Blessings

Blessings

Friday, June 29, 2012

Lord,
may I have the favor to get through today with grace
the productivity to end today with satisfaction
the love to make an impact
and the attitude that makes You famous
for this I pray
http://hannahjiejie.wordpress.com/2012/06/29/a-prayer-for-today/

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Nesting......

Travel is imminent so......... nesting is definitely in order!  One of the hardest things about having a new little one is getting dinner on the table ( for soon to be 6 people!).  I saw this idea to make freezer meals on Pinterest.  You bag up ingredients for all of the meals then freeze them.  When you need a meal, you just defrost for 30 minutes then throw it in your crockpot. Genius~
On a side note, my freezer is dying so we had to buy another one yesterday.  Ouch!

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

CABLED!

We've been cabled!  Now we wait on our Article 5 to be picked up at the US Embassy.
This step takes about 2 weeks.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Love this....

http://rescuedremnant.blogspot.com/2012/06/contradiciton-of-adoption.html

Happy girls!

Getting ready to go to church with my metal purse!
Our cute cousin "L"!  Love this pic!

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Monday, June 18, 2012

Just a glimpse of complete sweetness.....

Birthday pictures.....

We received birthday pictures of dumpling today!  What a sweet surprise!  Unfortunately, we can't post them on the internet.  This is the orphanage director's request.  Let me tell you, she is adorable and it looks like she is walking holding on.  We are in love already!

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Lake recap and Happy Father's Day.....

pool fun

this is the life......

 help from sister.......

help from brother......

first boat ride with Mom......


wow.....



cousins..........

no words......

making a friend......

a swim with Daddy............
Happy Father's Day to my sweet husband and wonderful Dad....love you!

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Nice Quote:

A brilliant quote from Jen Hatmaker for my "Waiting Friends"...

"On the excruciating wait/delays: Oh my, I can speak to this. First, forget whatever timeline you were given at the beginning. Forget you ever heard that. Put that in the trash can. Adoption will change, shift, slow down, hit snags, be weird, be difficult, take longer than you think, take longer than you can stand. This will happen. This is the normal thing. When someone gives you a timeline, say, "Thank you for that cute little sentence. Flush." Potential adopters, let me tell you this: Get your "YES" straight at the very beginning. Decide on it. Roll around in it. Put it on the table and shellack it. Because you cannot let every delay and snag derail your certainty about adoption. When you say YES, you are saying YES to enter the suffering of the orphan, and that suffering includes WAITING FOR YOU TO GET TO THEM. I promise you, their suffering is worse than yours. We say YES to the tears, YES to the longing, YES to the maddening process, YES to the money, YES to hope, YES to the screaming frustration of it all, YES to going the distance through every unforeseen discouragement and delay. Do not imagine that something outside of "your perfect plan" means you heard God wrong. There is NO perfect adoption. Every adoption has snags. We Americans invented the "show me a sign" or "this is a sign" or "this must mean God is closing a door" or "God must not be in this because this is hard," but all that is garbage. You know what's hard? Being an orphan. They need us to be champions and heroes for them, fighting like h*** to get them home. So we will. We may cry and rage and scream and wail in the process, but get them home we will. " Jen Hatmaker

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Weekend.......

a little fun with friends......

woke up asking if the 'dumpling' was here this morning.....
going to be a long couple of months.

Friday, June 8, 2012

Birthday Wishes............

love you little girl...


waiting for dumpling....

yes, she has a bathing suit on....
Sweet dumpling, it is your 2nd birthday today.  We miss you terribly.  This will be your last birthday without a family.  We hope that you and your friends enjoyed the cake that we sent.  Can't wait to see the pictures.  We will be there soon little one....hold on.
Thanks to the 'D' family for the sweet birthday gifts!  We love you!

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Pray.....




China’s One-Child Policy was formally instituted 30 years ago on September 25, 1980, in an "open letter" by the Chinese Communist Party.  Up until that date, the government campaigned locally and nationally for voluntary birth control and discouraged excess reproduction. The policy was initiated as a response to China’s growing population during the 1970's—with birthrates of over 4 children per family—and relative lack of food, employment and education. This resource shortage stems partially from Mao’s failed economic-planning of the Great Leap Forward, which resulted in 30 million deaths due to starvation during famine.  By 1980, however, the birthrate had dropped below 3 children per family.
The One-Child Policy restricts families to 1 child each, with few exceptions, and the consequences for having a child without a birth permit vary by province. The policy was originally termed a temporary "last resort" that would last 20-30 years in order to relieve the lack of resources to the Chinese population. To ensure effective enforcement of the One-Child Policy, government officials who carry out the birth control policies are rewarded. Despite a slight relaxation of enforcement in 1984, with exemptions varying dramatically from province to province, the policy continues to forcefully prevent births in China.
To this day, the Chinese government boasts that the One-Child Policy has prevented 400 million births. The consequence has been an emerging demographic crisis, a topic that is being discussed more widely among Chinese scholars. Many have argued against the policy’s brutal enforcement and criticized the policy’s flawed mathematics, not to mention the labor shortage and sex-ratio imbalance that have begun surfacing since its implementation. The policy, coupled with China’s traditional preference for males, has experts predicting that by 2020, China will be home to 40 million more men than women under the age of 20. That number is equivalent to the total population of men under 20 in the U.S.
To this day little has changed with regard to the One-Child Policy, and there is little inclination from the Chinese government to end it. Zhang Weiqing, then Minister of the State Population and Family Planning Commission, denied rumors in 2008 that the policy will become less stringent to allow for a second child.  Following the 30th Anniversary of the One-Child Policy on September 25, 2010, the head of the National Population and Family Planning Commission, Li Bin, announced that China would continue the policy for several more decades, despite the fact that the original policy was intended to last no more than 30 years.
Copied from: www.allgirlsallowed.org 

Read more: http://www.allgirlsallowed.org/about/history-one-child-policy#ixzz1wla9HKc8

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Because so many of you have asked....

Next steps in the process:
short timeline: 9 weeks to travel 
long timeline: 16 weeks to travel 
Aug 6th to Oct 29th
Looks like probable travel will be sometime in September by our best guess.  Don't worry dumpling, we are coming.

Friday, June 1, 2012

NEWS!



LOA BABY!!!!!
One step closer to our dumpling.  After 67 days of waiting 
Ch*na has finally approved us!