Art is enjoying watching Caleb read his new Bible. Amazing.
Caleb requested Hawaiian pizza for dinner tonight, much to Zach's excitement.
Art sent an email explaining some fun they had after dinner......
" I wanted to do something silly so I made a paper airplane from the
oversized paper place mat at the restaurant. Caleb was excited and started to fold his
own.We stepped out front of the restaurant and I let the first
plane fly. Zach was in shock and so were about 30 Chinese people walking by. Now I
started to chase my plane down. Caleb and Zach started throwing these huge oversized planes back and forth
outside, in front of the restaurant. We were cracking up.
There was a Chinese guy on a
bike who stopped and he could do nothing but smile at us. The boys were laughing so hard. Caleb was literally rolling
on the concrete laughing. We flew planes for about 40 minutes. People would walk
by with the most puzzled looks on their faces. We had old men walk by and smile. We had a young family walk by
with a big box of new toys for their one child. He could not keep his eyes
off of the simple air planes and three of us being nutty together. It was such a great and connecting time. I was thanking God."
On the home front ....
Friends have brought a couple of wonderful meals. A friend and hero young man came to mow our yard (thank you, Joshua!). A precious friend from out of the area sent pizza and a large shipment of yummy snacks for the kids. All of this has been an encouragement to us. Words are not enough to express our gratitude.
The big girls have been life savers. Bethany has had a couple of rough nights of sleep again. Allie and Mercy helped so Mama could take a nap today. We continue to juggle therapies and medical appointments. We are eager to be back together as a family. We cannot wait to share our lives and our love with Caleb. We are praising God for His grace upon grace in our lives.
There are so many incredibly difficult things about adoption. The loss and pain of adoption is unimaginable. There are so many conflicting feelings: joy in gaining a child, pain in their horrific losses and sometimes fear of all that is ahead. Most of all, we feel overwhelmed by the grace of God.........His clear leading in our lives- His provision through the body of Christ- His love for each one of us. There is great peace in knowing with confidence He has called us to this so He will be with us every step of the way.
Again and again God has used all of this to reveal to us our own lost condition and all that He did through the death & resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are reminded of how He has redeemed our broken lives and called us His own. He has shown us our own adoptions through Jesus.
14For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!" 16The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,… Romans 8:14-16
We are humbled, teary & so very thankful that He would allow us to walk this path and share His love with these precious children. We are filled with compassion for all they have been through and the healing that needs to take place. He ministers healing to us right along with them.
We have had a few people say we are amazing. It would break our hearts if you didn't acknowledge God with us. Our prayer is that you would see Jesus and all He has done to rescue our lives, our marriage and our family. He has changed everything. He is writing a beautiful story of redemption in our lives and in theirs. Please join us in acknowledging Him.
We are so grateful He has called us to walk this road. We are overwhelmed by His grace in our lives.
Thank you for praying for our family.
With love, Jen (&Art)
Prayer points:
- Caleb is very prone to motion sickness. There are major storms for next few days in Guangzhou & here in Arkansas. Praying for no turbulence & no sickie tummy for Caleb.
- Please pray for all the transitions we will have in the days/weeks ahead. We have learned a lot during the previous adoptions. Mostly.. that we need time to hunker down at home as a family and connect. Pray we can we wise, intentional, and intuitive parents.
- Would you pray specifically for Mercy as she re-connects with Caleb? She is nervous about speaking mandarin with him. We asked her if she was going to hug him. She insisted "NO!" and explained that "we don't hug in China!" Our sweet girl has a lot of excited, nervous emotions running through her.
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