Yippee! at last my article 5 is complete. It went in on February 5th and took 23 days to be completed! Why so long when the standard time is 14 days? Well, Chinese New Year fell during my time and everything shut down for a long time frame :(

Now it is a race against the clock for my TA. You see TAs take 3-4 weeks to receive and the actual travel takes place around 2 weeks after that. Again big bummer, if everything goes until the end of each time frame I will receive TA around March 28th and travel around April 11th. Well, guess what happens in April in Guangzhou China? The Trade Fair. It is a super huge event and brings in thousands of people from all over the world and essentially shuts or stalls down many things. It also triples the rate of hotels and airlines and such. Oh my. Most people in the adoption realm choose to hold off and wait until the Trade Fair is over to avoid the increase in cost and extra crowd. Unfortunately the Trade Fair is a 3 week event and will not be over until May 5th sigh.........

How can I make a decision to wait another 3 weeks to bring my beautiful little Blossom home?  Now, I have done some research on this and have found out that many people have received TAs in a much shorter time than 3-4 weeks. I see people are getting them in roughly 14 days and traveling two weeks after this. If this should work out for me then here is my time line. TA around April 11th and travel around April 25th. I like this time line a whole lot better. I would love it if everyone can pray and ask the Lord to allow this to happen if it is his will. It would sure be a blessing on our family and Blossom.

Well, what blog entry is complete without some new pictures of my little Blossom? I received these the other day and she just brightens my life and I am chomping at the bit to bring her home! Seems a group of people I do not know went on a mission trip and took this video and snapped a few pics of Blossom. 

Wearing the tiara that this family brought for Blossom. She loved it!

Final update picture of Blossom from my agency. Awe she lost another tooth without me.

Blossoms final update measurements are: height 38 inches, weight 23 pounds, chest 19 inches, and foot 5 inches. 

Here is the video that I was talking about. Click on the link and you will go to it on you tube.

 http://youtu.be/X5aqKOKrDuQ

High Heels & The Homeless

I bet you are wondering how shopping for high heel shoes can help the homeless. Let me go back a few days and fill you in. My daughter Jessica was invited to attend the Winter Formal. Along with the Winter Formal comes a new dress and of course new high heels. So, a few nights ago we went out shopping and found the perfect dress but could not find the shoes. Another shopping trip for the shoes landed us at Pay less Shoe Source. Now Jessica is not one to go shopping. She is defiantly one I would rank as go in, get what you need, and get out. No browsing allowed just straight to the point. Unless it is shoes. She loves to shop for shoes. She can try on pair after pair. Need-lees to say this is not something I tend to spend a great deal of time shopping for. So after browsing around and trying on a few pairs myself I just sat and waited for her to finish up.

I about broke my neck walking around the store wearing these things.

I sat there mindlessly staring off into space when I noticed a box with a $3.00 label on them. I reached down and grabbed the tennis shoes from the rack. At first I was thinking cool I can pick these up for my daughter Erica and even if she turns out not to like them they did not cost much. Then another thought crossed my mind. Our Church has a homeless ministry. Once a month they hand out personal size  toiletries to our homeless community. They will also hand out clothing, blankets and books when they have them available. So I tell my son Nathan "will you grab all of those shoes right there and take them up front?" I fill Jessica and Nathan in on what I am doing and together we collect 15 pairs of $3.00 tennis shoes.

I brought the shoes home and gave 1 pair to Erica. She said "look at what the tag says." 

I love it!

I am taking this little note tag  a a confirmation I am doing what the Lord would have me to do. Not only do I bring home 15 pairs of $3.00 shoes and a beautiful pair of high heels for Jessica the shoes that day were buy one pair get the other 50% off. So in reality half of the shoes were only $1.50!!!  How much cooler can you get Lord. I walked out of the store paying $51.00 for 16 pairs of shoes!!!!! The Lord is so good.

Now, onto Jessica and the Winter Formal. Here is some pictures of her beautiful shoes.

And like I said earlier along with the Winter Formal come a new dress and shoes. Here is my beautiful Jessica with her new dress and shoes.

What photo shoot would be complete without the................................. 

"Come on, we could be done by now."

"Will you just smile?"  "How's this?"  "Perfect."

No, No, No, that's not right."

"If you don't stop, I am going to send this to Grandma!"

  

Two of the most beautiful young ladies I know

But my all time favorite picture of the evening is...........................................

Yes, that's right, getting the  "thank you mom" kiss is the best part of all!

Thank you Lord for my beautiful Jessica.

     

Paid In Full

Paid In Full. This statement brings many emotions to my mind. Jesus dying on a cross to pay for my sins is one major thought. To this day I can not take communion without crying. I can not sit through a reenactment of His death. I have no way of comprehending the full magnitude of Christ willingly walking to his death. Being ridiculed, stripped, spit upon, and beat on along the way to be nailed and hang until death for sin I would commit in my life time. For the sins you would commit in your lifetime. He did this willingly because He loves me. He loves you. He created each of us. He knew we would fail Him at times and yet He still loves us. This is so amazing to me. I am continuously thanking Him for His sacrifice. I know I would never spend eternity with Jesus if He had not PAID IN FULL for my sin. Thank you Lord. I love this song and can never get through it without crying and just being so thankful to Jesus. I remember singing this as a child in church. It has changed a little over the years but it is still just the most awesome song.

I know many of you already have a relationship with Jesus, but some of you may not know Jesus as your Savior  He is the one who PAID IT ALL for you. If you want to learn about who Jesus is let me know. I would love to talk and pray with you.

The term PAID IN FULL brought on another emotion to me  last Thursday. Blossoms adoption through many, many, many, many,  people who have listened to the Lord has been PAID IN FULL!!!!!!! I am just so , so , so grateful to all of you who have blessed this adoption. So many warriors have prayed and prayed until they had callus's on their knees asking the Lord to bring Blossom home. Jesus listened to every one's pleas including my own. And because of your prayers and people listening to the Lord I have all my fees paid. I am again amazed on how the Lord has perfect timing. Did I always think this way? Yes  No, I had many times where I would think and ask God "what are we doing here Lord?"  I have laid this adoption at the feet of Jesus and left it there  and taken it back so many times it borders on being ridiculous. I have had my faith tested and stretched and retested again. I have had joy and excitement through out this process that I have never felt in my life. I have had the most opportunity ever to share what the Lord is doing for my family. It has not been easy at all, but I would not trade it for anything. I am going to China and bringing Blossom home. The only thing now is just waiting for all the paperwork to go through the right channels and then off we go. Thank you Thank you Thank you a million times Thank you!!!!!!!

Blossom celebrated her 7th birthday in China and here are a couple pics and video of her special day. A big thank you to a friend who shared this day with Blossom. Thanks!!!