WE ARE GOING TO CHINA!!!!!!!!!

We cannot believe it!  They called Tuesday morning and we booked flights to leave next week!!!!  We will receive her on Sunday, Sept. 16!!!!  They sent pictures and updates too!  She is a sweet peanut!  Boys are so excited, Matt is, well... he's trying to keep his head connected (he's actually thrilled but needs to get his business ready to run without him for a while), and Kris is teary-eyed and busy packing!  God is so amazing!!!!  Here are a few of her newest pictures.  She is tiny and not walking yet, but the reports say she likes to fight over toys and drinks a lot of milk/formula.  We think she's lovely- even with an interesting hair cut!

No travel until September or October...

Because of paperwork and more paperwork both in the U.S. and in China, we now will have to wait until September or even October to get Ingrid.  This is really hard.  The cousins gathered for Bjorn's birthday and made this little greeting...

Agency's prediction for travel is....

"August at earliest or September or October."  That's what they told us today.  Sounds like the meteorologists- they really don't know.  :)

Waiting....

     We are hoping for an August departure to get Ingrid.  We know that time will fly quickly, but to be honest now knowing our little Ingrid is in the orphanage, the waiting is heart wrenching.  We just want her home.  I think of her being cold or hungry.  I think of her rocking herself to sleep or soothing herself because no one is there to pick her up.  No child should be cold or alone.  Every single parent knows that and it goes very deep and make me tear up to think of.

     A dear friend of mine helped me shift my mindset from an agonizing wait to a prayerful wait.  Since Ingrid is 13 hours ahead, when I think of her, I pray for her.  I pray specifically at 8:00 am, China time, that there would be a caretaker at her crib to smile at her when she wakes up.  I pray at 6:00 pm that she would be fed, and maybe even make airplane noises?  (Know this is a stretch but I pray it anyway).  I pray at 7:30 pm that someone would walk over and rub her back as she goes to sleep.  I know she is God's child first.  I know He loves her more than anyone here on earth could.  Instead of agonizing, why not trust that He can inspire one of the careworkers to hold her or see that she needs something?  So that is what we do now when we see her picture and think of her.  This whole process has humbled us into an awe of what God can do.

Here we go... attempting to update our blog!!!

Preschool is done, the boys are pretty much done with school, and I have been encouraged to update our blog.  So here we go!!! There has been a lot of paperwork filled, sent, faxed... we are getting there! We still have no indication of dates for travel other than hoping it will be July, August, or September.  We sent off visas for China, paperwork for the US govt. to let little Ingrid into the country, and a care package to her orphanage. It was a wild day sending off the package at the Fed Ex store. It was a busy afternoon with a lot of people waiting in line. As I was preparing all the items to go in the package (disposable camera, one outfit, a soft photo album with pictures of us, and a large stuffed animal that the boys were convinced she needed), I also had a note to Ingrid that the boys had helped put into the computer and then it translates the words and you print out Chinese characters. In the line at Fed Ex I noticed behind me a young couple who I assumed was speaking Chinese. When they came to the counter next to me I asked the man if he was by chance speaking Mandarin. I explained to him what we were doing and would he mind just looking if the note made sense. The first line he said looked good, "Hi Ingrid- We love you and are coming to see you soon!" The next few lines made the couple giggle. They explained it said things like "you worry us" and some negative phrases. Oh dear. The orphange caretakers would be reading this to Ingrid!  The young woman then asked if I would like her to write a note. I couldn't believe it... the chances of someone speaking the language, right there, right then, to send a sweet note to tell a child we love her?!  Fighting back tears I watched as she formed beautiful Chinese characters on a note amidst a really busy Fed Ex store. I know God has his hands in all of our lives all of the time. This was one of those marked blessings I cannot ignore. Here is the note and the picture of the package that will hopefully reach Ingrid.

The note a dear woman wrote for us.

Care package.  The boys slept with the stuffed animal so that it would "smell like them" when Ingrid got it.  That was sweet.  However, I do have to say the boys confessed that they had a lot of fun making it "smell".  How do I put it... junior high boy humor... smellls....gas.  Oh dear- poor Ingrid with these four boys?!   :)

Those were the first pictures we got of Ingrid!!!

 These were our first pictures we received after we reviewed her files and accepted the referral.

Ingrid Xinling Anderson!!!!

Yipee!  Wahoo!  We can't believe it!  What an incredible blessing from God!!!
The path to get to this point has been so interesting... many ups and downs and twists, so now we are in awe at God's hand in making this happen!!!! Here's some details:

*Ingrid's given name is Xinling which we think is pronounced (Shjin-ling).  We chose Ingrid because we love the name.  Yes, we know she will not look like other Ingrid Andersons with blonde hair and blue eyes and we are great with that.  We will celebrate her Chinese heritage as well as Norwegian, German, Swedish, and she may even be speaking French some day like her brothers!

*Ingrid was born with a heart condition called Tetrology of Fallot.  She had surgery in China at age 5 months.  She will eventually need another major heart surgery at age 11-12, but until then should be healthy.  Obviously there could be many hidden medical issues with this little sunshine, but we felt confident going forward with the process after having medical specialists review her file.

*We hope to travel in 3-4 months and we are not sure at this point who from the Anderson family is coming with us.  For sure it will be Matt and Kris traveling to China anywhere from 10-21 days.

*Praise God from whom all blessings flow! We know we have said that often these past few days as it is sinking in this incredible gift.  Tears are flowing pretty easy right now for sheer joy!  We will try and keep this blog going through the whole process!!!  Love to you from the whole family!!!