Article 5 Approved! Go Team 3/20!

What, you may ask, is an "Article 5"?  Great question!  

Honestly, I really don't know.  I believe it has something to do with Olivia qualifying for a Visa to travel to the US (and when she steps on US soil she will then be a US citizen!!)  but the most important thing is that it means that our file has now been sent - FOR THE LAST TIME - to the Chinese entity that issues our TRAVEL APPROVAL (TA) that will allow me to book plane tickets to go and bring Olivia home!

WOOOHOOO!!!!

I have been told that this "last wait" (which I've seen take anywhere from 7-24 days) can be the toughest.  It is one of those "so close and yet so far" things.  

Yes, another wait.  And they have been having computer problems causing some additional delays.  Joy.  Not.

But you know what?

I am blessed.

I have been blessed by an amazing group of new friends and sisters.  We call ourselves "Team 3/20", because 3/20 is when we were all brought together by a significant adoption milestone.  Since that date, we have - sometimes within a matter of an hour or two - hit most of the other approvals together.  There are a couple who have been expedited and will hit China first and pave the way, some with whom I can't wait to hug and celebrate with IN CHINA, and a few who will be coming behind to clean up the craziness that we've left.  I couldn't have asked for a better group of women with which to travel this journey.  Once again, God has given me exactly what I needed before I knew to ask for it.

We have laughed together, cried together, encouraged each other and prayed together.  We are single, married, with other kids, without kids, military families, live in the North, South, and stationed overseas.  Some, it turns out, live close to each other and the husband of another played high school basketball for  my college friend's husband!   These women are amazing!  God certainly knew what I needed when He brought me to this road, and blessedly gave me Kelley, Amy, Amy, Laura, Lauren, and Whitney!   When I think of these women there are two verses that immediately come to mind:

"A friend loves at all times"

Proverbs 17:17

"In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven."

Matthew 5:16

I also keep having a verse of a children's song running through my head, "put you light under a basket, NO!  I'm going to let it shine!'   It is really easy during this journey - or any of life's journeis for that matter - to get frustrated and restless during the wait; it is easy to jump on the whiney wagon and look for things to complain about...and there are always others who are ready to jump on and have a party with you.

But Team 3/20 has decided that we're not going to join that party.  We're having our own.  Instead of being single candles in the darkness, we're striving to be a beautiful chandelier.    It takes a lot of pressure for a lump of coal to become a diamond.  And with God's help, and a lot of prayer, we aim   to be a sparkly chandelier of rare gems that brings light to the darkness and His love to those who need it.

"Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you."

Isaiah 60:1

God is doing too much great stuff to keep it to ourselves!  Please pray for us, our kids who are waiting and whose lives are about to be flipped up-side-down, and those who have yet to see and know the lover and giver of light.