Chinese New Year!!!

When we moved to Lake Geneva almost 5 years ago, We knew we wanted to make sure Kati would be able to continue celebrating CNY with other adopted children from China and their families. Now we can also share CNY with Colin!!! So, Dan and I started a small group at our home 4 years ago. Last 2 years our friends the Henderson's have hosted our CNY! We now have close to 40 parents/kids celebrating with us! We all live within 30 minutes of each other except one family that travels 2 1/2 hours for CNY. Their little girl Ana and Kati are travel buddies! We had a blast! Thanks Henderson family for hosting our CNY again this year!

                                       Travel Buddies  (Kati and Ana)                                         

Hannah and Clara

 Some of the other siblings

 

Sweet Lena





Cheerleader for the night!!!

Special night for Kati...

Kati attends Faith Christian School where we live in Lake Geneva. It's a small private school and we
LOVE it!!! Kati is having a GREAT year in Kindergarten!! She's learning to read right now and tries reading everything in our home or as we are passing signs while driving in our car. Listening to Kati read and sound out words is music to our ears!!! When we brought Kati home in 2007, she was only 14 months old. We had no idea at that time that she would soon struggle with her speech. At age 3 she began to get really frustrated when we couldn't understand a lot of the things she was trying to tell us. Kati was attending our local Montessori School at the time. I began listening to other kids her age in class and realized they were able to pronounce their words more clearly. I asked her teachers for information on how I could have her tested. Kati was tested for speech and we soon realized she would leave off the first letter of most of her words. Kati has been in speech since she was 3 years old for 40 minutes a week. She's now only needs 20 minutes a week!!! Kati is doing GREAT and has come a long way!!! We are extremely proud of Kati and can't wait to see what God has in store for our precious girl!

Kati 's school each year allows some of the young girls to cheer during the High School game! Well, last night was a HUGE night for Kati! She LOVED every single moment!! It was SO much fun for her Daddy and I to watch the pure JOY on her face as she ran out on the basketball court and cheered!! Kati is such a JOY and has a" HUGE LOVING HEART"!!! She's LOVES to please everyone!! We thank God he allowed us to be her Dad and Mom!!

Enjoy all the pictures!!

 

Go Notre Dame!!!

My Daddy LOVES Notre Dame!!!

Tonight is the BIG game!!! Notre Dame vs Alabama!!!
My husband and son Clay are HUGE Notre Dame fans!!! Looks like we will be passing this onto Colin as well!!!

We also have a few family members in TN that are HUGE Alabama fans!

Wish we ALL lived closer so we could ALL enjoy the Notre Dame WIN together (Frank)!!!!!!
We MISS you guys!!

LOVE BRINGS HUGE SMILES!!!

I had this blog created so that family and friends could follow our journey to our precious son "Colin"! Since we have returned home in September I have been slacking "Big Time". Those of you that know me very well, know I pride myself on being extremely "organized". Well, since returning from China, I'm still searching for what use to be "normal"...whatever that was! We are now searching for our "new normal"!! We are ALL finally settling into life at the "Borah House"!!

What's been on my heart after returning from China! I have thought about this post since September. This trip to China to adopt our precious son "Colin" was SO different than when we traveled in 2007 to adopt our daughter "Kati". What I mean by different is Kati was considered a "Healthy" child and Colin a "Special Needs" child. Not only that, we were older parents as well. Every family in this travel group were adopting minor to severe "Special Needs" children. After adopting Kati in 2007, I knew I wanted to adopt another child from China. My husband initially didn't feel the same way. He felt we were older parents and our family was complete. I continued to pray about God allowing us to adopt again and bringing my husband's heart to the same place mine had been for years. God answered my prayers and my husband came to me and said, let make the call to Bethany Christian Services. The same agency we used in TN to adopt Kati. Well, I made the call and then we went through alot of ups and downs because I was over the age of 50 and China had changed SO many rules since 2007. We were approved to adopt a special needs child. We started the paper work and more ups and downs, such is the life of adoption.
We traveled in September 2012 to adopt Colin from China. This was an entire different experience for me. We were allowed to travel to Colin's orphanage. The conditions of his orphanage we SO hard to see, yet helped me to understand what his life had been like for the past 2 years. Although he had a HUGE smile on his face when he was handed to us at the orphanage, it broke my heart to see his surroundings. Once we left the orphanage, Colin had a very difficult time adjusting to us. It took him until days before we returned home to accept anyone but me.

While in China with all the other families I watched these precious go from being sad to "HUGE SMILES" on their faces!!! What a JOY it was to see these children with so many differnt Special Needs "SMILE" because they had expeienced the "LOVE" of their "FOREVER FAMILIES"!!



First Day





Look at his precious "SMILE" now!!!

Precious Blessings From God

Sam with his Mama!!!

Sam is 4 years old adopted by a single mom from Tennessee. This is the "Smile" I'm referring to...this is what "LOVE" can do. Sam has one leg amputated just below the knee and his other leg has a very small foot with some fused toes. He walks using the stump on one leg and the small foot on the other leg. He will get prosthetics soon. This little boy has the sweetest personality and loves life and his new mama!!!

 

 

I realize that not everyone is called to adopt, yet we are ALL called to care for God's children all over the world. James 1:27. I have met SO many WONDERFUL families through our LOVE for adoption!

My heart will always have a special place in China! We know in our hearts we won't be brining another child home. We can make a difference from our home! I have a special friend Diana Rouse who represents an organization called "Pearl River Outreach"! Right now she's raising funds to help these precious children through the next year 2013! We can ALL help by giving a donation. Please help these precious children and you can also have a chance to win some "WONDERFUL" prizes!! Please take a few moments and check out "FILL THEIR STOCKINGS"! http://1diamond1ruby1pearl.blogspot.com/
http://pearlriveroutreach.blogspot.com/

You can donate as little as $ 5.00.

 

 

 

I know this post was exteremly long...I've had alot on my heart!!

 

Merry Christmas!

Blessings, Lori

 

 



Happy Anniversary!!!

 

Happy Anniversary to the BEST Husband and Father!!

I LOVE YOU DAN BORAH!!!



Kati Day!!



 

 

Five years ago today we met Miss Kati!! 

 

 

We waited in a large conference room at Galactic Hotel in Nanchang.

In came our beautiful, brown eyed little girl!!

Look at those beautiful brown eyes!!

We couldn't wait to hold Kati for the first time!

 

Kati wasn't happy for the first 30 minutes.

From that day on she's been a happy girl!!

Kati is a SWEET and LOVING little girl!!

Kati has brought SO much JOY to our home and Family!!

God had the perfect little girl picked out for our family!

PRECIOUS gift from GOD!!

One of my favorites!!!

 

Kati's holding the first picture we saw of her!

Love those cheecks!!

Kati is now 6 and started Kindergarten this year!!

 

Kati you are still that fun, loving crazy girl!

You are always kind, giving of yourself!

You have blessed us in so many ways! God has BIG plans for you!

We can't wait to see what God has planned for you Miss Kati!

 

KATI, our dinosaur loving girl...

Daddy and Mommy LOVE you to the moon and back!!!

 

 



Consulate Appointment

Yesterday, Sept 25th was our Consulate appointment. The last thing we are required as adoptive

parents to do before leaving China.The room is filled with other adoptive families. We are asked to stand and raise our right hand, promising to never abandon these children. To provide for and educate them to the best of our ability.  When we came in 2007 to adopt Kati we were told in advance

what a huge deal this was. Once again we were SO excited for this day to be here! A very special day to also spend my birthday! Birthday I will always remember!!

We are packed and waiting in our hotel room for all of Colin's official paper work from Consulate.

We leave this afternoon by van heading to Hong Kong. We will spend the night in Hong Kong and leave tomorrow at 11:00 am, one stop in Chicago and then onto Nashville, TN on Untied flight #5911 @ 5:54pm, Thursday, Sept 27th. Which is also Miss Kati's 6th birthday!!! We will be staying in Nashville until Monday, Oct 2nd. Colin will be seen in Nashville @ Vanderbilt Children's hosp.

Monday, Oct 1st by International specialist that viewed his referral.

We can't wait to get home and settled into our routine!! Kati is ready to get back to school and

gymnastics!!

Please pray for safe travels home and that the littles SLEEP!!

 

Consulate Appointment