GLORIOUS MORNING..

Ok.....so I would be LYING if I told you that this was a good week for me....it was torture actually.  I posted last that my friend Erin would be in China getting her daughter this week and next week and that there was a possibility, God willing, that she would be able to go to Mabry's orphanage.  Well their gotcha day was monday and without telling their story which is not mine to tell, lets just say that since their sweet girl was coming from foster care she had a very difficult gotcha day and apparently really was grieving.  I heard from Erin early in the week and she said that the foster parents AND the guides were STRONGLY urging her not to visit the orphanage as it would be too traumatic during a traumatic time.  So although I totally understood I continued to pray for God to work it out.  Well Thursday evening I got another message from Erin, who apparently is having TERRIBLE internet service and therefore had had NO contact the rest of the week, anyway, Thursday night she said that she was gonna still try to go and her husband was going to stay with their little girl and not go.....well friday came and went....no news, no idea if she went or not, no idea if the nannies allowed her to see our sweet Mabry or not.....just plain torture.  We have been staying busy trying to keep our mind off of it and we pretty much knew that no news basically meant that the trip to the orphanage didn't happen...so we began to prepare ourselves for the wait for the next update which will be awhile.  Well we of little faith....God totally had it under control!!!!  Can I tell you that I woke up this morning to a message from Erin saying that she was able to go to the orphanage and out of the 3 kiddos she was going to check on, Mabry was the ONLY one that she was allowed to see!!!!  She warned me that all the kiddos were sound asleep when she arrived and that they lifted Mabry out of her crib for her to take pictures so although Mabry was NOT happy in the pics she appeared to be very healthy!  That is all this momma could ask for!!!!!!  She then went on to send me the sweetest pictures of our sweet little girl.. I woke Jason up this morning to the site of our sweet babies face....and he and I watched as the pictures of Mabry kept popping up on the screen as Erin was sending them from China....isn't technology AMAZING!!!!!!

Anyway, I have been really trying to think of how to thank this human being for bringing me this blessing and am still trying to find the perfect gift for her...if you have an idea I would love to hear it....it has to be perfect!!!!  I have a few ideas but would be interested to hear if anyone thinks along the same lines as me!!!!  I will share a few of the pictures below.....the one is of her crib so we got to actually see her sleeping arrangement which is such a blessing....now when we dream at night we will have the setting right!!!  I just want to say that the blessings that God keeps giving us is VERY humbling because we are FULLY aware of how undeserving we are of these amazing blessing!!!!!  Praying for BIG news from China this week as we are praying that the LOA that we have been waiting for for about 60 days will come this week....please pray with us because once we get this LOA we will be able to have a good idea of when we will be traveling...we are pretty sure it will be June but would love to have an idea of exactly when we will see her face.  Thanks for all the prayers being sent for our family!!!  Praising God together today!!!!!

that sweet face

Ok....so imagine giving birth to your sweet baby and seeing that face for the first time....you tried and tried to get pregnant and then waited thru the 9 month (if you're lucky) pregnancy and then the day comes.....you have the rush of excitement and see their sweet face for the first time....it is the MOST amazing thing ever....then imagine that the nurse comes in and leaves you a picture, frozen in time, of that sweet face and tells you that in 4-5 months you can come back and pick up that baby.  So this is EXACTLY what we are going thru but it is a good idea of what this is like.  Jan 16, 2014 we opened an email that would change our lives forever.....in the click of my phone we saw her sweet face.....that face from one day last summer and now that face is frozen in time until we get to go get her and bring her home.  Now we were blessed with the update, which is amazing and gives us another day frozen in time....but it's amazing how much she changes every time I see her!!!  Well all of that to say that tonight (monday in china) in about 4 hours the lady I met on Facebook will find out if she will get to visit her daughters orphanage as today is GOTCHA day for her...she is picking her daughter up in 4 hours.  If you is granted the orphanage visit, Friday she will go to the orphanage where my sweet Mabry is living.  She has a care package that Jason and I put together for her to give to mabry which was all stuffed into a gallon ziplock (when there's a will, there's a way) and it included a blankie, an outfit, a hair bow (duh), a flash drive (which I hope to get back on my gotcha day full of pics), a princess Belle plush doll, and a book that I made that has individual pictures of Jason, Me, Connor, Grady, our house, and a family picture along with our titles (dad, mom, brother, family, home) written in English and also in Chinese Characters with the hope that her nannies can read to her and show her our pictures.  We know from other people's experiences with Mabry's orphanage that she will no be allowed to keep this stuff but rather they will go thru it with her and then they will pack it up and put it away until we pick her up.  They really try to keep it fair for the kids that don't have families waiting for them which I totally get...I wish she could keep the book but I get it.  But still how amazing that she might see our faces for the first time THIS FRIDAY!!!!!  The other amazing thing about this visit is that that face that is frozen in time will be replaced with a new picture of PICTURES of her sweet face a month older than the last time we saw her....think about that...not seeing your childs face for an entire month...they change so much, trust me!!!!!  So please be praying with me for Erin and her family as they are getting their daughter...and also for Wren , her daughter, as gotcha day is an amazing moment in time but the scariest thing these little kiddos have to go thru!!!!!  And also pray that she gets to see Mabry, kiss her, hug her, shower her with our gifts, and also take lots of pictures!!!!!  This momma really needs to see her face and also to know that she is well and that she is being taken care of.  Also just warms my heart to know that at least I know she will have receive one hug/kiss before I get there.....although I believe her orphanage is meeting her needs, I also know the reality of what an orphanage is and what is asked of those nannies!

If we get updates this week via the orphanage visit there will be another blog at the end of the week!!!!