Video Chat and a Birthday

Friday was such a special night for us. After looking at still photos for months, we were finally able to see our new daughter live! Here is a screen shot of the beginning of our session. Selah is in the pink. Unfortunately they could not hear us. We could hear them but for some reason they couldn't hear us. This is how the beginning our session began! This is a Chinese website so we were struggling a little with the Chinese characters. Honestly, we were guessing!
I easily could have been the spotty internet service there. I know it is common. I was so happy to interact with her. 

It was pretty clear to us that she was overwhelmed at the beginning. She is very quiet. She is beautiful! We were thrilled that she seemed to be able to read a little English. She was not able to speak English but she seamed to be able to read it a little. 

We asked her questions (through texting online) and she was trying to answer the questions for us. Here is another screen shot and it took a while for her to read and answer our questions. Sometimes we asked the next question before she answered.

We asked her if there was anything we could bring her and she answered, "No! No! Don't take things to me." It really kind of broke my heart. She wants nothing from us. Not in a bad way. She probably has not had much of her own so this concept is truly foreign to her.

Some of it got lost in translation. Where she wrote, "1 year" was actually her answering how long she has been out of the orphanage in foster care. She misunderstood the question. However, we are thrilled with how it went.

She loved seeing the kids. She lit up when she saw a "Chinese sister". God is so wise in how he gave us Mariah first. It is clear to us that having Mariah in our family will make things more comfortable for Selah. By they way, we will likely be calling her "Hui Yi", her Chinese name, for quite a while. I will not take that away from her. This is pronounced something like "who-i (short i) ee" The Yi has one sound....the long e sound.

Hui Yi's social worker asked if we could Skype again this week at the same time. We are excited to see her yet again. What an unexpected blessing!

Saturday was our Mariah's third birthday! She had such a great day! First was breakfast with Daddy. However, I crashed the party!

We had an ice cream cake for her after supper. Since I am a little busy this year......I opted for the easy route and have DQ make the cake. She loved it!

Time for presents.....

This Sunday our children went up to the front and gathered with our pastor. Our younger three are pictured here. Mariah is there but you have to look!

Ben raised his hand when our pastor asked what the children wanted for Christmas. His response....."Selah". Oh my! I had a feeling he would say that but you never know. Then our pastor asked Mariah and she finally said, "My Mommy!" Oh my sweet girl! I promise I am here. Then Rebecca kissed Mariah on the head. I am blessed!

We had our fundraiser this past week. I am the first to admit I am terrible at promoting my own fundraiser. I struggle with asking for help. This was really hard for me. Through the website we were blessed with $2,745! Then we had dear friends donate even more. Our total after church today was $4,115. We received a phone call on Saturday afternoon that we received another grant for $1,000. In one week we saw God provide us with over $5,115. It has nothing to do with us. God showed my unbelieving heart that He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. 

To be honest these have been extremely difficult few weeks. The final payments are coming due and we did not know how we would be able to make those payments and pay for our airfare. Our flights alone have totaled over $8,000. 

It is amazing for me to think that we leave soon! Please keep us in prayer as we take Rebecca and and travel to meet Hui Yi. Pray for our new daughter as we are certain she is scared.