Surprise!

This December Michael and I invited our close family members over to talk about our adoption

and to give them these ornaments as early Christmas presents.

They were handmade by a family in China that is trying to earn enough money to send their children to school.  They use pliers to hand twist thin wire into the Chinese characters that represent the words Family, Love, Grace, Hope, Faith and Blessing, which all have special meaning in our adoption journey.  

We wanted to give everyone a way to remember our future daughter this Christmas and we think it will make her feel special to see symbols of her birth country on everyone's trees each year.

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Our families hadn't been to our house since we announced our adoption, so we took them upstairs to show them a few of the many items we have already purchased for our daughter.

We showed them the crib

and the toys.

The clothes,

the shoes

and the hair bows.  

(Can you tell I'm excited to be getting a little girl?!)

Then we showed them the shirts we made for the three of us to wear while we're in China for our adoption trip.  We thought it might be fun to give our families a little quiz on Mandarin Chinese.  We showed them the fronts of the shirts and asked them to guess the English words on the backs.

We started with mine, which was the easiest.

Everyone guessed correctly right away.

Then we tried this one.

Bottle?  Nope. 



After a guess or two, they got it.

Finally we showed them this little one.

There were a lot of guesses.

Baby?

Child?

Little girl?

Daughter?

Finally I turned the shirt around and revealed the translation.

It was one of the best moments of our lives, watching everyone's faces as the wheels were turning in their heads. 
And then seeing their expressions as they realized what we were telling them.

Yes, after over two years of trying with no success, Michael and I are thrilled to announce

that we are very unexpectedly EXPECTING!!!  

A few months ago, as we were just beginning our adoption, I told Michael that I know of quite a few childless couples who adopted children and were later blessed with an unexpected pregnancy.  I told him that I really felt that God wanted us to adopt sooner rather than later and that if we did, maybe we would be blessed with a biological child as well.

I was thinking it might happen in a year or two, after we brought our daughter home.
Instead, we found out two days after our first home study meeting! 

We were already pregnant at our first adoption meeting and didn't even know it!  

How amazing is our God?!  I mean, seriously.
To find out less than 48 hours after our first meeting?
What an instant reward for following the path He had planned for us!

And guess when our little miracle's calculated due date is.

4th of July!!!!

How's that for a surprise American baby?