Update on family in China and Thankful Thursday...

Very late tonight, it was confirmed that Sandi Sheldon and her daughter Hannah are on their way home to the United States. The offices listed along with many others were inundated with calls and emails from friends, family and adoptive parents from all over the world in support of this Mother and her daughter. I read that the office of both the Senator and Congressman received over 1000 phone calls by lunch time yesterday. I have to say I was very disappointed in the actions of the US Embassy in Guangzhou though I know they were only following the rules. Yes, there are rules and yesterday we saw that some rules are made to be broken. Congressman Mike Rogers and Senator Debbie Stabenow, both from Sandi's home state, along with our very own Secretary of State Condolezza Rice were instrumental in making this happen. They were the hands and feet that God used to resolve such a terrible situation.

This story, this MOTHER, has weighed heavy on my heart the past two days. I'm not sure how your heart can feel pure joy and overwhelming heartache in unison. Becoming a first time Mother and a widow at the same time? I can't really process that. I am imagining it. She is living it. So, tonight, my heart is heavy and raw and aching for a woman that I do not even know living circumstances that I hope and pray I never have to live. It is Thankful Thursday today. I have missed the past two weeks because I have been busy. Too busy to take the time to be thankful which is the very reason I started Thankful Thursday to begin with. Pathetic, I know it is.

--Today I am thankful that I have an amazing husband who loves our children without condition
--Today I am thankful that he is healthy, hard-working and a determined provider for our family
--Today I am thankful that he loves the Lord and desperately wants to be someone that his children will view as a good example in which to model
--Today I am thankful that God has given me the opportunity to be his wife and their Mother
--Today I am thankful that someday in the near future we will grow our family with a little girl who may have never known the love of a Father or the joy of a family
--Today I am thankful that God has given me a passion for adoption.
--Today I am thankful He has blessed me with a husband who has a heart the size of Texas. He may not share my eating-sleeping-breathing-overwhelming PASSION for all things adoption. However, he does share with me the desire to open his heart to a little girl who will some day find herself without the love and guidance of an earthly Father.
--Today I am thankful that God has made it possible for Sandi Sheldon to bring her daughter home. Home to the love of a Mother and the stories of a Father who wanted her and loved her despite the circumstances. I hope and pray that someday her Mother will tell her the story of her Father. I pray that someday she will know that the six days he spent with her as her Daddy were his dream come true.