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