Ten Days.

It's been ten days since Paul left home for China to bring Gates home. How can so much human experience be crammed into just ten days?! God's hedge of protection around my emotions has been blessed and stregthened by your loving prayers on our behalf. I can really see what the Lord meant when he said, "Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." When you let go it's hard to take credit for anything. You know?

One year ago this month June 6, 2008 we were approved as prospective parents for this amazing little boy. I'm just joe schmoe every day citizen. During this journey I have: Recieved calls from the U.S. House of Representatives while I was in the bathroom at Walmart. Had a package delivered from Berlin, Germany from the Central German Authority in the middle of making pancakes. I have been in regular communication with my Senator and Congressman and had breakfast on the Feds at IHOP. I'm not kidding. Six field officers with the Dept. of Homeland Security know me on a first name basis.

I took a road trip to the United States Citizens and Immigration Services in Tampa during a Hurricane watch along with Grandma, Paul and two of our Kids the day after our oldest had her bridal shower. Note: Preparing for said shower, Dad burned two fingers on a bunsen burner and Grandma sliced hers open on some heavy duty foil. Did I mention the USCIS appointment was to give digital fingerprints to the FBI?

I've hosted social workers for home studies, lunch and over nighters. I've completed hours of parenting course work on adoption of older/special needs children with PTSD online and participated in webinars involving government paperwork. Do you get how nuts that is? Webinar (duh? what?) on new forms created that actually require you to fill them out as proof that you filled out the old forms. It took us five families and our agency rep an hour and a half just to get everybody hearing each other. Ha! I stopped trying to understand each form the day I had to send in a copy of a paper that I signed stating under oath that my paperwork was original. Really.

I've also watched an entire community come together to volunteer away their hard earned down time to Bring Gates Home. George stood in the sweltering sun grilling hot dogs during hot dog thursdays funraiser at Keller Williams. Scores of KW employees supported Cyndi and Joan as they headed up a yard sale, cinco demayo party, car wash and phone donation campaigns. The KW Cares team invited our family to a big meeting where they presented the money raised. Some of the yard sale cash was in coin in a ziplock bag. Up in front of fifty or so realtors Bridger raised the bag and said, "I'm RICH!" We set up a big hot dog, nachos stand and Bridger's lemonade/ sno cone stand at Next Level Church's 7th Anniversary Tailgate Party early one Sunday. Paul and I watched some major players in the tailgating bbq world set up the best tailgate EVER right across from us. We thought, well we can't really offer anything like what they have. Turns out they were giving away pounds and pounds of bbq and ran over to us for a donation jar to help us bring Gates home! Every hour or so they would come dump their jar into Bridger's lemonade stand jar... that's how our 4 year old raised $1,500 selling lemonade and sno cones to children at the tail gate! I'm so glad those awesome people won the "Golden Habachi"
they even used their live professional band to regularly announce our cause bringing more people over to our van and stand! Class act those guys! We made almost all that we needed for the China plane tickets there and back, then there was a last minute check and a drum roll that brought in the rest! Cypress Lake Prebyterian Church supported us as well in many wonderful ways. So many precious people, some members of our family and some we've never met and many in between who heard about our Gates and dug deep into their own need and shared an offering toward God in bringing Gates home! We can never thank you enough. But may God reward you abundantly!

All of this lives in my heart along with the faces of my beautiful children:

Aimee's profile sitting in her rocking chair quietly hand stitching the blanket she made for Gates... just like the one she sewed Bridge before he came home only Gates's has horses because he liked the rocking horse at the orphanage. Seeing Bridger bent over his car wash poster drawing with a red marker that had rubbed all over his hands. He told me it read, "Bridger loves you Gates. Please come home because we are having a car wash for you." Chari's smiles as she held up cute little outfits and a bucket hat she found for Gates while shopping on her lunch break one day. Brian patiently sitting under an indoor umbrella at an airport table coaching Paul through skyping from an airport broadband signal. What an awesome group of brothers and sisters this little guy has waiting to love him! And I just can't say enough about his Daddy!