We're sorry, but China can't come to the phone right now...

We really appreciate all of your prayers and encouraging words. Now that
October 1st has come and gone, some of you are wondering what is going on. We have not received our Travel Approval ... and, at this point, that means it is highly unlikely that we will travel before November.

Of course, there is no guarantee that our Travel Approval isn't sitting in somebodies in-basket somewhere just waiting to be sprung on us in a matter of days.

And, sadly, there is no guarantee that it will even arrive in time for November travel.

There just aren't any guarantees!

The CCAA in China is now closed till the end of next week. (In honor of China's National Holiday, and Mid-Autumn festival, which seem to run back to back this year!) No paperwork will be coming out of China next week and perhaps even the following week. There is no rhyme or reason to how or when they mail out paperwork. So we wait.

We have been busy purchasing items we will need for travel, going to soccer games, schooling the children, organizing the winter clothes and the list goes on.

This is one of those "live by faith and not by sight" seasons. There's no one right way to deal with heart-felt desires that are deferred or delayed. But we can think of plenty of wrong ways (bitterness, anxiety, anger ... what a list!) So we choose to live by faith. We busy ourselves with the things which are within our reach, and we choose to believe that the timing of all this, which appears to be controlled by chance and rather indifferent human beings, is actually in God's hands.

If we have to wait, we can't think of a better way!