January 25 is Naomi's birthday. That isn't until tomorrow for us, but it is already half way thru tomorrow in china. It is absolutely killing me that we haven't heard back yet from our birthday cake delivery.. Maybe the orphanage is giving her cake today? But, I am not holding my breath. I am suspicious that they kept the money rather than spend it on a little girl that is probably on just a bottle. That feels really cynical..
I read a few entries of another waiting mama's blog and she was writing to her future daughter. She was writing to MeiMei. Apparently this means little sister. I love that for a nickname, do you know why? Because, in all my spare time spent day dreaming of this little love muffin, I have thought of all kinds of nick names for her. One of them was MeiMei! I never visualized it to know how it would be spelled, but how stinking cool is that?! She will absolutely be our little sister. I also really loved that she was writing to her daughter. I may borrow that idea from time to time, starting today as I get ready to celebrate this little girl's life.
Happy birthday my sweet Naomi! I pray that you are being honored on your birthday. I pray that you are warm and your belly is full! I pray that you are given a chance to be outside of your little crib and get to spend time with the other babies. I also pray that you get to taste the sweet delight that we sent to you. I pray that there are other little boys and girls surrounding you enjoying this treat as well.
Next year, my love, we will have a birthday party together. I have it all planned out! I cannot wait to see you in a little party dress, staring excitedly (hopefully not bewildered) at all that is around you. Will you be excited to play with balloons? Will you have fun opening your gifts? You will be an experienced gift opener by then, since Christmas is just a month before.. Little girl, you are going to be LOVED! There are so many that already love you and anticipate your arrival!
Your big brothers are some of the most excited! They cannot wait for their MeiMei to be here! They talk about you quite regularly, asking when you will be home. They are both always so disappointed when I say it is still a long ways off.
Jesus is taking us through some lessons preparing us for you to join our family. He is shaping our hearts so we can be the very best family to take care of you. Do you know that He has chosen you to be a part of our family - our MeiMei! Just like He has chosen us to be a part of His family! Jesus loves us so much! He loves you even more than we could ever dream. He is there with you now, loving you and seeing you through until we can be together. Hold tight to Him, Naomi, and He will be your delight.
I love you more than I ever thought possible and you are still so far away. I hold you and kiss you and comfort you in my dreams. I cannot wait to feel your smooth skin, to smell your sweet hair and to see you smile! I have no idea what you sound like, but I know your voice will be beautiful.
Wo ai ni (I love you) Naomi Xinyu!
Mama
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Friday, January 11, 2013
Letters to Naomi
On Tuesday, Eman and I ordered a birthday cake to be sent to Naomi. She will turn two at the end of this month. We ordered through an agency called Ladybugs n hugs. So far, I really like them! They have been very quick in communicating with me and letting me know when our money was sent to the orphanage. We were able to send a 600 word letter along with our order. I wrote a short birthday greeting from us and then the boys both decided to write their own letters to. I sent them all off with the request for the gal to send a translated copy. I dont expect that the ayis will read our letters to Naomi as she is too little and would have no understanding anyway. But, I hope that they will read them and agree with us that she is a valuable little girl! We love her and pray for her everyday. As far as cake goes, I dont expect Naomi to eat any of that either. She is most likely still drinking from a bottle and probably has never had any type of solid food, let alone cake. But, this will be a chance for some of the other kids at the orphanage to get some yummy treats! I was praying about this last night, asking the Lord to send other kids, not the "favorites". I have no idea if there is a "fair" system that rotates children through so each get a chance to eat cake. I would be very pleasantly surprised if this was the case..
Here are our letters (dont they look cool?!):
亲爱的新宇：
生日快乐！我们非常高兴见你，我们爱你，非常期待来接你回家！
爱你的，
你的爸爸和妈妈
亲爱的新宇
我想让你回家，我等不及要和你一起玩。夏天的时候，我会教你游泳，我希望你是个友好的孩子，我们可以一起玩。再见！
你的哥哥
Jacob（5岁）
亲爱的新宇：
我爱你！我想让你回家，这样我就可以看见你和你一起玩了。等你再大一些的时候，你就可以和我们一起在我们家的蹦床上蹦了。你回家后我会唱歌给你听，我希望你度过一个快乐的生日，我们会在这里为你庆祝生日！我们真希望你也在这里庆祝。
你的哥哥，
John（7岁）
Dear Xinyu,
Happy birthday! We are so excited to meet you. We love you and cannot wait to bring you home!
love,
your baba and mama,
Dear Xinyu,
I want you home. I cant wait to play with you. During the summer, I will teach you to swim I hope you will be nice and that we can play together.
Bye!
Your big brother,
Jacob (5)
Dear Xinyu,
I love you! I want you to come home so I can see you and play with you. When you are bigger, you will get to jump on our trampoline with us. I will sing to you when you are home. I hope you have a good birthday. We are going to celebrate your birthday here! We wish you were here to celebrate too.
Your big brother,
John (7)
Monday, January 7, 2013
one more step closer..
i was trying to figure out how to put a time line on here, but it didnt immediately jump out at me, so i will have to do this the old fashion way and just record it here. i got an email from my agency - our homestudy was finalized (finally!) and sent out with our I-800a on January 4! i was told that i should receive a receipt back within a couple of weeks. i think we will then be given an appointment to get fingerprints. in the meantime, i need to finish gathering our dossier documents. all we need is more passport pictures, as well as double checking on eman's medical form (apparently the dr didnt fill it out all the way. annoying.), and our payments.
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Jesus is the sweetest name I know
My dad shared my grandma's last words during his eulogy. At the last nurse visit, grandma was roused from sleep. She turned to look at the nurse and in a very weak voice, she told the nurse, "Jesus is the sweetest name I know." This is a perfect testimony of who Grandma was and what was most important to her. I had several older women come up to me at the reception and tell me how much they loved my grandma, what a neat woman she was. I know all of these things, but really wish that I had known her in this manner during this period of my life. I wish I had been able to talk about Jesus with her - I know she had a wealth of experience and wisdom to share. I wish that I had taken the opportunity to sit in her room and read scripture to her and with her. Honestly, I never thought about it until I was on my way home from visiting in November. It makes me sad that the idea never crossed my mind - that I have allowed myself to settle into a place of keeping my faith and relationship with Jesus to myself while I am at my mom and dad's house. Please give me courage, Heavenly Father, to be purposeful in living my life for You in front of my parents and siblings. Give me grace and mercy for them - let me be salt and light in their day. Give me a sweet aroma to them, that my decisions and countenance would point to You. Give me answers to their questions and opinions.
I was nervous to head over there, to be surrounded by family that likes to ask questions, to know what is going on in all aspects of life. I was nervous to talk about our choice to adopt, because that decision goes back to our desire to obey the Lord. This lifestyle is not understood or agreed on by some of my family. My visit was covered by prayer, though and these conversations went way better than I had expected. I think that there are some things, ideas, assumptions that I need to get over too. Lord, forgive me for putting my fears onto my ideas of my family.. There were lots of questions, but conversations were supportive and encouraging. I suppose, for my immediate family, they just needed to get used to the idea, to talk things out with me in order to have a better understanding of what we are doing and why. My sweet boys talked a lot about their little sister in China. My boys are well loved by the family - I think their excitement and love for their Naomi softened a lot of hearts. Thank you, Jesus, for my sweet boys. Please continue to grow their love and excitement. Please continue to soften my families' hearts toward little Naomi - grow a love in their hearts, too, for this little girl.
After the funeral, we gathered as an extended family to celebrate Grandma's life. My mom and dad brought the remainder of Grandma's things. One of these things was her Bible. I got to look through it before the funeral while we finalizing details. It was totally falling apart - again a testimony of what had the highest value in Grandma's life. There were a bunch of verses underlined, notes in the margins, etc. I had wanted to take it home, but another family member got it. While I love the convenience of the Bible app on my phone, there is just something about thumbing through the Bible - allowing it to open to a certain passage, etc. My book has been put away for a while as I have mainly been using the app - I need to pull it back out. Seeing Grandma's was confirmation of what the Lord had been whispering to my heart for the past week or so previous to going over the mountains. I love receiving those confirmations..
Grandma's last words are also the title to an old time hymn. Here are the lyrics:
I was nervous to head over there, to be surrounded by family that likes to ask questions, to know what is going on in all aspects of life. I was nervous to talk about our choice to adopt, because that decision goes back to our desire to obey the Lord. This lifestyle is not understood or agreed on by some of my family. My visit was covered by prayer, though and these conversations went way better than I had expected. I think that there are some things, ideas, assumptions that I need to get over too. Lord, forgive me for putting my fears onto my ideas of my family.. There were lots of questions, but conversations were supportive and encouraging. I suppose, for my immediate family, they just needed to get used to the idea, to talk things out with me in order to have a better understanding of what we are doing and why. My sweet boys talked a lot about their little sister in China. My boys are well loved by the family - I think their excitement and love for their Naomi softened a lot of hearts. Thank you, Jesus, for my sweet boys. Please continue to grow their love and excitement. Please continue to soften my families' hearts toward little Naomi - grow a love in their hearts, too, for this little girl.
After the funeral, we gathered as an extended family to celebrate Grandma's life. My mom and dad brought the remainder of Grandma's things. One of these things was her Bible. I got to look through it before the funeral while we finalizing details. It was totally falling apart - again a testimony of what had the highest value in Grandma's life. There were a bunch of verses underlined, notes in the margins, etc. I had wanted to take it home, but another family member got it. While I love the convenience of the Bible app on my phone, there is just something about thumbing through the Bible - allowing it to open to a certain passage, etc. My book has been put away for a while as I have mainly been using the app - I need to pull it back out. Seeing Grandma's was confirmation of what the Lord had been whispering to my heart for the past week or so previous to going over the mountains. I love receiving those confirmations..
Grandma's last words are also the title to an old time hymn. Here are the lyrics:
- There have been names that I have loved to hear,
But never has there been a name so dear
To this heart of mine, as the name divine,
The precious, precious name of Jesus.- Refrain:
Jesus is the sweetest name I know,
And He’s just the same as His lovely name,
And that’s the reason why I love Him so;
Oh, Jesus is the sweetest name I know.
- Refrain:
- There is no name in earth or Heav’n above,
That we should give such honor and such love
As the blessed name, let us all acclaim,
That wondrous, glorious name of Jesus. - And someday I shall see Him face to face
To thank and praise Him for His wondrous grace,
Which He gave to me, when He made me free,
The blessed Son of God called Jesus.
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