Oh me, Oh my...............

Oh God you are my God and I will ever praise you, Oh God you are my God and I will ever praise you,  I will seek you in the morning and I will learn to walk in your waaaaaays, and step by step you'll lead me, and I will follow you all of my days!

I will let these pictures speak for the goodness of my GOD ♥

 

CHINESE VISAS ARRIVED, x's Six !!!!

OUR CHINA SHIRTS MADE THEIR WAY HOME -

ONE LESS :)

OH ME OH MY COULD IT BE??? -

It didn't get thrown in with File 13 afterall!

 PDF AND CABLED - I CAN'T TAKE IT! 

 

My bug is such a good sport and photography skills

go to the one and only Maddie Rae, haha :)

 We are just amazed at how our God lavishes gifts upon us! He is so faithful, even when we are not.  Four things in one day, thank you Jesus! Our Article 5 was dropped off today, Wednesday in China!  We will run into Chinese New Year so our pick up won't be until February 20th.  BUT after it is picked up, we are officially waiting on Travel Approval - ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh sweet goodness!

 

 

Soooooooooo

My morning devotion was on Psalm 105 and said this, "Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim his greatness.  Let the whole world know what he has done.  Sing to him; yes, sing his praises.  Tell everyone about his wonderful deeds.  And also Colossians 3, " And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts.  For as members of one body you are called to live in peace.  And always be thankful!"

 WHOA- talk about speaking right to you from heaven kind of moments! I have been bogged down with the "should have been syndrome".  I have a timeline in my head and this process is not meeting my standards.  I needed a "hold your horses" kind of moment and it has arrived!  For whatever reason our I800 application, which is the "Petition to Classify Convention Adoptee as an Immediate Relative", has taken 4 weeks from start to finish and it usually takes about 2.  Although that is not a big deal to most of you reading this, it is a big deal to those in this painfully long process! If I was not such a busy mama, I think I would seriously consider taking up the cause to shed the light on what a waste of time this I800 process is! No, not just for me :) But the entire process is very redundant and completely archaic! But I have much more exciting things to look forward to, so I will just happily leave that step of this process in the dust!!!

So we finally have our Guangzhou number and we will hopefully be cabled tomorrow! I could go on and on with what comes next and when I think we could leave, etc.  But I am remebering my, "wake up dummy" moment from this morning, and choosing to allow peace to rule in my heart! Living in the future steals the joy of NOW and I don't want to live like that anymore! I want to praise my God for his greatness, even when the ways are not mine! God is good, all the time!

He knows the day when we will see her face for the first time.  I am confident in that day, because it is orchestrated by him.  Regardless of the earthly circumstances that I endure,  that day is meant to be, and I happy about that!

Soon my baby girl, SOON♥

I Hope You Step on a LEGO ! ! !

During the second week of our trip to C**** there will be a medical appointment in GZ.  There is a TB test (the under the skin bubble kind) that they perform.  Last year, Jackzhen was able to sit on my lap and it was very quick! He didn't flinch much anyways, but it was nice to be able to hold him! Unfortunately, we just found out this week they have changed the policy....

Changes with Tuberculosis Testing in C****

If your child is over the age of 2, it is mandatory that they are tested for tuberculosis while you are in C****. This occurs towards the end of your trip during your child's medical exam. The U.S. Consulate in GZ recently implemented some changes and will now be doing a blood test, rather than the shot. The benefit to this testing change is that families will no longer have to return to have the tuberculosis test read. Tuberculosis testing does not apply to families who are adopting a child 2 years of age or younger.

As if taking blood isn't traumatic enough, we also found out that we CAN NOT be in the room :( Another AP (adoptive parent) that was just there last week said that other parents tried to go in and they were escorted right out! Two nurses take the child and a man nurse stands by the door! NICE HUH? You have one week with your child, bonding, loving, comforting the grief, and then on the 5th day this happens! I am so furious, sad, furious, and scared for her! This is just the thing that made me want to leave that country as quickly as possibly in 2012.  I hated the feeling of being herded like cattle! Being told what to do and when, who to gift and how, completely and totally like a peon!

Please continue to pray for our process, for her safety, and everything that is to come for our sweet girl! Specifically, please pray that she would be prepared for the day she meets us, that she would know us, she would feel safe with us.  Please also pray that they would change this, "no parent policy" before we travel sometime in mid-late March!

Thanks everyone!

My Girl.....

 I am thinking about my girl. A LOT.  A friend that I met through this process traveled this week to adopt her daughter, Abby.  She is so thoughtful and willing, that GiGi friend of mine! She took our pre-approval letter, along with two gifts we sent for Jessa, with her to China.  On Monday she was able to meet our girl♥ I didn't sleep much Sunday night as I thought immensely about the moment she would see my beautiful girl's face! At 5:21 pm I got 6 pictures, through text, that instantly brought me to tears! They were pictures of Jessa wearing a necklace that I made for her, ones of her holding the pillow with our family picture on it, she is tenderly pointing to Jackzhen in one of the pictures! It was such a perfect end to a crummy, emotional day.  The internet connection in China is spotty and so her next few texts came to me over  a 24 hour period. It was perfect though, gave me time to celebrate before the next one came!   The words that she texted to me, from so so far away, were sweet reminders of our Sovereign Lords provision.    The first said this...

Oh how sweet your girl is!!!  They adore her!  She is so bright and happy and perfect They were so concerned that you might get there before spring festival because apparently she is the star of their show!!  And by the way she walks perfectly fine!

I'm not joking about being the star of their show either!!! They are seriously worried about it!!!  It was interesting to hear Director Gao tell the story about Jessas disruption - I did not ask by the way they told me matter of factly that another family came to adopt her and that because she was limping the father decided she was delayed and requested the disruption. They said the mom cried and cried.  I told Director Gao that I know your family and that Jessa story will have an amazingly happy ending and that she was meant for you.  Director Gao reared up and just said thank you over and over.  I totally get what Megan meant when she said she is so happy to see these kids adopted.  Words can't express the difference in the lives of those who get adopted and those that don't!!!  Off to bed - exhausted- hugs and sleep good tonight knowing Jessa is an amazing perfect little miracle. 

It was a wonderful day that caused this mama insomnia the next evening as well! I can't help it, I just don't need a lot of sleep anyways and then when my mind is racing and thinking about Jessa, well, there is no hope for some shut eye! The words to those texts haven't left my head since I read them.  They are so moving and exciting, and so thought provoking! I couldn't help but notice the parallel to Jackzhen's story. He too was the "star" of Wuzhou Social Welfare Institute. You could do a Badu search of that SWI and find Jackzhen's face every time. One time in particular his class was being interviewed by a local news station. Jackzhen took the microphone from the man's hand and started singing in it! Everyone laughed!  He was one of 10 young kids asked to be in the Chinese New Year celebration, and he still continues to shine his sweetness in our family as well! I just can't stinking wait to get Jessa home, love her to bits, and see how she interacts with Jackzhen, as well as the other children!

 Pointing to her brother Jackzhen, hey he looks like me!!! ♥

While I'm Waiting......

I will serve you while I'm waiting, I will worship while I'm waiting, I will not fade.....  I am listening to those words as I sit in another waiting room of this long process. It seems that the old saying, "hurry up and wait", was written for adoption! We made it through the wait of the LOA, celebrated for 2 days, now here we sit waiting again for our I800 paperwork to be reviewed and approved! Then the celebration and waiting process starts again for the next step! It goes on like that through the article 5, travel approval, consulate appointment date, booking tickets, waiting for departure, and finally, the wait while in China, for gotcha day.  There is so much waiting in this process, it is painful, and not easy.  This song says, "but faithfully I will wait! I will move ahead bold and confident, taking every step in obedience, while I am waiting!"  I claim the words to this song and confidently know there is a reason for our wait! During Jackzhen's adoption I felt as if I was just waiting, crying, whining, until the end.  It was so very much like labor, the kind with no epidural or Lamaze class. It was long and painful! I look back and realize that there were so many times I failed to look up, instead of down in self pity! I wondered why God wanted us to wait 89 days for a letter of acceptance, when other people waited 45.  Many times, I questioned instead of trusting.  We finally made it to China on April 5th!  We flew into Hong Kong and stayed one night there before flying out to Nanning the next day.  Our flight was set to depart at 5:05pm.  We made it to the gate by 2:00 because my sweet bug was not taking any chances of missing a flight in China! At around 4:00 our gate was changed, as well as the departure time.  We were now set to leave at 5:50.  That was the first of many changes.  We made our way to another gate and met a fellow DTC Facebook friends, Robyn and Charles.  It was our first "familiar" face and were thrilled to see them.  Although we had never met them before, it was the commonality of adoption and the body of Christ that joined us as friends! After watching 10 Asian men work on the engine of our plane, in the dark, we were relieved when they brought in another plane for us to take.  By this time it was 8:00, we were tired, hungry, and DONE!  We boarded the plan and were all set to take off when the flight attendant came over the loud speaker. In broken English she announced that Hong Kong was running one runway and that there was a wait for take off.  She said it would be three hours until take off! THREE HOURS UNTIL TAKE OFF!!! Sitting on a plane for 3 hours, with our three kids, after sitting in an airport for 6 hours, with our kids! Talk about the worst wait yet! But fear set in when I realized that we had no cell phone signal and no way of letting our travel agent know of the delay! She was the one that would let the guide, waiting in Nanning, know that we were coming and not to leave! I started panicking! What were we going to do.  We would eventually take off and potentially get to Nanning, with no one waiting for us! It was the worst feeling of this whole process yet! We had our kids to protect and we were dwindling fast! Then, we remembered Robyn and Charles! The ONLY English speaking people on the plane! The only ones, who had a working cell phone.  I made a text and took care of my fears.  We took off about two hours later.  We had a guide and instructions waiting for us at the other end.  He carried us through! I reflected that night on the series of events and I found myself in tears.  There is reason for everything, for every wait, for every relationship.  It seemed very evident that night, the reason to everything that I questioned before.  I was supposed to meet Robyn in our DTC group, we were meant to leave at the same time, fly to the same province, be on the same plane, because there is a purpose for everything under heaven, even the waiting! So as I sit here and wait on our I800 paperwork to be processed for our sweet little Jessa, I am trusting, worshipping, believeing, that God will reveal a perfect plan in the end.  I hope to meet a "Robyn and Charles" during this upcoming trip to China! I love it when God finally reveals small glimpses of his plan before us like that, but rest assure, we will be the ones with the cell phone this time!