We're Off

Wow, the time has finally come! We are leaving this Wednesday to get Maeve! Please pray for safety as we travel and for little Maeve as her world is about to be turned upside down- also pray for Ella and Aidan, as we will be apart from them for 2 weeks. We are going to miss them more than I can express. And prayers for our parents who will be watching them for while we're gone! We are so thankful they are able to be with our kids!

Here's our itinerary:

July 24th- leave Chicago
July 25th- arrive Beijing, spend three days in Beijing (Great wall of China, Forbidden City, Tienanmen Square, and other sights!)
July 28th- leave Beijing and take bullet train to Jinan
July 29th- Gotcha Day- the day we meet Maeve! Spend time in her province and visit her orphanage and lots of paperwork!
Aug 1st- Tristan's Birthday! and flight to Guangzhou
August 2nd-6th- Medical appointment for Maeve, Visa paperwork, and some sightseeing in Guangzhou
Aug 7th- Drive to HongKong, spend the night and fly home!
Aug 8th- arrive home!!!!! A family of six!

We started our adoption journey in '06 and have been blown away by God's faithfulness and love as we have muddled through millions of form and moments when we wondered if this would ever happen. We are thankful to our family and friends who have supported us and encouraged us throughout this process and we can't wait to one day (soon!) introduce you to our new little girl!

We will be posting pics on the blog when we're in China!

Maeve Update!

Yay!!! We we surprised today with some new photos, a video, and updated information! She is healthy and happy and we CAN'T WAIT to get her! We leave in three weeks- Maeve, here we come! Please pray for us as we leave Chicago on the 24th and return on Aug 8th. 

Maeve

We've decided on a name.... Maeve LongBing Contant! Maeve is an old Irish name which means "the cause of great joy," which she already is to our family! We are not totally sure what LongBing means, but Hazel thinks it has something to do with ice, which doesn't surprise me because I think Maeve has  ice blue eyes! We picked Maeve not only for the meaning, but because it can be shortened to Mei-Mei, which means "little sister." We can't wait to get her home!! The time seems to be dragging on, but we are trusting in God's timing and trying not to become consumed with things that are out of our control.

We have been so blessed to get some updated pictures of our little girl. A friend traveled a few weeks ago to adopt their little boy from the same orphanage. She was able to bring a package from us for Maeve and also take some pictures of her- what a treat, but boy does it make it even harder to wait.

This is one of the precious women who is caring for our daughter.

I cannot begin to explain how thankful I am for the love she is showing to Maeve.

My friend said the flash on her camera made Maeve's eyes water!

Look at this lovely group! 

We are moving forward with our paperwork, slowly, but surely. Please pray for continued health and protection for our little girl, pray for paperwork to be processed quickly, and pray for us to rest in God's timing in all areas of this waiting period.

Introducing.....

After a long seven year wait, we are thrilled to introduce you to our new daughter, Zhao LongBing! She is 13 months old and currently living in Jinan City, China! We are hoping to travel to China in June to bring her home!

Our adoption process has not been without its struggles, but through it all we have been cared for by a loving, faithful, and patient God, who is the Giver of amazing gifts. We wanted this adoption to move in our timing (foolish, us), but had it happened when we wanted it to, we would have missed out on this most precious little girl who is coming into our family at just the right time.

We are beyond thrilled and can't wait to get our hands on those adorable chubby cheeks.

God is good and we are humbled by His faithfulness and mercy to us.

New Beginnings

I've received a lot of e-mails and FB messages asking where our family is.... so here's the story.

First, I want to say that this is really not our story, but a story of God's goodness and grace to our family. We are blown away by His faithfulness to us and by the people and circumstances that God put in our path to help us grow and mature.

As many of you know, we moved to Canada last August after John accepted a teaching job in Chilliwack. Our family was not excited about this move- it was made simply because neither John or I could find jobs in the Chicago area and we desperately needed employment. So, with heals dragging and hearts very heavy we packed up and made the big move across country.

If I am going to be completely honest (which I am!), the past year was really difficult for our family. There was a lot of things we weren't prepared for, but I don't want to focus on that part of our year. I do want to share though, what, in hindsight, is amazingly clear. God has been, and continues to be, so good, so patient, and so faithful to us.

We are completely humbled when we look back and remember the people God placed in our lives while we were in Chilliwack. We were surrounded by people who cared about us, prayed for us, supported us through our tears and frustrations, and truly were the hands and feet of God. We are thankful and can see how God used these people to walk with us through the past year.

Tristan was blessed with a friend immediately upon our arrival. We prayed for a friend for him and he met a boy who became "one of the fam." This was a huge answer to prayer and Tristan saw how God can and does work in all circumstances.

Ella also was surrounded by friends who helped make a difficult transition more "doable." There are two girls who come to my mind when I think of the girls who were a huge part of her life. Her "twin" at the gym, a classmate from school, and a friend across the street made life so much more enjoyable and fun. John and I are grateful for God's faithfulness to Ella.

Aidan just kind of hung out with me :) He did ask about our "white house," once in awhile, but he didn't have any problems adjusting. He met two little boys on our street and loved to play with them.

John met some amazing men too. They were patient and listened and supported him this past year. He is so thankful for the guys who were part of his life.

And for me... I will be honest and say that I had a bad attitude about our move, and pretty much about everything. I really didn't want to leave home and I certainly didn't feel like I had the energy to make new friends, nor did I feel like I had anything to offer in friendship. God, and the women he placed in my life, saw past all this. I had women come along side me and hold me up when I could barely stand. I am thankful for each of these women and know that I could not have made it without them in my life.

We were also thankful for the opportunity we had to be closer to John's parents. The kids got to spend time with their grandparents in ways that they hadn't been able to in the past. I am remembering special times at Crescent Beach together... good memories.

So, fastforward to this fall. We are back in Elmhurst with a new direction and a new chapter in our lives. The way we got here is nothing short of a miracle.

We left Chilliwack in late July for a trip to visit my parents and our friends in IL (and to stuff ourselves with all the good food we missed! ...Portillos, Red Dragon, and Giordano's!) While we were home John interviewed for a job in WI (landscape company he used to work for). We waited three weeks to hear back from them, which at the time was VERY stressful. We were counting on this job coming through... counting on it so much that we had packed up most of our house before we left Chilliwack and purchased one way tickets home.

So, as the wait stretched on, we became more urgent in our prayers and the phrase "bashing on the doors of heaven" became very real. Constant prayers from family and friends are what kept us moving forward and not laying down and giving up.

So, while we were waiting on the job that we thought was the answer, God had other plans for us. While we were visiting friends in Elmhurst a friend of our family asked John if he wanted to interview at his company downtown. At that point, we thought... why not. He interviewed for the job and we continued to wait.

With two job possibilities on the horizon, we were pretty confident that we would be moving back to the Midwest. So, John headed back to B.C. to get our things (along with help from my uncle, who, for the record, has moved us twice across the country in 12 months time....thank you Gomer) and drove back to the Midwest. At the time he was driving across country, we still didn't have a final destination, which looking back is CRAZY! But we also knew that God had been faithful to us in the past and we had no reason to doubt His faithfulness now. (This didn't always look pretty, though. There were many tears and questioning, but God never let go.)

To make a very long story short... John was offered the job in Chicago and he accepted it! It's a wonderful job that incorporates his talents as a teacher and his love for interacting with people. He is thrilled with this opportunity and excited by possibilities it presents.

This past year I remember thinking, Why...why does our family have to go through all these difficult things? Isn't it time for some "easy?" I know now (and really I did at the time, too) that God wasn't doing things to our family because He lost interest in us or didn't love us anymore. He was drawing us closer to Himself, teaching us to trust Him more, depend on Him for every need. This process of growth was painful- it really brought us to our knees many many times. It shook us to the core and forced us to really evaluate in what and whom we place our trust.

I remember saying to a friend... at the end of this chapter in our lives all I want is for our family, and those who know us, to see how good, how faithful, and how loving God has been. I want the things that were ugly, painful, and difficult to be used to bring honor and glory to God.

Our family truly has been given a second chance, a new beginning and an opportunity to move in a new direction. We are so thankful for the people and situations that have shaped us over these past few years. We are happy, though, to close the chapter of unemployment and unrest and move into a new chapter.

There's a lot more to the story (like how we got in our new rental place and my new job!) that I'll save for another time!

God has done great things in our lives and we are thankful and give all glory to Him.

the 4th of July.. Stateside

We spent a wonderful weekend in Seattle with our friends, Matt & Gail.

It was so good to be with them and celebrate the 4th of July together!

Everyone had to have a flag for the parade!

Alki Beach

Delta Invite

Ella competed in her second meet this morning- yes, they scheduled it on Mother's Day :) We had fun watching her and seeing the new things she's learned since her first meet a few months ago. Ella isn't afraid to go for it, which you'll see in the bars routine. She's been working on the fly away dismount, which hasn't been easy. The landing isn't pretty, but she tried and we're proud of her! And, yes, being at my daughter's meet on Mother's Day is a present in itself!