New Pictures and Package for Lily

How cute is she?

I love getting to send our new children a package introducing their new family. 

Here are the contents of Lily's package.

Moving Forward but Never Forgetting

Thank you for all your kind words of sympathy.  It may seem strange to those who are not adoptive parents but you do begin to attach with your child as soon as you see their picture.  You dream about "gotcha day".  The first time they smile at you.  The first time they allow you to touch them without screaming.  The first time they let you console them.  The first time they fall asleep in your arms.  It is in so many ways like seeing your birth child in your ultrasound for the first time.  Then, for months you dream about the day you will meet your baby. 

The kids all dealt with Daniel's death in their own little way.  They are all very sensitive and caring.  I will never forget Ethan's response.  He was very quiet and I could see tears in his eyes.  He walked to his room and a few minutes later he came out with a small piece of paper and pencil.  He sat down very quietly and intently at the kitchen counter.  He began to draw.  Then he asked how to spell Daniel.  He handed me the small piece of paper and said he wanted to send it to the people who were with Daniel.  He had drawn a picture of himself, Daniel, and Jesus.  He drew a big sunshine on the next page.  I can only think he was drawing the moment they would meet in Heaven. 

We are praying that God will send us another little boy to love.  I dare not get my hopes up.  We had seen Daniel's picture for the first time five months ago and were still waiting on his file in order to proceed with the adoption.  This is a unique relationship between our adoption agency and this orphanage.  Because of this relationship our agency knows the children and has pictures before they receive the actual file.  There are a couple of little boys on our agency's list, one that I have been smitten with from the beginning.  Unfortunately, they are ones the agency has not received files on.  Since we have already commited to Lily we have a time restraint in which we can add a second child.  We know that it will all work in God's perfect timing.  Trying to keep myself busy and not think about it.

Great Sadness

During the course of our many adoptions we have experienced several lost referrals.  Although it was frustrating, I never really felt grief or sadness about loosing a referral.  We knew for whatever reason God had a plan for our family and we were trusting in Him.  This week we experienced a different kind of loss.

Many of you do not know that we have actually been in the process of adopting TWO children.  We could not announce our referral of Daniel until we were given approval by China to adopt him.  Daniel was 10 months old and also had Down Syndrome.  Friday I received a call from our adoption agency, our baby Daniel had passed away.  I never expected to feel so much sadness.  Although we had never met him, he was already a part of our family.   We loved him.  Many tears have been shed.  The one thing that brings us peace is knowing that Daniel is now in the arms of his Heavenly Father.  We can’t wait to meet him some day in Heaven.

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Another picture of sweet Lily

Now that we have pre-approval we can send our Lily a package. 

 I love being able to send our new kids a little something from their forever family.

Somehow it just makes it feel a little more real.

Treasures

Yesterday, we were in the path of the storms that went through Kentucky. Due to the very high risk that we would have a significant tornado outbreak we packed up and headed to a friends house with a basement. We were very fortunate to not have any tornadoes in our direct vicinity.

We had several hours warning so we had time to pack necessary items and some treasures. After packing the medication, diapers, pediasure, wheelchair, etc. . .

I packed up my most treasured items in the car.

*picture by Nina Mullins Photography

Next I grabbed this folder!

This folder represents two children in China.

I could not leave them behind.  

As I was packing up I noticed our son putting a few things in my bag.

I did not take time to see what they were.

When we arrived at our destination I went to get something out of the bag

 and found this in the bottom.

I have a few things I could learn from my 6 year old son!

Where to begin? 

Back in October I followed a link from a friends facebook page. 

I called JUST to ask some questions. 

Husband and I talked and prayed. 

God confirmed our decision in some big ways!

WE

HAVE

PA(pre-approval) from China