LOLA arrived!

Grace once asked who LOLA was when she saw a yahoo group light up from lots of LOA's being issued. Well.... our turn is here and we are beyond excited, grateful, amazed,and on and on the list goes. We had bought Joy a Chinese New Year package through Red Thread this weekend but I had emailed Ann asking her not to send it yet. I was hoping to be able to say we had received our LOA in a letter to Joy, the orphanage staff, and her foster family. I have emailed Ann the letter now and am excited that Joy will get it soon. So.... it looks like the end of March(ish) is when we get to go to China! I just can't say enough about how timely this was. Waiting is torturous for sure!! God is faithful!

We also continue to be amazed at God's financial provisions for Joy's adoption. I recently took off our counter on the sidebar because we had received a matching grant from LifeSong for Orphans that helped tremendously with travel expenses. Then, this weekend we received notice that we got a substancial grant from Show Hope. We truely feel blessed beyond measure. If we have calculated travel expenses correctly we should have travel paid for by grants and generous donations. Our orphanage donation will be paid for by Clayton's employee adoption credit. We are saving like crazy for spending money and Joy's medical expenses once she is home. We hope that she will only need once or twice a year check-ups from the cardiologist but on that first visit home she will meet her deductible to say the least. For us that is one of the hardest parts of adopting or even birthing a child with medical needs. You have exhausted all financial means to bring them home then you take them to multiple doctors upon arriving and it is quite costly. Like I said we feel so blessed by friends, family, and those we don't even know. At this point we think that we will have travel costs covered and her deductible upon arriving home.

It will be nice to just focus on the culture shock, language barriers, and overall attachment process. We plan on helping as many Christian families as possible as soon as we recover and even now bring their children home. Nothing, especially money, should stand in the way of children having families of their own.

Again, thank you to everyone that has helped us get to this point in the process!!! We can't wait to be journaling from China about our experiences. Feeling super blessed by (almost) 5 terrific kiddos and a husband who's willing to do anything God tells us to!

Waiting, waiting, and more waiting.... Day 64 waiting for our LOA from China!

Well, it's obviously been 64 days since our dossier was logged into CCAA. We were hoping to be on the shorter end of waiting but we are getting close to about average. We just keep hoping for tomorrow, then the next, and now the hope is next week. It's like being a child waiting for Christmas. We are grateful for some more time to get prepared. We have Joy's room and things ready for her. God has provided many extra jobs for adoption expenses. Friends and family have been very generous and it has been so encouraging. My sister has given me TONS of clothes so I have lots of sizes to choose from though from recent pictures of Joy I'm sure I'll be using the small sizes for awhile. We are hoping to get our LOA before the beginning of February so that when we send her a Chinese New Year care package it can include an update on the process. Anyway, I know some of you out there have checked on us recently and wondered where we are in the process. We haven't fallen off the face of the blog world- we are just here WAITING! I do know this- God's timing is perfect, He has proven Himself faithful, and we fully trust that He is working and knows best. This time a year from now I will have forgotten how long a week can be! Meanwhile we try to learn as much Mandarin as our minds can handle and the girls practice what they are going to say to their sister the first time they see her. I know enough to know that I might as well not plan anything because Joy and I's emotions will be running so high it won't go as planned anyway. All the waiting in the world will be worth it on that day!

Here are some fun pictures of the snow we had in Georgia. The kids had a blast but were hoping for a little more. I'm just glad it has warmed up to "normal" Georgia winter temperatures again!