For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:21

My friend Annie, along with others who have answered the call from God, advocates for children who need forever families. I mention Annie specifically because Annie is how we found our daughter. God has blessed Annie with a HUGE heart for children. Below is an update on "Marlaina" (Liu Qingnan) from Annie's website, Wonderful Waiting Kids. I wonder if Annie knew this would make me cry? Well she knows now, hehe!!! Annie recently posted photos of 57 precious children who have either come home or will come home. These are some of the children she has advocated for, but there are many, many more. 

There are millions of orphans in the world. More than 143,000,000. These beautiful children need families! God has made them perfectly in His image and He cares DEEPLY for them. And if God cares deeply for them, so should we. We may or may not be able to provide a home for them depending on our circumstances, but we can pray for them. We can pray that a family will step forward and answer the call. We can help families who have hearts for orphans with our prayers, encouragement or financial support. And if we are that family then we should prayerfully answer God's call.

God cared so deeply for ALL of us that He sent Jesus as a sacrifice for our sin. Because sin can't enter into heaven. Period. We are still sinners, but we are forgiven, and we are adopted into the family of Christ. It is through God's grace that we are forgiven. It is His gift to us should we choose to accept it.

If you want to know where your treasure is, take a look at your heart first. Where is your heart? Can others see Jesus in you? Do they know where your heart is by the way you live your life? "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

MARLAINA

My dear, sweet, precious Marlaina whom I have been advocating for, for so long has finally found her forever family!!!  Praise God, this wonderful child will have a Mom and Dad as well as a sister and a brother - a wonderful family!!!!!  Thank you Lord!!!

The Way We Roll

Over the long weekend we've taken the time to do some extra reading in our Bibles, catch up on some other reading, play some games, hike in the woods, mountain bike, use our Christmas gift cards to Academy and Michael's from Granny and Pawpaw, cook up some homemade ice cream, juice our lemon crop, make homemade baby wipes and detergent, have dinner around the fire pit, celebrate my sister Suzanne's birthday and watch some Wild China documentary films on Netflix. We've really enjoyed spending time with each other and our families.

We also asked the adoption agency if they could ask the orphanage in Shanghai for some additional medical information on Liu Qingnan. We're still waiting on some information but we were able to get updated measurements--height 126cm, weight 24kg, head 50cm, chest 71cm--and a couple of new pictures!

We love her! She's such a ham for the camera, and isn't the one where she forms her arms into a heart just precious? Apparently she is a few inches shorter than Luke but half his weight! LOL Chinese children often look larger in pictures than they really are because they wear multiple layers of clothing, especially babies. I remember when we adopted Katie she was wearing at least four outfits, complete with split pants (my China friends can tell you all about split pants and the purpose for them).

 We pray you all are enjoying the good company of family and friends both near and far this new year. To God be the glory!

Pre-approval on January 3rd!

I was so deep in thought while crafting my first blog post that the significance of January 3rd didn't even hit the page. Now that I think about it, several things happened over the last couple of months that got us to the 3rd, but we really didn't understand God's plan until that date. Or maybe a little before. But really, we were so engrossed in our own plan that we didn't even think about God having a plan that was different from ours. And scary.

Just before Thanksgiving my adoption friends Carol, Mary Ann, Bonnie and Jeanne encouraged Darrell and me to consider going back to China (we adopted our daughter Katie from China 6 years ago). For those of you who don't know, we were certified by the State of Texas to adopt domestically back in May 2011. After 7 long months we didn't understand why we didn't get a match. After all, we didn't box ourselves in. We asked for a child age 3-12, gender didn't matter, ethnicity didn't matter. We didn't understand why God called us to adopt but wasn't sending us a child. We were becoming impatient.

On November 22nd my friend Carol sent me a link to a site called Wonderful Waiting Kids. On November 24th I sat in the floor of my Aunt Cheryl's living room and scrolled through picture after picture of precious children.

On November 28th God led me to her. A precious, beautiful girl named "Marlaina" to whom I became instantly attached. Here's a younger picture of her sweet face. She'll be 9 in March.

 

Darrell, on the other hand, was not so attached. He was in the throws of seminary finals and had a lot on his mind, least of which was the scary thought of adopting a special needs child from China. Not to mention the cost. Yikes!

After about a week of prayerful consideration, conversations with amazing Annie Hamlin, prayers over our current children and their feelings on the adoption and, well, pretty much all out abandon to follow God's scary call, we did it. We picked up the phone and called Madison Adoption Associates. The next few weeks were scary, I guess because of all the unknowns. But we trudged forward in complete faithfulness and then--January 3rd--PA!!! PA is pre-approval from China in the world of adoption abbreviations. It was time to start a blog to keep up with all the milestones. And time to truly begin falling in love with this beautiful girl named Liu Qingnan (Marlaina).

We are amazed at the outpouring of love and encouragement received from our family and friends. We are humbled that complete strangers who prayed for Liu Qingnan now pray for us. We are thankful for our cheerleaders inside and outside the adoption community who leave us comments, send us emails and give us hugs. Most of all, we glorify our God in Heaven who leads us to do scary things in His name and for His purpose, who provides for us when we think there is no provision, and who holds our hands with each step we take. And then we realize it's not scary at all.