Wednesday, February 15, 2012

A little bit about before and after...


BEFORE

Before, a well loved, well used white maple kitchen that belonged to me as a wee girl, and then to Lily…



AFTER



And now, with some love from her dad, our newest little girl will enjoy a pastel kitchen with some accessory items purchased by her Grandma Lily.  I found the blender and mixer still in their box in some of Mother’s things.  A little heaven sent…

 I am amazed at the detailed goodness of God.
Cathy

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

I Love You


She was not at our Valentine table this morning, but very much in our hearts.   







And, soon in our home.
We are wonderfully grateful

Saturday, February 11, 2012

In the Corner

 "I saw the face of Jesus"
In a little orphan girl
She was standing in the corner
On the other side of the world
And I heard the voice of Jesus
Gently whisper to my heart
Didn't you say you wanted to find me
Well, here I am 
Here you are.
 So what now
What will you do with this treasure you've found
I know I may not look like what you expected
But if you remember
This is right were I said I would be
You found me
"what now," words/music by  
steven curtis chapman

This photo was our little treasure found on a charity site from the Henan Province.  We glanced at this photo and knew there was something profoundly special.   Standing there, in the far right corner. some little chubby cheeks drew us in... our daughter.

Friday, February 10, 2012

News....

I can't wait until Cathy posts this news, so here it is... We received a letter from the Department of Homeland Security advising us they have provisionally approved our little bird as our adoptive daughter.   This is very exciting news... it acknowledges our paperwork is in order!   This is a major relief for me, in part because I was in charge of compiling and submitting the information to our agency, to China and to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.


So what does this mean?  Looks Like I did it correctly!  You can follow our timeline listed to the left of this column. 


Praise the Lord!


Brian
(baba)

Thursday, February 9, 2012

a rose is a rose...

I find I spend way too much times these days looking at blogs. Blogs are a whole new wonderful world to me.  There are some extraordinarily talented writers and photographers out there.  All I can say is wow.

When we went to Kazakhstan almost 7 years ago, we were the first family to go with our agency.  We were blazing the trail so to speak.  In fact, we were supposed to go with a film crew from the agency in order to document what would be many Kazakh adoptions to come.  At the eleventh hour, that did not occur.  I would have LOVED some blogs at that point to show me where we might go, what we might experience and to tell me someone, somewhere had done this before and lived to write about it.

Now, I am the recipient of an embarrassment of riches as so many have blazed the trail and penned their experiences.  I read a perfectly lovely blog today about naming their little girl.  Amazingly they have yet to meet her or see her picture.  It was so sweet tho, I decided I should write a little about names.

My daughter, Lily, would love for her sister to be named Lily.  A little confusing perhaps but very sweet.

My son Bailey, would love for his sister to be named Gwendolyn; in honor of my mom and his grandmom.  Again, precious in so many ways.

Beau would like his sister to be named for a flower, like his other sister.  So far, he has selected “forget me not.”  Longish perhaps, but one would never forget it.

The winner thus far though was my Sunday school class.  Brian and I teach Pre K and Kindergarten Sunday school.  These kids pray up a storm every Sunday.  I have asked them to pray for my China girl.  Of course they asked her name.  I asked them if they would like to suggest a name.  They went to work and even voted.  I told them I love flowers, just to guide them a bit. 
They came up with a winner:

Jello Buttercup

I love these children.  So at least until the Visa application is submitted and we visit the Consulate, here is a picture we just received of Jello Buttercup.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Agency Update on our Little Bird

Reported February 6, 2012 

Her current health is good.
She can walk, run, jump, go up/down stairs
She can say mama.
She is not potty trained.

Personality:
They call her Mao Mei (毛妹).
She is outgoing.
~ ~ ~ ~



Okay, I stopped at line 3, she can say mama.  And I can say, Beautiful.
 Lord, bring us to her in your time.
My oh my,  my heart aches for this little girl.
“Outgoing” it says, like my Lily.  My joy will indeed soon be complete.

                         Cathy

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

She has met Us!

Brian and I will be together for a total of about 40 minutes today but by the grace of God, the 20 of those minutes we were eating lunch together, we received a call from our adoption agency.

My heart skipped a beat.  Could it be Travel Approval?  I quickly discounted that as it truly is too soon, so then naturally I assumed something was wrong.

Incorrect again. 

It was a call to confirm my little girl had received her care package.  She has seen our pictures, she has held the dolly I sent and she has some pretty new clothes to try on as well as a little rosey blanket to keep in her bed.


I was thrilled to hear the news.  I am incredibly humbled that she can hold our picture, her referral of sorts.  The Holy Spirit is at work even now letting her now 5 people, and actually many more in our corner of the world, love her very deeply and cannot wait to hold her, love her and pray with her.


I am overjoyed.  Of the est. 149 million orphans in the world, she is no longer one.  God is incredibly good.            Cathy