Home

Yes we are home. 

I know that I kind of dropped off there.  But we are having a terrible time with jet lag.  Terrible.  I do not remember it ever being this bad.  However we never made that trip both ways with a 3 year old.  She is just not adjusting.  Right now it is 3am and she is up and ready for the day.  The only progress we have made in her adjustment is moving her up to getting up at 3 instead of 1am.  And those of you with bigger families know that the rest of the kids still need you, even though another child is draining you. 

So here Sydney and I sat.

Ashlyn is doing great.  I think she was back on MO time by Monday!  Freaky child.

Sarah is having a bit more trouble.  She cannot hardly stay awake all day still, which is Sydney's problem too.  We have tried everything to get Syd awake during the day, but about 2-3pm she just crashes.  We have tried everyting from taking a ride on the four wheeler to chasing butterflies to get her to stay awake.  But she just drifts in and out of sleep for about 6 hours during the day.  Grrrrrr.

Abbey is doing wonderful.  She is such a sweet girl with such a positive spirit.  She is not timid about joining in on what we are doing but is not overbearing either.  She does very well speaking to all the new people she meets.  I think this is her best area of English, just casual conversational polite phrases.  She is adjusting well to the time change also.  We took her shopping Tuesday to get her some shorts and I told her how many pair we were gonna buy her when we first got there.  She looked and looked with her brow deeply furrowed.  It was kind of sad because I know that she was thinking that none of this looks like what she is used to.  But she did come out with 5 pair to try on and we bought her two of them.  She is a size 1!  Little bitty thing!  But I was happy that she could fit in to the juniors sizes.  I was afraid she would have to go to the little girls section and not be able to find anything old enough for her. 

We have had several visitors, but nothing overwhelming.  We have two boys that are friends of the girls stop by and they chatted with Abbey alot.  She did very well with them.  They used the translator to communicate what they could not.  Ashlyn noticed that Abbey would put what she wanted to say into the translator and then let it translate it into English, then read it and say it herself.  I thought that was a very good thing.  She is a very smart girl. 

She gets up every morning and makes her bed, which I love teasing my other two teenagers about.  She helps with dishes when we all do them and yesterday just went in and started washing them on her own.  Nice. 

Today we have eye exams for Abbey and Sarah.  I don't remember if I mentioned it on here that we discovered in China that Abbey usually wears glasses but she left them at the orphanage for the other kids to use.  She has also complained of a headache several times, so we think that may be related.  Please pray for us at her exam at 1:00.  Sarah is due too, so we figured that if Sarah went first and Abbey watched that maybe it would help her understand what is going on.  Hopefully we can communicate well enough to get a good diagnosis on her eyes. 

Overall, it could not be going better.  I prepared for the worst, and it is not anything like that.  I know we are still in the early stages of this, but I am so relieved that she is doing so well.  God is so good to us.  There is no doubt that she was created to be here as my daughter.  Oh what wonderful plans he has for us.

Trust Him, friends.  He knows what He is doing.

More hotel pics

Pictures around our hotel

Last day in Guangzhou

Today is the last day here in Guangzhou!!  Can you hear the joyous laughter radiating from us!!  We have loved our time here but are soooooooo ready to head home.  We will spend today packing (it will take a while, trust me)  and gathering last minute items.  Our guide will bring us Abbey's passport and immigration papers at 4:00 this evening and then we are done!  We leave the hotel at 5:30am Saturday morning (4:30pm Friday in MO)  and we will land in St. Louis at 7:45pm Saturday night, which will put us arriving at our home about midnight Saturday.  It will be a 31 hour trip toal. ~sigh~ 

 

I asked Abbey if she is ready to go home and she said yes. I am not sure that she understands just how long it will take us to get there and all the switching and waiting involved.  I plan on getting the translator out this afternoon and trying to get her up to speed on the plan.  Her cold had gotten quite a bit better but then we started running low on meds and started giving her 1/2 doses to get her through.  Now she is starting to get the cough back again.  I guess we will be heading to WalMart on the way home.  ~heehee~

 

I don't think I mentioned that we met another familly here.  We shared a guide with them while here in GZ.  They were a good Christian family that we really enjoyed spending time with.  They left on Wednesday and we have missed them ever since.  I will post a pic of Preston and Stephanie and sweet Miranda today.

 

Posting pics has proven to be somewhat difficult so I plan on trying to post several bunches of them throughout the day today.

 

 

Long Days

Ashlyn is awesome!!!!!!

 

As we are waiting for final paperwork to process, we are utterly bored.  Yesterday it rained all day long, which put us hanging out in the room for much of the day.  We were able to rent a dvd player from the front desk which helped to pass the time.  But since Abbey cannot understand the English movies and we cannot understand the Chinese, it kind of made it difficult.  She spent alot of the day on QQ chatting with her friends.  That's ok though, because I believe that is good for her.  We want her to know that her past is welcome in our family.  She will not be expected to leave it all behind, instead we want to blend it into our life.

 

Today we go to the American Consulate for an oath swearing ceremony then they give us her immigration papers.  This is the sacred brown envelope that cannot be damaged or tampered with in any way.  We will guard it with our lives!  These papers allow her to become a US citizen when she physically enters America.  It will be a joyful time, but also a little sad to think that she will no longer be a Chinese citizen.  

 

Tomorrow we get her final required item, her Visa.  It should be issued at 4:00 then we are free to leave!  We will leave the hotel 5:30am Saturday morning to catch a 7:30 flight to Shainghai (sp?).  It is only a 2 hours flight and then our flight to Chicago doesn't leave until 4pm.  It will be a long day in the airport with Sydney and then a long 13 hour flight to Chicago.  Hopefully she will sleep through at least some of it.  

 

I will try to post pics later today.  We are headed out to meet our guide soon.  

 

We are almost outta here! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More Swim Pics

Abbey's First Swim

As we wait on the endless paperwork to be completed here in Guangzhou, we are learning all kinds of new things about our newest daughter.  For example, we have learned that Abbey has never gone swimming.  And since this hotel has an awesome pool, we just had to rectify this.  But  first, we had to convince her to get into a swimsuit.  This was no easy feat.  Finally we convinced her that she really could come out of the bathroom like this.  And with swimsuit, t-shirt, and shorts firmly in place, we headed to the pool.  We walked out onto the pool deck with her grinning and squeeking.  Not sure if she was delighted or terrified or a combination of both.  We spent about 30 minutes there before we managed to get our sweet girl into the water.  She really did like it, although she didn't let go of the edge for a second.  We are pretty sure that she concluded that her new family was nuts when Wayne, Ashlyn, and Sarah began dunking each other. 

 

When we asked today if she would like to go swimming again, we received a definate nooooooooo. 

 

HeeHee.

Park Pics

Boat Ride

Medical exam

When God promised us he would not leave us.  He meant it. 

 

We had Abbey's medical exam today.  She had to have her tb test read.  If it was determined positive, then we would have to have a chest xray which would not only be more money, but it would be questionable because of her cold/deep cough.  In the US the two xrays could be easily distinquished, but we are definately not in the US.  If the xray is not clear than we would have to change our departure date and we could be here for a while longer while we straighten it out.  We looked at it yesterday and even took pictures of it and sent it to other adoptive parents to get some comparisons.  It pretty much was red swollen and very sore.  She didn;t even want us to touch it.  We all just knew that it was positive.  I was not a bit worried about her actually having tb.  Anyone who has been vaccinated for it or been exposed to it will test positive for the rest of their life.  We rallied some prayer warriors from around the US and some more here in China and went to bed thinking about her red swollen arm. 

 

And guess what.

 

We got up this morning and her arm is fine.  Just a little bit pink and not hardly sore at all.  Oh yeah, negative tb test!  WOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOO!  And we had the sweetest female doctor in the world doing Abbey's exam! 

 

How great is our God! 

 

I shouldn't have even been surprised.  Look at all he has done for this sweet girl so far.......

Another day closer to home....

It's is early Monday morning here in GZ as Sydney decided to get up at 4:45am.  Her poor little time clock will never be the same again.  But we are up and watching Garfield and drawing ladybugs.  Mommy may have to join her for her nap this afternoon though.

 

Yesterday we kind took it easy in the morning.  We ate breakfast here at the hotel.  They have a huge breakfast buffet and the best coffee!  Abbey giggled when I got excited over the coffee.  And on my 5th cup, she was helping me pour in my creamer.  She might as well get used to me needing my coffee.  It is the best part of waking up, after all. 

 

After breakfast we headed back up to the room for awhile.  We actually have several English channels here which is helping.  Our guide in ZZ said that after the Olympics came to China that alot of western culture stayed with them.  I can tell a huge difference in the hair styles and clothing in just the last two years since we were here.  When we returned to the room after breakfast, the result show of American Idol was on!  We were so excited!  We had looked up online who went home this week, but now we definately won't this week.  We got to see it about 12 hours after you all do, so don't tell us!  Funny thing, there were several of the jokes, one in particular made by Ellen after Mike and Casey sang, that the Chinese government edited out.  We only knew about it because one of Ashlyn's friend told her.  But when we watched it here, they skipped over it. 

 

After American Idol, we headed to the Starbucks right acrossed the street.  Can you see a pattern.  We bought coffees and sweets.  Abbey tried her first caramel latte.  She did not like it at all but it was worth the money just to see the face she made.  So cute.  Sarah was able to get her hazelnut vanilla frappe, so she was a happy, happy girl.  Ash had what she labeled "the best bluebarry muffin in the world" and I loved a hazelnut latte!  Yum!

 

Next we met our guide for some sightseeing.  We all loaded on a bus (full size this time, thank goodness) and headed off to a local park.  And wouldn't you know t, just when I started to relax a little bit about the crazy driving, we were in a little accident,  A taxi cab cut us off and we bumped him.  It wasn't tramatic or anything, but it was still funny.  I knew it had to happen eventually!  The girls all jumped up and grabbed their cameras!  Too funny.

 

We eventually made it to the park and walked around a lake in the massively humid GZ heat.  We had only went about 1/4 of the way around it and we were drenched in sweat.  The temperature is only in the mid 80's but the heat index is 105-110.  HOT!!  But it was worth every drop of sweat just to see some grass and trees.  It felt a little more like home to just be surrounded with some nature!  When we got to the end of the lake, they had paddle boats for rent!  Well you know we just had to!  Abbey was not gonna get in. No way, no how!  Wayne finally convinced her and she loved it.  We raced each other around the lake.  Ashlyn and I won, (hey I paddled a little) and then we headed back. 

 

We finished up some adoption paperwork and then went to dinner at a Thai restaurant.  It was one of the better meals we have had here.  Wayne's stomach has settled down, and he is feeling better.  Not 100% yet, but much better.  Then we had our guide take us to a grocery store for some food for our room.  We've pretty much depleted all that I brought.  The grocery store was on the fourth floor of a shopping mall.  So we walk past the Chanel. Tommy, and Levi department, then go get our food, and walk back out through the mall.  Odd.

 

That about wraps up our day.  Today is the medical exam and tb test results.  We need prayer for this as it has been quite tramatic for some of the kids in the past.  I am pretty sure we will need to get an xray for Abbey's tb test, just like Sydney.  So please pray us through.

Finally in Guangzhou

What a roller coaster!  We left Zhengzhou at 7:00 yesterday morning to tour Luoyang.  Louyang is where Abbey has been living before becoming a Woods.  We made the 3 hour drive in a teenie tiny van.  Sydney looked at it and said, "No big momma van".  We dodged bikes, scooters, construction, goats and cattle on the way, but we made it safely.

 

First we went to Maria's Big House of Hope.  We were so excited to tour this facility.  This healing home was built by Steven Curtis Chapman's adoption advocating agency, Shoahannah's Hope.  It is a home for orphan's who need medical attention for a variety of issues and are unable to receive help here in China.  The Chinese medical system is very behind the US's and is still filled with teas and herbs and that type of thing.  So this home brings skilled surgeons to treat children with cleft palate and other conditions.  We got to tour all the floors except the operating floor.  We got to hold the sweet little cleft babies.  I wanted to put a few in my bag and bring them home with me so badly!!!!  There were twin girls  there, both cleft babies.  They were so precious!  I seriously would have brought them home with us if they would have let me.  I'm just sayin'!!  Our guide had never toured this place before and she said she was so impressed by the love and care given to the children there.  She even talked to them and asked if she could come and volunteer there because she could tell that it was a place that the children were truly loved!

 

One of the best parts about touring Maria's was that Abbey got to see an old friend.  Michael Melsi met us there.  Michael is a sweet sweet guy with a heart for orphans.  He spent several years living with and teaching English to the kids of Luoyang.  He also has witnessed to them while living in the Louyang SWI.  He sent us many pictures of our Abbey and we will be forever grateful to him for that.  I was so tickled to meet him!  It was so precious to see her run to him and give him a big old hug!

 

We then left and went to Abbey's orphanage.  ~sigh~   You need to understand that there is a dignity that I want to preserve for my new daughter.  For that reson I will not publicly post alot of what we saw there.  But I do want to tell the other waiting Luoyang parents that we saw many of your sweet children and I will be emailing you pictures and stories in the next few days as time allows.  It was so sweet to meet Abbey's friends and to give them gifts and Starbursts. 

 

We then headed to Abbey's favorite restaurant, KFC, where she ordered for us and showed us where the sinks were to wash up.  It was pretty cool to let her show us around.  I know that she is gonna be the one to be in an odd place in a few days, so this was a nice chance to let her be the one at ease. 

 

We then drove another 3 hours to Zhengzhou airport for a quick 2 hour flight to Guangzhou.  Or so we thought.  We had decided earlier in the day to go ahead and just check everything instead of carrying on a few things.  We knew that it was gonna be such a long emotional day and we wanted to have a simple flight and get to Guangzhou and relax.  It was also Abbey's first flight ever and we want to keep it simple in that sense too.  Also flying on a Chinese airline is a litte difficult because the anouncements are in Chinese and then very broken and heavily accented English.  So we taxied out to the runway.......and sat for 2 hours.  There was bad weather in Guangzhou and so our take off was delayed.  Finally we took off and headed south.......only to be told that we could not land due to weather.  We circled for a long time then we headed somewhere else.  We had no idea where we were headed and could not get anyone to communicate with.  Abbey was trying but she really didn't understand what was going on either.  I finally got it communicated to her that this was not a normal flight and things were not happening like they normally would.  She was so relieved at that because she was not so much enjoying all the drama and turbulence.  We landed 6 hours after take-off, but we had no idea where we were.  We quickly called our guide and made a stewardess come and talk to our guide and tell her where we were.  Our guide said that we just needed to go with the airline to wherever they were taking us and try to get some rest.  Uh, ok.  So we were herded onto a bus and took off into the night......and rode for 45 minutes before finally stopping at a hotel.  By the time we got into our rooms, it was 2:30 in the morning.  We were supposed to fly out of Zhengzhou at 6:30 and arrive in Guangzhou at 8:30.  We finally figured out that we were in Guilin in the Guangxi province.  We were told to be at breakfast at 7am and they would try to figure everything else out by then.  But this was Saturday morning and we were supposed to be starting Abbey's medical appointments.  If we couldn't make it for them then we would be looking at rescheduling flights for all 6 of us and maybe having to stay here longer.  Can you hear the tears starting to fall? 

 

We arrived the next morning to breakfast and were told to get on the bus at 10 to head back to the airport.  We ended us flying out at 11:30 and landing in Guangzhou at 12:30.  Our guide met us and took us straight to the medical office for Abbey's TB test.  We got it today and we will do her other medical exams on Monday when they read it.  This way we will not lose any time and will not have to change any of our dates.  Prayer request #1:  Abbey must test negative for TB.  If her test is positive then we will have to get a chest xray to prove that her lungs are clear before we can bring her home.  The problem is that she has a cold with a pretty bad cough.  I think her chest is conjested and it makes me a bit nervous.  She got her test today and it is a bit red right now.  We don't have to get it read until Monday, so please pray with us about it. 

 

We are so exhausted.  We had just almost gotten over the jet lag from the trip over and now it feels like we are starting all over.  We are all ready for bed and it is only 7:45 (which will also explain the typos and spelling errors)   When we finally got to our hotel our guide offered to just bring us pizza in the room.  It was from pizza hut and tasted like heaven.  We all ate until we were stuffed, except Wayne.  Prayer request #2:  Wayne has a tendency to eat anything.  However that is not so good when you are in China.  Hence, he has spent a good part of the last 18 hours becoming friendly with Chinese toilets.  He is feeling better but is still a bit queasy.  He had the worst color today, he was totally yellow.  I seriously could have panicked over it.  Please pray that he is better by morning and that he will no longer eat things he cannot identify! 

 

I will soon post some of the things that Abbey is enjoying and discovering, but for now I am spent.  I will attach pics to follow.

Today was another busy day of dodging scooters and bicycles.  Abbey just giggles when I get all panicky in the middle of the road.  But it is seriously like a human form of frogger!

 

We finished up Abbey's adoption on the Chinese side.  She is no longer a citizen of China and is our daughter in the eyes of the Chinese government.  We were presented our certificate of adoption by the Civil Affairs office.  It is pretty cool to see Abbey and Sydney's certificate side by side.  God is so good to us.  Far, far more so than we deserve. 

 

After the official business was over, we went shopping for a few things that Abbey needed.  We were with our guide this time, so things were alot easier.  But at times I would turn around and there would be about 20 Chinese people standing behind us and staring at us.  It is a bit unnerving, especially for Sarah who really wants to tell them to go away.  Ashlyn pretty much just blows them off, but Sarah keeps saying, "What are they looking at?  Seriously, we are buying books!  Big flippin' deal!"  Of course when she is acting like an elephant in front of the statue, it doesn't help.

 

We finished today off with a traditional Chinese dinner where Wayne and Abbey had a eating competition with chopsticks.  Guess who won?  She giggled at Wayne a lot today.  He is pretty cute!  :P

 

Sydney is starting to adjust to the time difference finally.  She went down last night at 6 and slept until 4 this morning.  But tonight she made it all the way until 8! 

 

We have to have our bags packed and be ready to leave at 7:15 in the morning so I had better get going.  We love you all and miss you very much!

More pics

We have her!

Let me introduce you to the bravest person I have ever met, our new daughter!  I do not know if I could ever do what she has done.  Or do it with as much grace, dignity or excitement that she has. 

 

We met our guide this morning at 10:10 and headed to the civil affairs office.  When we pulled in we parked beside a van and all of a sudden there she was!  She hopped out and came to me with her arms opened for a hug.  I said "Hi!  How are you?"  and she answered "I am OK thank you" in very good English.  I turned towards Wayne and said "This is...." and I wasn't sure how to finish.  But she jumped right in and said "Dad" and hugged his neck too.  Then we introduced the girls and she hugged both big girls and was not shy at all.  She helped Sydney out of the van and up the stairs.  It was really cute. 

 

We went in to the civil affairs office and proceeded to do all the necessary paperwork.  She just seemed so happy and excited.  She behaved like she has been looking forward to this day forever.  There was joy all over her.  I was surprised and I guess I just didn't expect that.  But I should have, after all that God has done for us this far!  Oh me of little faith.  And yes, I know that this is purely a honeymoon phase, and we will face more emotions in the next few days, but I am really enjoying this right now.

 

After the adoption business, we went for lunch.  Our guide told us that she loved KFC which we already knew, so we headed there.  The girls were soooooo ready for some American food.  And what do you know, but Abbey will fit right in with our family when it comes to eating fried chicken!  During dinner, our guide told us that she had some business to take care of and pointed out the way to WalMart and then back to the hotel.  And off she went.  Now I do have to confess that I was a bit surprised and alot nervous that we may never see our hotel again.  But with the help of Abbey and our iphone translator app, we made it to WalMart.  (I know, I know, even in China my family heads to WalMart!)  We were able to get a few items of clothing there and some other things for Abbey.  She was able to tell us whether she liked certain clothes or not.  We even had a good laugh over the clothes that Wayne picked out!  He's so cute!

 

We then proceeded to head back towards the hotel.  This included crossing the street about 5 times.  Praise the Lord that the Chinese have finally started some kind of pedestrian crosswalk system.  Although the bikes and scooters are right in the middle of the pedestrians, which translates to us being honked at by about 25 bikes or scooters at each crossing.  I need to get me one of those obnoxious bullhorns and when someone honks at me, I can just let loose with a big AHOOOOOOOGA!  :P  I think I shall invent an app for that.  Needless to say we did make it back to our blessed hotel.

 

Abbey has spent the last 30 minutes drawing pictures for Sydney and is now painting Sydney's nails.  She is so stinkin' cute! 

 

 

We are now in Zhengzhou and settled somewhat into the Holiday Inn here.  We are utterly exhausted.  Jet lag hit us all abour 3:30.  Ashlyn and Sarah are sound asleep.  Wayne is drifting in and out.  I just woke up from an hour nap.  Sydney fell asleep right before take off at 1:00 and slept through the entire flight and the ride to the hotel.  We have tried everything to get her up to no avail.  She is sound asleep!  And she has been for 4 hours!  We really need sleep tonight and not another 3:00am wake up, but it's not looking so good. 

 

We were met be our guide Sarah at the airport and she is a really nice girl!  Very helpful and can speak English very clearlly.  She brought us to the hotel and they had our two rooms on two separate floors!  They said if we wanted that we could have two rooms close together but they would be smoking rooms.  Our Sarah has asthma and so that was unacceptable.  Our guide handled it well and got us two rooms side by side that are non-smoking, well at least as non-smoking as there is in China.  It seems as if the scent of cigaretttes is everywhere, although I'm sure that's just us because we are never around it.  We are supposed to meet our guide in the lobby in 25 minutes to go eat dinner.  She is taking us to a noodle place.  Hmmmmm.  That is if I can wake anyone up.

 

We are to meet Abbey at 10:30 in the morning.  That will be 9:30pm Tuesday night at home.  I have so much to gather and do before morning but my mind is just so stinkin' fuzzy!   Wayne is supposed to be trying to wake up the girls and I see he is back asleep, so I had better go see what I can rouse........... 

We made it to Beijing safe and sound.  We are tired but releived to to off the long flight.  Sydney did wonderful on all the flights.  She wasn't a bit afraid of take off or landing.  She just loved it.  We are doing well.  Even though Sydney had been up since 3am.

 

We are leaving now to head to Zhengzhou.  I will try to update from there tonight. 

 

We get Abbey tomorrow.

 

Prayers please.

Happy Mother's Day

Do not be afraid, for I am with you; 

I will bring your children from the east

and gather you from the west.

Isaiah 43:5

Give and it will be given to you. 

A good measure, pressed down,

shaken together and running over,

will be pured into your lap.

Luke 6:38a

Thank you Gift of Adoption Fund for awarding us a $3500 grant!!!

The Lord will guide you always; 

he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land

and will strengthen your frame. 

You will be like a well watered garden,

like a spring whose waters never fail.

Isaiah 58:11

His love never ceases to amaze me.  Every little thing is just falling into place.  We feel like we are just along for the ride, not at all driving or leading. It is very humbling and invigorating at the same time. 

We will leave home tomorrow evening and stay in St. Louis.  We have to be at the airport at 5:30am Sunday morning to check in for our flights.  We will fly out of Lambert at 8:00am Sunday and land in Beijing at 9:40pm on Monday China time (which is 8:30am Monday morning in Missouri). 

Just 42 hours left..........

So God

How appropiate that God prompted me to put John Waller's song on my blog long ago. 

I'm waiting on you Lord. 

That's where I've been since Saturday. 

Waiting. 

Being still......

and knowing that He is indeed God.

We were $6000 away from being able to leave for China.  The people that we used to be would have high-tailed it to a bank or a credit card and secured the debt that we needed to meet our goal.  But God has changed us.  He told my sweet husband Saturday night that we had not gotten ourselves this far.  He had brought us to this point.  So why would we want to take over now? 

So we waitied.

We faced many questions from our well-meaning family and friends. 

"What's the back-up plan?" 

"What are you gonna do?" 

"Only one of you should go."

"You should leave the girls home."

"You shouldn't have booked those tickets."

"What's plan B?"

And we also got some not-so-well-meaning comments from one of our chat groups when the topic of fundraising came up.

"Your needs are not more important than others."

"If you can't afford to adopt, you shouldn't have started this."

"You have no right to tie up a child's file then not be able to go get her."

"If you can't afford to adopt, you shouldn't."

"If you can't afford to go get her than you should just leave her there in her own country with her own parents." 

You can bet I clarified that WE ARE HER PARENTS and I am no longer a member of that group.

All of this while we waited on the Lord.

Meanwhile things slowly started happening.

Sweet bloggy friends made very generous donations.  Thank you my friends.  You melt my heart.

We heard from the GoA grant that we were being recommended for funding a grant.  We gave them the asked for updates (we still needed $6000 at that time!) and we should hear something in the next week or so.

My mom and dad gatherd up all of their spare change and gave it to us to roll.  Holy cow!  They had a lot.  Like over $400 worth.  Can you just hear the story of the loaves and fishes?

Our in China travel came back $2500 under what we expected.  That is so God.  We got the estimations from our agency just Saturday!  So God.

We sat here this morning, only 4 days later, and only about $2000 away from our goal.  And we think we know where we can get about half of that.  So so God. 

We will update our Chip In button today and also end it Friday so we can transfer funds before we leave.

If God is prompting you to give, give.  If not, he's got another plan to provide and we love you anyway!

And to top is all off we got some new pics of Abbey from some other parents who are adopting from Luoyang.  She is in the background of several......

She looks so good.  She also looks older.  The last pictures we have of her are from Lori's visit to Luoyang to get Macy.

Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory, and the majesty.  Everything in the heavens and earth is yours, O Lord, and this is your kingdom.  We adore you as the one who is over all things.  Wealth and honor come from you alone, for you rule over everything.  Power and might are in your hand, and at your discretion people are made great and given strength.

1 Chronicles 29:11-12

Can't you just hear the truth ringing from this Scripture.  God gave me this during my morning quiet time this morning.  We do not live under society's kindom.  We don't live according to the logic of humans.  We live for God only.  We serve God only.  We obey God only.  I love the safety in that.  The safety in knowing that I am not in control and I sooooooo don't want to be.  Everything is His.  Our selves.  Our children.  Our futures.  Our security.  Our confidence.  And yes even our finances.

...being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Philippians 1:6

See!  Scripture tells us that he will not leave us dangling.  I have spent so much of my life thinking that he is able to do great things, but I would probably do something to mess it up.  That is a lie that Satan has used to keep me down.  It is not the truth.  We are not that powerful.  That is pride talking there.  He will not give up on us and he will not leave us.  He will finish what he started.  My life has been planned out from day one and he will see me through until I take my last breath.

Oh how I praise his name!

Well the good news is that we finally got flights booked.  We flay out on Mother's Day, Sunday, May 9th, and return Saturday, May 22.

But........

Due to the lack of travel done in the latter part of March because of a Trade Fair in Guangzhou, there is a shortage of available flights now.  Which doesn't make a lot of sense considering there is a World Fair going on now. 

All of that means that we paid way more for flights than we expected.

Way more.

Waaaaaaay more.

Like $3000 more.

But let me tell you who God is to me.  He is the lifter of my head.  I left the computer and went and jumped in the shower so disheartened.  We were getting so close to the goal only to see the goal line moved.  I come back in and see a message on one of our Yahoo groups asking if anyone is doing any fundraising.  Literally asking where she could give money away to.  And she gave us $50!!  Only in adoption.  Only with God.  He was not surprised or deflated.  He was not disheartened.  He knows what the end will hold and he will get us there. 

Bottom line:  we need $6000 in 8 days. 

If you've been wanting to donate and just haven't, please do now.  I will be editing our chip in button with our new dates and needs.

Please spread the word about our need on your blogs and Facebook or Twitter accounts.  

Please spread the word about our need to others at your church tomorrow.  Write down our blog site and give it out to our body of believers. 

Please pray for us.

Please pray for Abbey.

And then just sit back and hold on. 

And watch my Jesus come through.

The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.

1 Thessalonians 5:24

I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land.  I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.

Genesis 28:15

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

John 14:18