Meet Janelle

I think that most of you who are reading this know that we are closing in on completing another China adoption. Jiang MinMin, who will be called Janelle, caught our attention back on February, and we began the paperchase to bring her home to our family. Last week we received the next paper we needed from China to bring her home. That has been returned to China, and now we await our Travel Approval, which should take another 2 or 3 weeks to arrive. We hope to travel the first week of October to meet her and bring her home. Taylor and LiAnne will be staying in Missouri with the family while we travel.

Please be praying for Janelle. Just imagine what it would be like to leave the only home (orphanage) that you have known for 12 1/2 years, your language, culture, food, smells, comforts, friends--and travel half way around the world with two people you had just met. She has no real idea of what is going to happen to her or what to expect. Please pray that she would be comforted in this time of extreme change. Also, that she will have a tender heart, and will come to understand our love for her, and God's love for her.

The more we read and learn about older child adoption, the more of a challenge this seems that it will be. We have corresponded with a number of families who have gone through this, and have learned of many things that we might face in the days ahead. We don't expect that it will be easy....quite the contrary. But, we do know that it will be worth it. There will be days that we wonder what we got ourselves into, and probably wish that we hadn't. But, in the end we know that God had had His hand in this since the day that we first saw Min Min's picture, and felt called to her.

If you would like to read more about Janelle, or to follow us on our journey back to China, please go to: journeytojanelle.blogspot.com.