HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Well with Christmas over and the New Year about to begin we are getting closer and closer to our travel date. We really had a great Christmas Season. It began with our Classic Christmas Eve service at the church that was a blessing to play in. Son #2 played his Saxophone in a wee bit of a solo...we were so so proud of him. Mom was able to come and see him which was nice. Christmas we had a house full. Eighteen close family friends got together for some Turducken...yum yum good. I got everything I wanted and then some. Just missing my one big present but she'll arrive soon enough. It was great to hear the boys Christmas morning get up as usual and climb on top of Son#2's bed and open thier Christmas socks. I don't care how old they are it really was so sweet to hear them laugh and yack with each other. I tried to slow down the present opening but oh well it lasted for a wee bit. We had our traditional Christmas breakfast that we love except Son #2 informed us this year he hates it so we had the traditional breakfast plus something for him which apparently he didn't like either. Too funny. More for us! Boxing Day four of us went to see "In Pursuit of Happyness". It kind of drained me. Even though it was a good ending well I just felt blah afterwards. We went for more food at a friends house on the evening of the 26th. I worked the 27th, 28th and 29th. It was pretty slack though not much going on. Working towards buying things for our trip. Picked up a car seat today and a goob of other stuff bottles, blankets, clothes way too much to mention. Let's just say it ain't cheap! Fortunately we are blessed an got a good wad of money in Sears Gift Certificates which came in very very handy today. New Years Eve will be quiet at our house. Were not feeling very partyish this year. We are going to get a movie and Chinese food and kick back and just hang with Son #2 because Son #1 is away. He worked most of the holidays and now is away visiting friends. First trip away on his own. He's growing up so fast. Pretty awesome kids though. Emily has got two of the best big brothers she could ever hope or pray for. We are counting down the days and they are flying by now. We have to get our plane tickets reprinted tomorrow. I've already gone once and they restickered them with a sticker written in Gel pen on shiny paper. One big smudge. Now it looks like we printed the tickets with a sharpy. I'm not too comfortable travelling out of the country with those. I'll just have to pray that we get a nicer ticket agent. The last one wasn't having any part of reprinting them. I was told by Aeroplan to insist, obviously they've never dealt with an Air Canada Ticket agent. I'll just have to smile and take my DH with me. Let's see what that gets us. Happy New Year to everyone reading this. Please continue to pray that these next few weeks are productive and that we are organized for this trip that we've only had 2 years to prepare for! Pray for Emily and that God continues to wrap His loving arms around her and that she is not afraid of us when we take her from the orphanage. Until 2007 goodnight!

What A Week!

This post will be a bigger one because I have to fill you in on what has happened this week. Let me start my saying God is AMAZING! It never ceases to amaze me how He has blessed our family. My week started early Monday morning. I have to go back three weeks to tell you about a conversation that I had with Son #1. There is a radio station in town that has a weather guarantee. If the weather guy misses the temperature by more than 3 degrees you have the chance to win a jackpot. Depending on how long he has been right is the amount of the jackpot. I told Son#1 to remind me to send in my name because it has been warm, cold, warm, freezing surely he'd get it wrong soon. I never thought anything more about it until Monday morning when my Son is calling and calling on our home phone. First thing he said was "I forgot to tell you I entered your name in the weather guarantee" second thing was YOU JUST WON! How much? $1575 dollars. How incredible is that. We prayed that Matt and Andrew would be able to travel with us and so far we go their tickets on points and now much of their travelling money will be covered with this win. It is truly such a relief that they can come and we can experience this as a family. That was Monday. Tuesday I received a call from Community service saying that our Notice of Coming had arrived. Yahoo this was our travel approval we had been waiting for which means our travel date shouldn't change again and the boys are definitely able to go. Mike picked up our certificate Tuesday afternoon. It was great to have it in our hands. I woke up Wednesday morning to check my email before work and low and behold there was an update from our adoption facilitator giving us measurements and A PICTURE OF EMILY on December 18th! What an incredible Christmas present from the Lord! She is so cute. Big ole head of hair, beautiful lips (Son #1 says like Angelina Jolie's) and a big hunka bunka. She is growing so well and I just want to hold her and bring her home. I was so glad to have this picture because she isn't the little baby in the picture anymore she's changed her looks so it's good to understand that. Thursday we received confirmation that we will in fact be able to visit her orphanage when we go to China. This hasn't been allowed much and we will actually go inside to see but can't go in the baby rooms. I'm praying that we will have some time to get a picture of her finding place. Things are getting so busy for Christmas. I want to make sure to truly enjoy this Christmas. I'm not going to be sad for Emily because I know she is being looked after and this is the last Christmas that it will be just the four of us and I don't want to wish that away. Our time is coming quickly when we will be leaving. We received our itinerary today which is exciting. Thanks to all of you who have been following this and who have been praying for us. It is so evident that we are covered by your prayers and that God has it all worked out. I am so grateful that we stepped out of our comfort zones on this one. I can't imagine that we almost missed this. We almost said no God not now we're too old. We would have never known the joy that our family is feeling now. Pray for Emily that God will protect her over these next few weeks, please pray that she bonds with us and that the transition from her caretaker to us will go smoothly. Merry Christmas to all of you. May your holidays be filled with friends, fellowship, food, fun and of course the knowledge that God sent His Son as a little baby to live with us, as one of us. How incredible is that! As the time approaches for us to leave I will be password protecting this Blog so that we can post family pictures on it. Not to worry I will let all of you know what it is so you can keep following along however with personal pictures on it I don't want to just open it to the world. I kind of feel bad because I've been following other blogs for a couple of years and they have been awesome but I just don't want to take the chance. I'll email the password to each of you as the time arrives.

I was had again!

Well I was had again! In a good way. After coming back from lunch at work one of the girls asked me if she could speak to me in the boardroom for a minute. When I opened the door...surprize...again. I must be losing it in my old age. That's twice within 2weeks that I was left with my mouth hanging open. I got such lovely things for Emily from the girls at work it really was touching. Here also was the incredible thing. I had in my mind a stroller that I wanted to get, the jogger stroller (don't laugh), it had big old wheels for our country roads and who knows maybe just maybe I might someday want to walk faster than a stroll and low and behold my team bought me the exact stroller I was looking at. How incredible is that. They picked it out for me and put it together and had it all set up and gave me a crash course on how to operate it. Don't laugh it has a hand brake just in case I go too fast. What a hoot. We truly are blessed. Now that Christmas is almost here I'm more focused on getting our tree decorated and presents wrapped and well I still don't have the babies room finished. Good friends helped put the crib together which is still sitting in my diningroom because it won't fit through the bedroom door and my DH has to take it apart again in order to move it. I'll leave it at that. It will get done after turkey season is over cause he's flat out busy making turduckens. We finally got the 12ish foot Christmas tree up we bought. I don't know what I was thinking. I love it but well to decorate we need a couple of big old ladders and a family of boys who would rather eat glass than decorate a tree. I just get the blank stares and loads of excuses but oh they are so going to help me tomorrow put those lights on. DH has been shopping for me for a couple of weeks which is nice cause he usually waits and is actually finished early. Gotta love him. Anyway that's all for now I'm headed upstairs to watch "It's a Wonderful Life" with son #2.

Emily's Finding Ad

Ok so what a cutie patootie.....Emily is number 244. She was the 244th baby to be posted in 2006 in this city. Her ad was posted in the Nanching Farmers Daily right next to the watermelon and the hot peppers! When the babies are found an ad is placed stating that they were found and the particulars and requesting that if anyone wants to claim her otherwise she will be placed for adoption. I'm sure the Mom and Dad must scour the papers just to ensure they are found and in an orphanage. It truly is a blessing to have this because it is the earliest picture that we have of her. She is likely less than a week old here. I have another picture that for some reason I can't get uploaded with all the babies in a spread many of the ones coming home with us are on this sheet. Thought you would find this interesting. I will try and get the other picture to post again next time I'm on.

Message around the world

I thought I would upload this picture to show you the packages we sent off to our babies in China. Not sure if when you click on it if it will enlarge it but you'll see pictures of all of the other babies on the front. $455 ish dollars later we know they received them. I also got something special in the mail on Friday. When children in China are abandoned their pictures are posted in the local paper. It's called a finding ad. Sometimes you can get ahold of them and sometimes not. Well I located this guy on the internet (gotta love technology) who found her ad and I received part of the newspaper with the ad in it and a blow up of the picture as well as a DVD of the orphanage and finding place. This is so special because it is the earliest picture that we would have of her. She's number 244. Sounds so sad but she was the 244th picture posted in 2006 in the Farmer's Weekly. These ads serve two purposes. One to show the parents that the children are found and safe and two that there is an intent to put these children up for adoption and therefore if the parents change their mind they have the opportunity to come forward. I will scan the page and post it later in the week. That's all for now. Thanks again to all of our wonderful wonderful friends who have just blessed us a million times over with your prayers and kind words. Soon very soon she will be home. I am however going to really really cherish these last four weeks with the four of us as that is special as well. Andrew played with our group in church this morning. I was so so proud of him I thought I was going to bust. I realised as I looked at him and at Matt at the back of the auditorium that there is no greater gift that God can give than the gift of children who love the Lord and who love their family. No job can match it, no amount of money can match it, no possession can match it, there is nothing else like it. God is good. "Our cup runneth over"!

Home Sweet Home for Now

I thought I would post a couple of pictures of Emily's orphanage that I got off of another parents website. One is of the orphanage entrance and the other is simply a side shot. If you look on the roof of one of the pictures you can see all the clothes hanging on the line. This place has been Emily's home for the past 13 months. I'll be so glad when she is home in my arms safe and sound in her own bed until then I'll just trust God to snuggle her until we arrive.

Dinners and Showers

Well finally I'm able to sit down in front of my computer and update this. We are still awaiting our TA (travel approval) from China to arrive. So all you folks reading this blog please pray that God's timing prevail and that if it is His will that we will go on the dates our plane tickets are now booked. My DH and I were to meet friends of ours for supper on Friday night then come back to the house to watch a movie on Chinese adoption. We had this planned all week. An hour before we are supposed to go to dinner my DH calls and tells me he has to work. Stinky. I wasn't upset because he was selling a house to people I really wanted to see get a house. He said he'd meet me. He called said he would be late. Called said he would come later. Called and said he'd meet me at home. So I drive home with "the friend" and when I drive down our long long driveway I see one car that belongs to good friends of ours and was excited they popped in to visit. However when pulling in front of the house saw a body running from a van to the house with a gift...the cat was out of the bag! A surprise shower! What a surprise it was. I was completely duped when I walked through the door there was 65 people in my house and only a few cars in the driveway...my dear boys shuttled and parked people all night. I was overwhelmed and here is why. When my two home grown boys were born we had great friends, and we were over the moon. However, even though God was definitely in it we didn't recognize it. With Baby #3 this is different. It isn't better just different. What is better is recognizing God and seeing the tremendous support that our church family has given us is incredible. I sometimes wonder if Emily is feeling the anticipation of her arrival all the way across the world because we can sure feel it here. Poor DH had to try and get the crib together for me...and good thing a dear friend had her DH pitch in to help...once again....because they got it together in 1/2 flat I'm told and I love it. What fantastic gifts we got, what a load of food that was eaten, what a night of laughs, tears and fellowship was had by all. To all of you that were here who are reading this thank you so much for making the night very special for us! Love you all oodles...smooch smooch hug hug. I meant to write in an earlier blog please comment on the blog so I know who is out there...sometimes I wonder if I'm all alone writing to myself!

Ho Hum.....

We didn't get great news today. We are being delayed in our travel to China by a week. I can live with the week but I just want to Bring Emily Home Now!! Patience my friend Patience is what God is telling me....Be Still and Know that I am God. I know I know Lord...but my lip is still out. So now we need to change our flights and hopefully will still be able to get the kids with us. I called today and they didn't think it would be a problem. It actually may even work out better. So here is what you can pray for us that our flights work out and we can switch our tickets. Also, I believe that things happen for a reason so I'm not questioning God as to why this happened I'm actually praising God that He is in control and knows the reason we need to be delayed and has our best interests at heart. That's all the reassuring I need and I am praising him in advance for looking after all of this for us. He's taken us this far I won't lose faith now. So I'll just have to pray that she get angel kisses for one more week and it gives us one more week to get everything sorted out with room, packing, paperwork, clothes and all the other stuff we need for the wee bambino! Always positive always positive...

Leaving on a Jet Plane

We got great news on Friday. We were able to get three of our tickets to China on points which means that for sure the boys will be able to come with us which is awesome. We really didn't want to go without them. The flight there is 13 hours going to China and 17 hours coming back. Now we have to think about what to take with us. The good news is all my DH needs and my boys are a few pairs of underwear and then their bags are fair game for shopping...Yahoo. I can't believe that Christmas is less than a month a way. This is the first time in 4 years that we will actually be home so that will be a wee bit odd but I'm actually looking forward to it. I have been trying to start Emily's room but every time I start to work at it a bit I always have to stop because something else comes up. We don't have the crib in yet but I know it will all come together. DH's dad came over today and brought Emily the sweetest suede jacket with little oriental flowers embroidered on it. She will look sweet in it. I am getting more and more excited as the days tick on. I can't wait for Emily to see the wonderful friends that we have here and how much they so can't wait to meet her. We got a beautiful card and a present for her birthday from our friends at church. We also got plenty of emails telling us that they were praying for her. She got our package we sent last week $485 dollars later...too funny but worth every penny! DH is so cute he's walking around with these pictures in his pocket asking if anyone who will look wants to see "his baby". I can't wait to meet her but most of all I can't wait for the boys to meet her. Well that's all for now off to the Amazing Race!

What a week - Stork Landing is Official

Well I finally have a minute to myself.

This has been an incredible week. On Thursday the 9th of November it poured and poured and Mike headed off to Social Services to pick up our package. The kids made us promise that we wouldn't open it until they were home. So there it sat on our counter until the afternoon. I came home from work in the afternoon and sat in the driveway and all of a sudden was overwhelmed at what an amazing God we have. I couldn't help but feel how God had chosen us and every wrong thing I ever did popped into my mind and I couldn't believe that in spite of all of this He still chose to bless us. It was an incredible feeling. I went in the house and there were my three men just anxiously awaiting my arrival and Emily's. We wanted to get it on video but our friend who was going to video it for us couldn't come for a couple of hours and well we just couldn't wait any longer. The night before I was so nervous. I said to Mike what if she isn't the right one, after the blank stare and the don't be ridiculous head shake my guy reminded me where was my faith. So we opened the envelope. Everything was in a pile with an introductory letter on top. It was like peeling the tape off of a Christmas present slowly. I read the letter first and then we couldn't take it anymore. We turned the page and there she was the most incredibly beautiful, perfect face that I could have ever imagined. When I first looked at her I thought of course she is perfect for us how could I have doubted God! Her face is shaped similar to mine. They do try to match bone structure in the matching room but it's all God. Here is what we know about her. She was left outside of a park entrance when she was four days old dressed in a pink cotton outfit and wrapped in a blue towel with a note attached to her saying that she was born on November 16th, 2005 exactly nine months after we made the decision to adopt. How incredible is that. She is a 74 cm long and weighs 8.9kgs at 8 months. She loves to eat, is a deep sleeper, and loves toys that are musical. She is what we have always wanted or could have dreamed for. God answered the prayer we prayed two years earlier above and beyond anything we could have ever hoped or imagined. We spent the night visiting Grandparents who were ecstatic. I have been on cloud nine ever since. Our friends have been more loving than we could have ever imagined. Our church family was as excited as we were. She is going to be overwhelmed at the love that is waiting here for her. We celebrated with the other families going in our group. What a beautiful bunch of babies! Mike and I spent the day Monday shopping for a crib and some things for her room. Dad's birthday would have been Monday. I thought of him all day. He would have thought she was awesome! I'm sad he won't get to meet her. Mom is over the moon with excitement it's great to see her so happy again. Tuesday we signed our documents and said yahoo of course we want her. We had the doctor check out the paperwork and her iron is a bit low and on the growth charts for a Canadian child she is off the charts so it will be interesting to see what the next set of measurements are. We did up a care package sending an album of us and some clothes and a few disposable cameras and some things for her caretaker and a blanket and a toy. We sent it on Thursday she should have it in a week. It's just today that things are starting to die down and go somewhat back to normal. This week has been a whirlwind. I am going to now enjoy the time I have with just my boys until our family changes when we go and pick up....oh a name would be nice wouldn't it. Well her name will be Emily Elizabeth Lin. Elizabeth because it means sworn to God and Lin means beautiful and is her name given by the orphanage. I'm sure these next few weeks will fly by. Christmas will be here before we know it and then its up, up and away. How incredible. It will definitely be an adjustment. I am preparing myself now for the life change. I know it won't be easy then anything good usually isn't so I won't fret because I am surrounded by a loving support group and a loving God. We celebrated Emily's 1st birthday yesterday. We bought a cake and made a wish and prayed for her. We will celebrate again but yesterday we did it for her thousands of miles away.

We Got the Call Today

Today we got the call from Community services at 3:45 pm telling us they had our package. A little cruel because their offices close at 4:30 leaving not enough time to go there. So it also means that the 10 couples will be lined up tomorrow morning to get their packages. Very exciting. I can't express enough how wonderful this process has been. It is amazing how God plants these wee ones in our hearts no different than he plants our biological children in our wombs. Not an ounce of difference. I would have never believed it if I didn't experience it. It's awesome that the kids want us to wait until they are home to view the pictures so it means we will have to wait until the afternoon but it's well worth it to have all of us there. God has been amazing to our family and I thank Him night and day. Tomorrow we will finally meet our daughter after such a long wait. I can't wait to see her! I can't wait to hold her! Of course I can't wait to smooch her!

About Emily's Home

Here are a couple of maps of China ... Emily is living on the southeast coast in the Guangdong province. Click on the larger map and it shows the cities. In the lower right corner, you'll see Hong Kong on the coast and Guangzhou just slightly inland. Guangzhou is where we will be staying for part of our trip. It's very cool because a friend of ours from China is actually from Guangzhou which is awesome for her to know someone here from there. God knows what he is doing! Emily's orphanage is about a three hour drive south of where we will be ... it is also located in a coastal town. The size of China is roughly equal to the size of the United States so the weather varies quite a bit - similar to how it varies here. While we are in Beijing (northeast part of China, near Korea), it may be very cold - even snowing - and then we will fly to Guangzhou where it will probably be in the 70s.

The Stork Has Almost Landed

We received a surprise phone call today. Mike was calling and calling at work and I just wasn't able to get back to him not realizing why he was calling. WE HAVE A DAUGHTER....how amazing is that. Our agency called today to tell us a few details about Emily and how old she is.
Here's what we know: (No picture yet but)

Her Name is: Jiangcheng Lin
She is from Guangdong Province
We will therefore be traveling to the city of Guangzhou.
Her orphanage is Yangjiang, Jiangcheng District Welfare Institute.

Some information on Guangdong Province can be found on the link below.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guangdong

Her birthday is November 16th, 2005.....Just a wee lamb. She will be 14 months old when we bring her home.
We will be traveling in Early January.

All of the other children in our group are from the same orphanage and were born in December 2005 with the exception of one child who was born Nov 1, 2005.

This has been a very exciting day and we can't wait to see her picture. We should have it by Friday.

Doing the Happy Dance

This is exactly how I've been feeling today. It's unbelievable the weight that has been lifted from me now that I know that Emily's picture is on the way. It is afterall the unknown that gets people..well now we know. Our friends and family have been amazing. We are so blessed to be surrounded by loving people who care about us and genuinely can't wait for Emily to come home. She is going to be one spoiled hunka bunka. To think that God in all of His goodness has chosen her and chosen us to care for her what wonderful plans He must have for her. I found my old book of Common Prayer from the Anglican church and there was a prayer in it for loved ones who are away. I loved it! I altered it a bit...God won't mind..here goes:

Holy Father, in your mercy
Hear our earnest prayer;
Keep our loved one, in her absence,
Under your care.

Jesus, my Saviour, let your presence
Be her light and guide;
Keep her o keep her at your side.

When in sorrow, when in danger,
When in lonliness,
In your love look down on her and comfort
In her distress.

May the joy of Your Salvation
Be her strength and stay;
May she grow to love and praise you
Day by Day.

Holy Spirit let your teaching
Sanctify her life;
Send your grace, that she may conquer
In the strife.

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
God the One in Three
Bless her, Guide her save her and keep her near to thee.

Amen.

The Stork is in the Air

Finally, finally after a 14 month wait and 20 months of going through this process we finally finally....did I say finally had our August 25th date make it on the China Centre for Adoption Affairs website. It is done. She has been chosen for us. This was so a God thing. All month there was a slight chance and in the last couple of weeks no one thought that the 25th would be included in the date change and guess what? God is in control. I have goose bumps at the thought of how he is moving in our lives. I am so grateful, humbled, excited, amazed, weepy, happy, ecstatic...you name it I'm feeling it today. Matt's watching a movie and Mike is reading the Bible to Andrew. I couldn't ask for a better family and now soon, soon we will see Emily's face. The face we have dreamt about, the face we can't wait to smooch. Our friends have been awesome and today has been a very special day that we are so pleased to be able to share with them. So now its 1-2 weeks and then we will get the call...your little one is here! I need to pinch myself. I praise God and thank Him for the incredible blessing in our lives and the blessing of our little one. We made it, we made it...oh oh we made it.

Trick or Treat

God's been teaching me lot's this week about patience and waiting. Since the last time I posted until today I have been somewhat obsessed with the China Centre for Adoption Affairs website to change. What He's taught me as it sits the same day after day is that I am wishing my time now away. That instead of enjoying my family and friends my mind has been elsewhere. Our time to get Emily will come soon enough and I realise that God is strengthening me. Who am I to question His intentions. Who am I to question why He chooses to reveal Emily to us this month or next. I am completely at peace now (I say now because yesterday I wasn't) today is a new day and when the date changes it changes. In the meantime...I'm spending time with me family, working, drumming, singing and praising the Lord all the way to China! God is Good. Keep her safe Lord and we will in your timing go and get her. Next year on Halloween we'll have ourselves a ladybug to trick or treat with...too cool.

No News is Better than Bad News

Well I guess that no news is good news. It still means that perhaps our date will be included in the next round of referrals. Either or it will be this month or next at the latest so I will hang tight.

Holding my breath for China

I decided that today I would begin my posting for our China Girl! Our family is adopting from China and we are awaiting our referral. Our date that we were approved in China is August 25, 2005. This is significant because as I type I am waiting to see if referrals are being sent this month for dates starting August 10th and ending mmmm...good question. Some rumours say August 23rd some say the 24th, I've heard the 26th and even as late as the 28th. I know it's all in God's timing but oh baby the wait this month has been crazy. So I go to bed knowing that God has our best interests at heart and that whether we get a referral this month or next as crazy as I am tonight....its ok whatever He decides. Emily we're coming to get you soon little one but until then God has you safely under His wing. Chow.