Gotcha Day for Elijah Jiehao

Look at that sad expression on this precious little boy's face.

This picture was taken of Elijah when we took him

for his first haircut home last February.

Look at him just one year later celebrating his first

"GOTCHA DAY" Anniversary!

Loved dearly by his mommy and papa . . .

And his brothers . . .

Now all we need is our Sophia Lin home . . .

Once a year in preschool, Philip gets to bring home

the classroom stuffed animal for a weekend.

The idea is to play with the animal and tell about it in a classroom book,

complete with pictures of the time together. So that is what we are doing

this weekend!!

Sunny liked playing in the tent with Philip.

He even enjoyed the tunnel!


So fun to see life through the wonderful imagination of a child!

A prayer for our daughter

I read the following poem on another family's website. It just captures what we are feeling right now, and I had to share it.

A Prayer for My Child

May you be safe and sleep soundly through the night,

May you be safe as you wake to the morning light,

May you feel our love from far away,

May it comfort and protect you through the day.

We will pray for you, our little one,

Until our time of waiting is done.

We will pray that the Lord keeps you safe from harm,

Until the child of our hearts becomes the child in our arms.

Anonymous

Doesn't this picture just tug at your heart?

CIS here we come!

CITIZEN AND IMMIGRAT*ON

HERE.WE.COME!

When I left off sharing about how God was providing for our adoption expenses so far back on December 19th, we had one more home study expense and then the huge CIS expense due in pretty quick fashion since our homestudy was almost completed.

Well, I can tell you that it was nothing short of a miracle~!

Nothing like we have ever expereinced before~!

Checks began pouring in to cover the remaining homestudy fee so that by the time we needed it, which was the.next.week, we had it!

Then the checks began to pour in to cover the Citizen and Immigrat*on fees that would be needed shortly after the homestudy was completed.

We received checks from travel buddies, blog buddies, family, and friends alike.

It has been simply amazing and so humbling to see God work on Sophia Lin's behalf~!

Kevin even went into his school over Christmas break to check something and happened to see a check in his mailbox for $438! Just sitting there! It was a stipend that the school system had given to him. What a surprise!

And yet it wasn't really a surprise because we are learning that

when God says he is going to provide,

well,

He provides!

One of the sweetest things ever happened a little after finding Kevin's check when Philip, who had been watching and listening to us as we received check after check, quietly went over to his piggy bank and removed $2.

He came running over to me with eyes full of excitement and said,

"Here. Take my money to use for Sophia, too!"

Thank you dear sweet Jesus for your abundant provision.

Thank you to all of you sweet people who felt called to give to our Sophia Lin.

Our cups runneth over.

He is ours!

Yesterday was a big day in the life of Elijah Jiehao and us, his forever family!

We had his last post-placement visit home that will give a report to Ch*na on how he is doing in his new life.

Now he is really, truly offically ours!

Our youngest sons with our wonderful social worker, Diane,

who helped bring home our second Ch*na treasure.

Happy little boys - happy Mommy and Papa!!

Later on we met big brother and went out to eat to celebrate this special milestone!

Oh happy day!

Fun in the snow today

It was a perfect day to play with snow.

First, we played with snow in the house! How fun - especially since Mommy didn't want to go out in the cold. But once Papa came home, we built a snowman outside.

A snowball for Elijah

and a snowball for Philip,

And if snow is this much fun,

Well, then . . .

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!