Elianna Update #1

Our application for the adoption agency was mailed Wednesday, May 24. We received email confirmation of its arrival the very next day. Today (May 27) we received the information for the next steps in the process: dossier and home study. I hope we won't get too frustrated with the paperwork!

Our neighbors who have 3 little girls from China gave us a huge box of baby clothes. Everything is starting to seem so real!

"Life's Scars"

If ever someone has been broken and fixed
I think it would be I.
And lo, and behold, I figured out
The answer to my “Why?”

Sometimes God must let us fall
And feel Life’s harshest wrath,
Only then can we arise
To walk straighter on His path.

To others I might seem to be
Someone whose life is marred,
But God sees me as clean and new,
Not as someone scarred.

by Kathy Mansfield
© 2005

Horror Movie or Real Life?

I just talked to my oldest and dearest friend from back home whose husband broke his thigh bone last week. He had to have major surgery to repair it. When he woke up, his wife noticed that his foot was turned in the wrong direction! The doctors are going back into surgery again this week to reset the leg and try to put it back with the foot facing the right direction. Can you believe it? Even the physical therapist and other folks who were in and out of the room noticed it. We're talking about 40 degrees in the wrong direction here, yet my friend was the one who had to point out the fiasco to the doctor! Talk about scary . . .

What I'm Reading Right Now

LOST DAUGHTERS OF CHINA by Karin Evans (to prepare for Elianna -- see post below)
AUGUSTINE FOR ARMCHAIR THEOLOGIANS by Stephen A. Cooper (to prepare for theological discussions with my husband)

Elianna

Elianna. Hebrew meaning: "God answers." Significance? God has answered our prayers for a little girl. We are in the process of completing the initial paperwork to adopt a baby girl from China! My husband and I have struggled with infertility issues since 1993. Wow, has it actually been 13 years? Well, the wait was worth it, because God had Elianna planned for us from the start. She may not even be born, yet, but I know she is the perfect little girl for us.

I look forward to sharing our journey with you through this blog.

Isaiah 54:1

Where Have I Been?

My new start with this blog has not gone too well, it seems. Does life ever get this busy for other folks? I've spent practically every evening/night after work for the past 3 weeks meeting with a committee to choose a new principal for our school. Well, that is a done deal now, so now maybe I can get on with my own life . . .