The Airport Equals China for us!

Drive In fun!

I am pretty sure my children think that the St Louis airport only goes to one place. TO China. Home from China.   

Mark tends to travel often, but we do not go to the airport with him.  So they really only head that way if it involves something big. 

 

Friends Adopting = a trip to the airport.  One came from China. The other, well not far from China and in their eyes don’t all adoptions happen in China?   

 

Last summer we had the college student staying with us, the baby we had custody of.  We made quite a few trips to the airport.  To China.  Home from China.  To China.  

 

We traveled to China in June. They dropped us off. They picked us up. 

My brother Shane came home from China in July. 

 

In August we went to pick up Shane’s girlfriend at the airport. From where?  Well China of course! 

First time to make smores!

 

And then we had our most recent trip to the airport as we sent Shane and Ellisa off to… China.  

First time to TASTE smores, and it was not a winner!

 

It was  so great to have Shane home this summer. He left last July to serve in China as a “teacher.”  I was lucky to be able to see him while at Chenzhou, and to meet his girlfriend, whom I adore.   It was great fun to have her here and experience her first taste of the USA.   We  loaded her up on the good ole American Diet.  We went up in the arch, tried Root Beer Floats at Fitz’s, went to the Drive In, boating on the lake, she experienced an American wedding (pictures to come), Cardinal Game, church, and more!  For the record, Root Beer Floats were NOT a hit.  ;-) 

The Arch!

 

And then we had to say goodbye to her and Shane both as they headed back to China together.  We are so happy that Shane has been called to serve in a place that we love. Even though it is SO FAR AWAY, we know he is exactly where he is supposed to be, doing exactly what he is supposed to do. Not to mention skype is an amazing thing!  

Brother Sawyer

 This week, on Sunday night we had an exciting evening.  We put all the kids to bed but with in about 30 minutes Sawyer was back upstairs. He had this look of terror on his face and could not speak. We asked what was going on and he finally gets out through tears that he felt that God had just spoke to him and was telling him to be a youth pastor.  He was so shaken up and SO certain that he had heard from Him!

Of course we encouraged him and prayed with him and told him how AMAZING that is that at 11 years old he already had heard from the Lord on what he is going to do with the rest of his life!  We also reminded him that this meant he DOES have to go to college and could not fulfill his dream of being a video game designer.  Though we assured him that he could design LOTS of things for youth! ;-)

This boy is a blessing to us for sure. He has such a tender heart and sweet spirit.  Mark and I have secretly always said to each other we thought he would make a great pastor, he has that personality.  But we never said that to him.

My prayer is that Sawyer will ALWAYS remember hearing Gods voice and calling on his life. He is only 11, and so when he turns 13, 16, 21, and the world presses in, I pray he will look back and remember, I pray he will stay on course.  

I did ask him if he was certain that the Lord had not told him he has another sister waiting in China. He asked me if he did hear that if Mark would believe him.  I told him lets wait and see if God tells him that and then we will find out.  ;-) 

Team Chenzhou 2012

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Updates on Air & my sweet Rosebud

When my mom tells me it is time to blog, I know I am REALLY being a blog slacker!  I hate that I have not kept up better, I WANT to share all the things going on.  Hopefully by the time 2011 ends I will catch up with our busy year! I THINK life is actually calming down, if that is possible. 

I do have lots of pictures with some fun things we did this summer to come, I promise. BUT I had to share some updates on Chenzhou.  If you scroll down a few posts you will read about my collection of money to send them some air conditioners that they were in need of.  And you will read about my Rosebud, sweet baby girl. 

I will start with the air.  We were able to send over enough money for them to buy 2 air conditioners and a heater!  The units are for the hospital wing, which is where the new babies stay and of course the sick babies.  Not everyone who gave sent in a photo, but many did and I love that they did hang them around the unit!

 

The 2nd news to share is about my Rosebud and how amazing God is. If you remember, Chenzhou told me she was being adopted and my understanding was that it was a domestic adoption. Well last week I opened an email from an unfamiliar name and it was telling me she was adopting from Chenzhou,  she found my blog, and I referred to her baby as ROSEBUD.  Let me tell you, the tears of JOY that fell.  We exchanged a few emails with a promise to call so we could talk about "our" baby.  Her mama's first words to me were "You are my baby's angel".  We had a wonderful well over 2 hour talk as I was able to share all the reason why I fell in love with this little peanut that would soon come home! I have no idea why the translation came through as domestic, the communication gap is such a problem. But thank goodness that this mama was searching for info on Chenzhou and we were able to connect! She said that she received the referral 2 weeks after her birthday and was so upset to miss her birthday. And then she found pictures of her party that I gave her! I am so thankful that the Lord allowed me to be just a tiny bit of Rosebud's story. Maybe all I was to be was someone to cover her in prayer for awhile. Her family has waited FIVE years for her, and while she is one lucky girl, I know they are really the lucky ones. She is going to be such a blessing for them. When Chenzhou sent the photos of the air, they also sent me some photos of RB in an outfit I had sent over. 

Look at her!  I was just in China 3 months ago and this baby was not even sitting! She is standing!! And looking older, and oh so beautiful! I can't help but hope that MAYBE our bumbos and exersaucers helped out a bit. 

Her family is actually in China and will be holding this angel in her arms on Monday.  I am so thankful, an orphan no more.  My sweet little Rosebud, forever loved.