"Isn't She Something?"

One time, only one time, an adult friend of ours made this face at Amelia. She now loves it! When she sees a camera this is now Her face. Amelia's teachers have tried almost everything to get a "good" picture of her, often commenting, "Isn't she something?" They have finally given up and posted a picture on the classroom door similar to this one, only in their picture Amelia is wearing a big beautiful bow and a smocked dress. She makes me smile!

Is 60 Days A Long Time?

Grant's Social Welfare Institute in Chengdu

I have been reading adoption packing lists from other families. I have to laugh because when you combine more than one list - the list soon gets much larger:). For some reason, I have spent too much time reading about the best bottle to take. I can so easily get focused on one thing and take it entirely too far. I really CANNOT wait to feed Grant a bottle! Even if he no longer use a bottle, he is going to get it back. It doesn't even have to be milk - I think I am taking just about every kind - (I am not kidding), except Dr. Browns ( too slow), I thought that one would frustrate him.

We are at least 60 days out from China sending us an invitation to travel - best case scenario. This next letter is called a TA. Once we receive our TA, we will schedule an appointment with the US Consulate in Guangzhou. So we are a couple of months away and I almost have Grant packed.

Skip and I will travel to China. The older girls really would like to go, but I really think this time should just be for Grant. Recently, I have had dreams about traveling with them. The last dream one of the girls was brushing their teeth and using the tap water - Because I forgot to remind them to not use the tap water! Nightmare! Anyway, I am so looking forward to traveling with Skip as he is a bit more responsible (LOL)! and it has been a very long time since we have been on a trip together.

As we look into traveling, we have found that adding Beijing to our travel will cost a bit more money. The more conservative trip for us would be flying into Hong Kong, going to Chengdu then to Guangzhou. I do think Hong Kong would be wonderful to see, I just have had my heart set on going to Beijing and New Day for a long time. God will work out that detail.

I am also am wondering if we need to take a video recorder/cam recorder. We do have one, from about 10 years ago. My father gave it to us before Olivia was born - ALMOST 11 years ago! It works great, but the battery has issues. We had to replace the original battery and the new one has to be forcefully but carefully rigged up to the charger - there is a 50/50 chance that the battery will be charged after 12 hours. It is very unpredictable. ? would I regret not having a video tape?

Embracing Grant

I still cannot believe our LOA arrived last week. I cannot believe China said YES, that we could be Grant's parents. The days that followed I could not help in the wee morning hours going over and over our adoption journey in my mind. I also could not get my arms around why I had been so hesitant to believe that Grant was indeed our son. Slowly I have realized how much I have guarded my heart. This journey has been one of the most difficult and moving times we have ever had. I will never know the whys or the difficult forks in the road we encountered. God had lifted the veil on some of the heartbreaking times and then there are others that we are
other times that are still unclear and hurt as deeply as they did the day they happened.

In these wee morning hours I can circle the mountain and wonder - what if I did this or what if we would have had more faith or what if . . . it all comes down to me not wanting to feel pain and needing to trust that just because I did not get what I wanted, He is still good. I do not want to hurt and quite honestly I know that God does not want me to hurt. But if this was the path to our son, I would do it all over again. When God so graciously put adoption in my heart, I had no idea what He was up to. And despite the trials, there has been so much victory! I have been set free, places that I had pretty much given up on. Praises! I am so glad I poured my heart out and the blessings certainly outweigh the pain.

I am so thankful that The Almighty's ways are higher and so much grander than I will ever know. His blessings are abundant and take our hearts to places we do not know even exist.
I would not change one second of this journey if I had to go back. I am so utterly grateful for the way it all turned out. And without any doubt in my mind, I know Grant Yi Nan is my son - I will never look him in the eyes and wonder. He is no longer an orphan, he is my son - And during those early morning hours, I can hardly imagine what holding him is going to feel like, as I hug him with absolute joy and praise - as he cries in fear and uncertainty. I get to love him! And I can say, I know you are scared, but trust me it is going to be good sweet Grant.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY!!!!!!

91 Days Closer

I can hardly wait to see Grant - will he look like his pictures? Will we scare him? Who will he initially want to be with? Skip? Me? It seems like we have been looking at his sweet picture for so much longer than 91 days.

The New House

Before

After

These are the before and after pictures of our house. We are settled in now - Whew!!!
We do have a lot of painting left, but for the most part all of the major work is finished.

The tropical depressions have come through our area and we have had a lot of rain, which introduced us to some leaks. Off the back of our house we have two sun rooms; one upstairs off of the kitchen, and another one below it downstairs. Both of them (upstairs and down) are leaking. In addition to leaks, we have a horrible ant problem. I really think that because the house sat vacant for so long, these little critters settled in. Last week I opened my car door and it was full of ants! I will say we do have crumbs in our car, but for the most part it is clean. We are trying to overcome these tiny little beasts - very difficult! I do not like ants at all and our two younger girls use to scream at the sight of one - now we just take turns smashing them. If anyone has any ant advice, we welcome it! We are in the process of mapping out a plan with our exterminator - Perhaps we live on an ant bed, I really do not know?

Notwithstanding the leaks, we actually love the sun rooms. One positive about the sun room upstairs is its roof... it is aluminum and glass. I have always wanted a cabin with a tin roof because I love the sound of the rain hitting it - not a downpour - but just gentle rain. It is such a soothing beautiful sound. The last few weeks, the rains have been very hard and when it hits the sun room roof it can be pretty loud (in addition to the aluminum and glass, the floor is tile without any rugs.) God does have a sense of humor and I use it to remind me of how far we have all come. Two years ago it was frantic when the weather changed and now everyone always knows when the weather is changing because you can hear it AND praises! there is no fear!!!!! everyone just moves to a quieter room. He blesses us beyond measure!