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!