Happy Chinese New Year!

This year we started a new family tradition-we celebrated Chinese New Year, complete with food, decorations, red dress and red envelopes. We did however, forget the fresh flowers, candy and oranges....maybe after a few years of celebrating we get it all right. In case you are wondering I have included a few fun facts:

Chinese New Year starts with the New Moon on the first day of the new year and ends on the full moon 15 days later. The 15th day of the new year is called the Lantern Festival, which is celebrated at night with lantern displays and children carrying lanterns in a parade.

The Chinese calendar is based on a combination of lunar and solar movements. The lunar cycle is about 29.5 days. In order to "catch up" with the solar calendar the Chinese insert an extra month once every few years (seven years out of a 19-year cycle). This is the same as adding an extra day on leap year. This is why, according to the solar calendar, the Chinese New Year falls on a different date each year.

New Year's Eve and New Year's Day are celebrated as a family affair, a time of reunion and thanksgiving. Chinese New Year is the longest and most important celebration of the year. With this being said, the CCAA is now closed for 2 weeks...how that will affect referrals next month I don't know... maybe they will come back to work refreshed and eager to get out a really large batch!

Third

A special friend who I only know through the web received a referral yesterday for a very sweet little girl. Congratulations! I can't wait to follow your journey and see where God leads you and your beautiful family! As for us, that referral moves us up to the number 3 spot (or maybe even higher if another family received a referral as well.) But for now, I will be happy to be third!

A bump in the road

Yesterday was a difficult day. On Sunday we came home from church to find a message on our machine from the adoption agency. A child's file had been locked for us and we needed to get in touch with them as soon as possible. We tried for a couple of hours to get through and then the words we have been waiting for for two years were spoken. "We have a child for you." I was instructed to go to the computer and her file was en route. When I received it, I asked "what do I open first?" Go straight for the photos I was told. "No not the photos," I thought. I knew I would be a goner as soon as I looked at that sweet face. Quickly I opened up a photo to confirm that yes indeed it was a girl and yes she was young...then I quickly closed it, not wanting to linger a moment longer. We were sent medical records to sort through and were told that we would need to give them our answer (and have a plan for her care) within about 20 hours. We quickly contacted a close family friend who is a physician, to have her examine this child's test results. How on earth could we have manged without her on a Sunday I don't know. Thank you so much! We went to bed that night sorting through all that had happened and tossed and turned all night; neither of us getting any rest. "God why don't we have peace about this, why aren't we rejoicing about finding our daughter, why this feeling of heaviness?" were questions that plagued me. The answer we received was "This is not your daughter. This is not the one I have chosen for you." "Then why God did I have to see her sweet face? How can we say No after we have seen her?" The face that will surely come to my mind often. "Pray for her" is the answer I got. Pray for this child with the sweet face. And so, as I wait I will remember to pray for the child with one of the sweetest faces I have seen.

We heard back from our adoption agency today and they told us we are now number 4 in the line of families waiting for a child under 24 months. So this month we have moved up a spot.

And once again...we wait.

18 Months!

Today marks two years since our first visit with the Adoption Centre and 18 months since our paperwork was sent to China. Two years ago we were told our wait time would be just over 12 months. That sounded like a reasonable amount of time. Plenty of time to get the girls prepared, start saving money for travel expenses, and setting up the Nursery...only three months longer than a typical pregnancy. We could do that we told ourselves. Now, as we set our minds towards this next year of waiting we are filled with uncertainly, excitement and much hope. Hope is what carries us through this process. Without hope my emotions would have certainly crushed me by now. I trust that God has a perfect and purposeful plan for us and for Miah...it just hasn't been time for us to be united yet. It has given us time however to build much love for a child in another country who will one day be called our daughter. And so we wait...