Oh, Happy Day! (and the Fedex mishap!)

Boy did I need a happy day!


I'll just start by saying that I've been feeling a whole new level of discouragement. Our daughter turned two last week, and something changed inside me. Since we got her referral, I had this unspoken ... afraid to hope ... crazy request that God would bring our LOA by her birthday. Again, I know that was kind of "out there" considering that this past Monday I was told to expect to wait a total of 100 days (for us that would be July 6).


When I got those pictures of her with her birthday cake, my heart just hurt that I am missing so much of her life. Suddenly I had an urge to finish her bedroom. The one that's been a glorified storage room since we moved Bryce out of it last fall. The one with the closed door to hide the mess. On Friday, I spent the entire day cleaning it out and decorating it. Then I could not rest until I pulled every article of girl clothing that might fit her out of my attic. I sorted, folded, washed, arranged. And there were two particular dresses I remember Rylee wearing that I could not find. I searched throughout the weekend and finally found the box they were in on Sunday night. I remember thinking it was like nesting ... way too early.


But God knew something I didn't. Thursday morning at 8:00 I got the call that our LOA (official letter of acceptance from China) was at the agency!!! I am still in shock, because it came more than 30 days before we were expecting it – just one week after her birthday! I really cannot overstate what a miracle this is. This is an excerpt from an email sent by our China coordinator ...

Well sometimes the Lord likes to really surprise us, doesn't He?! This

week we received LOA's for not only our final January family, but for our 
FEBRUARY AND MARCH families as well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  To say these
families were a *little* surprised is an understatement!!


This was something no one could have predicted – a crazy, afraid to hope for kind of thing! So I spent about two hours yesterday finishing the next set of paperwork that I thought I had another month to finish! 


This morning I woke up knowing this piece of paper we've waited 70 days for (not that I'm counting) was due to be delivered by Fedex TODAY!! However ... to make a long, long, excruciating story short ... Fedex delivered the envelope to the wrong house after which time I spent the better part of this day making calls, checking email, staring at the street from my front porch while eating an entire box of junior mints for lunch, and crying buckets as I wondered how the Chinese would feel about my having lost my LOA. Yep, kind of irrational. 


And then ...

So it IS a happy day! She is OURS!! The next step will be to apply for visas and await a travel date (which could still be 8 - 10 weeks out). But we're getting closer. And she's ours. PRAISE GOD!