OH! Look at her GO!

Then Hannah prayed. She said, 

                The Lord has filled my heart with joy.       
                            He has made me strong.    
                          I can laugh at my enemies.       
                           I'm so glad he saved me.
1 Samuel 2:1 

Birthday Princess

Birthday Princess!

Libi Faith Turned 6 years old today and it is hard to put into words all I feel about this day. Libi's birthday reminds me of how precious life is. We celebrate another year with her, of milestones reached, and lessons learned. The Giver of life gave us a gift beyond measure in this precious little princess! Thank you for your goodness to us God!!

At her school birthday party with her big brother and biggest fan, Joel

Seriously, what a precious girl! Look at those lips!! 

The Double Portion!

Yes...we had some serious princess going on at the house!

Yes, the inner princess was coming out of ALL of us!
I wish our sweet Maggie Grace was in this picture with us!

 Of course the birthday kisses were abundant!!

Prince Charming already came...his name is Daddy!

 Sisters

It turned out to be a birthday party of sisters...not just ANY sisters, but sisters by way of adoption, yet not by CHANCE!

Libi Faith and Haddie Hope adopted from China

Kenzie Faith and Kella Hope

                   adopted from Guatemala

Laynie Grace and Malea Grace adopted from Korea

 

Hannah Hope and Olivia Joy adopted from China

I believe these girls have found Prince Charming!

Best Big Sister EVER!

Precious Princesses!!!

MORE birthday kisses!!! Never enough!

Gaining a Godly perspective...when I am WEARY

DTC! You may wonder what exactly does that acronym mean? It means that, besides being extremely thankful, our adoption paperwork is on its way to China! In fact, today I went out to track the package of precious papers and found this on the DHL tracking site:

Friday, April 13, 2012		Location	Time
	Delivered - Signed for by : JIAO YANG	BEIJING & SURROUNDING AREA - CHINA, PEOPLES REPUBLIC	14:23

Who says Friday the 13th is bad!!?? Oh...I could kiss JIAO YANG! At this moment I am considering a name change for Maggie...hmmm...Maggie Grace YANG!! ??

Proverbs 25:25

²⁵ Like cold water to a weary soul
is good news from a distant land.

For some, you may not understand the whole process of adoption paperwork. Sometimes referred to as "paper pregnancy". God designed a woman's body to carry a child for an average of 38-40 weeks. I believe this is both physical and emotional. By that point a woman is spent! The physical and emotional exhaustion of the pregnancy has taken its toll.

On March 20th I hit the 40th week of my pregnancy with Maggie, and I nearly lost my mind. You see, the process for a special needs adoption from China can take about 9-12 months. Typically, at the 9 month point you have an idea of when travel will take place to meet your child. Well, we hit 9 months and our paperwork was still in process and the hope of travel was not looming in the air.

So the Lord swept in with His GRACE and reminded me of His TRUTH...

Psalm 33:4

⁴ For the word of the LORD is right and true;
He is faithful in all He does.

Acts 17:26-28

²⁶ From one man He made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. ²⁷ God did this so that they would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from any one of us. ²⁸ ‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.’^[a] As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are His offspring.’

We are now approaching 10 months of waiting and I had never imagined our wait would find us here, with our papers just now arriving in the home country of our sweet girl. This journey has been LOADED with the the unexpected yet, I know that it was all a part of God's Devine plan!

Last week Joel and I were discussing Maggie. He asked me when we would likely travel to China to meet her. I explained to him that it could be as late as September, but I had a dream about travel plans for July 12th or 14th. Believing that this could be a dream given by God, I shared with him that I am hoping and praying for July.

At that point he looked at me and asked, "This July?"

To which I responded, "Yes."

"Mom, are you serious?" he said.

"Yes, Joel, we did think it would be sooner." I said with disappointment.

Then with amazement Joel said, "I thought it would take 2 years! I thought you were talking about next summer! That is so awesome!"

Can anyone say PERSPECTIVE? It is so true that our perspective changes everything.

Galatians 6:9

⁹ Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

SPRING....

Isaiah 43

¹⁶ This is what the LORD says—
he who made a way through the sea,
a path through the mighty waters,
¹⁷ who drew out the chariots and horses,
the army and reinforcements together,
and they lay there, never to rise again,
extinguished, snuffed out like a wick:
¹⁸ “Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
¹⁹ See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.

God has poured encouragement to my soul through this scripture over the last 24 hours. Our paperwork process for Maggie Grace has been nothing less than a nightmare and I have grown a bit weary in the process.

The Lord has reminded me that what I may perceive to be delays, are not. How can it be a delay, when He has already ordained each day and what it will bring? He has planned it, and planned it well. We are told in Proverbs 19:21 "Many are the plans of a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails."

Many days of the "paper-chase" to Libi and Haddie were difficult, yet when he delivered them to us it was perfection. God reminds me of this in the difficult days of waiting for Maggie to join us. He also reminds me to "Be alert, be present...I am about to do something brand-new. It's bursting out. Don't you see it?" Isaiah 43:19 (The Message)

You see, I will miss what's happening NOW if I focus on what is NOT happening now....

The JOYS of a simply beautiful Spring Day...

Upside down swinging

Giggles from a little girl who doctors said would never thrive.

Freedom and deliverance.....

As if that was not enough...God did this:

Yesterday as we were driving in the van, Haddie grabbed a Bible. She began tearing through it. I asked her what she was doing, and she told me she wanted to find the verse she had learned at church on Sunday. This verse had reached deep places in her heart, because she had mentioned it many times over the last few days. I had no idea she knew how to navigate her way through the pages of the Word, but she soon found Galatians 5:22-23:

^"22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law."

It was so precious to hear her read those words from the Bible. She then shared with me that her favorite fruits were

LOVE...

JOY...

and PEACE....

Can you imagine why?

For 7 years of her precious little life LOVE, JOY and PEACE were not very tangible.

Last night she once again grabbed the Word and shared her heart with her daddy...

enough said....

Visions of a 9 year old

(We have a whole lot of Hello Kitty going on in our house!)

Our Happy Haddie Hope turned 9!

She embraced this birthday with all the joy and happiness I think a child possibly could. Her confidence and happy disposition would shame most of us. Not a day goes by without her doing something that causes me to burst out in spontaneous laughter. Many times I am told by others that they have never seen a happier child than Haddie. I really have to agree.

What brings this happiness to her life? If you ask Haddie, it is the gift of a family.

A family.

Though, we are not the true gift that has caused this child to radiate with sheer joy. That wouldn't be possible, because we are too messed up! It is solely the adoptive love of a perfect Father God that was lavished, not just on Haddie, but on each of us, that gives reason to Haddie's happiness. Knowing that to be true, it causes some moments of self examination, because I allow so many things to enter in and interrupt the joy filled life that is mine in Jesus.

Happy Haddie..."our" Little Miss Sunshine. I want her to remember this RARE glorious 10th day of January, her birthday. It was unseasonably warm (55 degrees), and the sun was shining so bright! This day was a perfect representation of the rare gift of sunshine that she is to all of us.

I love you, sweet girl! I am so thankful God chose me to be your forever mama!

Seriously, riding her bike...no coat...on January 10th in Illinois!!!

A precious gift from God

In November of 2005 God solidified His calling in our life to adopt. In December of that same year, the Lord revealed this plan He was unfolding in our lives would deliver great JOY. Psalm 86:4 became my prayer:

"Bring joy to your servant, Lord,
for I put my trust in you."

Through His guidance we became foster parents and, in July of 2006 a phone call came that delivered our first placement. On that very hot July night I welcomed one of the greatest gifts I would ever receive into my arms.

Ari Joy

She arrived disconnected and frightened.

She needed me...

and though I didn't fully realize it, I needed her.

Yet, she had another mother and this would wreck my heart.

My heart and head wrestled the emotions and thoughts that accompanied this new role of foster mother. Many times when Ari and I left the weekly visits with her birthmom I wanted to run away with her; yet there was this overwhelming feeling I had something that did not belong to me, because I did. I knew Ari's birthmom loved her, and when we would leave those visits the reality of her mama's loneliness without her daughter was palpable.

After 18 months of absolute JOY, God lifted Ari from our home, and 6 months after that, from our life. Ari transitioned back to her birthmom and on May 21st, the day we arrived home from China with Libi Faith, Ari Joy and her mama left for Mexico.

HE GIVES....

AND TAKES AWAY.....

BLESSED BE THE NAME OF THE LORD

Job 1:21

The last time I heard her sweet voice was June 21st, 2008 on her 3rd birthday. They called just as they were getting ready to cross the border into Mexico.

Over the last 3 years I have deeply grieved losing her. Honestly, it is like she died, yet we had no services, no time for mourning...life just went on.

So, it has been in the secure arms of my Savior that I continue to find comfort and rest for my broken heart. He has shown me that it is through the hardest things that He can accomplish the greatest things.

God used Ari to birth greater JOY into our life and home than we had ever imagined. Ari also awakened a desire in my heart to have a daughter. He grew my faith to trust Him, even when it breaks me.

That is just a sampling of what the Lord accomplished through the gift of Ari in our lives. He did more than I can mention, and more than I fully see.

This week a fundraising event came to my attention. An adoptive family were holding a raffle for a lovely Tiffany bracelet. I thought this was a fantastic idea. As I read through the details and then came upon the photo of the bracelet I was moved. The bracelet had a charm dangling from it that had the word "JOY" engraved on it, which immediately reminded me of Ari. For a couple of years I have thought of what I could purchase to permanently carry Ari with me...and be an outward symbol of the memory I carry in my heart.

I asked Brad to purchase a ticket to help this family in their fundraising efforts. I thought about the bracelet a few times, and how nice it would be to have something like this as that symbol of my memory of her, but knew it was not an affordable purchase now, or frankly anytime in the near future! (LOL!)

Well....guess what?

I won!

Or, as I see it, God gave me a Christmas present.

I have been so emotional over this prize and it is hard to express all it means, but I wanted to try, because this is why relationship with God knocks my socks off. Only He can do something like this. Only He understands the deep places of my heart in a way that a gift like this communicates. It was not until after we were notified that we won that I saw what the charm held on the other side:

Three little cherubs.

In my life these cherubs symbolize the three little Chinese daughters that have been birthed into my arms due to the one gift of JOY that came before them. The charm is held on by three essential links (my boys), on a chain (my hubby), held together by a clasp...my Blessed Heavenly Father!

May you know the depth of the riches of His great love for you! He gave us His Son...was that not enough? His love endures forever!