Day-5: Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

More to follow...off to some appointments...

1930: It is difficult to find words to describe today's experience! Since we are quite exhausted as you can imagine we'll try to capture the day after a nights rest (hopefully...she's sleeping peacefully right now:). We want to thank all of you for your prayers and encouragement--you all are a tremendous blessing to us!!! Bid you all a good evening (morning) from Zhengzhou. What a glorious God we serve!!! 1 Thes 5: 24

It is now Tusesday afternoon. I have had some time at last to reflect on yesterday in a little more detail. At about 9:30 a.m. yesterday, our guide Yisha came up to our room with the orphanage director and a nanny. In her arms was our Zheng Mei. She had been asleep on the drive over and looked pretty stunned. We went into our room and they placed her in Andy's arms. She didn't cry or whimper. She just looked kind of dazed. She let us pass her back and forth and take lots of pictures. After we signed the papers, the orphanage director and nanny left and we had a few minutes with her. Soon, we had to go out to several offices to sign papers. It was a strange walk on a street that was all torn up. We got a family photo for the adoption certificate and did lots of other paper work. It was hot and smelly and while we were out it began to rain. We were all feeling pretty tired and stressed. We came back to the hotel for a couple of hours. Moriah seemed a little more alert. She ate some snacks and played with some toys. We were a little concerned because we couldn't get her to drink anything. At about 3:00 we had to go out on the street again to finish our paperwork. It took about two hours to get it all done. We came back and ordered some room service. We tried to give her a bath, but she wasn't too thrilled with that. She settled down about 7:30 and slept through the night. She is unbelievably cute and so sweet. We saw tiny glimpses of her personality, but we could tell that she wasn't sure about all of this and us. She never gave out a big cry, but she often gave little grunts of unhappiness. Before bed, we sang together (Jesus Loves Me, Psalm 1, and the Doxology) and read John 10 (the Good Shepherd), she went from whimpering to a quiet contentment. Perhaps it is us hearing things but she seemed to say "Bible" and pat God's Word as Andy read. Her life was changed forever on this day and so was ours. Our hearts are so full that it is hard to express in words. Psalm 116:12 and 17 seem to express our feelings best, "What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving." We brought a little booklet with us called "Helping Your Adopted Child" by Paul David Tripp. We thought this quote was appropriate: "on the hard days you must remind yourself, What I am doing right now, although hard, is close to God's heart and what I am doing is exactly what God has called his children to do." (Psalm 68:5, Isaiah 1:17, Jeremiah 5:28) We have been blessed beyond measure. Our hearts are full.