Kylie's Surgery

Kylie continues to bring so much joy to our lives. She is a happy little girl who loves life and loves to laugh. I am amazed at how much she is talking and speaking English. Kylie gives some of the tightest hugs and sweetest kisses. She is all about brushing her teeth several times a day plus before bedtime she enjoys fixing all of our toothbrushes, and for an added bonus she may brush our teeth. ;o) Bath times are also highlights of her days, and have been since we got her. As you can see in the picture above, she gets excited about washing dishes. My daughter is all about cleanliness and hygiene.

We bought Kylie her very own pink princess Bible a couple weeks ago. She is so proud of it and asks for her Bible every morning. She loves to pray to God and here lately I have been teaching her the word 'obey'. So now just about every time I talk to her about the Bible and/or God, she will always chime in and say, "obey".

My family and I ask that you please pray for Kylie as her surgery is scheduled for October 19. She had two surgeries already in China, and this one is to repair the hole in her palate. She will be in the hospital for 5 to 7 days including ICU the first night. Her recovery time will be 3 weeks in which she will only be allowed to eat soft foods. We pray that God will prepare her and us for her surgery, that she will have no complications, for peace for all of us, and for God to guide the surgeon's hands. We love our daughter and Karsten loves his sister so much. I get teary eyed just thinking about her surgery, and wondering what Kylie will think when we get to the hospital. We trust God to carry us and we know that ultimately He is in control.

I will end with a video of my sweet girl dancing. She loves to dance to Toby Mac. Love and blessings to you all! (Don't forget to first scroll down and pause the music)

Blessed and Chosen

We have been home from China now for five weeks. It seems like Kylie has always been here with us. After all, she has been in our hearts before she was ever born. She is doing amazingly well! Kylie Hope is so much like her brother in many ways. They both have a wonderful sense of humor and love to laugh.

The first few weeks were quite tiring with the jet lag but we cannot complain. The nights when Kylie was up during the night led me to think back to what I missed with Kyler. I had a lot of sleepless nights not having him with us and never got to experience the sleepless nights with him here. So with that said, I tried to embrace each time I was up with Kylie. Yes, I was worn out and yes I wanted to sleep, but I knew that all that will pass some day. And as sure as I type this, that has passed because she started sleeping through the night a couple weeks ago.

Kylie is such a sweet girl!! We love her so much and can't imagine our lives without her! She is our daughter and we are blessed so much that God chose us to be her parents before he ever created the world. Plus God chose Kylie to be our daughter. The love I feel for her is exactly the love I have for my sons. We have seen so many prayers answered from God and we thank each of you for praying for Kylie over the years. God definitely prepared her for us. To hear her call me Mommy is one of the sweetest sounds. She loves her daddy and adores her big brother. It's been joyful seeing Karsten getting to play his role as a big brother. He is so happy since he never got to play with his brother.

Kylie sees Kyler's pictures around the house. Every now and then she will point to his picture and say, "Kyler." I know she doesn't understand but I wonder what she is thinking. For now, we just tell her that Kyler lives with Jesus.

Kylie LOVES to be a helper. She never sits down to watch tv. She is constantly playing or looking for ways to work around the house. At night, she wants to get everyone's toothbrush ready. She loves to sweep, mop, vacuum, fold clothes, put the clothes in the dryer, carry groceries in the house, feed the animals, you name it. She is already saying many words such as popsicle, tea, juice, thank you, you're welcome, I love you, bye bye, hello, Bible, God, Jesus, ball, Where did it go?, plus she is singing songs in english. Kylie enjoys dancing and it was so funny the other night. She went to the ipod wich is hooked up to our radio, and was scrolling through. She stopped on Toby Mac and began dancing like crazy!! It was quite hilarious so the four of us have a lot of fun dancing and acting silly together. She keeps us in stitches constantly.

Kylie goes next week to the surgeon regarding her cleft lip and palate. We will keep you posted and we appreciate prayers for her in that matter.

AT LAST...KYLIE HOPE IS HOME IN OUR ARMS!!

http://www.babyjellybeans.com/web/do/site?ID=30340



China had blogspot/google blocked so I was unable to use this blog over there. Praising God for a safe 16 day trip to China and back with our precious daughter/sister!! Follow the link above and then type in the password: kylie2010



Thank you for your prayers and love over the years. You all have been such an encouragement to me.



There are pictures posted on the travel blog above but I will update this blog with more pics soon. God's faithfulness stretches to the skies!!!

The Countdown is On!!!

SOON we will be leaving to bring home our beautiful little girl!!! We have been overwhelmed emotionally and physically. I remember feeling this way being pregnant with Karsten and Kyler...so excited yet nervous too. My faithful Father has been so gracious and merciful to us. I look back over the last six years and see God's hand in everything. Six years ago when Kyler went to live with Jesus was devastating to us. There were times when I just wanted to give up and I had so many questions that I didn't understand. I still don't understand, but I have learned so much the last 76 months. It is not about my circumstances. It's about who God is and that I am who I am because of Christ in me. God has taught me to depend on Him, to trust His
character, that His will for me is to be more like Jesus, to comfort those who need to be comforted, to cry with those who cry, to pray for those who are hurting, to pursue righteousness, to hunger and thirst for Him, He has given me a desire to adopt my daughter in China, and a desire to see God set the lonely in families. Orphans need homes. It is God's will that we help the poor and needy and to care for orphans.

We humbly covet your prayers as we travel soon. Please pray for:

*good health for Brad, Karsten, Kylie, Brad's parents and me
*safety
*for Kylie to bond well with us and that she won't be afraid
*for the Chinese people to see the light of Christ in us
*all the orphans around the world who have no parents to tell them they are loved

We also deeply appreciate you who have helped us financially over the last few months. We had an additional increase of over several thousand dollars since we started four years ago. We praise God that 800 out of 1000 puzzle pieces have been sponsored!! If you would still like to donate, the money goes toward Kylie's orphanage fee of $5,000 so you are not only helping us bring her home you are also helping other orphans. We will put your name on however many puzzle pieces you sponsor and Kylie will forever see the ones who sacrificially gave to help her come home. God has called each of us to provide for the needy and take care of orphans. Jesus says in Matthew 25:40: "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."

I am forever grateful for God adopting me into His family through Jesus Christ. He loved me for who I was and still am, a sinner. I am eternally secured in His hands!

Update and Letter to My Daughter

Last week we received the news we have been waiting to hear in a very long time..."we have your travel dates." We prefer not to post the dates on here but we wanted to let you know that we will be traveling to China soon to bring our precious daughter (and Karsten & Kyler's little sister) home. :o) Let the labor pains begin...

Dear Kylie Hope,

You are my little girl, my daughter who I have been praying for, for 5 1/2 years. I have loved you before God ever created you and I know that He has loved you even more before He made you and formed you in your birth mother's womb. You were born in my heart. You are 100% my daughter as Karsten and Kyler are 100% my sons. I love you so very much. Daddy, Karsten and I pray for you every day and often many times during the day. Karsten is so excited to play with you, his mei mei (little sister). He was 4 years old when we started our adoption process and now you are close to turning 4 in November. We pray that God would comfort you as you leave the only home you have ever known at the orphanage. Plus, you are leaving your dear friends. We know you will be grieving and someday you will probably grieve and have many questions about your birth parents. I hope you know that they love you and wanted what was best for you, just like our loving Father knows and wants what is best for us. We pray for your birth parents and will continue to pray for them. I think about your friends in the orphanage and wonder if they will ever get adopted. Oh how I pray that they will and that God would raise up a harvest of people to adopt orphans. Deuteronomy 10:8a says that God defends the cause of the fatherless. Kylie, God has a great plan for your life. Above all, He wants you to have a relationship with Him through His Son Jesus Christ. We were put on this earth to glorify God in all that we do. While we were made for heaven, this life is just a journey completing the work that God has us here to do. I praise God for how He is sovereign in all things. He brings beauty from ashes...He has in our lives and I pray that He will in your life as well. We love you sweet girl!! You have been loved and prayed for for many years and so many people are anxious to meet you. We will see you soon.

I love you,
Mommy


Please consider doing something. Ask God what you could do to help orphans. What is your local church doing to raise the awareness of orphans? Is it being taught? Is there an orphan ministry? If not, why not? God commands us to care for orphans and widows. Jesus was adopted by Joseph. Moses and Samuel were adopted as well. It's biblical. Most of all, we as believers in Christ were adopted into God's family. We as the body of Christ need to be helping orphans, whether through adoption itself or helping others with the cost of adoption. It is very expensive but it should not be an excuse to not adopt. It is all God's money anyway. This is weighing heavily on my heart so please pray!

We will keep you updated!

Blessings,
Jennifer

Our 3-Year-Old Daughter & Sister

I have already announced this on facebook, but apologize for being late blogging. Meet Kylie Hope Xuerong Evans!!

Kylie is 3 years old and was born with a cleft lip and palate. She has already had two surgeries and was blessed with a terrific surgeon. We have three pictures of her post surgery, but this is the most recent one. I am not sure how old she is here, maybe 2 1/2. Kylie was abandoned at 5 weeks old under a building. When police couldn't find her birth parents they took her to the local orphanage where she has been ever since. Her first surgery was at 7 months and then her other one at 19 months.

We love her so much and have the past several years. To be able to finally see her has been very overwhelming. I want to hug her and kiss her cute cheeks and put a smile on her face. What is so amazing is that we have been praying for her before she was ever conceived. All along God had her picked out for us. He has used this long wait to open our hearts to a "waiting child." Since before creation, God had chosen her for us and we are so blessed. We are speechless for how our loving Father works in ways we don't understand. Even though Kylie nor any other child will ever replace Kyler, we are forever grateful for God's grace and mercy that He extends to us. He has given us a desire for orphans through the pain and suffering of losing Kyler. There are millions of orphans suffering with no love of a mom or dad and it breaks my heart. Soon there will be ONE LESS orphan in the world.

Update on our fundraisers: We've had an extra $5,000 added to our adoption over the last four years. To help offset this we have been trying to raise this additional money. Praise God for how He continues to provide! We have sold 571 puzzle pieces at $5 a piece, and have made $795 in yard sales and selling birdhouses which totals to $3,650. We only need an additional $1,350 to meet our goal. Please prayerfully consider helping us bring our daughter home. Her orphanage fee is $5,000 so the money you donate will also help other orphans. You can use the paypal button I have set up to the right. Up until now we have never asked for donations or had any fundraisers. God had provided every penny through my husband's bonuses. However, with the economy the way it's been, we haven't had a bonus in 18 months.

I have said before that everyone is not called to adopt, but everyone is called to care for orphans (James 1:27). Jesus is the Father to the fatherless. He loves children and I believe it breaks His heart to see these millions of children without earthly parents to love and care for them.

Please pray that God would prepare Kylie Hope for us. We have sent her a care package with several things, one including a t-shirt with our picture on it. Pray that she receives our package and that she will become familiar with our faces. Pray for good health for Brad, Karsten, Brad's parents and I as we travel to China hopefully in July or August. We will keep you posted. We covet your prayers and appreciate you all following us on our journey...God's journey for our lives.

WE'VE BEEN MATCHED!!

After 5 years of our daughter growing in our hearts and over 4 years of waiting through the adoption process, yesterday we were matched with our daughter, Kylie Hope. I am not allowed yet to post her picture or her chinese name, but she is precious! To be able to see her face after all these years has been quite overwhelming. Kylie is 3 years old and we trust that God has been taking care of her. She has been prayed for and loved by so many people for 4 years. God has been faithful to us, on the mountain top and in the valley. After my beautiful son, Kyler, whom we miss every day, went to heaven, God gave me the desire and then Brad to adopt an orphan. It is all His work and we praise God for calling us to adopt. I am reminded of the verses that the Lord gave me in December 2004, Psalm 37:4-5, "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to Him, trust Him, and He will do this." That verse has been so meaningful to me and it is so true. God is real and I cannot praise Him enough for all He has done in my life.



Thank you all for your kind words yesterday, today, and over the years. HOPEfully, this summer we will be traveling to China to bring our little girl home. I will post more info about her as soon as I'm able to.



Kylie Hope--we love you so much and are truly blessed that God has chosen you for our family and that He chose us for you!!

6 Years with Jesus

My sweet baby boy, Kyler, we miss you so much. Words can't express the grief and ache we feel. We would love to be able to hold you one more time, and we know someday we will hold you forever. God never said that we would get to choose what comes our way, but He has promised to walk beside us. Jesus suffered for us and will never abandon us.
KYLER BRADEN

K--Karsten and Kylie--your brother and sister--Karsten misses you everyday and talks about you often. He wishes you were here to play with him. Through his pain, Karsten is depending on the Lord and growing to love our Savior more each day. He still continues to have many questions about why God allowed you to leave us along with other questions I find hard to answer. Kylie was born into our hearts after you went to heaven. She is named after you and her middle name Hope was given because of the HOPE we continue to cling to in Christ. Our prayer is that we bring her home from China this year.

Y--Yoke--Jesus says in Matthew 11:28-30, "Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

L--Life--Even though you are not alive on earth with your family, we know and believe that you are alive in heaven, and will forever have life in heaven with our Savior and King. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6).

E--Endurance--Romans 15:4, "For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope."

R--Rejoice-- Romans 5:2b-4, "And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.""


B--Beauty--Since you left this earth 6 years ago, we have seen beauty from ashes. God continues to be at work and is glorified. Isaiah 61:3, "to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair."


R--Refined--Our faith has been refined and strengthened over the last 6 years. 1 Peter 1:6-8, "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed."

A--Adopted--Your Daddy, brother, and I praise God that He has adopted us into His family when we trusted Christ as our Savior. Salvation depends totally on God. Ephesians 1:5-6, "In love, He predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves."

D--Days and Denis--Psalm 139:16, "All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." It's no surprise to God that you would live inside my womb for 38 weeks. God made you, Kyler, to live for such a very short time, but with a great purpose and plan in mind. We don't understand and don't like it, but we trust our Father and continue to walk by faith. God knew you before He ever created you and loves you dearly. About 2 years ago we started sponsoring a child through World Vision named Denis. Karsten picked him out because you and him would be the same age. Denis lives in Albania and it is such a privilege and blessing for Denis to be a part of our lives.

E--Eternal life--1 John 4:11, "And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son." Praise God for His glorious hope in heaven! We find great comfort in knowing that you are in heaven with Jesus and someday we will be reunited as a COMPLETE family forever, in which we will all worship as a family at our Savior's feet.

N--No good-byes in Christ--I'm reminded of Mercy Me's song, "Homesick"

You're in a better place, I've heard a thousand times...the reason why I'm broken the reason why I cry is how long must I wait to be with you...

Amazing song!




I know that when I think of heaven I should first think of seeing Jesus. But, honestly, so many times I think of seeing my precious boy. Kyler is the first one I want to run to when I get to heaven. I'm working on that because I know that first and foremost I should want to run to Jesus. When you think of heaven what do you think of most? Is seeing Jesus number one? Or do you place seeing your loved one(s) above Jesus? It's hard. I think, too, that here on earth I have Jesus with me and the Holy Spirit living inside me. I can talk to my heavenly Father. Yet, I don't have Kyler with me here and can't really talk to him. Oh, I have talked many times to him. Every night before bed I kiss his picture and tell him I love him and goodnight. But can he really hear me? Biblically speaking, I don't think so.

So we continue to walk through life with a limp. God continues to heal us a little bit at a time. My prayer is that we will continue to be conformed to the image of Christ. God put us here on earth for His glory and to make Him known. Heaven is our real home and until then we must fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith.

Happy birthday, Kyler B.! We love you!!

Care for Orphans

For those of you who do not know, Kylie Hope, was born into my heart over 5 years ago from the pain of my son, Kyler, leaving this earth to entering the glory of heaven. I have gotten asked so many times, "Why China?" Well, why NOT China, or Africa, or Guatemala, or Bulgaria, or Russia, or America, or Vietnam, or Korea, or...this list could go on. The fact is there are 143 million orphans in the world. Adoption is all about Jesus. I'm not a blood relative of Jesus, yet I was adopted into His family when I trusted Christ as my Savior. God doesn't look at our external appearances, what race we are, but He does look what's in our hearts.


I have never seen my daughter and yet words cannot express the love that Brad, Karsten and I have for her. We have prayed for her for so many years and love her as much as we do Karsten and Kyler. Although we have been waiting for Kylie for over 4 years now, we strongly believe and know that GOD IS AT WORK! He has been doing amazing work in our lives by allowing us to know Him more and giving us a STRONG desire to want to care for orphans and raise awareness for orphans. We want to encourage and see God do incredible work in the lives of others by giving them a desire to adopt an orphan or care for orphans as we are commanded by God to do. It will change your life and you will be blessed. So many people say, "Oh, you're doing such a great thing by adopting an orphan, she is so blessed." When, actually, we are the ones who have been blessed during this journey because God continues to change and mold us.

Many people would do anything to "adopt" a cat or a dog. Why not adopt a boy or girl? Or at least help someone who is adopting by doing a fundraiser for them. Store up a treasure in heaven by helping a family bring their son or daughter home.

God is a Father to the fatherless. If believers aren't going to care for the orphans, then who will? Jesus says in Matthew 25:45, "Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me." We need to speak up for orphans. How will they ever hear of God's love?

Currently, the China Center of Adoption Affairs is in April 2006 and continues to move extremely slow. Our log-in-date is July 2006. We are still waiting for a healthy infant girl, but we are open to a special needs girl up to age 5. Please continue to pray with us and especially for Kylie and the other 143 million orphans in the world. Maybe even ask God what you could do to help orphans.

Visit our website to watch a 4 minute video about orphans. http://www.speakupfororphans.com/

Thank you all for continuing to pray with us throughout this amazing journey!

4 Years!

I would have never dreamed that we would still be waiting for our daughter 4 years after we had our initial meeting at Bethany Christian Services. I am reminded so often that God is not on our schedule. He continues to remain faithful to us as we wait. And as I have said before, we wait with HOPE. That is what we cling to and is what we have clung to since God took Kyler to heaven. It's the hope that is found in Jesus that keeps us going when we want to give up.

Please continue to pray with us as we wait to bring our daughter, Kylie Hope, home from China. Adoption is all about Jesus. God has knitted or will be knitting Kylie in the womb of her birth mother while knowing all along that she will be our daughter, our REAL daughter. God's plans are truly amazing and we have so much to praise Him for. The past nearly six years have been really difficult at times, but it's been through those times that we have grown stronger and depended more on the Lord.

Thank you all for your love and prayers, and for always asking whether we have any news about Kylie. Please pray for Kylie and ALL the orphans around the world to get into a loving family so they will have someone to tell them they are loved.

"Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it to completion until the day of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 1:6).