Day 3

The fun thing about God is that each day brings new adventures and surprises. Today as I tried to connect w/the depth of God's love, I found it in a friend and time w/my children. My friend is a brand-new Christian and come to find out, in our conversation today, that we're both looking to make the most of the time we have w/our kiddos. We decided today to hold each other accountable and I think she's going to join me in this 40 day challenge. Isn't it just like God to bring you a workout partner for the things you're most wrestling with?!

The most precious, though, today, was experiencing God's love through my girls. I've been feeling dehydrated all day, despite a large intake of fluids, and ended up w/a migraine that hit around dinner time. Jim took care of the girls while I laid down and my precious Lily came in and covered me w/one of her dolly blankets so she could make my headache "happy so it will go away." How precious is that?! I just marveled at my precious girl's little heart and her desire for me to feel better and thanked God for the privilege of being her mama. My other moment was with Jasmine and going into her room to get her back to sleep tonight. I just stood there for about 10 minutes and gently stroked her sweet, soft face to help get her back to sleep. I smiled down at her trying not to close her eyes and just melted as she gave me the most precious little smiles. God is so good to give me such precious girls. I couldn't help but think about the lyrics to "How He Loves" by David Crowder.

"He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realise just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all

Yeah, He loves us,
Oh! how He loves us,
Oh! how He loves us,
Oh! how He loves.


We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
And Heaven meets earth like an unforseen kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way He Loves"

I can't wait to see what Day 4 brings.

Update on the girls

Hi everyone! In the midst of me doing my own 40 day challenge to journal God's love going deep in my heart, it occurred to me that it's been a while since I've updated on the girls. Both girls are doing really well. Lily completed the "Eel" swimming class at the rec center and will be ready for the next level in swimming. She's really come a long way in getting more comfortable in the water. She's still using a swim belt but has been holding her breath under water and jumping into the water, which is huge for her. We've got her signed up for a soccer class which will start the end of August, that she's really excited about. We've been trying to slowly introduce her to different sports and activities over the last year (only 1 at a time) to see what kinds of things she would enjoy doing. Last year it was swimming, gymnastics and ballet. This year we're trying soccer. She starts school 8/9 already and will do 1 more year of preschool. She's been really starting to show more of an interest in Jesus and has started asking more questions about God both at home and at church. We've been thrilled with the children's ministry at our church and have been excited to see her begin to grow more in her faith. She still has moments of grieving over her birth mom and we continue to support that process as we know what it's like to lose a loved one and have God bring healing from that loss. People always focus on the good parts of adoption but often skip over the tough stuff - like the grieving & loss that is very much a part of adoption. We have found, through the loss of our baby via miscarriage that grieving that loss was not only healthy and brought us healing and closure but it also brought us to a place of being open to God's plan for our lives. We never would have adopted if we wouldn't have grieved that loss. Thank God for His healing and His plan for our lives because now we have 2 of the most amazing little girls! We pray for that same healing for Lily and trust God to make all things new and bring good out of the loss.

As for Jasmine, she's walking more and more! She's still pretty tiny, so it's a trip to see her stumble around on those bitty legs. I'll try and get some footage to post soon. She, like the rest of our family, LOVES music and is fascinated w/the touch/feel books we have. She is curious about everything and so we've had to make sure that everything is as baby-proofed as possible. She is either ridiculously cute when she smiles and laughs or crazy annoying when she whines so we might just have another feeler in the family. Poor Jim! 3 feelers! She's started to say "Up", "Ball", "Dog", "hi", "Bye" along w/ "mama" and "dada". She still shrieks alot but it seems to be decreasing as she's learned some words so perhaps that's been her communication up 'til now. She also loves the water in the pool and has a fantastic time splashing. She's starting to do a little kicking as well when Jim or I take her in the deeper water.

This summer hasn't been as fun as last summer but we've still been able to get to the pool as a family and do a few things here and there. We're continuing to wait and see what happens w/Jim's job and will hopefully know more in the next several weeks. Either way, we're trusting God to take care of us and lead us to where He wants us. We're still incredibly thankful for our church and how God has used them in our lives. It's hard to believe that almost a year ago, our lives were turned upside down but God has been SO GOOD! He provided for our adoption through so many of you and has brought us so much healing and overwhelmed us with His love that we are often in tears. God is so good and we are so incredibly thankful for all that He has done for us and in us in this last year especially. I wouldn't trade this last year in for anything! Thank you for walking with us and we can't wait to see what God has in store for us next!

Day 1 & 2

So Day 1 was an interesting day. It was a tough day w/the girls acting out and it really seemed like the enemy was doing whatever he could to distract me. Fortunately, it didn't work but it did make things tough to focus on. My goal was to see if I can open my heart enough in my every day life "so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." I want my spiritual life and every day life to collide on a deeper level. I want to see my belief that God loves me pervade every aspect of my day-to-day activities and see my heart change and go deep w/this "unknowable" knowledge.

So on day 1, I found myself wondering throughout the day, how this change in my heart would look. Would I be more loving, more attentive to my friends & family? Will I be more at ease & less critical w/myself? How will this affect how I interact w/my children? How does the grasp of "how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ".....how does that look in day-to-day life? I didn't come to any answers that day but I must say that being able to reflect on this scripture and aspect of God really did pervade my day and had me really thinking about my every action & reaction. I especially thought about my precious girls and that if I could get this down in my everyday little stuff, hopefully my girls will begin to get how God is in the details of their lives. Next to my relationship w/God and my husband, my girls are the most important thing in my life. I want my girls to fall in love w/Jesus and not just grow up to be Sunday-go-to-church Christians but instead become women who live every moment serving and loving Jesus and impact the people around them because of that love. I want to see them live out their faith and not just proclaim it w/words. So how can I model that for them and what does that look like?

That evening a friend posted a chart on facebook that was comparing "Super mom" and "Abiding mom". A handful of the points were:

Super Mom Abiding Mom
Does Is
Tries to impress others Pleases the Lord
Is controlled by an agenda Is controlled by the Holy Spirit
She teaches her kids to be good She teaches her kids to be Godly
She does things w/her children She builds a relationship w/her children

There were quite a few others along w/scripture but these were ones that most impacted me. Without getting off point, one road that God's love led me down was modeling his love to my children and giving me some ideas for what that needs to look like.

Day 2 gave me no new answers until the middle of the day and then it led me to realize that what I may need to do to kick off some of this change is very similar to how we take steps of faith or steps towards security. I need to make the decision in my mind first, take action and TRUST God to make the changes in my heart and feelings. I need to look for the opportunities in my day to day life and be purposeful in my actions and trust God for the rest. That is what I've purposed to do going forward. So I took a few opportunities that day to try and focus on the relationship w/my girls. I picked moments when we were all together (Lily had day camp in the morning) and tried to do things w/them that built the relationship between us. I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings. Day 3....

Jesus Loves me, this I know!

I wonder what the world would look like today if all of us believers in Jesus, actually believed Him that He loves us fully and completely. Would poverty still exist or would it become extinct because people, so radically changed by Jesus' love, actually tithed to their churches & gave to charities because of gratitude & worship to God over that incredible love? Would children continue to languish for years in foster care or would there be a waiting list to adopt children out of the foster care system because of Jesus' radical love impacting potential parents? Would the divorce rate among Christians continue to be at least as high as the secular world or would men and women, radically changed by the truth that Jesus loves them fully & completely, strive to work out their difficulties in marriage? Would the world still be skeptical of the "hypocritical, right-wing, conservatives" or would Christianity be embraced because Christians radically loved the people around them into the kingdom instead of being known for judgementalism, selfishness & hypocrisy? What about me? If I can even remotely get how much Jesus loves me, how much will that change how I interact and treat my family, friends and neighbors? Will I continue to think about the cost to me or will I be so radically transformed that every time I give, it's out of sheer gratitude and worship for the God who gave His only son for me?

Our pastor has been going through Ephesians over the past several weeks and "Jesus Loves me, this I know" was the topic for this past Sunday. I feel like over the last year, we've really begun to see and believe that in our own lives and it has radically changed our faith in that short amount of time. We have believed God for things that we had never entirely trusted Him for before and our lives have taken on a depth that we had always wanted but never quite had. After this message totally wrecked me on Sunday, I started thinking about how life could be different if we all actually believed that Jesus loved us and, more importantly, how can my life continue to be different with BELIEF of this all-knowing, all-pervasive, radically-changing love? How will my life look if I let this belief affect other areas of my day-to-day life?

As I type this I feel prompted to try a little 40 day experiment. For the next 40 days, I'm going to strive to know the unknowable...to let Ephesians 3:17-19 pervade all areas of my life. "so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." I can't wait to let you know what God does! Day 1....

Jasmine's started walking & Lily heard from God

Hi everyone! Sorry it's been so long since I posted. We've had a busy last few weeks with Lily finishing up preschool, an open house to introduce Jasmine, Grandma Mary coming for a visit, Jasmine's MRI being redone and my birthday. Whew - no wonder I've been tired! :-)

Since I haven't updated on the family in some time, I thought I'd give you some of the highlights of what's been going on w/the Youngs. Some of the most exciting news is that in the middle of Jasmine's open house, she started taking her first steps! It was so exciting to share that w/ our friends that came! She's continuing to try and take steps here and there and her personality has really started to come through since the beginning of this month. It's been really fun to see her start to open up and flourish! She also had her rescheduled MRI about 10 days ago and we got the results back yesterday - NO SURGERY NEEDED! Yea God! That's a huge relief for us on a variety of levels. That should be the end of the tests that are needed and we are trusting God to work out the financial provision for those costs. Thank you God!

The other really amazing thing was that Lily heard from God for the first time! It was actually the next day at church and they were teaching the kids how to listen for God and how to hear from Him. Lily heard God tell her that He loved her and that she is very pretty and that God made flowers for her. How precious is that? What makes it even more special is that the next week at school and at the playground, there were a few boys that called her some names and we were able to remind her what God thought of her to counteract that. Our God is so good! I wish I had learned to listen to God when I was her age. Other than that, she seems to be going through cycles of fearing that we are going to leave her and wondering if we love her. This has come up recently so we've been trying to put extra effort into reassuring her that we are a forever family and she is our forever child. We chose her and we love her and we are not going to leave her. I'm not sure if she was triggered by Mother's Day and started thinking about her birth mom or what but we've been dealing w/that for the last couple of weeks. That's a pretty normal thing in adoption and if you don't allow the kiddos to express their feelings and talk about their fears, it will continue to come up w/more intensity each time. We've really worked hard to not take anything personally but to identify w/her grief and her loss and let her grieve when she needs to. My heart's desire for both of my girls is for God to completely heal the holes in their hearts and bring something beautiful out of the loss they've both experienced. I want my girls to fall in love with Jesus and see how He not only saved them from their sins (which is most important) but also from their old circumstances and to embrace the new legacy that He's given them. I pray that they'll be able to see how God was in the tiniest of details in their lives just as we've seen that in ours.

Besides all of the things going on w/our girls, we're in a holding pattern waiting to see what will happen with Jim's job. Between the economy and other circumstances, it's been a tough time for his employer. Please pray for them and pray for God's continued provision for our family. Whatever happens, we are trusting Him to take care of us.

God has continued to give me MULTIPLE opportunities to work on my insecurity. I've had to step outside my comfort zone and make conscious decisions in several areas to be secure and to brush off my fears of what others think. I've had to let go of "friendships" that weren't really friendships and continue with plans regardless of the outcome. Some things I've felt some measure of success in and others I've felt failure. I've done some overcoming and succumbed to criticism in other areas but all in all I'm thankful for the opportunities to grow in this huge issue. I can't help but once again think of how God is in the tiniest of details as this will be a necessary step in order to reach the next one that God has for me. I'm eager to see where this is all leading and see how all of the details are tied together but for now, I'm waiting and working on the things God has laid before me. It's hard to not jump ahead! :-)

Well, I'm off to get up my littlest turkey so I will def. try to update more soon. In the meantime, we continue to praise and thank God for His healing, provision, love and forgiveness. As one of my fav. worship songs says, "This I know, You are a Great God. This I know, You are a Great God. This I know, You are the ONE TRUE GOD, You are a Great God."

Lesson #2 with Insecurity - I am a dearly loved child of God

Hi everyone. Before I get to my latest thing I'm learning, I wanted to thank you all for your prayers for Jasmine. We will need to ask you to pray again in a few weeks as, today, after they put her under, the MRI broke down! They kept her under for 45 minutes while they tried to get it working again but to no avail. As a result, we have to repeat the test 2 weeks from today. Ugh! Frustrating to have to put our little girl through all of that again, especially after Jim took off the morning from work to watch Lily, but we're taking it all in stride. Thanks for your prayers and we'll keep you updated as the rescheduled MRI date approaches.

So, as far as my lessons with insecurity go, what I am thankful for in all of this is that I am a dearly loved child of God! It doesn't matter what I do or don't do, God still loves me fully and I am so incredibly thankful for that. There is nothing that I can do that will EVER separate me from His LOVE! Praise you, God, for your incredible love for me. Where my insecurity has come in has been in forgetting that I am dearly loved by God and feeling heartbroken over those that have chosen to "dump" me after 8 1/2 years of "friendship" and "doing life together." Why? I can speculate but really I have no idea. I'm sure we've all had "friendships" like that. The good news is that regardless of what others may do or say or how they flake, God will NOT! I was reminded of that tonight, as I was driving to yoga and a song came on the radio by David Crowder called "How He Loves us" The lyrics are:

"He is jealous for me, Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us oh
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all

And we are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If His grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
And heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way…

That He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves."

Oh, Praise God for His perfect timing and His incredible love! He continued to minister to me tonight throughout my yoga practice, on the way back home and even now as I'm typing, the "random" songs that have been coming up on my playlist have been ministering to my very soul. Who am I God, that you love me?! Rejected by many and yet you see my value and my heart and regardless of those, you still love me! Praise you God! I choose to believe that I am a dearly loved child of God. I want to leave you with one more song that was playing as I finished this blog. It's called "You Hold me Now" by Hillsong.

"On that day when I see
All that You have for me
When I see You face to face
There surrounded by Your grace
All my fears swept away
In the light of Your embrace
Where Your love is all I need
And forever I am free

Where the streets are made of gold
In Your presence healed and whole
Let the songs of heaven
Rise to You alone

No weeping no hurt or pain
No suffering You hold me now
You hold me now
No darkness no sick or lame
No hiding You hold me now
You hold me now

In this life I will stand
Through my joy and my pain
Knowing there's a greater day
There's a hope that never fails
Where Your Name is lifted high
And forever praises rise
For the glory of Your Name
I'm believing for the day

Where the wars and violence cease
All creation lives in peace
Let the songs of heaven
Rise to You alone

For eternity
All my heart will give
All the glory to Your Name"

MRI tomorrow

Hi everyone! I hope all of the moms had a wonderful Mother's Day the other day! Ours was relatively calm and peaceful so that was nice! I just wanted to ask for some prayers for Jasmine tomorrow as she'll be having an MRI to check out a perforation (sp?) in her lower back area. We're praying that this little area will be closed, in that it doesn't go to any vital areas like her bowels or her spinal cord. We ask for prayers for her as she'll have to be put under anesthesia to keep her perfectly still during the procedure. Please pray that she wouldn't suffer any adverse effects from the anesthesia and that the doctors would be able to get whatever information they need from this MRI so that she doesn't have to undergo any further testing. Thanks so much for your prayers and we'll keep you posted as soon as we're done tomorrow. The procedure is at 10:15 a.m. Thanks everyone and we'll talk to you soon!

Tackling insecurities

Sometimes I think I should change the title of this blog from "4-Ever Family" to "Diary of a Mad White Woman (spoof on Tyler Perry's movie) and Her Family's Efforts to Survive Her." I feel like I've been trying to be all things to all people ever since Lily came along (ok, since birth. Who am I kidding?) and it's, seriously, DRIVING ME CRAZY! Good wife, good mother, good friend, good sister, good daughter, good Christian, good involved church goer, good exerciser, good weight, etc. Why is it, as women, we are always striving to be everything to everyone? For me, I don't think it's perfectionism as much as it is people-pleasing. I hate to let people down so I try too hard to make them happy. I am a big mushball and get my heart broken easily so it's even worse if someone's upset or disappointed with me. I have a strong set of values that I won't break for anyone so when I do have to take a stand on something, it costs me in more ways than one. I guess it's good timing to have gone to the new Beth Moore simulcast yesterday called "So long Insecurity." As it turns out ALL of my people-pleasing is rooted in insecurity! Go figure! Wow, what a day! My brain still hurts. If any of you have ever either seen Beth Moore speak or done one of her studies, you know how intense and deep she is. Yesterday was no exception as we were encouraged to ask God to break the stronghold of insecurity in our lives and see how God uses us to change our culture as a result. No small challenge when you consider how deep and pervasive insecurity is in our lives. How many of us will miss out on God's calling in our lives because we were paralyzed by insecurity? Beth Moore said that insecurity is unbelief in God. Ouch! But it's so true, isn't it? If we FULLY believe that we are dearly loved children, as God has said in His word, and that we have been FULLY forgiven, then wouldn't that be the ultimate in security?! The funny thing is that for many of us, we think our insecurity is security because it keeps us in our comfort zone. The reality is that our insecurity keeps us from experiencing the real security of KNOWING without a shadow of a doubt that we are deeply loved children of God and FULLY forgiven. "If God is for us, then who can be against us?" I'm so tired of letting insecurity keep me from experiencing how deeply loved and fully forgiven I am. I'm scared of the process but I know that God will be faithful to complete the work He began in me and I'm trusting Him to do what He needs to do in me.

I can't help but think, once again, of God's perfect timing in bringing this up in my own life at this particular time. I've felt for a while that God is leading us up to something although I have no idea what it is and now I can't help but feel that perhaps He's wanting to get insecurity out of the way so that we are equipped to do whatever He's wanting to call us to do. Either way, I don't want to miss out on the bigger picture and I don't want to miss out on my calling, whatever that may be!

On other fronts, the "flower girls" are doing ok. Lily was sick one week and Jasmine has been sick this last week and VERY cranky so we've had a tough couple of weeks as a result. Playtime continues to be a challenge so please continue to pray for me as I continue to try and figure things out. I'm trusting God to continue to prompt me and I'll try to be faithful to follow through on what He directs.

Well, that's it for now. I have NO DOUBT that I'll be posting a lot about insecurity in the next few weeks and months as God brings me through this journey. Feel free to post back if you have any ideas that you think will be helpful or even share what you're learning as well! In all of these things, we are extremely thankful for an AMAZING and loving God who has done far more than we deserve in our lives!

Praise God.......yet again!

Thanks so much for your prayers! Praise God, my "mass" is a cyst or as the doctors said, "Holy cow, that's one honking big cyst!" Cracked me up! Anyway, I'm incredibly thankful and will be getting w/my doctor to see what the next step is. Thanks for praying!

Other than that we're all doing well. I'm still trying to figure out different ways to have more meaningful play time with the girls. I know that sounds weird to many of you but this is something that does not come naturally to me. I wish it did. We do, at least, have a great schedule in place, now we just need to fill it in with some substance. If anyone has any great suggestions that have worked for you and your kiddos, please feel free to pass along! I'm open! :-) I really want to create special moments with the girls each day as we play together. I want them to remember playing with their mom when they were little and to create these little "magical" moments with them that stimulates their imaginations and bonds us together.

Something else to pray for is for Jasmine and I to continue to bond. As I shared earlier, I've felt very disconnected since we've been home, a lot of that due to exhaustion, but disconnected nonetheless. I'm slowly getting my energy back by doing little things for myself and getting filled up but I really need to work at bonding with my littlest flower girl. Again, I'm open to suggestions if anyone has any great bonding ideas. I want both my girls to know, without a doubt, that their mommy loves them and thinks they're the most precious little girls. Thanks so much for your prayers on that as well!

In the meantime, we are so incredibly thankful & humbled for the MANY ways that God has blessed us. Thank you all for your love and support of our family.

Out of body experience

It's funny how certain life events can have you feeling like you're living someone else's life. I've got 2 of those circumstances going on right now. One is the surreal feeling I get when I look at my youngest daughter. I think of how long we prayed for her and dreamed of her and suddenly she's here. In my arms, no less! I can hardly wrap my mind around that fact, even 2 months later. The other is the feeling you have when you're facing a potential health crisis and your body has become a stranger to you. I'm going through that as well. Wednesday, I found a mass in my breast and Friday, I went to my OB/GYN to have it looked at. Tomorrow, I'll be having a mamogram and an ultrasound to determine if it's a minor issue such as a cyst or fybroid or something much more serious. So far so good, as my doctor is thinking it's probably a cyst. Either way, right now I feel like I'm having an out-of-body experience. I'm watching myself live my life that feels really surreal right now. I feel incredibly thankful and peaceful and yet tiny bits of anxiety pervade here and there. I'm a mom of two now. Am I doing a good enough job raising my girls and loving them so that they see Jesus in me? What if something were to happen to me.....how would they remember me? Am I leaving them a legacy of love or one of confusion 'cause mommy says one thing and does another? I know this sounds maudlin but I've really been doing some soul searching lately, prior to the Wednesday shocker. I want, more than anything in the world, to be right in the center of where God wants me, doing what He wants me to do and I've wondered if I'm in that place or not. I'm at home with my girls, yes, but since we've been home I've felt exhausted and lethargic and at times, checked out. I've been told this is normal (called the "post adoption blue") but it's frustrating because I know my girls need me and I haven't felt like I've been there for them since we've been home. I've started to do some things for myself like go from 2 to 5 workouts (hard core)/week and I've made huge changes to our diet. All of these have had me feeling better quickly but I still worry about how to leave a legacy to my girls and be more purposeful at home. I NEVER want to be someone who says one thing and does another. I want to be full of integrity so that what you see is what you get - at home, with friends, at church, etc. Whether or not this mass turns out to be anything really doesn't matter. What does matter is how I live my life with the time & gifts I've been given. I have an old friend from college who is dealing with this reality right now. She is mom of 2 youngsters and my age (40) and unless God does a miracle, she has 6-12 months left to live due to an aggressive brain cancer. We just don't know, do we?

What I keep coming back to is cancer or no-cancer, God is an amazing God and I'm incredibly thankful for all that He's done for me and my family. He will be faithful to complete the work He began in me and that includes the "mom" end of things. He's met me at my deepest need and continues to meet all of our other needs. He directed us and then stood by us when we decided to sell our old house and everyone thought we were nuts. He moved us to an incredible neighborhood with wonderful new friends and neighbors. He's brought incredible amounts of love and healing to us after leaving our church of 8 years under heartbreaking circumstances. He provided through precious friends and family when not one grant agency would, getting us to China and back again with our precious girls. And, the shortfall that we experienced prior to leaving, He's provided a way to pay that off! On Friday we pay off the last of the adoption debt! "Thank you God" seems so inadequate! God is amazing and I feel so privileged to be called His child! I want to be a reflection of Jesus so that my girls can see how amazing He is and grow up loving Him the way I do. We will all have tough times but with God's help, we can grow deeper and deeper so that not one single tear is wasted. With God, all things have meaning.

I wanted to leave you with the lyrics of a new song we learned this week at church called "All Because of Jesus" by Steve Fee. It goes like this:

"Giver of every breath I breathe
Author of all eternity
Giver of every perfect thing
To you be the glory

Maker of heaven and of earth
No one can comprehend your worth
King over all the universe
To you be the glory

I'm alive because I'm alive in You

It's all because of Jesus I'm alive
It's all because the blood of Jesus Christ
That cover's me and raised this dead man's life
It's all because of Jesus I'm alive

Every sunrise sings Your praise
The universe cries out your praise
I'm singing freedom all my days
Now that I'm alive"

New pics

Hi everyone. Just a quick note to let you know I've posted some new pics of our girls, as promised. Jim was off today (Good Friday) so we spent some time together at the zoo this morning before the storm blew in. Enjoy the pics! Love you all.

God is so good...still

Wow, long time, no post! Hi everyone! I'm so sorry it's been such a long time since my last post. We've been busy trying to get into routines, had Jasmine's baby dedication and we've all been fighting colds and such so it's been difficult to update. It's hard to believe that as of tomorrow, we'll have had Jasmine for 2 months and we'll have been home for 1 1/2 months! What an amazing adventure this has been! I continue to reflect back over the last year and am so humbled at how good God has been to us. Isn't it awesome that God's love and provision are not dependent on our behavior?! One of my favorite songs that we sing at church is called "Savior" The lyrics are:

"I have seen with my own eyes your faithfulness, oh, God.
I refuse to believe the lies that war against my soul.
You rescued me from all my fears, and loosed the chains of
wasted years.

You're my Savior, restorer, rebuilder, rewarder.
My refuge, redeemer, defender, my healer, Savior

Now my heart is overwhelmed by all sufficient grace.
For I have found my weaknesses become your perfect strength.
You rescued me from all my fears, and loosed the chains of
wasted years.

You're my Savior, restorer, rebuilder, rewarder.
My refuge, redeemer, defender, my healer, Savior

Behold the One who holds me in His hands.
The God who comes and turns my mourning
into dance.

You're my Savior, restorer, rebuilder, rewarder.
My refuge, redeemer, defender, my healer, Savior"

A few weeks ago, I was at church by myself (sick kiddo) and when we sang this song, I felt like God showed me how He has been all of these things to us, especially in this last year. He broke the chains that bound us for years. He is our savior and He's restored us, rebuilt us, rewarded us, been a refuge for us, a redeemer and he's defended our names. He's healed us. Praise God for His incredible faithfulness! No matter how many times we may walk away, get frustrated or not do all of the right things, He is still faithful! We had communion that day and I was reminded again at how God met us at our point of need at the cross. Wow, that hit me big time. Not only has He met us at our point of need over this last year but He did it at the cross too. I am forever His child, adopted into His family because He met me at my point of need! How amazing is that?! He will ALWAYS meet us at our point of need! There is hope, no matter how tough your situation is, because God will meet your DEEPEST need! Psalm 46:1-11 says:
"God is our refuge and strength,
always ready to help in times of trouble.
2 So we will not fear when earthquakes come
and the mountains crumble into the sea.
3 Let the oceans roar and foam.
Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge!
4 A river brings joy to the city of our God,
the sacred home of the Most High.
5 God dwells in that city; it cannot be destroyed.
From the very break of day, God will protect it.
6 The nations are in chaos,
and their kingdoms crumble!
God’s voice thunders,
and the earth melts!
7 The Lord of Heaven’s Armies is here among us;
the God of Israel is our fortress.
8 Come, see the glorious works of the Lord:
See how he brings destruction upon the world.
9 He causes wars to end throughout the earth.
He breaks the bow and snaps the spear;
he burns the shields with fire.
10 “Be still, and know that I am God!
I will be honored by every nation.
I will be honored throughout the world.”
11 The Lord of Heaven’s Armies is here among us;
the God of Israel is our fortress.

We are living some of this right now with natural disasters right and left and a government that is out of control. But God is in control and is our refuge and strength. Amen to that!

One more thing to share about what I'm learning. The following week at church we were all able to go together and one of the things they shared in the worship set was from Psalm 3:1-6. It says:
"O Lord, I have so many enemies;
so many are against me.
2 So many are saying,
“God will never rescue him!”
3 But you, O Lord, are a shield around me;
you are my glory, the one who holds my head high.
4 I cried out to the Lord,
and he answered me from his holy mountain.
5 I lay down and slept,
yet I woke up in safety,
for the Lord was watching over me.
6 I am not afraid of ten thousand enemies
who surround me on every side."

David was able to sleep, despite being surrounded by enemies because of His confidence that God was stronger than His enemies. The speaker pointed out that we all believe that God is stronger than others but did we ever stop to think that God is stronger than me? So, Jesus is not only stronger than my enemies but He's stronger than me! That means that I don't have to worry that I'm weak because Jesus is stronger than me. Thank God for that! I don't know about you but I know that I'm not strong enough so it's a huge load off to know that God is. Period!

Well, I just had to share some of what I'm learning. Hope that was ok. On the family front, we're all hanging in there. We've had good and bad days trying to figure things out but God has been good. We continue to bond and some days are tougher than others but we're trusting God to be faithful to complete the work He began in our family. Jasmine is doing well, health-wise, other than an on-going cold. We're still waiting to hear back on some of the tests that were done but overall, she seems to be doing well. We've decided to hold off on having her evaluated for delays for a few months to give her a chance to get used to her new surroundings and get a better feel for the new language. Sometime this summer, we'll go ahead w/the evals. and see where we're at, delay-wise. We did have her baby dedication on March 7 and it was really special. Thanks to our precious family and friends for making it a really wonderful day! God is so good! We'll try and get some photos at some point to post.

Lily is doing better, overall. Switching the rooms around and trying to have more one-on-one time has really helped. We're still dealing with on-going issues of teaching her to be more gentle and kind to her sister but all are within the normal range so that's ok.

Finance-wise, we are really amazed and thankful at how God is making our dollars stretch! We were really panicked after we got home, trying to figure out how to make things work out with all of the new expenses and medical costs but somehow, God is making it work. We bought a Dave Ramsey book and have implemented his strict plans to paying off debt and it's all working so praise God for that! I HIGHLY recommend his materials, if you're in a similar place. Awesome tools and it's an easy read! At any rate, we've eliminated our cell phones as part of our debt reduction strategy so if you get a strange message saying the phone was disconnected, you know why! :-) Regardless, our new budget is working well and God is incredibly faithful so thank you all for your prayers for us!

That's it for now. We continue to thank God for all of you for your INCREDIBLE support and prayers on our behalf! We are so blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives and we are so incredibly grateful for all of you! I will try and do a better job of posting more often. I do have some new pics to upload and post so I'll try and do that soon. In the meantime, I'm going to finish this so I can take my girls to the zoo! It's supposed to be in the 70's today and I'm not going to miss a great opportunity to be outside on a beautiful day. Love you all and talk to you soon! :-)

Getting settled in

Hi everyone! We want to thank you all SO much for all of your prayers, encouragement, emails, etc. All of your suggestions have rocked and all seem to be helping us all settle both girls into more of a routine. We're still having our moments with Lily but the severity, compared with last week, has lessened considerably! Yea God!

So, we've mostly got the girls' rooms moved and are trying to put some things back together. We're still unpacking from the trip but overall I feel like we're finally settling back in and feeling more comfortable with each other.

As far as Jasmine goes, we have another upper G.I. scheduled for Thursday morning that will be a little more in depth to take a look at whatever the radiologist saw last time. Additionally, we're going to be consulting a orthopedic about Jasmine's wrist as well as consult w/one of the local pediatric rehab centers about evaluating Jasmine's delays. Our hope and prayer is that all of these will go smoothly and will require little or no further follow-up.

We decided to try 1 more time to appeal to the Gift of Adoption grant and see if they will come alongside of us to help us with the last of the adoption costs. It's frustrating and yet amazing because we've not gotten help from 1 single grant organization and yet God has still come through for us. We're so thankful that we have a God who promises to provide for our every need and we continue to trust Him in all things.

I almost forgot! This Sunday, we'll be dedicating Jasmine at church. My family will be driving down from Denver-area and a few friends will be joining us to dedicate this precious girl. I'll be sure to post plenty of pictures for you all to enjoy! If you live in the area and want to come, please let me know ahead of time so I can reserve some seats for you.

We'll continue to keep you posted but in the meantime, I wanted to share a couple of pics of the "flower girls", as I like to call them! :-) Thank you all for your continued prayers! You have made such a difference in our lives and we are truly thankful for all of you! :-)

Great ideas!

Thank you all for your encouragement and some really great ideas! We're going to try them all and see what works. Today was a better day, Thank God, so we're extremely thankful for that. Some of the ideas had to do with taking the negative and turning it into a positive by engaging Lily's help with Jing Jing and really celebrating her role as a big sister. One friend had additionally thought having Lily help with things that are more nurturing like helping put lotion on Jasmine for example. She also suggested having mini-one-on-one time with both girls by literally bouncing from one girl to the other and having 5 minutes here and 5 minutes there while the other one is occupied w/a play activity. We're going to continue to reinforce discipline/time-outs when she doesn't behave and try to help her put herself in Jing Jing's shoes. Hopefully between all of these ideas and switching their rooms around, we'll see a little bit of progress. In all of this, we continue to trust God for strength and wisdom and discernment as we see what works and what doesn't. Thanks again everyone and we'll continue to keep you posted!

Bad day

Hi everyone. I just wanted to do another quickie update to ask again for your prayers. Yesterday was such a bad day for me. I think I shared that Lily was acting out quite a bit but yesterday it started first thing in the morning and went ALL day! It was a very discouraging day and to top it off, Jasmine was quite cranky as well which left us both completely drained and discouraged last night. I just want to ask for wisdom and discernment as we try and figure out the best way to handle Lily's behavior as well as give both girls the attention and love that they need. It feels like a fine balance a lot of times. I think the worse part about it is that Lily seems to have no remorse whatsoever when she's confronted and it's that part that REALLY bothers me. Please pray for wisdom and discernment there. I really long to see her heart connected to her decisions (I guess by heart, I mean conscience.)

We are going to try a couple of things to see if they help. The main one has to do with making sure that she still has a personal space. (That was a recommendation of Adoption.com) So, we're going to separate the girls and bring their play room into their rooms which will require us to move around some furniture this weekend. Additionally, we're trying to work it out so each of us has some one-on-one time w/both girls every day if not each week. Again, we're still trying to figure out how that will look so we'd appreciate your prayers as we continue to try and figure out what will work and what won't. If anyone has any great ideas, please feel free to pass them along! We're totally open.

Also, I do have a slight update on Jasmine's tests. It looks like she does NOT have acid reflux, which is awesome, however the radiologist did see some kind of twist or kink either in her intestines or stomach that he would like further testing on. We don't know what this means but are awaiting our pediatrician's call on what test they want to do next. We're praying that everything will come back normal and for wisdom and discernment for the doctors. Everything in her wrist appears to be normal (so weird!) but our doctor may have us take her to an orthopedic surgeon to further consult on that one so we'll keep you posted. All of her lab work appeared to come back normal but unfortunately the lab messed up (twice now) on one of the tests so we'll have to take her back in a third time to repeat that test.

I think that's it for now. Thanks again, everyone, for all of your encouragement and support! We could not do this without you and without God. We are trusting Him to guide us in this as He knows both of our daughters' hearts better than we do. Thank you, God, for not leaving us alone!

Settling in

Hi everyone. Sorry it's been a week or so since I last posted. We've had a rough transition home and, while some things are still rough, we're getting over some humps with Jasmine. Thanks so much for all of your prayers! Seriously! It's the prayers and encouragement that are getting us through right now so thank you for making a difference!

So, Jasmine seems to be settling in nicely. We're finally getting some sleep as Jasmine has slept through the night for the last 6 nights! Yeah God! This week, Jim went back to work so I've been trying to muddle through on my own and adjust to our new "old" schedule again but this time with 2 kiddos. Lily, on the other hand, is now starting to act out quite a bit and every day since we got home has felt like a battle with her. I'd really appreciate your prayers as I feel like I'm at my wit's end right now and really need God's wisdom and discernment to help get her settled in and to know when to nurture and when to discipline. I'm still exhausted from everything so that hasn't helped either. It's funny because I really thought that I had prepared myself for how hard it would be with Lily adjusting to a new sister but I think when I saw how well she did in China, I hoped that it would go easier than it's going. I guess, as is true w/most things, there's really only a certain point that you can prepare yourself to and after that, you just have to go through it.

As far as the tests go, we were able to get all of the lab work done by the weekend and then her upper G.I. and xrays of her wrist were done on Monday. We're now waiting for all of the results to come back. It does appear that she does NOT have acid reflux but something else did come up that the Dr. wanted to check his films further on. No idea what that was but we're praying for a clean bill of health and are hoping to hear back this week on all of the results. We will definitely keep you posted.

As tough as things have been, we wouldn't change a thing. We know that God's plan is WAY better than anything we could ever imagine and we KNOW that this is God's plan for our family. We have no idea how God's going to take care the rest of the adoption expenses, how we're all going to bond & attach or how to best come alongside of Lily but we KNOW that He is in control and that He loves us and He WILL NOT LEAVE US OR FORSAKE US! Praise God that even in our toughest times, He is there and gives us everything we need. We don't deserve a thing from Him and yet He still blesses us and provides for us. Amazing! Please continue to pray for us as we work through this tough time and we'll be in touch soon. We love you all!

Mini update and prayer request

Hi everyone! I still want to update on our last day or so leaving Hong Kong and San Francisco but wanted to give you a little update on what's been going on since we arrived home. We continue to need prayers for rest as the past couple of days since we arrived home have been really brutal. The jet lag has really affected all of us and, on top of that, Jasmine hasn't been sleeping much at night so we're additionally exhausted from that.

So, the main part of this update relates to Jasmine's first visit with our pediatrician yesterday and the main part of our prayer request. We found out that she definitely has a severe allergy to milk and probable acid reflux, double ear infection and a broken wrist that was not treated! The obvious emotional trauma and loss aside, no wonder our girl has been hysterical at night! We will be taking her in on Monday for an Upper G.I. to test for the acid reflux & x-ray her wrist and ask for wisdom and discernment for our doctor as we try to eliminate all of the physical things that have been bothering her for quite a while. Our doctor will also be doing some blood work and stool samples to test for parasites, hepatitis, iron levels & vaccination levels (many orphanages water down their vaccines). We ask for your prayers over all of these things, that she would be healed physically as well as emotionally and mentally from all that she's been through. Additionally, we know that she has some slight delays, which will also be evaluated, but are hopeful that clearing up some of the physical symptoms (i.e. broken wrist) & lots of love and nurturing will help get her caught up. We'd like to ask for prayer for us for wisdom and discernment to help figure out the best ways to love and nurture her while still getting the rest we need to be the best we can for each other and her. And obviously, prayers for bonding, attachment, healing and REST would be HUGELY appreciated as well.

We'll be meeting w/our caseworker on Sunday afternoon and have already gotten some fantastic support from our agency so once again, we are incredibly thankful for CCAI! Thank God for them! Seriously!

One last prayer request is the financial end of things. We were turned down by the last of the grant agencies so between whatever medical bills and the $3600 we were short for the adoption, we're needing & trusting God to still provide. Please pray that our faith would remain strong and for God's provision.

As far as Lily goes, she was absolutely AMAZING during our trip but now that we're home and reality has sunk in, she's having a harder time and is acting out. We ask for your prayers for us and Lily that we have wisdom and discernment to love and nurture her through this big change in her life. She is doing fantastic at preschool and has transitioned beautifully back into her class and routine so Praise God for that!

Before I close, I do want to share 1 last praise. After the Doctor's visit and some of CCAI's fantastic resources, we tried something slightly different last night w/Jasmine's bedtime and raised 1 side of her mattress to help w/the acid reflux. She slept for about 7 hours straight. PRAISE GOD! She slept which meant we all slept! We're trying the same thing tonight and hoping we stumbled onto a few keys to night time sleep. We'll keep you posted.

Well, once again, thank you all for all of your prayers and encouragement. We've been blown away by all of the support and feel so blessed to have you in our lives!

We're home!

Yea God! As you saw, from Jim's earlier post, we are home! We were unable to post anything once we flew to mainland China due to the government restrictions on blogs. We had no access to any blogs, facebook or twitter and so could only send out limited emails. So sorry for the long absence but hopefully this will help you all get caught up!

It was a harrowing trip home as there was a lot of turbulance and we're completely exhausted from the trip & jet lag and from dealing w/Jasmine's tough times. There's more to update but for right now, please continue to pray for us as the last few days home have been extremely rough. Acclimating our bodies back to this time zone has been tough enough but we've had multiple sleepless nights because Jasmine has been inconsolable for hours on end. Please pray for wisdom and discernment and REST!!!! We are so beyond depleted right now and really need God's hand on our family.

For now, please feel free to go back through the blog and read the stories and see the new pictures. It took me about 3 hours to update and I've not even tackled the videos or our facebook yet! I'm trying to do this while things are still fresh so I can have these memories forever. Thanks so much for your prayers and we'll talk to you soon! :-)

2/13/10 – Departure Eve

1 more day until we leave! Yea God! Hi everyone. We wanted to say thank you so much for all of your prayers and encouragement. You have all been absolutely amazing in supporting us and we thank God for you all the time. We have not had the quiet times that we had hoped while we’ve been gone, we’ve been brought to the brink (especially me) and back and yet God has still NEVER forsaken us nor stopped watching over us. We don’t deserve such an amazing God.

It’s hard to believe that this part of our journey is almost over. In so many ways, it feels like months and months since we’ve been gone. We’ve really been able to experience quite a bit of Jasmine’s culture and as enjoyable as that’s been, we are so ready to get home and get back into some routines. We are completely counting on God (“Counting on God” by Desperation Band has become our mantra for this whole journey) to finish the bonding and attachment that He has already completed in Heaven. I’m reminded again how, with God, there is only NOW and NOW has been finished. It helps remind me that I don’t need to do God’s job because it’s already done. I just need to focus on my part. It’s amazing how relieving that is!

At any rate, this will be my last post until we get home. We’ll continue to need your prayers as we expect the first few weeks to be rough and exhausting as we acclimate back to a 15 hour time difference and the exhaustion from the trip, not to mention adjusting to a new family member & her adjustment to us. We’ll be clinging to God to get us through and can’t wait until things begin to level out a little. We’ll be overwhelmed a lot and will need your prayers and encouragement to get us through the tough times ahead. Thank you again for partnering with us on this journey! Much more to come!

Jing-zilla takes the Consulate

Hi everyone! Sorry it’s been a couple of days but things have finally wound down and we are so ready to get home! Wednesday (our time) we went to the Guangzhou Zoo for ½ day and had a great time. The zoo is so beautiful with tons of Banyan and Hong Kong orchid trees and many others. I can tell that Guangzhou must live up to it’s moniker, “city of flowers” in the spring and summer as it’s gorgeous in winter. We were reminded a little bit of the San Diego zoo because of all of the gorgeous scenery that surrounds all of the walkways in the zoo. We had a blast seeing all of the animals and it was a refreshing change of scenery for the morning.

Wednesday afternoon was our appointment with the Consulate so we went on a bus with about 34 other families staying at the White Swan. It ended up being a rough afternoon as Jing Jing had not napped enough. She ended up pitching the fit of the century (REALLY) while we were waiting with all of the other families in the waiting area. That was a fun time. NOT! At any rate, daddy took over and gave mommy a break and she calmed down quickly after that. (Yeah, mommy’s pride took a severe beating.) Later (much later) we were able to joke a little bit about Jing-zilla (no disrespect intended) emerging and taking the consulate. It’s funny the things you laugh about when you’re beat up and tired! Sometimes humor is the only thing left.

Thursday morning, after our bed tried, unsuccessfully, to kill us again, we decided to spend some quality time outside as it was a rare gorgeous day out. (Normally winter time is rainy season so we’ve seen a lot of rain.) Jim & Lily did a local park while I stayed w/ Jing Jing to make sure she got a nap in. After we decided to check out the swimming pool which is outdoors to see if we could do a little swimming while it was hot and nice out. Apparently, there’s no heater so the water was a chilly 69 degrees! We actually went in anyway and tried to convince ourselves it was hot. Ridiculous but we had fun!

Later that day we took Jing Jing to the clinic for the third time because we could still hear garbage rattling around in her chest and wanted to make sure we stayed on top of it. Thankfully this time they gave her a nebulizer treatment which helped clear up things dramatically. Yea God! The other “yea God” was we emailed our pediatrician w/some questions relating to her treatment and they got back to us immediately with some answers, so we’re very thankful. We’d appreciate your prayers for both girls as we get ready to head back to the States, that the flight would go smoothly for them and us and that we’d figure out the right mixture of sleep so that we can all get a jumpstart back on to our time zone.

Today and tomorrow will be uneventful days for us as almost everyone has left and most of the shops will be closed for Chinese New Year. We’ve done over half of our packing today and expect to finish the rest tomorrow, as we’ll be leaving early Sunday morning to get to the airport. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to walk as this bed is seriously debilitating us both. ;-) We’re hopeful that we’ll be able to update our blog and facebook page once we get to Hong Kong and may try to upload some pics and journal entries then. Otherwise, we’ll be updating you all when we get to San Francisco on Sunday. Thanks in advance, for prayers for safe travels.
Thanks so much for all of your prayers. Despite some really rough moments, we’ve had good ones too and believe that God has had His Hand on us this whole time. We feel so incredibly blessed and thankful that He loves us so much! Truly, what an amazing God we have! We can’t wait to see you all soon!

Guangzhou & the Pearl Market

Hi everyone! I wanted to write a little bit about Guangzhou. We have to say that it actually might turn out to be our favorite amongst all 3 cities that we’ve been in. We’ve arrived during their winter, which is their rainy season. Most of the days have been warm but so far it’s rained every single day we’ve been here except for the morning of our clinic visit. While the traffic is still pretty thick around town, the drivers don’t try to kill each other the way they did in Chengdu. The Hotel that we’re staying at, the White Swan Hotel, is located on Shamian Island, which is right next to the Pearl River, which is the 3rd largest river in China. My favorite part about this area is the HUGE Banyan trees that line the streets near our hotel. Most of these trees are older than 100 years old and form huge canopies over the sidewalks and streets. Guangzhou will be hosting the 2010 Asian games in November so they’ve been doing a massive facelift to spruce up this already gorgeous city. Most of the buildings near our hotel have scaffolding surrounding them as they complete the renovations. Our guide, Jason, told us that they’ve already been working on the renovations for a few months already and will be continuing those for another 3-6 months, all paid for by the government.

Yesterday, we had the privilege of going to the pearl market and I have to say it wasn’t quite what I expected. I was thinking it would be this huge outdoor marketplace with all sorts of vendors and booths but that was not the case. We arrived to this huge mall (at least 7 stories tall) and it was filled from top to bottom w/jewelry wholesalers of every possible kind. Many stores had already closed up shop for Chinese New Year but many were still open. Our guide, Jason, took us to a specific vendor, otherwise we would have been overwhelmed by the choices. We did get each of our girls a small pearl pendant to give to them either as a graduation gift or a wedding gift, but we could have bought full on pearl necklaces, bracelets and earrings of a variety of qualities of pearls and them designed however we wanted.

Today was mostly a free day. Our guide, Jason, presented our paperwork to the US consulate so we had to stay in our rooms for about ½ hour in case the Consulate had any questions about our paperwork. Thankfully, everything went smoothly! Yea God! So tomorrow morning, we’ll go visit the Chengdu Zoo and in the afternoon, we’ll go to the Consulate to take our oath. Once again, thanks to Jason & our agency, all of the hard work is done for us so we’re basically finished with all of our paperwork. On Thursday, he’ll pick up Jasmine’s visa and we’re all done until we leave!

We can’t believe we only have about 5 more days here! Yea God! As amazing as it’s been, we’re really ready to come home and get into a regular routine. Things have definitely gotten better so thanks so much for all of your prayers and encouragement! I know I say that a lot but I REALLY mean it! We still have a ways to go towards attachment but bonding has begun and the foundation is laid. We’re trusting God to knit our hearts together as He did with Lily.

Jing Jing’s cold seems to be getting better. It did get into her chest a little bit but it appears that all of the meds the docs gave us seem to be working. We took her back to the clinic today to check her progress and we’re given a few more days worth of meds to hopefully knock everything out. We ask for your prayers for complete healing for her so that our return flights home won’t be completely miserable.

Lily’s also doing much better. Those 2 days where she seemed to be really grieving the loss of her birth mom, have eased up a bit and now we’ve added Daisy to our prayers at night. Once again, we’re trusting God to heal her precious heart and give us wisdom to know how to deal with things and hopefully handle them in a way that will promote that healing and trust in God. She’s still dealing w/jealousy off and on but that’s also normal. Again, that routine at home will be really helpful in getting us all into a groove again.

As for Jim & I, we’re really hanging in there thanks to your prayers and God’s grace! This has been extremely stressful, emotional, exhausting and amazing and God’s really given us the strength to pull together and get through this as a team. We are so incredibly thankful! We would ask your prayers as this has brought up more feelings of grief from our former church situation, that God would continue to heal our hearts and help us forgive and let go and let God be our defender and protector. It’s funny how sometimes these happy times can be so bittersweet. You appreciate what you have now because of what you went through and yet with the new, you grieve what was lost. Over the last year, we’ve experienced a new house, new neighborhood, new church, new friends & new family member and yet it’s been a year of loss as well. But in and through it all, God has shown Himself to be ALL that we need! Praise God for His incredible faithfulness and love! “Who am I that you are mindful of me?”

Well, needless to say, we can’t wait to see you all soon! We found out that our flight into Hong Kong was cancelled so they’ve put us on an earlier flight, which means we’ll have a 10 hour+ lay-over in Hong Kong, before we leave for home. We’d really appreciate your prayers over our flights and both girls doing well on both flights as well as prayer for something that we could do besides sit around the airport for 10+ hours. We could take a train back to Disneyland as it’s a very short trip from the airport but aren’t sure if we can get tickets or not. Please pray that we wouldn’t have any other cancellations and are able to work out those details. Well, talk to you all soon and thanks again for the incredible difference you’ve made in our lives! ☺

We’re in Guangzhou!

Hi everyone! Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve emailed. We got into Guangzhou late on Friday night our time and it’s been a little busy ever since. We’re staying at the White Swan Hotel, which is where most of the adoptive parents stay when they come through here and it’s absolutely gorgeous! They have a huge koi pond and waterfall on the inside of the hotel and it sits right on the Pearl River so it’s absolutely beautiful. Much nicer than the other hotels we’ve stayed in.

So on Saturday, we all met up in the Swan Room (as the other family in our group is staying in a different hotel), which is the cutest little play room right in the hotel for all of the families to bring their children. We had to do some Visa paperwork, which took all of ½ hour thanks to our awesome CCAI guide, Jason! I have to say that this is really where you want to have a rockin’ agency – in country! SERIOUSLY! In Chengdu, 1 lady who was traveling alone got held up because she didn’t have a certain piece of paperwork that her agency didn’t tell her about and we breezed right through every part. Jason made the Visa paperwork easy and then walked us through getting Jasmines’ Visa paperwork and her doctors’ visit.
So the visit to the doctor was an interesting experience! Jasmine has to have a physical for her Visa/immigration paperwork. There were about 50+ other families there who were also adopting and so it was total chaos in the clinic! Once again, I was so thankful for CCAI because Jason walked us through each station and we were able to breeze right in and out of that clinic no problem. Because he had done whatever paperwork , we were able to jump ahead of those 50 other families who didn’t have that paperwork completed when we arrived! So, a word to the wise – if you’re planning on adopting internationally, find out about their in-country process. Do they have reps in-country that actually live in-country who can walk you through things? How happy are the families who adopted? If the in-country experience wasn’t good – run!

So, once we finished with the clinic, we were off for the rest of the day. Lily and I tried to go swimming while Jasmine was sleeping but realized that the pool wasn’t heated so it was a cold 50 degrees or so. Oh well! On Day 3 in Guangzhou, which was yesterday, Jason arranged a cultural tour for us. First, we went to a Buddhist monastery, which was about 800 years old. Apparently, everyone heads to the temple to pray or do whatever to make penance for the past year and start fresh for the next year. So, needless to say, the monastery was very crowded w/all sorts of people making their offerings to Buddha and praying to him. I originally thought it would be interesting to go and when we were told that the priests would give the babies a blessing if we liked, thought that would be a nice cultural experience. I have to say that we both wanted to weep over these precious people who were bowing down and worshipping this metal idol. When we got to where the priests were doing the blessing, we decided to refrain, as they were blessing the families w/water that was offered to the idol, not to mention the families were asked to take off their shoes and bow before the idol. I had to walk out, feeling grief over watching people worship this fake god and not the 1 true God. They didn’t know what they were doing was wrong but I could almost feel God’s grief over people He loves, worshiping other gods.

The rest of the tour, other than being in the pouring rain, was less eventful. We got to go to a museum to view a variety of Chinese art, which was really spectacular. The Chinese artists really put other artists to shame with their amazing detail in the their carvings or paintings. It’s really incredible.. After that we went to a store that sells a variety of porcelain, paintings, embroidery, jade and other items – all handmade. Then yesterday afternoon, while the girls were sleeping w/daddy, I hooked w/the girls from our other family group to do a little shopping and haggling! I did pretty well, once I got the hang of things, and would love to go shopping again just so I can try out my newly acquired haggling skills. ☺

Today, we’re going to a pearl market where they have a variety of types, sizes and colors of pearls at a wholesale price. I don’t think we’ll really buy much even though we were told to expect prices 1/6 of what we would pay in the US. It’ll be fun to go, and see what it’s like.

So that’s been our itinerary over these last few days. Physically and emotionally, it’s been much more difficult. We’ve been tired from having Jasmine not sleep well and sore from carrying her in the mai tai and sore from the traveling and rock hard beds. Jasmine’s cold has been getting worse so we finally had to take her to a clinic on the 3rd floor of our hotel (yup, they have a clinic too!). They prescribed a few different medicines for her that seem to be helping so we’ll see if that’ll do the trick. On top of that, Lily’s been having a rough time. Seeing Jasmine adopted and that process has really brought a lot of feelings and questions to the surface about her birth mom, Daisy. She’s been expressing grief over missing her birth mom and being worried about her and wishing that she was with her so that things could feel “normal.” I so understand that desire for “normal”. For the longest time after my miscarriage, the desire to not have that hole in my heart and to have back “normal” was my deepest desire. I eventually learned, over time, how to live with the hole and to accept a new “normal” in my life but that was a huge struggle for me. It’s breaking my heart to see my daughter struggle with that and yet I know that it’s important for healing, for her to go through this process. My dad, who is a social worker, has assured me that this is a good thing that she’s going through this now rather than stuffing it and acting out later so that’s helped us to feel a little bit better. Ultimately, my precious daughter’s healing is in God’s hands and I need to trust Him to heal her as He’s healed me.

So, this has been quite the couple of days and yet, we’ve felt God’s presence throughout all of it and are so thankful for Him, the one TRUE, LIVING GOD! Thank GOD that He is a living God! I can’t imagine how desolate and hopeless life would be if I worshipped a God that was made by man and wasn’t even alive!

Well, Jasmine has started to stir so I’d better get going so I can finally update you all. Thank you again for all of your prayers! You are all making such a difference and I can’t thank you enough for being warriors on our behalf! ☺ I can’t wait until we can see you all again and introduce you to Jing Jing!

Shopping in Chengdu

Hi everyone! I just wanted to say thank you so much for all of your prayers and encouragement this morning after I emailed our little prayer request to you! Jing Jing’s teething and had gotten up w/a slight fever and was pretty fussy. After I emailed, she fell asleep in the Mai Tai w/Jim and slept for 2 hours! Poor little sweetie! Our guide, Anita, had told us that typically days 3 & 4 tend to be more rough because the babies begin to realize that they’re not on vacation and start to recognize that things are changing and different. We’ve noticed that first thing in the morning and bedtime are the rough times for Jing Jing so thank you for your prayers over those times for all of us! Tomorrow we’ll be flying to Guangzhou and leave around 5:45pm. It’s a 2 hour flight which means we’ll be getting in right when the girls will both be tired so we’d appreciate your prayers over that as well.
Today was our shopping day in Chengdu so, while Jim stayed w/Jing Jing in the room, Lily & I went w/our group to Jinli Street to shop for cultural souvenirs. We were able to find a few treasures that were all hand-made and specific to this city and province to have for Jasmine as she gets older. It was so much fun to walk down this street which felt like an alley from “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” The street was festively decorated for Chinese New Year with both sides lined with a canopy of red lanterns and all of the quaint shops tucked into little nooks and crannies. I wish you could have been there! There’s so much character and energy to this city that I have to say that, despite my initial intimidation, I’ve really grown to love it here. I will truly miss Chengdu after we leave. The people have been so warm and welcoming towards us that I’ll always treasure having come here. Of course, it helped to have a little blond haired celebrity in our midst! ;-) Lily continued to charm and once again we were mobbed several times with people wanting to take pictures with her and give her hugs. Reality back at home for her is going to suck! ☺ After coming back to the hotel and getting all of our Adoption documents from Anita, we all decided to go to the local bookstore to pick up a couple of baby books in Chinese & English for our kiddos. It was one of the biggest bookstores I’ve ever seen – at least 3 stories tall and filled to the brim w/every kind of topic known to man. We were able to buy a couple of baby books w/English and Chinese as well as a couple of puzzles w/both Chinese and English. They’ll all be great little treasures to have from our trip to Chengdu.

On a quick side note, we did hear back from the grant agency who turned us down last time and they have turned us down again. We have 1 more that we haven’t heard from yet but are continuing to trust God in all things. He will not let us down and we praise and thank Him for that!

We’re now settling down in our room to have dinner and get the girls off to bed so I’ll say goodnight for now. I’ll try and email tomorrow, otherwise I’ll for sure email the day after tomorrow. We love you all and seriously thank God for you! You have all been so amazing and we LOVE that we get to share this journey with you! Praise God for His incredible faithfulness and grace! He has been so good to us and we are continually grateful for Him! God is so good!

Giant Pandas!

Hi everyone! So today is Wednesday (or Tuesday for all of you back in the States) and today we went to the Panda Reserve in Chengdu! We were able to sleep in a little longer which was nice. We were wiped out! Most mornings we’re up by 5 or 5:30am but today we slept in until about 6:30. I think both girls would have slept longer if I hadn’t woken them up. At any rate, today was a tougher day with Jasmine. She was pretty fussy this morning which could be because she was tired, it was rainy or she was grieving or a combo of all 3. A lot of people don’t realize it, but babies do grieve. People assume that when you adopt an infant, everything’s ok, the baby doesn’t know or remember anything but that’s not true. They may not have a clear memory like an adult can remember details but they remember being abandoned. They remember being alone and not having anyone answer their cries. They miss their birth mom and their nannies and they grieve. I have to say that one of the toughest things about being an adoptive parent is figuring out when your child is crying over brushing her teeth because she's tired or if she’s crying because some fear of being abandoned again has been triggered and came up. We have a new “normal” that we’re constantly trying to figure out which makes parenting an extra challenge. But I also have to say that those same challenges turn into incredible rewards when we’re able to figure out a tiny piece of what our child is grieving and help them get it out so they can heal.

So, despite the rough morning, we all had a fantastic time at the Panda Reserve. It was gorgeous, our walk way lined with a canopy of green bamboo trees. A light misty rain was falling and it was cool but not so cool that we were cold. We were able to see not only the giant pandas, but also red pandas! We paid a little extra so that Lily & Jim were able to sit and hold and pet one while I took pictures. If Jasmine hadn’t been sleeping….oh well! ☺ Lily was in hog heaven! You know how she loves animals! We took a ton of pictures!

The afternoon, we gave Jasmine her first bath! Well, first bath with us anyway! We held off until today because apparently bath time at the orphanage was a little traumatic. It was more like an assembly line and the kiddos didn’t get a chance to play so most didn’t always have fond bath time memories. We obviously didn’t want to add one more thing for her to be traumatized over so held off until today. She did really well and really enjoyed playing a bit so it turned out to be a good idea. ☺ The rest of the afternoon, we hung out and eventually got out of the room and did a little more shopping before we came back to the room to eat dinner and get the girls to bed. Bedtime was definitely much more traumatic tonight. I don’t know if she’s just really missing her nannies or what but please pray for her and for us that we’d have wisdom to know how to best handle the situations as they come up.
Well, I’m pooped so I’m off to get this emailed off to you all. Thanks again for all of your prayers and we’ll be talking to you soon! Tomorrow (Thurs. for us) we’ll be doing some shopping for cultural souvenirs and then Friday afternoon (I think) we’ll be flying to Guangzhou for the last leg of our trip! We can’t wait to get back to see you all. Talk to you soon! ☺

Adoption day is complete!

Hi everyone. We finalized our adoption today and I learned what a squatty potty is. First, the good news….Jing Jing is ours forever! We went to the registration & notary offices today and finalized our adoption! It took a few hours between both offices to finish up the paper work but Yea God, it’s done. It’s hard to believe but it’s so incredibly amazing. God is so good.

The rest of the day we tried to take it easy. We did venture out for a little walk through some of the streets and shops. Jim has been trying to drag me out of the hotel for the last couple of days but I’ve been so intimidated by the traffic, I’ve not ventured out too often. Ridiculous I know, but between the culture shock (mainland China is VERY different than Hong Kong), lack of any English signage or language and the crazy traffic (and I am NOT KIDDING), I’ve been a big chicken. But we did venture out for about an hour or so, walking through all of these outdoor shops, now getting noticed for having a Chinese baby with us as well as little blond Lily. We really have found the Chinese people both in Hong Kong and here in Chengdu to be extremely warm and friendly. I have to say that the city itself has really grown on me. Hong Kong had a lot of gorgeous mountain scenery as well as beautiful skyline. Chengdu is beautiful in an entirely different way. There aren’t as many high rises as in Hong Kong but the buildings have a different kind of beauty that’s hard to describe. It’s common to walk along and see bike after bike after bike lined up along the sidewalk for blocks and blocks. There are as many pedestrians as cars and it’s been fascinating to watch them all navigate the craziness. There are shops of every kind stuck into every nook and cranny and on every street corner there’s some kind of salesman or shop owner beckoning you to come shop their wares. It’s a fascinating city and I’m enjoying getting over my fears and exploring a tiny bit before we fly out to Guangzhou.

Things with Jing Jing are going well. We had a good day all day. She started to crawl today which she wasn’t doing yesterday so it’s amazing to see her start to thrive a little more. She’s been making great eye contact with us and smiling and laughing a little more also. Our bedtime was a little rough, in part because we had a group dinner to celebrate our adoptions. That kept both of the girls up a little later than would be their regular bedtimes so they were both wiped out by the time we got back to the hotel. But all in all, I feel like we’ve had a better chance to bond with her today and slowly we’re getting a feel for what she likes and doesn’t like. It’s definitely trial and error at this point but it’s going better than I would have imagined. Thank you all for your prayers for us on this – we can tell you’ve been praying for this transition for our family!

So, before I sign off, I have to share about the squatty potties. I had heard some rumors about the potty situation here (hey, I’m a mom of 2 young kids, what can I say? Potty is a big part of our vocabulary!), but I had prayed those rumors weren’t true. The rumors are true. ;-) So, while we were at the registry office, Lily announced that she had to go potty. I didn’t think anything of it but went to take her along w/the other little girl in our group. I had Jasmine in the Mei Tai and walked Lily into this little bathroom and looked down….flush with the floor was a little hole. Ummmm, so if you’re a guy, this is no problem but if you’re a girl, well, you get the picture. So, if you can imagine me trying to hang onto Jasmine so she doesn’t slide out of the Mei Tai head first into the hole, while trying to lower Lily w/o her touching the disgusting floor……yep, that was my squatty potty experience! Needless to say, I waited until we got back to the hotel! ☺

So, on that note, I’ll finish this update and again thank you all for your prayers and encouragement. We’re experiencing God’s provision and miracles every single day and are so incredibly thankful that He loves us and how He’s in the tiniest of details. We’re so thankful for our 2 precious girls and how each day we’re bonding a little bit more as a family. And, we’re so thankful for you all. ☺

Our first night

Hi everyone! So our first night w/Jing Jing went really well. I think I told you all that after we took care of the constipation, our little sweetie began to feel much better. We were able to get some great family play time in and even went into the swimming pool for a little while before bedtime. Anita, our CCAI guide, had given us a heads up that she might wake up in the middle of the night and if so, just give her a little pat and say “Hala Hala Hala” which means “it’s ok” in Mandarin and then she’ll go back to sleep. She only woke up once and we did as directed and right back to sleep she went! Thank God ‘cause I am seriously homicidal if I get too sleep deprived! Our bed is roomy but not very comfortable so I’ve been waking up w/knots in my back. Thank God that I have a chiropractor appointment set up for when we get home!

I had another “Yea God” detail that I wanted to share with you. A few weeks after our match, we sent a care package to Jasmine w/a few different items of either toys or clothes and a baby picture book of our family. Our agency had given us labels in Chinese to put on the pictures so that way everyone could be identified. They also let us know that there was no guarantees that we would get them back or that they would get passed along. So I’ve been praying that of all the items, I’d love to have them give her the picture book & a little teddy bear that I had sent her. My “yea God” is that they did give those 2 items to her and they returned them back to us so they’ll be keepsakes for her! I love that even those tiny details are ones that God cares about!

Thanks everyone for all of your prayers! We can’t wait to get back so that we can post some of these videos and pictures! Our itinerary tomorrow is to go finish our adoption paperwork w/the registration office and the notary. Once complete, our adoption will be final! Yea God! Well, I’m going to finish this so I can get off to sleep. Talk to you soon!

Gotcha Day – Part 2

Good evening, everyone! Well…..we’ve got her! It took us about 40 harrowing minutes to drive to the orphanage! I have to say that I’ve never seen anything like it! Lanes, lines, signs, lights, pedestrians, other cars and buses – they mean absolutely nothing in traffic in Chengdu! We narrowly avoided 1 accident on the way but managed to arrive safely – Praise God! At any rate, once we arrived, they brought us into a room at the orphanage where we started our paperwork and suddenly looked up and there she was! We barely had a chance to get our cameras out and start shooting before they were walking over to us. I, of course, sobbed my little heart out and the next thing I knew, she was in my arms. She did get a little overwhelmed and due to us arriving at nap time, promptly fell asleep in my arms. She’s beautiful and seems to be in good health despite a good case of constipation. We’re so incredibly thankful for our CCAI rep, Anita, who has been with us every single step of the way. We ended up being at the orphanage for a total of an hour and then braved the crazy traffic to get back to our hotel. The afternoon was a little rough for a while but once we were able to treat the constipation and get some fluid into her, Jing Jing (her nick name. We’ll eventually call her Jasmine but want her to feel as comfortable as possible.) started to perk up and play a bit with us. We even got a couple of smiles and thankfully, the evening has gone much better than the rest of the day!

Thanks to all of you for your amazing support and powerful prayers on our behalf! We are continuing to trust God in all areas of bonding, sleep strength and multi-tasking! Our itinerary has slightly changed. Tomorrow, we’ll go back to finalize our adoption paperwork at the registry & then the notary. I believe that everything is final tomorrow, instead of Wednesday. Wednesday, we’ll be touring the Panda reservation and on Thursday, Anita made plans for us to shop for cultural souvenirs for part of the day. On Friday, we depart to Guangzhou.

That’s the scoop for now but in the meantime, enjoy 1 of the pics of our new little girl!

Gotcha Day – Part 1

Good morning from Chengdu! Well, it’s definitely looking like our communication will be more limited while we’re here! Sniff, sniff. At any rate, we’ll see if we’ll have a better ability to communicate when we get to Guangzhou. We’ll be here until 2/5 and then we’ll fly to Guangzhou for the remainder of our trip. In the meantime, we’ll still keep a journal and take lots of pics that we hope to share with you, worse case scenario, when we get back into the states!

So TODAY is GOTCHA day! Yea God! It’s hard to believe that this day has finally come! We’re going to be meeting in the lobby of our hotel and will actually get to drive to Jasmine’s orphanage to get her and Bodie (the new son of the other family we’re traveling with)! We’ll have an opportunity to meet the nannies and see where she’s been living this past year. We were told that she has been told that she’s going to be adopted so we’ll see how she reacts when she sees us. I had sent a care package to her months ago w/a little baby book with our pictures in it and I’ve been praying that they’ve been showing her the pictures all of this time. Regardless, God has been preparing our little daughter for us just as He’s been preparing us for her and we are trusting Him to work all of those details out!

At any rate, thank you all for your prayers and support! We'll be talking to you soon!

Chengdu

Well, we have made it safely to Chengdu! We left this morning around 11:10 on Air China to Chengdu and made it to mainland China. Talk about 2 different worlds! The brown smog left a very thick layer over the city and the traffic was the craziest we’ve ever seen! Our CCAI rep, Anita, picked us up after we came out of baggage claim and directed us to the van where the other family in our group, Jon, Amy, Jill & Kai were waiting. We took a very harrowing ride through the city to our hotel, the Crowne Plaza Hotel. Anita will be staying with us at the hotel as very few people speak English here – way different than Hong Kong! She gave us all of our instructions and more details to our itinerary for the next few days while we’re here in Chengdu.

Tomorrow is the day we get Jasmine. We’ll actually get to go to her orphanage and see where she’s been living. Our other family will be adopting a little boy from the same orphanage so we’ll all be going together. I have to say that as excited as I am, I’ve also been feeling overwhelmed and a little afraid. What if I don’t bond well w/Jasmine? What if she doesn’t bond w/us? What if I can’t handle 2 kids? Then what? What if I don’t love my 2nd child as much as I love my first? I continue to wrestle w/giving these worries over to God. I give them over and then take them back, give them over, take them back. I wish I could just give them over and be done with it. I have to keep reminding myself that it’s God’s job to knit my family together and He’s already done that. I just need to do my part. He hasn’t left us alone to our own devices for 1 single part of this adoption so why would He start now?

So, something that you can pray for (besides me setting my fears in God’s hands & leaving them there) is our adjustment to mainland China. It’s VERY different than Hong Kong and won’t be as easy as Hong Kong. Food-wise, it’s going to be a much bigger challenge than Hong Kong, especially for Lily, which causes us more stress. Please pray that even in these details, we’ll be able to leave them in God’s hands and trust His provision. Thank you God for prompting me to bring the snacks that I did!

Thank you all for all of your prayers and your support! We couldn’t do this without you! We’ll update you soon!

Hong Kong Disney

Hi everyone. So, as promised, I just wanted to share about our experience at Disneyland. What a blast! First, we decided to take the train as Disney is on Lantau Island and we were in the area of Kowloon. We were a little intimidated but had gathered some courage after wandering around a few places by ourselves so, armed w/our trusty map, we set off to find the station. We actually did amazingly well, considering it was our first time wandering around a foreign country w/o assistance! We eventually figured out the maps to Disney and finally purchased our tickets and set off on our adventure. Disneyland itself really turned out to be a magical experience for us. We continued to be objects of focus, primarily because of Lily. We had been told ahead of time how the Chinese are fascinated w/blond haired little girls and that definitely turned out to be true. Everywhere we went, people were interacting w/her, sometimes touching her hair or asking to take pictures w/her or asking for hugs. Disney was no exception! She made all kinds of friends while we were waiting in line to get in. We decided to purchase a stroller (mostly for our overly heavy & uncomfortable backpack & coats which we didn’t end up needing) and while we were doing that we were approached by 1 of the park employees who asked if we would be the Grand Marshalls of the Disney Parade that afternoon at 3:30. We thought they were putting us in a drawing w/a number of families so we agreed, thinking what an honor it was to be nominated. (Ha!)

At any rate, we set off on our adventure checking out all of Adventure land and then to lunch & then Fantasyland. We stood in line to take pictures w/2 of the princesses and had another one of those celebrity moments w/Lily. When it was her turn to take pictures w/the princesses, people came out of nowhere and were lined in a semi-circle around her like paparazzi, cameras in hand, shooting pictures of the little blond American girl. It was really hysterical to watch! She just charmed the socks off of everyone she met.

Ironically, one of the last rides we decided to check out before we went back to see if we had won the Grand Marshall drawing, was “It’s a Small World.” While we were in line, we met a guy named Jeff from Orlando on the same ride. We got to chatting and come to find out that he and his wife had adopted 2 little girls from China! What are the odds?! He’s currently working in Germany was out here on business. We had a great time sharing w/each other about our adoptions, our girls, etc. After saying goodbye & joking about it being a small world, we just shook our heads and thought, once again how we LOVE how God is in the tiniest of details!

But, the best was yet to come. When we got back to City Hall, we found out that there was no drawing! They had chosen our family (let’s be honest – they chose Lily) to be the Grand Marshalls of the Disney Parade! What a trip! They had us relax in a little room while they got things ready. They had embroidered Mickey Mouse hats w/each of our names and gave us padded hands to wave in the parade. We even got an official certificate! They walked us through the streets to the Grand Marshall car and made an announcement about the Youngs from the United States of America. It was so surreal! The whole time, Lily was waving like she had been born to do it.

We left after the parade finished, too wiped out to do anything more but go back to the hotel, eat dinner and go to bed!

We're Baaaackkkk!

Hi Everyone. We made it home safely tonight - a bit worn out, but grateful that our girls survived the trip. Donna will be updating the blog more this week. Apparently, in mainland China, blogging and Facebook are not allowed, so Donna kept a journal of updates that she'll post, along with new pictures. Thank you all for your prayers and support. We never could have done this on our own. Praise God for His faithfulness. We'll be in touch soon.

Hong Kong Disney was a blast!

Hey everyone! It's 8:25am on Sunday in Hong Kong. I'm going to have to apologize for the short blog. We're minutes away from needing to check out and head out to the airport to catch our flight to Chengdu. Yesterday was a total blast at Disney! I can give you a little teaser and say that we were the Grand Marshalls at Disney yesterday and Lily charmed them all! After we get settled in our new hotel this afternoon, I'll update you on our adventures at Disneyland and what our next day or so will look like. Thanks again for all of your prayers! God has been so incredibly good to us in this process and once again I have to say that we feel blessed in abundance! Miss you all and talk to you very soon! :-)

Last full day in Hong Kong!

Hi everyone! So we're now on Saturday morning, Hong Kong time and it's our last full day here. Tomorrow we fly to Chengdu and then Monday we get our baby girl! Wow! So today, we're ambitiously going to try and take the trains to Disneyland! Say a prayer we take all of the right ones! We're excited to do something fun that Lily will especially enjoy and can't wait to post some more pictures of our exciting adventures tonight when we get back. I also got around to posting the pics that I meant to do last night so enjoy! I'll have the full set on my facebook page so be sure to check that as I've got all of the videos posted there as well.

Miss you all and thanking God for all of you and your prayers!

Tour of Hong Kong

Hi everyone. We have had quite the full day in Hong Kong today! Our tour went from about 8:45-ish to about 2:30 or so! We have been all over Hong Kong and have gotten to see amazing skyscrapers, gorgeous greenery, fishing boats, shopping at Stanley market and a ton of fog. We went to Northpoint which is on the Eastern part of Hong Kong, Victoria's Point (which is the highest part of Hong Kong), Aberdeen (the fishing village) where we did a boat tour and Stanley Market. And then, after dinner, we walked along the promenade to Avenue of the Stars and got to see the laser show that they put on every night from 8 to 8:15. I am pooped! Despite the overcast day and tons of fog, we still could appreciate the beauty of this city and can understand why so many fall in love with Hong Kong. Our miracles of the day have been that we woke up pretty refreshed and so far have not experienced any more jet lag, we have continued to stay healthy and we have rapidly started to feel more comfortable and less intimidated in a new culture! Praise God! Well, I am actually so brain-dead right now that I'm going to hand this over to Jim and he can share some things he found interesting about today. Thanks so much everyone for all of your prayers!

My (Jim) favorite part of the day was learning how important Feng Shui (pronounced Fung Shway) is in the Chinese culture. If I had to define the term, I'd say it means positive energy, or something like that. Anyway, people pay top dollar to buy vehicle license plates with the right numbers, and feng shui influences where people live, and even where they're buried. One large building has a pool on the top. It's not for swimming, but was added for feng shui value. Apparently, the builder sought the advice of a feng shui consultant who said the building looked like a cigarette and would burn up one day. So, the consultant recommended a feng shui facelift, which included the pool that no one swims in. Sounds like part of the Obama spendulus package to me.

I loved getting to the top of Victoria Point and seeing the breathtaking view of pure fog. Now I really know what it's like to have my head in the clouds. Fortunately, Donna got a great picture of the map that showed us what we could have been seeing on a clear day.

While taking a water taxi ride through the Aberdeen area, we noticed several people with their dogs on their boats. Now there's a logistical problem. What do they do when Spot needs to go potty? Just something to think about.

Thank God we didn't have to drive. I can't count the number of times I thought we were going to crash, and I wasn't even driving. In China, driving on the wrong side of the road is an art form. I'm pretty sure the guy driving our tour bus could have navigated the narrow road up to Pike's Peak at 60 mph - no problem.

Even though we've been in Hong Kong less than 48 hours, I'm amazed at how relaxed I feel. Now that we're here, I no longer feel any stress or pressure wondering how God is going to pull the details together. His provision for this journey has been miraculous, so we no longer stress over the financial end. He provided what we needed for this phase in the journey and we know He will provide for the rest of our needs, in His perfect timing.

Well, it's off to bed for us. Tomorrow morning we go to Disneyland and we'll need our rest if we hope to keep up with Lily. Thanks to all who are reading our blog. We appreciate your support and your prayers. God's blessings to each of you.

Good night.