Advent-urous!

Advent. my second favorite season of the year. time of preparation. time of celebration. welcoming in life.

Lent. my favorite season of the year. time of struggle. time of sorrow. new hope. new life.

i believed when i started my adoption journey 7 months ago, that we would be traveling to pick up our children during Lent. being the hardest yet most blessed time of the year for my family seemed appropriate.  i had no way of knowing that it was a possibility that we actually would travel in Lent. it is possible...even probable.

today we received our next step in the process. it is the I 800 Provisional Approval. near as i can tell, it means that our government is saying yes, these Chinese children may immigrate here as adopted children, thereby making them US citizens. there are more steps. i can't really figure them out. i ask my friends what to do, they tell me, it gets done correctly. honestly. i have done little of this on my own power. God has led me, provided resources and support, and the Body of Christ(God's people) has indeed risen up and donated most of the funds we need to complete a double adoption. thank you lovely people for being generous and part of our children's story. 

Bao

Xi

it is downright miraculous. i mean that literally. if you had asked me 8 months ago if we could start, complete, and pay for a foreign adoption...i would have said it was impossible.

THANK YOU GOD FOR REVEALING YOUR GREAT WORK TO US. THANK YOU FOR YOUR PERFECT PLANS. THANK YOU FOR SENDING YOUR FAITHFUL SERVANTS TO AID OUR CAUSE. THANK YOU FOR MAKING STRAIGHT OUR PATH. THANK YOU FOR YOUR PROMISE OF EVER PRESENT HELP. I KNOW I CAN DO NOTHING APART FROM YOU.  THANK YOU FOR MY FAMILY.

OK...so now it looks like we might be preparing to travel during Advent, traveling in mid/late january, and bringing the girls home for Lent. perfect. joy during the appropriate season and sorrow and new life during the harder season. so this month is truly shaping up to be Advent-urous.

just a side note, my friends M and R got their "PA" today too. my other friend is expected to get hers in the next few weeks. dare we hope to travel together for part of our trips? if not, that's OK, because it means not "one less"...it means "four less orphans"...perhaps our stories will inspire someone else to take up the cause of "one less" and so on...and so on...