approved and confirmed

Soooo....like Phil the Duck Comma@nder says, I am happy, happy, happy because.....we got our LOA {LSC} yesterday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can hardly stand it, y'all.

I mean it, I woke up with a smile on my little face this morning.

But yesterday?

Yesterday, there was no smile. Only a hunch. A BIG hunch. I don't know if it was the Lord of if I had just cracked the perpetual China code. But somehow, I just knew it.

It was a Monday and the start of VBS. For the last few years, I've been asked to be the photographer for the week. But a friend of ours had an important board meeting with DFACS and so I needed to teach for her.

Four times.

To four groups of 4 & 5 years olds.

Bless my heart, would ya?

Oh, they were cute. And LIVELY. lol. But it was easy peasy...the story of our great God creating the world in 6 real days.

LOVE.

And it was the same lesson each time. Just four times. And by the fourth time, ol' Kam had a whopper of a headache. There is a reason my husband is a youth pastor and not a children's pastor.

Just sayin'.

I left church and flew home for a bite to eat and to wait for Jase to get home so that he could sit with the kiddies while I drove to the big city. My bestie's son was having surgery {he's doing GREAT today! PTL!} and I wanted to be there with them. They did the same for us when Joel was there and well...I just wanted to be with my friend.

Long about 2:50, we had walked around and found a cup of coffee. I casually picked up my phone from my purse and saw a missed call.

From WACAP.

And I knew.

I had been telling others just that morning that Monday's are the day of the week that LOA's typically flood in...and there hadn't been a Monday flood in several weeks. It had come on a Friday earlier in the month. I had also noticed that many families had late March Log In Dates with China...but no one that I  could find really had one from April 1st-12th.

Ours was April 13th.

Hmmm. So I reasoned, we should be in the next big flood. Couple that with the fact that our Pre Approval from China came on 2.7...several months ago, my theory was reinforced. And so when others would ask me at VBS, I told 'em that I thought this may very well be the day.

Where were we? We're in line for coffee at the hospital. Missed call. WACAP.

I say, "EEEEK!" to Tara and step away to return Yu Ping's call.

It rings several times and I'm dying for a second thinking that maybe she is already calling another family.

Turns out, at that very moment, she was saying "Hey Jason, I think that's your wife beeping in!"

Um, yeah it was!

So she tells me the good news and says that we should travel in mid September.

Hallelujah.

She also said that she was scanning the LOA and emailing it to us to then sign and scan and email back to her so that she could file our I-800 immigration paperwork that day.

Um. I love her.

But I only had a few hours to play with because she needed it by 3pm her time. No biggie. I can handle it. And handle it I did! I waited until the surgeon came out and told us how well Max did...then I hopped on outta there and emailed that baby back to her with 45 minutes to spare!

I busted through the door to find my husband sitting on our bed reading a book entitled, "What is the Mission of the Church? :: Making Sense of Social Justice, Shalom and the Great Commission". He looked up at me and smiled his cutie patootie smile. He had already printed the LOA and so I signed it and then grabbed my camera to get him doing it. I think it's so fitting he used that book as a surface to sign our confirmation from China.

What is the mission of the church?

One aspect must be this very thing.

Loving the least of these in Jesus' Name. Rescuing them out of poverty. Giving them an inheritance. A hope. A family.

This is the Gospel. Adoption is the Gospel.

Whew. I just get so worked up about this stuff.

So we signed the LOA.

Just look at it. Makes me weepy to read what it says.

We scanned it and emailed it right away. Yip. Pee.

I had been telling Jase that when the coveted LOA comes, we needed to celebrate with Chinese for dinner. And that we did. My goodness. I had never been to this place before but it was incredible! Holy cats. So, so good. Joel fell asleep on the way there...long day for the Tornado. But Syd was just enamored by the whole experience and went on and on about it. She was really impressed with the ladies' room too. lol. I snagged a couple of pics with my phone...for posterity and all.

I went to bed exhausted but still happy, happy, happy. So very grateful and relieved to know China has  approved and confirmed our request....Gabriel Seth is ours. To God be the glory!