Christmas 2009

Photos from The Great Christmas Tree Hunt

Joshua is enjoying everything about Christmas. It has been fun to watch a 7 year old experience Christmas for the first time. We have Pete's family here on Christmas Eve and both sets of Grandparents with us on Christmas day. For the past several years, we have had a family tradition of going roller skating at Oaks Park on Christmas eve. It is great fun. We will go from there to our Christmas Eve service at church. All of the kids and Pete are involved in it in some way. Three days after Christmas, our nephew Matthew is marrying his sweet fiance, Britney. Anna and Joshua will be in the wedding.

Here is a quick review of our year -- more detail can be found here in this blog or in our blog that was used for our trip to China to bring Joshua home. (If you want to see the year in pictures, you could just scan through the posts from the past year...)

After surviving our big winter snow last year, a tree through the roof and power out until Christmas...

In January, my sister and her boys had my dad, Anna and I join them for a few days in Florida. That was a treat. It was some good Anna and mom time.

In February, Sarah and a couple of friends had a chance to participate in their first speech tournament. We drove up to Seattle for the tournament. To our surprise, all three girls made it to the final round, brought home trophies and qualified for the regional speech tournament.

In March, Pete and I celebrated our 20th Anniversary...with dinner at Olive Garden...well we were saving for a big trip to China...we'll try to celebrate a bit more later on... Also in March, Rachel had a chance to go to Gleanings for the Hungry in California.

In April, Pete and I ran in a half marathon here in Portland with my sister, her husband and a couple of friends. I was sick that day and almost backed out, Pete had a great day -- a personal best! Sarah and her friends travelved to Colorado for the regional speech tournament. In April we also received our LONG awaited approval from China to adopt Joshua! This started another long, roller coaster ride waiting for our travel approval.

The wait for Joshua--- US Immigration implemented new procedures, actually several new procedures, throughout our wait for Joshua. This complicated pretty much every step in the process beginning with our home study. We had just received word from US Immigration that they had approved some important documents for us when the first big reports of swine flu hit the news. The weird thing, was that the night before I had been awakened by a vivid dream that there was some international crisis that was shutting down international travel and keeping us from bringing Joshua home. I assured myself when I started hearing swine flu news that it really wasn't such a big deal. And, that has pretty much ended up being true, however during the time we were waiting for our travel approval, China decided it WAS a big deal. There were delays in sending travel approval and several provinces, including where Joshua was waiting, decided they didn't want anyone coming from North America. To make a very long story short, through miraculous circumstances, a mistake and someone having connections with the right people, we were allowed to travel if we agreed to spend a week in Beijing to prove we didn't have swine flu.

June 20, Pete, Mark and I left for China. We met Joshua on June 29 in Urumqi city. That name might be familiar to some because it is the city where the Uighur riots occurred last summer. The rioting began three days after we left Urumqi for Guangzhou to complete our adoption paperwork. Our travel journel is a separate blog -- a link is above -- or here -- http://jbarjendsofearth.blogspot.com/2009_06_01_archive.html

Rachel spent a week of the time we were in China at Teenpact Survival Camp in Montana. She had a great time. Rachel loves all things teenpact. She has spent a week at the state capitol each of the past three years participating in Teenpact. This year, she will be on staff.

Sarah, James and Anna, spent part of the time we were in China in Central Oregon with good friends at Sunriver and with Pete's parents. They reunited with Rachel back at home the second week and Anna spent several days with the family of her good friend, Molly. They all seemed to enjoy the time during our long separation (18 days!) We were all so happy to be together again and to have Joshua with us.

We spent the rest of the summer helping him learn English and taking him on adventures to the mountains, central oregon and the beach. He enjoyed eating Grandpa Dean's and Grandma Dar's crawfish and the time spent with Papa Dave and Grandma Shirley that also included his long awaited chance to go fishing.

We were so glad that he came home during summer and we had time to do fun things and work on English before starting our busy fall school schedule. He has done very well with all of his studies. He is being educated here at home like everyone else. Our academics also include many outside classes and activities that have kept us very busy. Joshua is a good sport, participates when he can and has made friends easily. He played soccer in the fall and was a great player!

Joshua has done great adjusting to life in our family. We feel incredibly blessed. I'm always amazed to look back over all that happens in a year and wonder what God has planned for the year to come.

Happy Birthday to Joshua!

On October 18th, we celebrated Joshua's 7th birthday. We thought this was a good time to have a celebration to recognize his joining the Aldrich family, so we invited (or tried to -- sorry if we missed some people) everyone we could think of that had encouraged and prayed for us along the long journey to bring him home. It is probably a good thing that not everyone could come. As it turned out, we counted 128 guests that came to our open house. We had another little miracle that day in that the sun decided to shine and the kids were able to play outside. The day before had been an amazing rain storm, so the sun really felt like a miracle!

Joshua thoroughly enjoyed the day. He started out by putting on the new shirt he had picked out himself using birthday money from Grandma and Papa. He went to church in the morning while his sister Sarah, her friend and I decorated and prepared the house. He, dad and the other kids then picked up his birthday cake that he had picked out at Costco and some noodles from Panda express. Sarah and her friend decorated over 100 cupcakes and also helped me prepare a LOT of food. Joshua came home to a house of balloons and cupcakes. He was thrilled. He seemed to enjoy every moment of celebrating with friends and meeting a few people that he didn't know, but that had prayed for him. He was sort of a celebrity for a day.

As I was putting up pictures, laying out blog posts and the very thick book of paperwork that helped bring him home, I had some very surreal moments as those things took me back in time to the many, many months of waiting and trusting that God really had a plan here. Joshua is such a testimony of God's grace displayed and poured out on us here on earth. There are so many miracles marking the trail.

Joshua has come so far in such a few months. He is impressing people everyday with his use of English and his abilities. He has really done well with soccer. On Saturday, I watched the game he and Mark were in for a while and then walked over to the field where little sister was playing. When he came out of the game, he ran over to tell me he had scored 4 goals after I left! When I walked back over, everyone on the sidelines was also telling me about his 4 goals!

Tonight, we had an impressive and captivating display of his English ability as he opened a window into his past for us. Over dinner, we started talking about food and food he had while in China. Joshua was in a mood to talk and finally found enough words to tell us more about his life in China. For about 20 minutes, we all sat around the table completely captivated as he told us all about the "big house" (orphanage), how it was arranged, who was there and their daily schedule. I asked him if he remembered his first day there. To our amazement, he went on to describe the day that ended with arriving at the orphanage in great detail. He clearly has very, very vivid memories of that day. We had always wondered how much he would remember. We also found out he remembers a great deal about his home and family prior to coming to the orphanage. I tried my best to sit down and type out everything I could remember that he had told us -- including his very animated story about a mouse in the house!

We are constantly amazed at this sweet little boy's trust in us and take every opportunity to assure him that he is forever and completely a part of our family.

As he was recounting the details of the day he came to the orphanage and telling us how he didn't sleep well that night because he was scared, I kept thinking about how God knew even then that he had a plan to prosper and not to harm this child. As we were waiting to bring Joshua home, I had wondered about the day he came to the orphanage and had looked back in my journal to see what we were doing. On the morning he woke up in the orphanage for the first time, we were in the home of friends praying for the orphaned children in China. It was just a few days after we had first heard about Anna. We could not have imagined that three and a half years later, we would be bringing a 6 year old boy home from China, but God knew the plan already.

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11

Home Three Months!!!

Celebrating Joshua!

Sunday, October 18^th is Joshua’s 7th Birthday! (Although he insists he will be 8...we're still trying to explain that age is counted differently in China...) He is very excited about “Happy Birthday to Joshua.” To celebrate this event and his arrival in our family, we are inviting friends and family to an open house on Sunday, October 18^th. We are so thankful for the friends and family that prayed for him for the many long months we waited to bring him home. He has been blessed to be welcomed so warmly.

It is amazing how much a child can learn in a three month period. Joshua has been learning English, American Culture and the Aldrich Family Routine at an amazingly rapid rate! We are endeavoring to keep him using Chinese as often as possible, but he is clearly more motivated to master English. Today, when we met with our dear translator friend, Bonnie, he really just wanted to talk in English. Our hope and prayer is for him to be fluently bilingual. We will have to be very purposeful to help him keep his Mandarin. He adds new English phrases every day. One of his new English phrases this week was, “Anna, no whining…”

He is doing very well with school work. I think he’ll be ready for some more challenging work soon. I’ve intentionally tried to keep it simple enough to avoid frustration. He has been doing addition or subtraction sheets each day, some pages that review concepts like – up/down, right/left, between, etc., has two workbooks that teach phonics and one that has cutting, pasting and coloring activities. He has gotten a bit bored with his Go Go Learns English DVDs. When I flipped through the books the other day, I realized he has mastered most of the words. We have been using an Explode the Code book. He really likes it. It has been great for learning new vocabulary words. He was also interested in the Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons book that Anna does with me and was especially interested when he learned there is a prize for completing the book! He has completed the first five lessons. I think he will be able to learn to read English at the same time he is learning to speak English. This is pretty amazing to me.

Joshua has been watching the other kids play instruments. I’ve told him that once he can read a book, he can try music lessons. He really enjoys drawing and does amazing work. I’ll try to post a picture of one of his drawings here. Despite the physical challenges of his wrists and hands, he actually seems less fatigued by writing than his older brothers. His surprising passion has really been his interest in sports of all kinds – really, all kinds. His latest interest is basketball. He watched a video about “Pistol Pete” and has been dribbling basketballs around the house ever since. He likes to get us to watch him while he stares at us and dribbles so that we see that he isn’t watching the ball. Try dribbling with the back of your hand sometime – not a simple thing! We expect this interest in sports to continue motivating him to work with us on treatments for his arms and hands.

Joshua still has occasional episodes where he withdraws. They are much less dramatic than they once were and to an outside observer would really just appear the behavior of a child pouting for not getting his way. He (and we) are able to work back out of them much easier. He is always back to his happy, fun and affectionate self when it is over. He is very generous with his hugs and “I love you”s. He seems genuinely happy to be part of our family. We try to talk about China with him and think those memories will be important for him to preserve in some way. Most of the time, he seems uninterested in talking about his life there, but once in a while he will decide to share some memories.

He and Anna are getting along better. They are very much like you would expect siblings to behave when one is only five and still learning how to consider the feelings of others. Most of the time they have great fun together and other times they provoke one another. Anna is learning to be “gracious” and very proud of her efforts. Joshua and Mark are having more and more fun together. One day, they were watching Rachel and James practice a fight scene for their upcoming performance in The Hobbit. A little while later, I saw them rehearsing their own fight scene. Joshua’s English may be limited, but he was able to direct Mark in just where to thrust his sword and when to turn and fall. What a dynamic duo they will be one day. As I’ve been watching Rachel in her first debate season, I can’t help but picture a debate team of Mark and Joshua one day.

Rachel, Sarah and James also have very good relationships with Joshua. He seems to look up to and respect them. James has really taken on the role of big brother, guide and peace maker. He is very quick to notice if Joshua is starting to get upset and possibly go into withdraw mode and has become very adept and diversion tactics.

It still amazes me to look back over the journey that brought us here. Joshua is such a testimony of God’s grace – as is my life and our family as a whole. I surely was not qualified for this and have to live on grace every single day. I’m so thankful not to have missed this adventure.

Rachel's Blog

There is a link to Rachel's blog on the left -- It is currently called "Carrying the Torch", but I think I heard she may change the name. It is fun the read and she posts a bit more frequently than her mother....

Let us Run with Endurance

This song and these verses from Hebrews Chapter 12 have been running through my mind all weekend. We have been contending in prayer for some friends going through a difficult time. It is painful to see friends going through a painful trial. It is a reminder to be thankful for God's grace and mercy in our lives.

If I were to pick "life verses" they would probably be the first few verses of Hebrews Chapter 12...it follows a favorite chapter in the bible - "The Hall of Faith" Hebrews Chapter 11...

"Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed striving against sin. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the LORD loves He chastens and scourges every son He receives...Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed. Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord; looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled...Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire."

Kristine (accidently posted as Rachel...oops...)

Home Two Months!

Wow! Where did that last month go? It was another full and exciting month for the Aldrich family with little time for Mom to be on the computer.

We are mid way through our second week of school. We decided to start up last week before all of our outside activities were in full swing. I'm so glad we did. This year we have a high school junior, an 8th grader working on high school, a 5th grader AND a 2nd grader, 1st grader and Kindergarten student! This craft challenged mom has managed to start nearly every day with a fun craft. With the help of my older kids, we have also had music time. Joshua loves that -- most days. All six kids are playing soccer. Thankfully, they practice and play games at the same field and at the same time. We'll be trying to keep up with a German II class (Rachel), Spanish III (Rachel and Sarah) and hopefully a beginning Chinese class (everyone else). Rachel and Sarah are very excited for another year of speech and apologetics meetings and Rachel is adding debate (hopefully she won't be using those skills on me...) Rachel and James have parts in the play, The Hobbit. In between all of that we have people learning piano (x4), guitar, drums, Biology, Geometry, Algebra, Fractions, Division, Multiplication, Addition, Subtraction and which way the point the numbers, US History, US Government, Writing, Classical Literature, Reading, Phonics and how to speak English! No wonder I have trouble checking email or writing a blog post! Rachel has started her own blog...I might need to rely on her to update here too.

Sarah told me today how amazing it is to her that Joshua has only been here two months. She said it is already hard to remember life without him. I think we all feel that way. Joshua is working hard at learning English. Aside from every day immersion, we use a DVD program we picked up in China and have found that books that teach phonics are also good for learning vocabulary. His ability to understand us is very good and with the English he knows and some charades and pictionary, he is pretty good at sharing his thoughts, needs and questions with us. I can tell he will have a LOT to say when he has a full command of the language.

We all feel blessed to have this boy in our family. We are blessed that he wants to communicate, wants to learn and wants to test and trust us. 95 percent of the time, he is a fun, sweet, happy, smiling, obedient and cooperative boy. The other 5 percent of the time, he is testing us. It takes a good deal of energy and a need for us to be alert as parents, so that we are prepared to win the battles when battle lines are drawn. I usually try to avoid getting into battles, but sometimes it just isn't possible. Today was one of those days. For 30 minutes it was disruptive and it was exhausting, but it was so good and healing too. When it was all over, he was again a sweet and affectionate boy and he had learned an important lesson again about what is expected in our family and who is in charge. Tonight I told my husband I had been reflecting on this testing. Although it is exhausting, I think it is so very necessary for the process of learning to trust us. Our other children did this over a period of years from the time they were infants and learned to trust us when they were very small. If I were going to trust my entire life to something, I would need to test it too. If he were simply to comply with everything we asked and never challenge or test us, I wonder if he really could develop actual trust in us or if it would simply be him hoping we were what we said we were. Through this testing process, he is developing geniune relationships with each member of the family. When he quarrels with his siblings over a toy or who is cleaning which part of the room, he is learning how to relate with them too as the conflict is resolved. It has been fun to watch him ask his older siblings for help and to call Mark or James or Anna over to see something he has built with Legos. Last night, I heard a couple of adopting moms chatting at soccer, one was talking about how her son was just so happy to have a mom. I think I would say that of Joshua too. He seems genuinely happy to have a family, especially a mom. He still gives me tons of hugs and kisses and many "I love you"s throughout the day.

Joshua is a smart little boy and has been good at embracing the adventures that have become his life. He has probably seen and experienced more new things in the past two months than in the previous six and a half years of his life. He has been on an airplane, gotten used to a car booster seat, been to farms, the zoo, museums, the ocean (first time ever), climbed huge sand dunes, learned a new language, learned to use a camera, been to the mountains, been fishing in a row boat, eaten all sorts of new foods, ridden a bike, ridden a four wheeler, flown a kite, been to church, made new friends, gained grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, thrown a frisbee, baseball and basketball, started learning soccer, taken swimming lessons, won ribbons in the county fair, learned a bit about spending money, learned to vacuum and empty the dishwasher, been to the doctor, been to the dentist (four times so far....) Most recently, he went to an arthrogryposis clinic with Anna where they saw multiple doctors. He was asked to perform a variety of tasks, had his joint functions measured and was fitted for night splints. Through it all, he has been such a good sport. He seems to completely understand why we are taking him to hand specialists and is eagerly hoping they can improve his hand/arm function. He has been very good at wearing his splints each night. We think some of his motivation is a great love for sports. We hadn't anticipated this. He is especially excited by American Football of all things! He is also very interested in baseball.... He will no doubt keep life interesting here.

When I pause for a moment, I am still so in awe of what God has done. Working in our hearts to open our lives to this little boy and then working together all of the details to bring it to pass required such an amazing string of miracles. I recently finished reading a novel with an adoption theme that follows the life of a birth mom and adopting mom from their childhoods up until the adoption. It caused me to spend a lot of time thinking about Anna and Joshua's birth parents and Anna's foster family. I can't understand how it is that their lives were brought to the excrutiating decision to rip out their hearts, give up their child and entrust them to strangers in the hope they would have a better life, while my life has been so blessed. It is a sobering thought to reflect upon the great treasure that has been entrusted to us. I know that Anna's foster family was broken hearted to say goodbye to her. Joshua's birth family kept this child with an obvious disability for over three years before coming to the decision they couldn't raise him. I pray that I will never take this calling for granted. On the most difficult days of trying to meet everyone's needs, I am still doing it from the comfort of the most blessed nation on the planet, with the support of family and friends and with the oversight of a Mighty and Compassionate God who has already worked many miracles on behalf of these children.

How is He Adjusting?

That is the question I'm asked at least once each day. It is a very good question. I often try to put myself in his shoes and am at a loss to even begin to comprehend what it must be like to be 6 1/2 years old and have everything about your life change in an instant. The closest comparisons I can think of are the culture shock of traveling to Mexico or China or the adjustment of getting married and suddenly sharing everything about my life with another person. But those events really aren't fair comparisons -- I knew a lot about Mexico and China before I arrived, had translators available to me everyday and knew I was returning to what was familiar in a matter of days. When I married my husband, I had spent a few years getting to know him first before deciding to share my life with him. Joshua has had very little control over any of what has happened to him, little if any choice and most of the time has only a vague understanding of what will happen tomorrow or next week.

We are truly amazed by this smart, resilient and sweet little boy. We still see about one episode each day where he will withdraw emotionally and physically from us. Usually there is some small thing that has upset him. Today it was that he and Anna had a brief argument about whose turn it was to see a book. A few days ago it was because he had found a box of hershey bars (smore supplies) and wanted to bring them in the car and was told "no". Sometimes, he will just wake up in the morning or from a nap and be in this "funk" as we call it. He will spend 20 to 30 minutes looking sad. Sometimes he even has some tears. We love on him and keep him near us, often times going about our business in between giving him a hug and telling him we love him. Then, he'll just snap out of it again and join in with whatever is happening around him. He'll usually come give me a hug and kiss and be extra affectionate for a while. We think it just seems to be his way of processing all of the stress he has to be feeling from so many changes and the difficulty with fully expressing himself.

Today we had lunch with the dear woman who was a pediatric nurse in Taiwan for 32 years. Joshua really seems to enjoy visiting with her. I'm so thankful that he has had opportunities to converse in Mandarin. Usually, he chatters about things that are seemingly insignificant, but it must feel so good to him to be able to chatter and feel like there is some understanding of what he is chattering about. I'm quite sure that he will have much to say when he is fully fluent in English. I tried to ask about some of the most recent "sad" episodes. The only one he would talk about was the incident with Anna and really only said that she is always wanting to do whatever he is doing... Yes, we knew that. We talked a bit about how she is a little girl and was used to a lot of attention from Mom and Dad before he came and that she is learning to get along. He seemed to understand that. He really is very patient with her and shows geniune concern and affection toward her...she's just pushing him to the limit at times. I asked him what his favorite thing is about America and he said he really likes to go shopping! Yes, I knew that too -- hmmm, want to guess my least favorite thing to take him to do??? I asked him if he missed anything or anyone from China. Our friend wasn't sure what he was talking about in reply, but I'm fairly certain it was another narrative about the television shows he liked so much in China and that we don't let him watch here. It was all very light hearted with lots of smiles and laughter.

He is doing really well with learning English. Thankfully, he loves his English program and since it is DVD based, it fills some of that void left behind from those days of watching TV at the orphanage. Today, I took the kids and a friend on a long walk/run. For part of the time, Joshua and I started talking about "fast and slow" then "up and down", then "walk/run" then "feet/hands" and then I was pointing to various "flowers". He started walking along holding my hand practicing the harder to pronounce words. He is trying to teach me some vocabulary words in Chinese too -- I'm sure he is doing better than I am. Let's see, today I learned "shee gua" (that would be my spelling) for "watermelon" when he couldn't remember the word and resorted to drawing a picture (which he does very well!)

Here are pictures of Joshua's experiences this past week -- trip number two to the dentist (for the first 2 of 10 fillings...), crawfish with Grandpa, tether ball with Rachel, walking back to the car with siblings and friends after his first theater movie (love those free summer movies!) and the Shady Dell Steam Engine Park.

This week, I came upon a verse that I really liked. I need to figure out a way to put it into my own words so that I have an appropriate response to people that want to tell us what a great thing we have done. They are words spoken by Jesus regarding servants from Luke Chapter 17 (verses 9-10) "Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not. So likewise, you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, 'We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do. '"

More than Enough

One of the first things we noticed about Joshua was his appetite. He was and is a good eater. Our foods are not really his favorites all of the time, yet he always eats - A LOT. We are amazed at how much he can eat. While in China, this overeating combined with car sickness, led to some unpleasant experiences. Thankfully, we haven't seen any hoarding, but he always clears his plate and asks for more. Frequently, he will go to the fridge or pantry asking for something to eat. I have heard this is very common among children that come from an orphanage. We have been expecting that eventually, he will come to trust that we will always have more than enough food for him and he will learn to eat to fit his appetite.

We are very thankful that Joshua is very engaging with each member of our family. He has an easy smile and is generous with his hugs. He seems to crave physical closeness and affection. He probably comes to me for hugs and kisses 50 times each day or more. I wouldn't describe him as "clingy" because he has no problem being out of my sight and being with other people. He just seems to need lots of expressions of love and affection. He likes to sit in my lap and snuggle up close. With our record breaking heat this week, it has been a sweaty experience. On Sunday morning, he was wanting to snuggle through both hours of church. Anna also wanted to snuggle close to me. As I sat there sweating with both of my little China blessings wrapped around parts of my body, it occurred to me that perhaps Joshua's need for affection is a bit like his appetite. It will take some time for him to trust that there will always be more than enough love and affection for him and it will never go away. I'm so thankful that he so readily gives and receives love and has already learned to say "love you" when he gives me a hug. I sat in church praying that he will learn that God loves him unconditionally and always and that he will have the same intense affection for his savior that he is directing toward me. I find myself worrying that I will let him down and disappoint him. Hopefully, he will learn to trust in the One who is always trustworthy before he realizes how imperfect his mommy really is.

Last night, we took Joshua to meet a family from Taiwan. They have lived here since their children were toddlers. Their 13 year old daughter does some interpreting. They were very sweet and Joshua seemed to enjoy talking with them. We explained about my sister and her family coming to visit and about a dentist appointment he will have today. We asked him about food and he tried to explain how he likes rice. Not sure I'll ever have it quite right, but this family explained to me how they eat rice and suggested I add some sugar. Joshua seemed to like it better this morning -- not that he had a problem eating rice before... He spent some time talking about the orphanage. Apparently there were some bullies there, but he didn't seem too upset about it. He said there were about 20 children that would sit around a television for several hours every evening. We're trying to change that habit and explained to him that we like to "do" things instead of "watch" things. He didn't really seem to like that answer. He kept asking about watching some shows from China. He really likes his Go Go English DVDs that we bought in China, so hopefully we can keep that momentum going and keep making it a treat to work on English with those DVDs. He also told them how smart he is and that his "baba" (apparently they called the orphanage staff mama and baba) started teaching him math when he was very young. He is quite good at math for his age. I teased him that I would give him very hard math when we start school after the summer and he quickly replied that it didn't need to be too hard. Hopefully that will be a fun subject for us since it doesn't require much use of English right away. We've been doing single pages each day with all three boys.

The phrase "more than enough" has run through my head so many times, that I kept thinking of the song.

We're Back!

We're back from China, back from family camp and back on the JbarJhappenings blog!

Sorry for the confusion with switching blogs two days before we left for China. There were many miracles in the journey to Joshua. One of those miracles was being able to travel to China to get him at all. It truly was only because of what we are calling "a Divinely Appointed Mistake" that we were allowed to go. We know of no other families that have been allowed to travel to this province since the swine flu made the news. The province officials were a bit upset with us for having communicated our travel plans with other families and our agency advised us to make our blog more private before we traveled. For anyone that missed the updated travel blog -- here is the link -- http://jbarjendsofearth.blogspot.com/ We are praying that the other families waiting to travel to this province will receive news soon.

We returned home on July 8th, tired, but so very thankful to be home and to have Joshua here with us. He has been doing really well. He is an energetic, friendly, smart, outgoing boy. He has had a few sad moments where he has become a bit withdrawn, but so far, we've been able to draw him back out of it with patience and persistence. We all truly love this boy and I think he is growing in his affection for us as well. He seems to be a loving and affectionate boy by nature.

Just over a week after returning home, we were packing up again to go to family camp. Thankfully, the camp is only a bit more than a half hour from home. Joshua really enjoyed the camp. He enjoyed meeting and playing with the other kids from church, especially the ones he had met the first Sunday home. His favorite activity was riding a bike. The only problem was that we only had one bicycle with training wheels and Anna also became interested in that bike. Taking turns is a good lesson, but created a few problems over the weekend. Once home, I was able to get training wheels onto another bike that was a better size for Joshua and everyone is happy now -- other than a few scrapes and bumps that have since resulted from the bicycle riding.

The second day at camp, Pete wiped out his ankle in a big way. We spent the afternoon at the ER and he spent the rest of camp on crutches or with his leg elevated. He saw the podiatrist today. His ankle was still very swollen five days later. This is not the first time he has injured this ankle. The doctor's evaluation was pretty discouraging. We think we need to pray for a miraculous healing. The podiatrist thinks he has no ligaments left to heal (as in, he has completely destroyed them) and would need reconstructive surgery. Wouldn't it be great for the doctor to have a huge surprise at the next visit!

The kids did this crazy audio adrenaline song for talent night -- Joshua fit right in when he decided, at the last second, to join them on stage... not sure which side of the gene pool this comes from (notice my husband and I were NOT there), but he seems to be an Aldrich child. My efforts to remain behind the scenes don't always work. There was this crazy activity at church this year of passing a cookie jar from porch to porch and whoever had the cookie jar when church started at camp would have to do "the chicken dance"... someone left the jar on our camper porch while Pete and I were at ER (okay, they claim they delivered it before my husband was injured, but my kids found it and called us as we were on our way to the hospital) We actually returned to camp with cookies and were prepared to deliver it to another unsuspecting family on Saturday night. Unfortunately, someone decided to change the rules and declare the game over during our campfire worship time on Saturday night... Joshua wisely headed for the nearest tree branch when we were sent center stage (crutches and all) for the chicken dance -- sorry, no pictures - you'll have to imagine...

This week we started using the English language program that we purchased in China. Joshua loves it! The other kids have enjoyed watching the DVDs and helping him too. This is a program that I heard about from an American woman who is teaching English in China with her husband. We met them one day in Guangzhou. What a blessing that meeting ended up being! I had no idea what program to use to teach English and I don't think I ever would have found this one here. It is fun for all of us to hear Joshua trying out his new English phrases. Next time you see him, be sure to ask "How are you?" The program is called "GoGo's Adventures in English".

We're enjoying a new produce stand in our little community. One of the benefits is being able to supply Joshua's watermelon eating habit. It seems everyone likes to have the ends of the watermelon. Since we are now able to eat three watermelons per week, we decided to be crazy and cut the ends off of three watermelons at once and have our own little watermelon party....

Switching to Travel Blog!

Beginning tomorrow, updates will be on our travel blog. The link is on the upper left corner of this page. Tomorrow, we should be able to post our itinerary. Today, we confirmed we will be spending 7 days in Beijing before traveling to meet Li Meng. It is too costly to change our flights from arriving in Hong Kong to arriving in Beijing (about 3,000), so we will spend the night in Hong Kong and fly to Beijing the next morning. Details will be coming in the morning. We expect to see some sights while in Beijing and maybe even see some friends. We do not know what each day will bring. The rest of our agency travel group will be leaving Beijing on Monday morning before we arrive. We will meet some of them when we arrive in Guangzhou on July 2nd. Most of them are leaving for China tomorrow.

Prayer requests:
That we would be salt and light and have words of encouragement and hope in all circumstances.
That we would stay safe and healthy and have no further complications relating to flu or other concerns.
That the airline would find a way for us all to sit together on our flights.
That our children will be safe and a blessing to grandparents and friends.
That Mark would not have allergy or asthma issues and that we will find food he can safely eat.
That computer, email access and phones would work so we can keep in touch with all of you!
That Pete would be able to resolve issues with work and be able to take care of those items needing attention while we are in China.
That we can meet our son on schedule (June 29) or perhaps even earlier. We would also love to visit his orphanage to meet his nanny and friends.
That God is preparing his heart to meet us and begin to understand our love for him and God's love for him.
That we would have wisdom in how to make him feel comfortable and accepted.
That we would be able to understand each other.
That our children, family and friends are ready to meet and receive him with love, patience and grace.
We are so thankful for the miracles that have happened to bring us this far. God has provided all we need, just when we needed it.
Two days ago, I received a phone call from someone offering a contact for a Mandarin translator that sounds absolutely perfect and is an answer to my prayers!

See you at the travel blog!!! http://jbarjoshua.blogspot.com/

The first and last word...

"You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You..."
Isaiah 26:3

A good theme for a day with more twists and turns in our journey to bring home Joshua. It seems that every time we think we have overcome the last obstacle, we get a bit of rest before encountering yet another one. With only 6 days until we are supposed to be meeting our son, this morning it was easy to wake up thinking it would be smooth sailing from here on out. However, this drama is not over yet. I guess if we ever decide to turn our childrens' stories into a book, we will have the necessary conflict and tension to make the ending more exciting. Although my daughter thinks the number of obstacles along the way would seem unrealistic to a book editor.

This morning, instead of finding our itinerary in our email, we received a phone call from our agency. Apparently, our province has now decided they are closed for adoption appointments in an effort to prevent the spread of swine flu. However, we were told our agency reps in China were able to arrange a compromise. We can come get him, but we have to agree to spend a week in Beijing before coming to the province. Instead of receiving him on the 22nd, we would meet him on the 29th. They would then expedite his passport application so that we could leave the province on the 2nd to rejoin our group in Guangzhou and make it to our consulate appointment. Not an ideal plan. We already have plane tickets to Hong Kong. Our agency is looking into whether we fly to Beijing upon our arrival or try to change our plane tickets. Just for fun, you might want to get a China map and find our arrival city (Hong Kong), then trace your way to Beijing, over to Urumqi and back to Guangzhou. We aren't sure what the time in Beijing would look like (might look a lot like the inside of a hotel room...)

We are trusting God has a plan and purpose and are praying that perhaps while we are sleeping tonight, someone at the civil affairs office of our province will have mercy. If this must be the plan, we are willing to do what is necessary to bring our son home and believing perhaps God has more going on than we can see or predict. The province could have decided not to allow us to come at all. Others have been told they cannot come. There are many opportunities for fear and doubt. There was a song sung at church on Sunday that I loved. I couldn't remember how it went, but remembered one line "The first and last word will always be His." Today, my daughter started playing it at the piano and my other daughter started singing (apparently someone had given them the music). I found the title on their music and then looked up this you tube video that includes the lyrics. It is a great song.

A Sweet Day

There have been some difficult days in this adoption process, days of frustration, days of tears, days when I read scripture after scripture to keep myself centered. Yesterday, was a sweet day. Several times yesterday, my son Mark said, ONLY SIX DAYS UNTIL WE LEAVE! After years of waiting, it is a bit surreal.

We are so blessed to be surrounded by supportive family and friends. This little boy has so many people that have prayed for him and taken an interest in his story. Yesterday morning, our church family truly bathed us in prayer as we prepare to make the journey to China to bring him home. It was a special time. More tears from our family, but this time they are tears of joy. As people prayed that we would have no issues with travel restrictions or swine flu, two different people told us they had this vision of God parting the sea so we could walk on dry ground. What a comfort that is to us.

We are also blown away, once again, by God's providence. As we began this adoption, we believed and trusted that somehow, He would provide the funds for it to be completed. We couldn't see how it would happen. If felt like a huge leap of faith into what appeared to be thin air. But we are reminded again that our Father does own the cattle on a thousand hills. He sold a few more yesterday! People have been so generous in learning of the extra days we will be required to stay in China. I had one friend email me and say she thought it sounded silly, like a drop in the bucket, but she felt like God had told her to give us $30. That drop in the bucket was the beginning of a downpour. At church yesterday, we were told the church was making a very generous donation to help us with our added expenses. People stuffed checks in my husband's pocket. The love we have been shown and the care for a boy no one has met except through pictures is an amazing love.

In the afternoon, we spent time together as a family celebrating Anna's birthday (she will turn 5 while we are in China). She wanted to go to the zoo. It was such a relaxing and precious afternoon together, exactly what our family needed as we prepare for a busy week, long separation and big changes. To top all of that off, my husband strangely received a text message from work while we were at the zoo. It appeared to have originated in a processing center. It informed him of some sort of stock option that was being exercised. It was something related to the company he previously worked for that was acquired by the current company. The bottom line of the message is that on June 30, while we are in China, there will be a deposit made to our checking account. It appears this will be enough to ensure we complete this adoption debt free! Our gracious, heavenly Father really does own the cattle on a thousand hills. We are so thankful he sold a few more on our behalf yesterday, six days before we leave for China!

Below is a video my husband posted last night. He put this video (slide presentation) together a couple of months ago.

Anna and Joshua Story video

My husband, Pete, added this video. A couple of months ago, I was asked to share our story at a women's event. Pete prepared this video to go along with the presentation.

Timing, Praise and Prayer Requests

We have waited so long and our desire was to travel to bring our son home a long time ago. However, we know everything will happen in God's perfect timing. We learned today, that the lovely woman who spent time at camp with Li Meng last summer will be in the province at the same time we are there as she and the team prepare for more summer camps. We think we will be able to meet her there. This will be special for us and for our new son to see her again. She is a Christian woman from Australia. She is an occupational therapist and speaks Mandarin. We never could have arranged this ourselves. We were not too excited to learn we must stay in China for 18 days, but are trusting that God has a plan for those extra days.

He has given us many reasons to be thankful. We are thankful for all of the miraculous things that have happened to make this adoption possible. We are thankful for His providence. We are thankful for the many people that have come along side us in this journey to support, encourage, help and pray. There are people caring for our kids and animals, people driving us to the airport and loaning us DVD players, laptops and books on adoption. There are people making sure Anna enjoys her 5th birthday in our absence (her three week celebration will begin tomorrow with a family trip to the zoo and her favorite dinner) and making sure our children do not miss the traditional 4th of July parade. We are so very thankful for the many prayers and words of encouragement.

Here is a partial list of our adoption and trip related prayer requests.

*That Joshua will be prepared for many changes that will occur in his life in a short time. We are preparing for 18 days in a foreign land, but he is preparing for the rest of his life. We are preparing to add one person to our family. He is preparing to add 7, plus plenty of extended family and friends.

*That we would know how to help him understand that he is accepted and loved by us and by God.

*That Pete and I will be sensitive to the needs, concerns and fears of our other children and they would be patient, encouraging and sensitive to one another.

*That our family would be protected in every way in the many places we will be going. Pray especially that we would remain healthy. While at it, please pray for all passengers on our flight to Hong Kong as China has been quarantining anyone within 4 rows of a symptomatic person.

*Please pray for rest and our physical stamina. This will be a busy week preparing to leave. Saturday, we will leave home probably around 5 am. We will fly to San Francisco where we have a 5 hour layover before flying 14 hours to Hong Kong. We will land near evening and spend the night, then get up early in the morning for the 6 hour flight to Urumqi. We most likely will have only enough time to drop off our suitcases at the hotel before meeting our son! We will have several appointments and pictures that afternoon so that his passport application can begin processing. Pray especially for Mark to endure these long days.

*Please pray that I can prioritize tasks, keep track of details, use my time wisely, love on my kids and prepare them for various destinations all with a positive attitude, patiences and encouraging words.

Travel Dates!

Our appointments have been made and our plane tickets purchased! What a difference a day makes! Thank you all who prayed for this to happen. Once again, we are near the front of the line for new regulations. We will have to stay in Guangzhou for extra days to allow for new TB testing requirements. It sounds like there are four other families from our agency that will be there with us and a couple more that are able to leave earlier because they are not affected. Tomorrow I'll post details of our itinerary. What I do know is that we leave here Saturday morning, June 20th, land in Hong Kong on Sunday evening and fly to Urumqi on Monday morning. We will meet Li Meng that afternoon! We fly to Guangzhou on Friday or Saturday and get our US Visa on July 7 (Pete's birthday) and fly home on the 8th. We will be gone for Father's Day, Anna's Birthday, the Fourth of July and Pete's birthday -- but I'm sure we'll find many creative ways to celebrate.

The Call We've Been Waiting For...

Just when it felt like we couldn't take another minute of waiting -- we received the call we have been waiting for - our Travel Approval has arrived! Not 10 minutes earlier, my husband had sent an email to our agency to inquire about our status. When I saw the caller ID, I thought the call was in response to his request for a phone call. What a surprise to found out our TA was here. We are now waiting to hear if our agency will be able to secure the necessary appointments with Civil Affairs office in Xinjiang Province and the US Consulate in Guangzhou. If we can get those appointments, we will travel to China with the group leaving at the end of next week! Thank you for praying about this with us and praying us to this point. The prayer, support and encouragement we have received at every step of this journey has been such a blessing to us.

My Expectation

My soul, wait silently for God alone, For my expectation is from Him,. He only is my rock and my salvation; He is my defense; I shall not be moved. Psalm 62:5-6

A friend sent this scripture today.

Today, two other waiting moms from our agency and I had agreed to dedicate this day to pray and draw near to our Savior. I think we all struggled with this day and felt the weight of contending in prayer. I want desperately to trust in God alone for each step of this journey. The struggle is to rest in that when it feels like there should be something to do to make things happen.

It has been three years ago this month that Shi Ru Yi (Anna) and Li Meng (Joshua) were photographed together. I realized today that God has given me a special opportunity to have prayed for this child for nearly half of his life. While it is hard to wait patiently while this little boy is on the other side of the world, we know He is in God's care and that is the best place to be. We need to trust our Mighty God with our children. There may come a day that some of our children will be grown and living on the other side of the planet and we will need to trust Him in new ways.

Tonight, this song by Laura Story played on the radio while I was folding laundry. When I went to find it on youtube, I also found a clip of her story...it puts new light on the song and perspective on our waiting. The link for that story is below the video clip with these lyrics that are such a good reminder of the One in Whom we place our trust.
I was also reminded tonight of the meaning of the name Joshua - "Jehovah Saves"




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIpRTKwCpIQ

Prayer Requests

We have much to be thankful about and many reasons to praise God through this journey. It is hard to comprehend how the same God who created a universe more vast than I could ever understand is involved in the small details of our daily lives. Yet, we see His work all around us. We are so thankful that He worked the details together for us to learn about a little girl in China and then a little boy in China and to allow us to bring them into our family. We are amazed how He has provided for our needs for their adoptions. Every time we have had a need, it has been met. Just this week, our need for a laptop to bring on the trip that will allow us to communicate with our children and post updates on our trip was met through the help and generosity of friends. We recently received the gift of summer clothing for Li Meng, funds to purchase a mattress for his bed and funds for Mark's airline ticket. Through the generosity of friends and anonymous donors, my husband's employer's adoption assistance program and God's providence, it appears we will be able to complete this adoption debt free, or nearly so.
The recent package from Li Meng, sent through our wonderful translation/care package service, has been an added bonus. We can see that God, in His mercy and grace, has been watching over Li Meng. He is being well cared for. We are told he doesn't attend school yet, but is in a special class at the orphanage. It appears he is with other special needs children. We received the package from him at home two days ago. We were amazed to see his writing and math booklets. Clearly, someone has spent time working with him. His letter to us is evidence that the orphanage is preparing him to join our family. We are thanking God for His Providence and mercy in all of our lives.
We are praying for steadfast hearts as we wait out these remaining days until we can finally bring our son home. It has been 14 months since we found him listed for adoption and began this journey. Every time we think we are near the end of the journey, there is yet another obstacle to overcome.
Please join us in praying that Xinjiang Province will begin allowing adoption appointments. They are one of a very few provinces that are still closed to adoption due to swine flu. Please pray that our Travel Approval will be issued soon so that we can travel as soon as the province allows. There have been at least two batches of TAs that have arrived at our agency since we received our acceptance letter, yet ours has not been included.
Please pray that we might be able to travel before July when new medical screening procedures for TB begin that could potentially delay our return home.
Please pray that our family will stay healthy - especially Mark, Pete and I. There are still quarantine procedures in effect in China for anyone with a fever or signs of illness.
There will be more things to pray about when we actually prepare for travel and we will post those here. It is possible, that we will travel with very short notice if there is a travel group preparing to leave at the time our TA comes and we can schedule the necessary appointments. We are trusting God to work out those details and thank you for your prayers.

A Letter from Li Meng

Shortly after my post this morning, I received an email from Angela at Lady Bugs N Luv. She had just received a package from the orphanage. The package contained a letter from Li Meng, some paper "handcrafts" for our children and some of his homework. She sent us a picture of the package and translation of the letter. The package is on its way to us. What a huge blessing on a day we were all feeling a bit down after not hearing word of our travel approval this week. Enjoy this sweet letter. It is a blessing to know his care takers are helping him to understand and prepare for this transition. We know it will still be stressful and difficult for him, but we are thankful God has surrounded him with caring people and has given us an opportunity to have some communication with him. p.s. The picture I posted this morning is a picture of him signing the letter that was in the package. That picture had been emailed from the orphanage a couple weeks ago.
-----
Dear dad and mom,

Hello to everyone! I am Li Meng. I was very excited to receive gifts from dad, mom, brothers and sisters. I really love all the stuff. I am doing very well now. I am healthy. I study every day. I learn Chinese (learn the characters), calculating, art and crafts, etc. I have also learned some simple English words. But I can’t speak them well. But my nanny told me: Don’t worry. Soon I will be able to talk after I live with you. I will definitely study English hard!

I have seen my family picture, I hope to see you soon also. I want to send my home work to you, and give it to you as a gift. My homework and pictures I painted for dad and mom; handcraft work “dustpan” for big sister, so she can help mom clean; “little basket” for my little sister, so she can put her favorite things in it; “precious tower” for my big brother, Chinese tower looks just like this; I give “little boat” to my second big brother, he can take the boat and come pick me up; I give “piano” to my little sister, I hope she can play a beautiful music. Dad, mom, brothers and sister, will you like the gifts I made for you?

My nanny wrote this letter for me. I will write letters to you when I am older.

Love you,

Li Meng

(note from Angela - He signed himself “love you, Li Meng”.)

There seems to have been some translation issue with which sister gets the piano and which one the dust pan...but I have some ideas of which should go where :)

Just feeling like putting up another photo of our little guy. We were told he had written back to us after receiving our care packages and letters, but we haven't received anything yet. Last weekend, I was feeling very at peace in the wait. This week has been harder. I had really thought we would be getting our TA and travel dates sometime this week. Nothing has come for us yet (even though I've seen some things for other agencies the past two days), our agency travel coordinator is on vacation and yesterday I learned there is another holiday in China closing their offices the remainder of the week -- so unless something straggles in today, it is unlikely we would hear anything until later next week.
If this process was the same as it was with Anna, we would have booked travel and left shortly after receiving our approval back on April 15. (And that approval would have arrive months earlier.) If the process was the same as it was for Hague families at the first of this year, we would have likely been leaving today with our agency's travel group. If things were the same as they were before swine flu, we would know for certain that when our TA arrives, we would have all of the appointments necessary to book travel and leave. I told my husband yesterday that it feels like running a long race and just when you have the finish line in sight -- they tell you it is being extended another mile, and maybe another one after that when you get there.

More training in trusting God. Trying to make the most of the wait.

Please pray for my friend

Through this adoption journey, I have made new friends who are on this journey at the same time. One of these dear women is in China with her husband this week. They left last Thursday. We have many things in common. They have been waiting to bring home a seven year old daughter. We have gone through all of the immigration challenges of the past year together. Our documents logged into China four days apart. They got through the next few hoops a bit ahead of us.
Sadly, they are not bringing this little girl home. The circumstances are difficult and painful. They are confused and grieving. It is a reminder that all of us must hold our plans loosely. When God calls us to walk in obedience, we may think we know the outcome, but it may be quite different than we imagined or would choose it to be. Following God in obedience results in His glory, not necessarily in our happiness or an easy life. Scripture is full of examples of people who walked in obedience and endured difficult and painful trials. Many of us have read missionary stories and been amazed at the hardships faced by those called by God. Even right now, I know two young families called to ministry in China that are enduring great hardships.
My children could tell you my favorite passage of the bible is Hebrews Chapter 11, "The Hall of Faith". It is an account of many that walked by faith and accomplished great things for God's glory, but most did not see the fruit of their obedience in their lifetime and many endured severe trials, torture and death. Sometimes, God is gracious and gives us glimpses of the fruit of our obedience, but we cannot expect that to always be the case. Sometimes we just have to trust He has a plan and purpose. Chapter 11 is followed by a verse I love - "Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us."
Please pray for Cheri and her family. If you would like to leave a message for them, you can leave a comment for them here.

Brothers!

They've had haircuts since this picture! Looks like the shirt fits!

This week, we had boys all over the place. My oldest son, James, went to Florida with my dad and my sister's family. That was a big treat for him. He has had great fun helping to chase down his younger cousins in water and other parks. We are so excited to have him come home today. Our seven year old son, Mark, spent the week in Central Oregon visiting some friends and staying with grandparents. He was feeling like he might miss out when he goes to China and his siblings get to stay with friends and grandparents, so this was a treat for him. We were also hoping to give him a break from his allergies, but it looks like he is also allergic to Juniper! He came home yesterday. While the boys were away, we spent time doing final preparations for the new brother to arrive. All three boys have quilts on their bunks (thanks to my mother), we picked up a new mattress (thanks to generous friends), have new shelves and lamps for each one (thanks to my husband) and my mother is working on curtains to cover the newly organized closet.

There are rumors that travel approval documents were sent from China late this week and will arrive on Tuesday. We have no way of knowing if ours is included or if our province is allowing appointments yet. Our agency has a travel group leaving at the end of the week. It seems unlikely we would be able to secure all of the necessary appointments even if our TA does get here. The next travel group is expected to leave June 11 or 18. That is only three or four weeks away and seems pretty likely. Assuming no further travel complications, we should have the other brother here soon - very soon!

On the radio yesterday, I heard a song that I also have on my i-pod. It is a good inspirational song during a half-marathon and seems very fitting right now -- see bottom for "There's a Light at the End of This Tunnel".

Last night and this morning, I felt drawn to John chapter 15. There is much to chew on in the whole passage. It is hard to select just a few verses. 15:4-5 (words of Jesus) "Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing." It reminds me again of why and how we do what we do and to be certain not to put the mission before the Master. I know that God has a plan for us and for our son and He will bring it to pass in His time.

(This song is especially for you Ginny..."keep holding on")

Be Still and Know

This afternoon, I thought a short run might help me improve my attitude a bit. I spent a good part of the day doing what I later decided were "nesting" activities all the while knowing I could be nesting for quite some time. We have been eagerly awaiting our travel approval (TA) and rejoicing with friends that are leaving to bring their children home. We had held out hope perhaps it would arrive in time to travel with this group. Today, we learned from someone with another agency that our province is not scheduling adoption appointments due to the flu. Even if our TA comes arrives, we cannot travel if our province is not scheduling appointments. I'm not really sure what these provinces are waiting for - I hope it is not for a vaccine to be developed because that could take several months. We're trying not to lose heart when we are so close. When I left to run, I debated whether to bring the ipod or listen to the birds along the road. I opted for ipod thinking music might help me get my mind off of the frustrations of waiting. There are 170 songs on my ipod -- and what song should play first? "When Love Takes You In" (See bottom for "Li Meng's Song") For 2 1/2 years, every time I hear that song, I would think of this little boy in China. When that song ended, the song - "Be Still and Know" came on. I keep my ipod on shuffle and was surprised by another SCC song and thought I had changed it accidentally - it was still on shuffle. Perhaps God thought I needed a reminder.


Be still and know that He is God
Be still and know that He is holy
Be still, O restless soul of mine
Bow before the Prince of peace
Let the noise and clamor cease
Be still

Be still and know that He is God
Be still and know that He is faithful
Consider all that he has done
Stand in awe and be amazed
And know that He will never change
Be still

Be still and know that he is God
Be still and know he is our Father
Come rest your head upon his breast
Listen to the rhythm of his
unfailing heart of love
Beating for His little ones
Calling each of us to come
Be still, Be still

For My Waiting Friends and Their Children

From Isaiah 43
Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you...Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your descendants from the East, and gather you from the West; I will say to the North, 'Give them up!' and to the South, 'Do not keep them back!' Bring my sons from afar, and my daughters from the ends of the earth -- everyone who is called by My name, whom I have created for my glory...Thus says the LORD, who makes a way through the sea and a path through the mighty waters...Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert...

From Hebrews 11
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony...but without faith, it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him...

From Romans 4
For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness...Abraham, who is the father of us all...in the presence of Him whom he believed-God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations...he did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.

From Psalm 27
The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid. One thing I have desired of the LORD, that will I seek; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD...He shall set me high upon a rock...lead me in a smooth path.. When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take care of me...I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait on the LORD; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!

Calling All Prayer Warriors!

We have overcome many hurdles and collected a three inch thick binder of paperwork. We are so close to bringing our son home. We are currently waiting our Travel Approval (TA) document from China with permission to travel. We have our Visas and are approved for the adoption. Everything is in order with US Immigration. We didn't receive our TA with the others from our agency that received their acceptance letters on April 15 because our paperwork was still working its way through US Immigration. We are hoping our TA will be issued soon.

However, things are very unsettled in China as a result of the flu. There have been many rumors over the past couple of weeks. Today, our agency told the current travel group that their travel is delayed until they can confirm appointments with the civil affairs offices in each province. These appointments are not usually an issue. Several adopting parents have reported their agencies have been unable to get these appointments due to concerns over the flu. There were also reports today that China is suspending matches and referrals for families waiting to be matched to a child. No word on if they are suspending TAs for families already approved.

We are trusting that God has not brought us this far to close the door now. We would appreciate your prayers that this flu would be managed well and not cause unnecessary delays in uniting children with their families. The current travel group for our agency is scheduled to leave on May 28. If our TA comes before that time, we hope to travel with them.

Today I received an email note from the orphanage. I have emailed pictures of Anna to them over the past three years. They thanked me for the last set of pictures and thanked us for adopting Li Meng. I had wondered if they had told him about us prior to receiving our first care package a couple weeks ago. I had been cautious about corresponding about him this past year because of immigration rules, so I hadn't asked and language is a bit of a barrier. Our agency did not allow us to send things to Li Meng until we had our acceptance letter on April 15. The email today said they had received the package and it had made him very happy. They also said they had showed him pictures of our family and told him about us before that. They also said, "he is very enjoy to join your family,and he is waiting." I wonder how long he has been waiting for us.

In the email, they also said they hoped we would bring Anna and that they and the foster family miss her. We do not plan to bring Anna. We think it will be too difficult for her. I also think it would be hard for them too since she doesn't remember much about China or any Chinese and I'm not sure how she would react. We do hope to bring her and Joshua for a visit when they are older. I'm not sure how to respond to this. I need to pray about it.