QQ

In one week, we leave for China!!!  Ava's Gotcha Day is June 3.  We are so ready to meet this little girl that we've loved for months.  On Tuesday night (5/20), we got to QQ with Ava.  It's like Skype and it was awesome!!!

 

There is no way to describe how it felt when we opened the video chat and she saw us.  She started smiling and waving and her face lit up when she saw Lily.  They just looked at each other and waved and waved.  Later, she asked the translator if Lily was a little Chinese girl.  It was so cute!!  She also saw her gu gu and asked if he was from Korea :)  The translator helped her tell Mary Ashtyn in English that she was beautiful.

We got to talk with her for almost an hour.  Throughout the call, she would throw her head back and laugh...it was adorable.  She told us that her favorite color is pink and asked us to bring her pink clothes.  Obviously, Mama has that covered!!  She also asked us to bring her a baby doll and barbies.  Lily is thrilled to hear that she finally has a sibling that WANTS to play.  Lily asked her about her favorite animal and she said she loves birds.  Ava asked if we had pets and we told her about the 2 dogs and our fish.  She was quick to tell us that she liked fish, but she didn't comment on the dogs.

She told us that her favorite foods are noodles, meat and KFC!!!  She was so sweet and thoughtful, she asked us what we liked to eat and then said she would do her best to eat American food.  She also asked if we thought she was beautiful and shook her little ponytail to make sure we saw it.  She looked at her sisters and told us she wanted to let her hair grow long like them.  We all assured her that she is beautiful with long or short hair.  Mary Ashtyn asked her if she could play with her hair and Ava just beamed.

I'm not sure I'll sleep well until Ava is in my arms.  After this video chat, I am just too excited.  She was absolutely perfect.  She told us several times that she's excited about having a big family and can't wait to meet us.  We are so ready to have this precious girl in our family.

Love that you can see Trent's Grace for Orphans shirt reflection and see Lily and him smiling at Ava

Counting the days until we are officially BamFam6....12 to go!!!

TA!

Ava Frances Bamberg is coming HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

We got the call around 1:30 this afternoon to let us know that we have Travel Approval.  WOW!!  We only waited four days from Article 5 pickup.  We are waiting to confirm our Consulate Appointment, if we get the anticipated appointment...Ava will be forever ours on June 3!!!! 

Every great work of God first is impossible, then it is difficult, then it is done!! 

 

 

 

Final Update

As of yesterday, we are waiting for our Travel Approval/TA!!!  Our Article 5 was processed and picked up from the Consulate yesterday (May 12).  Travel Approval takes around a week, so I was doing my best not to obsess about checking my email today...there will be no news this week.  As I got in my car to go to a meeting this morning, I checked my phone and was SHOCKED...

 Yu Fang final update for the Bamberg family

What??  The FINAL update comes right before travel.  I've seen other families post their final updates and I wondered if we'd ever get to this point.  By the absolute grace of God...we are here!!!

 

Doesn't this smile just keep getting better??  

Pray every day with us for Ava.  So much change is coming, so very soon!  A day that we are longing for is also the day that this sweet baby will lose EVERY thing that she knows.  We love her already, and it breaks our hearts to think about how scary this is for her.

Pray we get Travel Approval quickly and we get a consulate appointment in early June.  These appointments fill up quickly, but we want to get Ava and come home to have the entire summer to get her adjusted.  Please say a few tiny prayers that we are fully funded, still trusting God on this one.  

Many of you have taken this journey with us before during Lily's adoption.  So many prayed for us and we felt every one.  Pray us to China and back, friends...start now and don't stop until Ava is HOME!!  It's so close and we can't do it without our prayer warriors.   

Love you all!!!

HIS Plans

We are weeks away from our sweet Ava and we are getting so excited.  It's hard to believe that we'll have four children by this summer!!!  It's really obvious with this adoption that a lot of people just don't get us...some of the comments we've gotten have been CRAZY.  It's funny to watch mouths drop open when we tell people about Ava!  It really gets interesting when we tell them that she has been diagnosed with Muscular Dystrophy.

There is no way to explain our heart for orphans and adoption.  It started 15 years ago when Mary Ashtyn was placed in my arms.  I held this 7 month old, 12 pound, tiny girl and knew everything was right in my world.  Adoption for us started as a selfish desire to be parents.  Spending a week in a Russian orphanage as we waited to get custody of our Mary Ashtyn, changed something inside of me.  God broke my heart for the sweet children with their little noses pressed against the window of that orphanage who watched us climb into a van with our dream come true.  I still close my eyes and can see them.  On our first night as a family of three, Trent and I stood on the balcony in the early morning, too excited to sleep, and talked about God's plan for us.  We agreed that He meant for us to do more than just adopt Mary Ashtyn and be done.

Mary Ashtyn's first night HOME

Two years later, we spent time in a Kazakhstan orphanage as we added Reece to our family.  Broken for the orphans we left behind, the ones they wouldn't let us comfort or even touch as they cried in their cribs.  God blessed us beyond anything we could ever imagine with our bigs.  They were the babies we had asked for, the as healthy and as young as possible children that we wanted. Mary Ashtyn and Reece fulfilled every dream, every prayer we ever begged God for during the years of infertility.

Reece, forever ours

Ten years later, God ran us over with Lily.  The minute I saw her duck walk across that room in her Chinese orphanage, I knew without a doubt she was mine.  God has never told me anything as clearly as He did with Lily.  At a point in our lives that we shouldn't have even been considering another child, God gave her to us.  Adoption changed for us through Lily...no more selfish desires to be parents.  God asked us to bring home a seven year old who couldn't walk and He gave us complete peace about making her ours.  Through a devastating diagnosis that should cause a lot of worry and anxiety, God has shown us how to live in absolute joy!

Lily JOY

As we advocated for "Frannie", our hearts grieved for this little girl.  She had a diagnosis that no one would even consider...a diagnosis that changed our lives for the better.  God was whispering that she was ours, but we refused to listen.  As He nudged us completely out of our comfort zone, God was teaching us another lesson through our children...complete and total trust in HIM.  Ava's adoption has shown us how God will be faithful to us if we remain obedient to Him.

Ava, trusting God to bring her HOME!

This post started as an attempt to explain why we adopt and where are hearts are.  Just realized there is no way to explain it.  It took God our entire lives to get us here.  At this point, we are doing our best to follow His perfect plans for us. We don't expect to to join hands and skip off into the sunset as soon as we have Ava...but we know God has huge blessings in store for BamFam6!  

Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure. 

Psalm 147:5

Almost HOME

TODAY, our Article 5 was dropped off at the Consulate in China.  All of our paperwork will be processed and in exactly 2 weeks, it will be picked up and we will be waiting on Travel Approval (TA).  Once we get this approval, our Consulate Appointment (CA) will be made.  This appointment is the last step before we are able to bring Ava HOME, HOME, HOME!!!  Everything happens really quickly from this point.  Ava's Gotcha Day will probably be in early June.

 Every great work of God, first is impossible, then it is difficult and then it is DONE!

Please pray with us for Ava.  Pray that she feels the comfort of the Holy Spirit over the next few weeks as her life begins to change.  Pray that her caregivers help prepare her to join our family.  Also, pray that all 6 of us stay healthy.  We found out yesterday that Lily has strep, Trent is still recovering from back surgery, the bigs are both starting to cough, and I'm just at that panic point where I know I should have started packing weeks ago.  Just pray...A LOT!

Still waiting to post that we are fully funded, but we aren't there yet.  Whisper a prayer that we'll be able to travel as soon as we get approval.  

Our journey to this sweet girl has been amazing!  We stepped out in complete faith, totally trusting God to bring Ava home.  He has shown us with each step that His plans for us are perfect.  Even when the doubt crept in, He whispered to keep going.  And we're going y'all...all the way to China, to bring her HOME!  

BamFam Update

I spent some time this afternoon reading my old blog posts.  Over the past several months, I have done a terrible job of documenting us.  So, I wanted to try to catch up a little....

Mary Ashtyn is in the last few months of her first year of high school.  I am still trying to figure out how this is happening so fast.  In January, she made high school majorette for her second year!!  We are looking forward to her marching for the Purple Pride again during her sophomore year.  Mash is our determined, head strong child.  She sets goals for herself and does what it takes to reach them.  Late nights of homework, hours of twirling to the point of jammed fingers and bruises all while having her phone glued to her hand!!  LOL...she is also a typical teenager!  Some days we're not sure we can put up with her another second, but other days she amazes us with her commitment to Christ and her strong convictions.

Reece will be 13 in June!!!  He is developing his own style and doesn't really care what other people think...love this about him!  Spiky hair, red Converses, anything goes.  He still has the sweet servant's heart and would do anything for his sisters.  Bless him, he's about to have one more and I know he'll be the same way with sweet Ava.  More and more often, we are seeing glimpses of the teenager that he is becoming...can we really handle two???  He's had some major changes in the last few months.  He transferred to a different school after Christmas, something he's always wanted to do.  He now gets to ride to school with his Daddy and Lily.  I have missed him horribly since he was at one of the schools that I do speech therapy, but he loves the change and I'm adjusting.

He is also NOT playing baseball this year.  Although the extra time at home is fabulous, I do miss my Reece man on the field.  Loved watching him on first base and on the mound.  Love this boy and his big heart!

Lily is now serving her second term as the Alabama Goodwill Ambassador for the Muscular Dystrophy Association!!  She has the unique opportunity to meet people from all over the state and help spread awareness for Muscular Dystrophy.  It is such a blessing to be able to share her story and work with the fabulous ladies in this picture to help kids throughout Alabama LIVE with MD.

She is our Silly Lily...still bossy, sassy, and full of personality.  When I tuck her in at night, she tells me "you're the best mommy I ever had...I'm going to keep you forever".  Yep, she still melts my heart and I still have a really hard time telling her no :)

At this point, you know as much about this sweet thing as we do!  You probably haven't zoomed in on every single picture of her or watched her video over a million times like I have :)  I am longing for the day that she is ours and all my questions are answered.  If she is half as sweet as her smile, we'll be fine.

It really looks like we'll travel in early June!!  As we get closer to travel, Ava needs our prayer warriors.  Over the next few weeks, I'm going to try to post some specific things that we need you to pray about with us.  The most urgent request is that Ava will remain at the Ningbo City SWI until she is with us.  She was originally in Yu Yao and was transferred to Ningbo around 7 years ago to receive physical therapy.  Chinese policy is for the children to return to the original SWI (orphanage) before adoption.  How scary for this baby!!  She is 9 years old and will be hit with so many changes in the next few months.  We don't want her to have to leave the only home she has ever known until she is in our arms and we can comfort her.  Please pray with us that Ava stays in Ningbo. 

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.  (Mark 11:24)

Help Lily Win!!

Lily is in a contest to win a wheelchair accessible van!!  It would be such a blessing to our family.  We have a lift on the outside of our van, but we can't always transport her chair due to the weather.  We had an accessible van on Lily's Make A Wish trip and it was so much easier and convenient.  When Ava gets home (SOON!!!), we'll have two little girls to get loaded.  If things change with Ava's mobility, we could be facing transporting two power chairs or possibly a scooter.  WE NEED THIS VAN!!

Please follow the link below and sign up to vote for Lily.  It takes a few seconds to sign up and you will receive your password by e-mail.  You can vote once per day through May 9. 

CLICK HERE TO VOTE FOR LILY

Thanks for helping our sweet girl!