Latest Happy Surprise

Here is a picture of John taken on May 15. What a happy email. We were so excited to get this update. The update was a little vague. I know his nap schedule, he is healthy, and he likes meat and eggs. It also said that he likes to help other kids find their toys. What a sweetie. This information made my day. We are at 107 days and waiting, and little things like this are enormously helpful.

Keeping Myself Busy

Trying to keep my mind off the long wait, looking at my email many times during the day, and being present for my day to day life is a little tricky sometimes. So here are some of the things that I have done to keep myself preoccupied. 

CARE PACKAGES TO OUR HENAN CUTIE

 These are some pages from an ABC getting to know your family book that I made for John on a day I was really missing him and wanting him home. It helped a lot! I have the actual book at home and made him laminated copies so that he could do whatever he wanted to the book and they would be fine.

We have sent him 3 care packages and the orphanage finally wrote our agency, gave them a detailed list of what was in each package and told them - "Tell her to stop sending disposable cameras!" So I know he received each package. (So funny - especially because there was no mention of John.)

PROJECTS

 Restoring the Camper Trailer we just bought

AND THE BEST DISTRACTIONS OF ALL!!!

My cute family. We took our camper on it's maiden voyage with our family for Memorial Day Weekend. We had such a great time. There were no cell phones, no t.v., just us. We all had a great time.

Here is our newest picture

This was a happy surprise. We got this picture in our email out of the blue. He is the cutie in red eating a banana. Can't wait to give him a squeeze.

Meet Zheng Zhe Nan - our Sweet John Thompson Bentley

This is our son. We are crazy about him already. He turned two in October (3 months older than Kate) and is currently waiting for us in Zhengzhou, Henan, China. He had a cleft lip repaired by an international team, and we don't think he has any cleft palate issues - that is still a little unclear. He is otherwise healthy and on track developmentally. The only problem is that he is in China and we are in Utah. Here are some pictures of him that we received when we were matched.

Faith in Christ through the Silence

104 DAYS AND COUNTING FOR OUR LOA.

This is by far the longest wait of the adoption. That is saying something because this entire process has been a test of patience and LONG waits. We are at the 104 day mark. That may not mean a lot to most of you but those in the adoption world are shedding a silent tear for me. That is a very long wait. From various blog sites of people in my same situation, I have seen people receive their LOA (Letter of Acceptance from China) in as little as 56 days. In desperation I finally wrote an email to my adoption agency asking if I need to be worried. Their advice was basically to stop reading other people's blogs. (LOL!) They said that 3-4 months is pretty typical.

So the trial of faith and patience continues. In another mom's blog she talked about having faith in Christ through the silence. I found that so beautiful and profound. It is the equivalence of a teacher being silent during a test. How much easier would this be if I was told ahead of time exactly what would happen? I have to admit that I feel like my testimony and relationship to the Savior has grown. My dependence on Him has grown tremendously.

Since I have not been given a play by play of how this whole thing is going to play out, I am doing the best I can to be happy and focused on other things that I can control. Oddly enough despite my frustrations, I really love this experience and feel really grateful for it. I feel overwhelmed with feelings of gratitude for being allowed to be part of an experience so profound. That being said, a prayer in my direction asking that I won't go completely mental would be appreciated!