Love Heals Your Heart

One of the things I've been doing while waiting for Joshua to come home has been running. I run because I know that it is good for me and I think God is using it to teach me many things, not the least of which is endurance. There isn't much that I enjoy about the actual running part since it is usually painful and inconvenient. What I enjoy most is sharing it with my husband and sister and that I can listen to my ipod shuffle - a wonderful gift from my sister! The music I have loaded is very encouraging and inspirational. Some of the songs in particular will remind me to pray for Joshua. The song linked above is one of them - Love Heals Your Heart. We feel very called and confirmed that he belongs in our family. We hope that he will be happy and blessed to join our family. We know that even if he is happy and excited, he will still have hurts to heal in his heart. This song is an encouragement to me when I listen to it. It makes me think of times in my life that my heart was so broken, I didn't think it could be fixed again and thankful that even broken hearts can heal. It reminds me to pray for God to pour His grace on Joshua, to ask for Him to enable us to pour our love into him and for our love and God's love to heal his sweet, little heart. For those of you, who like me check email after others are sleeping and prefer to avoid audio - I'll paste in the lyrics below...

-----
Did you think you were immune to this
Did you think you could escape without infection
You do all you're able to resist
Just to avoid the danger of rejection

Memory warns you of the past
When it all went wrong

When you think your life is shattered
And there's no way to be fixed again
Love heals your heart
At a time you least expected
You're alive like you have never been
Love heals your heart

Everybody has a wall to climb
That was built to guard the pain that holds them captive
Every smile that they would hide behind
Will try to mask the hurt beneath the surface

Sometimes it's hard to understand
How we're trapped inside

When you think your life is shattered
And there's no way to be fixed again
Love heals your heart
At a time you least expected
You're alive like you have never been
Love heals your heart
---

Okay - while I'm at it - another favorite Ipod song - an older song, but a goodie..
by Avalon - Testify to Love - This one can put me in danger of inadvertently smacking another runner, falling off of a treadmill or at least embarassing myself...



Mmmmm - one more....since I probably won't be buying any CDs in the near future and I didn't get it for my birthday - I splurged on the 99cent download from itunes to get this song onto my ipod tonight...you may recognize it from a previous post... great song!

Other Happenings...

Just thought I would take a minute to post about a couple fun things from last weekend. Sarah and I went to Seattle with friends to our first Speech Tournament. Rachel took her turn staying home to help with little people. Sarah completed in two categories - Original Oratory and Duo Interpretation (along with her Duo partner - Macaela). Her original oratory speech was about William Wilberforce. The Duo Interpretation is a dramatic interpretation from a piece of literature done with a partner. They have to coordinate their delivery of the lines from the piece, cannot make eye contact with one another and cannot touch each other. They can add sound effects and dramatic movements. Their piece was from a book called Soup and Me. It was very funny. They made it to the final round, qualified for the Regional Speech tournament and took 2nd place overall in that event. Finally an outlet for all of the drama in our home! I was able to watch them in the first preliminary round and the final round. The rest of the time I was off judging other categories. Most events had a panel of three different judges for each of three rounds. My head was swimming by the end of the tournament!! The girls had a great time. Macaela also did an original oratory piece and her sister, Shelby, did a Persuasive speech. All three girls made it to finals with their oratory/persuasive speeches as well and qualified for Regionals. (Shelby got 2nd place!) Macaela and Shelby's dad will chaperone all three girls at the regional tournament in Colorado Springs this April and has made arrangements for them to stay there with a friend. Sarah is especially thankful for a regular babysitting job that will enable her to pay for her plane ticket. While Rachel was home helping Dad, she was able to participate in her first Tae Kwon Do tournament and came home with two 2nd place medals. She had a great time and is looking forward to her opportunity to participate in a speech tournament next season.

What's In A Name

Naming our children has always been challenging for us. I feel such pressure to pick just the right name, even though I know that no matter what we pick, once we start calling the child by name, we won't be able to imagine ever naming them something else. We deliberated over each child's name for a long time. Rachel means "a lamb" and is from the Old Testament. It was Pete's Grandmother's middle name. Rachel's middle name is the same as my sister's - Lynn. Sarah's name means "princess" and is also from the Old Testament. We knew two young ladies whose birthdays were near Sarah's due date (which had been Christmas) and both teased us we should name her after them - so we did - Sarah Nicole. James means "successor" and was a New Testament Book of the bible. I had trouble sleeping one night late in my pregnancy and was praying for a family in distress as I was reading the book of James. The next day we all agreed on the name James. James, and the rest of the kids, have now memorized the first chapter of James. James always starts the recitation with "James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ..." I love that. His middle name is "David" - Pete's father's first name. We didn't think my father's first name, Dean, left the image with James we were intending. Mark's name means "mighty warrior". Some of you that know him are probably smiling right now... It is also a New Testament book of the bible. His middle name is "Dean" and it is perfect. "Mark Dean Aldrich" flows off of the tongue quite quickly when needed! Anna means "graceful". We had seriously considered the name "Grace" before coming to Anna. In the New Testament book of Luke, Anna was the old woman who spent her days at the temple where Mary and Joseph brought baby Jesus and recognized baby Jesus for who He was. Our Anna loved hearing her name in the Christmas story this year. Her middle name "Mei" means beautiful in Chinese. Our first exchange student from China was named Mei Ling. My mother-in-laws middle name is "Mae". My middle name (and my mother and grandmother's) is Ann. We did not keep any of her Chinese name - even though it is a fun name. RuYi is a greeting on Chinese New Year that means "everything go well with you." We have joked that she thought it meant "everything will always go your way!" So, we come to our new son. We previously posted about our decision to name him Joshua. Joshua means "Jehovah Saves" and is a book in the Old Testament. It wasn't until the day after we decided on "Joshua" that we realized we all had a pendant with this verse on the back - Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified,do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." We just ordered that pendant for our Joshua (and a couple extra since some of us tend to misplace ours...." We are still praying about the middle name. We had considered keeping his Chinese name. The character for his given name has several meanings when I have researched it. Most of them are not meanings we would want. The most likely meaning is from the name for the country Mongolia. We are told it is a common name. One concern with keeping his given name is that it would never be pronounced or spelled correctly. Meng is actually pronounced "Mung". We are praying about either finding a Chinese name that has special significance or using a family name that we really like. We're leaning toward the latter. Hopefully we'll be ready to post it when we get our letter of acceptance and can post our pictures! Your prayers for him to like his new name and understand its significance would be appreciated. We are hoping to get our letter of acceptance by the beginning of April. Yesterday, we heard of a family that logged in their paper work exactly a month ahead of us that received their letter of acceptance. We know God's timing will be perfect and we have much to do while we wait!

Selling Cattle

We saw a speaker not too long ago who was giving the testimony of their family's adoption story. Like many people, theirs was a story of being led on an adoption journey that might have seemed a bit crazy and for which they lacked finances to complete. As they stepped out in faith, they believed God who "owns the cattle on a thousand hills" could sell a few to help provide for their needs. As they watched the funds come in for their adoption, they would say things like, "God sold a few cows today." Last night, I received an email from a family that returned from China a couple of weeks ago. They are with the same adoption agency and adopted a seven year old with a similar condition to Anna and Joshua. As we spoke with them while they were waiting to go, they had told us a bit of their story and situation. As they were preparing to travel, they were facing loss of employment and a move out of state upon their return from China. In her note last night, she joyfully reported that upon reaching their new home, the first phone call they received was a phone call informing them a donor was giving them $25,000. In her note last night she said, "So, while we'd prayed that the Lord would sell one of His 'cattle on a thousand hills' on our behalf, He sold an entire herd!!!" I replied and told her that my husband had been quoting that verse yesterday too! We were so surprised and blessed a couple of days ago when we received a check in the mail for year-end gifts made through the adoption fund at church. We had known of some of the gifts this year, but there had been a very large anonymous gift as well. We are so happy to report that God has sold some cattle on behalf of Joshua and our family too! We have been trusting Him all along to provide what we will need to complete this adoption. Up until this point, it has often been provided at just the last moment before a fee needed to be paid. However, now with the largest portion of the funds due when we receive the approval from China in the next couple of months, it appears we will be able to complete this adoption without debt. Thank you Lord! There are more details about how all of the finances have worked on the "Help Bring Him Home" link. That link includes details of the expenses of this adoption. (See 2008 entries.) For those considering adoption, the cost can seem overwhelming. It seemed impossible to us with both of our adoptions. For those considering adoption, but hesitant because of the costs, please be encouraged. If your family is called to this journey, God will be faithful to meet your needs. We have seen it happen over and over for many families. James 1:27 says, "Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble and to keep oneself unspotted from the world." There are many ways to meet the needs of orphans even if you aren't called to adopt. We are so thankful to those of you that have prayed for our family, encouraged us and helped provide funds to bring him home. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Cute Little Camper

We have been asked to wait to post our referral pictures until we have received our LOA from China - the final approval from China. We are waiting for that now and expect it some time in the next 2-4 months. In the mean time, I received permission to post a picture that appeared in a newsletter reporting on summer camps in Xinjiang last summer. We immediately recognized the sweet little face with the camp volunteer and were so excited. Having this picture appear in the newsletter was another one of those little miracles along the way. We have also learned that this woman is currently a full time volunteer with the Christian organization that ran the camp, has learned Mandarin in order to communicate with the children and is an occupational therapist. We never could have arrange such a qualified visitor to report back to us. Another miracle. Enjoy the picture.

Our Winter Wonderland

Skiing at J-J Ranch

What's Wrong with this Picture --that would be a tree limb...
That would be the offending tree...
Board Games by Candlelight
Watching the snow fall...and fall...and fall...

My husband and kids have wished for a white Christmas every year. They have always thought I was a bit of a scrooge for saying that a white Christmas would really actually be inconvenient and make everything more difficult. I could say that I was right since two weeks of winter storms canceled every Christmas party and program we had planned, we lost power for three days and had a tree poke a hole through our ceiling...but I think I have to admit that despite all of the cancellations, changes and inconveniences, it was a Christmas season to remember. Being out of our routine allowed us more quiet moments to reflect on why we celebrate the birth of our Savior. Canceled programs and activities gave us extra time together as a family. We had a candlelight dinner for our elderly neighbors. We did things differently. We rescued a stranger in the snow and ended up hanging out at K-Mart with her until 10 p.m. on Christmas Eve. My kids spent hours working hard to shovel snow, deliver firewood to neighbors and drag fallen tree branches out of the yard. We learned that a four wheeler makes a good ski-tow and our driveway a nice ski slope. We learned to be thankful for electricity, heat (we don't have a woodstove...yet) and running water (our well doesn't pump water without electricity...) and were reminded that many people live without these comforts every day. I discovered that sorting socks by candlelight is almost like playing solitaire, but it is difficult to distinguish navy blue from black. We all learned that traditions are fun, but an expendable part of celebrating Christmas. Christmas is about remembering God's mercy and love in sending His son.

DTC!!!

DTC!!! For those not familiar with adoption acronyms - that stands for Dossier to China. That means we finally have all of our official documents completed, notarized, certified, authenticated and sent in a nice thick bundle to China. We have moved from waiting for a review and approval from the US Government to waiting for a complete review and final approval from China. We anticipate this step will take 3-4 months at which point we will receive an LOA - Letter of Acceptance and return an RA - Referral Acceptance to China. Once that is done, we will wait for our TA - Travel Approval to come from China, that takes 2-4 weeks on average. Our actual travel dates will then be determined based on when our agency gets CAs (consulate appointments) for our assigned travel group - probably 1-4 weeks later. Our agency sent our dossier to China on December 23rd which was a wonderful Christmas gift to us. There was a great deal of effort by many people to make that happen. A USCIS officer finally took pity on our long wait and helped us get our approval processed quickly once she had reviewed it. Our social worker stayed up late one night to make changes to our home study and got it out on a fed-ex priority mailing the next day. USCIS sent it back to us priority fed-ex, but it was scheduled to arrive the day of the first winter storm. We didn't find out until it had already been sent that priority delivery in our area is not until the end of the following day. Fed-ex was able to mark our package to be held at their local office and miraculously was able to catch it for us before it got on the truck for the day. We intercepted it when the office opened, drove through the snow to Salem to have it notarized and certified at the Secretary of State and sent it fed-ex to a courier in San Francisco. She had to make two attempts to hand deliver it to the Chinese consulate, but retrieved it Monday and sent it fed-ex to our agency in Virginia. It was supposed to be delivered by 10:30 am, but was delayed four hours due to weather. Despite the delay, our agency China coordinator managed to put it together with the other dossier pieces we had sent the previous week and get it out the door on its way to China before she left that day and the office closed for the rest of the week! It has taken much time and effort. We are very thankful to have our documents on their way!