GOTCHA!!!!

Hey friends! 4:30 am here in China and I can't sleep so thought I would post a quick update while I can.

Yesterday our guide came and picked us up at 2:00pm to go get our girl! We drove about twenty minutes, thankfully with no car sickness for momma!!! 

We got there, went into a room with other waiting adoptive parents and filled out some more paperwork. I'll be glad when the paperwork part is done! Ha!

Our guide Alexa, said she was going to go check and see if MinLan had arrived.  We waited not so patiently. Then Alexa motions for us to come to this doorway labeled playroom I think. There was a. Curtain and out walked a man from the orphanage holding her!!!! It was SURREAL!!!!! I put my arms out to get her and she reached for me. She was so cute! She kept making this crazy sort of fake smiling face and showing her bottom teeth. We took lots of pictures and even managed to capture her smiling in one!

We sat down and signed some more papers so that we could take her for the day (she is not legally ours until tomorrow morning). Then we pulled out a huge stack of cash and passed it across a coffee table for our orphanage donation. It felt so weird......

The orphanage brought us a beautiful keepsake plate for her and some pictures that we had not seen!!

We went and found our driver and we headed back to the hotel. 

When we got back we showed her around and then she snuggled up on my chest and took a nap for about an hour.

When she woke up and found a stranger holding her, she just sobbed.  It was truly heartbreaking.  As long as she laid down and did not sit up and look at me she was ok. Whenever I tried to sit her up she just sobbed again.

Her little lips were dry but she would not accept any food or water from me. Eventually I won her over with some yogurt melts.....what is it about those crazy things?!?! Neely is obsessed with them too!

We got her changed into pajamas. She is MUCH smaller than I imagined. Teeny tiny does not even begin to explain it.  Her little hips are tiny too! I was worried about having bought smaller clothes but now I wish I had brought even smaller ones. Glad I have some dresses.

She was not letting Ellie near her to start with but by the end of the night she was playing ball with her and laughing.  God is so good.

Please pray for her acceptance of us to grow and for her to feel safe.  Please pray that she is happy with Ellie this morning as I take a shower and that she is willing to eat some breakfast. 

We have our official adoption proceedings at 9:30 this morning.  Just a formality and she will be a Parris forever!!!!!

Friends, if you have ever listened to anything that I have ever said, this will be the most important....if God has placed a desire on your heart to adopt, LISTEN.  Don't think about the money.....that is always everyone's reason for not adopting.  God will provide my friend. Step out on faith. Husband not willing? Pray for him without ceasing. Pray that if it is God's will that He will change his heart. God wants to show off in a mighty way in your life...let Him.  If God is not calling you to adopt, help someone who is. We would not be here today without the help of our family and friends. Go to Reece's Rainbow find a child that you feel drawn do, make a donation. Do it in honor of MinLan. Help another family answer God's call on their life. Volunteer with the children at your church. The number of "spiritual orphans" is staggering. God is calling you friends. Please answer.

With love from China,

Jenifer