About Our Family

El Paso, Texas, United States
We are James, Lisa, Patrick, Christian, Carson, and Ella Payne a military family serving our country via service in the U.S. Army. Jim and I have been married for 18 years and have 3 wonderful home grown sons -Patrick, Christian and Carson. We recently adopted our beautiful daughter Ella Grace Ana from Donets'k, Ukraine in September. Jim and I began our Army life together at Fort Bliss, El Paso, Texas and every assignment thus far has extended unique opportunities and challenges for our family to grow and learn; to become a stronger, committed, and a prepared Army family. Having recently lived abroad for six amazing years, we cannot express how thankful we are for the opportunity to have represented our great country and to discover the cultures and customs of other countries; to become close to the people and learn from them; to open our hearts and minds to the unfamiliar languages and way of life in other countries. Having now moved back to the United States, we are looking forward to discovering what new adventures await our family. Rest assured, wherever the Army sends us we will continue to serve you and our country proudly. Army life, we wouldn’t trade it!

August 22, 2008

Your Words...

We cannot thank you enough for your prayers, support, words of encouragement, and love you have left on this blog. They are important to us and each night, our routine is to grab a glass of water and sit together in front of the computer to read the post you have left us; they are wonderful, moving, uplifting and so very appreciated. We are greatful we have family and friends like you who are out there supporting us through this journey. Please, continue to post, you are an important part of our day!
Thank you to each of you from both of us and from our family back home.
Love,
The Payne Family

4 comments:

Staci and Damon said...

Congratulations on finding your daughter! We loved sitting down to read comments as well! We're praying for you.
Staci

Kathy and Matt said...

Oh I can recall the power of reading all the blog comments everynight too! So glad you're feeling the positive thoughts and prayers that so many are sending your way.

Your little girl is adorable and she looks so happy with you both!

Kevin and Tammy said...

She is so beautiful and I know you are having a blast. Hope you continue to enjoy your time with her. We will keep you in our prayers. I thinkt he most fun thing about the comments is to read them from people you have never met. But they all seem to know just what to say. Talk to you soon.
Tammy

Anonymous said...

Comments were so important to us, too---to know that people were out there following along with us, feeling the challenges, the pain, the excitement! Your girl is a doll. May the rest of the process move quickly and swiftly and that you find patience and humor when wacky, frustrating stuff happens along the way, and it will. But you will get through it. And you will be home with your new family. Godspeed!

Laura
(fellow Ukraine mom/blogger)

This is our "spot" we began at the beginning of our journey in May 2007, to adopt a child from Ukraine. In August 2008, we traveled to Ukraine to bring our daughter/sister Ella Grace Ana home; and on September 12, 2008 we did just that.

While our journey to bring her home is complete, our journey together is just beginning. We will continue to keep our spot here, posting as frequently as we can; and keeping you updated on our next journey in life...maybe a second adoption is in our future.

Please join us by following us by clicking on the "Follow" link to the left and posting your notes at the bottom of any post we have made.

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