HOLY MOLY!!!!!!!

48 hours from leaving and I spend the day in the ER with Emily....my travel mate!
She has a raging ear infection and they actually thought the infection might be in the bone behind her ear. Seriously? I've decided today that satan is alive and well and he really doesn't want orphans coming into Christian homes! I have had sick children for the past 5 weeks and we really topped it off with a doozy today! BUT, I am not deterred! I am going to China to get my girl! We leave in less than 48 hours and will be in Guangzhou on Friday early morning. WOO HOO!

Please pray for Emily's ear infection to clear up QUICKLY! She did get IV meds today and they are working beautifully! Pray for Anna Grace who continues to tell me that she is going with me to get Xiao Li. I think she could struggle! Pray for Shawn who will be on leave and taking care of the 3 girls while I am gone. Pray for Lauren and Sarah to stay healthy. And pray for Avery's heart....that God is preparing her for our crazy family and all the changes that are coming. I have felt that so heavy on my heart the past few days. Finally, pray for the internet to have good connections so I can skype with my girls back home...yes, that one is totally selfish! : ) I will be posting on "Avery's travel journal" from now on. Head over there for the next few weeks!

Thank you for all your prayers for my family.

Catching up...

I finally got pictures uploaded to the computer and realized that I had not shared these pictures of Lauren. As most of you know, Lauren does not have good hand use. She has trouble holding on to things without dropping them. However, when she is really motivated she has amazing abilities. A good example of this was one night when she managed to get a bag of M&M's out of the pantry. Lauren was the only one inside; the rest of us were in the yard getting ready for a yard sale. We were walking inside every 5-10 minutes to check on Lauren while she watched Dora. Shawn came out and called me inside to see what she had done. Evidently, she had gone into the kitchen, opened the pantry, found a ziplock bag of M&M's, and decided that she hit the jackpot. We found her like this....



And she quickly began doing this.....


and then this....

And this is how she felt about it....

And to be honest, we felt the same way! We were quite proud of our little girl! She "shouldn't" be able to open a cabinet or pick up a bag, certainly not carry it all the way down the hall without dropping it, and that ziplock?? We have no idea how she got that open! But yeah, my girl has pretty good hand use when she has the proper motivation! And I was proud enough that I let her keep eating them while I took pictures! She is our superstar and we really have no idea the heights that she can reach if we keep believing in her and giving her opportunities to grow!
What a blessing she is to our family!

Travel Plans!!

WE ARE GOING TO CHINA! Tickets are bought(ouch!) and hotels are being booked!
Emily and I leave on Wednesday evening, July 14 and fly to Guangzhou. We transfer there and fly to Xi'an. We will receive Avery into our family on July 18 in the afternoon and spend that week in Xi'an. Guangzhou will be our location for the second week. We will head home on July 30, landing bright and early Saturday morning. We can't wait! Avery's travel site is in the works. I will have it linked to this blog.

Avery~We will be there soon!