Happy 12 1/2 Birthday Madison!

Can you really just be 6 months from becoming a teenager?

Silence

It has been awfully quiet at our house this week. No news from China! Every morning I wake up wondering if today is the day we will hear. As the morning continues, I get a little more anxious trying to busy myself and not think about the phone ringing. Once afternoon hits and I realize that the office is going to be closing on the East coast, I take a deep breath and check my emails to see if an email has been posted saying that AWAA has received referral acceptances without ours included. Once I see that they did not receive any referral acceptances, I breathe a sigh of relief for the rest of the day. The next morning I start the whole process over again. This has been a hard week. Each day drastically reduces our chance of traveling in May.

God has been speaking to me very clearly. He is saying, "I am in control. Do you trust me?". Each day, or each moment this week, I have needed to give this situation to God and leave it with him. I don't know why China has not told us that we can come and bring Ming home. I may never know why it has taken so long to get our approval but I know God is in control. And I am thankful.

Prayer Warriors Needed!

I spoke with our agency today about the possibility of traveling to China in May. Melissa, our family coordinator, thinks that if we receive our Referral Acceptance from China next week, we hopefully could still pull off traveling in May. If we don't receive it next week, we would have to put our trip off until July because of Jay's mission trip to Burkina Faso, Africa in June. Our agency really thinks that we should be receiving our Referral Approval any day now.

We need your prayers! Please pray that China finishes up our official approval to adopt Ming and sends it to our agency this week. We need your bold prayers! We know that God is in charge of all the details and will make this happen if it is His will that we travel to China in May to bring Ming home.

Thanks for your prayers for our travel situation and for Ming.

No word yet from China

Today it has been 2 months since our dossier was logged into China. Our agency, America World, received a batch of
Referral Acceptances today and unfortunately ours was not in the batch. It is so very hard to wait. We are really praying to travel in May but I'm fearful that won't be possible.

It is so hard not knowing about Ming’s surroundings and if he is happy there or wishing for adoption. We were told that he was asked if he wanted to be adopted a few years ago and said yes but I do not know if this is true or if he wishes to be adopted. I don’t hear about too many adoptions from his orphanage so I don’t know if adoption is common among his friends. I do know that we are so ready to bring him home!

Please continue to pray for Ming - for his protection, his health, his care, and that he will accept the news of his adoption.
Please also pray that we hear soon from China so we can bring Ming home.