baby dolls!

This in tonight, from Stacy in China via her orphanage visit:


OHHHH, I forgot one more thing...when I asked the director what is something Emma likes or would want her family to know she likes...check this out....she likes BABY DOLLS.  All I could think about was that precious baby doll you bought her :)  She said to tell you guys how special Emma is and how much the staff really loves her :)


Oh, the joy!
Ah, the growing pile to pack of dolls and doll clothes! :)


We just LOVE you, Emma Kate!

Manna. More than enough

Our beautiful Emma Kate

sparkly and beautiful girl!

Stacy, Paul and Solomon gave us the most amazing of gifts.  The photos are from a special part of their visit to their sweet son's orphanage.  While there, they took precious time out of their own experience to see, meet and spend time with Emma Kate.  

Stacy wrote to us about Emma.  These are words to treasure for us.  I feel like Mary, pondering these things in my heart!  Here is what Stacy and Paul say:

We had the awesome, beautiful privilege of meeting your beautiful girl!!!!  She is wonderful mama...absolutely wonderful!!!  It was nap time but they called her out of bed for us to meet her.  She came running out with a huge smile!!  The nannies and teachers said she is a very good girl...that she is very sweet and calm.  We told them that her new name will be Emma and they LOVE it!!!  She loved hearing that she had brothers and a sister.  They were telling her that you were coming very soon and that you love her and she was ALL SMILES!!!!!!!!! She knows you guys are coming and that made her sooooo happy!!!

Manna.  Surely more than enough.  Quite possibly more than my heart can hold.  

Knowing that she KNOWS, is such comfort.  Evidence of God's abundant provision for Emma and for us.  His ways really are perfect and true.  He has MORE than answered the cry of our hearts.  I am having a hard time conceiving of all that this means for Emma as she awaits us. Seeing her friend, Solomon, with his family, and learning what it means when a Mom and Dad come and are united with you.  Seeing Solomon so firmly attached to his Mom and Dad, Stacy and Paul, and learning how love does indeed take you in.  Solomon, Stacy writes in her blog, was very clear about going with them, not staying in the orphanage.  That, after only four days with them!  

I have to believe that for Emma to have time knowing we are coming soon, and readying her heart for that, is huge for her.   I know she is only five, but the gift of knowing and not being taken by surprise is such a blessing.  

YuXiao, our Little Jade, knows her name has grown.  She is also, and will also be, Emma.  This is profound for her to know this information already.  And to know that her caregivers are pleased with it, and will pass along their pleasure to her, is amazing.  Another piece of God's abundant provision and lovingkindness for His child.  Another way she can already begin to bond with us, even from afar.  Her heart tendered toward a family that already knows, loves and treasures her.

The adoption road is so marvelous.  Filled again and again with mighty works of God.  I really believe He delights in delighting us; and He gets to show off in the most beautiful ways through adoption.  Adoption is a  picture of what believers all experience when they come to Him.  We all are orphans.  And God calls us home.  To Him.  He Himself refers to what happens spiritually when we are adopted as heirs to the promise.  I am adopted, by the King.  I am a daughter of the Lord Most High.  I belong, because He says so.  I belong because Jesus was and is worthy.  Worth enough.  Blessed be His name.  Blessed be His name in all the earth.

Oh, Emma.  Our dear, sweet YuXiao.  How we long to meet you, to hold you in our arms, to sing over you and dance as on a day of festival.  How we are filled with awe and wonder by you.  Our hearts are full of such deep love.  We are mighty for you, and the Lord is mighty for you!  And we delight in you, just as He does so perfectly.  You are a treasure.  We would walk 5,000 miles to come to your door.  We will cross seas, complete reams of paperwork, wait endlessly, and persevere in the promise of you!  Soon, so very soon, we will see the Lord complete His promise to us.  Soon, so soon, we will all be together.  

The Lord is our strength AND our song.   Our provider.  And He puts the lonely in families.  How lonely our lives would be without you here amongst us.  Why?  Because WE belong together.

We belong together.

And we simply adore and love you.

From here to China and back again.

From here to anywhere you are.

We really are counting the days, Emma YuXiao.

Love forever and always, dear one,

Momma and Daddy

your sweet face

I cannot wait to see you. 

our life in photos....or not

We are making a photo album to send off to Emma Kate.

It will be filled with photos of family life, our home, her room and each family member along with captions translated into Chinese so Emma Kate knows who and what she is looking at.

Ann, at Red Thread China, is doing the translating and compiling them all into a book to send to Emma.

We have a problem: good photos.

We actually have a lot of great photos, but out of context they would most likely give Emma great anxiety about her future life with us.  They are not great because of the perfect composition, or incredible photography.  They are special because they are memories.  Of us.  Our family and the life we love sharing together.

So how do you take this

and explain that it is the annual Father's Day water fight.  And that everyone is actually having a ball!  Even the neighbors lined up to watch they thought it was so fun and funny.  

The end result 

That just looks weird if you don't know what it is we are doing.

And then there is this

the annual 4th of July haircuts on the deck.  Each year one of the boys seems to decide it is time for a major hair change.  Last year Jeb chose a buzz.  This year Cooper went from a flippy hairdo to a short, tight cut.  Very handsome.  

Not a photobook picture, though.  Just a great memory.

We also have a bevy of images like this:

because what is beach play without burying one of the big kids in a giant sand hole?  

Probably not super encouraging, however, for the joys of family life if you don't already know how fun this is.  Looks more like a punishment than a treat!

And there is always the 4th of July Olympics, family style.  

Those look like this:

Oh, yeah.  Your Daddy has a lot of hot air.  He came in second to Aunt Kiki for the biggest bubble this year.  A prestigious placement.  She's a pro!

Besides bubble blowing we also have the sport of the water balloon toss.  It looks like this:

Really.  It is fun.  I promise!  We really, really do like each other! 

It is especially joyful to recall the fun of this lake sport:

See how that ends? 

Our family loves to play all together.  I don't know how unique or how common that is.  I just know it is us.  And I'm grateful for it.  The time we spend enjoying one another, celebrating life and making memories is sweet.  And makes us who we are.  

The annual picture of the really tall guy on stilts in the cabin's beloved small town 4th of July parade makes us all smile.  I don't think Emma would quite "get it".  Uncle Sam is odd enough, never mind a 14 foot tall Sam.  And why are the kids all crouched over near the ground?  One word: candy.

How to explain the joy and splendor of sitting on the dock and seeing who can spit a cherry seed the farthest?

Doesn't work in words.  Or pictures really.  And cherry pits?  That's strange.  Not really, though.  Not when you know how hard it is to find a watermelon with seeds these days!

It's context, people!  Good exegesis of our life in pictures.  Not really translatable in a photo book.

Soon, though, she'll be home.  Here.  With us.

And then, it all becomes her story, too.  Her stories.  Her experiences.  Our shared joys and laughter.  Life lived well together.

Soon, all the photos will make sense.  And a photo book will become a place for memories, not introductions.

Until then, we will omit these pictures, and include ones that need no translation.  Ones like this:

Cousin party.  Family love on a walk in matching dresses.  

Emma Kate, you belong.  You are so loved and we await the day you are home forever and part of all our silly pictures that record the fabric of our family life.  

Love,

Momma

twinkling eyes and one big sparkling smile!

Our sunshine!

Oh, be still our hearts

beautiful

Loving Emma Kate

For good reason, joy is in our hearts

Sweet YuXiao

Loving friends at Believe in Me preschool