January 19, 2012 - Whew! What a week, and it is only Thursday. : ) There are so many moments that have happened this week that deserves mentioning and making much of my Lord!

First, as I wrote in the last post, our dossier went to China. It was hand delivered to the CCCWA on Monday the 16th. In an email that we received, it stated that it could take up to 3 weeks for us to receive our LID (Log In Date). A LID means that China has acknowleged our dossier and will do what they need to do in order to get us matched with Lucy. A LID is a HUGE, GIANT, MEGA step in this process. Since our process thus far has been slower than we have anticipated, I expected to wait 3 weeks for our LID. On Wednesday the 18th we received our LID. AMAZING!

Another amazing moment happened on Tuesday. I came home from work, checked the mailbox and a letter from Show Hope was in the mail. We had applied for a grant from Show Hope in October and this was the letter we had been waiting for. We were given a grant that will help us tremendously with our adoption costs. Praise the Lord! 

I want to stamp this week in my memory. I need to put up a 'stone of remembrance' to remember what my God has provided so that in those dark days of despair and when those feelings of hopelessness come I can remember what God has done. He does care, even about the little details of life. He shows up when I need Him most and He never leaves me. I look back at some of my blog posts, Complete Devastation and Be Careful What You Pray for..... and I rejoice at what God has done this week. Yes, we still have a long wait (but the long wait is getting shorter : )) and anything could happen at any moment with our finances, but my God has made my heart glad and once again made my jaw drop at what He, and only He, can do! I do not only want to rejoice when things are going as I think they should go, I also want to rejoice when he puts me through trials because I know that He will bring about good in those trials. We have one of those rub on thingys (is that a word??) on our wall in our living room. It says, "Rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS." Philippians 4:4. This is what I am striving after even in those trials I think I am going through.

So here is what is going on now in our process: We have our LID. We wait for our LOA (Letter of Approval) from China. I have seen this take anywhere from 2 months to 5 months to get after a LID. After that I will know more of what we need to do. (I just kind of take things step by step according to what my agency tells me to do.) After the LOA we wait for TA (travel approval). Then we get our little Lucy. Our agency has said that from LID to Travel approval it takes approximately 4-6 months. We are really praying we can be in China by June for Lucy's 2nd birthday.

Our boys are getting really excited now about bringing Lucy home. I am going in to their classroom on Monday to help with a little Chinese New Year celebration. Ian, my creative one, is helping me with a little presentation on the Chinese Zodiac Calender legend. I am also going to attempt to make my first ever dumplings. We went to an Asian grocery store in town yesterday to look for a few things and the boys loved it. This is helping them get excited. It is so awesome that they are learning about China and the culture in school this year. It is actually helping me learn some things too. : )

I leave with this verse that Ian read in our family devotions the other night:

"And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father be GLORY for ever and ever. Amen."  -Philippians 4:19-20

Soli Deo Gloria!