Package #3...and hopefully the last!

Sweet Xiao Jie,

I hope that you are doing well. I hope that we do not have to wait too much longer to come to China. I am so excited to meet you. I think about you every day. We have done our some of our last papers and we hope we will be there in November

We got some new pictures of you in a beautiful green dress. You looked just like a princess! We were told that you are called “flower”. I like that, because you are very pretty, just like a flower. It looks like you are growing tall. You’re brothers are very tall. You will love having them to hold you up high. You’re sister is very tiny. She loves to look at your picture. She always smiles when she looks at it. I think you will be very good at taking care of her. Do you like to play ball? Do you like to play with dolls? Your sister, Libi, likes those things very much.

We are sending you a pretty pink sweater to wear when it starts to get cool. When you wear it think that we will soon be in China and you will be with your family. We hope it will not be too cold before we get to come. We are also sending some balloons and chocolate for you to share with your friends there.

I want to share some more things with you about America that we may do different than China. In China, you use chopsticks to eat and we use a spoon, fork, and knife: inserted a picture for her
I had a hard time learning to use chopsticks. I think you will learn how to use a spoon and fork easily.

We take baths and showers here in America to get clean. I am not sure what you do to wash, but a bathtub is a big tub that holds water that you sit in and wash. This is your little sister’s favorite way to get clean. She loves to splash in the water and play with toys. It may seem scary to you at first if you have not taken a bath in a tub before, but I think you will like it.

You will have all new things to wear when we come. It may feel scary to leave all of your clothes and shoes that you have now. We want you to know that you are safe with us. We are your new family and we love you very much. We want to take care of you. We will help you when you feel afraid.

When we come to China it will be busy. We will have a lot of places to go and papers to sign so we can bring you home to the United States. Remember that you will need to hold our hand to stay close to us. We will have time for playing too. We will stay in a hotel. It is a building that has many rooms in it with beds. This is where we will sleep and play. In the mornings we will eat breakfast at the hotel in a large room. I am excited to find out what you like to eat.

The last thing I want to share with you is your American name. We have chosen the name Hadassah Hope Jie. We will call you Haddie. We know this will take some getting used to. When you are ready to use your new American name you can let us know.

There will be many things that will be new and strange to you. We will help you to learn. We are very excited and thankful that we get to be your family!
I love you,
Mama

Something happened to my camera and I have no pictures of this last package.

We sent Haddie some goodies for her to share with her friends, chocolate kisses, balloons, and Hubba Bubba bubble gum. There was an array of Hello Kitty goodies, a purse, a pink sweater and sparkly butterfly shirt. My most favorite thing in the package was a necklace that had a heart charm and another charm that had the word love on it. I could just picture that being placed around her tiny little neck. I wonder if there is any hair to sweep away to fasten it in the back. What does her hair feel like? What does her skin feel like? Can I tell you how anxious I am to be the one to put a necklace on my sweet little girl?

The great news is that all of our final US approvals are complete and now we await our TA (Travel Approval from China). Our hope is that we would travel at the beginning of November!

UNBELIEVABLE!!!!

Isaiah 55:10

"Though the mountains be shaken
and the hills be removed,
yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken
nor my covenant of peace be removed,"
says the LORD, who has compassion on you.

Thank you to all of you who lifted us up in prayer over the last 2 days. I cannot tell you how much it means. We have seen the Lord move in MIGHTY ways!

Let me back up a couple of weeks. We had quite a mess on our hands. There was a malfunction in our neighborhood sewage line that caused the sewer to back up into 6 houses in our neighborhood, ours being one of them. So imagine with me sewage water springing up through your drain for 3 hours and there is absolutely nothing that you can do, but pray for Jesus to make it stop!! We discovered that it is very possible that the majority of the expenses will fall into our laps. Faced with the very near travel to get our little Haddie, this added some financial stress.

Due to the MESS in our basement we had to haul everything up to our garage for the necessary clean up. I had been debating about having a garage sale to try to raise some more funds to cover our expenses. On Monday I found out that our neighborhood would be having a garage sale. SO...Thursday night, after finding out that we would soon be traveling to China I decided to go for it and have a small sale.

Crazy that the Lord enabled me to pull things together with the emotional stress of our approval error! Friday while having the sale I was trying desperately to get everything squared away with our approval that needed to be resubmitted. YES...I said resubmitted. We do have to resubmit and pay the fee. Praise the Lord the delay in our timeline will only be about 3 days...very minimal! Here is where it gets good!!!!!!

The additional fee would be $340.00. So, the Lord floods our basement, bringing up all of our "junk" to the garage at just the time there will be a neighborhood garage sale...I hope you are following me with this...so, our new application was sent overnight today and our sale finished, let me share some numbers with you:

Application fee: $340.00

FedEx cost: $25.64

Copies: $ 2.00

Total: $367.64

Garage Sale Profits: $367.65

Lord God,

How we praise You! How do I ever doubt the perfection of Your plan? You have once again blown us away by Your provision! We thank you and speak praises to Your Great Name, because You are the Deliverer and Provider of our precious Haddie Hope!

Join us in our rejoicing and praise...What an Awesome God we serve!

Call for PRAYER

I am asking anyone and everyone who will go before the Father to do so on behalf of the Arnold family for our sweet Haddie Hope Jie. It is becoming more clear to me that she is being batteled over. I KNOW that we do not battle against flesh and blood! We fight a very real enemy who does not want these little ones to be free from the chains the hold them as orphans.

Yesterday we received our LOA, our letter of acceptance from the China. It has been brought to our attention that there is an error on our approval from the US government. This error could be corrected, and a new approval issued tomorrow, or we may have to fill out another application and pay a fee and be delayed in going to get Haddie.

As always, we trust the plan of our Father. We also know that He desires to hear our hearts. Our hearts are that our sweet girl would not have to wait another day and that this approval would be sent tomorrow. Please join us in praying over the next 24 hours that the officer, Mr. Michael James, who will make this decision would extend the approval to us with no further paperwork or fees.

Thank you so much! It is so amazing to call upon this ARMY to pray!!

Ephesians 6

10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

LOA!!!!!!!!!!

Full of rejoicing and praises because the Lord has delivered that longed for piece of paper, our LOA, LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE from China. Today this paper arrives by the wonderful FedEx man and we will sign and overnight it back to China. There is another approval we need to receive, but things should run in a fairly timely manner. It looks like we will travel to China in November at this point. Please join us in praying toward that end. It has been a LONG wait for our Haddie Hope. I think of the first day that I laid eyes on her...March 16th, 2009! WOW, almost 6 months ago! We know that she will arrive home right on time, it is written! Praise the Lord it is written!!

1 Corinthians 2:9

"However, as it is written:
"No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love Him"