Telling the Little Ones soon...

Our little girls don't know YET that they will NOT be accompanying us to China... Poppy came along last time and she just assumes that she'll be coming this time too.

We have been waiting for the "One week to go" time frame to sit down with them and share the plan for this time. You know, if little ones are told TOO soon they have too much time to think about it and you feel that you are just prolonging their potential sadness. TOO long and they are not prepared mentally and may feel somewhat abandoned. So... this Saturday is the day. I have asked Tom to do the talking with me at his side. We expect Poppy to take it pretty hard... she is so close to me and would rather I not go ANYWHERE without her. : )

Last week she found an empty suitcase that I had laying around and she rolled it into the kitchen where I was cooking and said, "Mama, can I start to pack for China?" Ouch. I said, "Oh, it's too soon to think about that yet honey..." (liar,liar, pants on fire!).

Anyway, I sure am enjoying their sweet kisses and smells and the adorable things they say and do knowing I will be away, on the other side of the world from them, for 2 whole weeks.

I have NO anxiety about their care as the Lord has surely provided the most PERFECT situation with Austin and Meagan coming. But I know their little hearts will have an ache nevertheless... And when we return, we will return with another family member and they will need to find their "new normal" just as the rest of us will. It is all a lot for a little one to absorb. I trust the Lord will go before us and that He will minister His grace and love to their little trusting hearts. I am always comforted that in God's Sovereignty He moves in our lives in such an orchestrated manner that what is GOOD for us and Xiao Qian (this adoption) will be GOOD for ALL of us. Not easy, mind you, but VERY, very GOOD.

Here is a picture I took of Willow today. She naps while Poppy is at Kindergarten and about 20 minutes after I had tucked her in, I peeked in her room and saw her asleep but STILL holding her book up. My first thought was that she'd heard me coming and was faking being asleep! (She does that... little stinker!) :) So, I stealthily waited outside her door hoping to call her bluff and laugh with her at her silliness. Well, that little monkey really WAS asleep and she held that book up for a good 30 minutes at least! (I kept checking!)

Yesterday I made contact with the Asst. Principal of the school where Xiao Qian will attend. Tom and I had always planned on enrolling her as soon as we'd all recovered from jet lag. We want her to have the tools to learn English and become communicative with us and her new culture as soon as possible. But lately we have felt ill at ease about matriculating her so quickly. We have felt our need to just BE together for a time... a few weeks perhaps? Our local middle school has an ESL class first period and Tom and I began to wonder if they might let us take JUST that for a time. Well, the Asst. Principal was so supportive that I was literally choking back tears when we hung up. She will allow us to wade in, so to speak and bring our new daughter to just the morning session for a time. She had other helpful suggestions and ideas too and I thanked her profusely. :) This has put our hearts to rest. It will be a steep learning curve for all of us in the weeks to come.

Would you please pray for our Poppy and Willow as they hear of our plans this weekend?

Thank you our friends.

ALSO, if anyone has a question about anything regarding our adoption of Xiao Qian, just leave it on the "comments" below and we will answer it the next day... it's fun to share it all...