Approaching the Goal

For the entire last year, we having been pressing toward the goal of going to China to bring home Dominic and Rosemary. Amidst all the busyness of our lives, the thought of them ,and the trip to get them, has never been far from our thoughts. We have completed a veritable mountain of paperwork, sent money to agencies everywhere, debated about clothing sizes, filled drawers with new clothes , repainted bedrooms, refinished furniture, struggled to choose names, bought new dolls :) , electronic toys, backpacks, bedspreads, you name it, and doing all that we could to prepare a place that we hope these children will like.
And them? Until just a few months ago, they did not even know we existed. One of them has lived in an orphanage since being abandoned on a bus at age 5, the other has lived in an orphanage or fostercare for 10 years. It is what they have known. And now they will be asked if they would like to leave all they have ever known to come with us. Will they be brave enough to do it? At their age, they have a choice. As an orphan in China, they will have no opportunity for education and most jobs are not open to them. But, at least they know what they can expect. They know nothing about us.
I love the Biblical parallels in adoption. I love that God left a comfortable place to come to us, although we were not mighty, or worthy, or even good, and by the power of His 'love He predestined us to adoption as sons, according to the good pleasure of His will' (Eph1:5). I love that Jesus said that He was going to prepare a place for us. I love that He has allowed us to experience, in a small way, what He has done for us.
If the children knew all that we have done /planned for them surely they would be eager to come. (Do you think that is just what God is thinking about us? )
How will they respond?
For us, at this moment in time, that is an unknown. But it is already known to God. I love that , too.

July Birthdays

With four birthdays within eleven days , we get our fill of cake and ice cream in July.

The kids took Jerry for a ride on Thomas for his birthday again this year.

What to do ?

We have been waiting a year to get travel approval (TA) from China so that we could bring home Dominic and Rosie. We heard yesterday that we had finally received it and that we could travel from Aug 8 to the 21st. So why am I not rejoicing? We had expected to be back before the 15th when: my parents are arriving from Florida, Clara (our first granddaughter) is supposed to come out of Lindsay's tummy, and we have tickets for Steven Curtis Chapman (right here in Franklin, greatmountainmusic.com ). Add to that the fact that tickets are mega expensive in August (worse because our agency has us traveling on weekends) and in September they plummet to only $1200 person. So. We told the kids that we thought we would get them in July. Do we wait until September? We are checking to see if we can use our FF miles. Inspite of all we would miss here that might be the deciding factor. Or not.

Beauty and the Beast

In case you haven't been able to get hold of us lately, its because we have been at the theater. We have had a fun family time working together on Beauty and the Beast this spring.

In his day job, Everett built this adorable house for Belle and every night he sang to her. Jerry, Nellie , Travis and Lindsay were all villagers although Travis and Lindsay eventually became enchanted objects.

The enchanted objects were adorable, but I am not sure that Lindsay ever believed that the costume I made her looked much like a mop (keep in mind that baby Clara was hiding undertaht mop costume). Note Travis in turquoise, first as a baker, later as a spatula.

Andy and Ric saw this show at least 20 times and have loved every minute. Andy was voted by the cast as their favorite audience because of his easy laugh. He knows all the songs and almost all the dialog. I am hoping the practice will work as a kind of speech therapy for him :).

It will be a bit of a shock to go back to real life next week but there is still plenty to be done for the arrrival of Rosemary and Dominic. And this fall we have Jekyll and Hyde - one of my favorites!

Ariel Graduates

Ariel's high school graduation brought friends and family to town. She has had a wonderful high school experience and it was bittersweet (at least to me) to celebrate its completion. We are so grateful for all the teachers , coaches and friends who have helped along the way.

Nellie and Rosie's Rooms

Nellie wanted to share a bedroom with Rosie so I managed to squeeze another bed in her room and the ajoining room has become a girl's playroom. Nellie's clothes are in the bedroom and Rosie's are in the playroom which I hope will help them keep some kind of order. I am not quite finished ,as the nightstand is on the front porch with the paint drying and I am putting a second coat on picture frames in the living room. This gives a general idea and I thought I ought to capture the moment before they acquire a more 'lived-in' look. :) I hadn't expected to ever 'do' a little girl's room again, so I had tons of fun with it. The day I found out we were getting Rosie, I went online and bought an American Girl doll and an Asian baby doll (ebay, of course).

Rosemary

We were so excited to wake up this morning and find a new picture of Rosie in our email ! We were also told that she knows we are coming and is happy about it.

That is a Huge relief to me, as sometimes children are not told in advance. Can you imagine the terrified children and miserable adoptive parents when kids are not prepared to leave everything they have ever known to go around the world with complete strangers who are not even smart enough to speak Chinese.?

Isn't she beautiful?