Introducing

Our agency called us on Friday, July 10th as I was out running errands with the kids. They had a file they wanted our family to review...a little girl they thought looked like a perfect fit for our family. About 20 minutes later, I saw her face and knew I would bring this girl home. Her sweet round face and prominent forehead reminded me of my other babies already at home. I forwarded her picture to Robert who was at work. He said when he saw it, he audibly gasped in a meeting and then told his coworkers he had just seen his daughter for the first time. We are thrilled to introduce her to you! We are still working on her English name, but here she is...name coming soon! 

Zhou Hui Jing

Born: June 22, 2014

 

A few things we know about Hui Jing:

* Hui means intelligent and Jing means virtuous. (It is pronounced "we ching.") 

* Her birthday is just 6 weeks after Rachel Beth...so Rachel has a new "twin" sister.

* She was born with a cleft lip and palate. Her lip has been repaired but her palate remains open. We will need to have it repaired when she gets home. 

* She lives in the province of Henan.

* We hope to travel in about 4 months to bring her home. We are thrilled we will have our family complete under our Christmas tree this year. 

Two days after we saw her picture for the first time, while at church, we met a family who just got home with their son who is also from China and who also was born with a cleft lip and palate. We are  continually blessed by the encouraging people God places in our lives. It is especially encouraging to meet people who are a few steps ahead. 

We are thankful for the opportunity to bring this sweet girl home as our daughter and can't wait to have her home! 

Vision

         27 months ago, we started our adoption paperwork process.  We had this relatively easy vision of what it would be: spend a while completing the crazy paper chase, wait a few months…maybe a year…and then travel to get our daughter and bring her home. I had this scripture hanging on my refrigerator:

“I will take my stand at my watchpost

and station myself on the tower,

and look out to see what He will say to me…

And the Lord answered me:

‘Write the vision, make it plain on tablets,

so he may run who reads it.

For still the vision awaits its appointed time;

It hastens to the end—it will not lie.

If it seems slow, wait for it;

It will surely come…”

Habakkuk 2:1-4

         Our vision, at least regarding our adoption, has most definitely seemed slow! However, as we come out of the fog of grief, there it is before us still. Both Robert and I still have in our hearts strong desires to add to our family through adoption. All along the way, as we have had some starts and stops, some redirection, we have always stayed united in the desire to adopt and for this I am so grateful. It has never felt like me pulling him along. Or him urging me on. It has always been us together—moving toward the future hope of a daughter brought home.

         We stepped back into the adoption process last week. We love our agency. They have been so sweet to give us time and space to grieve our loss and process our options. We let them know recently we were ready to move forward.

         And, so, the official wait begins again. Although, in reality, it has been a wait of over two years. So much in our life has changed since the day we first said “yes!” to adoption. But the call remains the same.

         And so, we continue to wait for the vision to come to completion and we know indeed that, eventually, it will surely come.

I Can't Believe We Live Here...

Our family relocated to Tampa one month ago and Robert and I still look at each other every now and then and say "I can't believe we live here." We have had a wonderful time exploring our new city and surroundings over the last month. Here are a few highlights:

We have a fun city park about 2 miles from our house. It has a splash park, playground, and fishing dock on the bay. We have already enjoyed our neighborhood park many times!

We visited the Tampa Aquarium for Rachel's birthday. 

And of course we've also enjoyed being so close to the beach!

The Tampa move has been fantastic for our family! We are living in a great community with a street full of sweet neighbors. Looking forward to the adventures ahead!