Merry Christmas!

As we prepare for our celebration of Christ's birth with our families, as we prepare the gifts to be exchanged and the food to be shared, there are those around the world who don't have the easy comforts that we so often take for granted.  We wait to bring home one of them....

We've been saying this for several years now, but surely this will now be our last Christmas with only two daughters.  On that note, this song by Third Day about their adoption journey is quite close to our hearts this year...



and

Waiting for Lydia...

Last week we were in New York again since Jim has still been working there.  We wanted to see the city at Christmas and get back to see a couple of the things we missed on our trip in September.  One of the most exciting things we ended up doing was naming our new little girl!  We will name her Lydia Qian Ting.  Her name given at the orphange in China is Ren Qian Ting.  Ren is her last niame, given to all the girls who arrived at that orphanage in 2009.  Qian Ting is her given name, translated to us as meaning "the hope for her to grow up healthily and vigorously, as slim and graceful as flowers."  We will keep her Chinese name as her middle name, and while we were in New York, we decided on a first name of Lydia.  In the Bible, Lydia was a woman whose heart was like the good soil in the parable of the sower.  When she heard the word of God, she received it with joy and believed.  Our prayer would be that the heart of our new daughter would also be like the good soil: that her heart would be softened to the love that we have for her and also the love that Jesus has for her.  When given the opportunity to be loved and nurtured in our home, that she would thrive and grow in that love.  That she would be open to receive God's love for her as Lydia was.


While we were in New York, we found a street vendor doing Chinese name art.  We first saw him in Chinatown, and then proceeded to track him down two more times at different places in Rockefeller center!  Funny how we could successfully find the same street vendor three times in that huge city!  But battling crowds in Chinatown, police officers making him pack up his stand, rain, and then snow...we successfully found him and purchased three name art hangings.  One for Grace, one for Mary Emma, and then finally one for Lydia. 

Getting started on Mary Emma's name.  This was the first night we found him at Rockefeller plaza after seeing him in Chinatown the day before.  This was right before it started raining on him, and right before the police came and told him to pack it up!  Also right before we said,"But wait!  We have two more names we want done!..."

So this was the next night when we came back to look for him again at Rockefeller!  We happened to find him again, in a different place, and this time had him complete the last two names while the snow started to fall!  The name Lydia was a surprise to our girls - they din't know we had a name picked out until we wrote it down for this guy!  For Lydia's name we got purple and green with pandas and bamboo.

This is the finished result of all three.  We loved that they are all different and unique.  And I LOVE those little climbing pandas on Lydia's!

We also had fun doing a little shopping for Lydia while we were in New York.  We're making her more "ours" everyday as we think of how we need to prepare our home for her.  So many things to do, but they are all so fun!  Going through bins of clothing to get rid of smaller sizes we don't need, finding the right size clothing to put in her closet, getting her room set up and ready, pulling out toys for a 3 year old...such fun things to finally be doing after such a long wait for another duaghter.   While in New York we had fun getting a few things for her:

Her name art, a fuzzy panda to take along when we go to meet her (also a board book of Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What do you See?), and an awesomely soft coat from a discount store we frequented called Daffy's.

We also made a stop at American Girl to get a single Bitty Twin.  We learned on our last trip to NY that, while Bitty Twins only come in twos through the catalog, in a retail store you can get just one!  So we took the opportunity to get a single twin with almond eyes and black hair.  :)

and   

New pictures!!!

We got four new photos of Qian Ting this evening!!  Most of the time I can't believe this is really happening, but when I see the pictures I know that it is!!  She's bundled to the neck, as they frequently are in the Chinese orphanges, and she's as cute as can be!

We're moving through the remaining paperwork process are aiming roughly for March travel!

It's been a HAPPY Thanksgiving and a BIG couple of weeks!!!!!!!

Introducing....Ren Qian Ting!!!

We are so happy to announce that we have been matched with a little girl, Ren Qian Ting, who is in Beijing at the Beijing Children's Welfare Institute.  She is almost 3 1/2 years old and we will be traveling to bring her home most likely within the next 3 months!


It's been a big two weeks!  In this time, we were given the file of Qian Ting (pronounced like chee-en ting), reviewed it with international adoption physicians, and decided to submit our paperwork and permanently lock her file for our family!  That was all during Thanksgiving week.  Then this past week has been a big paper trail to get our homestudy updated, our immigration paperwork updated, and begin the process of switching adoption agencies.  Lots more paperwork hoops to jump through and lots of preparations around home in the next few months!

and    

Matching night

Waiting and wondering again tonight.  The new shared list of China Waiting Children comes out tonight.  Will this be our month????

Winds of Change...

Winds of change have been blowing this month.  We are still waiting to be matched with our daughter, but some unexpected doors have been opened in the last month.  We are curiously peeking through those doors to see if perhaps our daughter is on the other side....stay tuned...

We Love New York!

About a month ago, we took a family trip to NYC.  It was the first time any of us have ever been there, except for Jim, who has been working there since mid-August.  What a neat experience to go and stay right in Midtown Manhattan!  It delayed the start of our "formal" homeschooling for this year, but what an education it was for our girls to see such an enormous city and all of the culture that is there!  I think the educational highlight was the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  Fun highlight...hmmm...American Girl, FAO Schwarz, Blue Man Group, or Mary Poppins...I don't know, but they are still telling everyone about all the great stuff they got to play with at FAO Schwarz!!




Mary Poppins on Broadway was Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!!!

 




The view outside of our hotel room at 57th and Lexington.  We could see Bloomberg, where Jim has been working, right outside of our hotel window!

  



In fact, not only could we see the building, we could see the exact window!  He even wiggled the shade in the window while we were talking on the phone so we could see where he was!

 


We were staying in the heart of the fashion district in the middle of fashion week!  Too bad we were completely OUT of fashion!  This was a designer storefront labeled, "SPRING PREVIEW 2011".  Oh my.  We're in trouble if we're gonna need spacesuits by spring!





My pretty girls in front of one of many many fun toy displays at FAO Schwarz toy store

 



The Big Piano at FAO Schwarz.  Our first full day there Jim was working, so we literally played at this store for most of the day.....

 


....with an ice cream break in Cental Park at lunch time....





....and Grace has had this problem with popsicles since she was 3!

 



Jim took us to Bloomberg and showed us around.  Pretty big business there and more security at an employer than I have ever seen.  I got in trouble for taking pictures!

 



American Girl on 5th Avenue!  What fun!  The girls worked toward a day here as a reward for their Super Summer Challenge that we have done on summer break for two years now.  They earned their day at American Girl by things like reading, excercise, finishing craft projects, memorizing Bible verses, swim lessons, and summer learning.

 



Grace got ahold of my camera in the American Girl cafe

 



Yes.  We went to Times Square with matching I love NY t-shirts.  Um....not the best way to blend in.  It is however the best way to be targeted by every tour sales gimick within 5 blocks!

 



Braved the subway like pros....well almost pros....

 



We met up with Coleen, a friend of the family who lives in NYC.  Super fun to have dinner with her twice during our trip.  She's awesome with kids and the girls absolutely love her!

 


WTC site.  No way around it, it's a moving place to visit even under construction.





View of the Brooklyn Bridge out at the Pier

 



We went to see the Blue Man group.  Bizarre.  Baffling.  Batty.  Blue.
But definately not boring!

 



Silly faces in the taxi

 



More beautiful in person than I imagined she could be.  A truly impressive symbol of our country.  Quite possibly my favorite thing we saw on the whole trip.

 


Liberty ladies!





Ellis Island was also quite stirring.  An amazing piece of our history.