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.