Oh, what a day!

Today has been a looooooooooong day. Sundays usually are long for us, since both Greg and I serve in our church in our tech team, and we are usually there for all three services and rehearsal before the first service. We are usually up around 6:15, get to church by 7:20, leave by 2, home around 2:30, (If we don't have to stop for groceries, lunch, or gas,) then we leave for small group between 4:45-5, depending on who is hosting it, and get back home between 8:30 and 9:15. And I wouldn't change a single second of it. It is time spent with Godly people, in God's house, and doing God's work. I am blessed to be able to be part of our church and the work it is doing in our community. Today should have gone pretty much according to schedule, except that immediately after church, our small group was hosting a bridal shower, for which I was responsible for making the cake. We do this occasionally, and do it in place of our regular small group evening meetings. Next weekend I thought was a baby shower for a good friend of mine, that was going to be hosted here, at our home on Sunday at 3. I was responsible for making mini margarita cheesecake bites,  punch, and the cake. WELL, as crazy a week as this has been can you see where I'm going with this? Yep. You are correct. The baby shower was actually TODAY at my house. I found this out just before 9 this morning. In full panic mode, I threw the fresh flowers into the 2 tiered, "wedding" style bridal shower cake, grabbed my stuff and ran out the back door! I came home to a messy house, messier kitchen, and table COVERED up with all my sewing and quilting projects. Thank goodness my Mom was able to come down and help me tidy up while I rushed around throwing cake into the oven, making icing, punch, and mini margarita bites! Oh, I also had to wrap the gift! I didn't get a chance to take a picture of the bridal shower cake, but if I can get my hands on one, I'll try to upload it this week. Here is a picture of the baby shower one. There were also 2 dozen mini cupcakes to go with it.

It's a baby carriage and says welcome baby Xzavier! The shower here went off without a hitch. Trista received some really nice gifts and everyone had a lot of fun playing games, and chowing down on baked ham and cheese sliders, meatballs, Velveeta and sausage rotel and chips, chocolate covered pretzels, and mini Ritz bites covered in white chocolate, along with the goodies I made. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend the bridal shower, but I hear that she got some very nice things, and that everyone enjoyed the cake.

That was plenty of excitement for one day, BUT WAIT...the real excitement came in the form of a call I made to the Consulate's office in China tonight, where I found out that they had RECEIVED OUR PAPERWORK!!! She said we should hear soon on our Article 5, which is the second to last thing we will receive before we LEAVE FOR CHINA!!!  Once we get our Article 5, we will have an approximate wait of 2-4 weeks to get out TA, or travel approval from China, and that is when we will book flights and go get our daughter! Once we receive our TA, we can expect to travel approximately 1-3 weeks, usually 10 days to 2 weeks, from the day it comes in. That means that we could leave in as little as 3 weeks! THREE WEEKS! In less than 4 weeks I could be holding my daughter in my arms! Now, this is not really a probable timeline, we are looking more into the 4-5 weeks minimum before we leave, BUT, it could happen. I can't believe the range of emotions we've been through this weekend. All I can say is that God is good. He is faithful. He is my strength, my salvation, my life, and I will forever be grateful for the sacrifice of His Son for me. The freedom of salvation is such an immensely powerful thing. I may not know all the answers, but I do know this, there is a REAL power you feel when you become close to God. You can hear His answers to your prayers, feel His support. I am so unworthy of the love and the sacrifice, but so, so grateful! I thank Him for choosing this path for us, and for faithfully helping us to endure the tough times, always bring us through to the better times. Please join me this week in praying for two things. 1. Pray that our paperwork goes through the proper channels now, and that we are issued our Article 5. 2. Please pray for the daughter of a new friend, who had a seizure recently. They found a lesion on her brain, that was likely due to abuse she suffered in-utero. Lilli was also adopted from China, and this is not an uncommon find in these children. If a woman is pregnant, and the family, or husband doesn't want her to be, they will physically abuse the woman attempting to make her abort the baby. The family is asking that we all join in prayer for God to remove this scar from their daughter and heal her completely. Her name is Lilli, and she is the youngest daughter of the family whom I mentioned in my last blog post who just adopted  Iliana from China earlier this year. I also wanted to add a link to their blog if you'd like to know more about their family and Iliana since she has been home with her forever family. You can find that in the blog call on the side bar, or click here. Thank you all for your continued support!