Summer Palace & Olympic Park Sights

Today started at about 3am when my body thought it was time to be up.  The time change has not been too bad but I think we are still tired from 24 hours of travel.

We visited The Summer Palace where emperors once vacationed.  Many pieces we saw were dated back to 1600AD.  The weather was beautiful with low 70s and low smog index.
Next we visited the Olympic Village of 2008 and a shopping market.  Shopping here is not exactly relaxing.  Many booth keepers will touch or grab you to take a look at what they are selling.

We also experienced crazy traffic on our travels today.  Red lights and lane lines are suggestions here.  Traffic was also held for a Michelle Obama motorcade on our way to dinner.  The food has not been too crazy so far and we are getting much better with our chopsticks.  Tomorrow we are headed to The Great Wall.

We are in Beijing!

We left a little over 24 hours ago for the airport in KC and now here we are finally ready to sleep!  So glad we packed Ramen Noodles to eat in the room.  You have to boil water in your room before you can drink it anyway.  Thank you Lord for safe travel.  We are supposed to visit Olympic Village and The Summer Palace tomorrow.  Good night here,  Good morning there!

We have Travel Approval!!

Joyah is 17 months old today and we received word this afternoon that we are approved by China to travel!  Wow!  In fact, we most likely will be on a plane next Wednesday, March 19th but we will find out for sure in the next few days.  We are excited, nervous and feeling a bit hurried.  The boys were so excited to hear the news and Jonas (who will be 8 years old tomorrow!) prayed for our safe travel tonight at supper, which I really appreciated.  I am a bit nervous about traveling so much. 

God is just so good!  We will be in China for at least 2 weeks and should be holding our little girl about 3 days after we arrive in the country.  I will update soon with specifics but here is a new picture we received last week of Joyah Mi Ni!

Waiting for Travel Approval!

Joyah is now 16 months old and we just completed the last bit of paperwork with the National Visa Center to get her home!  We are waiting now for travel approval from China which should come in about a month or so.  Exciting stuff!  We have been busy preparing her room and trying to navigate the enormous amount of travel information. Josiah (5) recently was cleaning toothpaste out of the sink for a very long time.  James asked him why he was cleaning so much and Josiah replied that, "if the house isn't clean, Joyah won't know that she is getting a new home".  Quite sweet :)

Many of you may like to hear the story of how God matched us with Joyah.  I recently wrote an article for our orphan ministry newsletter that I would like to share.  Thank you for your prayers!

Happy Chinese New Year 2014!

We had a wonderful time celebrating Chinese New Year this past Friday!  Some friends taught us about the New Year traditions and celebration last year and we enjoyed creating our own celebration and feast this year as we thought of our daughter Joyah Mi Ni.  We are even starting to get the hang of using chopsticks ;)

Paperwork is in the process of going through US immigration and the National Visa Center so we still have no dates for travel other than the estimated April or May to be able to bring Joyah home.  Just more waiting as usual.

It's Official! It's a Girl!

Although our daughter was born 15 months ago,

its still an awesome announcement!!
We are so thankful for this gift from God!
 

Joyah Mi Ni McNutt

 

14 months

 

5 months

 

One Year Later

One year later and we have so much to be thankful for.  We don't have new information to share but I want to share how the Lord has blessed us this past year as we wait for our daughter.  James recently wrote the following article for our Orphan Ministry newsletter at church. 

Adoption isn’t Easy

12 months have gone by since we submitted our application to our adoption agency to begin our journey to our daughter.  The past year has been filled with paperwork, fundraising, waiting, praying, and a growing desire to bring our little girl home.  It has been busy and hectic at times and dreadfully uneventful at others.   I wish I could say that we have possessed nothing but good attitudes and patience throughout this past year, but the reality of adoption is that it isn’t easy.  I wish it were.  I wish if a loving family wanted to adopt a waiting child that is longing for a forever family it would be a simple process.  As I reflect over these last months; however, I sense that God has been using this time to prepare us to bring our girl home.  He has been growing and maturing us.

If adoption were easy, I’m sure I would be missing the truth of how special adoption is.   It is too easy to depend on ourselves when something is easy.  This adoption has taught us to depend on God for many things.  When we started, there was a mountain of money required for the process.  We didn’t have it, but God did.  It is 12 months later and we have all the money we need to get our girl.  When we started, we didn’t realize how much our family and our little girl are loved by our friends and family.  It is 12 months later and I’m still amazed at the generosity and support that has come from the special people in our life.  When we started, we thought we’d be able to control the process more.  It is 12 months later, and we realize how much God is orchestrating to bring us to the right time and to the right place to meet our little girl who He has chosen.  If we had been able to get our girl 12 months ago I think we would have missed out on knowing and loving our precious Father so much better.

God never tells us things will be easy if we just believe in Him.  I actually believe He wants areas of life to be difficult.  He wants some things to be beyond us and our power.  When we encounter those hard areas of life that we can’t do in our own strength, then He gets to work at full force.  We are left to stand back and marvel at how only God could have accomplished such an amazing feat.  God uses these hard areas of life to teach us how amazing He is.

So, its 12 months later and we still don’t know our little girl’s name or when we’ll bring her home.  I’m sure we’ll still be battling impatience and frustration in the days to come just like we have over the last year.  I’m sure we’ll have our moments of trying to control things and do it our way.   It won’t be easy.  Even after we bring our girl home, things will be hard, but that’s ok.  By depending on God, we’ll get to stand back and marvel at how He takes care of the hard stuff.