God's Grace

He has done it again!! He has placed another wonderful child in her family.  We are so excited to follow our friends the Lees as they bring Ellie home.  Today was Ellie's "Gotcha Day" and I read, prayed and cried as I followed their blog entry. (www.elliesjourneyhome.com) It is amazing to me how God works in our hearts, nudging us to follow Him in obedience so He can display His glory.  Seeing Ellie sitting on Heidi's lap, snuggling with her new sister Ava, and smiling over a KFC meal, all I can do is worship. He has done this wonderful thing!  Praise His holy name!

In other Elsa news, I learned this morning that our Article 5 was picked up from the American consulate in Guangzhou and will be delivered to the CCAA in Beijing either today or tomorrow.  This means that we are now about two weeks away from our Travel Approval (TA), Lord willing!  This is wonderful news as we pray about when we could possibly travel to bring Elsa home!  I wish I had new pictures or other Elsa updates for you, but I don't.  God is allowing us a bit of blindness at this point which is stretching for this mama!  His sovereignty remains steadfast and He will bring us through.

Pray with us as we are on the final stretch of waiting.  Pray for peace, travel planning, timing, transitions, schedules, shopping trips and anything else you can think of!  Pray for Elsa that she is being prepared for this transition into family, for her heart to be open to us, and for God's peace to reign in her.  We know that He is faithful and He will do it.

"For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." (Phil. 2:13)

We look forward to His work in our lives as He brings us to Elsa soon!

Amen.....

A Sea of Acronyms and Initials

Everywhere you turn in the adoption world there are more letters thrown at you.  There's being LID when your papers are "logged in" over in China.  Then there's the PA and LOA which bring you closer to seeing your new little one.  Yesterday we received via USPS our PA for our I-800 from the USCIS.  Alphabet soup, right??? Well, we love those letters in this house!  God is good and continues to open the doors to bringing Elsa home in His time.  Yesterday's mail is simply one more hoop before Elsa has immigration status here and can be released from China.  So exciting!

We continue to pray, dream, prepare and pray some more.  Each of us is anticipating the newest Lindquist every day.  Annika especially can't wait for her sister and playmate.  In fact, most days we buckle an imaginary Elsa into her car seat and talk to her about all we are doing as we run errands.  Annika's little heart is full as she asks the God of the universe to look after her sister until we can get there.

I wish I had more pictures or information about Elsa to share, but my attempts to ask for more from the orphanage were not successful.  We simply wait, trust and pray for her.

"God settles the solitary in a home"  Psalm 68:6    Elsa's home awaits.  God is good and true to His word.  ALWAYS.  

LOA Is Here

God's timing is wonderful.  I can't wait to someday look at my life from His perspective and see even more clearly how He is working His plan.  We were marking our 60th day of waiting for our Letter of Approval when the phone rang late in the day.  Some adoptive parents who are waiting know when the DHL truck makes scheduled deliveries to our adoption agency.  I'm sorry, but I can't remember what I went in the pantry for let alone remember that type of information!! Hence, we were not expecting any call from Madison when the phone rang.  I heard Aleda's voice on the answering machine begin talking about some great news she had for us.  Up to this moment I was casually looking for the phone, but when the words "good news" and "LOA" came out of the answering machine's speaker, I went from casual to frantic!!! "Where's the phone?????", I yelled to no one in particular.  And no one jumped up to help! :)  Anyhow, I found it all on my own and answered it just in time to hear the wonderful news that our LOA had shown up unexpectedly at their office door sometime this afternoon.  What a wonderful surprise!  We were told to expect to wait 60-90 days for this precious piece of paper from China.  We are overwhelmed with gratitude to the God who has all of this in His care and timing.  Such fun!  Now we have a few more hoops to jump through before we can get that all important TA (travel approval) and begin packing our bags.  Each step closer gets us that much more excited to see Elsa face to face.

While we have been waiting, we have not been completely idle.  With some time before we get to bring Elsa home, we decided to send her a care package.  The picture above shows the contents of that package. There is a wonderful service in China that will receive a package and send it securely to the orphanage. We carefully packed a box with some clothes, toys, a photo album of us, and a recordable book of Mommy and Daddy reading to her. Then we shipped it all off on the slow boat to China. Literally!  It seemed to take forever to arrive in Guangzhou.  But Ann at Red Thread took it, translated all our papers and photo album labels and sent it to our sweet Elsa.

"Come and see the works of God;  He is awesome in His doing toward the sons of men."  Psalm 66:5

Day 30 of the LOA Waiting Game

"There is none like you, O Lord; You are great and Your name is great in might."  Jeremiah 10:6

Spending time away from home and at the cabin this month has been wonderful.  With Mari leaving for college in just two days, time with family is precious and fleeting.  We have been blessed to laugh, pray and enjoy each other these last few weeks.  What a complete blessing!

One big blessing during our family time was an unexpected email from our adoption agency with new pictures of Elsa!! She is never far from our minds as we go about our days.  I will often hear one of the kids  ponder out loud how she would like some activity we are all doing.  In His time, we will know the answer to those questions.  How sweet that will be!

For now we continue to wait for our LOA which could arrive anytime from mid September to the end of October.  The typical wait is 60-90 days. We have waited a grand total of 30.  Seems like a lot more! We continue to pray for her and work on the things we know we can do.  The girls made Elsa's fleece blanket while we were at the cabin.  While we were tying, it was fun to talk about about how life in the Lindquist house will change once Elsa comes home.  We are all so excited! God is so good to allow us this privilege once again. When I get discouraged, I turn to His word and He tells me to wait for Him.  When I grow weary of the wait, He tells me to hang on to His strength.  This whole process is such a blessed, growing experience for me in the Lord.

"Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.  He does not faint or grow weary; His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has not might He increases strength.  Even youth shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint."
Isaiah 40:28-31

Here She Is - Meet Elsa Mei Yue Lindquist

"Praise Him for His mighty deeds; praise Him according to His excellent greatness!"  Psalm 150:2

"O, Lord, You are my God; I will exalt You; I will praise Your name, for You have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure."  Isaiah 25:1

It is with praise to Him who set the world in motion that we humbly introduce the newest Lindquist.  She is a beautiful soon to be 2 year old who God has joined to us in this remarkable way.  We want to thank Him for providing a wonderful, caring "grandma" for her while she waits for us to arrive.  God is sovereign over all things and brings families together in such amazingly wonderful ways.

We knew that there was a possibility that we could see her cute little face at the end of June, but nothing is ever a sure thing.  So, we waited by the computer, casually glancing at our email inbox throughout the evening.  Ok.  It was anything but casual!!  I must have checked every two minutes to find all kinds of junk mail, which I promptly deleted.  As we waited, we prayed.  I'd like to say that I was the picture of serene calm and peace, but that would be a lie!  :)  Finally, around 9:30 pm, I saw the subject line we were praying for.  Everything else faded away as we poured over her pictures and file.  Since she was a part of China's shared list, we needed to act quickly to lock her file.  After doing that, we continued to read about our amazing baby girl.  She was born July 12, 2009 in Nanning, China.  She has had the privilege of being a part of Half the Sky Foundation's "grandma" program from two days old.  God answered our prayers for her protection and provision even before we knew her name! We are so grateful to Him for this.  Well, everyone at home crowded around the computer to look at their new sister and we took a minute to pray right then.  Mari was not at home, but we sent the pictures to her phone and she too was quickly in love with the newest Lindquist.

So, what's her name?  She will be Elsa Mei Yue Lindquist when she is officially adopted.  Our wonderful friend, Grace, helped us with the Chinese middle name.  Since Elsa's big sister Annika's middle name is Mei Eng (beautiful grace), we wanted to keep with that format for her as well.  Mei Yue means beautiful joy.  Our prayer is that "the joy of the Lord is your strength" (Nehemiah 8:10) will be made manifest in her life from early on. 

When will we travel?  We don't know.  We begin another round of paperwork and waiting now that we have formally asked to adopt Elsa.  The typical wait time for families once they have received their PA (pre-approval), is about 4-5 months.  The wonderful news is, God is in control of this too!! We will have opportunities to send her a photo album of her family and gifts which will begin to prepare her for our arrival.  It will be fun to send her things and let her know we love her and can't wait to get there.

As we wait, we will shop (love that!), prepare the girls' room to accommodate two, make her fleece blanket (a family tradition), and do some more shopping!  Seriously, we will continue to lift this entire process up to the One who has so graciously allowed us the opportunity to adopt again.  What a complete blessing and privilege.  God will show Himself mighty and be glorified in this.  For that we are truly excited.  

143 Million Reasons

Statistics say that there are around 143 million orphans worldwide. Some numbers I have seen are as high as 157 million. When I am asked why we decided to adopt, I am sometimes unsure of how to begin to answer.  You see, our story, my story, does not begin with a lifelong desire to adopt. I had always admired people who adopted. My world, however, was a bit too ordered and controlled. College, marriage, grad school, job, then three kids and a golden retriever. Somewhere along the line I had come under the illusion that I was in control of my life. It's amazing how deluded we can become and still be on the journey of sanctification!

It all started with a challenge. "You two could do that, you know. You should think about adoption!" I remember smiling and inwardly chuckling, like Sarah. But God, Who had began a good work in me so many years ago wouldn't let me dismiss those words so easily. The more I thought, prayed and talked with Todd, the more I began to see adoption all around me. It was strolling through the produce section at Cub, a book title on an end cap at Target, in the pew next to me. I also saw it in the very heart of God. As a follower of Christ, I am adopted. In the beginning of the book of Ephesians, God, through Paul tells us that believers in Christ Jesus were predestined by Him for adoption. (Ephesians 1:5) God the Father grows His family through adoption, how wonderful is that?

So we prayerfully began the paper journey to bring home a beautiful baby girl we would name Annika Mei Eng.  So many times in the last five years since she has come home, I have caught myself watching this precious one whom God graciously gave to us and thought, "We could have missed out on all of this." We could easily have stayed comfortable. But as her love and laughter fill our home, I see how foolish comfortable is.  We see more clearly Paul's words in 2 Corinthians 12:9 "But He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me." So, we adopted for selfish reasons. In our weakness, God worked powerfully to bring a little girl home to her family. In His sovereignty, a Lindquist was born in Xiushan, China and united with her family eight months later.  The joy of setting aside my 'kingdom' for His KINGDOM purposes is beyond words.

Now we find ourselves on the threshold of another wonderful adventure. He has brought us thus far and we are confident that He will bring another Lindquist home.  As if we needed more than 143 million reasons.....

The Beginning

I am beginning this blog in faith.  I don't know where this will lead, but I trust that God will use it as I venture into this uncharted water!  The biggest reason for blogging at this time is that we are waiting on God to grow our family once again through the awesome blessing of adoption.  I blogged the last time we were traveling in China to bring Annika home and it was helpful for family and friends to "travel" with us. In faith that we will be traveling again to China, I thought beginning a blog now would give me a chance to get my feet wet, so to speak.

This second adoption began with a nudge from some great friends. We had always talked about adopting again, but the topic would die quietly after a couple of days.  Late last summer, our friends said they were going to start the process.  Were we in?  We prayed, talked and prayed some more. We didn't hesitate too long before we knew in our hearts that God had another daughter waiting for us in China.  I already had an adoption agency in mind because a few adoption blogs I was following.  When I mentioned this agency to our friends, it was the same one they were drawn to as well! So, the paper trail began early last fall to bring home our yet to be named daughter from China.

Everyone here is on board and excited about our new addition.  We have hit many snags and delays already which have challenged my resolve, but God is faithful.  He is, after all, the God who "settles the solitary in a home" (Psalm 68:6a) and the "Father of the fatherless" (Psalm 68:5a).  We have our dossier logged in and are awaiting the newest shared list which is updated once a month.  Perhaps June will be the month we finally see her precious face for the first time.  I certainly pray for that.  Pray with me, please.