A Close Friend

Our daughter Hannah has a friend. Her name is Kerry. You can see the two of them together in this photo with Kerry on the right and Hannah on the left. We have several pictures of them together. In all of them they seem to be close friends. Hannah hasn't seen her friend for a while because last year, Kerry was adopted by her forever family and lives in Kentucky. Her mom, Virginia, put the pictures of these two on a website for families who have adopted from this orphange, we found them, and have been communicating with her ever since. She has been a great source of encouragement for us.

You can imagine how thrilled we were when we found out that they would be driving through Georgia on their way to Florida not too long ago. We took the opportunity to meet and have dinner with them as they drove through. What a precious time we had with Kerry, Virginia, and Virginia's parents. I cannot express to you what a blessing it was to meet them. Kerry is a sweet, adorable little girl. She was very good even though she had been riding in the car all day. Virginia is a great mom and quite an example for me. Before we said good-bye, we took a few photos and gave hugs. Here is a picture of Kerry and her mom.


We had a sweet ride home as we rejoiced that we now know someone who knows our daughter. And as I ponder all of this in my heart, I praise God for His goodness to these two little ones. We realize that this is a rare and very special gift that God has given to us. There must be many children who develop special friendships while they are in orphanages, but how many of them are able to reconnect after they are adopted? Does Hannah miss her friend? I imagine that she does, but we hope to give her a chance to visit Kerry later this year. What a special reunion that will be.

There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Prov. 18:24

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17.

Accepted in the Beloved

The last time I wrote, we had just gotten our letter of approval. David didn't get in until late that day, but we were so excited, we signed it at 11:00 pm! We just didn't want to wait. We took a few pictures of us signing it, but waited until the next day to take pictures of us with the letter before I took it to FedEx and mailed it back to our agency.

Early the next morning, I was praying over and thinking about the term "Letter of Acceptance." We waited for that letter with much anticipation and were thrilled when it came. When we finally got it and signed it, we knew that it represented that we accept Hannah in every way--physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. We don't know her yet; so, we don't know what she may be like, but it doesn't matter. We accept her just as she is and will make her our daughter no matter what. Nothing she can ever be or do will change that. We accept her. Period. That whole day, a verse from the King James Version of the Bible kept going through my head. Ephesians 1:6 in the KJV says, "He hath made us accepted in the beloved." It is part of a passage where Paul is writing about how we have been adopted into God's family and reminds me that Jesus has a letter of acceptance for me. He has one for each of you too that He signed with His blood. Later that day as I thought about how thrilled and excited we are to be adopting Hannah as our daughter, God spoke to me and said, "That's how I feel about having you as my daughter." We who believe in Jesus are accepted in the Beloved; we are His children-- adopted, loved and accepted just as we are. God teaches, corrects and disciplines us just like any loving Father does, but He always accepts us. Have you been adopted as God's child? Do you realize that He has a letter of acceptance for you?

So we have signed our letter and sent it back to China. Now we are waiting for our travel approval. Once we get that, we will make an appointment with the American Consulate in Guangzhou, China to sign papers and get Hannah's passport. Once we have that appointment, we will make travel arrangements to fly to China to meet our little girl. We are still hoping to be there by May 18, her second birthday which is only a month away!

Waiting On God

I have just been listening to "While I'm Waiting" by John Waller again. This has been our theme song ever since it we heard it. I heard it on the radio a few days ago as I was getting ready to go into Hobby Lobby. I had to stop and write the following when I got in the store. I got busy and didn't put it on the blog, but want to do it today.

We have been waiting a long time. We started this process three and a half years ago, but God is quickly bringing our wait to an end. We should travel to bring our Hannah home soon. Some of you may be waiting for God to do something for you, give you something or accomplish something on your behalf. I don't know what you might be waiting on, but I want to encourage you to put your hope in God alone. It wasn't until I began to put Isaiah 4o:31 into practice that God gave me a peace about waiting. It says that "those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength." He is the Faithful One. I pray that each of you will hold onto Him and know that He is a work accomplishing His best for your life.

Here is a link to John Waller singing "While I'm Waiting" on Youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb7TSGptd3Y.

We Have Our Letter of Acceptance!

We got our letter of acceptance yesterday and signed it! I'll write more later...

We Have Our Pre Approval!

"'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord..."

Today is a very special day! It has been a long wait, but we got our pre-approval (PA) from China today. Some of you are probably wondering what that means. Well, it means that China has approved our match with Hannah and will accept our application to adopt her. Our application will now be sent to their office, and we will wait for the official Letter of Acceptance (LOA). After we get the LOA, we will sign the official papers and wait for our Travel Approval (TA). Once we get the TA we will make an appointment with the American Consulate in China to get Hannah's passport and medical release to travel to the US. Once we have an appointment date, we will make travel plans.

It looks like we may travel sooner than we thought we would. Because we didn't get our pre-approval before Chinese New Year, we thought we would have to wait until July to travel; however, due to an unforeseen complication, it looks like we will travel in May instead. Last week our agency called to tell us that China had rejected our special needs application to adopt Hannah because of our medical histories. However, they offered us another option to adopt her. As many of you know, we have two applications in China, one for a non special needs child and another for a special needs child. They told us that we were welcome to use our application for a non special needs child to adopt Hannah. We have agreed to do that and because this paperwork has already been reviewed and processed, it will not take as long for us to get our Letter of Approval. While we wait, our agency will contact the orphanage and ask them for an updated photo and report. We will also put together a care package to send to her with family photos, a disposable camera, and other gifts. The other application will continue sit on hold while we pray and wait for direction to adopt a brother or sister for Hannah.

Thank you all again for watching and waiting and praying with us. We are excited and look forward to the day that we can introduce you to Hannah. The day is drawing closer when we can bring our little girl home! We praise God every day that He has a plan and He is always trustworthy.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight" (Proverbs 3:5-6).

新年快乐!

Happy New Year!

Last Sunday was Chinese New year, or as they call it in mainland China, Spring Festival. We celebrated this year by joining some very good friends for lunch at a hot pot restaurant. We were really excited because it's been a long time since we've had hot pot. The area where I lived in China was famous for it's hot and sour hot pot, and we ate it often, even in the summer time. I tried to make it once not long after we got married, but I added too much of the hot and sour sauce making it way too spicy even for David to eat. It was quite a disappointing experience. That was not the case last week when we decided to go for the the spicy hot pot. It was excellent!

What is hot pot you may ask? Well, you start with a boiling pot of soup base placed on a burner in the middle of the table. We like it spicy, but you can start with any flavor base. Then you bring plates of thinly sliced meat and vegetables to the table to cook in the soup while you wait. There are many other things that you can cook also: tofu, quail eggs, lettuce, spinach, squash or pumpkin blossoms, bean sprouts, noodles, fish balls, squid, duck throat.... That should give you an idea of what it is like. Our Chinese friends sometimes like to eat more interesting things in their hot pot, but we try to stick to more traditional soup ingredients. I have to admit, however, that I like tofu, quail eggs and squash blossoms in mine. You add a few things at a time, let them cook, fish them out and eat them over rice. The restaurant at which we ate last week let each person have their own individual little pot; so, each person got to pick and choose what he or she wanted to eat. Mmmmm!

We are excited that this new year will bring Hannah Grace to our home. Will she like to eat hot pot? We don't know but we look forward to finding out during Spring Festival next year and for years to come.

"He Knows My Name"

One Sunday night last fall, we sang a song at church called, "He Knows My Name," by Tommy Walker. As I sang the words, I prayed for our little girl somewhere on the other side of the world. I wondered who she was and what her name would be. This song reminded me that the One who made her already knew her by name and was watching out for her. (The words to the song are written at the end of the blog.)

Now we know her names. (She is blessed to have two names.) When she was only a few days old, she was given the Chinese name Ji Zhou Nan. Ji Zhou is the name of the district in which the orphanage is located. I couldn't find a meaning for Nan in my Chinese dictionary; so, I wrote and asked some Chinese-speaking friends to help me translate it. They wrote back that it is the name of a tall, strong, and rare evergreen tree that grows in southern China. The wood is hard and fine and was used to build the ancient palaces. (Xie xie Molly and Jean!) The nannies in the orphanage call her Nan Nan.

We have given her the English name Hannah Grace. How did we choose her name? Well, God chose it! Long before we knew who she was or what her name would be, God knew, and when the time was right, He told us. He must have thought David needed to know first, but I'm getting ahead of myself. I've always loved the name Hannah because I love Hannah's story in the Bible. Whenever I read it, I am encouraged that God hears and answers our prayers so that the blessing touches not only our own lives, but many other lives as well. When God blessed Hannah with a son, He also blessed Israel with a prophet. (Thanks to Bob Underwood for preaching that sermon many years ago!) We hope that our story is a blessing to all of you. (You can find Hannah's story in 1 Samuel 1-2.)

I knew I loved the name "Hannah," but I didn't know what David was thinking. You see, God gave him a name for our little girl two years ago. I wouldn't let him tell me what it was because I wanted to wait to see what her Chinese name would be. A couple of months ago, he wrote down his name on a piece of paper, folded it and put it up until we were ready to choose a name. I also made a list of names I liked. After we were matched with Nan Nan, we went on a date to eat Chinese and to chose a name. ( We celebrate every adoption milestone by eating Chinese!) We opened David's note first. He had written out "Hannah Grace," the name God gave him two years ago. Underneath were a few others names that he liked. Then, we opened my note. The top two names were "Hannah" and "Grace." We prayed for confirmation and began calling our daughter Hannah Grace. Since Hannah means "grace," she will be covered with a double portion of grace. God even picked a name that is similar to her Chinese nickname, Nan Nan.

These days I often sing "He Knows My Name" to remind me that even when we didn't know Hannah's name, God knew it. he has known her name all along, even before she was born. I wish that I could be there to watch over Hannah and take care of her needs, but I know the One who gave her life is watching out for her now and will continue to watch out for her when she comes home.

I pray that you know today that your Father who made you knows your name. He sees what you are going through and hears you when you call out to Him.

YouTube Video of "He Knows My Name"

I have a Maker;

He formed my heart

Before even time began,

My life was in His hands

He knows my name,

He knows my every thought.

He sees each tear that falls

And hears me when I call.

I have a Father;

He calls me His own.

He'll never leave me

No matter where I go.

He knows my name,

He knows my every thought.

He sees each tear that falls

And hears me when I call.

Update

Hey everyone. This is just a quick update to let you know where we are in the process. We are still waiting on our pre approval from China, but hope it will come this week before the Chinese New Year break starts on Saturday. The government employees get the whole of next week off. Once we get the pre approval, our agency will try to get an update on Hannah with a updated photo. It would be great to see what she looks like now!

We signed a contract on a house last week and hope to close at the end of February and move by the end of March. It is a foreclosure and needs a few repairs before we move in. We are getting an inspection this week.

David and I made our first trip to Babies R Us last Friday night. It was a little overwhelming. We have some idea of what we need, but because Hannah is a toddler, we know we don't need everything. We're going to have to sit down with parents who have toddlers to find out what they think we need. Then we have to sort through the hundreds of different kinds of car seats and strollers till we find the right one for our little Hannah! It becomes really fun when we stop to remember for whom we are shopping.

Thanks again for all of your prayers.

We Have New Pictures!

God has given us an extra blessing in the form of new pictures! In the picture above, Hannah is on the left. How did we get them? Well, the little girl on the right is Kerry. She was matched early last year with a family who sent a disposable camera to the orphanage in a care package. Her caretakers took pictures of her and returned the camera to Kerry's family who brought her home last June. The pictures were taken some time last April, and Kerry's mom, Gin, posted them on the day we were matched. A few days after we were matched, we joined a Yahoo group for families who have adopted from the orphanage that is caring for Hannah. While David was looking through the photos that other families have posted, he found the pictures with Hannah in them.

In the pictures, Kerry is 13 months old and Hannah is 11 months. (Hannah was nine months old in the first pictures we posted, and she is 20 months old now.) They seem to be really good friends. In fact, when Kerry's mom, Gin, showed her one of the pictures, she called Hannah by her Chinese nickname, Nan Nan. We hope to get the two of them together after we bring Hannah home and get settled. I can't tell you what a treasure this is to us. Many families who are adopting from China don't have a lot of pictures of their children. Thank you Gin for sharing the pictures with us! And thank you for praying all of these months for the little girl whose name you didn't know. We are very thankful for the pictures and your prayers!  Enjoy more pictures below.

Introducing Hannah Grace

"I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him." 1 Samuel 1:27 (NIV)

We are thrilled to introduce you to our little girl, Hannah Grace Cooke. She was born in Jiang Xi province China on May 18, 2008; so, she is 20 months old now. Other than a cleft lip that can be corrected with surgery, she seems to be healthy. We have included photos that were taken a year ago in January 2009 when she was nine months old. They are the only photos we have for now. We have prayed daily that she will have enough to eat and that she will stay warm. It looks like God has answered those prayers! She looks like the Michelin man in all of those clothes, but that is the Chinese way of dressing infants in the winter especially in places that have little or no heat. We'll have to wait for warmer weather to see what her stature is really like.

We don't expect to see her until the weather is warmer. It will probably take four or five months to complete all of the necessary paperwork for us to be allowed to travel and bring her home. Our families have begun to pray that we will be able to be with her for her second birthday. Meanwhile, the paperwork continues. Our dossier is finished, but we must wait for our pre-approval from China. It usually takes around three weeks for this. We would like for it to be finished before Chinese New Year, which is on Febuary 14th this year, because the process will be put on hold as they take a week off to celebrate. Before we can get the pre-approval, we have to have another letter from out doctors saying that we have no medical conditions that affect our everyday living. We have contacted them about what we need and expect to have it early next week. Once we have the pre-approval, we can send our dossier to China and wait for the official letter of approval (LOA).

The waiting is not over yet, but it is so good to be able to look at a picture while we wait. It's also nice not to be jumping every time the phone rings. We have plenty to do while we wait. We are going to look at a house this afternoon.

Thank you all again for your prayers and encouragement. We will try to keep updates of the process on the blog.

False Labor

David and I often compare our waiting on the adoption to being pregnant. Recently a friend of ours was comparing our waiting for the list to come out to waiting the last few days of a pregnancy. The due date is really close and the contractions start and stop, but you know you have to wait until the baby is ready to make an appearance. Through it all there is a sense of anticipation and excitement.

Once again there are rumors that the new list of waiting children will be out soon. There is that sense of anticipation and excitement in our household right now. We try not to be too excited, but we both jump whenever the phone rings these days. We just laugh at ourselves, call it false labor, and swallow our disappointment knowing that tomorrow is another day, and God's timing is perfect.

When the list is released and our agency contacts us, we will let you know whether they were able to match us with a child or not. Meanwhile we pray a lot and jump every time the phone rings. Thank you all for praying and being a part of this process with us.

Still Waiting

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your path" (Prov. 3:5-6, NKJV).

We have been meditating on these verses a lot lately. A new list came out on December 1st, but our agency was not able to match us with a child based on the paperwork we have given them. They told us that they were trying to match six families and that the list was short. There are many agencies around the world who use the same list to match other waiting families. Our agency was only able to find children for two of the six families they were trying to match.

Many of you, like us, were waiting with anticipation for the new list and expecting us to have a child by now. I guess you could say we had false labor. Of course we were disappointed, but we are learning to trust God even when we don't understand what He is doing. We thought that we would be able to tell you about our little girl, but that will have to wait. Our little girl will be on another list. The China Center for Adoption Affairs will release a new list some time during January, and our agency will try to match us again. We thank you for your prayers and encouragement. The whole process has been more emotionally draining than we thought it would be. Now we continue to pray for our little girl as we wait on God and trust that His plan is perfect.

He Cares for You

Our little girl should be sleeping now. I wonder how her day went. Did she have enough to eat? Was she warm enough? Did someone hold her when she was sad? Did she feel safe when she fell asleep? Is she in an orphanage or a foster home? Does she have one "ai yi" or several? ("Ai yi" is Chinese for auntie and is pronounced "eye yi.") We don't know who her caretakers are, but we thank God for them and pray for them daily. We pray that they will not feel burdened by the children under their care, but that they will show love to them. We ask God to bless them and send someone to them to show them the way to Jesus. And then we put them and our daughter into the hands of our Ultimate Caretaker and trust Him to bless and provide for them all. Today, may you also know that you can cast all your burdens on Him because He cares for you (1 Peter 5:7).

Decision to be Matched

After spending much time in prayer, David and I decided to ask our agency to match us with a child from the new list of special needs children that will be released some time in the next week or two. Many of you know how we have agonized over whether to continue to pursue adopting a child named Jade. We are at peace with this decision and trust God will provide a godly, loving family for her. There is a family that is hoping to adopt her. Please pray for them to have favor and for every door to be opened for them so that they can make her their own.

We are confident that He has already chosen a child for our family and are excited about being matched. Please pray for Lily, a Chinese woman who works with our agency in China to match waiting children with their new families. When the new list comes out, she will look through the list to choose a child for us. We are confident that God has already chosen a child for our family and are trusting Him to work through her to match us with our daughter. Thank you so much for your prayers as we have made this decision. We are watching with anticipation to see what God is going to do. We could be parents before Christmas! We will be sharing pictures with you as soon as we have them!

Pregnant with paperwork

Paper, paper and more paper. We have had a different kind of pregnancy that has involved collecting papers: birth cirtificates, marriage license, background checks, letters verifying employment, documents telling how much money we make, medical forms, etc. So many pieces of paper! We are very happy to announce that today was the day that the paperchase ended! We have gotten everything we need to send our dossier to China. Praise God that He has helped us persevere until it was accomplished. Now we ask Him to help us to be patient as we send the paper off China and wait for the time that we can go bring home our little girl!

Waiting...

Wow! It’s hard to believe we started this journey three years ago. It took us a while to finish our dossier for China, but it was logged in at the China Center for Adoption Affairs (CCAA) on March 19, 2007. By that time we knew the wait would be a long time, but we didn’t realize how long it was going to be. (We still don’t know how long it will be before that dossier is processed and we travel to China to bring home our child.) It was even harder to think that we were not allowed to start the process to adopt another child while we waited.

As the wait got longer, we got more frustrated with China, with ourselves, and with God. It was a very difficult time not knowing when, or if, we would ever meet our children (we asked for twins in our original dossier). Each night we prayed for our children and hoped the day would come soon. It seemed like an impossible situation, and it became harder to remember that God likes to do the impossible.

Spring forward to March of 2009. I (Lois) was taking Beth Moore’s Bible study on Esther. In lesson five, she talks about waiting. I was so convicted when she read Isaiah 40:31 and said your strength will be lost and depleted if you’re waiting on an event or a person. The verse actually says that God will give strength to those who wait on Him. I realized that the date of that Bible study was March 19, the two year anniversary of our log-in-date. God knew exactly what time it was. (There is more to that story, but I will not write it here.)

A week later, we went to a training course given by our adoption agency. Our social worker, Karla, told us that China had created a new option for people like us waiting for years to adopt one of their children. If we qualified, we would be able to leave our paperwork in line for a healthy child, and apply to adopt a child with a minor special need which would take much less time. After praying for a few days, we asked Karla to do some research to see if we qualified for the program. It took a long time because China has changed the requirements since we completed our first dossier, and she wanted to be sure we qualified. Finally, in July all of our questions were answered and we felt a peace about starting the process again: interviews, information forms, medical exams, HIV tests, fingerprints, background checks, and much more.

At this point, our home study has been finished! Our agency is ready to match us with a child. Our dossier is almost finished. Once we are matched, they tell us that it will take six months to complete everything that the U.S. and Chinese governments require in order to travel. We have asked our agency to hold off matching us for now as we inquire into adopting a specific child named Jade. She is the foster child of friends in China. We know that God has a perfect plan for Jade's future and for our family. We are just asking Him to show us His plan. Our desire is that He be glorified in every step we take on this journey. Isaiah 26:8 says, "Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown are the desire of our hearts."

We want to thank all of you who have joined us on this journey. Many of you have been and are praying for us. We are very grateful for your prayers. It has been a long wait, but God is reminding us how He has worked through difficult situations in our lives before. We are thankful that He is renewing our strength each day as we wait to see what He does.

Our First Blog Post

Hey -

Welcome to our Blog! We're glad you decided to vist and pray that God will use this Blog in some small way to encourage & bless you in your journey with Him.

We started this Blog because we have just begun an amazing journey of our own - we are in the process of adopting our first child from China! We are excited and look forward to all that God will teach us along this journey.

We wanted to remember our journey and let everyone know about the process, so here goes ...

We have been praying and talking about adoption since sometime in May 2006. On August 31st we attended an adoption informational meeting in Columbus, GA, hosted by LifeLine Children Services. It was a really moving time, and on the way home that night, we felt like God was leading us to start the process now, with LifeLine. LifeLine had been recommended to us by the daughter of a close friend who had recently adopted a child from China through LifeLine.

So, on Friday, Setptember 1st, we started filling out the 8 page application, which we finished and put in the mail on Monday, September 4th. We got word on Friday, September 8th that our application had been accepted, and that they would be contacting us for the next steps. At present we are awaiting our Dossier Kit, what we are told is a massive 3 ring binder full of paperwork and reading assignments. It should be here the week of the 16th ...

David & Lois