珍惜女儿 treasured daughter

Wonderful adoption news always seems to come when we are at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital with your little sister. We first saw your photo there while we were inpatient with Joy's liver surgery.  Then, we got pre-approval to adopt you when we went back before Christmas for another surgery. Monday, while in the surgery center, we got news that our letter was issued for acceptance for us to adopt you!  What a wonderful thing to hear! We got this beautiful document scanned to us Tuesday and the hard copy will get here hopefully tomorrow.  It makes my shoulders release to hear the news.  Now we are getting travel emails and I am just staring at the letter and the screen on the travel. I mean, this is what we have waited on. Travel to you.. for so very long.  Our prayers are being answered and it is amazing!  All siblings are gearing up for you,  and Mama is getting a little nervous.  I am afraid Eli will wander off, Anna will be kidnapped, Ezra will be drowsy at night time (when we are out), Eli will starve, Joy will regress and be triggered by so much, you will grieve so hard, our rooms won't have a connecting door, kids will be restless on the 14 hour flight,  you will be frustrated by the language barrier and many other things I am sure will arise in my thoughts.  Then, I stop and think about why we chose the name "Lily" for you - Consider the lilies of the field, .................   He doesn't want us to worry. So, once again I get peace from such a special verse to me - one that spoke to me 8 months ago.  We just sent in our email to our case worker of our ten questions to ask you, your foster parents and your orphanage.  We hope to get these special answers back in a flash :)  Ha! that was a joke - everything is "hurry up and wait" in this adoption world  we are visiting.  We pray that you are being prepared for international adoption and that WE are growing in YOUR heart we want you to soon see our faces so that you can start to see us as your family. We love you and think of you every second of the day.  We pray for you together every single day. We hope to leave Oct 12 and get you on my birthday. 10 weeks from now we will be in China! We can't wait. We got our our luggage to inventory yesterday and will be taking inventory of travel clothes next. Yikes. This is getting real. I will be sitting on the couch and literally see you peek around the living room door frame with your smile. I had this vision of Joy when I looked into my backseat before she was home. Looking at her in that seat now is amazing. I can't wait to see you perk around the door way with your million dollar smile. You are worth every piece of paper we have filed and every dollar we have worked so hard for to get you gone. .. You're worth it and we haven't even met you. Imagine how loved you will be.  I'll tell you one thing for sure, you won't know that love until you have children of your own someday. Love you forever! 

                           Until we meet, 

                                  Mommy 

Forever and Always

Every day, The last few weeks, Joy has been asking to see your Daddy's wallet as soon as he walks in from work. We rarely have cash. I guess she thought Daddy got paid in cash every day. Each day she asked and we would giggle and show her an empty wallet until one day she said "but we HAVE to find money to get Lily!!!"  Oh, sweet sister is ready for you. She is ready to tell her "it's ok, Lily", while patting your back (her words) when we meet. We have explained that this might be very hard for you. Anna is in charge of fixing your hair (if you let her) and guiding play/keeping up UNO in China so we all can play. Ezra decided he would be over the balloons that we will play volleyball with in the hotel room (we have enough for two teams!). Eli will be over the bubbles. He wants to blow the first one! Mama will be the one slightly freaking out over FINALLY meeting my daughter after ten years, while grieving for your foster family who loved you and cared for you for 8 of those years. I will be utterly a wreck inside on that beautiful day we meet. We will grieve your losses as well as your foster parents' losses.  It will be a hard, beautiful day indeed. Daddy will be the one soaking it all in while having a pleasant smile on his face. He has stared at your photo so long. He cannot wait to wrap his arms around you. He found you and claimed you before he even showed me your photo. I have been preparing your bins of clothes and it's a hard task. We don't know how the weather will be since we will likely meet you in October, so for now, we are keeping the summer clothes and the winter ones out. I think we will get you here and decide what we need. I did this with Joy, but each day I wait on you, my vision of you gets bigger and bigger. You're the fastest growing gal on the planet - you are practically the Golly Green Giant!😁  The clothes I have, range from 10-14! I have no clue what size you are! Also, the idea of buying clothes for a tween, not knowing personality, is daunting. I am packing some cute Ruffles and some athletic clothes. You can choose and I promise, I will not be disappointed! I'm pretty sure your style is athletic because I know you like basketball and prefer playing with them boys. You enjoy running long distances and being active.  I still decided to buy you some girly, ruffly clothes because I know that Joy rarely got them and really liked to have them finally any day she wants to wear them. So, we will have both. We also just got you a shirt for adoption day if you like it. It sums up our feelings about you - you're in our family forever! 

As we are still waiting for LOA, we are praying continuously for some news this week. We are ready to get the final say from China and to hoping everything in our dossier was in perfect working order. On July 27th, it will be exactly 8 months since we saw your face and knew you were our daughter.  All the pain and stress is worth it to be your mama. 

                     We can't wait to meet you,

                                  Mommy