Happy New Year 2008

(From Kim)

I can't believe it is already 2008. The year has gone by very quickly it seems. What began as a 10-12 month wait for our Lydia has turned into a 2 year wait(at least) from our log in date. Our paperwork arrived in China in September of 2006, so it is looking like it may be September of 2008 or later when we receive our referral of our sweet Lydia. The wait has been a very sweet time in the life of our family. There is much anticipation and excitement as we look to the new year and our hopes are that Lydia will be joining us in this year. We really do not know why the wait has become so long, except for the fact that there are many more families that are adopting from China and the processing of all that is taking longer and things have progressively begun to slow down. It is wonderful that there are more families choosing to adopt a beautiful child from China--there is a great need for that, but we are praying that things will get worked out and the wait shortened...especially for those first time parents who see the wait as endless. I can understand that.

We continue to wait and trust that God, who is sovereign over everything in this world, will bring His perfect plans into place. That is where our hope lies...not in the Chinese government, not in our agency, not in the rumors we hear all around us, but in the Sovereign Lord who does what is best for us and what brings Himself glory. Patience has been a struggle for me, though...not just in this process, but in all of my life in general. This has been good for me...to wait on the Lord and see the marvelous works of His hands. So, as we wait and pray, we thank God for sustaining us through this and for giving us a great hope. We will continue to cling to that. One day, Lydia will be with us and until then we thank God for what He has done for us thus far. Blessings abound and those blessings are all from His hands of grace and mercy.

We have had quite a busy time since our last update. Our home is a busy and loud place, full of voices, scattered toys, school books, and full and fun days. The Christmas season was a wonderful time together as a family. We have lots of fun traditions that we are involved with during this time, so I always look forward to doing these special things with our children. I imagined what it would be like to be celebrating Christmas with one more child...and how the dynamics of our family would change. It brought me great joy to think about that! As the new year came, I also thought about what I need to do to prepare for this little one....getting her nursery ready, getting more organized with meal planning and schooling the children, as well as, just figuring out how to operate with 5 children....I guess we will learn that as we go. That is how we have learned so far.

One of the things we would like for you pray for us about is the travel to China. This has been the biggest struggle for us. First of all, we are not big travellers and the thought of going that far away from home is a wee bit frightening to us...especially me! We have discussed many scenarios about who will travel... we have thought pretty seriously about all going, but we worry about the younger children traveling and the expense of 6 people traveling to China!