The Power of Prayer

1 John 5:14-15 "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, he hears us. And if we know that He hears us - whatever we ask - we know that we have what we asked of him." Isn't that scripture WONDERFUL? It is so comforting to know that God loves us and wants to spend time with us. Of course, prayer is the best way to spend time with our Heavenly Father. It is a special time to communicate and talk with Him... the creator of the universe! Yesterday I had the honor of being in the presence of about 18 beautiful sisters in Christ who came together to pray for me, Nick, and Sam. My dear friend Joetta hosted the prayer brunch at her home. Above is a picture of me and Renae (sitting down) and Joetta and Shannon (standing up). Renae, Shannon, and Joetta are an example of an answered prayer that the Lord gave me last fall. I met them at a bible study callled "Let Prayer Change Your Life" and they have been true and godly friends to me ever since that study and I know God will continue to bless our friendships. Yesterday, God really gave us a blessing as all of my prayer warriors came together to pray for all three of us, for our travel, for our health, and for God to prepare Sam for us. Joetta had put our prayer requests on chopsticks (see the above picture)! Isn't that so creative?? Each person took a prayer request and will pray specifically for that one thing while we are in China. Nick and I have total peace about our journey because we know that our friends and family will be praying for us and God will be listening! Matthew 7:7 "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you."

We got our Travel Invitation!!

Praise our Heavenly Father... the wait is almost over!! All the families in our travel group got their travel invitations today from China. This means our agency director can make us a consulate appointment and we can make travel arrangements. I will post as soon as we get specific travel dates.. it is looking like we will leave either November 23 or November 30! If we leave November 30, it will be two years to the date that we decided to adopt.. and November 30, 2006 was the day our dossier (adoption application) was officially logged into the system at the China Center for Adoption Affairs!! Wow... what a significant date!! Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we prepare to travel.

October Update

Our agency director is saying we will probably travel the last of November or first of December. We ordered our visa's and put our entry date as November 15. Visa's are good for 3 months after the entry date. We are praising God that we will have Sam home before Christmas! We sent him a care package through Blessed Kids. He received it October 1. In the package was some pictures of us in a soft "who loves baby" photo book.... so I guess he now knows what his mama and daddy look like!! We have not gotten our travel invitation, but I think it will come next week. We continued to be blessed by friends and family who are praying for all three of us. Last week we had friends Ted, Joetta, Shannon, Wayne, Renae, Jason, Debra, and Mike come over to our home. We prayed inside and outside our home in every room. We asked God to bless our home as we prepare to bring Sam home. It is comforting to know that our Savior is in control and present in our lives! We are also thankful to CrimeStopper Board of Directors who gave us a gift card from Toys R Us. We used it get Sam's car seat. Boy... that was job installing it in our car.. but it is there waiting for Sam... safe and secure.

Baptism Scheduled

UPDATE: WE CANCELLED THIS DATE DUE TO TRAVEL. WE WILL RESCHEDULE FOR SOMETIME IN JANUARY OR FEBRUARY. We are trying to stay busy while we are waiting on our travel invitation to China. One big thing we scheduled is Sam's Baptism. Our little angel will be baptized, Sunday December 9, during the 11 O'Clock Traditional Service at Frazer UMC by Rev. John Ed Mathison. We are very excited about Sam being baptized. Sam's baptism is very important to us because we want him to grow up learning about our Heavenly Father's love, grace, and mercy. Next week, our bible study group is coming to our home to pray over Sam's room... and about a week before we leave our dear friends (Ted and Joetta) are hosting a prayer brunch for us. We are waiting on our travel dates before we schedule some of his doctor's appointments. On a another note... the last family in our travel group has received their Letter Seeking Confirmation so we are all waiting on our Travel Invitations. We are still praying we travel the end of October or the first of November. We are so thrilled that all of this is finally starting to happen. What a blessing it is going to be to finally see Sam in person and to hold him for the first time!!!

Aquarium and Care Package

Sunday, Nick and I went to Atlanta. I was invited to speak at the 2007 National Project Safe Neighborhoods Conference. While in Atlanta, we went to a Braves game and visited the aquarium. WOW! It was amazing! Enjoy the pictures of the big sea turtle and the beluga whales.
We ordered a care package for Sam. We used an organization called Blessed Kids. We sent him a Panda Bear and some pictures of the two of us. The package also contained a translated letter, candy for the children and the caretakers, and two disposable camera's for the caretakers to take pictures of Sam. They will give us the camera's when we get him. We will not know our travel dates for a few more weeks. I will post them as soon as we know something.

Letter signed and returned to China

Here is a copy of our Letter Seeking Confirmation. It arrived at our home last Saturday (Sept. 15) at 9:45am by Federal Express. We signed it and we were going to over night it back to our agency, however, we talked with Martha Gallahue (Martha is adopting a precious baby girl from the same orphanage) and she volunteered to hand deliver it to our agency first thing Monday morning. Martha lives close to our agency and we had already arranged to meet with her Saturday afternoon in Prattville. Martha and her mom will be traveling with us to China. They attended the International Adoption Clinic in Birmingham and stopped by to meet us while on their way back home to Mobile. It all worked out perfect!

WE GOT LOA!!

PRAISE GOD FROM WHOM ALL BLESSING FLOW!!
On day 102 we got the letter that we have been waiting on... our Letter of Acceptance/Letter Seeking Confirmation. This is the letter from the Chinese government asking us if we officially accept Zhang Jin Hao as our child. I got the call today around 11:30am while at working lunch meeting with some of CrimeStopper's Board of Directors. My answering service called and said that Children of the World had called and they needed me to contact them as soon as possible. I could barely dial the phone number and speak intelligently to Olga who was giving me details. I immediately Praised our mighty God and then called Nick with the news (who was over-joyed and so relieved). Our agency is sending the letter to us over night federal express. We will get it, check the yes box that we want him, sign it, and then send it back to China. We now wait on our Travel Acceptance which usually comes 2-4 weeks. We are looking to travel late October or early November. Sam would be the perfect birthday gift (my birthday is November 17). Thank you all for your prayers! We are so happy! Thank you Jesus for this precious son sent from heaven!