What a Happy Christmas

We had a fun Christmas. We had good time with family, we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus, Sarah Grace got the "pretend tools" that she had been hoping for and a Dora tent (plus plenty of other gifts from our generous extended family), and last but not least, WE GOT OUR TRAVEL APPROVAL!! We got the call today, the 27th. Our agency is closed for Christmas, but they had a few people in the office and they made the calls today. What a pleasant surprise. We didn't think we would hear news until they reopened next week.

It looks like we will leave either Jan 17 or Jan 24. Either way, we will meet our daughter in less than one month. It's finally happening. The suitcases have been just about packed for 2 months now so the days between now and departure shouldn't be too hectic (we hope!). I'm ready to go!

Big Sister

Sarah Grace is ready to meet her little sister. She spends much of her day talking about "Baby Xiao Xin." Last Tuesday, we got Chinese for dinner. Sarah Grace opened her fortune cookie and "read" her fortune cookie to us. She announced, "It says: If you have a little sister, you should pray for her." What a great fortune!

At this point, depending on when our TA arrives, we hope to leave for China either Jan 10, 17 or 24. We hope not a day later. We should know something when our agency opens on Jan 2 after the Christmas holidays.

LOA!!!

Our agency received our Letter of Acceptance yesterday! We will receive it by Fed-Ex today, sign it and overnight it back to the agency. I hope the snow doesn't cause a Fed Ex delay!

Then we wait for our Travel Approval (TA). It should arrive in 2-4 weeks. Our agency anticipates that we will travel mid-January.

We waited 154 days for our LOA (normal wait is 90-120 days) so we are hoping for a speedy TA. We want to get to China!

We are rejoicing at our house! Thank you God for sustaining us during the wait.

And still more waiting. . .

The wait has obviously grown much longer than we ever anticipated. Our agency is inquiring to China on our behalf to find out about the delay. Every time frame we hoped for (Home in Oct, Home for Thanksgiving, Home For Christmas, Home in 2007) has passed. So at this point, we just want to travel sometime. Our hearts are breaking every day as we think of Caroline in an orphanage instead of with her family. God is holding us close during this trial and His mercies are new every morning. We long for our family to be together. Please pray for our endurance and Caroline's protection during this time.

Thankful at Thanksgiving

With a continued delay in our paperwork, it is highly unlikely that Caroline will be home with us for Christmas. Despite this disappointment, our family still has much to thank God for as we approach Thanksgiving. We are thankful for:

- 2 precious daughters, one here and one in China
- a trip to China to look forward to in the new year
- a supportive extended family who is as excited to meet Caroline as we are
- friends who are interested in our adoption, pray for us and continually ask
how the process is going
- a church family that ministers to us often during this trial of waiting
- the anticipation of watching our two girls play together soon
- a faithful God who walks this trial with us and renews us daily

"The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am
helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song."
Psalm 28:7

I hope to post with good news about travel very soon!

Still waiting. . .

We are still waiting for our LOA from China. We had hoped to travel in October but that isn't going to happen. Now we are praying for November travel. In the meantime, we are trying to wait patiently. We are enjoying Sarah Grace and watching her anticipation of becoming a big sister. She is a joy, saying funny things everyday. She just turned 3 and now considers herself pretty grown-up.

Another new picture

Another lady visited Caroline's orphanage last week and checked in
on her for us. She took a picture and gave this description of her:

"what a lovely little girl - gave me a big smile. She was standing up in
the cot as bright as a button and I picked her up and gave her a hug
and kiss and told the carers her mama would see the pictures.

Honestly she looked so well and content and looked to have a very
happy personality. The orphanage is clean and although busy with
babies the carers and especially the director seemed really caring
and interested in their many charges."

God is answering our prayers for her to be cared for well and for
her to have joy everyday. We can't wait to meet her!

Sarah Grace is also getting more and more anxious for Xiao Xin
to come home. At Kohl's this weekend, she said, "This would
be a cute outfit for my friend Baby Xiao Xin." What great
friends they will be!

We are still awaiting our LOA - hopefully not too long now. I am
praying hard that we will meet her in October.

New pictures

Someone who visited Caroline's orphanage this week was kind enough to take pictures of her for us. She has grown since our last pictures, which makes us even more anxious to meet her.

We're waiting for our LOA, which is the next piece of paperwork from China. We still anticipate travelling October or November. We've started packing already. We are praying that God will unite our family quickly!

Proud Big Sister

Here is a picture of Sarah Grace in February when we mailed our final adoption dossier to AWAA. The concept of getting a little sister was pretty abstract then but it's getting slightly more real now. Although we know there will be adjustments to having a new baby around, Sarah Grace is very excited right now. She talks constantly about what she will teach Caroline and points out things that we should buy for Baby Xiao Xin. Sarah Grace is a joy and Caroline is one lucky girl to have Sarah Grace as a big sister!

Another Picture of Caroline

This is another picture of our daughter. She is about 10 months old in this one. Isn't she cute?

Introducing Caroline XiaoXin

Because we had applied for a Special Needs Adoption, we knew that we could receive a referral sooner than we otherwise would. We still believed, however, that a referral would be months or even a year away.

When I saw America World's phone number on our Caller ID on June 28, I didn't think much about it. The voicemail message said that our Family Coordinator just wanted to go over our application with us. When I returned the call, our family coordinator began asking me about details of our application, making sure that it was up-to-date. The call seemed routine to me until she said, "I have a little girl to tell you about." When I finally understood that she was about to tell us about our new daughter, I quickly told Andy, who got the camera to take pictures of me on the phone. After we hung up, we ran to the computer to see the pictures of Hai Xiao Xin that our agency was about to e-mail to us. She was beautiful - as beautiful as Sarah Grace.

Our world was suddenly and joyfully turned upside down. We had no idea that this was coming. Trying to recover from the shock, we called several doctors that afternoon and began to pray for discernment. We also gathered a few friends to pray for us. As we grew more and more attached to this little girl, we waited to hear from the doctors. We expected to hear from them within 5 days but each of the doctors called the very next day. We appreciated their promptness because I don't know how we would have waited for 5 days. After the doctors gave us their opinions, we felt certain that God intended Hai Xiao Xin to be in our family. We called the adoption agency to officially complete the paperwork to bring Xiao Xin home.

After calling the agency, we got busy -- calling our families, creating packing lists, researching her medical condition, speaking with people who have visited her orphanage and choosing a name!

Caroline turned 1 on June 20. Her caretakers say that she loves to laugh. Her favorite activity is playing with other children and her favorite toys are colorful balls.

We hope to travel around October. We are all counting the days to meet Caroline. Sarah Grace is excited to be a big sister. She eagerly shows Caroline's picture to people, saying "This is Baby Xiao Xin. I'm her big sister."

Our next step is to wait for China to send our Travel Approval. This will probably take about 3 months. We are praying for speedy travel, for Caroline's health and for the bonding between us to be instantaneous. In fact, we pray daily that God is already revealing to Caroline who we are so that when we meet, she will feel safe and secure in our arms.

We never imagined what this Fall held for us. We know that God's timing is perfect and that His blessings are abundant.

Our Adoption Story

Before we were married, we had the opportunity to see a dance performance of 10 adopted Chinese-American girls at a local cultural festival. At that moment, God spoke to both of our hearts and told us that we would have daughters from China.

After our wedding, we began praying about how we should grow our family. Again and again, we felt God leading us to adopt from China. Not knowing if that meant that all of our children would be through adoption or not, we followed God's leading and applied for a Chinese adoption in Spring 2004.

In May 2005, we received a picture of Fu Ai Ye, whom we named Sarah Grace AiYe. We brought her home in July 2005. She is 2 1/2 now and a blessing beyond words to us.

In September 2006, we applied for our 2nd adoption. After much prayer, we decided to fill out an application for a Special Needs Adoption. When researching this, we discovered that there are many children categorized as Special Needs who have a more difficult time being adopted than healthy children. These Special Needs range from minor to more serious medical conditions. Many of these medical problems, while difficult to heal in China, can be easily cared for in U.S. hospitals.

Adoption has profoundly touched our lives. God reminds us that He adopted us into His family unconditionally simply because He loves us. Sarah Grace is a visual reminder to us of what God has done for us. We are passionate about the orphans around the world that God loves to place in families. Psalm 68:6 says, "God sets the lonely in families." We are thankful that God has allowed us the privilege of adoption and that before the beginning of time, He chose Sarah Grace and Caroline for our family. We pray that churches and Christians will be eager to care for orphans and that many will be led to experience the joy of adoption.