"Because of the Lord's Great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. I say to myself, 'The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait on Him.'" -Lamentations 3:22-24

No, not today....

AWAA got more LOA's today and ours was not included. Thanks for the prayers, we need them.
I probably won't be updating here anymore until we hear something. Our agency assures us there is nothing wrong, that we are still in the timeframe considered normal.

Although I cannot go into it, someone I have contact with will be visiting Ashley in the next few weeks. Hopefully she'll get permission to give her a family picture of us. Please pray that this request is granted.

That's about it. God is good, and we believe that, no matter the circumstances.

You have GOT to see this....

I found this on someone's blog that has a child from this orphanage. All these babies apparently get their picture taken in the Hello Kitty Chair for their referral picture. Oh my goodness are they precious!! And YES, all these little ones are from just one of the hundreds of orphanages in China.....



http://www.geocities.com/FengChengHelloKittyClub/

It's the Hello Kitty Club!!!

Look what the Lord gave me today!!!

From John Piper,

." God is graciously involved in adoptions. He has done it Himself.

He knows what it costs.

And He stands ready to support us

all the way to the end."

And, from the Psalms,

"For God alone, O my soul, I wait in silence,

for my hope is from Him.

He only is my rock and my salvation, my

fortress;

I will not be shaken.

On God rests my salvation and my glory;

my mighty rock, my refuge is God.

Trust Him at all times, my people,

Pour out your heart before Him,

for God

is a refuge

for

us."

Weekend Update...and another milestone...

The weekend was full of taking care of sick children :) Annalyse recovering from hernia surgery and Avery now has a fever...yuck. With everyone down and out, I had a chance to clean out the summer clothes and gear up for fall/winter...not such an easy task when you're going through clothing for 4 girls! Everything is now organized and mama is breathing easier.

As for the crib issue, and where to put it...we made a decision.

We've decided to leave everyone where they are and put Ashley's crib up in our bedroom. It's going to take some creative re-arranging, but we'll make it work. I just decided that everyone is sleeping so great now where they are, and when Ashley gets here, she's going to probably have sleep issues of her own, so why put her in a room so she can keep someone else awake? One child having sleep issues is one thing, having two or more with them may send me over the edge.

The "norm" in our house is that we put the crib up when I'm about 6 months pregnant. Daddy never let me put it up before then. So we had decided that we'd out it up when we got our LOA.

However, this morning after church he came home and said, "we're putting up her crib tonight after the girls are in bed...she's our baby and we're going to pray over it every night until she comes home."

Did I mention I love this man???? I am so excited to put it up!! Pictures to come!!

And, I saved this for last......tomorrow marks our 100th day of waiting....yep, 100 days. I really have no words. Last Thursday was a hard one, for some reason....emotionally I run the gamut, from being totally at peace to being angry, to being totally crushed. But my God can take it. He can take everything I can dish out to Him and He has been so faithful to carry me on the days that I really didn;t think I'd make it through. We are PRAYING for this week.

PLEASE JOIN US IN THAT PRAYER!

Thanks again for going on this journey with us....God has allowed me to meet some very Godly, amazing people through this road called adoption. We are so blessed.

Check back later for crib pictures!

Advice Needed!

OK friends, we are getting ready for ms. Ashley and I need some advice. We're trying to figure out where she's going to sleep....here's our info: we have a 6 yo, a 4 yo and a 2 year old. I had originally planned on putting Ashley's crib in the nursery with Annalyse...but that isn't going to happen. Annalyse still wakes up sometimes at night, mostly searching for her passie....but she's a light sleeper. Avery and Ally share a room. Now we're thinking we may put Avery (the oldest) with Ashley, and move Annalyse's crib into the room with Ally.

Ashley and Avery will bond in China, so we thought it may be easy for Ashley to sleep in there with her.

Any thoughts????

Oh, and we do have a pack -n- play for our room, if she needs to be close to us for awhile. We thought we may try to put her crib in our room, but there isn't enough room. We even thought about buying one of those smaller ones used in daycares.....so it would fit better in our room....pack -n- plays are SO uncomfortable. (not that i've ever slept in one:)

Day 90

I don't really have the words. I never imagined we'd be waiting this long. Please pray. There are other families that are waiting just like we are....like Karleigh Mei's mama....we sent our paperwork in the same day. In some ways, it feels like September took a million years to get through, and in other ways, I cannot believe we are already almost halfway through October.

God Provides!!!

We received word on Tuesday morning that we are the recipients of a Lifesong for Orphans grant!! This is a "matching grant" that stipulates that we raise 3,000.00 and then they match it 3,000.00, making it a total of $6,000.00!!!!!!!!

Now comes the fun part... raising the 3,000! Jay is going to be hosting a golf tournament here (if you know where we live) so if you want to play, or know someone who wants to, please contact me! The date will be announced as soon as he sets it up with the course.

Also, we'll be sending support letters out to family and close friends, explaining the program, and asking them to support us. We need to get this done fairly quickly because we are still REALLY hoping to travel in late November. ( COME ON LOA!!!! TODAY!!!!)

Some of you have emailed me over the last few months asking how you could give. As you know, I have ignored your email :) This was because at that time, we had all we needed. If the Lord has laid it on your heart to give, now is the time because it will be DOUBLED!

If you are truly interested, please email me at rebsandhogs@juno.com. that includes inquiry's about the golf tournament!

Families leaving!

The next group from AWAA leaves in the morning, so I've changed the links to the left!

A little retail therapy!

Ok, so I was back reading on this blog and realized it's been pretty "heavy" lately. I usually come here to vent or express emotions and with all the emotions over the last few weeks, I just wanted to show that we have been having fun getting ready to have a baby in the house again!
This stuff is things we accumulated over the last few months since referral.




Her diaper bag for church! I got Annalyse one very similar and they are going to look *PRECIOUS* walking thru the halls at church together with the these!




We got this at the "after 4th of July sale" for her to wear home on the airplane to the USA! It say's "all american cutie" and it's so soft and comfy for the llloonnggg ride home.



















Mama's backpack for trekking around China! It's filled with things we've been gathering. Stacking cups, Gerber puffs, baby photo album, and her Mai Tai sling wrap thing to carry her in while walking out and about. It also has some things like Tide sink packets, Bounty travel paper towels, hand sanitizer, and other travel items. We'll re-distribute them into suitcases and such, but I've been storing them in this bag. I'm going to monogram "CHINA 08" on it!!!






















And lastly, BOTTLES!! I've got a few more other than these. The girls are THRILLED that she's going to be taking a bottle for many months! I've nursed all the girls and this is literally the first time we've ever had a bottle in our house at all! They are already discussing who will give her what bottle at what time of day :)

That's all for now! We have some other things, including a crib and bedding, but we're not going to start all that until we get our LOA. We also have a bazillion girl clothes, bows, shoes and such...so much in fact, that Ashley already has about 3 dozen outfits hanging in her closet. When you are the 4th daughter, you are never lack for clothing!

15 Months Old Today!

Happy Birthday Ashley! Daddy, Annalyse and I went to lunch and then mama went and bought you and Annalyse some REALLY cute matching outfits (shhh..don't tell daddy...)

Annalyse and I can't wait to have you here with us all day long to play. If you ask Annalyse where you are she says, "China!" Today while we were shopping, she kept asking, "for Ashee?" every time I picked something up! You and her are going to be the best of friends, I can't wait!


The CCAA is closed this week for a holiday, so things will be stalled another week. This is day 82...oh wait, didn't I say I had quit counting?! The group that got their LOA last week has tentative travel set for mid-November so hopefully that means we'll travel in early December, or maybe even late November. OR if we were to get our LOA this week (a miracle and highly unlikely) we could probably go with the group in early November. My brain is tired of trying to figure it out at this point.