Happy Resurrection Day!

We had a wonderful day celebrating the resurrection of our Lord. Our church's sunrise service was beautiful. Each year it is held down by the pond, and it is so amazing to take in all of God's creation. We hope that you also had a special day with family remembering the sacrifice Jesus made for us on the cross over 2,000 years ago, and that He lives today!


What a lovely little group except that we are missing Ellie. Next year there will be 6- WOW!

Ready to go to the sunrise service. Thankfully it started at 8:00 not 6:00, so we made it on time- no small feat for this group. Here Lilly is practicing showing that she is 2 years old. She has a little trouble holding down that other finger. Oh well, she will be ready when she turns 3!

Ethan and Lilly enjoying the candy from their eggs that they found at our church's Easter egg hunt.

Lilly looks a little confused, but she had lots of helpers who spotted the eggs and then led her straight to them. Thanks to Katie and Mary Francis for helping Lilly find her first Easter eggs.

It was quite a brisk morning since Easter was celebrated so early this year. Ethan also had a great time hunting for eggs.

Fulton showing off his loot. He found more than most children and with a little coaxing, he did share a few eggs with his siblings and others.

Katie and Lilly taking a break from finding eggs. Lilly sure enjoyed her first Easter Egg hunt.

Introducing. . .

Ellie Jean Yuanying (named for her special great- granddaddy, Gene)
Born: September 20, 2006 From: Yunnan Province, China


We are so excited to be on this journey again to a daughter who waits for us in China. Ellie's story begins quite differently than Lilly's. After living the miracle of Lilly's adoption and seeing God's fingerprints on so many aspects of our ordeal in China, David and I both knew that we would adopt a special needs child again from China. Quite frankly, how could we not? God had so clearly delivered us through probably the most difficult experience we had ever faced in our lives. We simply could not say "Thanks God for providing for our EVERY need, but we can't do that again so please find somebody else to take the next orphan." No, we both knew we would go back for another child, we just didn't know when. I really felt the pull on my heart to China during my friend Sharon's adoption trip last August. I knew then that there was another child waiting in China for us. I didn't know where she was or when I would find her, but I knew she was waiting.


Fast forward to October 15, this is the day that I first saw the beautiful face of Wu Yuan Ying. A lady posted on a Yahoo group (for families of SN children from China) that this little girl was listed with a small agency in Alabama and was still waiting for a family. As soon as I saw her face I said to myself "You might be Ellie!" David and I talked and prayed. We researched the agency, Children of the World, and found out that they are a wonderful Christian agency who does a tremendous amount of humanitarian work around the world. We researched cleft lip and palate. Initially David shared with me that he felt the timing was not right because he felt "something" was getting ready to happen to our family. On Friday, November 9, we had to give the agency an answer because another family had become interested in Ying Ying. We said YES and began paperwork the next day.

Sadly, on Monday, November 12, I was told that my grandfather had been diagnosed the Friday before with liver cancer. This was the "something" that David had felt was coming to our family. We tried to proceed with paperwork and attending Dr. visits with my grandfather. By Wednesday, I was an emotional wreck so David said we could not proceed with the adoption at this time. The other family accepted Ying Ying. I was elated for her and sad for us, but I also knew this must be the right decision as I am a nurse and my grandfather helped raise me so I knew I would be very involved in his care in the coming months.

Only God knew that Granddaddy would live just 3 1/2 weeks from his diagnosis. The aggressive cancer started in another area of his body and had spread to the liver. He died on December 5, 2007. We were distraught, but our life with 5 children continued. On December 10, the same lady posted again on the Yahoo group that Wu Yuan Ying was available again as the other family could not proceed with her adoption. Her file was to be returned to China the next week if a family did not come forward. David and I prayed for a week and decided on December 16 that God had given us a second chance to be her parents. Ying Ying was the rainbow after the storm for our family. God gives and He takes away. He took my grandfather earlier that any of us wanted, but He also gave us a new daughter. How good our God is.

Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year

Lilly enjoyed her first Valentine's Day party and ate lots and lots of candy!

Lilly had a wonderful time helping to decorate her cookie. Well, actually she just had fun eating all the M and M's.

Shelby, Katie, and Fulton decorating their bags at our homeschool Valentine's Day Party.

Celebrating Valentine's Day at Chuck E. Cheese. It was great fun for all of us!!!

Katie and Ethan having fun in the tunnels at Chuck E. Cheese.

Lilly was afraid of Clifford so here I am with Lilly. A tight squeeze for sure!

To celebrate CNY, we ate Chinese food with our good friends, the Millenders and then shot LOTS of fireworks. Lilly really liked the sparklers, but she was a little dangerous with it! No concept of fire!

Bailey, Lilly, and Brinley taking a break from the fireworks! What cutie pies!

Lilly and Lainie

Back in January (sorry, I'm not real good at posting current happenings), our family went to visit Lilly's friend and orphanage mate, Lainie and her family. We traveled together to get the girls and this was our second time visiting since our trip to China. We always have a great time with Lainie and her family. Thank you again for your hospitality- especially "Nannie" who had us over for lunch unexpectedly! Now it's your turn to come visit! Let's set a date!


Lilly and Lainie: two very serious and tired- looking litttle girls! Worn out from so much fun I guess.

Here are our special Chenzhou sisters again! They did well with one another and had lots of fun!

Here are some of Lilly and Lainie's siblings: Fulton, Will, Jillian, and Katie having a ball.

Shelby holding Lainie and Trey holding Lilly. Just swapping little sisters for a minute!

January 7: Happy Birthday Katie! We celebrated a second time with her extended family. We love you.

January 5- Katie celebrating her 9th birthday at Chuck E. Cheese with her friends.

Random thoughts and pictures

There is not too much to report on the ramblings of the Bryant bunch. We are busy with homeschooling and music lessons, cub scouts, and church activities. We did enjoy another great weekend up in Locust with Lainie and her family. I'll post pictures next time from our trip there.(Lainie was adopted at the same time as Lilly from the same orphanage, and our families have become great friends.) We were hoping to meet the Hortons who also adopted a little girl from Lilly's orphanage but they had the stomach bug at their house that weekend- bummer! We will try again soon.

I would like to congratulate my friend Kim on the referral of her precious daughter, Cate, from Anhui, China. We are so excited for you! Cate is precious, and we can not wait to meet her!

We plan on sprucing up our blog in the near future so check back soon. Enjoy the photos!

Here is my dear grandmother surrounded by her great- grandchildren on Christmas morning. This was her first Christmas in 50 years without my grandfather. Please keep her in your prayers.

This was Lilly on Christmas morning- her very first Christmas with our family. I remember last Christmas thinking of her and thinking that next year she would be with us. Christmas was bittersweet of course because of Granddaddy's death on Dec. 5. We were so grateful to have Lilly home but so sad not to have our GG with us to celebrate the birth of our saviour. He spent his first Christmas in heaven, and I know it had to be magnificent!

Another birthday and this time it was our Christmas Eve baby, Shelby. Shelby turned 11. Wow- that's hard to believe! Shelby is such a special girl, and we are so proud of her.

2 little helpers in the kitchen. Our Christmas baking was less than normal due to having just lost my grandfather. It was always a tradition to bake at Granny and GG's house. GG was our dishwasher and a mighty good one too. He never complained at the multitude of dishes that we messed up! I have such fond memories of sharing that time with my grandparents, and I am so thankful that my children also got to make those memories - for a little while at least.

We enjoyed a fun evening at the zoo for their annual Christmas lights. Everyone had a blast and then we went out for pizza. We weren't sure how this outing was going to turn out with our lively little Bryant bunch, but they all were great.

Here Lilly and her friend Kate are peering out the doors at church. We were waiting for the children's Christmas program to begin. 2 little cuties for sure!

Our first Cub scout! We are so proud of Fulton who is showing off his first badge- the Bobcat.

This is Ethan's absolute favorite thing to do at Granny's house. He rides around and around on her patio. Love that silly face Ethan!

Wow! Doesn't Lilly look like a big girl here on her tricycle? She can't actually pedal but she sure loves to try.

Katie and Lilly enjoying the beaters! I remember doing this when I was a little girl. Katie is such a wonderful daughter and a great big sister to Lilly. Lilly is learning to say Katie, but for now says "KK"- too cute.

Happy New Year

The last 7 weeks have been especially sad and difficult for our family due to my grandfather's terminal cancer diagnosis and then death 3 1/2 weeks later. I thought it might be beneficial for the children and me to find the funniest photos from the past year and then post them here for you to enjoy as well. Happy New Year! Here is the entire Bryant Bunch (for now anyway!) attempting to take our first picture as a family of 7. It definitely could have been worse. But as you may know, I am a pretty uptight mom and way too serious, so this is funny to me!

Shelby took the time to fix Lilly's hair, and it was SO cute. However, she only had enough hair in the back to put ponytails in so in order to see it, this is the pose that worked best. (You may recall that her poor head was shaved numerous times during her hospital stays in China!)

"My family homeschools, and this is my mom' s idea of an experiment for a toddler like me." (Note the magnifying glass in the bowl of teddy grahams.) Actually I had nothing to do with this. Lilly can thank her siblings for this one!

After the Christmas play at church, our little Ethan, a Wise Man, had decided he didn't want to be wise anymore. He prefers silly over wise on most days!

This was on Lilly's 2nd birthday. Can you tell that she was excited about Tickle Me Elmo?

We homeschool and had been studying about the nomads in world history. Shelby and Katie decided to dress the part and have fun pretending to roam (around the yard!). It was really cute, and I am so thankful that they use their imaginations and still have fun pretending.

This was the day of Lilly's baptism and we had taken LOTS of pictures. I guess this was her way of saying "Enough is enough!"

"Hey, Dad, I think I might need a bath now!"

This is Shelby in her swim cap that she purchased in China. Here she is obviously being very silly with her brother Fulton. (She just said "Mom, do NOT put that picture on there!" Sorry, too late. But my idea is working- we have been laughing SO hard!

This is shortly after her heart surgery. Lilly was SO tired that she fell asleep sitting up in her highchair at lunch! I just had to take a picture- t00 cute!

"This is the best sucker ever! Hey Dad, I think I might need another bath after this one!"

This isn't the normal way to eat a sucker, but both boys just thought this was funny I guess!!

"Hey Ethan, I thought I was the one who was suppossed to play with the doll!" I think Ethan was determined to take whatever it was that Lilly wanted. This was in the first month or so at home. Sibling rivalry was still at an all time high!

Last but not least in this year's funniest Bryant family photos:

This would be me on the way to China. I was determined to sleep and even took 2 Benadryl. My dear husband decided to be cute and snap this darling photograph!

In Loving Memory

This blog is dedicated to our loving grandfather and great-grandfather who died of cancer on December 5, 2007.

The above photo is of Granddaddy or GG on Father's Day of this year. He was an avid Gamecock fan and always wore a hat.




Thanksgiving Day- Lilly loving on GG who was so tired. He always had his glasses and a pen in his shirt pocket. Lilly always loved to get in his lap to play with them.

My grandparents had just celebrated their 48th wedding anniversary on November 14, 2007. That was 5 days after he was diagnosed with cancer that had spread to the liver. This picture was taken Thanksgiving Day- his last holiday with us.

November 18, 2007- Granddady with his only grandchild, his "Jannie -girl". I had almost forgotten that he used to call me that because he hadn't called me that nickname in years. I'm so thankful that he called me that just recently during his illness.

GG was always known as Granddaddy to me when I was a little girl. When his first great- granddaughter, Shelby could talk, she named him GG. He was such a special man and a wonderful grandfather. He would do anything for me and he always did it from his heart. When I lived with him and my grandmother during high school, he would have my car warmed up for me on cold winter mornings. He would bring me lunch to school and give our football team police escorts to the big rival game every year. He would always tell me not to speed- he was a police officer for 36 years! I could go on and on! He was simply all a grandfather could possibly be and yet so much more. I miss him so much already.

Lilly and GG- how grateful I am that they had almost 7 months together. I know that Lilly will not remember GG, but I also know that GG will never forget Lilly. Lilly had learned to say "GG" so well. She had even begun putting 2 words together. One of her first 2 word sentences was "bye-bye GG". He loved her so much, and she adored him as well.

We will always love you GG. We are happy that you are with Jesus and that you are not hurting anymore.