Praising God

Praising God everyday for His mercy, His guidance and for the beautiful moments we are making here in a far away land. For the friends we have made along the journey and for God's fingerprint on every snapshot of this walk. We are still on track to have court on Thursday! We will know for sure tomorrow (wednesday) around 3pm our time. Our interpol has come back, just waiting on one more paper to be signed!

We have been having some good visits with Little One and are finding out more about her personality.

Spunky.

Opinionated.

Sweet hearted.

There is not one single reason I could ever come up with that would be an excuse for not saying YES to bringing this little person into our family. After coming here we are completely blown away at how God has worked to bring this little person so full of promise and love into our family.

She is a shining little star.

People tell us she is lucky.

No...WE feel lucky. That God chose US to be her mommy and daddy. Chose Peyton and Paige to be her brother and sister.

Most of the time I am in shock of how huge His love is. His love is what brought us here - to this place, over 4,000 miles away from our home.

His love is carrying us each and every moment, through the incredible reality of missing our other children, to the day we will someday leave the gates of the baby house with Little One for good.

For now though, we are taking our days very easy. A quiet routine is settling into place as we get to know Little One and as she gets to know us (without getting too mad at us for not knowing how to play playdough correctly!). Yes, she speaks very well and quickly when she is ticked off at us! I believe she may have called us big dummies yesterday in her native language.

She even threw in a bit of hands on hips, head shaking and foot tapping.

But in the cutest, most adorable way you could ever imagine, of course.

She is slowly becoming less "hyper vigilant" - meaning when we first met her she always seemed almost on guard as to what was happening around her. She would be engrossed in an activity and would hear something - a car, a baby crying - anything and would stop what she was doing. Her eyes would widen and she would watch/listen/wait to see what was going to happen.

She is now asking Eli to help her with things in her little voice...she will say "papa..."(and then alot of words we dont understand!) But we are learning what she wants and together we are learning to understand one another. She does say mama alot but we know the kids call most any female "mama" at the baby house. She is very, very protective of us though and will literally growl and push at other children in her groupa who get near us. Eli has nicknamed her "alley cat" because she is so fiesty.

We understand though.

She has waited a long time for a mommy and daddy.

We are yours Little One.

Forever.

To end...we are so excited because we got to eat lunch with two other American families, the Krulik and Evans families (Danil and Vera's families)! It was sooo good to talk to other people in English! You simply don't realize how much you take for granted until you are in a foreign land. So amazing at how God has placed us all on this path at the same time, from the same area. Danil and our Little One knew one another well from the baby house and the first time I actually saw Little One she was in a short video with Danil. Amazing how God has weaved this journey for our families.

Everyday we get to see precious Vera with her mama and papa. She has a smile that lights up the world!

Here is a pic of us from today - the Evans and Krulik families, adopting Vera and Danil! It was so fun to talk to them and enjoy a meal together. Praising God for his mercy every day.