I just wanted to share a little bit about why ALL of our donations matter!

I Praise God for The Shepherd's Crook ministry and Reece's Rainbow, which had substantial grants in place for Anah. Without them, I don't believe we would have gone forward with her adoption since we started hers while we were still in the middle of Jonathan's and didn't even have all the money we needed for his at the time. Without the grants we would have felt as if we were taking our limited funds away from getting Jonathan home. But the grants gave us a grace period before we would need any cash towards Anah's adoption. This allowed us to finish Jonathan's adoption and then continue with Anah's.

I just want people to realize the difference their donations can make. They may seem small and like they won't matter, but every little bit helps, truely! It all adds up and can literally enable a family to bring home their child. It wasn't that we didn't trust God to provide for both adoptions, but it just did not seem "fair" to Jonathan to start Anah's when we didn't even have him home. But the grants covered a great deal of the initial things we needed to pay for Anah, enabling us to get the funds needed to bring Jonathan home, THEN be able to get the remaining funds needed for Anah.

In any case, our darling daughter is home, playing in the living room with all kinds of toys. Enjoying many of the toddler toys of Jonathan, since she didn't get to play with any/many toys in the orphanage. She is learning cause and effect and will progress rapidly through each phase of development. She is beautiful, curious, loving and strong willed (read slightly stubborn, lol). She is a very obedient child and I pray we will teach her that her obedience should be as a result of her love for Christ. All this will take time, as there is a total language barrier, but we are doing well with signs, pointing, directing etc.

She has bonded well with me and is developing her bond with Daddy, big brother, middle brother and little brother. She has met her older sister, but has not spent much time with her yet. She will meet her oldest sister in January when we go to PA to visit her and Bob's Mom. She has met her Granny and Granda and will get to know them better on Christmas day. We got home late Sat. evening and with the jet lag and having traveled for 36 hours, we decided church would be too much for her on Sunday. But tonight we are going to our Christmas Eve service and she will meet her church family for the first time. There has been so many people in prayer for her. I want her to realize that she is a special gift of God and that she has worth as His child. She now has an earthly father that she is getting to know, we will help her to know her Heavenly Father who loved her and knew her before time, that made her perfect in His eyes.

I'm sure there will be challenges along the way, but isn't there with every child? I just pray that we respond in the best way for Anah and the way that God wants us to. Thank you all for your prayers, I could feel them when I was in VN and I ask for them still for Anah's transition. I know that is what is helping her, and all of us, as we come together as a family.

Have a blessed Christmas, I know we will!