Theme Verse

Today's theme verse is "The one who calls you is faithful and He will do it." 1 Thessalonians 5:24

'Operation China' is underway and the 'to do' list is, well, long! What a day today was...

There were money things that needed to get in order - and are now well underway by His provision - we will continue in faith and praise Him!
Elle's passport was needed for a Wednesday deadline - and arrived in the mail today - He is able!
Zane's care package needed letter translation and labeling - and was supplied by a friend, Mei, from church - God's people are amazing!
Baby room is currently non-existent - but Zane's bedding arrived giving us a thrill of what is to come - thank you Father!
Unexpected gifts from the mother of dear friends were opened - and this blesses us so!
And, a friend sent me part of an email I sent her back in 2006 - "I'm so over the top, gone, in love with this little girl! I can't stop looking at her! She's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen! I think I've completely lost it. I can't do anything without thinking of her every second. I can't hardly stand this wait - it's completely cruel!!!!!!" - and then God goes and does it again with our precious Zane!

Everything continues to unfold because of His graciousness and provision - so when my SIL reminded me of this scripture - I claimed it as today's theme verse! Can't wait to see what he'll do tomorrow! :)

Man vs. Mole

Well, it took 6 hours, 11 digs (revealing 16 tunnels) and half of the WaterOne city storage tank, but I finally flooded him out of his Terra haven. I found him above-ground, his front half completely soaked, wandering aimlessly under the slide on Elle's playground. I picked him up with the shovel and put him in a bucket to show Kate & Elle, then went inside to eat dinner.

While eating, the thrill of victory faded, and I started to feel a little sorry for the poor guy -- the thought of whacking a blind, wet, defenseless animal with a shovel didn't seem right, soooo, I decided to take him to a field on the other side of Hwy7 and let him go. Out there, it is not physically possible for him or his offspring to ever make it back to our fertile soil.

And that's what I did. He was halfway into the ground by the time I stood upright.

So tonight I'll rest a little easier, knowing that the yard can begin healing, and that I was the better man... :D - Eric

And I (Kate) am glad this is finally over! Time to get ready for Zane and China!

Doing the RA happy dance & introducing our Zane!

We are completely AWED and thrilled - WE RECEIVED OUR REFERRAL APPROVAL (RA/LOA - 3:47 p.m.) from Ch*na today!!!!!! It has been just 46 days since we first laid eyes on our Zane and were prepared to wait at least 1-2 months longer. The arrival of our approval has our heads spinning! My SIL, Alicia, has been fervently praying that we would be in China for Zane's 1st birthday, September 1. I told her that this would be miraculous and that she should start fasting every day for that kind of speed! :) We have been encouraged by her enthusiasm and faithfulness and blessed by God's graciousness. We don't know why this happened so quickly....maybe because our dossier has been in Ch*na for a year and a half and had made it through some review or was higher up in the stack (???) or maybe because we are under the old adoption agreement vs. the new (Hague) one, but all honor and glory and praise goes to our heavenly Father who has every part of this journey, our paperwork and our boy in the palm of His hand. "The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps." Proverbs 16:9

So without further ado...here is our boy, Zane Leland Wolfe!




And here are those dimples I blogged about... :)



We think we can see one on his right cheek and then there's a shadow of one on his left -- we will know, very soon! Isn't he just a handsome little guy - such a sweet face, happy eyes and a good heart - that's what we see in our boy! We are so very proud of him!

Because Elle and I are out-of-town visiting friends, Eric will sign papers arriving via FedEx tomorrow, then overnight everything to me, I'll sign and then overnight everything to our agency for the Friday deadline to get out to China this week. Then, we wait again -- waiting for travel approval. Our agency rep said that we should prepare for August travel and the latest being the first part of September.

It was a bummer to not be with Eric today - but we rejoiced over our cell phones and sat in stunned silence too! Elle and I took a pic together to celebrate our RA and dear friend, Alice, jumped up and down and screamed with me - ahhhhhhhhhh! Such a marvelous day!

Please continue to pray for our Zane, our travel approval, travel plans, medical preparation and all those details.... In my quiet time tonight, I will also be praying for all the families still waiting for their precious children - that God would continue to move the mountains to bring their babies home.

More Zane pics & dimples?!

We joined a Fuj*an Yahoo group to learn more about the Province and meet other families who might have adopted their child through the same orphanage as Zane's. I posted an introduction yesterday and got a reply from a lady who is currently living in China with her family. They adopted their daughter from Gut*an in 2005 and went back there for a visit at New Year’s this year. She said she was sure she would have a picture of our son, so I sent her a pic of Zane and she sent back five!!! How precious for us to have these extra photos! These pictures are better quality than the ones we had received from China. We are thanking God for this great blessing!

There is one picture where Zane is smiling with all his heart - so precious! Upon further study, PEOPLES, I think he may have dimples!! I know it's just a guess, but I deciphered Elle's cleft chin from a small shadow on her referral picture - so I'm going with my gut and won't be disappointed either way! :) I know, you think I'm delusional...we will see! ;)

Since I can't post those dimples, I'll leave you with a picture of our 'cleft chin' with Grandpa and Grandma on the 4th.

Words & Prayers

Whoa - the words and sentences are coming out of Elle! Maybe she's been inspired by having her Grandpa and Grandma here for a visit from Russia!

Yesterday she said...
"I'll be right back."
"I cut AA's card." (Got in trouble for that!)

Regularly she's saying...
"I'll get it!" ;)

And minute by minute we hear...
"No help, myself!"

This morning she said...
"No help, I tell Daddy."

Everything, lately, is preceded by "No help, Mama, I do it, myself!" But often it's quickly followed by "Help Mama!" Brother! ;)

I told her Monday evening that we were going to the pool in the morning to swim with friends. This is how the conversation went...

E: "No help, myself, Mama!"
Me: "Well, I think it would be okay if Mama helped a little bit...like helping you get your swimsuit on, fixing breakfast, packing our picnic lunch, getting you into the car, driving you to the pool, paying your admission, and putting on your sunscreen. How about a little help from Mama?"
E: "Yeeeeeees"....(and then as she walked away)..."No help, myself!"

Sigh.... :)

We continue, of course, to pray for our Zane. Elle rarely misses praying for Zane at every meal and we are touched by her concern and love for her little brother. A few days after receiving Zane's referral, I spent a day fasting and praying, lifting up Zane and the journey that lays in front of us....Elle had heard us praying for Zane just the two days before, but when we bowed our heads over her oatmeal and my glass of water, she took the initiative to pray for Zane, unprompted, for the very first time. It was so moving to me and of course, I wept!

She said, "Ear Ga, pease help Ane China. Pane Mama, pane Dada, pane Elle China, Ane home, Mama home, Dada home, Elle home, Amen."

Translation: "Dear God, please help Zane China, Plane Mama, plane Dada, plane Elle China. Zane home, Mama home, Dada home, Elle home, Amen."

Sigh...we are so blessed by our dear Elle Belle! Thank you God for your good gifts!

I'll leave you with some video....

It's a boy!

We are thrilled to announce that we are the very proud parents of a precious baby boy waiting for us in China!

With much prayer and in God’s perfect timing, we felt led to allow greater room for God to do His handiwork in growing our family. In May, we applied to the Waiting Child program with our adoption agency. Just a little over two weeks later (WOW – we’re still in shock!), on Friday, June 5, we saw our son’s face for the very first time and accepted his referral with great joy! There is a bit more to the story (which I'll post about later), but when we received the call from our agency – we knew immediately he was our son! God is so good!

I was running a garage sale on Friday morning, went upstairs to grab a cup of coffee and came back down with a son! Well, there was some calling back and forth with Eric, our agency, and a lot of tears, and then I went back down to the garage and shocked my sister-in-law who had been waiting for her cup of coffee for a half hour. :)

Back to the baby, here are the details about our son:

Chinese name: Only to be shared upon receiving referral acceptance (about three months from now)
His face: Only to be publicly posted upon receiving referral acceptance, but stop me when you see me, and I’ll show you a picture! He’s SO handsome!
Name we've given him: Zane Leland (Zane - God is gracious/Leader & Leland – Grandpa’s and Eric’s middle name)
Age: 9 months
Resides: Fuj*an Prov*nce
Special need: Unrepaired cleft lip and palate
Fun facts about Zane: He’s active, loves listening to music and playing with musical toys, laughs aloud and has a ready smile, and his favorite activity is being cuddled. Oh, and he’s super cute! :)

As you can imagine, we are very eager to get to him and bring him home! Please pray protection and care over Zane and that we receive all our approvals timely or sooner! Current timeframes could send us back to China in late October, about the same time we were there in 2006 for Elle.

After the day's excitement and an exhausting garage sale, Uncle Kevin and Aunt Alicia took us out to celebrate Zane at our favorite bbq place. Rejoicing! -Eric, Kate & Elle

Happenings with us...

I know, it's been awhile.... Thought I'd post a few pics and news about things around here, let's see....

We did an Easter egg hunt in the rain - Elle didn't mind. She plowed through that field and filled that basket full! We also enjoyed going through Resurrection Eggs leading up to Easter - I made them in MOPS and they were my favorite craft that we did -- something we'll keep and do every year! In the middle of April we had a visit from my parents as they were here for my Grandma's funeral.

Right before school was out, we took an extended weekend trip to Omaha to visit their zoo and children's museum. (On our way up, we stopped at Immigration to update our fingerprints for the adoption.) But back to the zoo, 'Everyone' says it's one of, if not the best, zoo in the country. It was really great and we did enjoy it a lot, but I think Elle loved the pool at the hotel even more. Both nights of our stay we had the entire pool and hot tub to ourselves - it was a blast. We also ate at a couple places I searched out - the places the locals go to. One was 'California Taco', that was on Food Network, Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives. I had their infamous California Taco and it was delicious - but how can you go wrong with deep fried flour around all your favorite taco ingredients?!

The next week Elle finished her first semester of one-on-one speech therapy at the preschool. Ms. Beth was an excellent teacher, so patient and kind and Elle's language has really improved these past months. From February till now some of the things we've noticed/she's accomplished are, in no particular order...

We used to have to guess from facial expression and objects pointed at or context, what she was 'babbling' about - now she gives us understandable key words.
She started saying 'no' - this is good! :)
Began using pronouns - I, me, you.
Uses possessive pronouns - my, mine - this is good too! :)
She is praying and we understand some of it - so sweet - 'Ga, mama food, dada food, Elle food, AA, Tetin, Amen!'
Counts to 10.
Says the alphabet.
Overall, increased vocabulary.

Pronunciation and proper sound use is a big challenge, but we are definitely getting her language now and when we challenge her, she almost always tries. We are certainly very proud of her and noticed what a blessing she was to her teacher and the other therapists she came in contact with three times a week. They all expressed to me what a dear, sweet girl she is and Ms. Beth always talked about how well Elle followed directions. Ms. Beth won't be returning in the Fall, so we're praying about who God will bring for Elle in August. Elle brought flowers and a card to Ms. Beth and on the last day of school told her thanks and gave her a kiss on the cheek - I did not prompt any of the appreciation (Well, I bought the flowers.) - she's a dear.


The following week, Elle and I celebrated the beginning of summer by visiting the cousins for a few days. Elle just loves being around her cousins and she and Ami are learning to play together well and enjoy each other more and more. I forgot to tell a story from a previous visit with the cousins...when we arrived, Ami looked at Elle and said, 'Hey, she has black hair like me!' And this visit, Ami told me that she was born in China and I turned to Elle and asked, 'And where were you born?' She said 'Shina' and they both looked quite proud that they had a similar story. Very sweet!

Since then, we've been enjoying the parks/playgrounds immensely - Elle has a new level of physical coordination this Spring and is appreciating the climbing apparatuses and slides on a whole new level. Every day she asks to go to the park - sometimes we visit twice, once in the morn and then after dinner with Daddy.

I know, we're so exciting around here! LOL! :) We did have a humongo garage sale last weekend - that was very exciting. Seriously, I've got a good story about that - but that will wait till next post...very soon, I promise! Stay tuned - seriously, this story can't be missed! :)

Oh, almost forgot - Elle moved into a big girl bed! She's done incredibly well - hasn't gotten out of it, sleeps through the night - the transition is such a confidence booster, ya know? A lot of toddler fun around here!

Leaving you with some random pics of this and that....