Saturday's Visit

We had a fun visit with Jenny today.  She was very active and showing a lot of personality.  It was a real joy for us to hear her first giggles.  She loved when Tom would play "airplane" with her or bounce her.  She definitely knows which of the toys are her favorites.  She loves the toy camera that plays music and has a flashing light.  Tom and I were both giving her kisses on her hands and soft, little cheeks.  She caught right on and started giving Tom kisses on his cheek.

 
We brought little cookies for her again.  She loves her snack time!  The time always goes too quickly when we are visiting her.  We won't be seeing her tomorrow :(  The driver needs a day off.  We are looking forward to Monday when we will see her again.

She was making lots of cute faces tonight.  Here they are...

We struggled through another day of not being able to communicate with anyone.  In general, people are very kind and try to help us the best they can.  Not many of us stop and think about how important being able to communicate with other people is.  We couldn't even order ourselves a pizza today for lunch.   Luckily, Tom saw the pizza man taking out a pie that looked good, so he pointed towards it to say "gimme one of those".  It ended up being really good, but it is still strange not being able to read the menu or ask for things.  Tonight in McDonald's the manager brought over a big laminated  menu for us so that we could point to things and the server just entered the order into the cash register.  I can't wait to get home and go to the grocery store and a restaurant and talk with every employee I see!

Tomorrow we are going to Mass at a Catholic church which is in walking distance from our humble abode.  Depending on what Mass we attend, we have the chance of hearing it in three different languages (none of which we will know).  This entire trip is an experience we will never forget for so many reasons.

We hope all of you have a peaceful Sunday.  We will post more Jenny updates on Monday.

Thank you all for following our journey and for the prayers that are sustaining us during this time.  We are most appreciative.

Editoral Notes:

1. There is so much happening we are sometimes posting more then once a day.  Use the "Older Posts" link at the bottom of the page or "Blog Archive" in the upper left to see other posts you may have missed.
2. The photo album of most of our pictures of visits with Jenny and views of the country and city are available at Adoption Trip 1.  The pictures in these posts barely scratch the surface of available cuteness and things we are taking in.

Using the power of music - Thanks to Mark Schultz

God uses the power of music to change hearts and minds. I know because I have seen it happen more times then I can count, and because it happened to me.

Besides my wife and children, I need to thank another person for making this adoption journey possible.  His name is Mark Schultz.  He wrote a song called “What It Means To Be Loved”.



This song broke down every barrier I ever built to prevent me from following God’s will to places I didn’t think I could go.  The song grabbed me by the heart, ripped me out of the selfish place I was in, and changed me forever.

It did so by reminding me so powerfully of a few simple things I should have known all along:

1. The value of life is not determined by the length of life, or by apparent “quality of life” in the world’s terms

2. It’s all in God’s hands and nothing we plan for, or against can change that

3. Things that seem hard at first are blessings in disguise – it is the only way to grow

4. Faithfulness to His calling is always rewarded – it is up to us to open our hearts and recognize how – or be satisfied realizing we’ll know when He brings us home

Mark – Thanks for opening my eyes.  Because of you a little girl will soon have a loving family.