With grateful hearts for family and friends, for those near to us and those who are near in our hearts. For hope and joy, and sorrow and struggles. For laughter and tears, and the songs that He gives along the way. But most of all for Jesus...the Author and Finisher of our faith. It is with grateful hearts that we share with you here.
I now remember why it is that I rarely get family photos taken. It all started with the search through the deep recesses of closets for matching clothes. Then it turned to curlers, props, and lots of barking commands (on my part). And lo-and-behold, several hours later...we produced the following....among about a hundred others that made us laugh as we looked through them.
I have recent individuals of Mitchell and Faith so just Matthew, Gracie, and Christian got individuals today.
I must say I was quite pleased.
Of course girls love having their picture taken.
Our dear sweet friend Mattie (hi Mattie :) took them for us.
A fine looking bunch of kiddos if I do say so myself.
Oh, look....here's Mattie now. Many thanks, Mattie.
Well, here I am... 1year and 1month later. This is my story about my journey home. You see, it's my baby book really. Because when Mommy or the kids look at baby books, Mommy can see that I am worried because I don't see MY story. So, here's mine. Mommy missed my gotcha day deadline...but it is finally finished.
Oh, I feel so happy to have Faith's video done. It was so important to me to get it done for her. She likes to watch it. She calls it "my Chiner". She really is bothered when she sees the other kids' baby photos and there are none of her..so this is important for her. I didn't think I'd ever get it done. I had it almost done about 6 months ago and then, due to a computer glitch, I lost the whole thing. It took me a while to get up the nerve to start all over again. And then we had trouble uploading because the whole thing was done in HD and we had to downgrade it so drastically to upload. My kids teased me and told me that I made it so long that people would need popcorn to watch it...but I ask you...what do you leave out when it's all she has of her first two and a half years of life?..Nothing I say. It's her keepsake.
August 23rd. Oh, little Miss Faith, happy "Gotcha Day" sweetie. We love you.
I have been working tirelessly to get Faith's adoption video done in time for this Gotcha Day post. I would have made it too. But, I chose to hold off on posting the video until something special arrives. You see, I have been saving for a number of months to hire Bruce Yu, an investigator/interviewer of sort, who lives in Nanchang, which is the seat of government for the Jianxi Province. He will research Faith's time in China, checking for photos at the orphanage through a contact there, finding and visiting Faith's foster home with a list of questions I send, taking photos of where she lived, and looking for photos of her that were perhaps taken in her foster home. I have decided to hold off on publishing her adoption video until I get Bruce's report because what if (hope, hope) he sends me a photo of her when she was 9 months old, or 10 months old, or....Oh, I hope he finds some photos of her when she was littler. I feel like...well, what's the chance her foster mom even had a camera...I don't know. Time will tell.
So...in the meantime I thought I'd share some thoughts and snapshots of the journey...and a FUN interview with Little Miss Faith at the end as icing on the cake.
Now don't skip ahead to the video because this is important:
As I'm writing this, it is 1:20am. In exactly 2hours and 40minutes, we will have held you for one year. For the past two days, we've been saying things like, "Well, last year on this day, at this time, we were getting off the bus at the Great Wall." Or "Last year at this time we were getting on a plane to Nanchang. So as I type this sentence..."Last year at this time, we were in a filthy, rickety van bumping along through the China countryside past scenery that caused us all to ride in silence and just stare. We were headed to the center of Nanchang to get our girl.
(The gate of the Fuzhou Social Welfare Institute by which she was left at one day old)
The baby room (now abandoned), where she spent the first 9 months of her life.
By 3:00am (our time), 3:00pm Nanchang time, I was pacing the floor waiting for the van from the Fuzhou Social Welfare Institute to arrive...far too nervous to sit down. They arrived at 4. There was a shot in our gotcha day video that I had Matthew edit out that very evening, because the look of fear in her eyes was too painful to watch and I wasn't sure I ever wanted her to see it. Last week, Matthew and I were pushing her on the swing and I said, "Do you remember when they brought you to mommy when I came to get you?" She said, "Yes, I was 'skeered'."
She was scared and I was scared. It's the oddest feeling when all in one moment, someone you've never met...becomes yours...and you become theirs.
Today after church found us in a local restaurant having lunch with our extended family. When mom asked who wanted to pray, Faith jumped at the chance. And so she, who a year ago couldn't speak English, who a year ago had never heard of Jesus, said the blessing around the table with all our family and thanked God "for the food and for everything, in Jesus name."
That prayer today on her Gotcha Day symbolized God's providence. His divine guidance in our lives. The fact that nothing happens outside of His will. The fact that everyone whom He has called...will come to Him. There are things I have never written about. Things like the fact that an incredible amount of spiritual warfare surrounded Faith's whole adoption. From the day we first filed papers...to the day my awareness of it scared me stiff as I rocked her to sleep on our first night home. That's all I'll write. If you want to know any more, you can certainly ask me. I will never forget the first time she said, "Jesus". It was music to my ears. I figure God must have some mighty big plans in store for this little one. She must be going to grow up to make a difference in this world. Perhaps her presence here in a place where adoptions are few and far between, perhaps her homecoming will start a chain of homecomings. This is my prayer. And so, our sweet girl, on this your Gotcha Day, we love you and pray that your very life will be an incredible picture of God's beauty.
...and one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a Loud Voice he Glorified God and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And this man, was a Samaritan. -Luke 17 Lord God, let us be like the Samaritan ...who though he was nothing in this world, became an extravagant worshipper. Cause us to be such extravagant worshippers. Like that alabaster jar, may we pour out all we have at your feet, our very tears and all that we are...because much has been forgiven. Cause us to always remember the depth of our sin, and the lavishness of Your Grace. Always keep before our eyes the greatness of Your Plan, the greatness of Your Power, and the greatness of Your Son.
For my very first ever "Sunday Snapshot"...here's our beautiful Little Miss Faith! Home 10 months!! Little Miss Faith...she's the life of every party. She's our social butterfly. Mitchell says he can't remember what life was like before she came... perhaps we were bored and just didn't know it because we had never met Faith yet... There are NO making quick stops at the store with this girl. She has to have a lengthy conversation with every person she comes in contact with...while shopping...while waiting in the checkout line...she shares many (too many) details about our life...she asks many questions. Her conversations usually start out like this, "I'm Faif. Who are you?" The other day, she told a man, "I'm just going to the potty. Where are you going?" Sometimes you don't always feel like talking to EVERYONE in the store. With "Faif", this is not an option.
.jpg)
