Our Travel Approval Arrived!

I think I might seriously be in some sort of shock. I'm not joking. I'm so calm, so cool, so collected. We have waited 18 months for the phone call I received today saying our TA has arrived - this is the official "yes" from China that we can adopt our baby - and I'm cool as a cucumber. I really feel sorry for my husband (or the lady who happens to be next to me in the checkout line at Wal-Mart) when the reality finally hits me that I'm about to be the mommy of an 18-month-old child who won't understand a word I say. Can you believe it?

Maybe I'm not shocked because I knew God is the only One who could carry this through to completion. Maybe for the first time in my life I'm not shocked that God answered my prayer. Have you ever done that? You pray and pray and pray and then when God answers you're shocked. I've done that so many times...but not this time. I think it's because I've always had such confidence that this was God's will for us. I've always believed in my heart that this was a prayer he WANTED to answer. To give this precious baby girl a family and a home. I'm excited, humbled, overwhelmed and bursting with joy, but I'm not shocked or surprised. Hmmm...maybe that's why it took so long. Could it be that God was building my faith, teaching me compassion and longsuffering? Maybe if the TA had come even one month ago I would have been shocked. But in His perfect timing, it came today, June 22, 2007. There is a verse that has encouraged me so much over the past month.

It's Galatians 6:9 and it says, "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." Our "proper time" is quickly approaching when we will reap the harvest of not giving up. Our daughter's life is the harvest we will reap. And we will give all praise and glory to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who showed us first-hand what love really looks like when He sacrificed His life for us, and for the world. We pray our lives will be an example and picture for Eden of that love. God adopted us as His children through Christ, just as we are adopting her.

What a blessing to be her parents! We wait with such eager hope to meet her soon. We will know our travel dates sometime next week. Thank you again for your love and your prayers.