Annabel is doing great!!!!

I have to share with you something that happened this morning when I read my email. When you are waiting to receive your TA to travel to get your child...it can be rather grouling. Of course we want to get on a plane tomorrow and get her but God might have a different plan. You hold on to any hope and words of encouragement to know fully that your child is being well cared for until the day you receive her. Anyway, I belong to a chat group for my orphanage and I received the following email from a women this morning who visited our orphanage last week. I have included the parts that pertained to Annabel and our orphanage. I have to tell you that I cried and cried for an hour after reading it. I believe in my heart this is our daughter she is referring to and I feel so blessed that she is being well cared for.....

"Thought you would be interested....I was visiting the orphanage last week with my 7 year old daughter Molly. We spent a couple of hours with the babies,holding and playing with them. Director Chen pointed out a little girl who was to be adopted soon...your description of your daughter fits this little girl we saw. She is small, but was walking and active and fine. This little girl actually looked as if her cleft lip had been somewhat repaired? Either that, or what she has is not too disfiguring to begin with. I wasnt allowed to take alot of pictures, just a couple of my own daughter playing with the babies. ButI figure you're interested in any sightings....The Kunshan orphanage is apparently considered a good example of how an orphanage should be run in China...I was told by the director in the Nanjing orphanage(which we visited prior to our kunshan visit)that caretakers throughout the region get sent to Kunshan for training...and Director Chen was very open with me as to what was in my daughter's files, etc,making it clear that they would send any new information they might ever get on my daughter....I know your own daughter is well cared for,as have been all of our children who have come from there...good luck to yourfamily."

Amber is growing up

Amber then and Amber now. Wow time goes tooooo fast. Cherish every single day of your children's lives. Amber had her first High School dance last week. I just can not believe how time flies. Just yesterday she was sitting on Santas lap asking for barbies for Christmas. She had a great time at the dance. School hasn't even started yet but they had a mixer for all the High School kids to come and just hang out. I am so looking forward to her High School years. She had 2 orientations this past week with parents and then a student only day time event as well. She doesn't offically start until this week but has already spent time at the High School four days last week. She is taking JROTC as one of her electives. She is going to have such a great time. She has already decided she wants to go out for three of the extracurricular teams. Rifle team, Drill team and orienteering. In two weeks they actually have their first overnighter. They call it "Boot Camp". Two days of being trained by the Marines in the way of team building and confidence building. She is especially excited about the dunk tank training they will receive. I am so proud of her boldness and desire to try new things. I believe she is going to have a fabulous time in High School.

Our care package has hit Chinese soil

Now on to a more serious note. I am so excited I can hardly stand it. I just checked our USPS tracking number and discovered that our care package to Annabel arrived in China yesterday. It is due to be delivered to Annabel's orphanage tomorrow. I sent her the softest blanket I have ever felt, a baby doll, a photo album with pictures of her new forever family...including the dog and cat, as well as two disposable cameras for the nanny's to take photos of Annabel and her friends, along with instructions on the cameras and a list of questions for them to fill out about her daily habits and schedules. Of course it is all in not only English but in Chinese as well. Just knowing that tomorrow she will be able to look at the photo album and start to familiarize herself with our faces makes me break into tears. I cannot wait to hold her in my arms. We have been staying very very busy the last two weeks trying to get everything together for our trip and the start of a new school year. We spent today shopping for school items and went to the movies. We saw the movie "Hairspray". It was really cute. When Joey found out that John Travolta was the mother in a fat suit and dressed like a women his response was, "That is just so wrong". We laughed our heads off. Leave it to Joey to keep us in stitches. While we were at the mall today we also found a Chinese/Mandarin/English phrase book that is going to be priceless during our trip. Looking over it I couldn't think of anything else that wasn't listed in there. That was the best find of the day. Praise God!!!!

The Wig!!!

Did you all know Mark had a twin sister? Isn't she lovely???? Not!!! This was taken after a long week of final exams. We are very proud of Mark for finishing his education while working full time. He is on track to finish his BA in Religion next summer. Then it is on to his Masters in Divinity. God has a special calling for him and we are very blessed to have him follow that calling. We couldn't let Mark have all the fun. Amber and Chantel got in on the action as well. This was a wig from the playhouse used for an event at Chantel's church for VBS. It was fun to let off some steam. I have pics of me in it too...but since I am the narrator I get to choose all the embarrassing photos. hehe

Adoption picnic

We recently had a get together with several other families in our State who have adopted from China. Some are just starting the process and as you can see many of them already have their precious children. It was amazing hearing how God placed each child in just the right home. His plans are so much bigger then we can imagine. As long as we just trust in Him and follow his guidance we are in store for things greater then our understanding. This picnic made me want to go and get my daughter even so much more. I cannot wait to see how she adjusts to us and us to her. I know it will be such a tremendous blessing for our family.

We have our RA

Today was such an awesome day!!!! We were driving home from Mark's dads house when my cell phone rang. It was our adoption agency letting us know that we received our Referral Acceptance. They originally told us it would take 2-4 months to get that back and ours came in 40 days. That is a biblical number you know!!!! God's timing is always fantastic. So now we are on cloud nine and ready to jump through hoops to get packed and get the nursery done. As of now it is still a storage room for all the junk we have some how accumulated over the past 16 years. Can you say garage sale???? So I can finally post a picture of our little blessing.

Another weekend in the great outdoors

Another weekend in the great outdoors. We had such a great time camping again. Not only did we hike, BBQ, sleep, run down a mountain from man eating bears...but we also had the opportunity to test our endurance on the obstacle course. This is usually only opened to the military and special groups but it happened to be open that day to campers as well. My favorite was the incredibly crazy swing that plumets you from higher then I have every swung before. As you can see our puppy is exhausted. We walked him silly this trip. We had a fabulous time..but it is always nice to come home.