LOA

Wow, I have been really bad at keeping up with our blog!   As you can tell by the picture above we received our Letter of Acceptance on April 16th.   Since then we have been filling out more visa paperwork for our little Hudson.   As tedious as the paperwork can get sometimes, I don't mind because I feel like I am working to get us one step closer to our little boy!

We are hoping to have travel approval by the first part of June and be able to travel in July!   From what  we have heard you can cut the humidity with a knife in China in the summer.   So I am slowly, but surely collecting dry-wicking, quick-dry clothes for us to wear in country!   Nothing's worse than to have on a cotton t-shirt that is soaked within the first 10 minutes and have to sightsee all day in wetness!   Ewwww!   We will be prepared for you, humidity!

Just received word last night that the shared list is coming out Tuesday morning (China time) Monday night (our time)!    We have been praying very specifically for a little girl in Hudson's orphanage named Grace.   We are hoping that God will allow Grace to be a part of our family as well.  It will take nothing short of a miracle for that to happen though.   You see, as the list comes out, all the agencies all over the world get on and try to find matches for their families.   Baby girls with minor special needs are "locked" right away, as there are many families looking for this type of a match.   So for our agency to be able to search the list and find Grace and lock her before ANY other agency can will be a miracle.  I have no doubt in my mind that if she is to be ours God will allow us to have her file.   We have been praying for her for months.   That fact that Hudson and her are in the same very small orphanage, growing up together as siblings, is a huge benefit for the transition being smoother for everyone!

We are definitely wanting and praying God's will in this situation.  We know that our ways are not His ways.  We know that He wants what's best for us.   We also know that as any parent, He does love to give us things we desire that don't go against His will.   So we have been praying earnestly that if it is His will we would see fit to grant us Grace's file!   I keep telling Tom that I am praying for Grace either way.....either the baby grace or the grace to get through the disappointment of not getting her file.   There will be a sense of loss if we don't get her file.   We have grown to love this baby.   We have prayed for her since last fall.   Although we had never seen her face we felt a bond with her.   Well, 3 weeks ago that all changed.   We saw a glimpse of her face in a picture of Hudson.   I cried for several days every time I looked at it, prayed for her, or thought about her.   She is just beautiful to me.

Having this longing and yearning for 2 children has given me the tiniest glimpse of how God longs and yearns for His creation to be part of His family.   The unconditional love, the undying faithfulness, oh that this process would make us more like Him!   I am definitely thankful for all the little glimpses of who He is and what He does and has done for me!   Such a beautiful picture that I can't fully grasp!

So 3 more days till the list comes out......will you join me in praying specifically that God will grant us Baby Grace's file and that He would guide our agencies hands to be able to lock her before anyone else?!

"If we were really convince that prayer changes the way God acts, and that God does bring about remarkable changes in the world in response to prayer, as Scripture repeatedly teaches that he does, then we would pray much more that we do.  If we pray little, it is probably because we do not really believe that prayer accomplishes much at all." ~ Wayne Grudem