A Name for our Daughter

Naming your children is not always the easiest task! "Kam" was a result of much debate and a lot of disagreement. It took a month or so before our most logical brother-in-law (thanks John)was sick of listening to the argument and suggested "just name him after Mark's favorite hockey player". Hmmm, that was easy, why didn't we think of that? - Cam Neely. Done :)
"Janie" was probably the easiest because we already know a darling "Janie" in John's family.
"Eva" was named after my grandma. After 27 grandchildren and 21 great grandchildren, we thought it was appropriate that she finally get a namesake :)
"Ben" was named by Kam. From previous experience, Mark and I knew that we would never agree on a name. Kam asked if he could name his brother and we said "sure"! Good thing we liked the name.
We wanted QiuXiang's American name to mean something to her. I googled "gift of God" and Thea was the first name that came up (pronounced TAH ya). Hmmm, that is a nice name - why not? Thea is Greek, her last name is German, she is Asian and she lives in America - Perfect :) Her official name has been decided ~ Thea QiuXiang ~.

Updated Photos

Our agency received these photos of Thea as an update. They were received in early August, 2007. She is growing up!

And a Decision is Made!!!

On August 27, 2007, we received a surprising e-mail from an adoption agency. The agency representative was contacting people with a plea to find a forever family for a young girl, whose file would need to be returned to China if a family did not come forward to adopt her. We saw pictures of a darling child, abandoned at 7 years old (estimated DOB). The e-mail indicated that she was blind in one eye, but otherwise healthy. Two separate families on two different occasions had already started the adoption process for her, but due to various circumstances, could not complete it.

Already having 4 young children at home, a 5th was not on the radar (especially for Mark) :) Really . . seriously . . . not on the radar!!

After almost a month of crying, praying and wondering what God's plans were for our family, we made the decision to take a Leap of Faith and adopt this sweet child. Her name is Li, QiuXiang (pronounced Lee, ChooShawn) and she resides in Nanning, China.