Waiting can be fun!

While we wait for travel approval here are some fun things we have been doing. Our article 5 paperwork was picked up and sent to CCAA in Beijing on March 25th so only one more A (TA) to go. We celebrated Joshua's birthday a month early since we were afraid we would be in China for his actual day. We still may be or at least really close to traveling and he didn't seem to mind celebrating early. Now he can have several little parties and just enjoy HIS day to the fullest. I'm sure my parents will celebrate with him on his actual birthday if we are gone and we'll have another little party for him with just us when we get back so that Joy can join us. He has come so far in 2 years developmentally and I'm so proud of him for how hard he works on his speech. No one should have to endure what he has in terms of surgeries and just plain old work when it comes to speech but it has created a certain amount of perseverance in him and me. Here's a video of him when he was playing with his Star Wars plates getting ready for everyone to get there. It was so cute that he was SO excited over plates and napkins! Then some of the party and of everyone helping make the cake. Pause the songs at the bottom of the blog before hitting play on the video.



Anaken Skywalker and Rex (Star Wars) making the cake!


Is it done yet?


It's always fun in a family of 4 kids taking turns decorating the cake!


Joshua was so pleased with himself that he blew out his own candles... that is not a small task when it has taken 3 surgeries and countless hours of speech therapy at home and away from home to conquer such a task.


We also were finally able to get together with a family that lives in Alabama that adopted a little girl from Hope Haven (the orpanage Joshua was at in China). It was so fun to get to know them in person instead of emails. There kids are so precious. We are glad they only live a few hours away and hope our kids can stay in touch. It's such a small world that we are actually using the same agency, Madison Adoption Associates, that they did for their adoption. When you adopt the world definitely gets smaller and smaller. God knew these two precious children who lived the first two years of their lives together would grow up in forever families only a few hours from one another. We are thankful to have them close although it took them all afternoon to warm up to each other. It's so much for 4 year olds to process. Here are some photos from our day.

Our sweet friend and her wonderful mama!


They all had lots of fun on this playground... it was such beautiful weather.




And here's one that I promised 3 silly monkeys of mine that I would post. They were waiting there, hiding from me, all of them under the covers. They were really hard to see or hear... ha, ha!

Great poem I found!

Every call has a beginning
A quiet moment when God
whispers a promise to a mother’s heart
A holy place where a father bows and faithfully accepts
the journey set before him.
A miraculous morning that unexpectedly dawns…
Casting its first light on a chosen threshold.
A gentle knock..a closed door opens.
A sacred invitation sent by the Father..
Leads to the other side of the world.
Where lonely hearts stare out orphanage windows
Praying for someone to care..
And then one morning,
On an ordinary day
An orphan’s life changes...
God sends them a second chance...Through you..

--author unknown

Do you ever feel like life is just one trial right after another?

If you already feel down today don't read this post.

It started with Faith in the ER last Sunday with severe abdominal pain. Although we are hopeful and at this point think that the pain and the fever were just some weird coincidence it just didn't start the week off well. Then as we were in the ER thinking about having an appendix removed I started thinking about Joshua and Joy's birth parents and the relinquishment decisions they have made. What if I was sitting in the hospital or our home or wherever and my choices were give my child a chance at life by relinquishing my rights to parent her or allow her to die? Like I said our situation turned out well but others' in the world don't. Even if she would have had to receive medical care and immediate surgery we would have found a way to pay for it. Others in the world can't. And some of those people are now my extended family through adoption of children we share.

Then on Friday some of our friends had the worst thing on this earth happen to them. Their 2 month old baby went to heaven. He had been born early, spent about 2 weeks in the hospital, and had been home and was doing fine. How does one put ones mind around the goodness and love of God and the death of ones child? All week long of course I have been grieving and praying and loving this family.

Then yesterday I am sitting in the parking lot of the health department waiting for Grace and Faith's typhoid shot appointment. Their last shot for traveling to China with us and our agency calls. After a week of feeling just uncertain of whether of not the U.S. Consulate had the paperwork it was supposed to have. That I attribute to the Holy Spirit and the fact that our agency couldn't tell us exactly what date it had been taken there but were trying to find out from the person that handles that in Guangzhou. Our agency though had assured us that it was taken last week, just unsure of whether it was Monday or Thursday. They feel bad of course and had every right to assume it was taken when it arrived. That is what our agency had told them to do. Now we are trying to put that miscommunication behind us and per an email I put into the Consulate our paperwork is now there, March 11th. It is frustrating and disheartening that it could have been there on March 1st. But there again we know that our steps are ordered by the Lord. He could have gotten our paperwork there last week but He didn't.... And yes it is hard to process but all along I have prayed that He and He alone would order our steps as to the timing of our trip to Joy MenQian becoming our daughter. I pray she is being well cared for and yet I read horror stories about what orphans have to endure around the world. Those stories for her will I'm sure be told as the years progress. I'm just hoping that waiting two extra weeks......... Lord please care for her and help us to just live life well and faithfully until we get to meet her.

A friend I was venting to sent me this verse to claim for Joy MenQian......
Psalm 139:11-12

Even there Your hand will guide me, Your hand will hold me fast. If I say, Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me, Even the darkness will not be dark to You; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to You.

Another verse that is comforting is....

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.
Proverbs 3:5,6

I asked God this morning to allow us to see those straight paths from this paperwork error and am hopeful He will one day soon. His purposes have prevailed in our lives thus far and I know and trust that they will continue to in this adoption journey as well. So now we continue to live and wait... just a little longer. It is looking like the end of April instead of beginning. The pros are that our school year will be even closer to over and there were some things pertaining to school that Grace and Faith were going to miss in the middle of April that now they will be able to be a part of.

So the purpose of this post was for my own sanity and my own working through the mysteries of God and His ways. I can tell you this that the "peace of God that surpasses all understanding" (Phil. 4:7) is what carries us and those around us through the darkest of valleys on this earth. It makes us look forward to eternal life in heaven all the more.

Getting Closer and Getting Ready

We received our much awaited approval letter from the National Visa Center on February 24. It was pretty anti-climatic, a plain piece of paper, no letterhead or anything saying our approval had been cabled to the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou on February 20. Exactly why they can't just email that to us and save us a week of waiting I may never know. The Consulate in Guangzhou won't start processing our approval from them until they have that particular paper even though something similar has been cabled to them already. It's a little frustrating can you tell?! Anyway, we are glad to be done with that part. Now we know that sometime the week of March 15th we will get an Article 5 approval and ABOUT 2 weeks after that we should receive our Travel Approval. Then it's time to pack!!! So, we are thinking the beginning to middle of April should be a reality.

Grace and Faith are getting their last shot on Wednesday. They had two Hep A shots and now they'll get a typhoid shot. They'll be relieved when that is done. Isaac says he's glad to stay with Nana and Papa so he doesn't have to get shots. The boys seem to be excited for now that they get to stay with grandparents. Let's hope it stays that way although I know they are in good hands and will have a fun time. Clayton is working some extra carpentry jobs to try to pull in some extra funds for the trip. We thought we had our deductible for Joy Menqian saved so that at least we'd have something to pay for her immediate medical bills without being behind her first visit to the cardiologist but God knew we'd need that to pay for an ER visit for Faith. We thought she had an appendicitis but they ruled that out and for now she is doing great. We are praying that if something is going on with her stomach it will show up again and we'll go see a gastrointestinal doctor. She seems to be doing well after an x-ray, blood work, and good ole enema. The high fever seems to have been a virus that her body must have been fighting off and seperate from the stomach pain. Regardless, we are grateful!

We also finished redoing our camper to include 5 bunk beds instead of 4. We were both a little hesitant but it looks great and worked out very well. We are going to go camping toward the end of March. It's funny that when we adopted Joshua we received our Travel Approval and dates when we were camping and it is likely it'll be the same. We also left for China on April 9, 2008 and we could very well be on a plane that day in 2010. Who would have thought? You just never know what excitement lies around the corner. We are also going to celebrate Joshie's birthday at the end of March since his birthday is April 20. He is so excited and doesn't mind at all celebrating early!

That is our update... maybe the next post will include some travel plans! Thanks for praying with us and for Joy Menqian. For God's perfect timing and for Him to prepare our hearts for her and hers for ours!

Xin nian kuai le.... Happy New Year!

Not much news on the adoption front just waiting on the next hoop to jump through. It still looks like end of March/ beginning of April to travel. Here are some fun pictures of us and some of our neighbors when we had lots of snow (for Georgia). The kids had a really fun time, except for Joshua who thought it was too cold and enjoyed watching from the windows. The great news with him though is that since his last pharyngioplasty modification his speech is just taking off. We still have a ways to go but when I think about the fact that he's only had about 2 months of functional anatomy for speech I can't believe how far he's come.

We also had a wonderful time at the CNY celebration in Atlanta with some friends of ours. The kids that aren't ours in the picture belong to some friends of ours that will probably travel to China to adopt their 3rd child about the same time we adopt Joy MenQian. They have become dear friends of ours over the past year and I love it when our kids are able to get together. We live about 20 minutes apart and she has been a great support to me during this adoption process. We are blessed with wonderful family and friends that God has provided and continues to provide.

I am trying to learn some Mandarin and am making a small amount of progress. I recently met a wonderful college student named Yi that is teaching me a lot and is so sweet to our kids. We had gotten them the traditional red envelopes with money for the Chinese New Year and she also got them each one with candy which was so nice. They all at least know how to say thank you in Mandarin.

Grace has been working on making food and information on China for an International Food Day at school. I'll have to post some of those photos soon (if I remember to bring my camera.) She is also going to include a pamphlet from our adoption agency on how to get more information on adoption of children waiting for families in China. It's so amazing to see our kids' hearts for adoption.

Hopefully soon I'll be able to post some traveling times and updates!

Made My Day!!

After sending Joy a Chinese New Year package through Ann at Red Thread we received these photos (11 photos altogether). We are told that Joy Menqian enjoys dancing and that's obvious from her pictures. I think that just like the other children in her family she's not lacking in the personality department. I'm sure that ballet lessons are on the agenda when we get home. We are still thinking that we'll travel hopefully toward the end of March/beginning of April. So exciting!

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!