My Roses

I am so excited this year to see my roses doing so well!! It has really helped to keep me busy and preoccupied with things other than our adoption wait. Anyway, attached is some pictures. I was worried the winter weather would kill them all, but they are doing great!

The wait continues-

So, Mike and I continue to wait for our little girl. It is hard to have your life on hold for so long, and be vulnerable to a process for which you have very little control of. But, we know good things are yet to come.

HABAKKUK 2:3 But these things I plan won't happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow, be patient! For it will surely take place. It will not be late by a single day.

Trying to keep hope alive... Thanks for all the wonderful thoughts and prayers!

Immigration renewal.

This has been a very slow week. However, we did get our immigration renewal. I think it came quicker than our fingerprinting appointment. Nonetheless, we are all updated again. The wait continues. I have been asked over and over what the status is on our adoption. Nothing really has changed, we are continuing to wait. It is increasingly difficult to be vulnerable to this process, but I have faith that God has hand picked our child, and she will be known to us soon. In the meantime, I keep the faith, and pray faithfully for the orphans that remain, and those impacted by the latest earthquake in China.

Looking back-

Mike and I are still surviving. I look back at our blog, and it is just amazing how happy we were for a short time over our little girl. We are still trying to understand why this happened to us. I am not sure that we ever will. We are taking comfort in that God has a plan for us, and he still has a perfect child hand picked for us. I know there is a reason that he introduced us to a beautiful little girl in Hunan Province. I miss her, but I take comfort in knowing that she has no idea that there is a family grieving for her. I hope that she grows up to have a wonderful life.
For now, Mike and I are waiting to see what our future holds. I am hopeful that this story will eventually have a happy ending....... please keep us in your prayers.

An unfortunate turn of events....

It is with regret, and overwhelming grief that I update all followers to our Blog that our beautiful little girl was taken away from us this week, March 23, 2010. For reasons I can't begin to understand or even explain, she is gone. We are one of two families in our agency, and one agency of 34 around the world that are dealing with this type of loss. Adoption from China is embedded with rules, rules that are very predictable and issues like this are very rare. It is a trusted system, which is why we chose this process. However, the system has failed us, and many other families this week.
Mike and I are overwhelmed with grief over this loss. She was truly a gift from God. I ask that you pray for us, our family, and the dozens of other families in this situation; also pray for our little girl, and the millions of other children still waiting on their forever family.

Heard from Immigration!!!

Mike and I finally, FINALLY, heard from immigration today. Our fingerprints appointment is scheduled for March 31, 2010. It is not much, but it feels like something! One step closer to bringing Autumn home!

Autumn's Current Home

HuaiHua Social Welfare Institute ~ Hunan, China