When Labor Strikes

It's been approximately 40 some-odd hours since my last post, mainly because I NEVER thought this next one would come so fast! This morning I woke up and groggily showered, started my coffee and checked my email. We had a message from our agency, probably just another business email, surely nothing specific since the New Year is going on, but wait, there's another one? Two emails in one day isn't strange for our agency, but two at 7am during a national holiday is nothing to shake a stick at. Moving to the memo line my heart skipped a beat: Travel! That's all I saw, TRAVEL! I clicked through and learned we not only had a consulate appointment but it is two and a half weeks away and our date to arrive in Beijing is March 5, MARCH 5! That is a week and a half from now!!!

I wigged out! WIGGED OUT! Tony had already left to workout before leaving for the office, my two oldest were casually watching TV and I was practically screaming, shaking, laughing, pretty much out of my mind (I'm pretty sure it would have been 1000x worse had I not wanted to scare the living daylights out of my kids).

Last week I was reading through our travel documents and they said that when we got the news we were traveling it would feel like our "water breaking". I thought that was cute, but impossible to be accurate. Let me tell you, it's exactly what it feels like!

When I finally got a hold of Tony (4 calls and 1 text message over 30 minutes later) we just laughed. We didn't really know what to say beyond: We can do this. Its a good day! I then told him I would probably be on the phone all morning, and it turned out that was not an exaggeration. Parent's, siblings, friends, everyone was called or texted. Facebook messages were sent. Blogs were written :)

Love and kindness and true, genuine excitement jumped through the phone, of the computer screen, through hugs straight into my heart. The kind of emotion that comes with this news is not describable. Very rarely in your life do you get to experience this kind of raw, real, not-in-the-least-manufactured love from people. It is humbling, and lovely, and true. It's the reality of life that is so stripped bare that it's beautiful.

As we move forward into the next three weeks of our family life we desperately seek your prayers. The moving parts of the next month are many. Please pray for the following things as we desire to remember that all these things are under the command of the King:

• Health for our family and those caring for our children while we are gone. Pray our antibodies would be strong, our stomachs would be strong and that bones and skin and eyes and ears and fingers and toes and backs would all work in the way they were created to work. 
• Pray for flights and travel arrangements. Our agencies take care of our plans for us and we already have plane tickets for our arrival and return. We will have several in-country flights and we will be driving home from Chicago on our return.  There are so many connections, planes, cars, tours, appointments for us to work through. Please pray for minimal complications and lots and lots of patience.
• Medical visits and Visa appointments. We will be marching our new son through a lot of different appointments while in China. He will see doctors, we will visit the consulate. It will be an incredibly intense time of official visits in a very short amount of time. Pray again for patience and stamina for Tony and I and for our little one.
• Pray for our son and Tony and I as we seek to bond together as a family. We will be meeting our son about 4 or 5 days into the trip, and after the first meeting he will come back to the hotel with us. He will be leaving everything and everyone familiar to him and he is old enough to know it. Please pray resilience and strength for our little boy. Pray for his brain and for the way his body will respond to the stress of a new environment. Pray for Tony and I that we will be supernaturally rested and relaxed, able to read his body cues, as we do not speak the same language, and meet his needs both physically and emotionally. Pray that we would rely solely on Jesus and the leading of the Holy Spirit and we will recognize that attachment and bonding will take time. Pray against fatigue and discouragement for our hearts and well as his. 
• Pray for our children staying home with grandparents and aunts and uncles. Join us in praising God for our unique and incredibly amazing support system. Pray huge amounts of patience, wisdom and kindness on our children's caretakers as they are transitioning our kids for us in an incredibly precious time. Pray also that our kids will remain regulated, grounded, and feel immensely cared for. They are extremely excited to meet their new brother we pray that the transition and waiting will be smooth for them.

There are probably a MILLION other things to pray for and as you think of them we ask that you would take them before the Father for us. We need intercessors and we need support and we thank you for being willing to provide that. I must also ask this: if you feel God nudging you to take action in any way, whether in our lives or in your own, would you do it?! As you pray for us, if God stirs your heart, would you not ignore Him? From the smallest of tasks, such as sending a text, to the largest, like maybe exploring adoption for your own family; would you make our journey a small part of YOUR journey?

God has gifted each of us in unique and incredible ways. He desires for us to live a life that is fully realized, completely alive in Him. Please, don't ignore is calling on your heart. Please, step into the faith He has given you. Please, say YES! to the glorious riches He has for you! Don't wait! Do it! If you don't know what that is, I pray you will find it. Truly, I'm not just saying that, I'm praying for you right now. I could name you if you want...but I won't. Join us here, in the Kingdom where Jesus sits on the throne, not just of our hearts, but our whole lives. It's awesome here! It's the best!

 
*Our travel costs will amount to approximately $9000 in airfare and lodging. If you would like to contribute support to help cover these costs, please visit youcaring.com/chiaramonte to donate today. Thank you!