LOA Baby

So yesterday morning I woke and wrote about the peace I felt about resting in his timing as we wait for Ellie!  About an hour later I got an email from a fellow adoptive mom in our town who knows all to well what the process looks like and feels like.  They are actually traveling to bring their sweet boy home in a week.  She emailed that we had been in her thoughts and prayed that if we hadn't gotten our LOA we would get it Monday! She also asked if we had specific prayer requests to let her know because we were on her heart! Wow what a blessing to know that God had stirred the heart of a friend on our behalf for this process.

We headed out to a nearby lake yesterday with some friends.  It was Max's 3rd birthday and we were going to go the week before but rain was threatening our lake day so we moved it to Monday.  It was a perfect way to spend the day with our birthday boy! The kids had a blast and played hard and swam hard for hours.  We packed up and headed home to celebrate the birthday boy with daddy.  On our way home I got a call that we had gotten our LOA.  I love that when God brought me to a place of peace and resting in him on his timing he said .... ok the resting is over! I know there will be other times that the anxiousness will rise in this process and I pray that we can continue to rest in his timing. I had goosebumps thinking about letting my friend know we had gotten the call!

We walked in the door a little after 5 and had to walk back out the door at 5:30 to meet Eric for dinner. That meant that 5 were showered and out the door in 30 minutes.  I think it was a new record.  It felt like a whirlwind as we got ready and I could hardly contain my excitement with our LOA news. I kept trying to figure out how we were going to tell Eric.  After dinner we were heading bowling with the birthday boy.  On our way to meet Eric for dinner I called the Bowling Alley to see if they could help us out.

Help us out they did! They flashed "LOA baby" across our screen for us.  The kids knew what was happening and kept looking at me like it isn't up there.  Shane about gave it away but the timing couldn't have been more perfect as it flashed as Eric was up.  The kids said, "Daddy, look at the screen! 

I love his reaction when it all clicked! Priceless! I think he said something like  ... are you kidding?

What a great day of celebration .. a birthday boy who turned 3 and our LOA!

The minute the kids heard the big truck today they ran to greet the Fed Ex man.  They are pretty excited that we are moving one step closer to their sister.

The official seal of the official document from China.

We of course checked the yes box that we accepted the referral of Gan An Na ....

and signed on the dotted line!

Celebrating we are one step closer to our baby girl!