Hard to Believe There was a Day Without Her

Hello all. We hope you are well and growing closer to the Lord each day. We had decided before we started blogging that we would continue until after Abigail's palate surgery. Well, she is well recovered and really doing well. She is trying to say everything with her new "roof" and the word "no" seems to come the easiest recently. She is singing now and it is just so sweet. She has not gained a lot of weight but the doctors are not concerned as she is eating well and is strong.

I could go into hundreds of details, some difficult some just plain wonderful. I will make it brief and say that we can hardly believe she is finally here with us and that her surgery is over (she has a speech evaluation in May). It is so clearly God's will that this sweet, beautiful little girl was placed in our family with God's perfect guidance and timing. He worked out SO MANY details, provided so much financial help in the perfect amounts at the perfect times; placed just the right people in our lives; denied us some things to show us we were off track or that He had different intentions that would just glorify Him more; TRULY INCREDIBLE IS OUR GOD!! We love Abigail with all our hearts.

I will tell you that this little girl has and is still having a bit of a slow, hard time bonding (and very difficult nights with sleeping) but we see wonderful little bits of progress and for me experiencing and seeing her pain just reminds me all the more how many of these children are around the world in need of the love of a family to show them the love of our Savior. It is hard to understand some days why it is so hard for her but we do not know what she has previously experienced and we trust in Jesus to guide and overtake us with His love and He does.

This is all the more reason that I need to focus more on my family and eliminate some of the little things that take up time--a bunch of littles adds up to a lot. So, blogging is on the list of things that must be put aside right now.

We would adopt again in a heartbeat if the Lord so directed. Our trip to China is an amazing mass of images burned into my mind with a wide range of emotions attached. The best part is Abigail is home. We now have many other families to pray for that we were privileged to travel with and they all remain in a very special place in my heart. I hope you will all not hesitate to e-mail us with any prayer requests or just good news!

Well, here are some pictures of what we have been doing (this turned into a grand finale slideshow!). May the Lord bless you all continually as you seek Him and share Him with others.