God's Faithfulness, Travel Approval and Prayer Requests

It's late, I am a bit weary, but so thankful for all that has happened in the last few weeks.

We had a wonderfully successful fundraiser online and at church. It has been pretty incredible to SEE so well how much we are loved, and how we are supported, and just to see how God takes care of His people. I have read quite a bit on a fb support group for China adoptions how hard it is when people do not "get" adoption or ask insensitive questions and don't get excited about adoption. Honestly, I don't understand that at all, because I have been completely surrounded by kind friends and family who DO "get" it...and who pray for us, ask us all kinds of sweet questions, and support us financially. My girlfriends even gave me an amazing babyshower!! We have been so very, very humbled and amazed at how our people love us.

You are all so very kind to care about us, to enter our world and to love our boys even before meeting them. THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Words cannot express how thankful we are. We praise God because of you, and see His faithfulness through you!

So...what else have we been up to? Well, we sent off our Visas and got them back. We took more passport photos (for appointments in China) and did more paperwork. Oh the paperwork! We checked things off our lists.

I made gift bags from the dollar store and Target dollar bin for our kids for each day we are gone..and then wrote 17 notes! One for each day we are gone. Ugh, it is going to be painful, but God will help us get through it, I know.

I got ready for school with M and we did about a week before adoption things became so pressing that we reverted back to summer. Oh well, we will be home before M starts at her one day a week school, and then we will ease back in to it, and hit it hard in October, after that first month home is done. I don't love schooling in the summer, but next year we will have to a bit, and it will be worth it!

We have had many family adventures, some very full days and some sweet, slow ones.

We got TRAVEL APPROVAL last week and bought plane tickets!!!! Our flight to Beijing is 12 hours long. Lord help! : ) The way there will be fine I think, but the plane ride home with 2 toddlers...well, it will be an adventure that is for sure!

It is all becoming very, very real. I am terribly excited. Next Wednesday cannot get here quick enough, and yet, all I want to do is hold on to these sweet days that the Lord has given...full of popsicles, kisses from my kids, the mundane and the garden. I want to treasure these days, but they are going so fast.

Our family is on a journey, a transformation, and I don't know what is around the "bend in the road", except two beautiful little boys who need a mom and a dad, and a faithful God who keeps His promises.

I took the kids hiking in Estes this week. A little last hurrah with mum. We sang loudly in the car, we hiked to Cub Lake and marveled at all the wild flowers. Little Man road a pony, and we got M a tiny geode from the Ore Cart. We got ice cream and got very messy as it dripped down our chins.

As we were leaving the YMCA (we visited "Nibbles" at the Livery) there were many families playing putt-putt golf. It reminded me of all of our time when I was a kid at the YMCA...though I don't think we played putt-putt. It was so sweet to see all of the little families together, and I told the kids how amazing it is that next week Josiah and Judah will be in a family, our family, after two plus years of waiting.

It made me cry, telling the kids that the boys have not had a Mommy and Daddy to tuck them in at night and kiss them and tell them "I love you." Judah is in a simulative foster care situation at the orphanage...and I really don't know what that looks like. I hope he has been loved, but I know He and Josiah both need the love of a forever family, and I am so terribly thankful that we get the GIFT of being their Mom and Dad. In just over a week I will get to hold my boys!!! I get to tell them that they are amazing and strong and made by God and Daddy and I love them and will love them forever. I can't believe it.

Tonight I packed and it was a little bit of a monster job. I got a lot of encouragement from my adoption gurus, Laura and Mandy, and some good advice. It is so hard to pack for such a trip. You should see all the medicines we are taking, just in case. Often times the poor kiddos have lice or scabies or upper respiratory infections...and we also have lots of stomach medicines.

China is going to be ridiculously hot..so we brought light, airy clothes, and I even bought little fans that have a mister. I do not love the heat, or the humidity, and Laura says as soon as you step out of the hotel each day you are soaking wet, so I better pack a cheerful attitude! I also brought books, toys, bubbles, sleep diapers, diapers, swim suits, lots of snacks and their blankies and stuffed animals.

We leave in FOUR days for one of the biggest adventures of our lives! We are trusting God for BIG things...healing, hope, peace, and joy.

If you would pray for us, please pray that the boys come to us healthy, and that they do well with such a hard, hard, hard transition. We look different than everyone they have known, smell differently, speak differently...and they are in for such big changes. It will all be for their good, but that does not mean that this first few weeks and months with us will be very traumatic for them. Pray that they will receive our hugs and care and will trust us, even slowly. Pray they attach to us quickly and that God heals their hearts. They have been through so much in their short lives.

Pray that they sleep well, and that we sleep and are healthy. Pray that our kids back home do well for both sets of grandparents and don't miss us to much (more likely that we will miss them terribly and they won't a bit!).

Please pray that our travels go smoothly, and for that flight home. We fly from Hong Kong and it will be a very long two days of travel. We know it is just survival (the whole trip, really) and that we will make it through.

Pray that God will be glorified through us, and for our marriage. Pray that we will encourage one another and build each other up. Though we will be getting a lot of help from our friends and family when we get back, we must support each other extremely well, because we are team and in this together...and because we are cocooning when we get back, and noone else will be meeting Josiah and Judah's basic needs, it's going to be exhausting (more on that topic later). We wouldn't change that for the world, but we know we must be servants, and trust in God for our strength, because it is going to be quite the challenge.

Pray that our family will be family of peace and that even with three rowdy boys and one rowdy girl, we will be a home filled with love and forgiveness and laughter (even when we are weary). Pray that we will all give each other grace...and that the little boys will become fast friends. Pray that M will be a cheerful servant and that we will be understanding of her and meet her needs.

I will try to blog while we are in China and keep you posted! Please do pray for us!
It means the world to us!

Packing and Playing and Praying, Oh My!

I have been meaning to post updates on the boys for weeks, but at the end of the day my to do list is still  mile long and blogging is yet again at the bottom.

We had a fun and furious June and 4th of July week. It was full of little adventures with the kids, LOTS of adoption paperwork and figuring out where we are in the process. I did an Aqua Bike (kindof like a triathlon without the running), we went camping and had a garage sale and built bunk beds....and then all of a sudden it was time to start M's school and our summer vacation was at an end. The second week of July! But that's how it goes when we know we will need to take a few weeks off while we are in China and when we get back, as well. So second grade is going well so far; fast and furious and we are having fun with it. But I do feel pretty distracted sometimes with so much to do to get ready for Judah and Josiah.

Our Article 5 pick up is scheduled for this coming Monday, which means that IF we get Travel Approval in another week we could be heading to China on August 2. I would LOVE that. The sooner the better, but I know God's timing for us is perfect and He is in control.

But I just can't wait to meet our boys!! I miss them without even having met them. It all feels so surreal, and yet, with that to-do list, my time feels very urgent and that meeting them is a reality. I have bought diapers for them this week, and bibs and formula and cleaned our bottles (Josiah still takes four bottles a day at 28 months). I packed their clothes and tooth brushes, several toys and their blankies. It is getting REAL.

I only have so many days to pack and organize and prepare and make freezer meals and ....

And only a few more weeks with just our family of four. It feels like a mad rush and yet, I really need to slow down, sit with the kids and read, play, and take them for McDonald's ice cream. It will all get done, I tell myself. And what doesn't get done doesn't really need to.

I am praying I spend this time well, and God uses it. I am praying this time goes quickly, and also that we savor these days, too.

It has been so very encouraging to see how much our friends and family love us and love adoption. Your generosity has been incredible and we are so humbled and grateful. THANK YOU for blessing us through our LifeSong for Orphans fundraiser, the garage sale, and with gifts at a shower for the boys. It all means a VERY great deal and we certainly don't deserve it. But our boys do, and we love that you are serving them and us.

This afternoon my dear friend Katee and I baked up 8 dozen AMAZING cinnamon rolls to sell tomorrow morning at church. Katee is one of my favorite people on the planet and has a bakery, Red Crow Bakery. She sells every week at the Farmer's Market and is just a phenomenally talented sweet-maker. I am so excited for tomorrow! 

And my sis made these to sell tomorrow too! They are $8 a piece. And I could  be persuaded to mail them too, I suppose : )