Abundant Kindness from Friends

Our travel plans are really coming along! We'll be posting our daily itinerary soon.  Heather spent quite a bit of time today looking at hotels, train schedules, shuttles and private vans.

We've had several surprise blessings from friends that have just overwhelmed us. We can't believe the support we've had from friends throughout this process.  It has been one of the hardest things we've ever done and to have these little blessings a;ong the way is incredibly encouraging and humbling. First of all, every time someone asks us how the process is going it means so much to us. We see little Helen's picture everywhere we go in our house, talk every day about what it will be like to have her here, and even cry sometimes because it's so hard to have someone from our family missing.  Just to know that people take the time to acknowledge what we're going through means a lot.

God really knocked our socks off by blessing us with friends offering to watch our kids while we're gone (and mow our yard, water our garden, drive us to the airport, etc).  And to top it all off, we had two families offer to watch our kids The. Whole. Time.  It will be so nice to not have them be passed from house to house throughout our 15 day trip.  We can never repay such kindness, but we can pray that the Lord will bless you for it.

In addition, we've had some very special friends even give us gifts for Helen. We thought we could share those here just to show how much they mean to us.

Here we have the very first gift Helen received, a pair of squeaky shoes from a fellow adoptive mom that has become a good friend. She got them in China when she adopted her daughter. The shirt and book were a gift from another friend on Helen's first birthday. That one had me (Heather) in tears :)

This is an incredibly sweet gift from a friend that has done a LOT of traveling.

We got this in the mail a few days ago, and I don't even have words to describe how it makes me feel. Overwhelmed with gratitude. Oh, and it was anonymous, which drives me mad because I can't thank them properly!!!  Whoever you are, thank you, from the bottom of my heart. 

These pjs are so adorable that Ella wishes she could fit into them. They've already been washed and packed in our suitcase to bring to China :)

This one blows my mind. A friend from church spent 25-30 hours on this quilt! Not only that, but she took the time to go with me to the fabric store to pick out the fabrics I wanted because I had no idea what to look for. It matches Helen's room perfectly and will be such a treasured item.

We are so blessed. Undeserving, but blessed.

"Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Luke 6:38