Every good and perfect gift...

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, Who does not change like shifting shadows."  James 1:17

Referral day has finally come!  We received our referral yesterday afternoon.  It is virtually impossible to explain in words how it felt to see pictures of the baby we've had in our hearts for the past 5 years.  She is beautiful & we know that she is God's good and perfect gift to us.  Of course, we were believing to receive our referral this month, but we also knew that our agency tends to receive referrals later than other agencies.  So, we were absolutely surprised to get that phone call yesterday!  As I meditated on that this morning, I began to think about being a parent.  One thing that all parents love to do is surprise their children with the things they know will be a blessing to them.  I think of all those Christmas mornings when my parents would sit back and watch with a smile as my sister and I excitedly opened packages containing all we had been desiring.  God is our Abba (Daddy) and the model for all parents.  I truly believe that in His great love for us, He absolutely delighted in surprising us with those pictures of this sweet baby girl!  He is SO good!

"You parents--if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead?  Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake?  Of course not!  So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask Him."    Matthew 7:9-11

Still Waiting Part 2

We are still waiting! We should be getting good at waiting by now! It has been a time of confusion with our referral (match with our baby) and we really don't know much more now than we did before. Basically, our referral was skipped, but we do not know why this happened. Our Log In Date in China was 7/12/06 and they got to that date- we just did not get our referral for some reason. Our adoption agency checked with the officials in China and they have agreed to go ahead and process our referral. That is great news! The thing now is that we have no idea how long it will take China to match us with Audrey and send the information about her to us. Our agency representative said it could be a month still before we get the referral in our hands. Anyway, we are hanging on and staying busy with work- Both of our jobs are busy right now since school has started. In the scheme of things another month is not too bad, but we were disappointed of course that we did not get our referral information when we were supposed to. We are ready to see pictures of her and to get this thing going! There is still a chance we will get to travel with our original group (the people that got their 7/12/06 referrals at the end of July), but that depends on how quickly China gets us our referral and if they are willing to expedite our paperwork or not. We are praying that we will get to travel with our original group so please agree with us about that. We will post when we know more.

We are close, but still waiting to hear!

We began hearing news that referrals were coming out last Wednesday which was 1 week ago. It finally became apparent that our log in date in China was included in the last batch of referrals which was great news, but why had we not got a call? We contacted our adoption agency and we were told that due to something to do with DHL delivery the agency that our agency partners with in Utah gets referrals a few days after many other agencies. I wish we had known that, but we do now! Since Saturday we have been hoping and praying it was our day, but still no call. Our agency contact has been very nice and she assures us that we should hear something any day now. These last few days have been exciting, but difficult. It is wearing us out an it is difficult to concentrate on work or other things. We are just so ready for the confirmation that our Audrey is officially on her way! We know it is still going to happen it is just the waiting that is hard right now. Anyway, we hope to have news and pictures very soon!