Major CHINA news!

2006 - A step in our journey toward Maia. This photo was taken a year into the journey to Maia, going to the State Capital for state certification of our dossier, the endless paper trail of international adoption. Little did we know at the time what the future would hold. Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and HE will strengthen your heart. Yes, He will! I would have lost heart unless I had believed that He had His hand on all of this turmoil around me and in my heart. He is ABLE to redeem our pain here on Earth. HE IS ABLE! Our final victory will come when we're home with Him at last. Victory in Jesus! I praise Him that He is so intimately involved with the details of this daughter's heart. He will perfect that which concerns us and will make everything beautiful in its time. To Him be all praise and honor and glory for what He has done and what He will do! For all of us!



Ok. The news! Well, I was just checking rumor queen about China referral dates like I do every month and totally expected to see 2 or 3 days worth of log-in processing. To my complete surprise, they processed 6 days worth of family log-ins last month. That means that they have issued referrals of children for all families logged-in to their system through April 11, 2006. Ben and I are logged in on April 28th, 2006 and are estimating that they only have about 13 days or so to process before they get to us. If they keep processing at an average monthly rate of 4 or 5 days, that could bump our referral up to POSSIBLY summer. I'm just saying. That's all I'm saying. There's a huge grin on my face and also a queezy feeling in my stomach as I think about all we need to do to prepare for Maia!

He who promised IS FAITHFUL! I have never stopped believing that what God planted in my heart in 2005 would come to fruition. Here's my journal from the other day on our Maia site that I'm still updating every now and then as a record for her.

Dear Maia,

I see the approaching signs of your coming. The feeling in my heart that you've been born and are wrapped snuggly somewhere in the heartland of China. Three little faces peering back at me at church today. China faces like yours with streams of beautiful black hair and joyful eyes, expectant eyes.

I hope to always encourage you to live in expectancy of the good things to come in your journey here with the Lord. There will be seasons of joy and seasons of sorrow, and I wish both for you, knowing how intimately the Lord will draw you to Him through both of those.

I live in expectancy, expectancy since June 9, 2005 of your coming, and He who promised is faithful.

We are beginning the process of updating our US approval for the 4th time! Our fingerprints were updated January 6th in Atlanta, so we're good there. The US approval involves a little more than rolling our fingers on a glass panel, but it's not that bad. Afterall, we've already done it three times!!