10 Days To China - But Who's Counting?

I can hardly believe that we will be leaving for China in 10 days.

In exactly two weeks we will meet Qi Fu (aka Emmett).

I feel so blessed and grateful to be in this position today. It has taken four years of ups and downs, of doubts and faith, of hope and frustration. But we are almost there!

As I make my final lists and decide what I will pack in my 40 pound limited suitcase, I feel ashamed that I ever doubted, that I was ready to give up and throw in the proverbial towel. And all because I was impatient. Things were not progressing on my time schedule and I don't like that.

Thankfully, the Lord had other plans and I could not block out the nagging little feeling I got whenever I was ready to hang my tail in defeat and give up. HE knew little Qi Fu was being born about 2 months after our dossier reached China, that he was being left on the steps of an orphanage on the other side of the world because he was not "perfect," that he would spend 244 days in a hospital enduring casts and therapy and examinations, that he would be sent to a foster home after he recovered, that he would be termed "adoptable" and placed on the list that was given to Holt, and finally that Eric would call me as I sat in a movie theater waiting with friends to watch "Twilight" with news that would reduce me to tears regardless of my very public domain.

I have learned to trust the Lord more fully - for he sees what I do not. I have learned that when an answer is given, there usually is no promise of timetables given with it. I have gained a stronger testimony that the Lord loves me and knows what is best for me.

They were hard lessons to learn, but well worth it.

Only 10 more days...

Lilly Wisdom or "Lillyism" For Short

Here is a bit of Lilly wisdom she shared at a wedding reception on Saturday evening as she was with me in the bathroom while I changed into my dress from my grungy kitchen-help clothes:

Lilly: Where's Whitney's new daddy?

Ira: Her daddy? Oh, you mean her new husdand!

Lilly: Yeah. Where is he?

Ira: I think he's out there with Whitney somewhere. Why?

Lilly: Good. Cuz they need to kiss...kiss for real so that they can have the same germs. Then they will be a REAL family.

(Then...on the way home that same evening)

Lilly: I didn't hear Whitney and her husband kiss.

Ira: Yeah, we saw them. Remember when they first came in and when they cut the cake?

Lilly: Yeah, but I didn't HEAR them kiss.

Ira: What do you mean you didn't HEAR them?

Lilly: You know when you kiss for real and make this sound (Smooching sound from back seat). They have to do that so they can be a REAL family!

Ira: I think they did that...the music was just too loud to hear it.

Lilly: Good, cuz they have to be a REAL family now and kiss like a REAL family!

Always enlightening to hear what goes on in that little brain of hers!