A Total God Story

Sorry I have been MIA for the past week or so...but many things have been going on around here--mostly this...the day after my last post, one of my dearest friends that recently began their domestic adoption journey, got the call that they had A DAUGHTER!!!!!!!!!! See, the "fingerprint" process that is usually the first thing you do when you start to adopt, has been going through some changes...and without boring you with the ins and outs, in a nutshell, many families got caught up in this transition.... they tell you that getting your print clearances could take 8-12 weeks...that is why you generally do it first, so that you can be finish up your homestudy while you wait to get your fingerprint clearances....well, this family had gotten their prints done at the first of the year and it took around 5 months to get all of their stuff sorted out! That is an unbelievably long time for fingerprint clearances!!! Well, literally as they finished up all loose ends (like literally, the same day), they got a call from their agency saying that they had a baby girl....now, I said all of that to say this....

When you are going through an adoption and you hit a snag (or just a 'snag' in life in general)-it can feel like literally the end of the world-- sometimes you feel like it is the worst thing that could ever happen....you feel like you are trying to be obedient to God and you question yourself. You wonder how much longer it is going to be now that there has been a delay....if you can read this story and still question if God really sees all that goes on in your life and if He really cares....how in the world can you question Him??? Do you think it is just coincidental that this 5 month long fingerprint delay miraculously culminated with a brand new life???? You HAVE to know that God is in the timing...it is all in HIS time, even when to us it feels like it has all gone wrong!!!! When it feels like the delay has messed up all our plans...God had it in HIS plan all along...to give us more than our feeble minds could ever even dream up!! See, in their wildest dream, this family was thinking they might have a baby by the end of the year, but God gave them more than they had even dreamed of...Of course, I have given a pretty vague story and there is SO much more to this amazing story, but it is not my story to tell...just wanted to brag on my God a little:)....He's just tooo good!!

Introducing BY NAME, our daughter...

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Alice Marie Hua . . . . . . . . . . . . . .


Yes, I am well aware that this is the third or fourth time I have posted these pictures somewhere on this blog, but they are my favorites and I just honestly cannot help it!! After several months of toiling over the name of "baby sissy", we have finally decided on Alice....sweet Alice. This has been a long and tedious process...for my very closest friends, no one knows more than you do!! Once we saw her sweet smile it helped to narrow our list down to 3 names....then, over time, through my 'rigorous naming process', we have come to Alice!

Why Alice, you say? Well, it is honestly a name I have liked for a long time and when we first started the process, it was my favorite....there are several other names that I am sad to say goodbye to, but I do believe that it is "the one"...once we started looking through our families for a name, I realized that it was Charles' great-great grandmother's name, so that made us like it more. As far as I can tell, it means 'truth' (or noble)....As for Marie, that is simply after me...I am Jennifer Marie...so that is easy enough...since all of our chldren have family names, we knew Marie would at least be part of her name...now, moving on to Hua...we wanted to keep part of her Chinese name because her life will not begin when she comes home with us, it has already begun and so, to honor who she is and where she has been, we are keeping Hua....it is pronounced "Wha", like you are saying what without the T...a breathy wh sound...NOT wah, with a W sound...hopefully that makes sense...from researching the characters that make up her name, I believe it means 'birch tree'....Chinese culture is very full of nature-flowers, trees, etc. Her nannies say that they call her 'A Hua' or 'Hua Hua' so, we will definitely have a time of transitioning between the two. We are also unsure if we will combine two of the names or not, to make a total of 3 names instead of 4...that is really bothering me and I haven't quite figured it out yet...

but, figured I better go ahead and announce what we are calling her because if we don't, my sweet Lucy will...and has!! At VBS, one of her teachers, Heather, came up to me and said that she had raised her hand when asked who had a sister and she said her name was Alice...anyway, we hadn't chosen between our final 2 at that point and were strongly leaning toward Alice, but she prompted us to get on with it!! haha....she has been praying for Alice Marie (Alice Aree, it sounds like), by name for several weeks now anyway...you have got to love kids!! During a recent poll in our household, 5 out of 5 said 'Alice', so Alice it is!!!

* * *My sweet, angelic, beautiful and beloved daughter, Alice,
Mommy and Daddy love you with a love that you cannot understand right now! We dream of hugging, kissing and tickling you and can't wait show you what you have been missing for the past 2 years. You have a sister that wants to tell you secrets, show you how to play with dolls and dress up like a princess, and 2 big brothers who want to give you piggy back rides, push you in the swing and tell you how beautiful you look in your dress. Most of all, I cannot wait to share with you about my Jesus....only a few more months and we will get to be together and then my heart will quit aching...we pray for your safety and that you are being taken care of...it is in God's hands and our trust is in him! We are coming to get you, Alice...
Love, Mommy* * *

11 Years:)

Today Charles and I celebrated 11 years of marriage! We got married on my parents 29th wedding anniversary and although, now that dad is gone, it is bittersweet, there is still nothing I would change about it! God has blessed me with a wonderful husband and for that, I am grateful....

Here we are on our wedding day, 11 years ago....

so, today, we spent most of the day at the ballfield...Charlie had a double header in the league tournament and they won both and are the champions!! It was a great day...

Here is Charlie with his trophy...

The Braves after the 'big win'...

Charlie with his buddy, Dawson, that played on the opposing team....he is such a sweetheart...it is hard to play friends sometimes...

Max at the game...


Then, tonight, my sister and her husband watched our kids while we went and ate at PF Changs:) It was soo good, as always...when we got ready to leave, our waiter said that a family had paid for our meal--it was a family that we knew, that had spoken to us on their way out, but they did not know it was our anniversary until they had already paid for our meal--it was SUCH a blessing..so, we ordered dessert and when the waiter brought it out, he said it was on him!! It was a wonderful surprise...it almost made me cry, just to see how kind people can be sometimes:)

Here we are tonight, heading to eat....

Can't wait to see what God has in store for our next 11 years;)

Got Some GOOD News...

After being DTC on 5/21/10....we have been waiting to get the official date that our dossier was logged into China. So, today we found out that we were....



We can now start counting down!!!! The next approval we are waiting on is our LOA (Letter of Acceptance). This is the official response from the CCAA in China stating that they approve us to adopt our daughter. Our agency says it should take 2-3 months to get our LOA....the average wait time right now is about 63 days....but, you never know when a new record could be set, so we are going to pray for it to get processed and issued in record time!

Everyone always asks....How much longer until you get her or when do you think you will be leaving??? This morning our agency coordinator said that a reasonable timeframe from now, would be 5-6 months (from LID)...so, that would put us getting her sometime between the first of November and the first of December---which would be perfect!!! To have her home in time for Christmas and for all of us to be together during that time would be a dream come true!!!

So, anyway, that is where we stand today and I am not complaining....of course, it feels like eternity, but we are doing everything as fast as humanly possible and that is all we can do! We have one more step checked off of our list!! Let's move on to the next one!!! At least this LOA wait will be passed by with all of the fun of summer and preparation for her to come home...I am sure that will help it pass by faster:)

God is good!!

Trophy Time!

Ball season is beginning to come to a close...here are 2 of my favorites..

Max, getting his very first trophy ever!! He has been carrying it around since he got it...he has such a sparkle in his eye when he talks about it--it's precious...

Here is Charlie with one of his trophies....this was after a very long night at the field..a double header and extra innings...even though we lost the game, the trophy brought a tired smile!!

Have a great day,

Memorial Day

We had a wonderful Memorial Day full of fun with family and friends...we left for the river last Thursday and planned to come home Monday night, but had such a great time that we didn't officially come home until today (Thursday)...Charles has been driving back and forth to work since Tuesday and we have had a blast....

We did a little relaxing...


We did a little grilling out...

A little boatriding, skiing and wakeboarding...





A little hanging out with family and friends...
(The Johnson Family)

(Baby Davis)

(me & Regan)

Played a little 'Simon Says' to keep the kids from running tooooo wild:)

And, to top it all off, we got see Lucy with her "boat hair" all weekend...it was priceless!!

We had a great weekend and will never forget all of the men and women who have given their lives and the ones still risking their lives for our freedom...