Waiting with HOPE

I have been resting in the TRUTHS of the Psalm below. It is not always easy to WAIT.

We have had a few "hitches" in our paperwork process.

We still do not have our paperwork in China yet.

Just when I think something is taking too long or it hasn't gone smoothly. I am reminded that it is all right on time. I believe and trust that my sweet little Haddie will not wait one moment past the time she is to be united with her family.

It is not hard for me to believe that God's time is always perfect down to the second. I have seen it and KNOW it to be true. It is just hard to wait on it. Does that make sense?

I recently learned in Beth Moore's study on Esther that if we didn't long for what we were waiting for, it would just be the passing of time. That longing piece of waiting is what makes it waiting. SO...our HOPE is in God and we trust that we will soon post with a LID (log in date). That will be the date that all of our papers are done and in China. Then...we wait! :) It will take about 3-5 months from there before we will leave for China to get our Haddie Hope and bring her home.

Psalm 146
1 Praise the Lord!

Let all that I am praise the Lord.
2 I will praise the Lord as long as I live.
I will sing praises to my God with my dying breath.

3 Don’t put your confidence in powerful people;
there is no help for you there.
4 When they breathe their last, they return to the earth,
and all their plans die with them.
5 But joyful are those who have the God of Israel as their helper,
whose hope is in the Lord their God.
6 He made heaven and earth,
the sea, and everything in them.
He keeps every promise forever.
7 He gives justice to the oppressed
and food to the hungry.
The Lord frees the prisoners.
8 The Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are weighed down.
The Lord loves the godly.
9 The Lord protects the foreigners among us.
He cares for the orphans and widows,
but he frustrates the plans of the wicked.

10 The Lord will reign forever.
He will be your God, O Jerusalem, throughout the generations.

Praise the Lord!

There are things that happen that make that longing in my heart grow stronger, like seeing a little Asian face that is about the age of Haddie, or putting something away in her room for her. There are also those gifts that God sends in such loving timing. I received one of these gifts last week. I caught a glimpse of our Haddie in a picture on a blog. You know what I love most about this picture? I love her shoes and tiara! Look at those. Those are girly shoes if I ever saw them! These are the same items she had on in the pictures we received in our referral packet. I love that she has something so girly that she can put on and feel like the princess that she is! What a gift!

Party of 7

On this Mother's Day it is bitter sweet. I have 2 daughters in other parts of the world today.

My sweet little Ariadna. Some of you know this our foster daughter that we were blessed with for a year and half. She will forever be a part of our hearts and family.

Then, there is our sweet little Haddie Hope Jie. How I long to kiss her precious face and tell her how blessed I am to be her mama. For now, I am her mama from afar.

I was given such a priceless gift last week. We were sent pictures of Haddie by a family who traveled to her orphanage to adopt their son in 2006. Haddie is 3 in these pictures and these may very well be the only "baby" pictures we will have of her. To have a glimpse into what she looked like at this precious young age means so much to me! Age 3 is one of my very favorite years. I am so thankful that the Lord blessed us with this gift. Feel free to tell me how adorable you think she is...I won't mind! :)

Celebrating you, my sweet little Haddie and the gift to be your mama and I hold on to the HOPE of you being home with us next Mother's Day!

Garage Sale for Haddie!

We had a garage sale this last weekend to raise funds for our adoption of Haddie. What an amazing weekend it was! We received so many donations. It took an entire week to mark items and put them out. We didn't even have room for everything and were still putting things out on Saturday. The moment I began to tape up the posters of my little Haddie Hope the emotion got me. This was like our first big celebration of this little girl, my daughter. It was so wonderful to share about her with others throughout the weekend. It was AMAZING to hear how adoption had touched the lives of so many other people. That is what became overwhelming. The hearts of people that were so passionate about adoption and passionate about one little girl, Haddie Hope. This generosity was stirred by the hand of our Father and poured out through people. The total amount raised, just over $2,500!

The blessing received...PRICELESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A heartfelt THANK YOU to all of you who came out and purchased, donated and gave. You have joined in the rescue mission of Haddie Hope Jie Arnold and her family is so very grateful for you!

another glimpse of our beautiful girl!

Really the closest zoom without it getting too blurry.

My dear friend, has gotten me connected to so many amazing yahoo groups. (Thanks Christy!)One of those being a group for Haddie's orphanage, XinXiang. Last night Brad and I combed through posts and pics of others who have children in the same orphanage or have already brought their children home. We came across this ONE little snapshot of our little angel eating lunch. Brad picked her out right away! He has an eye for his girls!! This photo was taken on February 3rd.

I was struck by several things in this one little photo. It seems that she may be the only girl. It is hard to tell sometimes. The child on the end in the purple...maybe??? Then there are the humble surroundings. It is so sickening to think of all that I have, and yet, I think that I NEED more!

Brad and I spent some time just going to several different sights of "waiting children" in the Henan Province, which is where Haddie is. I truly do not think anyone could have sat with us and not been moved to tears looking at all the faces of these children. Some of them with mild disabilities and some severely challenged. Their eyes carried such a deep sadness that is truly haunting. It is really difficult to handle, but yet I find myself not able to stop looking at them. I pray over their little faces and plead with the Father to bring them HOPE! Why is it that these little ones must live in such broken, hopelessness?

I see You, Father, on the move in the hearts of Your people to care for the lost lives of the orphan. I place my HOPE for them in YOU today knowing that you will continue to MOVE, because you are RESCUER and RESTORER of all that is captive and broken.

Haddie's first care package - letter #1

What emotion is stirred up in this mama's heart. I was able to get Haddie's care package in the mail to her today. It was hard to cram so much stuff into such a little box. How I wish we could have just stuffed ourselves inside of it. Brad's advice to me was to keep it simple and not overwhelm her. Now, I ask you, how am I supposed to do that?

Contents:

*Copy of our approval from China

*Letter to the Director of her orphanage

*Letter to Haddie

*Book of photos of her new family

*Tiara

*Pretty Pink Dress

*Red Heart outfit

*Heart Bracelet and Necklace

*Hair Clips

*Disposable Camera

*Stickers, Balloons, and Candy for her to share

I just keep wondering what she is going to think and feel when she opens that box. How I wish I could be there. I am so thankful that we are the ones who get to prepare a package to let her know of this change that is about to come to her sweet little life. Can you imagine being 6 years old and finding out that there is a family who is going to adopt you??? Will she understand? Will she be scared? Will she be happy? I am so thankful that we are the ones who get to prepare a package to let her know of this change that is about to come to her sweet little life.

As I prepared to send this God brought along mom "seasoned" in adoption. She has recently brought home her own 6 year old daughter from China. She shared with me letters that she had written to her daughter, sharing all about their life, that would soon be HER life. I am including letter #1 below.

Thank you to each one who have joined us in this new journey to Haddie Hope. Your advice, support, and prayers are so valued!

Dear Zhu Xiao Jie,

We are so excited to write this letter to you. We have learned lots of things about you. We have learned that you are a very bright and sweet girl that has a lot of energy. We have seen pictures of you. You are very beautiful! This may seem strange to you, since you do not know anything about who we are. We are very happy, because we have the joy of being your new family. That is right, sweet Zhu Xiao Jie, you have a family. We live in the United States of America. That is where your home with us will be.

You have three older brothers. Jacob is 14 and likes to play basketball. Joel is 12 and enjoys playing outside. Jack is 10 and he likes to build and draw. You have a little sister, Libi Faith Jia Qi, who is 3 and she was also born in China.

We have a lot of paperwork to get done before we come to China. We hope that we will have it done in the fall before winter. Then we can come to China to adopt you.

We are so happy that you are our daughter. We will keep writing to you to tell you about us. We hope that you enjoy the things that we sent you. Share the candy and stickers with your friends.

We love you!
Daddy, Brad

Momma, Amy

Big Brother Jacob

Big Brother, Joel
Big Brother, Jack

Little Sister, Libi Faith Jia Qi

What we know about Haddie Hope

She was born on January 10th, 2003

She is 45 inches and 40 pounds.

She knows her shapes, letters and numbers.

She can write her name.
In Chinese, of course!

She is:
Active
Energetic
Talkative
Extroverted

Knows that a "chicken can swim" is wrong.

( Of all of the things I want to know about Haddie, this is SO important)

Likes to sing and listen to music.

Enjoys books.

Gets along well with others.

She is close to her caretaker and other children.

We hope that she has a special bond with one of her nannies.

What we know about our Haddie is so limited. Yet, it satisfies me somehow. As I read through the information we have I imagine her here with us. What she will enjoy doing and playing. What are her hopes and dreams.

We are so thankful for what we have learned about her so far, and hope to learn more over the months to come. We will be putting together her care package over the weekend and hope to mail it on Monday. She has no idea that she has a family! What an awesome gift to mail to a 6 year old princess!! You know this mama will be crying at the Post Office on Monday!

Fingerprint furstration!

Well, we have hit our first "bump". Our hope and prayer has been to get all of our paperwork together and have it to China by the end of April. We are still trusting the Lord to make this a reality.

Some of you know that fingerprints are a huge part of the approval process in international adoption. This becomes a HUGE problem when you don't have fingerprints! I keep telling Brad that we need a cleaning lady so I can "restore" my prints. Anyway, yesterday I got very excited to see a letter in the mailbox from the United States Department of Homeland Security. That excitement soon dissipated when I discovered it was not the approval we were hoping for, but a call back for more prints! Oh MY!!! Are you serious? Do they not have my file flagged by now as the "printless mama"?

So, I was a bit disappointed. I am set for an appointment to be reprinted in 2 weeks. Then, I thought it would take another month to get our approval...well, THEN GOD. God led me to the contact who is responsible for generating our approval. They gave me a couple of suggestions, but all of them resulting in us having our approval by the 27th of April. Praise you God! We may not have everything to China until the beginning of May, but we have learned through many journeys with our Savior that He is always PERFECTLY on time.

With that said, He "wowed" me with this truth about Himself. Just one hour after the disappointment of not receiving our US approval, we found out that we received our China approval! Basically in this approval from China they say, YES, we find you are a good family for this girl. One approval postponed, one given. So, I can give some more details about our daughter and more pics. We also can send her a package letting her know that we are her FAMILY and we are coming to get her to bring her HOME! Coming soon in another post.

As I am desperately hoping for my Haddie and for Spring to come, I am reminded of New Life. I am especially reminded of New Life with Easter just 3 days away. It was the work of my Jesus on the cross that rescued me and gave me New Life. This marvelous work made a way for me to be adopted, with all of my special needs, a daughter, a princess of THE MOST ROYAL FAMILY!

May your Easter be one of rejoicing over the great redeeming work of God through His Son Jesus.