Bring Me Hope Volunteers Adopt!

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In July 2006, the month before my husband and I got married, we went to China with Bring Me Hope as volunteers. The time we spent with our kids made it very clear that adoption was an absolute for us. We actually tried to adopt one of the little girls in our group, but China regulations did not allow that to be possible for us at the time.

While we were in China we had the opportunity to visit the orphanage where the children who came to camp lived. This experience in visiting the grounds and all of the other children just reinforced for us that we would absolutely want to include adoption as a way to grow our family.

Fast forward to March 5, 2010…

As most of you know, John and I have returned home from Ethiopia with our sweet baby Sam. We got home last Friday and today is the first day I feel a bit adjusted. Ethiopia was an absolutely amazing trip. I am however incredibly happy to be home.


Sam is really doing great. John and I smile the second he walks in the room. It has been an amazing journey because he was not very fond of us the first few days we interacted with him 🙂 He also came off as being a very high strung, aggressive little boy that would not smile. We were really preparing to have our hands full when we returned home with a tough transition. However, he completely changed almost as soon as we took custody in ET.


It is very clear to him that we are mommy and daddy and he absolutely LOVES us!! He is very laid back, laughs a lot, loves to tease us, very playful, and very affectionate. He loves to give kisses (especially to his older brother Kieran). They do fight over toys but working it out…tonight, Kieran counted to three and then put him in time out 🙂 Kieran is struggling a bit with the transition but if Sam is sleeping, he wants me to go wake him up. So I guess that’s encouraging. Anyhow, we just absolutely love him to death!

The Thurman Family

“The only thing I should do is to love her with my whole heart.”

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A BMH Camp Translator tells her Story…

I feel very honoured to be here to tell our family’s story in BMH’s summer camp in August of 2009.

My story has three parts. It happened between SiYan, Sarah, and me. Sarah is my foreign volunteer who is very kind-hearted and comes from California SiYan is a very smart orphan assigned to our group from an orphanage in JiaoZuo, China.

SiYan is a perfect girl with two problems; one of which is she cannot walk, and the other is she needs to go to bathroom often like once every ten minutes. So I had to carry her to the bathroom even when I really want to eat my meal or feel tired. When we got to the bathroom, she said to me, “I’m sorry, sister. I must make you tired. You must hate me.” I felt ashamed and answered with tears in eyes, “Not at all. SiYan, you are so pretty and sweet. I want to carry you forever.” When I stayed in bed that night, I said to myself, “I can’t show my boredom to her any more. She stands much more torture than me. The only thing I should do is to love her with my whole heart.”

Then, there was Sarah who loved SiYan so much that she would hug and kiss her every time she saw her. SiYan also love Sarah. She always asked me what Sarah was talking about and wanted to understand her. The last activity of our week together is to write letters. SiYan and Sarah need to write letters for each other, and I would translate these letters. SiYan wrote, “I want Sarah to be my mum.” which shocked everybody.

I really appreciate that I can know Sarah and become friends with her. She is very patient and thoughtful. I can’t forget the most common sentence she would said to SiYan, “That’s ok,” and she would always help me carry SiYan. Sarah and I are very similar, both with a sister and a brother, parents that are teachers, and born in the year of snake, the Chinese Year of the Snake. Maybe there is some connection between us, I thought.

That is my amazing experience which should be cherished forever. Now I’m the BMH club president in TaiYuan, and I feel very thankful to have Sarah, Becca and David in my life. Everything I do for BMH is going well and my life is plentiful and meaningful. I even get to meet Sarah and SiYang again in several days because Sarah is going to see SiYan, and I will go too. WAHOO!! I’m also thankful for everyone who comes to the camps. I love you all!

~Banana