Visitors to Shihezi!!!

There is a mission team leaving for China tomorrow through Orphan Outreach missions. The team is from a church in Texas. Their visit includes a day with the children in Shihezi next week! They are taking pictures of Anna and our family to Director Guo. We have sent her pictures several times before over the past two years. They are also taking a letter to her. The team hopes to have an opportunity to interact with Li Meng and to take some pictures of the children that include him. We are very excited and thankful that I "stumbled" upon the information about this group a month or so ago. We are praying for this team. There will be a blog for this trip on the orphan outreach website. Here is a link if you want to try to find it. I couldn't find it yet, but they don't leave until tomorrow so it should be up soon. http://missions.orphanoutreachblog.org/

We have a name!

After much prayer and lively discussion, we have finally agreed on the name Joshua! We deliberated for a very long time about the name. Since he is old enough to understand the importance and significance of his name, it seemed even more important that we choose a name that would have significance and meaning. There were several other names that had serious consideration and in the end I asked my husband to make a decision. He took a quick poll on this name while we on vacation and announced this was the name. The next morning I decided it would be nice to read through the Old Testament book of Joshua. I didn't get very far before I realized that our family had worn this name around our necks. A few years ago my husband started wearing a shield/cross pendant that had the verse Joshua 1:9 on the back. James had wanted one too and Pete bought one for him. The next Christmas, James wanted to buy one for everyone else in the family. I wore mine all of the time until I got my necklace in China with the Love symbol. I think we should all start wearing them again until we bring Joshua home. Joshua 1:9 - "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."