Davie's 4 and Grandma is 90!

Our Birthday Girl

10 months old and big sister's birthdays

Yesterday Eliana Joy Lin was 10 months old! On her 10 month birthday we celebrated Davie Anne's 4th birthday, which is actually today, the 25th. We had a big celebration at Cypress Grove Park with lots of friends and beautiful weather. After that we headed to Deland to celebrate my grandmother's 90th birthday. Lots of fun and family there. Always a treat for me. I continue to experience a lot of sadness mixed with joy these days. One of my precious travel mates who was referred an adorable little girl from the same orphanage as Ellie found out 4 days after receiving the notice of her daughter in China that she has rectal cancer that has already spread to her lungs. My heart is so grieved over this. It just brings me to tears again and again. It is hard to be joyous that travel is coming, when that sweet lady won't be traveling with us. It also looks like we will be traveling to China to get Ellie(joy!) during the time of Sarah's debut as Catherine in the "Taming of the Shrew" up at school(sadness). Ugh! I can hardly stand it. I have never had to miss anything my kids have been a part of and yet this is totally out of my hands. Joy and sadness.....over and over again. This is an interesting time in my life. I don't remember a season like this one before. Intense joy and intense sadness. David's dad continues to hang on, though we so wish him Home. God is good all the time, and His ways are right. His timing is perfect.....in all this joy and sadness I do not question His sovereignty or His Holy character, but I do wonder how to process all that is happening and sometimes I just tell Him that this is too hard and too sad. Carrying sadness around as a part of myself and still feeling all the joy that God intends me to feel as He blesses my socks off is my calling these days. I am praying that I will do Him proud as I continue to surrender and trust in His unfailing love. What a journey!

Eliana's Care Package

care packages

Care packages....packages filled with care. Boxes filled with bits of things to show the receiver that they are cared for. Well, tomorrow I am finally going to send Eliana's care package to her. I say finally because getting a letter translated and printed into Chinese has been quite a feat. Getting the photographs and the translations for the photographs for her baby photo album was also difficult. Actually, nothing about this package has been easy, but now it is packed and ready to go tomorrow, because today is president's day. My prayer is that Eliana's orphanage director will receive this package, forward it to her foster family, that they will enjoy its contents and that they will begin to communicate to our little one about us and begin to believe that she is going to be well taken care of. Enclosed in the package is a letter thanking those who have taken care of Ellie and pledging our commitment to her. We also sent two disposable cameras hoping that they will take pictures of her in her home now and then give them to us when we get her. A care package of this magnitude can't really be delivered by the USPS, but we try to send our love and care knowing that the only time to really begin to live our love is when they place Eliana Joy Lin Wimberly in our arms. C'mon travel approval!!!!

Birthday Party girls

Birthday parties with little girls; songs with dying fathers

Today was a good day. I mean a really good day. We started out at church and then went from there to a little girl's birthday party. Now this wasn't just any little girl, it was one of Davie's friends from China. Lexi and Davie were in the same orphanage in China and our families traveled together to get our girls. I have discovered that there is something about seeing Davie play with other little girls that look so similar to her that just melts my heart. I don't think I can explain it, but it just feels so right. I have been so oblivious of race for much of my life. Not that I didn't notice race, but I ignored the hugeness of being with people like me. I've never had to even wonder what it would be like to be the minority, not anywhere I've ever been, except while in China, but then I wasn't paying much attention to anything except my baby :) Whenever we attend a Families with Children from China function I love seeing Davie with little girls who have lived her "life". Today at the party, because Jenny and Russ have friends in the adoption community and it would seem because they have made the effort to surround Lexi with other Asian adoptees, Davie was just one of about 9 little Asian girls. It was so fun for her and for me. I am so grateful to God for having awakened my spirit to that part of Davie Anne. It meets a need in her, and it meets a need in me to hang with other adoptive parents. We just "get" one another. I don't have to explain why at my age, 45, that I still feel called to be a mom to a young baby. I don't have to try to explain my passion for adoption, they just "get" it. I love that! Davie and I both feel understood and accepted and that kindred spirit thing is sweet.

After our birthday party we went to see Dad. Yesterday I spent two plus hours with him. I read some of the Psalms to him and we talked and prayed together. It was a very very sweet time. At the end he told me his favorite hymn and we sang together. He knew the words better than me and how sweet that he got choked up every time on the words "I'll rest in His unchanging grace". At 78 and 45 Dad and I both know what it is to rely completely on the grace of our Lord. Through no merit of our own we have peace with God. Amazingly, today at church we sang that hymn. That is fairly remarkable since we rarely sing hymns. "The Solid Rock" will forever remind me of my sweet father in law. So today David, Davie and I went to see Dad again. Today there was a whole crowd of us and we sang for a good long while with Dad. It was precious. He is dying. We all know it. So we sing together to encourage him and to grieve that his time with us is short. We all want to release him and we so don't want him to suffer. He continues to amaze the doctors and us with his will to hang on, but still we know his time is short. He seems more ready today and more aware that heaven is not far off. Today was a day I will not soon forget.

Oh, and little Miss Eliana. Today I will email our visa applications to AWAA and I have gathered copies of the important papers we need to take with us when we travel. One thing a day....for Ellie...that is my goal. I can't wait to go get our little one. Really, my heart longs to hold her and love her and watch how God will use her in our family. We need her and she needs us. What could be more perfect than that?

joy and sorrow

Well, I'm trying to wrap my mind around the fact that we will be heading to China to get Eliana Joy Lin in the not too distant future. After the long wait, it just doesn't seem possible that we will actually be going, but I know we will. We have been dealing with a lot around here in the past week. We received news of Eliana on Thursday, last week, and at the same time David's dad had been put in the hospital. On Wed. his family made the decision to not take dad back home and so yesterday he was transferred to a hospice facility. Talk about tough....! To be so excited about gaining a family member, and so sad about losing one at the same time has thrown my emotions for a loop. In the midst of all of it God sweetly reveals Himself to me and His closeness is precious. I could not endure all that life throws at us were it not for Him. This journey is full of mountains and valleys...I'm not sure I have ever experienced them both at one time before. Still, Ellie's arrival at this particular time confirms again that life goes on and the hope for her future is God's heart as a daddy. And dad's departure from this world to the next is His Father's good gift. His reward awaits him and none of us want him here a minute longer than God wills. He has been a faithful father to the best of his ability and we have been blessed by his presence in our lives. His quiet ways will be missed. I'm so thankful that we will still have his prayers for us, just from a heavenly realm when that time comes. So, still with all that is going on here we must prepare to go get our little Eliana Joy. My heart becomes glad, just at the thought of it. I am putting together her care package and hope to send it by Monday. I have bought a few 6-12mo size clothes and that was fun. I'm going to lay everything out on Sarah's bed and get organized and begin packing the suitcase...see, there is much to do and lots to rejoice over. Being with Dad during these days has been precious....being with Ellie in the future will be precious....life must go on and I am so thankful that I don't have to wonder Who is in control or question His goodness. My God is good all the time, all that He does is right and my hope is forever in Him.

Big Sister

Just wanted to document two conversations with Davie about Eliana. The first was in the car. I was talking to some one on the phone and I was saying that Ellie needed a bow in her hair and a cute outfit on and she just needs her momma. In the backseat of the van Davie pipes up and says "and her big sister". The other was told to me by another mom who is very pregnant (Jaime) and she and her daughter Annalise were in the nursery talking to Davie and Davie told Annalise that they were both going to be big sisters. An older girl in the nursery said "what, a big sister? What do you mean?" Davie said something like, "We have to go get my little sister from China. I'm from China!" Too cute, huh? She gets it I think...a little bit anyway. She is very very excited as are all the kids. Catherine just can't wait. Matt says he is even more excited than with Davie b/c he really understands it now and all that it means. So sweet. Sarah works on all my blog photos and myspace photos and my music and everything. So precious...and my dear husband, well, he is shopping for the perfect "bag"(suitcase) for our trip. The guy is excited...what can I say? :)

A little peanut

Well, I have been researching Ellie's size on some growth charts both Chinese and American and what I have discovered is that we have a little peanut!!! Davie was taller by 3cm, which makes a big difference, at 4 mos. than Ellie at 6mos. Davie also weighed a fair amount more than Ellie when she was measured at 4 months, while Ellie was measured at 6 months. Of course I am doing all this research to figure out what size clothes she needs :) ! I pulled out clothes from Davie and she mostly wore 12-18mos size at 9 mos when we got her. I don't have very many clothes in the 6-12mo. range...so I am wondering if I need to find some??? What do you think? Well, I am off to go make copies of her pictures and to enjoy a pedicure for this tired waiting momma :)
P.S. On the down side of things, David's dad is not doing well. Please pray that he does not suffer, but that in God's perfect time he goes home to His Heavenly Father.

MORE PICTURES!!!!

Referral calls and Fed ex

So, I want to record the whole day yesterday, but if it bores you, just skip this ;) I got up early, immediately got on the computer only to find my California travel buddy, Barb, on the computer at 4am her time. So we chatted and shared a cyber cup of coffee together and waited and waited to see if we made the cut this time or not. Still no news on the cut off date and by 9am she had to go get her boys up for school and I had to go get ready to go to lunch with David. Then referral announcements started coming in for the U.S. but still no firm cut off date. It looked like the 11th was going to be it, and we were the 12th so we didn't think we were in at all. Then about 10:30 my time someone with a 10/12 LID posted that they had gotten "the call" from their agency and so we knew we were in!!!! Barb and I were chatting again by this time...so we were yelling over the computers and getting more and more nervous by the minute. Well, I had asked David if he could do lunch with me as a distraction because I did not want to sit in front of the computer all day long....that is not fun, btdt. I made myself leave the house and go to get him for lunch. On the way I couldn't stand it so I called Barb to see what was happening b/c I figured she was still in front of her computer. Well, she wasn't. My call got her out of the shower and of course she answered her phone, b/c it could have been "the call". We laughed hysterically and then I said call me if anything happens. I picked David up and he and I went to Panera Bread for lunch. My sweet husband brought his computer inside so I could check everything that was going on...I was glued to the screen almost our whole lunch. Matt called my cell phone twice and I nearly died thinking it was "the call". All through lunch still no call. As we were leaving the restuarant Barb called and said that Naomi, another family with us just posted on our group website that they were referred a set of twins!!! Ok, now we were screaming! Well, not David of course, but Barb and me. We hung up and then I dropped David off at the car place and went on my way. Still no call. So I called Barb back....I couldn't help it. She was my connection to the adoption world at that point and while we were on her cell phone her house phone rang and it was "the call"! She screamed and hung up and said she would call me back. So I head to Chamberlins to pick up something for David. Now, I am not known for my patience(ahem) and so I waited as long as I could, probably 20 minutes and then called her back...too soon, go figure. She said she would call me back...so I waited again...now I am dying...waiting for my "call" and nervous, to the point of nauciousness. Ok, so I called her again...sorry Barb, and finally she could give me her info and update me on the others in our group. This time while we were talking I got "the call". I answered the phone, breathless with anticipation and I get this calm, straight, business like voice telling me that she is from AWAA and calling for my family coordinator, Allison, and she had some questions for me. This is not what I expected at all! Thoughts of being "skipped" are running through my brain. I can't breathe, but I try to answer her question about our I171H form that had already been sent to Allison. Still paralyzed with fear. She talks some more and then very calmly says, "oh, and AWAA received their referrals today and you have a daughter." As calm as can be I tell you....like she was telling me I had a dentist appointment. I SCREAMED right into the phone. I couldn't believe it. Then she began to tell me our information about our little punkin head. I was on cloud 9 to say the least. So I drive home and get on the computer AGAIN. Reading and posting like a maniac! Last night my travel group all got online for our scheduled chat and almost everyone was on. It was sooo fun. All of us sharing all about our babies....like a crowded delivery room.

So this morning David stayed home to get the referral package with me from the Fedex man, but due to the storms here last night the man has yet to come. So I'm still waiting....hoping he will get here before tonight. That is where the pictures are...the important stuff you know :) We are posting the only small photo that we have...so enjoy our little beauty. We are so blessed. God has done so much more than we could even hope or imagine. Still walking on air!!!!

Our baby girl!!! Eliana Joy Lin!

We have another daughter!!!!!

WE GOT THE CALL!!!!!!
We have a baby girl
Fu LinQi...soon to be Eliana Joy Lin(I think)
dob:4/24/06
FuZhou Social Welfare Institute in Jiangxi
at 6 mos. old she was 13.6lbs. and 23.6in long
She is in fostercare at the time.
We will get our photos by fedex tomorrow....I think I will attack the poor Fedex guy :)
I am over the moon excited. I will write more later when I can process it all. I need to write about "the call".