May Your Kingdom come...

Psalm 72: The Reign of the Righteous King

May He judge Thy people with righteousness, and Thine afflicted with justice...May He vindicate the afflicted of the people, save the children of the needy...May He come down like rain upon the mown grass, like showers that water the earth...let all kings bow down before Him, all nations serve Him. For He will deliver the needy when he cries for help, the afflicted also, and him who has no helper. He will have compassion on the poor and needy, and the lives of the needy He will save. He will rescue their life from oppression and violence; and their blood will be precious in His sight...Let them bless Him all day long...May His name endure forever; may His name increase as long as the sun shines; and let men bless themselves by him; let all nations call Him blessed...And may the whole earth be filled with His glory.

I dream of a day when God's Kingdom will break forth on the earth. I dream of a day when the Righteous King will be blessed on the earth, day and night. I dream of a day when the whole earth will be filled with His glory. I dream of a day when our beautiful, merciful King will hold all the precious, afflicted ones in His arms, and their will be no more mourning and no more tears. I dream of a day when our King's justice and His compassion will come crashing down upon this earth. I dream of a day when all nations will bow down before our Righteous King and give Him all honor and glory.

I see our Righteous, Glorious, Merciful King continually before my gaze and I beg of Him, "May Your Kingdom come quickly, Lord Jesus. May Your Kingdom come!"

Happy Birthday, wonderful friend!!

You've just got to meet Meredith! She is such an incredible woman of God, she is a true friend and she is so much fun!! She's also got two of the cutest little guys that you're ever going to see (and I am not biased at all, even if one of them is my godson). If you get a chance, go visit her blog and say "Happy Birthday!" It's on my sidebar (The Crosland Capers). For some reason, I can't cut and paste the link.

I'm looking forward to a fun day tomorrow, Meredith! Happy Birthday, my friend!!

coming home

For those families who have traveled to China more than once, the final leg of the journey in GuangZhou, can feel like coming home. Since Lily is from Guangdong province, we spent almost all of our time in GuangZhou on our first trip. Then, when we adopted Jadon, we spent the last few days in GuangZhou, finishing up the U.S. side of his adoption. For this third trip to China, we again ended our time in Guangzhou to complete Grace's adoption. While there, we met two more AAC families. We already had an incredible group, and these two families simply added more fun and good conversation. Here's our group photo, taken at the White Swan.

We had stayed at the White Swan when we adopted Jadon. It was beautiful, but we were actually glad to be back at the Victory for this third trip (we stayed at the Victory when we adopted Lily). We had a very large room with 3 comfortable beds, filtered water in the room, and a great breakfast buffet. Here are Lily and Grace after a shower in our very clean bathroom (aaahhh...so nice!).

The restaurants in GuangZhou are incredible. What a beautiful view off the balcony of this restaurant. We were so blessed to have Morgan order for us!

We went to the zoo outside of GuangZhou and Lily got to see her pandas.

One of the highlights of our time in Guangdong province was visiting Lily's orphanage in ZhaoQing. God worked some incredible miracles to bring this about. First of all, Lily had a high fever the night before we were to go to the orphange. We all prayed (and some of you prayed!), and she was totally fine in the morning! God is so good!!

Here we are in front of the old ZhaoQing SWI (this is where Lily lived).

We also visited the new SWI. Here's our precious girl, outside the gate. We waited and waited while our incredible guides, Morgan and Judy, tried to get us into the SWI.

They were successful! Here's we are with some of the nannies and the old director. What an emotional time for this mama. The nannies were loving and kind to our girl, and we were so very grateful.

A very special spot for our family.

There is a beautiful park in ZhaoQing. A perfect setting for our beautiful girl. We hope to be back to visit again some day.

Back in GuangZhou, we did a little shopping. Here are Grace and Yana outside one of the little shops.

We spent a lot of time at the playground in the middle of the island. The boys had a good time!

So did Grace!

And no trip to GuangZhou is complete without a visit to Lucy's.

Or maybe two visits...or three, or four...

After a busy few days in GuangZhou, we boarded a plane to take our little girl to her new home in Colorado. She did great on the flight, and charmed us all with her smiles.

She's still charming us today with those same smiles. Thank you, Jesus, for this amazing journey, and thank you for this amazing little girl! We love you, sweet Grace!

changes

I wanted to post one last photo from our time in Guizhou. On the last night, we bought a cake and celebrated all of the birthdays that we had missed with our special girls. Here's Grace on that night.
And here's Grace on her adoption day (November 2) this year. What do you think? Has she adjusted to her family and new life?!

Thank you, God, for changing the lives of your precious children. Thank you for bringing orphans into families. Thank you for adopting us into your family!! You transform us, oh Lord, and we are so grateful!

lovin' it!

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE China!!

I know that for some people, the actual trip to China to adopt their beloved son or daughter is, at least in part, one of the many hurdles that they need to jump over to form their forever family. I understand this, and I in no way think negatively about other people's experience here. But, I just have to say...I LOVE China. I love the people, I love the food, I love the history and the culture. I just love it! So, even though we had dirty carpeting in our hotel, and the hallways smelled like smoke, and even though the bathrooms en route to our touristy destinations were not exactly what we were used to, I can honestly say that I LOVED our time in Guizhou.

Of course, the best thing was seeing this girl's precious smile!

And experiencing her snuggly warmth.

But, we also really enjoyed visiting this Miao village. And like I said before...we had a WONDERFUL travel group.

We loved walking around the Miao village as a family of seven. Oh, how grateful I am that our whole family could travel to China together.
You just see some really neat things in China. Where else would you find a water buffalo walking down the road? Okay, okay, I do know that China is not the only place for water buffalos, but we don't exactly see them regularly in Colorado.

And we loved meeting Grace's nannies. What a privilege it was to meet the ladies who took care of Grace and the other beautiful children at her CWI. It was a hard day. Grace was very clingy and emotional, but we were so glad to meet these women and experience a little more of Grace's life before we met her.

The kids loved the carnival rides at the local park. They cost about a quarter (hugs...free!).

How many places that you know of boast camel rides?

Ummm...are those my children feeding those free-roaming monkeys (who we had been told, do actually bite!)?! Okay, maybe there are some things in China that I can live without.

After all of those busy days, we loved watching Grace curl up in her bed and sleep peacefully...we finally had our little girl!!

Next stop: Guangzhou

Thanks for joining me on this trip down memory lane!!

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...

**********

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!