Late Christmas Present

I have to say I had an amazing Christmas! BUT - today was the icing on the cake. To our surprise we received multiple pictures AND VIDEO of Mia after surgery. She is more than 1 week post op and back at the orphanage. She looks wonderful, happy and healthy. My sweet girl!!!!

I have posted the pictures but will not be posting the video due to privacy policies. We are still waiting on the LOA from China to arrive. I am hopeful the new year will bring this document quickly to us - AND travel will follow soon thereafter.

After seeing the pictures and videos of Mia, my heart is at rest that she is being well cared for. However, it also sparks a longing in my heart to have her with me and our family. I know that God's timing is perfect and I am trusting him!

For those that are not familiar with adoption it is definitely a journey. A journey that GOD walks alongside of you and requires a great deal of faith. Through this process to Mia and our first adoption of Maddie I have grown in my faith and trust in the LORD. It is through these times that GOD is molding and shaping me; preparing me for HIS plan and purpose in this life.

Please keep praying for Mia and that the adoption process moves along quickly.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to everyone! We spent a wonderful weekend together with family celebrating the birth of Jesus.

I witnessed many precious moments between my children this Christmas Season. Moments that make my heart full.

There are presents under the tree for Mia in anticipation of her homecoming. A few days before Christmas we received news that Mia is doing fine and recovering nicely after surgery. We did get a picture of her lip after surgery and it looks good. The surgeon did a wonderful job. I feel a little better knowing that she is okay. We are waiting for more pictures once she gets out of the hospital.

Now that Christmas is over it is time for BASKETBALL!!! Off to Lafayette for a tournament at St. Thomas Moore - GO SAINTS!!!!

Jesus is the reason for the Season. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!!

Surgery

Yesterday, as part of some sort of mothers intuition, my thoughts centered around Mia and her pending surgery. I emailed my Adoption Agency to find out if they had received any information on the date of Mia's lip closure surgery. I received an email today that Mia had surgery yesterday.

Upon reading this email, my heart dropped and tears immediately came to my eyes. Even though we requested this surgery be done in China, I did not realize how I would feel about not being with her during and after surgery. Knowing that she is by herself without her mom to love and comfort her breaks my heart.

I knew that the surgery was going to happen - I just did not have an idea of when it would be. Although I pray for Mia every day and have prayed about her surgery - I just wanted to be able to pray for her prior to surgery - It's just something that we, in our humanness want, even though we know GOD is in control.

So now I ask all my friends and family to stop for just a moment and pray for her as she recovers. Please pray that GOD will hold her and comfort her in my absence and that HE will heal her quickly.

As we wait for information of how surgery went, Mia's health status and hopefully pictures - please pray for us during this difficult time.

I will post more information as soon as I receive it.

Update

Our adoption of Mia is slowly moving forward. We reached a milestone in the process and finally received our I797 approval from USCIS (Immigration) and were able to send our completed Dossier to China. Now that China has our Dossier, Holt was able to secure our match with Mia. We are now waiting on China to approve our match and issue a LOA. We expect this document anytime in the next 2 months. After this milestone we have several more hurdles until Gotcha Day, but today we do not have as many as we had last month and I am thankful for that.

Our adoption agency has given us the opportunity to ask the orphanage questions related to Mia's development. I carefully crafted questions in order to get as much information as I could from their responses. I am curious if she is crawling or at least beginning to crawl, and at this point, what her weight and height is. We can expect to have the responses to our questions in approximately 2-3 weeks. I am also hopeful that I will get some information on when her lip closure surgery is scheduled for. I have asked the agency to supply updated pictures after surgery as well. Please continue to pray for Mia, especially her pending surgery. How it hurts my heart and soul that I cannot be with her during this procedure. BUT I know that GOD will be with her and have his hands on her when I cannot.

We still anticipate traveling in the Spring/Summer 2012. We will keep everyone posted as we move beyond milestones in this process and new information is shared with us.

Thanks to all my friends and family for your continued support and prayers during this journey.