Our New Neice!

On Thursday, my brother and sister-in-law, Josh and Amanda, welcomed their newest arrival. Harper Evelyn Deal. She was 6lbs 13oz and she is beautiful. Babies seem to always come in twos in our family. Their son, Max and Claire are 15 months apart. Harper and Ella will be about 7 months apart. I'm sure they will be buddies. Here's a pic of Harper. There are more posted on their blog under our links section. Congratulations Josh, Amanda, and Big Brother Max!

We Received Our Referral Packet

The packet came yesterday. It was delivered to the church and I had just called Rick and asked him to call if they came before I got there so I could run over and get a picture. As soon as we hung up. He called me back and said the DHL man was there. So I ran over and got a few pics. The DHL man was a good sport about it!

So here is what we've learned about Ella:

At 4 months, she weighed 13 pounds and was 22 inches long. (2lbs and 2 inches smaller than Claire was at the same age). We've been told the Xiu babies are a little more on the petite side. She is described as a moderate sleeper, laughs out loud, and is active (oh boy!). Several people have been asking us how to pronounce her Chinese Name. We think we have figured it out:

Xui - is pronounced "shoe", (I love shoes!!) and it means beautiful and elegant

Fu - is pronounced "foo", and it means double happiness or double blessing

Xing - is pronounced "sheeng", and it means star

Her American name will be Ella Xui Frost. This is kind of neat because we've had the name Ella chosen since we started our paperwork. Ella and Xui both mean beautiful. The same thing happened with Claire. Claire and Hui both mean clear and bright. God's ways are so much higher and greater than ours!

Claire is so excited about Ella. It took a few days to sink in that this really was a picture of her sister because we've been talking about it for so long. She carries her picture folded in her pocket with her everywhere and shows it to everyone. She also has one taped to her bunk bed. I just hope she feels the same way about the real Ella as she does about the picture.

We are now waiting on Travel Approval and a Consulate Appointment. Unfortunately Chinese New Year is approaching and that could delay our travel approval. We hope to know an approximate date in the next two weeks . But it will probably be mid to late March. Please pray that we can travel quickly. Of course we want to go now, but also for us, being in ministry, one of the busiest times of year is Easter and the weeks leading up to Easter. We would like to be home and settled in by then. I know a lot of you reading this have been praying for us through this whole process and we want to thank each of you. It has meant so much to us.

WE GOT THE CALL!!!

We got the call at 3:00pm. Here is what we know so far:

Chinese Name: XIU FU XING

Birthdate: June 26th, 2006 (7 1/2 months old)

Province: Chongquing (the same as Claire)

Orphanage: Xiushan SWI

Okay now for the good stuff, here she is: