Open to tips and suggestions.

I thought I would put it out there and ask if anyone has any great tips regarding our trip here's your big chance. hehee I know that is pretty broad, but I thought it would be fun. I know we are going with a ton of prayer and with Chinese acrobat flexibility. :-) We will be in Eliana's province for 9 days, then we fly to Guangzhou for 2 days, back to Beijing and then home. So if you have anything we absolutely should do in Beijing or Guangzhou or tips for first time parents of a 23 month old leave a comment.

Our church has been such a blessing to us. Last week we got several calls asking if there was anything they could do and to offer encouragement. We have only asked for prayer. I feel so much comfort that people all over are lifting us up in prayer (they are also praying for you Dad). One of the phone calls I got was to ask me if I would mind if the church included us in the monthly baby shower that is held. Oh what a special treat and kindness! I'm not sure when it will be other than some time near the end of the month after we get home. This morning we sat next to some people we have seen and never met. When I introduced myself she knew instantly who we were and said she was going to get a hold of me because they would like to provide meals when we get home. I am just blown away by the kindness and warmth of this congregation.

We are getting those last minute details finished up and plan on having everything taken care of by Tuesday after when Dennis will be arriving. I will be putting our prayer list on here soon...that is on the to do list. Have a great Sunday afternoon.

Midnight ramblings.

Well, it is 12:51am and it must be getting close because for the life of me I can't sleep. Sorry I have been so quiet once again.

First thing first, Please continue to keep Susannah lifted up in prayer. I just left from reading the most recent post and they have a long road to travel yet. To visit their blog click here.

In just 7 days from now we will be headed to Seattle to catch a plane headed to Eliana!

We still don't know anything about what kind of cancer my dad has.

Sierra is getting a little tired of waiting for Eliana. I know she is going to warm up to Eliana very quickly and be such a great protector of her. Already, she is under her high chair waiting. In the end it is taking far too long for Eliana to come home and Sierra fell asleep waiting. :-)

I will trying to post more soon. I'm starting to get tired. Maybe I will sleep soon.

Prayer for a family in China now.

I just found this blog this morning and I'm hoping they will not mind me sharing their story seeing that I don't know them. But I'm taking a leap because we need to lift this family up in prayer. Their Metcha Day was yesterday and it didn't go as planned. The short of the long is their daughter is in the hospital dying. Their blog is Room for at Least One More. The letter about their daughter is here. I'm sure glad I started looking for those who are in China right now because we need to pray. Thank you for always praying.

I decided to add their prayer list here:

OK, here are the prayer requests flat out:

1. We need to get her to the US ASAP. (this is going to require God-sized mountain moving) We need to get her out of China.

2. We need the local police to expedite her Chinese Visa. Normally we would be required to go there with her to take photos and they take one of her. (The orphanage director is there now "negotiating" with them to allow a photo of us in the hospital and one of her in the hospital to suffice. MAJOR BIG DEAL. Never been done accd. to orphanage director and our guide. Again, only God moving in the hearts of these people.) This normally takes about 5-6 days

3. We need her to be stable enough to move.

4. We need the quack of a doctor at the hospital to let us take her. (She was the only chinese person who was mean, inconsiderate and rude. She has to sign off on her release. Her teeth are black, she smokes and knows nothing about Susannah's heart though she tried to say she is an "expert." She didn't even use her stethoscope.)

5. We need God to literally carry Susannah on the wings of angels home, for her pulse ox to stay in the 70s or above. Her pulse ox was varying between 60 % and 90 % while we were there. Thankfully we brought a pulse-oximeter with us thanks to some friends from church. They did not even have one on her when we got there. It should be in the 70 % range accd. to Dr. L in order for us to bring her home on the plane.

6. That we can have a supernatural peace; it is very hard to leave her in that hospital but right now we have no other options. We desperately want to just close our eyes and be at Vanderbilt.

Happy Birthday Paula!

So I'm really behind in things. Two huge things have happened for my friend Paula in the last week. She has become a mom again to such a beautiful little girl Bella and today is her birthday. If you would like to be invited to her blog The Baby Journals she would love to invite you. You can email her at 1mob@sbcglobal.net.

Happy Birthday Paula and Congratulations on Bella!

PS. I'm still keeping your age a secret! :-)

Still waiting...and an answered prayer.

First, I want to thank you all for your emails, comments, support, prayers and covering of love. We are so thankful and blessed to have each and everyone of you in our lives. Thank you!

What we do know...not much. My dad goes to the dermatologist next Friday and if they decide to cut the spot off his face they will do it the following Tuesday (the 23rd). There is a big discrepancy about what the doctor thinks and what the pathology report shows. Needless to say we have no idea what is going on and more than likely won't until right before we travel. My parents think it looks like the Basal Cell Carcinoma. In light of this, I'm sad for us and sad for my parents that they will not be here when we get home, but hopefully they will have all this behind them soon and will be able to be here for her second birthday. Please continue to pray for a happy outcome for my dad's medical issue and for strength and wisdom for them and the doctors.

Patrick called his Dad and asked if he could/would want to come watch Sierra. He is thankful for the oportunity to help and is so excited for the adventure of a road trip and also for the adventures he and his grandpuppy will have around here. After so much being up in the air for the last week, it is so comforting to know that Dennis will be able to come. Now we can concentrate on getting the last things done before travel and it relieves my parent of the stress of trying to accommodate us during this difficult time. It also frees up my Aunt Angel, who offered to come here, to care for my parents dog in case their situation is more serious and they need to travel somewhere for treatment. The Lord is so good and faithful to provide ALL our needs. Patrick and I sat down the other night and spent quite a bit of time reading the Word and praying and asking the Lord to show us the correct path. After considering a few options, this was the best one all the way around. We are so thankful that we sought the Lord and He will see us all through.

Obviously, our weekend camping trip has been canceled, and it is a good thing (seeing that I think due to the stress of this last week and crying for days, I now have a cold. lol).

I want to quote my friend who wrote me this week. It made me laugh and I love her sense of humor. "You can't go to China with big puffy eyes, you will get charged for the extra bags by the airlines!" Oh, I'm through with the crying now. I'm very dehydrated and I hear that isn't good for jet lag. :-) So no more tears until I get on the plane. Let's hope they don't charge for flooding the plane. lol Those will be tears of relief, and then we will be hours from meeting Eliana...with many more tears of joy to follow. (If anyone knows a good remedy for puffy eyes while travelling that's readily available, let me know. I'll need it! : )

Still waiting on what is really wrong.

Thank you all for your prayers. My dad did go to the doctor today and they don't think it is cancer. The results stated Paget's Disease which is a bone disease and not life threatening and they are waiting on an appointment to have whatever it is on his face removed. We are still up in the air about Sierra and hope to have that settled very soon so we can have peace about leaving in just three weeks from today. Please continue to pray for our family. There is a lot of stress right now and it should be such an exciting and happy time.

Sierra has decided she thinks it is best just to come along! We have been talking about Eliana so much and preparing her and when you say "Let's go get Eliana" she twists her head and looks at both of us so curiously. Even though the transition might be a little overwhelming for Sierra I think in the long run she is going to love having someone else to follow around and she will have a job!

Obviously, I have been busy and other than formula for Eliana (if she is still on it...we are waiting for the update) we are all packed. I have been doing my fall cleaning so that will all be taken care of before we leave and seeing that it has been a whole summer of no camping we are going to take off for the weekend and hopefully find a little bit of peace and solitude!

Oh yeah, I wanted to tell you about these wonderful envelopes that a co-worker told Patrick about. The are made by Eagle Creek and I LOVE them. The top one is mine and the bottom one is Patrick's. In my envelope there are two skirts, two pair of capri's, 8 tops, a pair of jeans, a pair of shorts and pajamas. Patrick's is a little taller than mine and it has a pair of jeans, two pair of shorts, 8 shirts and his pajamas. As you can see all those clothes and it takes up just about 11"x 20". What a wonderful item for travel. We have used these before and you get to your destination with very little wrinkles and everything in one little package.

Have a wonderful weekend! If I hear anything before we leave I will update you.

A Day We Will Never Forget!

Asking for urgent prayer.

A request for prayer. I know I haven't told you all about our travel yet...sorry. We leave Oct. 3rd and return the 16th. This has been over shadowed by news that my parents will no longer be able to come and watch Sierra and be here when we get home. Please pray for my dad. We will not know anything for sure until Thursday, but he might have cancer and the nurse told him a little bit today, but really said nothing other than he can't come here. The report doesn't look good according to her. Please pray for healing and that we will know what to do with Sierra. She is such a sensitive dog that can't be boarded and needs to be told to do everything such as "go potty". She will not do it on her own and will hold it until she gets permission to go. So obviously we need someone special to watch her.

I love you dad and want very much for you to be around for a very long time. I'm sorry it has taken 11 years for you to become a Popsi. I hope and pray that we will be blessed with you being a part of Eliana's life for a long time to come.

Look what Robin is doing, travel update and news!

As many of you know we have been on a journey to Mia Hope stitch by stitch.

With a little help from my friends I have come up with a new idea!

Creations for a Year!

What does this mean?

This means that I will be the highest bidder's personal seamstress during 2009!

How you ask?

Just leave your bid in the comment section and on September 15th at noon the highest bidder wins!

What does this include?

• One custom made outfit every month for a total of 12 outfits during the year!
• Creations are available January thru December 2009.
• Creations must be chosen from my product and fabric selections which will continue to grow.
• Free personalization or embroidery on your custom made creation. (subject to availability of patterns)
• I will work closely with you to keep current on measurements for that custom fit. Toddler size 1 thru 6 only.
• Your daughter will love having a custom dress for every occasion!
• If you find your own fabric I would be happy to work with your selection.
• Free shipping on your 12 creations delivered to your door!
• Payment by the highest bidder is due by 10/10/08 or offer will go to the next bidder.
• Split the bid with a friend and divide up your 12 creations as you choose.

Click below to see many creations available as part of this offer!

FASHION SHOW

CREATIONS

For questions please email me at: REDTHREADSTITCH@AOL.COM

Blessings,

Robin

"The Seamstress in Waiting"

Robin and her hubby are about 40 something days away from LOA and Robin is doing everything she can to get the money.

*** For those who didn't see we got our TA on September 2nd...sorry Karen. :-) On the travel front I'm not sure we will ever get to China. Dramatization I know, but we thought just a couple of days ago we would be leaving on the 3rd of October. Now we have no idea when it will work out. For some reason others got a confirmed CA, but we did not. It is hard to see people who got their referrals up to three months after us already have traveled or will be leaving in a week or two to get their daughters. I guess me busting my backside to get a dossier pulled together in 1 1/2 weeks was not necessary. We have been 5 months 1 day from our referral. When we got the referral they said 3-5 months and we should be home. Haha...6 months isn't even looking good. Sometimes it is hard to see that God really is in control of the timing when we keep getting put off. I know He will give us the patience and the strength to get through this I just had hoped after everything that has happened we would not have another road block and wait. Thanks for listening. I will keep you posted on travel.

Exciting news my friend Paula is on her way to the hospital because big Hannah is in labor. Please pray for safe travel they have a 2hr. drive to get there. We should see new pictures of Miss Bella by tomorrow or Saturday. Push Hannah push. This is Hannah's first delivery... Also, please pray for it to go smoothly and that all will go well after the birth and handing Bella over to Jon and Paula. Congratulations Jon and Paula on your new bundle of love that is about to make her way into the world!

Come on TA and ramblings!

UPDATE: We just got the second call...our TA is here. YEAH! Now we just have to wait for China to wake up and see if we can get our consulate appointment for the 14th. If we can we should be leaving here Oct. 3 or so.

I have been fairly calm up to this point about our TA, but now I'm getting antsy. I know that NSN TAs arrived last week and now we want ours. Hurray for those families, they get to travel in September... Boo hoo, we don't get to travel until October and that might become iffy if we don't hurry up and get our TA. UGH!

I'm pretty much packed I only have compression socks and earplugs left to purchase. I have Eliana all packed minus some socks and a some PJ's that we got her that need to be washed. Our washer died late last week so we have not been able to do laundry. Due to the fact that Mayt@g is no longer Mayt@g and that the whole reason why they are not longer (they are now Whirlp**L, but still have their name) is because of our model of washer. We didn't get anything from the big law suit..we just learned about it and therefore get nothing, but get to buy a new washer...Yippee Skippy (that was sarcasm). We have been told it will be better if we get a new washer due to the high cost to repair it. So tomorrow afternoon we will be back in business and get those clothes washed with the new washer.

It is most assuredly fall here. We never did get summer (just a handful of days in the 80's and that was it), but fall is here and there is nothing that can be done. Fall is typically my favorite time of year, but I can't say that I'm all too happy about it right now. You drive around and the leaves are just starting to change and the light is so different. Even though it has been cool all summer now there is that crispness to the air. I guess next weekend we better try to do one backpacking trip or camping trip this year. The trails we have been wanting to do as of a week ago still was saying snow on a lot of them.

There is a couple that are traveling in a couple of weeks to get their daughter that is at the CWI as Eliana and they have offered to take a small care package to Eliana. Yeah! I just finished the photo album and will be getting it out by tomorrow.

Well, I guess I will go clean the laundry room really well so that new washer will have a clean place to live. I hope I will be writing very soon with the announcement that the TA is here. I hope by the time we get to travel I will not have lost you all and that there will still be readers that follow our travel. :-)

Day 77 waiting for LOA

I thought I would pop in and tell you all why my ticker has moved so much. This morning Patrick checked our account and he could not believe his eyes. There was a miracle .... there was a$5,000 deposit! Yes that is right $5,000 that had been transferred into our account over night. After some searching we found out that Popsi and NaiNai (my parents) had transferred the money to us. We were elated! But I will tell you how the Lord is the master Conductor. Not even an hour after we found the money, we got the call! Yes, our LOA is on the Fed-Ex truck headed to our door step first thing in the morning. I am so excited! As of Monday our agency said they knew it would not be coming this week and that they didn't really expect it until the end of this month. LOL, my parents didn't know any of this. Isn't it awesome how the Lord told them to give us the money right when He did. Not a day early or late. Yes, I will continue to sing HIS praises because I serve the most loving and wonderful Savior. Thanks Mom and Dad for listening to His voice right when you did.

Eliana we are coming baby girl. More detail on travel to come. We are going to be fighting the Trade Fair, so it is all in the timing and the cost of travel. If you take a gander over at my sidebar there is someone special wanting to thank you all for your prayers and help to get her home!

Email Problems

Late last night I realized I was having email problems. It is highly unusual to not have any emails all night. Well, after IMing with a friend she said she had emailed a couple of times and then reality set it -- my lifeline was broken. It seems to be back up and running this morning, but if you emailed yesterday chances are I did not get it. I thought maybe they would come rushing in, but have not as of yet. If you wrote yesterday please send it again. Thanks.

Chapman Interview

I'm really not blogging, but I wanted everyone to be able to watch the Chapman interview from this morning. Copy and past this into your browser or click HERE.

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=5524419


Please continue to pray for the Chapman's as they heal.

A Break

I am going to take a break from blogging. I have not been really good at reading, posting or really anything lately. I am going to focus on getting Eliana home and give my husband some extra attention before we are distracted with Eliana. I have so much stuff to do to prepare for travel that I just keep putting off and I am going to hit the sewing hard (I hope) to continue raising money to bring Eliana home. I don't know how long the break will be...it might be a week or it might be a month or more. I will let you all know when we get our LOA and let you know if we will get to travel before November, but other than that I will be silent. I will still be trying to keep up on reading a few blogs, but I more than likely will not be doing a lot of commenting.

If you or anyone you know would like to purchase little girl clothes keep an eye on Miao's Cottage for new creations. If you would like to be emailed when something new is posted please leave me a comment or email me.

Click on this link to be taken to the cottage.

Enjoy the rest of your summer if I don't re-emerge before fall.

New Outfit

Please visit Miao's Cottage!

Drum Roll Please.

First off I want to say THANK YOU to everyone who joined the raffle. We raised $420 which will cover the cost of our visas and have almost enough left over for the re-fingerprint fees. :-) We are so grateful. So on to what you really want to know ... While Patrick was home at lunch we decided to do the raffle drawing. I have been so excited to see who would win and I really could not believe my eyes when Patrick pulled out the winner. Okay, I'm going to mess with you a bit.

The second place winner of the No Slippy Hair Clippy is Steffie from 'Never Too Many'!

And....without further ado...

The Grand Prize winner is....Paula from 'The Baby Journals'!! Since Paula recently has had her blog redesigned, AND the fact that she has a new little one coming home to them in a month or so, she has chosen the carseat as her prize.

I'm sorry there is no video of the drawing (still trying to figure out how to put video from our camera on my blog). Instead, here are some pictures of the drawing.

Congratulations Paula and Steffie! Thank you all for your entries and support, I wish I had prizes for all the entries we received.

Devotion, News, Blessings and Eliana's Eyes

Update: We got another blessing just about an hour ago. We got updated pictures of Eliana from our agency. She looks really good and is smiling! She is so beautiful, but you can tell that from her eyes. We are so blessed, we really don't have anything to complain about. The Lord is holding our daughter in His hands and there is NO better place for her to be. I think the Lord is asking us to give her completely to Him...she is yours Lord, may we have the privilege and responsibility to raise her for You?

Have you entered the storehouses ... which I reserve for times of trouble? Job 38:22-23

Our trials are great opportunities, but all too often we simply see them as great obstacles. If only we would recognize every difficult situation as something God has chosen to prove His love to us, each obstacle would then become a place of shelter and rest , and a demonstration to others of His inexpressible power. If we would look for signs of His glorious handiwork, then every cloud would indeed become a rainbow, and every difficult mountain path would become one of ascension, transformation, and glorification.

If we will look back at our past, most of us would realize that the times we endured the greatest stress and felt the that every path was blocked were the very times our Heavenly Father chose to do the kindest things for us and bestow His richest blessings.

God's most beautiful jewels are often delivered in rough packages by very difficult people (Chinese Government), but within the package we will find the very treasures (Eliana) of the King's palace and the Bridegroom's love. A.B. Simpson

We must trust the Lord through the darkness, and honor Him with unwavering confidence even in the midst of difficult situations. The reward of this kind of faith will be like that of an eagle shedding its feathers is said to receive -- a renewed sense of youth and strength.--- J. R. Macduff.

"If we could see beyond today,
As God can see;
If all the clouds should roll away,
The shadows flee;
O'er presents griefs we would not fret.
Each sorrow we would soon forget,
For many joys are waiting yet,
For you and me.

If we could know beyond today,
As God doth know,
Why dearest treasures pass away,
And tears must flow;
And why the darkness leads to light,
Why dreary paths will soon grow bright;
Some day life's wrong will be made right,

If we could see, if we could know;
We often say,
But God in love a veil doth throw,
Across our way;
We cannot see what lies before,
And so we cling to Him the more,
He leads us till this life is o'er; Trust and obey."
Devotion taken from "Streams In the Desert" by: L.B. Cowman

This devotion hit home for me. We got news last week that was not to our liking. As time as gone on we have realized we would not be traveling this month to bring Eliana home and so we knew it would be late August or beginning of September, but after our travel call last week there have been new developments. It seems as though travel in September would take a miracle and October doesn't look promising. As quoted above: "We must trust the Lord through the darkness, and honor Him with unwavering confidence even in the midst of difficult situations." This is hard to do when your child is sitting in an orphanage needing surgery and growing up without her mom and dad.

I don't mean to down play all the wonderful blessings that we have gotten over the last week. I guess I should have started with the blessings, but I want to end with happy. I have been able to fill orders for 11 lovies, I have sold an outfit on the new blog, I got an order for two special dresses (I know,I don't take orders...lol :-) and we had applied for a grant and hoped to get $1,000 or so and we were blessed with $1750. The Lord is so good to us and gives us so many blessings day in and day out and I am truly thankful and blessed. I am not trying to be glum and act as though nothing good it happening...I am just struggling with the process right now and having a hard time seeing why all our children get so caught in a political nightmare.

We need our LOA more than ever if we have a hope of September travel. The Consulate Appointments are filling up fast and we have to have that to travel. Come on LOA...come before the Olympics!

Miao's Cottage

The big announcement is finally here. Please click on the graphic above to be taken to what I hope will be a wonderful place to help bring Eliana home and provide a super distraction from the wait. Are you curious? Well, curiosity got the cat so fulfill that curiosity...it is only a click away. See you there.

Raffle.

Click here for more about the raffle...or here for the update.

Wow the days are really flying by. It is getting close to the big raffle drawing for the 3 blog make overs or the new car seat. If you haven't entered yet and you would like to you can click on the 'chip in'. It is $10 per ticket. Also, if you know of anyone who would be interested in entering the raffle please spread the word.

This is to help bring our daughter home from China.

There has been $200 worth of raffle tickets purchased so far and that will almost cover our visas for the trip. Thank you so much to each of you who have given. We have been blessed by your support of our adoption.

PS. The 'lovies' have been doing really well. In light of that I have been working on something else and will hopefully be able to announce it tomorrow. We have our travel call tomorrow for the trip, but still no LOA and have not heard anything that might say it is soon.

Meadow Song for your little Meadow Lark!

Guess what I woke up to this morning? Daleea has finished her first outfit for her boutique. It is so cute...can't you just see your little Meadow Lark in this creation. Please go to Lady Peep Boutique and leaver her some love or better yet send her an email stating you would love to purchase this outfit.(Size 3T) The first email she receives will be able to buy this outfit. jewelsofmyheart@yahoo.com