......................

I really wish you could just read my mind because I've written so many blogs in my head! I'm sorry I haven't updated since before Christmas...but let me tell you, these past 7 months have been quite a journey! God has been up to so much in our lives, and we haven't been allowed to share the details publicly. But here's the big news. WE KNOW WHO OUR DAUGHTER IS! I so wish I could share details and pictures, but I can't until she is legally ours. Here's what you can know: Caleb is going to be a big brother! 

We actually met our sweet princess, who we are calling Abby, one year to date from our agency receiving our application to adopt. How great is our God?!? Meeting our daughter for the first time was beyond amazing. Words cannot describe the feelings and emotions we experienced. And it was just like she knew us. Like she knew we are her Mommy and Daddy. It was unbelievable. To know that God took us halfway across the world to meet our daughter and is working all things out so we can bring her home...WOW.

As Mary Beth Chapman has said, "Adoption is even more of a miracle than birth. I tell Shaoey [my daughter], 'God has brought you from the other side of the world. I had nothing in common with you, didn't know you. They just handed you to me, and you are every bit a Chapman...God picked you to be a Chapman'."

Leaving our daughter was the most difficult thing I have ever done. It is amazing how quickly we fell in love with her and how she is ours...even though she's not home yet. I have tried to keep myself as busy as possible but this momma wants her baby home SO bad! We've been waiting since our first trip to find out when we can return. Everything is almost in order, and we hope to bring her home very soon! And yes, I will post pictures when she's home! So don't worry! There will be lots and lots of pictures!

You know, I've been reflecting a lot lately, and I stand amazed at our adoption process. It has been long and at times felt unending. But God and His plans are so much bigger and greater than my tiny mind can fathom. If you remember, our story started in October 2009 (well, for me anyway). For Austin, it began in January 2010. And for our family, we filed the first piece of paperwork in April 2010. When we felt God calling us to adopt, our son was only 8 months old. We felt God leading us to adopt from Moldova, and only 2 agencies at the time handled Moldovan adoptions. We were told we should wait another 6+ months for our son to be older so that we could be certain we would not disrupt the natural birth order. We asked that they make an exception because we knew God was in control of our daughter's age - whether she was younger or older than our son - and our agency spent a day to review everything and came back and agreed for us to proceed. People around us thought we were crazy (and honestly, more days than not we thought the same about ourselves). However, God saw the bigger picture because...get this because it's good...had we waited the 6+ months as suggested so that our son would be older, we would have missed our daughter. We. Would. Have. Missed. Her. God knew that we had to move when we did so that we would be prepared for the email about her to come through. She is in a different country than Moldova (and wouldn't you know that only a handful of agencies...including ours...work within this country...God is so good!), so we completed a whole new dossier and began to wait for the news that we could travel to meet her. Three days after receiving the travel phone call, we were on the plane headed to meet her! My husband and I stand in awe of how God works...how He knew we needed to be with this one specific agency so that when our daughter's information came through, we would receive it...and how He also knew that His timing for calling us to adopt was perfect! Oh, and if this doesn't show you just how God is in all the details, Moldova changed their laws in the fall (as we were waiting to be matched with a referral), and now the youngest child available for adoption is 2 years old (yep, that's our son's age). His ways don't always make sense to us, and if I'm learning anything in this process, it is that I must trust Him to work out all the details in the calling He's given us.

Please continue to pray for our family and especially for our Abby. We are coming to get you, Sweet Girl! We love you so much and can't wait to bring you home!