Please pray with us!

There are some specific ways we would love for you all to be praying with us for our trip.
We as a family have been praying some very specific things for Gracie
and for our travel as well. We would be honored if you would go before
the Father on our behalf. He is so faithful and so mighty!

1. That Gracie will have a loving nanny, familiar with her and her story , who will accompany her on the six hour drive they will take to meet us in Guangzhou.
2. That Gracie will be healthy.
3. That God will be preparing her heart to meet our family. We've asked specifically that He would give her a vision of us so that we will miraculously be familiar to her. Also that he bonding process will go smoothly and that God will minister to all 6 of us during that time.
   
4. That we would be able to find out the details of how and where she was found in her home city. We are praying that we will be able to obtain a copy of her "finding ad".
   
5. For complete safety on every one of our flights and on the train and any other forms of transportation that will be taken in China as well.
6. That we will make all of our flight connections.
7. For wisdom with the currency exchange and over every purchase and transaction that will be made.
8. For safety over our home and house sitter while we are away.
9. That no one on our in-country or international flight will have the flu or exhibit any flu symptoms.
10. That we will not be quarantined or detained upon arrival for any reason.
11. That we all will adapt to time changes and be able to deal with jet lag, especially on our return home as Gracie's days and nights will definitely be mixed up!
12. That we would hear Gods voice at every turn, and honor Him with every word spoken and in every action. We want to see His glory at work!

"I will go before you and level the mountains to make the crooked places
straight; I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut asunder
the bars of iron, and I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden
riches of secret places, that you may know that it is I, the LORD, the
God if Israel Who calls you by name.
That men may know from the east and the rising of the sun
and from the west and the setting of the sun that there is no God
besides Me. I AM the Lord, and no one else is He."

Isaiah 45:2-3, 6

Three years of our lives - Precious papers!

To all our family and friends

THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts for the love and support you have shown us over the last 3 years. We can't imagine walking this path without the love and prayers that have been poured over our family. We are so grateful for the role you have already played in Gracie's life!

We saw an excellent letter issued by one adoptive family to their family and friends explaining the bonding process their child would be going through when he came home. We've taken that letter and adapted it to our situation because we feel it's so important for you to see what we will be processing through as a family, and also give you an idea of how you can be praying!

"As we prepare for Gracie's arrival, we've learned that her emotional health is of the utmost importance. In her short life, our daughter will have gone through more changes and life altering experiences than most adults could handle. Imagine how much harder the changes will be for her. While she may not consciously remember all of the events, she will still experience immense loss of a birth mother. She will also soon be experiencing the loss of familiar and comforting caretakers as well as the sights, smells and language of her birth country. Her world will turn upside down. She will struggle with feeling safe and secure and she may lack the ability to trust that we will meet her needs.

We have prepared to meet her emotional needs so that she does learn that we will always take care of her and will always keep her safe. We need your support. In order to form a strong and healthy attachment we will allow her to regress so that she has the opportunity to go through all of the emotional stages with us despite her chronological age. Although it may appear that we are spoiling her, we have been advised that is is best that we meet every need quickly and consistently. Until she has learned that we are her parents, we need to be her primary caretakers at all times. It is essential that we always hold her, feed her, and do all of the nurturing. You may wonder how long this will take, but the timeline is different with every child. We will follow her lead and trust God's leading as well.

We have all been waiting anxiously for Gracie to arrive but she has not been waiting for us. She may show grief and confusion in many ways and we are trying to prepare ourselves to help her through it and prove that we are her forever family. We are actually praying that she will grieve when we first receive her, because that means she has attached to someone before us, and has the ability to attach to someone again. We trust that as our family and friends you will help us to do what is best for our daughter, and we thank you in advance for your support and understanding!"

We love you all!

Sacrificial Love

Today God used someone we love very much to give a very generous donation toward bringing Gracie home. We are so humbled and pray God's richest blessing on everyone who has given in any way - whether it has been financially, or through a gift, encouragement or prayer.

"Religion that God our Father accepts
as pure and faultless is this:
to look after orphans and widows..."
James 1:27

"The LORD bless you and keep you;
The LORD make His face shine upon you
and be gracious to you;
The LORD turn His face towards you
and give you peace."
Numbers 6:24-26

Practical Love

Today was one of those days where I saw the love of Jesus lived out through one of His sweetest creations. My dear friend volunteered to keep our little Quinn so that the girls and I could run some travel errands. In the course of only three hours we were able to hit 5 stores and the library.
Not only did I receive two beautiful handmade gifts for Gracie, but also a loaf of homemade wheat bread and herb butter... I could get used to this! Thank you dear Missy. The part you have played in our adoption process is priceless to me! My to-do list has grown a little smaller, my outlook is a little brighter, and my capris fight a little tighter thanks to that fabulous bread! :)

I love this blanket!!

Too pretty to wear?!

Heavenly

All About Our Girl

My Dad commented yesterday on the miracle of loving someone that you've never even met before. That's us...Head over heels over our new daughter with only a few pictures and nowhere near enough (for this Mama!) information on her.

Lian Jia Shu was born on February 1, 2008 in Lianjiang City in the Guangdong province. One fact that saddens me so far, is that we've been given no information on where/when she was abandoned. Our prayer is that we would find this out when we receive her in 3 weeks. I desire to "piece together" as much of her beginnings as possible to give those details as a gift to her one day. We have almost literally mourned all of the "1sts" we have missed with our girl, but know we will be making "1st" memories with her from the start of our new life together.

When we received our referral in March, we received some information on her from when she was 8 months old...

She was 7.5 lbs when she was brought to the orphanage.
She was crawling at 7 months. She is developmentally & physically on track.
"Distinguishes between acquaintance and strangers"
"Knows name, turns when called"
"Fond of playing games"

And my personal favorites...
"Deep sleeper"
""Laughs aloud"
"Active & restless" :)
"She screams when she so excited." Yeah...she'll fit right in.

Our recent update only included weight, height & foot measurements. She's at 20 lbs and looks quite healthy to us.

We are anxious to get her home to begin the process of of meeting her medical needs. We have a clinic here that has agreed to meet with us when we return. This clinic encompasses not only the plastic surgeons who would perform her upcoming operations, but also ENTs, and speech therapists . We are already covering these people in prayer, whoever they are, as they will be the ones to treat Gracie.

We have prepared ourselves for the fact that Gracie will probably not be verbal due to the cleft palate. If you ever need a laugh, take a peek in our window one evening to see our family trying to learn baby signs along with our pitiful attempts to learn what we can of the Mandarin Chinese language. "A new normal" for sure!

We're also preparing our hearts for her bonding/grieving process. I can't even begin to imagine what will be going through her mind as she will be taken from the only home she's ever known and handed to total strangers who happen to look like no one she's ever seen before. We're asking God to prepare her little heart and mind for this life-changing transition.

We're counting down the days. Coming soon sweet girl!

Travel Dates!!!!!

After another roller coaster week of more travel delay news (I couldn't even bring my self to post about it), we received the best possible e-mail from our agency on Thursday. We were given official travel dates & were told to book our flights!!

We will be leaving on the 23rd and flying home July 10th. I'll post a more detailed itinerary soon. We are in awe of how God has worked this week. He brought the most incredible travel agent to us through a friend on Wednesday, and as of Thursday he found airline tickets for us that were almost half of what we were expecting. We even woke up this morning to an email saying he had found an even better deal! I had prayed earlier this week that we would see God's glory at work, and we definitely have!

It's time to get out that luggage set we purchased over 2 years ago for this very trip! :) Our bedroom so far has been the "staging area" for everything we've been accumulating for travel, and now I can look at that stash w/ joy knowing we have official dates!!

"You are the God Who does wonders."
Psalm 77:14a

"Lord, You establish peace for us; all that we have
accomplished You have done for us."
Isaiah 26:12

"Ah, Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens
and the earth by Your great power and by Your
outstretched arm! There is nothing too hard or too
wonderful for You."
Jeremiah 32:17

A plug for a friend indeed

Sassy, eh?!

You must go HERE to see some great items my friend Lori has made to help bring home her beautiful new daughter!! I can't wait to see how God will bless her in this over the next couple of weeks!