Paperwork and Progress - December 20

I woke this morning with these verses on my mind.  "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness."  (Lamentations 3:22-23)  I claimed that promise as we started our new day with Elsa.  We had to begin a bit earlier than yesterday because our appointments began at 9am.  Though Elsa woke up sad, she was much easier to console if Dad was around.  After eating a wonderful breakfast downstairs, we headed out with Cindy and Mr. Fu.  Our first stop was the Civil Affairs office where we met Elsa yesterday.  There we were to meet the orphanage director, answer some questions and sign our official adoption papers. We walked into the room where we were yesterday and Elsa kind of freaked out.  Our wonderful guide took control quickly and moved the meeting to another room.  This one was full of small kid toys and equipment. It didn't take more than a couple of minutes before Elsa began to follow her big sister, Annika, around on the equipment. As we had our meeting, the girls had a wonderful time playing and we began to see a new Elsa shining through.  She smiled, laughed, and squealed with delight as she played.  What music to our ears!  The orphanage director gave us some wonderful keepsakes for Elsa including a memory book put together by Half the Sky Foundation documenting her days at the orphanage.  It included early pictures and will be so great to have.

Our second stop brought us to another official office for another interview and more papers to sign.  While we waited for Cindy to get some receipts, Mr. Fu and Annika entertained us by racing on the outdoor basketball court.  Elsa continued to amaze us with her smile and laughter.  God's mercies to us.

With our official work done for the day, we headed back to the hotel for another new adventure......the pool.  She was skeptical at first, but watched Annika carefully.  After a few minutes, Elsa was venturing down the steps and smiling all the way.

We are learning more and more about this little girl of ours.  She has a dimple on her left cheek when she smiles big.  She goes on the potty and not in her diaper.  She can slurp noodles like a pro.  She has wonderful fine motor skills, writing with a pen on paper.  She loves her big sisters like crazy.  She loves playing with balloons.  She really likes Skyping on the computer.

There's not much left of today. We are heading out to dinner with a list of dishes to order written in Chinese thanks to our new friends here in Nanning.  Then, its time for foot massages.  This will be a great ending to a wonderful day.

To the praise of His glorious grace.

 Playing around at the Civil Affairs office.

 Signing official documents. 

 Official footprint.

 First smiles and laughs.

 Cindy and Orphanage Directors.

 All of us.

 Mr. Fu and Todd.

 Sisters.

 Mr. Fu, Cindy and the girls.

Lindquist Girls. 

Gotcha Day! ~ December 19

God is good.  He had a plan for the Lindquists which included a little girl born in Nanning on July 12, 2009.  Today, He brought us all together......forever.  Paul talks in Romans 8 about the wonders of God's plan for His children; how He brings His children into His family.  Near the end of the chapter are some remarkable verses about His love for us.
"What then shall we say to these things?  If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?" (Romans 8:31-32)
We have such a great God who will supply all we need as we follow Him in obedience.  We are so dependent on Him as we step forward with Elsa.

Cindy met us this morning and Mr. Fu drove us all to the Civil Affairs office in Nanning City.  There we waited nervously for Elsa to arrive with the orphanage director.  Let's just say that she was not all hugs and kisses.  In her defense, she is grieving for her foster family.  We will have patience to wait for her to turn to us.  We held her, tried to coax her with toys, food, and stuffed animals.  In her bag that they brought with her was the well used photo album we had sent in August. She knows us in photos, but the real thing is going to take a little more time.  We were able to take her adoption photo in a moment without tears and then went outside to a small park. Annika tried to entertain her by playing on some of the equipment.  She only wanted 'Baba' (Daddy) to hold her.  It was so cute. Cindy was so helpful to remind us that it is a good thing that she grieves.  She has loved deeply and has attached to her foster family, so we wait and pray for the time when she will transfer that love to her forever family.

As the day progressed, Elsa needed to be entertained in order to remain content.  This meant that we walked the block, shopped at the mall down the street, and encountered many stares.  That's ok. In the midst of the day, God sent two special families to encourage us.  We met Patty and her kids in Walmart.  While her husband teaches English at the local university, Patty is home with their three kids.  Noah helped us find things around the store.  We hope to connect with them in the coming days.  The second family we met while walking in the mall.  They are Americans living and working in Shanghai with two adopted daughters from Nanning.  They encouraged us that their youngest was two when she was adopted and that the transition was not always easy.  God has definitely watched over us today and we are so grateful for that.

We can feel the prayers of so many family and friends as we go through today.  We knew this wouldn't be easy. Our hearts break for her and we wish there was something we could do to let her know we love her so completely.  As we hit the pillow tonight, we are thankful for how far God has brought us and looking forward to how He will continue to answer our prayers.

 On our way to the Civil Affairs office.

 Gotcha!

 Getting to know each other.

 First semi-family picture!

 Nap time!

 Making it official.

 Annika is a big sister!

 Daddy with the little girls!

He's a great Dad.

Hong Kong to Nanning-December 18

"May God be gracious to us and bless us and make His face to shine upon us, that Your ways may be known on the earth, Your saving power among all the nations."  (Psalm 67:1-2)  We are so thankful that God has blessed us beyond measure in Christ in order to be a blessing to the nations.  That's the message of Christmas!  We think about that as we travel here.  May His name be known and praised.

We have had a pretty quiet day.  Waking up after a refreshing night's sleep, we swam in the pool and found some food.  Then we were back at the airport for our plane to Nanning. Annika made a couple of friends while we waited for the plane. Once we boarded, Todd tried out our "Jibbigo" app on his seatmates, asking them questions about Nanning.  I noticed Mari's head above all the rest when I went to the back of the plane.  We definitely stick out here!  Arriving in Nanning, we went through customs and were met by our wonderful guide, Cindy.  As we drove into the city, she told us all the wonderful things about Nanning.  After settling in, we ventured out to find some food on our own.  The doorman pointed us to an area around the block from the hotel and we started on our adventure.  The restaurant we chose had dumplings on the menu which sounded great to our hungry stomachs.  It was clear from the moment we walked in that they do not serve many foreigners!  Our server tried her best to communicate with us and we all laughed a lot!  The food was great and we were stuffed. Mari also noticed that a few cell phones were surreptitiously taking pictures of us. Too funny.

 Can you find Annika in this picture?

 Did you guess right? There she is.

 Now can you find Mari in this picture?

 With our wonderful guide Cindy.

 Todd wasn't sure what he had ordered.

 With our server who spoke zero English.

Well, we are heading to bed and preparing for our big day tomorrow.  Cindy said we will meet Elsa at 10:30am at the Civil Affairs office.  There is one other family that she knows of who will also be adopting a little girl tomorrow.  Pray with us for a good first day.  Her foster family wrote a little note on the bottom of an update Cindy gave us tonight saying that they wanted Elsa to be in a loving forever home and that they would love updates about her.  Clearly she was well cared for and loved.  We praise God for His provision in that way.

Travel Day

Someone has said that a theme to Psalm 27 could be that we are not alone and that we are not in charge.  Initially, it seems that through difficulties, David cannot see God's greatness.  As he ends the psalm, however, he asks God to teach him His way and to lead him.  I especially like the last verse. "Wait for the Lord; be strong and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!"  (Psalm 27:14)  We are taking that verse literally as we wait to see Elsa on Monday.  Like David, we know for certain that we are not alone and that we are not in charge!  God is good and faithful as we walk this adoption journey to Elsa.

Our first leg of the trip brought us to Seattle. Annika and Kirstin were seated next to a wonderful woman who was interested in all we were going to be doing in the next two weeks.  She showed us pictures of her grandchildren, spoke of the faithfulness of God in her life, and when we parted ways, gave Annika a small gift. Oh, the sweetness of the body of Christ!  While waiting for our next plane, we had some Starbucks and saw Santa and one of his elves!  We also had a chance to Skype with Aunt Ingrid and Heidi & Ellie Lee.

Flying from Seattle to Tokyo is long! It seems longer when you are sandwiched in the middle seats of an Airbus 330. We passed the time by sleeping, eating and watching movies. With one more flight left for this part of our journey, we knew we needed to pace ourselves with sleep, although we all felt pretty groggy. Annika was a trooper and only woke Dad up three times to ask him to help her with the Smurf movie.  From Tokyo we boarded the last plane of the day for Hong Kong. Everything has gone so smoothly for this first part of our journey.  Our luggage was spinning around on the carousel when we arrived there, the immigration line was relatively short, and the walk to the airport hotel was a breeze. Praise the Lord!

We are now in Hong Kong awaiting our afternoon flight to Nanning.  It is Sunday morning here and we are sad to be missing our normal routine of worship.  We are also thankful that our worship is not dependent on meeting with a group of believers, as important as that is, but that we can worship Him wherever we are.  More importantly, we worship Him with our lives.  

Leaving later today for Nanning, Elsa is on our minds and hearts more intensely than ever.  Pray with us for Gotcha Day tomorrow.  We are so excited to begin this new life together with her as a part of our family.  We are so looking forward to the ways in which God’s hand will be evident.  

 On the airplane ready to go!

 Seattle Airport.

 Dad's still as strong as ever! We are waiting to add the top tier (Elsa) to this tower!

 We passed on Chinese food waiting for the authentic food. 

 During our three hour layover, we could have passed the time caroling with these guys!

Met Santa and his elf in the airport. 

 Christmas in Hong Kong.

 Hotel lobby all decorated. 

Preparations - of rooms, luggage and hearts

We are in the advanced stages of prep around here.  It's amazing to think that in week we'll be on our way to Elsa.  God is amazing in all that He is pulling together for us.  We are so grateful and blessed.  I know that I am probably taking some major theological leaps in what I share next, but my excuse is that I am not a theologian!  I had to smile today as I read my Bible.  "Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you." (Isaiah 43:5)  I know the context has absolutely nothing to do with the Lindquist family adopting a daughter from China, but still I smiled. 

The piles have begun.  Piles of papers, clothes, airplane activities, diapers, wipes...... You name it, it's probably in a pile somewhere around here.  Those piles correspond to lists, lots of lists!  I take solace in the fact that if we are missing something, there are stores where we're headed.  Except the paperwork!  I can't leave a piece of that behind.  Our wonderful agency sent us a checklist, which I have checked and rechecked.  

Our itinerary is set.  We leave on Friday, December 16th and arrive in Hong Kong on December 17th.  That's a LONG trip. Then we fly to Nanning on Sunday, December 18th.  After settling into the hotel, we are off and running on Monday, December 19th to meet Elsa!  She officially becomes a Lindquist that day.  GOTCHA!!!  After a few more days of paperwork and sightseeing, we leave Nanning for Guangzhou on Friday, December 23rd.  Staying on Shiaman Island this time, we are excited to meet the many other adoptive families that will be there.  Christmas in China will be spectacular!  Elsa's first Christmas with us. Wow, what a gift.  There is also lots more paperwork and waiting while in Guangzhou before we can fly home on Friday, December 30th.  

This whole process has brought me so many gifts from God.  He has revealed Himself in new ways as His Spirit has guided, comforted and taught us about our Heavenly Father.  One thing that struck me the other day as I stared at our manger scene (insert above-mentioned theologian disclaimer here!) was that Jesus was adopted too.  While born of Mary, He was not Joseph's biological son.  This wonderful man willingly became Christ's earthly father, raising Him as God intended.  That makes me smile.  

He is preparing our hearts as we prepare our home for this new, little one.  I'm not sure she'll ever fully understand how much she was loved even before we actually set eyes on her.  We trust and pray that He is preparing her to be who she was born to be, Elsa Mei Yue Lindquist. We know there will be major adjustments all around as we get to know each other.  Language, food, smells, sounds.  Everything completely foreign to this little one.  God, grant us all patience, peace and immeasurable, unconditional love as we begin our new family life half-way around the globe.  He is faithful.  He will do it.

"I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you" Isaiah 42:6

"I am the Lord; that is My name; My glory I give to no other." Isaiah 42:8

Our prayer is that we will hold tightly to the hand of the One who is faithful and true.  He has set this in motion and He will accomplish His plan.  We pray that His name is glorified and lifted up.  None of this is done in our own strength.  We are not foolish enough to believe that we could do any of this without Him.  Resting our hope in God, we look forward with great anticipation for what He will do in the three short weeks ahead as we go out as six and return as seven.  Praise His holy name!