first we worried about leaving them and them being disappointed. But as soon as we told them who was babysitting they were too excited to even think about that!  I don't think I will be missed much.
   We're trying to figure out technology while in China. Any advice is welcome. We don't know if the iPad or laptop would be best, or if we have to do anything special. Obviously we are not the most savvy family.
  Yesterday we went shopping for the trip. Try buying clothes for a fourteen year old boy who you've never met and have no clue what size to get him. We are keeping the tags on everything! Also any advice in that area and what you have done would be excellent!

Random...

   Finally! All the goats have finished kidding!We went out last Wednesday night and Dolina and Mariota both had theirs! Unfortunately, neither the babies or the mamas seemed to know who belonged to who. We named them Shadrach (boy, white), Meshach (Mia for short, girl, white), Abednego (Abby, girl, white) and Furnace (girl, black). That last name was my dad's idea. Toasty was the last one to kid on Sunday and she had twins, a boy and a girl. They have yet to be named. I am open to suggestions, as long as they are from the Old Testament. Preston is leaning towards Jezebel and Cain, but Toasty has never been his favorite goat, so we feel he is being a bit biased.
   This is random, but it made me laugh. Adalee was crying and moaning just now. She came to the top and looked at me sitting down here writing. "Adalee what's the matter?"
   She kind of looked at me blankly and blinked a couple times. "I think I forgot..." and wandered off. If you know Adalee you know exactly how she would have said it. Think= faint and forgot=fordot. Not to mention that as the sentence goes on her voice gets higher and higher (this is saying a lot since her four year old voice is pretty high to start with) and she draws out the last syllable as long as she can. We've often wondered if that is going to get better with time or if she will get married and say "I doooo!"
   As for the adoption, it's crunch time. Mom tries to explain what's going on but it's really hard to follow since I don't know what all these letters stand for and all of it's generally above my head. She is at work right now, but I will do another post and go into more detail sometime when she is here to help explain where we are at. All I know is that we have to be in China by June 2nd in order to complete the adoption by his birthday on June 13th. Please keep praying!



                                                                                                 -Alli

Help Bring Henry Home!

   If you are interested in helping us bring Henry home, visit www.brittanyshope.org/seedling/worrell .

We Got Our Miracle!

   11:30 Tuesday night we still hadn't gotten our Letter Seeking Confirmation  and we were told to get our I-800 in the mail immediately without the LSC. We were told we may have to wait for our documents in China. Basically we were told that we may go to China and still not be able to bring Henry home. Mom spent the day trying to fill out the I-800. We were not able to get it completed and mailed yesterday.
   That turned out to be a blessing because at 11:30 p.m. we got our LSC from China! Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
   Thank you everyone who has been praying for Henry because this was a miracle! We still have many hurdles but we are very relieved to have that ordeal behind us. Our next step will be to apply for VISAs. At this point my brother is not going to make it to America without divine intervention, so PLEASE keep praying!



                                                                                                                     -Alli

Sick of Waiting...

   I'm sooo tired of waiting! If it was up to me we would have gotten our TA yesterday! I'm ready to go! But we have to wait on all our paper work in China.

More Henry Pictures!

   I was very excited last night when I went through the CHI yahoo group and found pictures of Henry we had never seen before!

Kids (you can take that whichever way you want)

   Myrna completely rejected her babies, David and Bathsheba, when they were born on Thursday. Luckily, I was there, ha ha. I've been giving them bottles and they've started following me around like puppies. They know that I'm the one who feeds them, and often when I hold them they try to "nurse" off either my nose or my chin. It tickles :). For some reason I can't rotate this picture, but you get the general idea.

                                                                         Hehehe :)

                                                 Bathsheba being assaulted in her diaper box

The "kids" (you see what I did there?) ;)

   Anyways, she has started to let David nurse, luckily, but is still not very tolerant toward Bathsheba. Hopefully she will catch on with a little time. But as of now, I am her "mommy". 

                                                                                                         -Alli

Adalee Funnies

   "Someday I'm going to have to retire from being a princess (sighs loudly.)"

                                                                                     -Adalee, age 4


   Oh my. It really is exhausting, bless her heart.

    "I want a baby horse for Valentine's Day, right plump in my Easter basket."


      I wish her luck with that one, ha ha.




                                                                                                           -Alli

Baby Pictures

 To the left is baby Esther. Up above is Rachel.

For some reason I get the impression that Jace is much happier about holding Abraham than Jaynelle.

Baby Esther and Mommy Mardi Gras! So as of now our herd consists of: Toasty, Myrna, Richard Parker, Dolina, Mariota, Mava, Abraham, Mardi Gras, Mordecai, Esther, Swiss, Rachel, Leah, Parmesan, Ruth, Charlotte, Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.

So Many Babies!

So far we have: Abraham, Rachel, Leah, Esther, Mordecai, Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. This is Esther!
 

   

PASSPORTS!

They finally came in! Yay!

Henry Update :)

Mom got home from work today with a surprise for us! New pictures of Henry!

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday Isabela (Elli Rhea)! And Happy birthday Daddy!

It's Off!

Our dossier is officially on it's way to China! Yay!

First Goat Baby!!!!

Our first goat kid came last night! I got out of the car when I got home from dance and her a strange, high pitched mewing. At first I thought it was some kind of bird or wild cat, but when we went down there this little boy was sitting there with his mama, Mava! We think he is a little premature, he can't stand up and we have to help him nurse. But he is breathing alright and is already improving. We are naming all our goats born this year from the Bible, and we think this little fellow is either going to be Adam or Abraham. Or maybe Abel. Anyways, he probably won't be officially named until we know he is going to live. I'm so excited!!! At the same time I can't help but wonder what Henry will think of all this craziness, ha ha!


                                                                                                         -Alli 

Goats

On Sunday we added two new girls to our herd: Mava and Myrna. They are really sweet, but Myrna will not shut up! She's having adjustment issues, poor baby. Yes, they are riding in the back of the car. We have discovered that that is indeed the best way for us to transport goats. We flip all the seats down and cover the floor with a tarp. They seem to enjoy it! 

Henry Pictures!

 So I finally figured out how to add pictures, and I have to say, I'm feeling rather pleased with myself right now.

These are all the pics we have of Henry, but judging by the videos we've seen, they are obviously pretty old.

Isn't he precious?



                                                                                                                -Alli

Dossier!

   It's off! We finally mailed our dossier off to the Department Of State and on to the Chinese Embassy. Now we are praying it goes through everything in time. Please continue to pray that we get Henry home!

                                                                                                                      -Alli

Passport Applications

   Whew! Long morning! Preston and Daddy had a two hour delay for snow today (yes, I said snow. In the last week of March! Grrr... I am so ready for spring!) so we thought this would be a good time to turn in our applications. At first we were just going to get a passport for me and Preston. But while we were at CVS getting the picures taken, Mom decided to go ahead and get passports for everyone but the baby. "Just in case," she said. Right. So we were filling out applications at the courthouse, with the kids scampering around and being noisy. Adalee sat down in a corner, and Baby Isabela immediately came and sat on her face, causing quite a ruckus. But we finally got everything filled out. Hopefully they will get here in time! I'm going to have to do some serious fundraising if I plan on going on this trip!

Secretary of State

   Today the dossier came back from the Viriginia Secretary of State! Now we are waiting for one document to come back from Tennessee. It came last week but it was damaged and we had to send it back.
   Hopefully the last piece will get here soon and then it will be off to the Department of State and then the Chinese Embassy. We are getting nervous about meeting our deadline. As you know, Henry turns fourteen in June and he will "age out". We praying to be in China before then. Please continue to pray that we can get Henry home before his fourteenth birthday.

Babysitting Isabela

   Oh Isabela! You are such a stinker!!! Only today she has:

1. Snuck into the pantry and eaten almost an entire box of raisins.

2. I wrestle her diaper on her. Two minutes later it's off again. Repeat. And repeat. And repeat. And of course she peed in the floor.

3. Followed me around "helping" get lunch ready. In other words every time I put someone's plate on the table, she sits down and eats all their food. She loves to eat everybody's food but her own.

4. One of my favorite things she says is "Peetaboo, Waw-wee," (Peekaboo, Alli). She said this ALOT today because she knows it makes me smile :)

5. When I rock her for her nap she almost always sings "Jesus Loves Me." Oh, I wish you could hear her belt it out at the top of her lungs! "Jay dzu wuvz we!".


   Sometimes when I babysit it's a little hectic, but I love it when she calls me Waw-wee.


                                                                                            -Alli

Learning Chinese and Other Stuff

   Every morning we start the day by reviewing our Chinese vocabulary list. We have a book on teaching yourself Chinese, and we try. We really do. But it's hard not to laugh. I have to say the kids are picking up really well. So is Mom. But Dad and Preston... well that's a different story. The conversation usually goes something like this:

Mom: How do you say hello?

Jesse, Jaynelle, Adalee, and Alli: Ni hao!

Mom: Very good. Daddy? How do you say hello?

Daddy: Yee haw. No, no, ni hao, maybe?

Mom: Very good!

   Jesse says Henry is going to laugh at us trying to speak Chinese. I think he is probably right. So far we have learned to say Hello, Goodbye, Goodmorning, Goodnight, Please, Thank You, You're Welcome, Do you speak English?, I don't understand, water, and bathroom. Of course, we are most likely saying seventy-five percent of that incorrectly.
   Last time I said that I would tell you a little bit about Adalee. She is so quiet and sensitive! Like the other day we accidently took home a dish that belongs at my grandma's. My jokingly said' "I guess we're thiefs!". Poor Adalee. She began to cry and wouldn't stop until she was reassured that we were not thiefs and we were not going to jail. Adalee will go to her prechool dance class I help teach. All the other little girls will leap gracefully. Then here comes Adalee, who is pretending to be a frog. "Ribbit!" and she jumps and lands in a squat. Oh my. She will go to church pretending to be a dog, and growl at the preacher when he tries to shake her hand. Everyday she comes down from her room dressed in a different tutu. She has come up with some truly unique combinations. I have to say my favorite was the super man outfit, topped with purple fairy and a pink cowgirl hat.

Never a Dull Moment

   Never a dull moment. Jaynelle is six and she is something else. I don't where she got the idea, or where it came from, but last summer she turned into Zechurial Knuckle. In her words he is a "five year old man from Pluto." She would don a pair of old 3d glasses from the movie theater, and voila! She became Zechurial Knuckle. I guess some kids pretend to be super heroes or princesses. Nope, not Jaynelle. 

   The story keeps getting more and more elaborate. Supposedly Jaynelle and Zechurial switch places every couple of weeks or so. Zechurial has a family on Pluto. There's Barbara Knuckle, his sister; Cracker Knuckle, his mother; Billy Bob Joe Knuckle, his father; and finally Garlic Knuckle, his little brother. 

   Zechurial even has a sort of a theme song. I would write it out for you, but it's mostly a bunch of nonsense words.

   Well, that's Jaynelle for you. Next time I will give you some Adalee quotes!

Introduction

   Hi! I'm Alli. I'm fourteen. I have five brothers and sisters. They are all biological, but this October we stumbled across Henry's video. Henry is thirteen years old and was abandoned at a Chinese welfare institution at two months old. If he isn't adopted by his fourteenth birthday in June, he will "age out" out of the system to make room for infants and younger children. So we began the long adoption process. We are at the point when we re getting ready to send our dossier in to the secretary of state.
   Three of us are homeschooled. Me, Jesse, and Jaynelle. I'm in eighth grade. Preston is my older brother. He is sixteen and goes to the local public school where he plays sports. Adalee is four and in preschool. She is in preschool and genuinely believes in unicorns. For example, the other day she sighed loudly and squeaked in her little four year old voice, "I will NEVER get a pet unicorn! They live so far away! Even farther away than GG and Pop!" Isabela is almost two. She has curly hair and is always into something. She wouldn't get away with so much if she weren't so cute! I'm really excited to have another brother, and I think the rest of the gang is too.
   All your prayers would be appreciated as we go through the adoption process. I will do my best to keep you updated!