Travel approval and flights booked!

In the adoption world there are acronyms....LOI, PA, DTC, LSC, LID, SIM, GUZ, CCCWA, LOA, TA, CA, and adoptive families know them inside out and see these letters everywhere even if they don't apply to us!  It's amazing how creative we get in our announcements when we reach these milestones but nothing is more sacred than TA!!!!  When we get the call, and it's always a call because this is the best news, we start to panic!  Not sure why, because this is the news we have been waiting for.  It's not like it snuck up on us the last few months, we saw every step coming, we even checked off each box, listed the date the acronym paperwork happened, checked with our fellow adoptive families when their date occurred to see if ours is "normal"?  Really why does adoption make us obsessive complusive over acronyms!

It's because we do not have any control over any of these things.  It's the paperwork lying on a desk across the ocean moved to another desk, and then mailed and then entered into a computer-hopefully not to land on the bottom of a pile or lost  ;(   It's the sixth holiday in a row and then there is the consulate in China that observes both US and China holidays!  Yikes how does any paperwork get processed?  It's our own government that seems to have no rhyme or reason to expedite or not sick, dying children through the system.  Adoption makes us give up ALL the control and have complete FAITH to trust God to bring to fruition what he called us to do.  There is no sugar coating it.  FAITH.

http://adoptionbridge.org/families/oehlhof-adoption/        or    www.adoptionbridge.org    enter Oehlhof adoption
If you feel led, this is the link to donate to final travel costs.  We also have lots of t-shirts for sale!!!  Thank you all for your love and support thus far!  Many people have already offered to bring Ryan and the kids a meal while I am gone!  He will definitely appreciate that!

On Sept 16, Ryan and I's 16th wedding anniversary, Justin and I will set out for China to bring home our son, Jacob WenXiang.   We will pick him up on my birthday--Sept 19. What a present :)

This song has been my rock throughout the adoption process  "Trust in You", by Lauren Daigle.  For there were and will be many times things don't go the way I expect, but God is not asking me to go anywhere he has not seen or prepared for me.

https://youtu.be/n_aVFVveJNs

Trust in You

Lauren Daigle

Letting go of every single dream
I lay each one down at Your feet
Every moment of my wandering
Never changes what You see

I’ve tried to win this war I confess
My hands are weary I need Your rest
Mighty Warrior, King of the fight
No matter what I face, You’re by my side

When You don’t move the mountains I’m needing You to move
When You don’t part the waters I wish I could walk through
When You don’t give the answers as I cry out to You
I will trust, I will trust, I will trust in You!

Truth is, You know what tomorrow brings
There’s not a day ahead You have not seen
So, in all things be my life and breath
I want what You want Lord and nothing less

When You don’t move the mountains I’m needing You to move
When You don’t part the waters I wish I could walk through
When You don’t give the answers as I cry out to You
I will trust, I will trust, I will trust in You!

You are my strength and comfort
You are my steady hand
You are my firm foundation; the rock on which I stand

Your ways are always higher
Your plans are always good
There’s not a place where I’ll go, You’ve not already stood

When You don’t move the mountains I’m needing You to move
When You don’t part the waters I wish I could walk through
When You don’t give the answers as I cry out to You
I will trust, I will trust, I will trust in You!

I will trust in You!
I will trust in You!
I will trust in You!