News on our Adoption and prayer request

Heart Surgery for Sarah Mei on Friday June 27: Please pray for this special little girl!!

Lainie, Lilly, and Sarah Mei back in April of this year

Sarah Mei was Lilly's orphanage mate and came home shortly after Lilly did. We stay in touch with her family and ask that you please pray for healing for her heart. This will be her second heart surgery in about 9 months, and it will be more difficult due to scar tissue. The doctors will be trying to repair one of her heart valves. Please pray that the surgeons would be able to use Sarah Mei's own tissue rather than a metal valve. The metal valve would not be ideal for such a young child with a growing heart and would mean more surgeries in the future. Thanks for lifting up Sarah Mei to the Great Physician! If you want to check out updates on Sarah Mei, you can check her family's blog: thehortonhome.blogspot.com

Now for a little news on our adoption of Ellie:

Thanks to all of you who have left comments or sent encouraging e-mails. I have indeed felt your prayers. First, the document is now on its way to Beijing although it was not shipped until Tuesday- yet another disappointment. But that's o.k. I have recovered from that one as well and poor David is really glad it's today and not yesterday. Let's just say I was not a happy camper! The agency representative who resides in Beijing should receive it no later than Friday, and I have been told twice now that she will deliver it to the CCAA the day she gets it! Let's pray for that!

The director of the agency met with the CCAA and did advocate for us- praising God for that! She let the officials know that the document was enroute and would be delivered promptly by the end of the week. Unfortunately, she was unable to find out any news on our LOA. Hopefully it will not be TOO much longer. This LABOR has to end soon! (I've decided physical labor/ childbirth is much easier than "labor of the heart" during adoption, and I did it all natural twice!)

I save the best for last. . . The director has Ellie's update and photos in her hand!!! Praising God for this wonderful and desperately needed good news. She said about Ellie: "She has grown so and is so beautiful!! She looks great." The director will return to the US on Friday and will overnight the update to us! Is it Saturday yet???? Can't wait. New pictures will definitelty be the next best thing to our LOA.

Prayers Needed

Please Pray for Our Adoption of Ellie This has been a week full of disappointments in our adoption journey to Ellie. First, we were informed on Tuesday that the CCAA had requested a letter from us regarding my being a stay-at-home mom. I knew I had already submitted the letter to our agency back in January with the rest of our documents for our dossier. I was shocked to find out that the letter was not included in our dossier. The notarized letter was not sent to China but instead sat in the agency's office. Now our adoption is on hold until this letter can be authenticated and sent to the CCAA. As far as we know, the letter should be on its way back from Washington D.C. to the agency. The agency assures us that it will be sent out on Monday for China. Please pray for this document to reach the CCAA by the end of next week and that the CCAA officials would promptly issue our LOA upon receiving this required document. The director of the agency will be in China next week, and we also pray that she would be a strong advocate for us as she will be at the CCAA on Monday. We also are still waiting on the update on Ellie that we were suppossed to receive a month ago. Again we ask for prayer that the agency director will receive some encouraging news regarding the update.

"Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, 'The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.' The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord." Lamentations 3:22-26

"Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him." Isaiah 30:18

The commentary in my Bible explains this verse: "What does it mean to wait for the Lord? It means to trust him when a situation looks hopeless- even when it seems he is gone."

Others seem to have such trouble free adoption journeys and sometimes I am tempted to wonder "why?". Why did our LID take 33 days? Why have we never received an update on our child? Why are we still waiting for LOA at day 75? And why oh why did our agency not include the notarized letter that I sent months ago? Yes, I would like to know the answers to those questions, but I can have hope and assurance knowing that my Heavenly Father does know and that His plans are always perfect. This is not the way I would have planned our adoption journey, but He is omnipotent and omnicient and so my faith rests in Him. My God is bigger than any orphanage director, any adoption agency, and the CCAA. As much as I want to have Ellie in my arms today, it is simply not time yet. God led us to this adoption, and I trust that He will lead us through it.

Thanks for praying!

Fresh Baked Goodies to Help Orphans

Last year when we traveled to get Lilly, Shelby and Katie had a suitcase full of items ranging from clothes to bubbles for the children at Chenzhou City CWI. We told the girls that this time we would not be able to take an extra suitcase full of items to donate due to the fact that we would have Lilly as our travel companion. The girls still wanted to do something so they have started making brownies and cookies to sell at their daddy's office. They have only made 2 batches of homemade goodies so far and have already made close to $20. They are prayerfully considering how to best use the money for the orphans in China. We may carry the money to China and then buy clothes for the children in Ellie's orphanage. We'll let you know the total $ earned and how they donate it right before we leave to go get Ellie!

No update on Ellie yet. The agency rep. unfortunately shared with the orphanage director that she was Fed Exing the update to us. It seems that this "offended" the orphanage director so she decided to mail the update to the CCAA who will then mail it to the agency who will then get it to us. That was VERY disappointing, and we don't really know if we will ever get it, but Lord willing, we'll get our Ellie girl later this summer! No LOA yet either, but we are hopeful that maybe next week will be our week! We are on DAY 60 of the LOA wait. The average wait is about 75 days with a range from 55 to 100 days. God is in control, and we know His timing is perfect!