Our Jubilee

The date and time of meeting our daughter, Mei Jubilee (Li Li) is an unfolding mystery. We have been wondering and waiting for this little girl for two years now. I have grown weary of predicting a likely date. Our timeline has more than doubled since we began the adoption process. To my great surprise and God's loving hand, our hearts are large with hope that only grows with the waiting. A year ago it was not so. I couldn't help but watch friends and family members bring children into the world and wonder when our daughter would come. I had questioned her coming at all. But the reality is that she is coming. And it will set in as time grows closer to her being a part of our every day lives. It could be just right around the corner that our highly anticipated fourth member arrives. As our excitement grows, I can't help but share everything I know, since it's all I have about her. The first thing I want to say is that we have not been matched with a baby yet. Our "plan" was to wait and name her after we received her picture. But with the wait came the need to connect with the idea that we will have a daughter, and she is a real person we can pray for. That means there is no particular baby waiting for us...yet. But God knows her and at the right time will match us (we are currently in the matching room in China). We have requested a baby girl, as young as possible, so she is not waiting for us...yet. At the time we began our process, she had not even been conceived! I'm spending time listening to rumors on chinaadopttalk.com each day to track others' wait and come up with new guesstimates all the time. We are basically in line for a referral within the next 4 months and will travel to China two months after. Our desired travel time is before the end of the year, but the likely travel wait for our date (according to rumors) is January 2008. If you would like to follow along with us, feel free. Just click on Rumor Queen under our links to the side. The one thing I would like to try to explain and it will hopefully make sense is that we are a piece of "approved" paper in China with the date of December 5, 2005. The organization that does international adoptions (CCAA) has completed paperwork up through November 14, 2005. We are close on paper, but they are processing only 6-7 days per month. Each month referrals come out (the first week or so) and each time they do we are one step closer to our moment. Please pray with us as we are matched! She is growing in our hearts and is somewhere on the other side of the moon. I was thinking about that at the beach...that (if she happens to have a window in her orphanage or has ever seen the night sky) we see the same moon. And someday we will look up at the moon together. Selah.
In the picture above, Dodger is holding a Jubilee tomato. We planted these in the spring and are watching them grow. It seemed like forever, waiting for our tomato plants to produce fruit. But they arrived when they were ready. And they continue to be so so good. I can only imagine how perfect God's timing will be when he brings Jubilee home.

Summer Fun

We've had such a blast since school ended that my last post was in March when Dodger turned 6! Since then, we had atleast five Kindergarten parties, because none of us want it to end (including the adults). And many of the moms from Mrs. G's class just recently started to bond, so we've been having girls night outs of our own! Many of us in the former K class have been hit with physical ills this past year and it has brought our group together. By the end of the year, Mrs. G was e-mailing prayer requests to the entire class. And out of our struggles - and Little Hayden who was born TODAY and almost came too too early - a prayer group was birthed to pray for friends in need. The awesome thing about it is that we're all from different backgrounds and denominations but love the same Jesus and have so much color to add to the mix. Make new friends and keep the old...Dodger's exhausted from summertime. Poor dude. All he wants to do is lay on the couch and watch a pup named Scooby Doo. D-man finished up baseball in June and met some cool new friends. He went to Honi and Daddy D's on an airplane, FLYING SOLO, attended Pirate Camp with the Katie and Sam, and today he swam for the Seahawks and won 1st place in his heat for freestyle! I thought summer would be restful, but I guess I've never had a 6 year old before! I'm trying not to hyper-parent and over activate the guy but we're having so much fun. July should settle a bit, and we're going to the beach for the first time that he will be able to remember. He wrote a book in Kindergarten about a hypothetical trip in which he played at the beach making sand castles, ate snacks all day and took a nap under an umbrella. I'm looking forward to that kind of trip. When we come back I will have my next trip to consult with Dr. Waner at the Vascular Birthmark Institute in New York City! I finally have a diagnosis. I have a diagnosis, Finally. Finally! A diagnosis!!!