Saturday, April 28, 2012

And Leah makes three.....

By God's grace and for His glory, here we grow again! We're packing for China and in a little over a week will get to kiss this beautiful face. Can't wait to hold her tight and tell her how much we love her. We have all of our normal pre-trip jitters - me about flying, Ralph about making sure all of our electronic devices will work properly.....the kids are rollin' with it all, just looking forward to meeting their sister. Well, Josh is also a little concerned that they might not have hot dogs in China. We're headed straight for something amazing.....our adoption of little Leah Hope. Despite having been through this twice before, we're still in awe of God's amazing ways. We have been blessed beyond measure and can't believe we are standing here, on the brink of our third (and for those of you who might be wondering, last) adoption journey. We continue to pray that Leah's transition to our family will not be too difficult. It will be a big adjustment for all of us, but this precious little girl, our daughter, is about to have her entire life turned upside-down. Sometimes, in our excitement that she is joining our family, it is hard to remember what that means for her. It is going to be a completely new world....new sights, new smells, a new language, new foods. And while many will say, and we agree, it is a better world for her, it is different. And different is scary for a 3-year-old. She didn't choose this life. Unfortunately, she is joining our family as a result of someone's else's choice. Poor choice or wise, it left little Shun Mu Yi (her Chinese name) without a family to love her, hug and kiss her, teach her right from wrong and show her all of the wonderful things this world has to offer. And this is where we feel honored that our desire for another child was met with her need for us. If you're checking out our blog, thank you :) We are humbled to have others care enough to share in our journey. We'll try to post daily and include lots of photos!