3000 PEOPLE + $10 = ORPHAN CARE through MEBCH Church in Port Au Prince, HAITI!

Just back from Haiti

Noel and I just returned from a great trip to Haiti. We were gone 5 days and the kids did great with Gran and Papa. We spent time with our partner church and loved on lots of kids. We are excited to know of the needs of the church more completely and we are praying about how God might use us to help provide for those needs. We know He doesn't need us, but we are thankful to be part of His story in the rebuilding of Haiti. I am working on a story about our time in Haiti and will post here when it is completed.
This is a photo of Lancia and I - you can read more about her here.
Love to all,
lori

Happy Birthday Noel & Happy Gotcha Day Louis!

Happy New YEAR 2011!

We had a wonderful time at home for CHRISTmas and New Year's! We missed seeing my (Lori) side of the family, but had a great time making our memories as a family of 5 for the first time. Louis loved everything about Christmas - he was so excited to put up the tree and had lots of questions about all the traditions we have as a family. We went to Christmas Eve service at our church and then celebrated Christmas day with the Tugwell side of the family at our house. Louis got a Djembe drum for Christmas and had fun playing with cousin Matt who brought his so they could play together. Lily and Silas were equally excited about their gifts and celebrating Jesus' birthday. 2 days after Christmas - Silas got to get his umbilical hernia repaired. Silas had a ruptured appendix in August of 2010 and spent 6 days in the hospital very ill - an illness he would have not survived if he still lived in Haiti. Because of our medical deductible being met after that illness we decided it would be best to have his hernia repaired - a condition he has had since infancy from having such a distended belly from malnutrition. Silas didn't care much for the pain after surgery, but he really did great and was back in full force of activity by the end of the week:) On New Year's eve we had a quiet celebration at home with a Pizza bake off. Everyone thought their own pizza was the best - I could not eat Louis' creation due to ALL the hot pepper and pepper cheese he used:)
We are looking forward to finishing up our paperwork process for Esther JOY! Can't believe how EASY it all is the 4th time around! I would be happy to help others get through it.
Kids are outside having SNOW MUCH FUN - out of school today! I think we had 3 or 4 inches of snow last night.
Thinking of hot chocolate soon! So hard to believe that tomorrow is Noel's birthday and Louis' 1 year GOTCHA anniversary! God has been so good to us!

Announcing...

One more...

Noel and I have felt the gentle calling for a while to the possibility of another child in our family. Actually Louis started talking about it shortly after he arrived home and was able to speak it - I vividly remember a conversation over breakfast when he asked, "will there be any more children in our family?" And his next statement - he expressed that he thought another little girl like Lily would be great. We did not think that was what God had for us during those first few months with 3 kids, but He has a way of getting us to say "yes" a little bit at a time. Those little yes(es) turned into a desire and the desire turned into a name and the name turned into a sweet baby girl from the Henan Province in China. SO - here we go - God adventure/adoption #4 - Esther JOY Tugwell. She is 18 months old and we will prayerfully welcome her to her forever family in 2011.

We are praying for some other families....
We really believe there are some families that we could encourage to take the adoption adventure with us! Is that you???

JOYfully His,
lori
for all of us at home and in China:))
Noel, Lori, Louis, Lily, Silas, and Esther JOY