Overflowing

I wrote this post yesterday afternoon, but I didn't have a WiFi connection in the airport. We are now in Beijing, and our jet-lagged selves are ready to crash. We had a fun evening walking around a pedestrian mall and eating some yummy food. Tomorrow afternoon we'll take the bullet train to Li'l Bean's city. I'll post more from there.

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Our travel day is finally here! We are in Chicago, waiting to board our flight to Beijing. It’s crazy to think we’re just three days away from meeting our Li’l Bean.

As I think about the journey that has brought us to this point, the word that keeps coming to my mind is “overflowing”. I am truly overflowing with so many emotions.

I’m overflowing with excitement. I’m about to fly across the world with the man I love to meet our fourth child. Jeremy and I get to experience a different culture and see a little bit more of our amazing world together. In just hours, I’m going to eat real steamed dumplings (my pseudo-pregnancy craving)! How crazy exciting is that?!?

I’m overflowing with joy: joy that God has touched a place of brokenness in our hearts. There are days when I am simply amazed that my empty arms have been filled with three – and very soon four – beautiful children.  Something I once thought impossible, He has made possible in an incredible way. I am blessed beyond measure.

I’m overflowing with thankfulness. Guys, I don’t even have words for this one. What can I possibly write to describe friends taking our kids at the drop of a hat, strangers giving generously of their finances to support our adoption, people I haven’t seen in years telling me they are praying for our family, over $19,000 being given to our adoption fund (through grants and personal gifts) in less than three months? I’m so thankful, humbled, and amazed.

I’m overflowing with awe. When we started our process at the beginning of January, we committed to moving as quickly as possible to get our Bean home for cardiac care. In my mind, that meant staying on top of paperwork and encouraging our agency to push for quick approvals. Jeremy and I joked that May 7 would be the perfect day to leave, but we honestly thought it would be the end of June before we could travel. Through the support of some amazing FB mamas who have done this crazy expediting thing before and our agency’s willingness to advocate for our family, here we are: sitting in an airport on May 7. Our sweet Bean will be sitting in the Amazing Dr. S’s office on May 21. (This is the Amazing Dr. S who chatted with me on his cell phone for half an hour the other evening and is coming in on his week off to see Bean. He pretty much deserves his own blog post. And I’m guessing he’ll probably get one sometime soon.)

So, we’re getting on a plane in 90 minutes. And, while I’m excited about the fact that we’re traveling alone (yay, babymoon!), we are absolutely not alone on this adventure. To those of you who have prayed for our family, left notes of encouragement on FB, asked if you could help with our kids at home, given of your finances, poured concrete at Ms. Sherrill’s house, shared your adoption expertise, listened to me vent share for hours about our adoption process, you are appreciated. What you might have thought was a small gesture has been a huge blessing to our family.

Thank you for doing this crazy thing called adoption with us.