Miracles do happen...

Miracles do happen, although sometimes they don't look exactly like the miracle you thought you were praying for. This morning, thanks in great part to all the prayers that have surrounded us, I woke up feeling at great peace (miracle #1). I felt like no matter what decision was made everything was going to be alright. I phoned Barron at the hospital and he sounded good. His spirits were lifted and his pain had eased up a bit, he even managed a little sleep last night. We chatted about China and in the end both realized that God was directing us to keep Barron home. I shed a few tears, but even beneath the sadness I continued to feel the Lord's peace (miracle #2). We both felt relieved that the decision was made and that we could concentrate on getting Barron well and getting Olivia home.
After sharing the news with the kids, something I was dreading, Grace immediately said she wanted to stay home with Barron (miracle #3) Sam begged to be able to go, and Noah was on the fence. However once Noah heard that Barron planned on taking them to Seattle while I was gone, and up to the Space Needle, the zoo and the science center, Noah was sold. He did request that I look for a Chinese sword with dragons and a red handle.(miracle#4) Sam will be going to China with me, as well as both of my parents. I never dreamed that the kids would take it so well, and that I would still be able to take one of them (the only number I thought I could handle without Barron) without upsetting the other two (miracle #5).
I booked the plane tickets, and paid for them, yeah! Contacted my travel agent and adoption agency and made the necessary changes and started gathering the new paperwork I will need to travel without Barron. Thank goodness for nickjr and kids who like craft projects.
We also managed to squeeze in the Church Fall party and hit a few houses in my parent's neighborhood. We finished the day visiting Barron, still in costume, at the hospital. (Let me just say Grace could do without Halloween, even at the church party which has strict limitations on scary costumes we spent most of the time outside, I hope that won't cost me years of therapy later on in life).
So as you can see as a good friend recently said "God is still in the miracle business". It might not have been the one miracle I was hoping for yesterday, but the 5 he provided were more than enough! :o)

Here's Something to Smile about...

Only 21 more days until GotchYa Day! :o)

Barron Update

Hi everyone, first off thanks for you continued love, we are feeling it and needing it.

It was a tough day today emotionally for us. Barron's pain is under control, but he is truly fed up with being sick and bogged down by this. My heart is breaking for him, he is such an awesome man, wonderful father and amazing husband and friend. He is physically and mentally exhausted, I pray tonight will be a peaceful night for him, and that God will fill up all of his reservoirs.

I have to admit I took a few opportunities to throw myself some pity parties today. It wasn't too fun but I guess sooner or later you got to let some of it out. I prayed a lot today. I have surrendered control over this adoption to God. I can't make the decision if Barron is healthy enough to go or not. Only God gets to make it, and to tell you the truth as much as I want him to go, with all of my heart, I also want him to be safe. I know that I can fully rely on God for this decision. I pray that I can accept whatever that decision is.

Tomorrow morning I am going to phone Barron's specialist and hopefully know more about his situation and recovery. I will also be bringing the kiddos by in their costumes to visit him, these are the parts that are the toughest on him, he hates missing out on the kids most of all.

When I started this blog I was so excited to have a way to share all the wonderful things that were happening, I dreamed of making you all laugh a little and cry happy tears. Well the mood around here has been a little depressing but thanks for sticking with us, and lets keep praying for that miracle.

Barron Back in the Hospital

Well today was a bit of a set back. Barron woke up from a nap with horrible chills and fever, by the time I got him to the hospital his heart rate was 149. It was very scary as we went through a few hours of testing to determine what was the cause. In the end it seems as though Barron has a cyst in his pancreas that has broke and is leaking enzymes. These cysts are caused by multiple pancreas attacks. Because of Barron's hereditary condition, he has suffered from about a dozen attacks in the past 15 years. Treatment at this point is to use IV fluids to try and flush the enzymes out of his body before they begin to wreak havoc on the rest of his organs. He was admitted into the hospital and will remain under close observation for the next few days. He is once again suffering from a lot of pain. Please pray for his speedy recovery and for no further complications.

Please also pray for clear direction, and peace. I am so overwhelmed by all the thoughts and emotions. It kills me to see Barron hurting once again, both of our spirits really need lifting. This should be the happiest time of our adoption journey and we are miserable. I want Barron and the kids to be able to travel with me and bring home Olivia. I can't imagine Barron missing out on China again.

Our saving grace is our faith and the continued loving support of our family and friends. I really don't know how we could get through this any other way. We hang on to the promises God has laid before us, knowing that His loving arms surround this family and somehow He will pull us through. We need a miracle, please pray that by Tuesday Nov. 1st, the day we have to make our final travel plans, that Barron will be healed.

Barron's Update

Just wanted to send out a thank you to all who have been praying for Barron. He was able to leave the hospital and is resting at his brother Chris' house in Bellevue. We have spoke a couple of times and he sounds good. The great news is his doctor was very supportive about Barron going to China. The biopsy results won't be back for a couple of days, but the doctor reassured us that this was only a standard precaution and he had no reason to think that the results would be anything but negative. God has been so good to us, we are faithful that we can trust in him no matter what life brings.

We are making progress on our travel plans, we will be leaving Tuesday Nov. 15th to spend a few days in Beijing. Mom and I didn't do much touring on our first trip to China, so we are excited to see more this time around.

Thanks as always for you loving prayers and support. Can't wait to see Olivia, only 24 more days!

We have Consulate Appointment

Kathy e-mailed me this morning with our US Consulate Appointment Date, November 29th, which means that we will be seeing Olivia for the first time Nov 21st. Now this may seem like a disappointment because our first choice was Nov 14th or 15th, but let me just say God is so Wonderful. I was up half the night last night fretting that I had given too early of dates. Barron has to go in for a day procedure for his pancreas this Wed. It always requires a stint, that should fall out on its own in about two weeks. However last Spring for the first time it did onto fall out and actually caused another pancreas attack. Nov 9th will be two weeks from surgery, if we had gotten the early dates we would have had to leave Nov. 11th, that was cutting it pretty close. I prayed all last night, knowing that God has complete control over these dates (and everything else of course) ;o) I just kept praying "Lord give us the dates we need to make everything work out right". And what do I see on my computer screen first thing this morning?! Thank you Lord!!!

For Grace's adoption my Mom and I traveled, and Barron and the boys stayed home, financially that was the best decision for us. This time we have been blessed and are able to take all the children plus my Mom and Dad will also travel. I am so excited that Barron gets to share in this experience this time around. Would you all pray that everything goes fine at his procedure on Wed. (Oct. 26th) and that we do not have any complications that would keep him from being able to travel? Thank You and God Bless

ps Only 4 more weeks until we Baby Girl in our arms!!!

A Little Bit about Olivia

Thought I should share a little bit of info about Olivia. Olivia was born August 20, 2003, in the city of Wuhan, in the Hubei province of China. She was brought to the orphanage when she was about 4 months old. We will probably never know Olivia's birth parents story, but the fact that they kept her for 4 months makes us believe that she was loved and wanted. Olivia was born with a cleft lip, I am sure that it was with much heartache and frustration that her birth parents had to give her up in order to offer her medical hope. Soon after she was brought to the orphanage Olivia was placed with a foster family, where she has been living since. When she was 7 months old Olivia was given surgery to correct her lip.

We have been so blessed through out our journey and have had several glimpses of Olivia. I posted her referral pictures earlier, now I will add the pictures we received in August when Kathy, our adoption agent, traveled to China to adopt her daughter Hope. Hope and Olivia were on the same Waiting Child List, and under the care of the same orphanage. Kathy arrived just a few days before Olivia's birthday and took a birthday package to her from us. In the pictures you can see Olivia with some of the presents we sent, including a photo album of us. A few months before, in May we also received the priceless treasure of a video of Olivia. In it she says mama, baba (daddy) she also plays on some toys and interacts with other children. It was truly a wonderful Mother's Day present, and we have watched it many times.

Its wonderful to get these little glimpses, but sometimes you feel your heart breaking, as you see how big she is getting, and how much you are missing along the way. We have come to rely on the promise that God is in control, and he has Olivia's best interest at heart, so that makes his timing perfect. Of course we can't wait to see her in person, in just a few short weeks Yeah!

We Have TA

We received TA, Travel Approval, from China Thursday Oct. 20! I was so surprised, I had e-mailed our wonderful adoption agent Kathy earlier that morning, making sure she had my cell number and Barron's, explaining I didn't want to miss the call. She e-mailed back saying she hadn't heard anything, but expected it wasn't going to be too much longer. So the kids and I hopped in the car to attend gymnastics make-up class and then headed over to Target to exchange out Noah's Ninga costume. (which by the way he has worn almost every moment since, even sleeping in it, I'm just praying it makes it to Halloween!) So I have got all three kiddos (Sam 9, Noah 6 & Grace 4) lined up in the Target snack shop, enjoying a very healthy lunch of hotdogs, popcorn and slushees when my purse starts to vibrate. Apparently I had forgotten to switch out the call mode on the cell, when I went to answer it I noticed I had 8 missed phone calls, Oops! So Barron is on the other end and starts asking me where have I been, why didn't I pick up, I just missed the most exciting phone call yet, and was even boasting a bit how he got to receive the big news, we had TA! Well as most of you know when I get excited I really like to get excited, my voice was no longer in "hushed polite cell phone in public" mode, now I'm yelling to the kids "We got TA, We got TA!" and they are chanting back "We got TA! We got TA!" Now people our starting to stare, and I'm sure that they are praying that whatever "TA" is it's not contagious...We were causing quite the scene, but oh well, one must when one receives such awesome news! I preceded to call everyone and their cousin to share the big news, thanks everyone for sharing in my excitement, its really more fun to embarrass myself in Target when I can do it with the support of loved ones :o)
So hang onto your seats and please keep on praying, we should have our travel dates sometime in the middle of next week, but it looks like we should be heading to China in about 3 weeks!

It was love at first sight

It was love at first sight
We first laid our eyes on beautiful Olivia, back in March of 2005. It was our first adoption meeting and we wanted to peek at the latest Waiting Child List. And there she was, we knew the moment we saw her, she would be our little girl. We had planned on adopting another child with clubfeet, two of our other children were both born with this condition. But when we saw Olivia we knew we didn’t need to look any further. Olivia had been given Waiting Child Status for her cleft lip, which had already gone through one operation to repair. The agency had nick named her Olivia, which just happened to be the name we were planning on using, it was our first sighting of God’s fingerprints. We committed to her shortly after that first day and began the paperchase. We would soon be on our way to bringing our fourth child, our second daughter from China home.

Welcome to Our Journey

Welcome friends and family! We hope that you will join us on our final leg of this fantastic journey to bring home our beautiful little girl Olivia SuLing from her birth county of China. We thank you all for your continued prayers and support, we would not have been able to get this far without it. Besides it is so much more fun having you all to share our joy with, so come back often and leave us a comment or two.
Hugs
Barron and Cheri Black
and the kiddos Samuel, Noah, Grace and Olivia too