AND, we're OFF!!!

Wow!  Our day has finally arrived!  We are just 3 plane rides, and 2 nights from our daughter!  There is so much in my heart, that I don't even know where to begin!

First, of course, we are thankful to our Lord, who has brought us down this path to our sweet Ella Grace.  Our hearts are just bursting with joy and thankfulness!  He has provided through every step of this process, and has shown up again, just the day before we leave, to provide the rest of the funds that we needed.  We can now pay off our tickets and hotel fee's that we had to pay for last month when our Travel Approval came.

After months of searching through the special needs children who are waiting for families in China, God revealed our sweet Ella Grace to us and gave us peace from the very beginning that this was who He had planned for us to bring home as our daughter!  I will never forget that night, when I came upon her picture, and just gasped!  I just loved her instantly!  And when I showed Brad, the next morning, there was NO hesitation!  Our decision doesn't make sense to the world, but our decision made sense to Him, and because of that, we know that she is just perfect for us!  I have that first picture that we ever saw of her sitting beside my bed in a little frame that says "May the Lord's unfailing love surround you."  He has surrounded her the past 4 years, living in an orphanage, and we can't wait to be part of that promise to her!  We already love her so much, and have never met her!

To our friends and family who have lovingly supported us through this process.... there are really no words!  You have become His hands and feet, as you have prayed, given, encouraged, and been so excited to go through this journey with us.  We have been so blessed to have you in our lives!  We love you all so very much!  Our prayer is that God would use our story to somehow impact you!  We would love to see every single one of you bring home an orphaned child, no matter special needs, healthy, international, or domestic.  There are so MANY children out there who need loving families, and we know so many of you would be perfect.  You all know us.... we are not rich!  God is much bigger than the hindrances that we can come up with to not follow through on His command to love these little ones.

Please continue to pray as we fly for many LONG hours!  We are stopping in Japan, then heading on to Hong Kong, where we stay the night, and then fly on to NanChang, where we will meet Ella Grace on Monday, which will be Sunday night here in the states.  We hope to be able to skype home on Sunday night, so the kids can see their new sister!  We are going to miss those 3 like crazy!!

If you're following along, we are going to love hearing from you while we are in China!  You can leave comments below, and I have set it up where you can leave comments anonymously, you don't have to have a blogger account to leave a comment.  Just be sure to sign your name, so we know who left the comment!  We will try to update here as often as we can, but we have a backup plan (SALLY!!) if blogger won't work for us!  There will be at least blurbs on here, and of course, pictures!

Next time you hear from us, we'll be VERY close!

Almost Ready!

While this might look like a mess to most of you, this is the the sign of progress!  We now have two bags packed!!  Brad and Ella Grace are set, now Mom has to figure out what I'm taking.  Flannel jammie pants probably won't cut it for the entire trip, so I guess I'm going to have to figure this out! 

My mom is on her way, as I type, flying over from the other side of the state!  Having her here will help a ton, and we will get it all together once she gets here!  The kids are all excited to see both sets of grandparents while we are gone!  We are so blessed to have so many family and friends who have offered to take care of our sweet kids during this two week time.  The hardest part in this journey is the fact that we have to leave them behind to bring her home.  I've never been one who enjoys leaving her kids for a few hours, let along for two whole weeks!  Please pray that I can enjoy our evening together, instead of crying the whole time!  We want to send them off to school tomorrow without breaking down, we'll see how that goes!

Brad went and found a carrier to put Ella Grace in.  He was a little nervous about navigating through airports and wherever we need to be, with a stroller, luggage, and a wife who is very clutsy on crutches!  He found this carrier, and it can be worn on the back as well.  Allyson was our tester, and she definitely thought it was wierd to be carried around.  Supposedly, Ella Grace is about 13 pounds lighter than Allyson, which we are still unsure about, but this carrier should work!

And, of course, there were projects for school to be done before we left.  Brad and Jacob got the finishing touches done on the sciene project, which is due while we are gone.  We were very kind to Grandma and got that one done before we left!  ha!  So, it should be smooth sailing for the kids with regular homework/school schedule while we are gone.

Well, I better go figure out what on earth I'm going to wear in China! 

Loves of my Life

I hope everyone had a fun day of celebrating the love that God has brought into each of our lives!  Personally, Valentines Day, is one of my favorite holidays!  We kept things pretty low key this year.  I got back in my kitchen for the first time in two weeks.  I didn't actually cook anything, but was the official supervisor as my husband made baked spaghetti for dinner!   I've had it on the menu for 3 weeks, and had planned to cook it the day I fell, so I was excited to finally have it! 

This man, my hubby of 20 years in June!  What can I say?  He is perfect for me in every way, and has had to live out our wedding vows, in sickness and in health, more in the past two weeks than ever before.  He has stayed home with me and kept this house running and the kids on task.  He's exhausted, and yet keeps serving in love.  I love you, honey, and can't thank you enough for all the love that you give to me and to our kids, who are so blessed to call you Daddy!   

Oh, these three!!!  Absolute love and joy of our life!  We still can't believe that God handpicked the three greatest kids in the universe for us to have the joy of parenting!  And He's blessing us again in one short week with this precious gem.....

.....we just dream about the day that we are scooping her up and never letting her go!  6 short days from now, and our dreams are fulfilled!  Ella Grace, you have no idea how much love is coming your way!  We are so grateful for our Heavenly Father, and how He directed our steps to you!

We decided to take one last picture as a family of five!  I can't wait to see how we look as a family of six!  And because we wanted to remember our reality, we took one like this, too.....

We are extremely thankful for the new boot that I was fitted with on Friday.  The other boot was extremely heavy, and my heel was slipping out of the back everytime I got up, causing alot of pain.  I knew it just wasn't right, and couldn't imagine trying to deal with that in China for two weeks.  It just had to be right.  I finally called and made an appointment for last Friday, and when I got there, she said that the boot "rep" just happened to be there, and he gave me one that they had never used before.  It's an amazing fit, and much lighter than the original boot.  This cast has air pumps, and I can pump or deflate the air as needed.  It's made sleeping and getting out and about more of a reality!  God is definitely in the details of this, and just blew us away with His provision!

Evey day is getting a little better.  Getting out and about is still a little scary, and I would be lying if I still wasn't kind of freaked out about the fact that we are leaving for China in 4 days and I have a broken leg, but I have seen so much progress from day one, so I know that things are going to keep getting better.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!  I will leave you with a couple more pictures, and will update soon about getting ready for our trip.... have I mentioned that we leave on FRIDAY????

 

Happy Birthday, Ella Grace!

Today marks our daughter's 4th birthday.  It's the 10th here, but is already February 11th in China.  We know that it is probably just another ordinary day for our girl.  It's a little bittersweet for us, as we would love to be hosting a big party in her honor, but that will have to wait for just a few more weeks!  Every day is bringing us closer to the moment when we finally get to hold her in our arms, and we are so excited!

Happy Birthday, Ella Grace!  Your family is eagerly anticipating the day that you finally come home!  You have some really awesome big brothers who are going to be your protectors, and a big sister who just can't wait for you to get here to share her room with!  Your mommy and daddy are counting down the days until we get to see your sweet smile for ourselves!  God has clearly led us down the path to bring you home, and we are forever grateful to Him for allowing us to be your parents!  Hope you are ready to experience the love of this crazy family! 

This picture was taken exactly one year ago, on Feb. 10, 2010.

Couch to 5k is over for now......

WHY  is there a picture of an x-ray on my blog, you ask?  Well, that happens to be my lovely leg with 3 breaks in my left tibia.  A lovely little fall down my stairs today, with my arms full of laundry, caused this lovely accident.  I have a really bad habit of placing things on my stairs that belong upstairs and need to be put away.  Well, today, it was abox of Cheerios that I had bought for our trip.  I didn't know it had fallen over sideways, so when I came down with my laundry, and couldn't see where my feet were stepping,  well, you get the picture.  A loud pop was heard and many tears were shed, not because of pain (well, some because of pain), but because I was so freaked out that I wouldn't get to go to China.  Dr. says go to China, but it will be on crutches with a lovely boot on my leg. 
I'm trying not to think about all the things that need to be done right now.  Maybe by the time we go, the pain will be less and I will be able to move around.  Right now, it's couch time.

Yeah, we work out.....

Having a little workout in the home gym today (aka the garage).  I started the Couch to 5k program this week, and just completed day 2!!!  Yay, me!  Really  hoping to accomplish this program!  I'm gonna need some serious energy to keep up with 4 kids!

So here's some pics of our workout today, and NO, you will not see a single picture of me!  There's a reason for that!

You didn't know the latest work out styles are jammies and boots, did you?

Three weeks and we will be in China, baby!!!

Ella....

So, it looks like one of the names the orphanage has given our girl is Ella.  LOVE, seriously LOVE this name!  We've called her Gracie for so long, though, that I really don't think we can change it to Ella.  Time will tell, Ella Grace has a nice ring to it, too!  Our agency forwarded this picture to us tonight, and is going to translate and send us the update tomorrow!  Current measurements and developmental updates are included!  It will be fun to see, and I can finally start packing for our girl!
(we know that this picture is from Feb. 2010, but it's a picture we didn't already have, so I posted it!)

I just can't get over how beautiful she is!