A guest post for you to read…
from Hanna!

Please take a look at her new blog and read about
adoption from her point of view.

It’s almost time!

We will be leaving early Thursday morning.
Something tells me that this week is going to go really fast!
Our travel plans have us stopping in Chicago and Beijing on our way to Xi’an.  We will arrive late Friday night.  According to our itinerary, we will meet Lucy Joy Sunday afternoon at 4:00pm China time.  With the 14 hour time difference, this means that when all of you wake up Sunday morning… our Sunday will already have happened and we will have our Sparrow with us!!

Last time going to church as a family of six!

Also, great news!  We were able to speak to our guide this morning, and she has made the necessary arrangements for us to be able to visit Lucy’s orphanage in Baoji!  This will happen on Thursday or Thanksgiving Day. This could be a difficult experience, but one we believe will be helpful to Lucy in the long run.  As you prepare for your Thanksgiving celebration on Wednesday afternoon and evening… you could be praying that God would prepare us all for this time.  Friday, we will fly to Guangzhou where we will be until we come home.  Please remember to also pray for Becca, Spencer, and Michael who will be holding down the fort at home.  They have an adventure of a different kind ahead of them and are also doing important work during our two weeks apart.  We appreciate them and their servant hearts so much!  If all goes as planned, we will arrive back in Omaha on
Thursday afternoon December 4 at about 4:30pm.

We would love for Omaha friends and family to help welcome us home by coming to the airport!  More information on that coming!  We also plan to share some thoughts with you here on the blog about how we will be doing life and family when we first get home.
Stay tuned!
*smile*

The Lord replied, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
Exodus 33:14

Today we were blessed with a
surprise
China Send Off Party!

Worshipping together, precious prayers of the children in attendance for those of us who are going and those of us who are staying, delicious Chinese food, red velvet cake,
a prayer chain craft, and thoughtful and generous gifts to help us
welcome our Sparrow home to her new nest!

Here it is in pictures…

I thank my God every time I remember you.
Philippians 1:3

We are so humbled to be part of the story
that the Lord is telling with Lucy Joy’s life.
Even at only eight years old, she has touched many lives with her own.
We count ourselves lucky to be among those that her story has already impacted,
and look forward to the time she can  begin to tell us more of her story
in her own words…

In just 10 days!

Some of you may remember me mentioning that we have been beyond
blessed to receive a special glimpse into Lucy’s life in the form of
pictures, videos, and stories shared by the Sparrow Fund team that
visited her orphanage in October.
I have been sharing blog posts with you that tell some of the
stories of what the team did and experienced.
Here is a special story told better than I could have
every told it by someone who was there.

Sing to the Lord, for he has done
glorious things;
let this be known to all the world!!!!
Isaiah 12:5

Chili, Chicken Noodle Soup, Pumpkin yumminess, grilling chicken breasts,
Shepherd’s Pie, and baking granola…

Can you just imagine how wonderful it smelled at our house today?!?!
Our kitchen was full of Grandmas and helping hands…

Keep moving or you may get ziplocked and labeled!

By lunchtime, we had 16 freezer meals and two batches of muffins and granola
in the freezer or ready to be labeled and packaged as soon as they cooled.

EVERYONE had an important job…
including the toddler entertainment!!

Taste and see that the Lord is good
    blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.
Psalm 34:8

11.23.2014

We are still celebrating today!!!

Exciting news!!!
We have received our TA
or travel approval!!!

What does this mean??
We are a step closer to our Sparrow and
bringing her home!

From the email we received last night with the big news…

“I always like to call with this good news, but I didn’t want to wait to tell you.  Congratulations! I have been informed that I will have your Travel Approval tomorrow!  I will be applying for your consulate appointment as soon as possible!  Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, the current first available consulate appointments are the week of December 1st.  A consulate appointment of this week would give you a Gotcha Day of November 24 (we will confirm this prior to scheduling flights) and would require you to be in country the weekend before.   As you know, we cannot guarantee a date at this point, it will all depend on what dates are available when the consulate processes our request.”

We will continue to keep you posted on our travel plans and
new developments as we learn more!
We do plan to post stories and pictures here during our trip and hope
that you all will follow along and pray for us.

At this time could you pray that God would continue to prepare Lucy’s heart for all of the transitions ahead and for all  the rest of us too during this exciting and also difficult time of bringing home our new sister and daughter and also of having to split up and be apart to accomplish all that needs to happen.

We are also hoping to be able to make the trip from Xi’an (where we will receive Lucy) to Baoji where she has lived and her orphanage is located.  It is not a given that we will be able to visit the orphanage or make the trip, and we think it would be helpful to us and to Lucy.  Pray with us that God would make a way?

Thank you for celebrating with us!!
Light in a messenger’s eyes brings joy to the heart,
    and good news gives health to the bones.
Proverbs 15:30

We LOVE because he first LOVED us.
1 John 4:19

Michael’s birth family joined us for dinner tonight.
We had a nice evening enjoying Michael, getting caught up,
and reminiscing about good memories we share of the little baby he was.
He is getting to be quite the big boy of almost 3 years old!
*smile*

This along with our celebration of Orphan Sunday with our Waypoint Church family
this morning made up the perfect way to spend the day.
As a church family, we are actively pursuing adoption and
caring for the fatherless.
Spencer made a video again this year highlighting those of us
at Waypoint
who have added to our families through the blessing of adoption.
It is a celebration of the father heart of our God!

Next year, we can celebrate with Lucy Joy!

He sets the lonely in families.
Psalm 68:6

Here’s the video Spencer made: