Anyone who knows me knows that I am a huge Anglophile ~ translation “wish my backyard was really a beautiful English estate”!  One of my favorite BBC shows is Larkrise to Candleford.  It’s about a rural English town and village in the 1800s.  There are so many things I love about this show but one of the best episodes features the field workers bringing in the fall harvest.   All the workers line up together with their scythes and baskets and stand at the ready.  And then they wait…just for a moment…to survey the endless field of wheat before them…to take a deep breath…then they break into glorious song and plow in!  This beautiful scene makes me cry every time.  There is so much symbolism there for the life of a believer and follower of Jesus.  It symbolizes to me the season of life that our little family is in, of what life in every season should look like.  We are standing at the outskirts of a vast field of immense possibility and He has called us to plow in…with singing!

At the beginning of last summer the Lord put such a vision in our hearts of what life lived truly for Him looks like.  Life not filled with our own comforts and desires but with surrendering our wills to His.  Stories of children in need, in deep desperation began to be brought before us again and again.  Children suffering in ways I can’t possibly understand and that are difficult to even read about.  The idea of adoption became alive in our hearts.  So in early September we began the process of following hard after Him and saying “yes” to not just one but two precious new daughters from Ch*na!  What a journey it has been so far, whew!  When we first saw the picture of our Louisa May we were spellbound.  This radiant, beautiful child in a wheel chair just took our breath away.  The more we read about her, the more we knew what a special child she was and that it would be a tremendous blessing in our lives to bring her into our family.  Louisa means “warrior maiden” and that is our girl.  Her story breaks our hearts and she has already been through more than most people I know but she is full of life!  We received pre-approval from Ch*na for her in September and the paperwork chase began.  The more we found out about Louisa, the more we found out about her best friend at the orphanage.  They spend almost all their time together and like to fix each other’s hair.  In most of the pictures and videos we saw there they were… together.  Their hair usually styled the same way, with cute matching headbands or clips. (Adorable!)  We prayed for quite a while about adopting both of these girls.  The Lord made it so clear to us that we were supposed to bring both home and we now have pre-approval for our Lili Claire.  Claire means “bright or clear”.  Bright grace and mercy is what we see in the life of this precious little girl!

We’ll travel to Ch*na to get them and we are trying to learn as much Chinese as possible, the boys are Rosetta Stone wizards!  I’ll write more about what the journey has been like so far and about our girls.  The Lord has made some amazing things happen to encourage us in this, including allowing one of their little foster sisters to be adopted by some of our dear friends right here at home! We have no illusions of perfection in what we are about to do or in these little girls.  Our precious four children already at home, Joshua, Andrew, David and Elizabeth Jane are full of life and fun and imperfections all their own.  We are learning to rejoice in the joys of imperfect people parenting imperfect children through the power and ability of the Lord.

The beautiful painting above is by artist Margaret W. Tarrant (1888-1959), entitled ” September”.  I love that because we hope to travel to bring our girls home in September…with singing!

“The Lord your God is in your midst,
a Mighty One Who will save;
He will rejoice over you with gladness;
He will quiet you by His love;
He will exult over you with loud singing.” ~ Zephaniah 3:17

Lili Claire and Louisa May