Wow, I am in awe.
Shock and awe…and a little bit of panic and anxiety thrown in too! 😉
But, Look what God has done. When we first ventured out on this journey, I couldn’t imagine standing at this point just days away from holding our daughter.
I can’t believe we head to the airport in just 24 hours!
It is truly amazing how when GOD calls you to something, He brings you through it. I cling to that promise as I stare at the mountains ahead.
We know without a doubt that Gianna was meant to be our daughter, we knew from the moment we saw her. God made it clear, as clear as a pregnancy test showing 2 lines as a mommy suddenly rubs her belly knowing there is now new life growing inside.
That is the feeling when God shows you your child through adoption. Its nothing short of miraculous.
Looking back, and seeing what He has already done humbles us. Especially, knowing He is not done showing Himself bigger than us, mightier than our weakness, and So able through our inabilities.
The road ahead is going to be amazingly, gloriously and wonderfully hard.
Mostly hard for sweet Gianna than for us. The hard stuff that we go through, won’t compare to her “hard.”
We covet your prayers for our daughter.
You see….our most wonderful moment, honestly, will be her hardest moment.
With our joy, comes her brokeness.
She doesn’t understand why her life will suddenly change.
New people. New smells. New environment. New language.
FEAR, people…total fear. I hate to imagine it as I remember so vividly what Tahlia went through. heartbreaking.
Adoption is hard stuff. Amazing and incredible….but hard.
The first three days we are in BJ will be wonderful, I think and hope “mutually” wonderful for our Gianna because we will not be taking her away from her foster home. We won’t be a threat to her (hopefully).
We will be coming to her, bringing goodies for her and her friends, wooing her, staying three days and getting to know her on her turf… in her environment.
This is going to be so amazing…to see who she really is among her sisters, brothers and nannies.
We will all get to sit on the floor and play with them and love on them. SO FUN!!
This is one of the reasons we are bringing the family. To have the opportunity to serve in the orphanage that their baby sister was raised in is a rare gift. To meet and play with the children we have been praying for this past year. WOW.
This three days will give us a glimpse of the true her, and she will get to see us…get to know us…without the trauma of taking her away.
But, then….we will all travel to her province for adoption day. Oh what a day of celebration that will be….for “us”
PLEASE PRAY FOR GIANNA!!
That will be an incredibly hard for her as she is handed over to us and leaves the nanny she has loved like a mama.
Yes, she will recognize us, but she will leave all she knows and loves.
They love those children deeply at Harmony House, and I am so thankful for how they have stood in the gap for our daughter while she waited for us.
I am grateful for how they nursed her back to health, loved her, bonded with her and taught her what it means to love and be loved.
THAT is a miracle.
We are so grateful because this will mean a more well adjusted child later on.
But that also means the grief in the “now” could be really bad.
But, we have to remember that the grief is indicative of a child who was loved and knew how to bond and attach. That is a good thing.
And God specializes in bringing beauty and redemption out of brokeness.
We saw him to do this with our Tolly.
That is why those first few weeks with her are so crucial with bonding. These weeks will be when she starts to learn who her mama and baba are, her NEW family unit. All things that come naturally with biological babies aren’t a “given” with adoption…they have to be intentionally taught and shown to her.
Our prayer (as it happened with Tahlia) is that we will slowly and fiercely win her trust and love and that over the days she will feel safe and secure and start to bond with us.
That she will find comfort in her mama and baba’s arms.
So, after our three days at Harmony House, we will then take the train to her originating province of “Shanxi” for 5 days while waiting for her passport to be processed.
We will get the opportunity to visit her “finding spot” and possibly the orphanage she was first brought to and stayed at for a few months.
We will tour a little bit too.
Then we will fly south to Guangzhou, China for 7 days where her medical is done and where the final paperwork is completed to be able to come home.
But, before coming home we get the incredible opportunity to visit our very dear and close long-time friends in HONG KONG for a couple days! They live there on a work transfer.
Never in a million years, 16 years ago, when we all got married around the same time (and met up on our honeymoons) did we think we would later meet up in “ASIA” with a total of 11 kids between us!!
I think, if God had told us that, we would have thrown up or perhaps belly-laughed till we were sick to our stomachs! LOL
ahhhhhh, God is incredible!
What a treasure to get to spend a couple days with them before leaving to come home on June 10th! By that time, it will be so refreshing to see familiar faces!
What a blessing!
Then we will fly home (as a new family of 8)..after a total of three weeks in China.
Again, please be praying for our family, pray for Gia’s heart, pray for incredible opportunities to share the love of Christ in China…especially with the precious children in her orphanage.
Please pray for safe travels for all of us ( Brian and I, the kids, and Brian’s parents) to all stay healthy…and PRAY, PLEASE PRAY our luggage gets to china safely too! OH PLEASE PRAY! (nightmares have started).
ok, I am gonna go crash hard in my bed now and hope that I can actually, maybe, start packing “my” bag tomorrow now that everyone else is finally done!
But, before I sign off….
on behalf of our family, THANK YOU.
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for helping us to bring Gianna Lilyfaith home.
We are so grateful for how you have loved us and our daughter and chose to be a part of God’s miracle!
I was in China a year ago in February and visited your daughter in the hospital with a group of women that visited HH from NC. What an honor to have prayed for her and to see now that she about to go home with her forever family!!!