Gotcha!! (one year later...)

November 2, 2008. We had been waiting for this day for a long time. We met up with Morgan in the Beijing airport (oh, how grateful I am for Morgan--he was a wonderful guide and a great friend!), and he snapped this picture. In just a few hours, we would finally meet Grace!!

We also got to meet the other members of our group in the Beijing airport. We had the most incredible group of families on this trip! It was great to finally meet Sheila. I had talked to her on the phone and we couldn't wait to get our girls! Here she is with her daughter, Emma, husband, Jim, and Jim's mother.

Here are James and Dawn. I just talked to Dawn today. What a wonderful family they have!

And here are Vicki, Richard and Alyssa. Alyssa prayed for a little sister from China for a long time. Faith was certainly an answer to those prayers.
Our flight to Guizhou was delayed, but we did make it there that night. We checked into our hotel, and very shortly after that, it was time to meet the girls!!!

We went downstairs, and walked into the meeting room. This was the first moment that we saw our little princess. Isn't she just precious?!!

Here we are, just a few minutes later. Do you notice the Hello Kitty doll on the table above? Well, Grace was so terrified that she actually started hitting me with the doll. She is not a hitting sort of girl, and now when she sees these pictures, we both laugh and laugh, remembering how she hit me with her doll. lol!

I have to say, the other kids look a little traumatized, as well. But, honestly, even though Grace was crying hard, I was just so very happy and thrilled that this little girl was finally ours. I was sad for her fear, but knew that she would come around.

And she did! Here she is a couple of hours later, playing cars with the boys in our hotel room.

I finally got her into pajamas (it was really late, by this time!), and coaxed her into eating some fruit snacks.

Lily, helping Grace with the magna doodle.

And the first real smile of the night!! Beautiful!

Grace snuggled up with her kitty that night and fell quickly asleep. She also snuggled up to me (I slept with her), and truly, she hasn't stopped snuggling ever since! It's a rare moment that she isn't in my arms, or somewhere close by!

This picture was taken last month. Look at Grace's smile! This past year has been such a blessing. We love Grace's laugh, her smile, and her sweet spirit. We are grateful to our precious Father, for giving us this delightful daughter/mei mei. We are so grateful to be a family!

We interrupt this trip down memory lane for...

a bear and some saints...

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Yesterday, the girls and I had a girl's night out. We went and got a few things that Lily and Yana needed at the used children's clothing store (I got some great deals!!), and then went out to eat (we had some free meal coupons--since we are still doing our simple meals, this fit right in).

Then we went to The Buddy Factory to get Grace's birthday bear (compliments of Aunt Meredith--thanks Aunt Meredith!!). Grace was so excited. She picked out her bear and immediately decided on an outfit.

Grace got a little nervous when the bear was being filled with fluff.

She picked out a little star and made a wish (for gum every day!!).

And here's the finished bear!! Grace couldn't decide on a name...

But then, this morning, she decided that since she was being Queen Esther for our church's Saint's Day party, that her bear could also be Esther.


Here are all the saints: Yana is Rose of Lima, Jadon is Hudson Taylor, Adam is Paul, Lily is Gladys Aylward, and Grace (of course) is Queen Esther.

We had a great time at the party. Happy Saint's Day!

Shepherd's Field

We had such an incredible time at Shepherds Field (http://www.chinaorphans.org/). It was like a three day retreat for our family, before meeting Grace. The guest house was beautiful, and there were many little places where we could spend time in prayer (alone, and as a family). The presence of God was very evident there, and though we went to serve, we ended up doing more receiving than giving.

Upon arriving on the first night, we heard some barking. The girls were very concerned that Stevie (the dog) was too cold! As it turned out, David ended up building a doghouse for Stevie, since she was the official Shepherd's Field mascot. What a submissive puppy! The girls carried her around everywhere (except inside the children's houses).

These next four pictures are of four little ones who completely stole my heart. The nannies called the first little guy "ArDou" (a nickname, I think). What a special boy! He was all smiles (except, I guess, in this picture!).

Tiffany has a serious inoperable heart issue. She was so gentle and so bright. She liked to repeat everything that we said to her.

I know that Jacob-Jai is still at Shepherd's Field. What a smile! And sweet, sweet, sweet.

Kyle was another little sweetie. Such a gentle boy. I'm pretty sure that he is also still at Shepherd's Field (if any of you know anything more, I'd love to hear about any of these little ones).

We were so blessed by our time at Shepherd's Field. What a privilege to see more of the Father's heart for these precious children.

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Coming up soon: Gotcha!

Tienamen Square, winter hats, lost glasses and rickshaws...

On our first day in Beijing, we were off and running (gotta beat that jet lag!). We weren't quite prepared (although we were warned) for the cold weather in Beijing. We bought Lily and Adam (who did not have hoods on their sweatshirts) winter hats. Our guide was horrified that we spent $10 on these hats. We were just happy that our kids had warm heads!

We had a great time at Tienamen Square. The history and architecture were fascinating.

Look at these two cuties! Lily was so excited. She could hardly believe that we were finally in her China!


Notice how in this picture, I am now wearing David's jacket! Awww...what a guy!

Adam had lost his glasses on the airplane, so he had a bit of a headache. He and I headed back to the hotel, and the rest of the crew went for a rickshaw ride. They had a great time!

In the evening, David, the kids and I made our way out to LangFang to visit PHF (Shepherd's Field). Oma and Opa stayed in Beijing to do some touring.

Up next (tomorrow): some cute pictures of a bunch of adorable kiddos. If I could have taken a few of them home in my suitcase, I definitely would have done that!

One year ago today...

we were getting on a plane to travel across the world to meet our precious little girl. The night before, David and I had stayed up finishing the last packing details. We woke the kids up in the wee hours of the morning, and headed for David's parent's house. There was a lot of traffic and we were running late, but we had planned in extra time so we weren't too nervous. We left our van at David's parent's house and a friend of theirs drove us to the airport. First, we flew to Portland and then on to Japan. Whew! That was a long flight. We're not big movie watchers, but there were no T.V.'s on that flight and with four kids on board, I had been planning on a couple of hours (of the 13 hour flight) to be taken up with an on-board movie. Ah, well...we made it to Japan and had a half-an-hour to get through customs and board our flight to Beijing. We made it on time and were so very, very grateful! The airplane to Beijing was beautiful, and we arrived in the evening and went straight to bed. Here are pictures of my sweet girls, enjoying their backpacks, which were filled with in-flight activities.

Stay tuned...for more Journey to Grace adventures.

you shall live in booths...

"You shall rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days...You shall live in booths for seven days; all the native-born in Israel shall live in booths, so that your generations may know that I had the sons of Israel live in booths when I brought them out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God." Lev. 23

Okay, so we didn't actually live in it (we were seriously hindered by a couple of sick babies), but Grace was finally well enough yesterday(plus, our guests have already had the yucky old flu bug this year) to have our Sukkoth gathering and Simhat Torah party.

David was the master builder (I am SO grateful that he can do this kind of stuff!)
But he also had a lot of help.


The booth turned out great, and we enjoyed learning about and celebrating this Biblical feast. We started out with a Simhat Torah party. This is a time of celebration and thanksgiving for the Word of God. Here we all are, parading around the backyard, singing and thanking God for His Word.


After the parade, we read Revelations 22 and Genesis 1, as a reminder to continually be soaking in God's Word. David said a blessing over the children and then they all got treats to remind them that "The commandments of the Lord...are sweeter than honey." Ps. 19:8-10

The kids had spent a lot of time making decorations for the sukkah. Paper chains were in abundance!

The sukkah is not supposed to have a roof. Tree branches are placed on top so that the rain, sun, etc. can come through. This is to remind us that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. We had to cover our glasses to avoid leaves and branches getting into them! lol!

We had just enough room for everyone to fit inside!

Sukkoth is a time to celebrate, or remeber, three things:

1) that the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness, after the Lord led them out of Egypt, pitching tents or building temporary huts.

2) the booth is a reminder of the temporary endurance of material buildings as opposed to the permanent and abiding strength of our Lord and the heavenly shelter that He promises.

3) It is also a celebration of the ingathering of the crops, and a precursor to our celebration of Thanksgiving.

(almost) wordless wednesday

We have been so blessed to be able to maintain contact with Grace's friend, Quin, from China. They are able to talk on the phone regularly and are always inviting one another to each other's house to play (someday that will happen, but we live across the country from one another). Quin sent Grace the sweetest birthday gift--ar xiao gao (two little puppies). Grace named them Quin and Grace. Thank you so much, Quin and family!! As you can see, Grace loves them!