Please pray for our little one

Last night I spent an hour and a half talking with Trina, Esther's mom, who had some more info to share with us about Charis. Some of it is very personal and I don't want to post it to honor our little girl's privacy. Here are some things I can tell you. Esther and Charis slept on bunk beds across from one another. The bunks beds are green (the color of Charis' and Faith's room by the way!) and wooden. Charis sleeps on the top bunk. I also found out that the girls have 2 nannies...one for daytime and one for night. The night time nanny sleeps in a bed perpendicular to the 2 sets of bunk beds in the girls' room. I also found out that on occasion, Charis would poke at Esther during school (Charis sat behind Esther). This made me laugh because that sounds like something a Chapman kid would do! The ornriness gene just seems to find its way into our family...must be through Scott (Ha!).

On a more serious note, someone told Charis, Esther and Jeremy that American parents hit their children if they don't get straight A's in school. This was very worrisome to Esther and I am sure it is something Charis is worried about, too. And little Esther asked Trina and Rod why they abandoned her and took so long to come back for her. She thought they were her birth parents and for some reason left her at the orphanage for 7 years. This broke my heart. I don't know if Charis and Jeremy think the same thing, but I am so glad to know so that we can make sure Charis understands that we have not abandoned her in the past and we will not abandon her in the future.

Please pray for our little one...and for Esther and Jeremy. Pray that Charis will bond with us quickly...that she will open herself up to us to receive the love we have for her. Pray that she will trust us and in time give us love in return. Pray that she will not be overcome by fear. Pray that she will believe...believe that she is lovable, believe that she has hope and believe that she is safe. Pray that she will love her brother and sister and that they will love her.

And finally, pray for Scott's visa...there are new rules for clergy entering China and once we get his visa we only have 30 days rather than 90 to enter the country. What this means is that my visa can be processed now (actually it already has been) and I am good to go to China anytime over the next 3 months. But we can't apply for Scott's visa until we know our exact travel dates because if we process it now and we can't travel until 31 days from now, Scott won't be allowed in the country. With Faith, when we received our travel approval, we were given 4 days to get to China. If we are in the same situation this time, being given such little travel notice, we might run into a bind to get his visa quickly enough...and that's assuming they won't have any problems with his application. Ultimately, I don't expect this to be any big deal, but I would sure appreciate some prayer about it!

We are finding strength and joy in Jesus. We know He is leading us in this and that all the details will fall into place. We know He is watching over Charis and that He wants her to be our daughter... which means He wants us to be her parents. And God will give us what we need when we need it. We are blessed in the Lord and our cup overflows.