A long time coming...

This title has a double meaning. First, because I have been wanting to start this blog for a long time. So, here it is! And since this is my first blog, it'll probably be a long one...just to warn you. Why start it today? Because we received LOA (letter of acceptance) today. It too was a long time coming! 82 days to be exact, but that was just if you're counting from PA, which came a couple days after LOI, which was preceded by getting our referral, which happened after a 4 month wait from LID...I could go on, but I'll spare you! You get the point. Adoption has its own language as you can tell, and it is a long process of mountains and valleys...with lots of waiting in between!

LOA feels different from all the other acronyms though. Up to this point, every milestone we reached started a countdown to waiting for yet another document (or more like a pile of documents) to be sent, received, processed or approved by the US and/or China. But this time, our countdown is to travel...to scooping up our precious little girl and welcoming her into our family. And now that moment is just 2-3 months away!

I wish I would have blogged milestones as they happened, but during these next couple months, I am excited to reflect back and write about all God has done since we started this process in September of 2010. He has been so faithful, and I have learned so much about my own adoption into God's family as a result of being on this journey. One day (and I know it will come all too soon), Ayla will read this. My prayer is that she will see how God's hand was on her before we ever even knew who she was or saw her face, and how He prepared us for each other.

Tonight though, she's halfway across the world in an orphanage, totally unaware that a mom and dad are pursuing her, loving her, and will sacrifice whatever we must to bring her into our family. We do this because we have a Father who pursued us, loves us, and sacrificed His only Son to bring us into His family. We adopt because we have been adopted...eternally!

So, feel free to join me as I chronicle our journey up to this point. I hope it's a blessing and encouragement to you! Lord willing, I will update this blog when we're in China, so you can follow our trip!

Well, I warned you this would be a long one! To show my sincere appreciation to you for reading this, I'll leave you with a few pictures of the most adorable little girl... Ayla Mae.