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.