Pictures, pictures, pictures

Hello dear friends! I spent as much time as I could throughout today uploading some pictures onto the blog. When you get to the bottom of the blog page, just click on "older posts," and you will be bumped to the next page of photos. I hope you can get a glimpse of how wonderful our new daughter is. Praise God, she is doing so well. I took Charis to Kohl's yesterday. She has definite opinions...the more frilly, the better! I picked out an adorable pair of grey flared pants with pink pin stripes. In response, I got a big head shake "no" with the most wrinkled up nose! I assumed she did not like my choice in pants. That happended more than once. I finally told her, using the Chinese words for America, "Mei Guo" and gave her the thumbs up sign. In other words, "In America, these are cool." So, she shook her head "yes" and made an effort to smile like she liked them! What a sweet heart she has. After a couple hours shopping and trying on clothes, we stopped by her Nanny and Poppy's. She was so happy to see them, and of course they were very happy to see her. The neat thing was that after about an hour there, Charis looked at me and asked about her Daddy, big brother and little sister. She was ready to go home and see them. When we pulled into the garage, she leaped out of the car screaming their names. It was so precious. I think she is starting to like us!

Church this weekend was incredible. Worship was special, just as I imagined it. I stood Charis on the chair next to me so she could see. I held her around her waist. She held me around my neck. I think the third song's lyrics included, "Oh no, You never let go, through the calm, through the storm... Oh no, You never let go, You never let go of me." As I held onto my daughter and sang those words, God just blessed me with the truth that He has His arms around Charis all the time and indeed, He will never let go of her...or me. We are all so blessed to be known and loved and adopted by God, our heavenly Father. He is soooooo good. Charis enjoyed meeting everyone and gave away many hugs.

A gentleman at church who knew Chinese attempted to tell Charis that this was where her father worked. Her response to him was, "Who is my father?" That is telling, isn't it? This little girl has been taught the Chinese word for Dad, but she has no concept of what a father is or who her father is. We of course told her that her "Baba" (dad) was her father. And I look forward to telling her about her heavenly Father. Scott will play such a huge role in being a tangible representation of our God to his daughter. How can she understand a Father's love from someone she cannot see if she can't even comprehend the love from her earthly father that she can see? I am so glad that our Lord reveals Himself to people as we will need His help to communicate who He is. What a privilege to be given this responsibilty and opportunity with this precious little girl.

Charis is so amazing. She is so brave. I can't wait for the rest of you to meet her. My other children are doing well, although Faithy is struggling to share her mommy and daddy...and when we are approached by so many people (like at church), it is hard for Faith to manage all that attention...even though it is given to her sister and to her. Keep praying for all of us. School starts for Charis next Monday...I homeschool and have the kids enrolled in a school for homeschoolers on Mondays and Thursdays. We put up the Christmas tree tomorrow and thta should be really fun. We are almost back to a normal time schedule with our sleep...yeah! I think that about covers everything. Much love! To God be the glory, great things He has done!