A Night of Prayer

Last night our family was surrounded by family and friends that have been praying for us.  It was a prayer dinner hosted by my twin sister, her husband, my brother and his wife. Everything from the decor, delicious food from Pei Wei, centerpieces, fortune cookie cupcakes and friends that have supported us made it an evening we will never forget!  Each family who came brought something we will need to bring with us to China.  I tried to explain, through tears, that this whole journey has been so much more than just an adoption.  Although Bella Mei will be blessed with a family that loves her and has prayed for her since before she was born, we have truly been the ones blessed!  The Lord has used these last two years to draw us closer to Himself and we have learned what true faith really means.  Although our journey with Bella Mei is just about to begin, we know that God has called us to this and He will carry us through!  We are so thankful to have so many friends and family members that love and support us.  Their encouragement has helped us get through these last two years!  It was a beautiful night!  Thank you Kim, Efran, Bobby & Susan.  You are a blessing to us!  

He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.  Colossians 1:17

We also found out yesterday afternoon that our corrected Letter of Approval arrived at our agency!  This was an answered prayer that we found out hours before our prayer dinner.  God is so good!  We are so thankful that it came so quickly and our Article 5 packet will be dropped off very soon!  This is the last step before we are given Travel Approval!  

 

And...We Wait!

So our paperwork is in China for the last set of processing before we can get Travel Approval, but now we are waiting on a new Letter of Approval.  My last name was spelled wrong on our original LOA.  I knew we were waiting for this, but it was a week ago that I realized that this small typo would hold us up.  It has been a very hard week for me knowing that we are so close to having Bella Mei home and now all we can do is wait!
I know that God has a plan and he knew about this typo long before I did.  It surprised me, but nothing surprises him!  Although I know this down deep, I still wrestle with my flesh that says, "my plan was better!" My devotion that day I realized all of this had a truth I will never forget.  It was titled "Master of the Wind & Waves."  It said "When all is well, our faith only needs a Jesus who is asleep in the boat." I will continue to trust even as we wait!  

Orphan Sunday Photo

I800 Approval!

Tomorrow we will send Bella Mei her care package.  Boone wanted to draw her a picture.  This is what he came up with.  I think she will really like it!

Our application for I800 Approval was sent September 25th.  It has been two long weeks waiting for our approval, but today when I called they told me we had been approved!  I was so excited to know that we are moving on to the next step!  We are really praying that we will be able to travel early December.  We should know by the beginning of November whether that will be possible.  Please continue to pray for Bella Mei.  We can't wait to bring her home!

LOA!!!!!!!!!

After waiting only 19 days we received our Letter of Approval from China on Monday, September 24th!!  This makes everything official and I can finally share her picture!  The average wait time for this is usually 50-60 days so we could not believe it!  God is so good and we feel so blessed.  It happened so quickly that we were not ready for the next step and had to quickly get our I800 prepared.  We were able to send that on Tuesday afternoon, so now we wait again.  Unfortunately, that is the hardest part of  this whole process.  Once you receive one thing, you begin the wait for the next step.  It is totally out of our hands and we continue to trust the Lord and His timing!  While we wait we are busy filling out paperwork to apply for adoption grants.  These are not hard, but require a lot of time preparing paperwork.  We know that God has called us to adopt and we are trusting that He will provide what we need when we need it.  We are praying that we will be able to travel early December and be home for Christmas, but we won't know for sure about our travel dates until at least November.  Please continue to pray that the next few steps go quickly.  We are ready to meet our little girl and bring her home.  She has been prayed for by so many for a long time.  It is so exciting to watch this happen.  God has truly blessed our family!

Pre-Approval!

On Wednesday, September 5, we received our Pre-Approval notice from China.  Now we wait for our Letter of Approval.  Right now the wait time is anywhere from 2-4 months.  We are praying that we will have it by the end of October.  Every day that goes by is one day closer to holding her in my arms.

Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow!!

The day finally came... A day I was beginning to feel would never come.  We received an email Monday, August 27th at 10:12pm with a picture of the most adorable 18 month old little girl.  Tony and I could.not.believe it was finally happening!  She is just precious!  If we could get on a plane today and go get her we would.  But, we will have to wait until probably January to travel to China.  The last seven months have been hard waiting for her, but now that we see her face I know these next 4-5 months will be even harder.  We always trusted the Lord and knew that His timing would be perfect, but the disappointment we felt each month was heartbreaking.  We knew He had called us to do this and He would carry us through, but there were days we wondered if the day would ever come.  He is faithful though and we give Him all the praise!  We are in love with her already!  The kids are also so excited and can't wait for us to bring her home!  So, now we wait for our Pre-Approval notice.  Please pray that these next steps will go quickly.  We feel so blessed that God has allowed us to draw closer to Him through the miracle of adoption.  It has been a HaPpY week.... we will NEVER be the same!!