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!!

Exploring the Great Outdoors

If there's anywhere that all three of us love to be, it's outdoors! I get spring fever on that first fleeting warm day in February and want to start gardening and poking around in the soil. Last weekend, we headed outside as it got gradually warmer and spent part of both Saturday and Sunday looking for the remains of winter and the signs of spring.

Ava is at the age now where she protests when we have to go inside! She would honestly play outside all day I think. She's very independent and is fearless around water. She'll head straight for the stream and want to get in.

All of the animals joined us for the fun, and here are a few fun pictures from our adventures last weekend. We are excited to welcome spring!

Ava insisted on pushing her own stroller. She's all about doing it herself right now which we knew was coming. I think it came overnight!



Daddy, Bear and Ava getting ready for Bear's favorite activity - a walk around the yard with his people!



If you double-click on this, it looks like Ava is proclaiming something. "Now this is some great weather we're having!" That or "Now we will go in when I say we will go in."



Collecting nature's treasures. More than one little hand can hold.



Action pet shot. Notice Bear's level of excitement that the whole family is outside with him.



Um, this would actually be Saki our cat, not Bear our dog. Ben and I haven't seen this much activity from her in a LONG while. We didn't know she could still jump with all 13 lbs of herself. Go, Saki!



PLEASE let me touch the water, Daddy.



This blanket goes everywhere with us now, even outside on occasion. She calls it Blankie.



We finally allowed her to get "in" the stream. That is about as far as she got. Her sneaker got stuck in the mud.



Ava threw this ball to me!

Eating is an Adventure!

Mealtime can be neat or messy! It just depends on what we're having and Ava's mood. I took these shots in the last week or so while Ava was eating some "comfort" food while she was teething. She loves to lift the plate or tray toward the end of the meal, and sometimes, most of the time, it still has food on it. Thus, begins the cleaning of the hair and eyelashes routine. I decided to try some fish sticks last week, and she wasn't too crazy about them. Only six more times to introduce them! At least, that's what my book says about toddler eating...

I bought Jessica Seinfield's Deceptively Delicious book today that involves purees of vegetables hidden in toddler's favorite foods. There's a pureed squash and pasta recipe in there I may try tonight. I saw Jessica's interview about this book, and the recipes look really good. She hides spinach in brownies!

I may puree aspargus and put it in peanut brittle for Ben. ha! Sorry, honey. We're way past seven times on asparagus for Ben, but I keep trying. :)

Love to all on this cold temperatures moving in day... Maybe snow tonight? Fingers crossed.

Love is in the Air

Whew! After several weeks of viruses, teething and strange ailments, we are finally and happily getting back into the swing of things! We've spent a lot of time resting and playing indoors because of sickness and the cold temperatures/snow outside. Valentine's Day was spent very quietly at home as we all recuperated. It was getting comical at one point because we were all such a mess! The animals were the only healthy members of the family. Here are a bunch of pictures to catch you up on what we've been up to this past week or so.

On the 9th, Aunt Jill headed over after school to bring Ava "Mischief" the little monkey. Boy, does this description fit her to a tee right now!



She has figured out how to open the dishwasher, and this is where I found her eating her snack one day.



She is WAY into water and pouring it, splashing in it, dumping it, etc. She spends very focused time on her "chemistry" experiments. One day, I decided to bring in some snow in in a bowl for her to enjoy. She was entertained for a long time! When I was a little girl and was sick when it snowed, my mom would put snow in a green bowl and I thought it was so much fun. We're carrying on that tradition. :)







I found her on top of this black chair one day looking at her Curious George story. I see TOP bunk in her future at camp!!



Quiet moment with her special Valentine.



Mimi and Papa came over in the afternoon to celebrate Valentine's Day with us and open some goodies with Ava.




Here's a picture of Ava with her Valentine book, baby, and bear. Kristie, the baby reminds me of Sera's "dee." :)



When Ava went to bed, I made the very first meal my Mom made for my Dad for Ben to celebrate Valentine's Day. Stuffed green peppers! They were yummy. For those of you who haven't been to our house, this is our usual dinner spot. Bear is usually barking on the other side of the window and Saki or Lucy are meowing for food! Tonight, all was quiet and peaceful and it was great to just relax with some warm food.

Well!

Hello, all! We are finally now officially over the worst of our viruses and teething and are reentering life outside! I even "did" my hair today, which believe me is a welcome sight! We barely finished breakfast this morning before heading outside for a long walk. Loads of pictures to share and will do that very soon! Love to all. B, E, and A

Monkeying Around

When we started taking Ava to the nursery at church in 2008, she was just a little turtle. We blinked and she moved to the peacocks and now she's perfectly suited to be a monkey.

Monkey is definitely the animal a 1 1/2 year old most resembles!!! Here are a few recent pics of her time in the monkey classroom. She has some great little buddies in there, and there's never a dull moment. On her first day in there, we came to get her and noticed that the teachers had stacked all the chairs in the corner. Ben and I just looked at each other. We knew. Sure enough, they told us that Ava had been using them to climb on top of the kid table. I joked last night that Ava would be an Olympic climber someday!

On another note, I am really struggling with some health issues- nothing major just several at one time that are causing me some considerable discomfort. I need some prayer cover. THANK YOU!

Our little turtle



Spreading her feathers as a little peacock



Our busy monkey! If there were trees in this room, she'd be swinging or climbing!

Love, Illness and Rest

Well, that whole rest thing I wrote about in my last post? It's happening, because all three of us are sick and are forced to rest!

Ava - a virus or cold of some kind- low fever, fussiness, extremely runny nose, and sleepiness - has now had for four days

Emily- either the flu or another flu-like virus - runny nose, low fever, extreme muscle soreness and achiness and fatigue - has now had for 2 days

Ben- major sinus infection- extreme congestion - has now had for 1 day - went to the clinic for a prescription today.

I've drunk enough echinacea tea for a small village I think. It's starting to gross me out.

So, there's love here today, but it's mingled with sickness and crankiness. We're postponing our Valentine celebration until we're all feeling better!

Sending love that overflows your heart to everyone we know! We love you!

Ben, Emily and Ava

ps -I wish we could train Saki to bring us kleenex.