Day 5: Enough

Today, six lives will change forever. After waking up every two hours, I'm wide awake at 3:00 am. Too excited and nervous to sleep.  It's almost 4:00 now, Ava will leave Ningbo for the 2 and a half hour drive here around 6:30.  Did she go to bed knowing that today is the day?  Was she able to sleep?  Which emotion is strongest for her...excitement or fear?  It's a tie for me right now!  Does she realize that she will leave her nannies and friends forever? Can she even begin to comprehend love and family?

Wow!!!  I'm scared!!  We stepped out in faith and obedience, trusting God that Ava Frances was ours. Giving Him total control is not easy, but we see His plan for the 6 of us unfolding flawlessly.  I worry about how her personality will fit with ours. My kids are close and we have a really good system going to take care of each other.  Of course, I worry if we have enough to add one more to the mix.  Begging God to give us enough!!

Gotcha Day will be at 9 am. We will meet Ava at The Civil Affairs Building here in Hangzhou. Nancy, our guide, said the whole process will take about an hour.  Only an hour, then we leave that building as BamFam6!! Yu Fang no longer one of the 153 million orphans worldwide.  She will be our Ava Frances Fang Bamberg...daughter, sister, granddaughter, niece, cousin.  See, as I type this...God is giving me the peace I need. We are enough, she needs us and we want to be her family. It will always be enough. HE will always be enough!!!

Now I'm sobbing...time to Skype my Mama.

Pray!!!!!

Next post...AVA!!!!!!!!

Day 4: TOMORROW

In less than 24 hours, Ava will be forever ours!!! All of us are excited and also a little nervous about Gotcha Day. The bigs remember how Lily grieved. She broke our hearts with her sobs...it's terrifying to be on the brink of experiencing this with Ava.  We know that life with Lily was worth the grief and sadness of the first few days, no doubt God has the same plans for Ava.  The next several days will be tough on all 6 of us. Ava will grieve and the other 3 will be heartbroken. There is nothing that Trent and I can do to guard their hearts.  As I thought and prayed for Gotcha Day, the song Let Mercy Hold You kept coming to mind. God is whispering for me to trust Him and just be held, He is the only one that can get us through this.

Every night is holding back a sunrise,

Every storm is shadowing a blue sky,

I know it's hard,

When there's nothing that you can do,

So let mercy hold you

There's a cross, reaching to the furthest place,

There's a love nothing in the world can change,

In it all, one thing will carry you through,

So let mercy hold you.

Ava's adoption has proven over and over again that nothing is impossible with God. What an amazing promise!!  TOMORROW, we will begin the next adventure in our lives, fully trusting that God will hold us.  

We spent our last day as BamFam5 touring West Lake.  It was a great day...

We got Lily and Ava flower crowns and we begged Mash into modeling Ava's

Our last pictures as BamFam5!!

Day 3: Take a Long Look

Today, we went to the Hangzhou History Museum. 

We traded vans today...getting ready for our bigger family :)

Moon Gate

Shopping!

The time we spend in China will never be forgotten. Trent and I are also praying that somehow our visit will make a small difference to the people we encounter here. Since landing in Beijing,  we've gotten lots of attention. Many are interested in our beautiful blonde Mary Ashtyn, our pale skin, our southern accents...especially Reece's. Our sweet little Lily has drawn the most attention. People stop dead in their tracks and stare for a really, really long time.  It was really uncomfortable at first and I worried it would upset Lily. Luckily, she isn't affected much. This Mama's heart has been breaking though.

We talked about it today and realized that the Chinese don't encounter children in wheelchairs. They 

are the abandoned babies, the ones who live in orphanages. It's our prayer now that people WILL stop and stare long enough to see the smart, vibrant little girl who is so much more than the wheelchair 

that they see.   It's starting to happen and  we see faces soften and little smiles as people watch our Silly Lily. 

Today, as Lily played at the museum, one of the workers stopped to help her. Our guide said he asked if Lily could read. She explained that she spoke and read English since she had been adopted almost 3 years ago. As he continued to watch her figure out the game without being able to read the Chinese instructions, he quickly told our guide that she was very smart!!  It thrilled me. I have honestly wanted to stop and scream at people to get to know my baby before they judged her....finally, this
man did. He saw the worth of our daughter.  The smart, sweet, absolutely perfect child that God created. It is our prayer that Lily will plant a seed of tolerance and acceptance in at least one person.  Now, we want them to take a long look and see what we see...a perfect child that deserves a life. Here in China, I'm even more thankful that God kept Lily alive and safe for seven years before He gave her to us.

Day 2: Hangzhou

We woke up Saturday morning feeling so much better!!  And starving!  All 5 of us were excited to get to the breakfast buffet in the hotel.  It's a great combination of American and Chinese food...fried rice, noodles, pancakes, hash browns and tons of other things. Lily was very excited about the fried dumplings!!

We rested most of the day until meeting our guide, Nancy, to get some groceries and look around Hangzhou.

 Hangzhou

Our hotel, The Merchant Marco

Nancy & BamFam5 checking out Hangzhou

Shopping for snacks...excited to find our favorites from Lily's trip!!

Nancy, our guide

First dinner in Hangzhou...if you can't eat with chopsticks, just pose with them!

We woke up bright and early Sunday morning after going to bed before 8 pm. After a huge breakfast, we are waiting to meet Nancy and go to some museums. 

Breakfast Buffet

We sat at a table for six...in only 2 days, the empty chair will hold sweet Ava!!!!

We are getting anxious to finally know how this sweet girl will fit into our family. We are ready to watch God's plan unfold. 

Day 1: Travel

We left our home early Thursday morning(5/29) around 4:00 am  on our journey to Ava!! We traveled for over 24 hours and it was CRAZY.  Lily's manual wheelchair ended up with a flat, Reece completely ran over a sleeping Chinese man while pushing Lily in her chair, Lily lost her microphone (like her security blanket...if you know us you understand how huge this is), we almost caused a major collision on a Beijing escalator, and I got locked out of our hotel room without pants (only for a few seconds and there were only a few women who saw me and my shirt was really long). It's been an interesting 2 days!!!

 Very thankful that we had our own screens and lots of movie choices!

Sleeping Beauty :)

Excited!!!!

4 hour layover in Beijing 

Sooooo tired

Boarding our final flight to Hangzhou...bigs were exhausted. 

After we landed in Hangzhou, we were met by a guide, Bing, and a driver. We made it to the hotel after an hour drive and got to sleep around midnight. After 29 hours of traveling, we were pitiful. We slept great and had a big breakfast at the hotel. We're waiting to meet Nancy, our guide for the week, to do some sight seeing.

Ava will be forever ours in 3 days!!!  Keep on praying...we need our prayer warriors.

Done

Everything seems impossible, until it is done. Y'all, it's DONE!  In a few hours, we fly out of Birmingham on our way to our sweet Ava. A year ago, she was an impossible dream. Tomorrow, she is reality!!!

I could type all night and never do justice to how thankful we are to each of you who prayed, encouraged, and loved us throughout this adoption. Every donation meant so much to us.  There are just no words.  Know that as we finally wrap our arms around her, each of you played a part in bringing our family together.   We are humbled by the support.  I will always remember and be thankful!

We know so many will pray us home over the next 18 days. Pray for Mash, Reece, and Lily on these long flights...that they can rest and stay healthy. Remember sweet Ava every day, that God is preparing her heart for our family.  Trent and I appreciate every prayer.  Ava has shown us what faith can do...we know God is holding us.

This is our last night in our house as the BamFam5!!  I am amazed by what God has DONE!!

One Week

It's finally quiet at our house.  Mary Ashtyn is in her room, Trent and Reece are playing the X-box, and Lily is sleeping on the couch beside me.  We sat outside and watched a meteor shower tonight.  I realized as we sat outside in the dark, this is our last Friday night at home as BamFam5.

A week from now, we'll be in Hangzhou...Ava's provincial city.  We'll land around 10:00 pm after traveling for more than 24 hours.  As we lay our exhausted heads down this time next week, the youngest Bamberg will be sleeping 2.5 hours away, finally in the same time zone.  We'll be in the city where we'll finally meet the daughter that we've dreamed about and prayed for since this time last year.

We found out today that Ava will not have to be transferred back to her original orphanage!!  She'll get to stay in Ningbo until she is forever ours on Tuesday, June 3.  We already see God moving and taking care of sweet Ava.  Please keep praying for her as she loses the only life she knows but gains the family that she longs for.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 

 Philippians 4:6