Good Morning!

Our little Mia had a full day yesterday and we all crashed by 7:45PM. She slept beautifully. I feared that she may have a meltdown at bedtime, but she didn't at all. She kept giving kisses to her babydoll and then giving her to me to kiss. I of course kept sneaking lots of kisses for Mia too. She slept over 11 hours and several times reached for my arms to be around her in the night. So precious.

Maybe you have noticed in some of Mia's pictures that she has a LOT of dental issues. She is still gorgeous to us, but will be needing some major intervention for all of the decay and even 3 missing teeth due to the decay. She has let me brush her teeth and imitated me last night and this morning - for like 10 minutes. It breaks my heart that her teeth were clearly never cared for. And it seems she was given a LOT of sweets - as she really wanted candy and coke at dinner. We said no and thought we may see a fit - no she relented, but was disappointed for sure.

Today we will head to the bank to exchange some more money and to a supermarket. I hope to find a lot of healthy snacks and fruit for her - we are almost out our granola bars and I am now hiding the suckers, taffy and spearmint leaves. When she smiles she has huge dimples that melt my heart. When she awoke this morning she gave me a huge smile and big hug. Praise you Lord. It reminded me of Chloe. She likes stickers, the remote,the telephone, shoes and lip gloss. She is going to fit right in!

We have just begun to see some grieving signs and a little "acting out." Nothing major, but definitely some sadness/frustration. I know that she just wants to see if we will love her when she isn't sweet too. And we will. As hard as it is, I am glad to see this. I want to move through it. Please pray for us and Mia in this. Just Skyped with the kids, Gma and Boppa and the Boyds. It makes me miss everyone terribly. Thank you again for your continued prayers and emails. It sends such love to us all the way around the world!

She is watching her first Veggie Tales in Chinese - thank you Wenkai & Melanie!
Here are some more pics...

We have her!!!

There are no words. It has been an overwhelming morning. After some paperwork with 2 orphanage workers, Mia was walked in by a nanny with the other two children. She took our breath away!!!!

During our first moments together she was very quiet. I gave her her backpack and began showing her the things inside. She started playing with the magnadoodle and her babydoll. She put on her bracelet and LOVED the yinyam snacks. She called us Mama & Baba after the nanny explained to her who we were. ! Shortly after playing she got a little wiggly and I guessed it might be a potty dance. Sure enough that must be a universal sign. !!! The nannies showed us the way to the bathroom and Mia proceeded to show us how to use the squatty potty! The first one we've seen!

We got SO many answers to our questions! They gave us the baby book I sent and all of my questions were filled out! PRAISE GOD! She is talking up a storm and we got her first sweet smile when she saw her crayons. Once on the bus she had a sucker and snuggled in. She then fell asleep in my arms and my emotions overwhelmed me and then came the tears streaming down my face.

She is precious. She is gorgeous. We already love her. She has been giggling with Steve while he gives her tickles and bounces her. There have not been any tears from her yet, or anger, or fighting. She is receiving our affection and it has been such answered prayer.

Got to go love on our girl!
P.S. She's already in my makeup bag and LOVES lipgloss! I think she and Chloe are going to be great pals.

Enjoy the photos of her!!!

Two Hours ...

In less than 2 hours we will have Mia! We slept well last night and are getting really excited. We woke up around 4:45AM, journaled, checked in on-line and got ready. We just returned from our breakfast buffet which was quite a spread. See pictures below. Lots of watermelon - thought of you Jess! =) Caleb would have LOVED all of the food - a lot of American breakfast things plus a lot of Chinese fare - congee, fried rice, beef & noodles, vegetables, egg drop soup, etc. We met the other 2 families down at breakfast and enjoyed getting to know them a little bit. One famiy will be adopting a 3 year old boy and the other is adopting a 2 year old girl.

We are all meeting downstairs in 30 minutes! I'm getting excited! Please pray that all goes smoothly and that we are able to receive the answers to our questions and many personal items & photos of Mia from her time here. Pray mostly for Mia's little heart and transition, that we can communicate our love to her and she is able to be comforted by us...and that in all these things that we bring glory to God.

This is finally happening! May the Lord go before us.
Thank you Christy for giving me Psalm 16:8 just now!! I'm in tears!!
We are going to get our little girl!!

We're in China!!

We arrived here a while ago and have gotten a little bit settled. Our 2nd flight was great with another excellent meal - though Dad you may have called it mystery meat. =) We flew through immigration, baggage claim and customs - maybe 15 minutes total. Our guide met us with a CWA sign and took us to a van where we were driven about 25 minutes to our hotel.

Steve is trying to get a quick nap as we are both pretty exhausted. I am afraid if I sleep that I won't be able to sleep tonight. We got the computer set up with the help of some duct tape - I knew we might need it for something! =) Our hotel is beautiful and our guide, Tom, is very nice. He told us that the city of Beijing is 10,000 square miles - makes the details from our last post even more remarkable! And it has reached a population of almost 20 million. It is continuing to grow with jobs and an influx of new apartment buildings. It definitely has a New York city hustle and bustle feel to it. We were able to exchange our first amount of money - the dollar is doing pretty poorly by the way in case you were wondering. =)

The fun news is that we will be meeting Mia tomorrow morning around 9:30AM. We will meet our guide and 2 other families in the lobby tomorrow at 8:30 after breakfast. It is an hour drive to the orphanage and then we will have her! I can hardly believe it is so soon! I need to get some rest, but also have a lot to do before bed: get the gifts ready for the orphanage director and nannies, make sure the camera and video camera are fully charged, get Mia's backpack and things ready, walk around here and find a convenience store, etc. Already saw the pool - nice, and the work out area.

I was able to add some pictures from when we left Wausau to our previous post ...wanted to practice for tomorrow! If you think of it, please pray that we will get good rest tonight, that we (I) will not be anxious or fearful, that we will get the answers to our many questions in this short (1 hour) time there, that we will have no problems with our electronics, batteries, etc and mostly that Mia's little heart is prepared for her family - that she will be able to transition smoothly and receive our love! We are so excited!

Our hotel & hotel lobby

Awaiting our connection

We made it to Seoul, Korea after a 14 hour flight that left at 1:00AM from Chicago. The flight was very smooth. A special thank you to Kathy for posting updates to Facebook for us. We had excellent service with Asiana Airlines and 3 meals (I passed on one - considering it was the MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT!) Steve has done a lot of reading - one book is finished and he has only pages left in #2. (Thanks for the supply Steve Clem!) I have been enjoying journaling in my gorgeous journal (thanks Jess!), snacking on fresh saltwater taffy (what a treat Christy!), listening to praise & worship on my Ipod, reading some adoption attachment material and spending some time in the Psalms & Isaiah. There is nothing like singing about the Lord and His Majesty 48,000 feet above the earth. He has gone before us and I have such peace. I know that it is because of all of your prayers. We have been so blessed by the Lord through each of you. Thank you.

We are awaiting our next flight to Beijing and we will arrive in Beijing at 9:40AM (Wed. 7/21). That will be 8:40PM Tuesday night for most of you! After we get through immigration and customs we should be picked up by our agency guide and head to our hotel. The Wangfujing Grand Hotel of Bejing. We hope to get the lay of the land, find out where we can buy snacks and bottled water, figure out our internet access and get plugged in. I am really hoping to be able to Skype with the kids tonight. We miss them already and heard that there were some tears at bedtime last night. =( 18 more sleeps is a long time if the first one was rough.

I got an email from Grandma & Boppa that they are off to go sailing in Door County with the kids. I am sure that will be an adventure. Thank you for loving on them and to Bob & Donna for joining in!

It is really hard to believe that in just over 24 hours we will have Mia in our arms!!! I am excited to get to the city where her life began. I don't want to miss any of it. I hope to take it all in.

In closing, I have to share yet another unbelievable piece of God's sovereignty and His plan for Mia and our family. With our airline tickets, we received a huge city map of Beijing. I was thrilled to get it and start checking it out. I immediately looked to find the location of our hotel and then wanted to locate some of the other places that we have been hoping to see. The most important spot that I want to visit is Mia's finding location. In the paperwork that we received about Mia, it is very specifically documented where she was found - only days old.

(This is obviously a very painful part of her story and I want to be careful & sensitive in sharing it -please know I share this part only to give glory to God. The details are for Mia to share as she wishes).

What is unbelievable to me is that as I searched this HUGE map for the location....in Beijing - an enormous city with over 20 million people... I finally found the exact spot on the map where Mia's adoption journey began.

And it is ONE BLOCK from our hotel.

That can only be the hand of the Lord.

I was overwhelmed.

I know with certainty that the Lord - in His grace- has allowed us to see another glimpse of His perfect plan.

The Lord saw this newborn baby girl.
Left alone.
That must have been a devastatingly difficult decision by her birth mother.
A dark and painful time for both of them.
Yet in His Sovereignty, He provided a family.
Our family.
HER family.
From 10,000 miles across the globe, to return 1 small block away 4 years later.

She was never alone.

She was never lost.

He has seen it all and

He turns ashes into beauty.

I cannot wait to meet the treasure hidden in the darkness.
Here we come baby girl!

Here we go!

We are headed out in about one hour. The bags are packed and I think we are as ready as we will ever be. I didn't sleep too well last night. I woke up about every hour. Lots of emotions. Mostly excited. Please pray for us. Pray for the kids. Pray for my parents who "reported for duty" yesterday afternoon and all the other helpers who will take over starting July 28! We had special times of prayer with Steve & Alison, Ken & Tina, Brad & Jess and Derek & Christy. Thank you to all of you have prayed for us & with us. It means the world to know you are praying for us. Please continue!! We'll keep you posted.

The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. James 5:16

Family Hug

Remembering to Breathe

I can hardly believe that we are leaving in THREE days.

Have I mentioned that we are flying to the other side of the world??

To meet our DAUGHTER!

I'm officially in labor and I am trying to remember to breathe.

I have so many emotions. In many ways these feelings are so similar to the ones that I felt during labor with our other children. In other ways, it is so very different.

I am SO thrilled to finally meet Mia! I cannot wait to bring her into our family. We have long awaited this day. We have prayed for her more than you can imagine. We have dreamed of her and talked about her and longed for her for almost 3 years.

I am scared. Will she love us? Will she be terrified or angry or inconsolable? Will we be able to communicate?

I am sad. I will miss Caleb, Luke and Chloe tremendously. Anticipating being away from them for so long has been overwhelming at times. It will be hard.

I am contemplative. In these last days, there have been moments that I am overcome with emotion by the enormity of the change that lies ahead. What will it look like? How will every one respond to the change?

I am overjoyed. Very soon Ma Chun Hui will be Mia Jane Hui Vandenberg. She will never again be labeled an orphan.

She will be loved and chosen. She will belong.

She will be a daughter.
A sister.
A granddaughter.
A cousin.
A friend.
Never again an orphan.
Never ever again.
Thank you Jesus.

I am nervous. Will we get there and back safely? Will the kids be okay at home? Will our family & friends be exhausted? Will I remember everything we need? Will I be able to capture these moments and her history and culture to share with Mia someday? Will we be able to care for Mia's medical needs? Will we get the answers to our questions?

And then I am reminded... that God has taken care of all of these things in advance. He has gone before us. He knows what lies ahead and it is GOOD. Even if it is hard. Even if it is painful. Because we love Him, He will work ALL THINGS together for good.
He already has.

I am trusting.

Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. Isaiah 43:5

I will go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD. Isaiah 45:2-3