Holiday Hosting: Day 6-7

Philippians 4:4 "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!"

It has been such a joy to experience "new" things with Parker as he discovers new things in America. Since he is here for "winter camp" - that is what the orphanage tells the kids when they come to America, we want to make sure we are letting him have the full experience. He has been asking about skiing, which we do not do in this house. So, we opted to take him sledding and he had a blast. Saturday we are going roller skating with the cousins and next week we are going ice skating. 

The past two days have been filled with different appointments. We visited the dentist and we discovered that he had no cavities and his teeth all look great. Yesterday, we went to the doctor and the doctor said everything looks amazing. We are blessed to have a pediatrician in our group that speaks Mandarin. She was able to ask him all kinds of questions and help discover anything extra. She told us that Parker is in great health! She says that his Chinese (both written and spoken) is great, he knows math (multiplication, division, adding, and subtracting), and seems overall a pretty sharp kid. We knew he was sharp since he has been spending hours playing with our Snap Circuit. He just looks at the pictures and is able to put together complicated snap circuits!! This is great information to discover while he is here in America. His medical file, according to what we see, is inaccurate. This information will be helpful for his future parents  to have a better understanding of who he is.

Parker had a blast in the car wash. It's worth the 50 seconds to see the joy on his face. (He thought I was taking his picture, so he was posing).

Each day more of his personality is emerging. Could you be the family he is longing for? If you are interested in finding out more information, please contact Meredith Chambers at Great Wall: 512-323-9595 or meredith@gwca.org

If you are interested in meeting Parker while he is in the United States, you can email Meredith to find out how we can set up a time. Parker is staying in Chicago until 1/13. 

Holiday Hosting: Days 2-5

Psalm 118:1 "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever."

WOW! That is all I can say about Parker. This kid continues to amaze us! I cannot believe that this boy has been waiting 12 years for a family. He has transitioned nicely into our American culture and home. His favorite thing to do is roller blade in the basement and play monster tag with the girls. He has done great adjusting to going everywhere with us, including Costco. He politely asked if we could buy a huge bag of onions and garlic. I guess like DJ, this boy likes onion and garlic sandwiches!! 

On Friday we made sugar cookies as a family. Parker really enjoyed rolling out his cookies and decorating them. He didn't seem to mind eating them either.

On Sunday we discovered even more about Parker. During church, Parker took notes by writing down the verses we were studying at church. Then while we were singing songs in church, I heard him start singing...in English!! After church, we were talking with my friend Ting Ting, who speaks fluent Mandarin. She told me that he told her that he has taken four years of English. He can't speak a lot of English, but he can read enough to participate and sing in English. Through this conversation, we also discovered that he LOVES school. I loved hearing that news because the girls need to do school while he is here with us. Now I know that I can give him school work and he will enjoy it.

Today we had some friends over to do an art class. We studied three French artists (Monet, Cezanne, and Seurat), listened to Claude Debussy classical music, and ate crepes for lunch. Parker did art with us and even wrote notes!! His neat handwriting puts all my girl's handwriting to shame. 

Parker's masterpiece

Parker is an amazing boy that wants and needs a family. 16 months is all he has left before he is forever an orphan. Could he be your son?? If you would like more information about Parker, please contact Meredith Chambers at Great Wall Adoption: 512-323-9595 or meredith@gwca.org

If you are interested in meeting Parker while he is in the United States, you can email Meredith to find out how we can set up a time. Parker is staying in Chicago until 1/13. 

Holiday Hosting: Day 1

Hebrews 13:16 "Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God."

*Christmas Letter* (in case you missed our Christmas Letter)

Christmas is such a wonderful time of year. We get to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ and also share gifts with those around us. The best gift we can give anyone is ourselves, just as Jesus Christ did for us. God has been so good to us and has blessed us with so much, how could we not share our abundance with others? 

We are so blessed to have a special gift with us this Christmas. Our host child, "Parker", arrived last night from China. Already in the first 24 hours, we have been blessed by his presence. He is an incredible boy that deserves a family to call his own!!!

As many of you know, we are in the process of adopting two boys from China. We decided to host Parker for the winter hosting program while we are waiting for our paperwork to be completed. We are praying that an amazing family steps up and decides to adopt this incredible boy. 

Parker is "on the clock". What I mean by that is that he is close to the age where China will no longer allow him to be adopted (age of 14). Parker is 12 years old and his birthday is in April. That means that Parker has 16 month to have a family pick him up from China, otherwise he will never have a family. He will never have a mom, a dad, any siblings, have extended family to spend the holidays with, someone to give him advice and help him transition to adulthood, and eventually, he will be on his own to survive in China (which is very difficult with an orphan background).

This amazing boy deserves a FAMILY!! He deserves to be loved and cherished. He is a GIFT!! While he is here with us over the next month, I'll be sharing pictures and stories about Parker. Please pray about what role you could play in Parker's life or another orphan's life. There are so many children waiting to be someone's son or daughter. What better gift could you give a child this Christmas then a FAMILY?? Take a leap of FAITH and see God move powerfully!!

Parker has done a great job with all the girls. He has been all smiles since he got off the plane and has no trouble acting like an older brother to them.

This boy can eat. First breakfast (at 5:20am was 3 eggs, 6 dumplings), then a second breakfast (a bowl of hot cereal), followed by a fruit smoothie for snack, and rice & 10 potstickers for lunch!!

Thankful for an unfinished basement for the kids to ride their rollerblades around. Parker is a gold medal winner for skating in the special olympics!!

Excited about his new shoes!!

Look at that smile!! Could this be YOUR son?? 

For more information: contact Shannon Smith at Great Wall Adoptions: (512)323-9595 or shannon@gwca.org

Also, check out this information from a couple years ago: https://waitingchildinfo.com/2004/04/01/parker/

Christmas Letter: 2016

Isaiah 9:6 "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."

Merry Christmas from the Harder family!! We pray that each of you have had a wonderful year. God has continued to be faithful and true to us. He is never changing and is truly all the things that Isaiah 9:6 says. He is our everlasting Father and our Prince of Peace!!

Wayne continues to do well after his cancer treatments in 2015. His recent MRI scan came back clear and the doctors are amazed at how well he is doing. We continue to trust God with our future and Wayne's health.

We have continued our adventure of homeschooling the girls. Abigail is in 8th grade (crazy how fast time goes), Grace 7th, Naomi 6th, Sophia 3rd, Micaela 1st, and Joella preschool. We have a blast as a family and are so thankful for the times that we get to spend with the girls.

This summer we took an epic adventure trip out west. We flew into San Francisco and visited family and friends in California. I took the girls to Yosemite, Mammoth Lakes, Lake Tahoe, and other fun places from my childhood. We went fishing, hiking, swimming at Oma's house, and had a ton of fun. After some time in California, I drove the girls 655 miles north to Washington to spend some time with Wayne's family. We had a blast hanging out with all of the family. If you missed them, you can see all the pictures from our trip here: Trip Part #1, Trip Part #2, Trip Part #3, Trip Part #4, Trip Part #5.

After a week, we drove north and visited Mt. Rainier and Olympic National Park. From there we took a ferry to Vancouver Island, Canada and spent the day at Butchart Botanical Gardens (absolutely beautiful). We then drove north and met up with a group from church. We all then loaded onto a boat and traveled to a remote island. We were privileged to help prepare the grounds for campers. We did a ton of manual labor. It was such an amazing experience, one that changed the girl's and our lives forever!! 

We then made the trip south all way south to San Francisco. Along the way we visited Redwood National Park, the beach, Santa Rosa, and then San Francisco.

After we returned from our epic summer trip out west, we celebrated Wayne's 40th birthday by throwing him a surprise party (and we got him)!! 

Two days after Wayne's party, we prepared for our next adventure. This summer we hosted a 9 year old boy from China. This experience was life changing. As we opened our home and hearts to this young boy, he forever changed our family. God opened the door for us to pursue Shan Chen as our son. (You can read all about it on this older post). We also decided to pursue adopting another young boy (10) named DJ. He was hosted in the United States at the same time as Shan Chen. These boys will no longer be orphans, but will be sons and brothers. I love how adoption is a beautiful picture of what God has done for us adopting us into His family!

DJ

Shan Chen

We received amazing news this week from China that we have been officially approved to be Shan Chen and DJ's parents!! We signed the letter today and mailed our paperwork off to the US government. Lord willing, in late February, early March, Rebecca will be traveling to China to pick up our boys! Wayne is going to stay home and hold the fort down with the kids. Please pray for us as we embark on this new adventure!

We are excited to see what 2017 holds for our family!! We pray that 2017 is a great year for you as well. May we each continue to strive to honor and serve our Savior as long as He gives us breath here on this earth.

Exciting News!!

We have some exciting news in the Harder household. On Monday, Wayne had another follow up MRI. Everything came back clear and the doctor said he is looking amazing.

Today we got even more exciting news. Our official acceptance letter from China is in the mail. We should get it on Monday/Tuesday!! What does this mean? It means that we can let the boys know that we are coming (just in time for Shan Chen's 10th birthday in 2 days!!!), we can file paperwork for their visas (more paperwork and waiting - but this step is HUGE), and it means that in 8-12 weeks we will be in China!!!

God is so good!!! His timing is perfect. I had surrendered my timing once again to Him (I'm a slow learner). I had been following charts and people's notifications all week, hoping ours would come on Monday. Finally this morning, I said, "Okay Lord, I know you have the best timing in mind." I didn't look at charts or anything and just started teaching the girls. I was reading and the phone rang and I saw it was our agency. I tried not to get my hopes up, but it was the good news I had been hoping for all week. God is so good! How many times do I have to learn to just surrender and trust Him?? Remind me of this when you hear me starting to worry about things okay?

We can't wait to go get our boys!!