Zhengzhou: Take 2

Goodbye  to  Beijing, hello again to Zhengzhou!

My day started at 3:40 am.  Jet lag is grand.   Was wide awake.  Worked out OK since we had to leave the hotel at 6am to get to the  airport.!

Today has  been non-stop and things are getting real.   Serious  stomach flipping going on as we returned to the city  in which we met Joshua,  knowing that in a few short hours we will meet Sophie! How amazing  it  was  to unpack all the girlie  cuteness from the suitcases! 

Tomorrow is the day!

We will meet her at what is 9-10:30 Sunday EST.  That is Monday  morning here.  So if you are awake, please pray.  Sophie  will have a nurse coming with   her and the doctor who had been overseeing her care will come,  too!  Feeling like we will  get answers to many of our questions. 

I would love to share more,  but the 3:40 am thing has turned my brain to mush. 

Until next  time,  enjoy some pictures of Wal-Mart!

In Him,
Mandy

The Great Wall(s) of China

We arrived in Beijing yesterday afternoon after the best flight to China I have ever had.  Could have something to do with not having to care for little people...or watching 4 (yes, 4) movies, and a TV show on building a treehouse.  For those of you who know me well, you know TV and movies are not my thing, but yesterday it was pure bliss.  So what if two of the movies were animated!  They were the best ones, by the way!

Today our agency spent the day trying to keep us awake and called it sightseeing!  This morning we went to a section of the Great Wall of China.  

Last time, 2.5 years ago, we went to a different section which had a gondola to take you up to the wall and a tobagen sled to bring you down.  After our stair-climbing exercise, we much appreciated the gondola/tobagen aspect of the other section of the wall!  This time, however, we were not deluged by record-breaking rains and could actually see the wall and not the clouds that we walked through on the wall, so that has endeared it to me somewhat!  

It was a spectacular view and certainly brought home the enormity of the wall!  


We should have take a picture of the steps to show how no two steps are the same height or even the same slant!  Add in centuries of wind and rain to erode irregularly and it makes for an interesting climb and descent!

If you count 5 towers up from the tower in the foreground with the red roof and then go a little beyond...that is how far up and then back down we went!  Plus, we continued descending down to a body of water that passes under the wall.

We also tried to scale the Great (fire)wall of China.  Our VPN has been not very successful and I'm not so sure it will be reliable.  I was able to get onto social media briefly, but I'm not confident in our future abilities to get on Facebook, Instagram, or Blogger.  Emma may have to post in my stead!

Thank you for praying!  Keep it up!  We are less than 48 hours from seeing Sophie!  My stomach just flipped typing that!

Tomorrow, we head to Zhengzhou!

In Him,

Going to Get Sophie!!!!!!

Today is the day!

We are on a plane bound for China!

Destination?

Sophie Joy!

Bondservant

I found this post in my draft box.  I had written it over the summer a month or so after receiving word that Sophie was ours.  The impact of this truth spoken to my heart anchors my heart still today...

On our way home from Florida a few weeks ago, I spent a couple of hours, listening to Jon Courson teach on 1 Peter 1.  I think Peter is my most favorite disciple because I see so much of me in this often-knocked on disciple.

Peter began his first letter describing himself as a bondservant of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Bond servants were slaves, who after serving a full 6 years and were due their freedom, chose instead to stay and willingly remain a slave to their master for life.  The master had been good to them and they wanted to live to serve them.

When the slave made this decision, the master would take him to the doorpost of the house and drive an awl though the slave's earlobe marking him as a bondservant.

This facet of the bond servant-master relationship was not new to me.  But what was said next was so obvious, yet had not really occurred to me.

Not only was the slave making a commitment, but so also was the master.  As the master drove the awl through his servant's ear, he was also dedicating himself for life.  He was committing himself to care and provide for his bondservant and all of his needs for as long as He lived.

This struck me powerfully.  

I have felt very much like a bondservant as we bring Sophie home. We have a good, loving Master and we have dedicated ourselves to serving Him all of our days.  In Sophie, we take on another life commitment, dedicate ourselves again with our lives to serve Him through loving on her...joyously, but soberly.

But to hear that as I willfully yielded my life to Him again that He, too, made a commitment to me...to meet all of my needs according to His riches in glory and all of the needs we will have in caring for her!  Peace and gratitude filled my heart.

And I am encouraged.

In Him,

China Dates!

For months the question has been:  When will we travel to get Sophie?

The answer, due to the medical expedite, was a great big question mark.  It all depended on how fast or slow all of the various individual steps of the adoption process were expedited.

It had seemed like it could have been as early as mid-October to as late as the end of December.

Well, now we know.  

We got Travel Approval on Monday and a US Consulate appointment on Tuesday.  We booked flights on Wednesday.

We leave to for China and December 4 and return home on December 20!

We get Sophie on Monday, December 8!  Eeeek!

There you have it!  After months of wondering, we are days away from having our girl!

The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with JOY!  Psalm 126:3


In Him,

Paid in Full

You read that right!

Sophie's adoption is paid in full!

We began her adoption a little less than 6 months ago with nothing. At that time the Lord, reminded me that He owns that cattle on a thousand hills and that the approximately $30,000 in adoption costs were nothing for Him.

Insert the medical expedite...now things had to come together faster!

Now, I have been down this road before with Luke & Joshua's adoption expenses.  But I can't say I walked that road very well. But God showed me so much through that.  I remember walking our neighborhood during the process for Luke, knowing that money was due in 2 weeks.  I was literally begging/instructing God about His promise to provide.  I was overwhelmed.  I must have been praying something along the lines of:  Lord, we need that money now!

I can remember the exact spot on the exact road where the Holy Spirit whispered to my heart, "Mandy, when is the money due?"  

I replied, "In 2 weeks, Lord." 

And He said to my heart, "That's not now."  

I wish I could be speaking this next part to you, instead of typing it, because you would hear how clipped and somewhat annoyed my voice was in reply (lest you get the idea that I am super spiritual!)..."Yes, Lord, technically it is not now."  

And then He went on to instruct my heart: "You think that because you can see something coming that you need it now, but that is not now.  When you need it, it will be there.  Trust Me."  

And, that was it.  

I don't remember how the money was eventually provided, but it was because we brought our boy home.  What I do remember is that lesson.  It gave me immense peace throughout the last months.  
When it is really needed, God will provide it.

And, can I tell you something?  Each and every time we needed to pay something for Sophie's adoption...we had every penny and a few to spare!  Not always days and weeks in advance like my previous comfort zone (previous level of faith?) demanded...but always right when we needed it!

And, this time, (after the first donation came in, because, honestly, I was worried before then!)...I was at peace and had confidence in Him the whole time.  What a gift of grace from Him.

I frequently give my kids a "do-over" or an opportunity to try again.  I feel like that is what God has given me through Sophie's adoption.  An opportunity to try again and walk in the assurance that was always mine.

And, He has never failed me.  Not. Once.

It is Paid in Full!

In Him,

Medical Expedite

Where did the last month and half go?

Sophie's Medical Expedite.
Adoption Fundraising. Every.Week.
Homeschool.
Lymph node removal surgery (my mom's).

There are times when it seems everything happens at once.  
Then there are times they really do.  

Consuming most of my spare minutes of August and early September were Sophie's medical expedite.  

One of several stacks of adoption paperwork ready to be mailed

Yes, you read that right.  Her medical expedite.

In short, this means she will be coming home much sooner than predicted April.

We will be traveling to get her, most likely, in NOVEMBER!

NOVEMBER!!

Although it is exciting to think of her with us so soon, medical expedites are never a happy thing.  A medical expedite means that her US doctors and government officials on both sides of the ocean all agree her life is in danger if she is not receiving medical care in the USA soon.  Enough to make this mama's heart do an Olympics worthy gymnastics routine!  

We feel that, at this time, is appropriate to share with you a picture of our Sophie Joy!

I have debated about how much to share of Sophie's medical condition.  Many of you know she has an extremely rare and complex gastrointestinal malformations.  She also has a heart condition, which hopefully will not need any surgical intervention. To look at her sweet face and read about her precious personality, one would never know that between her chin and her knees, so very much is in need of medical attention.  

One of those areas is quite likely her kidneys.  

After we received her file, I spoke with a number of specialists in Sophie's condition.  Imagine our "exceedingly, abundantly above all we could ask or imagine" shock turned glee when we discovered that one of the specialists had actually reviewed Sophie's medical file months earlier and recommended both the surgery and procedure she received shortly after!  I don't know that I will ever forget the words he spoke to me: "Mrs. M, I did not think that she would live."

Then, he went on to inform us that we need to be prepared for the possibility that she will need dialysis and/or a transplant sooner rather than later.  There is always a possibility that she won't...we are praying for protection of her kidneys and restoration to complete health there.  But it is a real possibility.

As all of this sunk in, I realized we must do what we can to get this little one home as fast as possible.  We did what we could and left it in the Lord's hands.  He has seen fit to move everything quickly.

Would you please pray with us for God's perfect timing to get Sophie home and for the Great Physician to touch her, keep her well in China, and amaze the doctors here with HIS great work!

In Him,

       Psalm 139:13-16

For you formed my inward parts;

    you knitted me together in my mother's womb.

14 

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works;

    my soul knows it very well.

15 

My frame was not hidden from you,

when I was being made in secret,

    intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

16 

Your eyes saw my unformed substance;

in your book were written, every one of them,

    the days that were formed for me,

    when as yet there was none of them.