About Me

My name is Tracy and I am married to an amazing man, his name is Thomas! We are a busy family that is always on the go between church, school, work and sports.... we are not a sitting around kind of family. We have 4 amazing children and are working on bringing home Elias to make 5. My hubby is Deaf and I am a sign language interpreter,we are very involved in the Deaf community and are excited to be adding another Deaf member to our family. Our kids, Aaron-19, Luke-11, Tommy-10 and Paige-5 are anxious for their new brother to be home. This is our second adoption and we are learning more everyday to lean on God, this journey is already strengthening our faith! We are working on learning how to turn everything over to God and know that He has a perfect plan and all will happen in His time! Good things come to those who wait.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

5 Months and going strong!

I am sure all of you remeber this picture! Our last update picture before we left to bring Luke home!
June 17th-2011 is our 5 month Gotcha Day! Cant beleive it!!!! So here is my little look back at this journey of 5 months!! Enjoy


I cannot beleive it has been 5 months since we met Luke on Gotcha Day! It seems crazy to think it has been that long. When we met Luke he was a very skinny, scared little boy that had no language and no education. Within a day of being together he started to change. Luke and I looked back at pictures of us in China and we cant beleive it is the same child in those pictures.  Luke has gained about 15 pounds and grown 2 inches in the 5 months since we met him! Luke's language has grown in  unfathomable leeps and bounds! I keep thinking back to when we first met and he would ask me questions and my answer was " I cant answer that now it is to hard.. later" I felt terrible but he had no previous language so we had to start with the concrete the things we could show him. I was thinking back yesterday and I cant remember the last time I had to tell him " I cant answer that now, it is too hard.."  it has been many months since we had to say that and Luke's language is changing by the day. Anyone that meets Luke now would have a hard time guessing he had no language for 10 years. His signing is impressive to say the least! Luke is impressive to say the least. His personality is TOP notch! Luke is normally a very very happy boy! We have had some bumps in our road and there are things we deal with here and there but for the most part our lives have b een improved immensely by adding Luke to our family! We love this little boy like nobodies business! Our Luke Worrell is one amazing boy! I thank the Lord daily for allowing me the honor to be Luke's mommy! We love you Luke!



                                  Our referral photos for Luke (he looks so sad!)
 His 8th Birthday ( I do beleive he is wishing for his family to come get him.. it would be 2 and half more years :(    sorry baby)
                                               Always so serious and thinking
                                         Our first glimpse of Luke on Gotcha Day Jan 17,2011
 Our very skinny boy the first week we were in Jinan in our hotel room, he was already showing us the awesome boy that he is within the first few days of knowing him!
 Luke and I as we were flying home to America! He must have asked me 8,000 questions on that flight!
                                Our first day at home with Luke (Aaron was not home yet!)  Jan 30, 2011
                             Luke's "Deaf Alarm Clock" as he calls it.. February 2011
                              March 2, 2011 Luke and Tommy on Luke's first day of school EVER!!!
       Luke officially has the same photo as all the rest of the kids now March 2011
                                         April 2011 Tommy and Luke with their new haircuts
                                              Luke becomes "The Luke-in-ator" May 2011
                                      May 26th 2011-Luke's first time in the pool ever!
                                           June 9,2011 Luke Spring Show for school
                                                                Me and My boy! June 2011

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Then and Now

Dont feel this post needs to say much.. Just look at the pictures they speak for themselves!

 Fu Xin Hai.... Then (our first referral picture)
Luke Worrell ...Now

Friday, June 3, 2011

Luke worshipping the Lord!

Luke has been coming along with his understanding of the Lord our God and the great sacrifice his son, Jesus Christ our Savior made for us. Our church has a growing Deaf minsitry and they are really loving and amazing for Luke to be around. Luke feels much Love and support from our amazing deafies at Victory!!!! It is so good for him to have SOOO many Amazing Deaf role models. Our church installed a floor vibration amplificiation system so our Deaf section has parts that you can stand on the vibrate to the beat of the music (Luke loves it) but this week his friend Julie sat him on the AMP and boy did that seem to kick in the spirit and Luke jumped up and started signing away. Mercy was interpreting the worship for the Deaf and she is Deaf herself and Luke was just amazed that she could do that which inspired him even more. I am praying I can get to video uploaded for you to see. Our little man is surely growing in the Lord!!!


Thursday, June 2, 2011

New Adventures and the dream of summer!!!

Well it seems our tough time has subsided and we are doing better then ever and to think it was just 2 rough weeks and the result is that all of our relationships with Luke are even stronger and way better then before our rocky 2 weeks. (that seems crazy as we were doing amazing before those two weeks and are doing even better now.) Our Agency is such a blessing and what an amazing gift to be able to call them and receive such support and wisdom from them at any time. They also helped me to get in contact with 2 families that have older Deaf children adopted from China and Luke LOVED that!!! and it was great for me to hear that our crazy things we were experiancing were not that far from the norm and just to ride out the storm and change some tactics and VIOLA it WORKED!!! Praise the Lord!

We have had some great new changes happen and one of them is that the boys are back to being BEST buds again! I sat down with Tommy and spoke to him about some of the things Luke has gone through in his life and especially in the last few months and we talked about how we would maybe handle those things if it was us and what we could do to make Luke feel that he is NEVER going to leave here and stay with us forever and that he IS a WORRELL !! Tommy is such a sweet hearted boy that he cried when we talked about Luke's past and some of the abuse Luke suffered (which is becoming more and more apparent just how badly he was treated in China) We are working as a family to try and reverse the affects of being so mistreated and praying for Luke daily knowing that Luke is starting (slowly) to understand more and more about God and Jesus (he surely knows Jesus died for our sins.. but struggles with God as how can he see me and know what I am doing when I cant see him? Good questions from a child that had no language just 4 months ago!!!  The Lord will heal Lukes wounds and we are gonna Love him with all we got!!

Luke has just experianced two of his siblings birthdays recently. One was Paige turning 5 and Aaron turning 19 within a week of each other! Luke was truly loving the whole birthday thing and now cannot wait until September 22! I wasnt sure how we would handle the other kids getting presents and not him but he did real well and seemed ok with it. He is already making a Birthday and Christmas list so watch out people!!!!

We opened our pool Memorial weekend and couldnt have timed it better as we hit a heat wave and the pool was about 75 the first day we went in and 80 the second!! NICE. Luke was afraid the first day and didnt want his face wet and wanted a life jacket and nose guard and goggles and so on... he was excited but seemed like a fish out of water as he didnt know what to do. My brave resilant and smart boy had himself swimming (underwater not on the top) within an hour!!! Talk about not quitting. He was doing under water somersaults by the second day. Mind you our pool is above ground and up to the top of Lukes neck so he can stand and it is perfect for him. He LOVESSSSSS the pool!!!!!! I officially have 4 FISH children! Luke makes my school of fish complete! He loves it as much as the rest of us do and boy are we happy about that as we are water people. It is either the pool or beach all summer long for us!

I am going to add some photos of recent events! We are ready for summer but have some more schooling left. Paige is done this coming monday, Luke June 16th, Tommy June 17th and me June 20th (why is it I am last?)

                                                        The Asian Terminator!!!
                                              Aaron and his sis, Paige!
                   Why is it so hard to get everyone to smil and look together?
                                                  See what I mean???
                                                       Take 25 hahah
         Aarons "brownie" cake (he hates cake) yes it is scary looking but no it isnt on fire!
                                   The kids singing Happy Birthday to Aaron
                                                              My cool cat, Paige
                                           The girl should have lived during the 70's
                                   My all American boy (that is what he wants to be.. so be it!)
                        Paige discovered her twin sister and boy does she think she is cute!
                                                                  and funny!
                                                Me and my hubby on a date!
                                  Luke signing worship at church (he loves it!)
                                                 The kiddos on the first day the pool opened
                            Luke picked out his first ever bathing suit, he did a great job!
                                                Getting in a pool for the first time ever!
                                                      and HE LOVES IT!
                                                           Look at that face!!
                                                           Go Tommy Go!!!
                                                        Got you Tommy!!!
                                                          Two of my fish!
                        Testing out getting the head under water.. it went great from here!
                      Now trying jumping off the side for the first time (he did it!!!)
                                                           I LOVE MY POOL!!!!!
                    This is what swimming all day for the first time in your life does to you!!

Our little boy!

Our little boy!
Opening up my care package from my family!

Curious what he is thinking!

Curious what he is thinking!
Checking out my Family for the 1st time ever! (this pic is of my new Brothers and Sister!)

His first reaction after seeing us

His first reaction after seeing us
This is my Forever Family!

Some goodies from the care package

Some goodies from the care package
Some of my new books

This picture makes me cry every time I see it!

This picture makes me cry every time I see it!
My 1st picture of my mommy and daddy! They say I love to look at my pictures again and again!

Studying our faces....

Studying our faces....
Checking out my new family again!

Look at that face!

Look at that face!
Checking out my new books

Aaron's Graduation

Aaron's Graduation
We are so Proud!

Xin Hai's name in Chinese!

福新

Fu XinHai

Xin Hai

Xin Hai
Isnt he the cutest ever?

Aaron's Senior Prom

Aaron's Senior Prom
My handsome Son, Aaron

Aarons prom

Aarons prom
Paige, Aaron and Tommy

My Family

My Family
The Worrell Family

Our Precious one

Our Precious one
Xin Hai in 2008 - so precious! Love that smile!

adoption countdown

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