our trip to Zoe {for you detail-loving folks}

We'll sleep until morning on July 3. Knowing our kids, that'll be around 6am.

We'll take the kids to our friends' house mid-morning.

We'll come back and try to sleep as much as we can during the day. 

(Please, please, please pray we will get sleep then. Please. Especially for Lee, who doesn't sleep as easily during daytime as I do. As you read on, you'll see why we need it.)

We'll set an alarm, but even if we sleep through it, a friend is taking us to airport, and she'll wake us up.

 

We'll head to the airport, arriving around 3:00 to be safe.

We'll fly out at 5:10 to JFK.

We'll have six hours-ish in JFK for... um... whatever JFK has to offer. 

We might meet up with some travel buddies at JFK, but that's a story that will have to wait until it happens.

We'll get on a plane at 1:45am Eastern time on July 4. 

We'll fly for 15 hours and 50 minutes.

We hope to sleep for enough of that to be rested. (Please pray that God will allow that.)

We'll arrive in Taipei at 5:30am, Taiwan time (which is 12 hours ahead of NC, so it's 5:30pm on July 4 Eastern time).

We'll head from the international airport in Taipei to the domestic airport and catch a plane from Taipei to Taitung, leaving at 11:30am and lasting about 50 minutes.

Our friends in Taitung will pick us up from the airport.

They will take us to the church in Taitung.

Zoe will be waiting for us at the church.

It will be completely worth it, but this means that we will arrive at RDU at 3:00pm Eastern on July 3 (which is 3:00am on July 4 in Taipei) and we will arrive in Taitung and immediately meet Zoe on the early morning hours Eastern time (or the afternoon Taiwan time) on July 5. That's about 36 hours of travel, if you're keeping track.

We will be tired.

But we will have our daughter.

Praise be to God. 

~+~

In the next few days, I'll be posting details about the trip home and some details about what we'll do while in Taiwan. Thanks for praying through the details with us!

Call for guest posts! {i.e., how I hope to keep the bloggity blog going while we're in Taiwan to bring our daughter home!}

We have a baby girl.

Her name is Zoe Amanda.

She was only 2 pounds and 15 ounces when she was born, and we're pretty sure 15 ounces of that was in her chubby cheeks.

She is beautiful.

She has a diagnosis of PVL, a type of brain damage that usually results in an eventual diagnosis of cerebral palsy (but we all know around here that labels are only a small part of the story and that every person has gifts bestowed by God).

She lives in Taitung City, Taiwan.

We're leaving on a plane in 10 days to bring her home.

(Yes, you may have just heard my squeal from here.)

I love this blog, but it's been quieter since our adoption took off. Most adoptions are long and drawn out; ours will be exactly FIVE months from start to finish. (Seriously. We didn't even have a home study completed or any other preliminary paperwork prepared five months ago.) We also put our house on the market, sold it, bought another, and moved during that five month period. And I spoke at the Accessibility Summit to equip other churches, and we had our church's largest Joy Prom (~575 guests) and largest Respite Night (38 children, ages seven months through nine years), all during that same five month period.

We are grateful for a God who provides for His people as He leads them on crazy adventures like the one we're on right now.

(But I would be lying if I didn't admit that, most days, I'm plumb worn out.)

As He has led us on this journey, He has made me okay with the quiet here on the ol' bloggity blog. For that, I am thankful.

But now, I'd love to liven it up a bit.

With your voice. 

Send me a post! No, really. I mean it.

It can be original or a reprint from another blog. (It just has to be YOUR words - no plagiarizing allowed! :)) All I ask is that the subject matter be focused on the intersection of disability and the Christian church. Personal stories, ministry how-tos, anecdotes, lists of helpful links, a profile of a disability ministry non-profit you love, theological musings, and so on - all are welcome. (Disclaimer: I do reserve the right to add a personal note from me to the beginning of posts that I don't fully agree with or, if necessary, choose not to run a post if it won't glorify God in some way.) If you have questions, email me at shannon@theworksofgoddisplayed.com.

Thank you in advance for the blog fodder that will keep this place going with at least one or two guests posts each week (mixed in with some adoption posts and reprints of previous posts from this blog) until we're home and the jet lag has passed.

One more thing... please pray for us.

Thanks.

Adoption is beautiful. But it's ugly too.

We like to gush about the beauty of adoption.

I wear a necklace with a cut-out of Taiwan and Christ's words in John 14:18 - "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you" - promising the Holy Spirit and His second coming.

I believe that earthly adoption serves at a metastory and a shadow of the true Story of God's redemptive power in adopting me and Lee and Jocelyn and, hopefully one day when they come to know Him, Robbie and Zoe and future children and grandchildren into His forever family.

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.
John 1:12

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
Romans 8:4-6

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son,born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
Galatians 4:4-6 

However, consider the Garden of Eden.

Before sin.

Did death or sin turn children into orphans then?
No. Death didn't happen before sin... and, um, obviously sin didn't happen before, uh, sin. 

So, yes, let's bask in the beauty of God's redemption in adoption and God's act of placing the lonely into families, blessing us and blessing her. And let's rejoice when Zoe comes home.

But let's also remember that every earthly adoption is a response to the ugly realities of a fallen world. Let's also remember that our adoption with gain a child for our family and a family for our Zoe, it also involves loss. Orphans only exist because - whatever the circumstances may be - they lost their birth family.

Don't get me wrong. I do still believe that adoption is beautiful. I will keep sharing the beauty in adoption. 

But I will also write about the ugliness too.

In Isaiah 61:3, the prophet writes about the glorious exchange of "a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair." Would the beauty seem as sweet in the absence of the ashes? Would the joy be as rich without the mourning first? Would the praise be as consuming if it didn't follow despair?

Let's keep celebrating the beauty, and let's remember and be brokenhearted over the brokenness from which the beauty emerges.  

well, 2012 has been a bit different than expected...

(First, a reminder: I have a giveaway going on here! It will close on Monday at 8pm.)

This past Christmas, we didn't write or send a Christmas letter out. I didn't have a nice or recent family photo to share, I didn't have the wherewithal to coordinate the logistics of having a picture taken as I was still in physical therapy for my stubborn knee, and I didn't feel like we had anything noteworthy to share about the coming year.

Well.

That changed.


On January 28, a friend contacted us about a baby girl who needed a family.

On February 7, we accepted the referral to be her family and named her Zoe Amanda.

On February 8, we started our home study.

On February 29, we overnighted our dossier to Taiwanese officials in Atlanta for authentication.

On March 1 or 2, the folks from that Taiwanese office mailed our authenticated dossier to Taiwan.

On March 13, we were issued a court date in Taiwan.

On March 30, we put our house on the market.

On March 31, it was under contract.

On April 7, we made an offer and entered a contract for the purchase of our new-to-us home.

On April 10, our adoption coordinators represented us at our court date in Taiwan.

On April 18, we were issued our first ruling, indicating the judge's intent to grant the adoption. (YAY!)

On May 4 and 7, we closed on the old and new houses, respectively, and began the move, with a few weeks of overlap between the two houses as we rented our old house back from the new owners.

On May 25, we were issued our final ruling, which legally made us Zoe's parents. (YIPPEE!)

On May 26, we turned over the keys to the old house, having fully transitioned to life in the new house. (The jury is still out, though, on when we'll be settled and fully unpacked!)

On June 12, our court documents were available in English, and we requested our visa appointment from the US officials in Taiwan.

On June 21, we received an email with our visa appointment (July 10).

On July 3, we'll board a plane to Taipei. (Well, to New York. And then to Taipei.)

On July 5, we'll fly into Taitung and our friends will bring us straight to Zoe.

She'll be placed into our arms.

And I'll finally get to kiss those chubby cheeks!

(Wow. The friends who only keep up with us through our Christmas letter are surely going to be surprised, aren't they?)

July 5: Zoe Day

July 5.

That's the day we'll get to hold our baby girl. 

That's the day Zoe will meet her mommy and daddy.

That's the day we'll get to hug and thank the precious folks who have cared for her and learn from them all about what her life has been like in Taitung.

That's the day we'll finally feel like parents of three, even though we've legally been that since May 25.

That's Zoe day.

Full. 

 My heart is full.

~+~

Today's prayer request: Please pray for my airfare search and, after that, our hotel search. We'll be leaving July 3 and returning July 11. So far, the flights we'd like are full, or the prices are too high, or the itinerary has a ridiculous layover - either crazy long or crazy short - at some point. Thanks!

Flights booked!