I thought that I would post some pictures on our blog for anyone that has not seen our journey page. Myli is so beautiful, isn't she?
We are doing just fine way over here in China. We are eating good. They have food on the buffet here at the hotel for Americans. Last night there was french fries. Liz and I have tried some new dishes. We like the Chinese food. The ox tripe was good to taste, but I don't think I want it anymore.
We go today to the Civil Affairs office to start paperwork and pay fees.
God has been so good to us. She is beautiful, healthy, and she seems to have attached to us very well. God sent us on this journey and continues to take good care of us. I want to make sure that He gets praise. Please continue to pray for us and the family back home.

We are in China. It is about 5:30 pm at home, but 6:30 am here in china. We did not have much trouble sleeping last night. I guess it was because we were so tired from the long day of traveling.
I had the stomach bug yesterday, but I am feeling better now. I am looking forward to eating some good Chinese food today. All I had yesterday was some airline food and snacks.
I will direct you to our other site for our entries. We have a few pictures and a little more info. Click on Journey to Myli on our links.
Continue to pray for us and our boys back home.

It is just six days away until we will be on our way to get Myli. We had our final travel meeting yesterday via teleconference. I believe we have all of our paperwork ready to go. We just have to get packed and go see the bankers to get the money to take. We also have to call the credit card company to make sure they know we are in China and they won't cancel our card while using it on the other side of the world.
I had my first soccer practice last night. We have 11 kids on the team. It went pretty good. I told them that I will have to miss the three weeks because of going to China and showed them a picture of Myli.
I believe the boys are tired this week. It was the first full week of school and they seem like it has drained them.
Remember that we have another web page to update while we are gone to get Myli. There is a link on our this blog called JOURNEY TO MYLI. You can click on that or go to http://www.thestoryofyou.net/Myli.html. If that link does not work you can go to www.thestoryofyou.net and enter that site and find Myli Elizabeth Lan under In Country Now. Please follow us on our journey and feel free to email us or leave comments. We would love to hear from you.
Continue to pray for us. May God bless you.

We have had several things go on today. Liz's Sunday School class gave her a baby shower this morning. I knew about it, but kept it secret from her because I was asked.
The Mexico mission team went to another church tonight and talked about our mission trip. God so blessed us on that trip. The church was so gracious to invite us to speak.
The boys played today with a friend. I believe that they had a good time. Jeremy worked this morning.
I worked on paperwork this evening. I was making copies and getting ready all of the paperwork that we will have to take with us. We want to make sure we will not lose or leave anything we will need. I have to work most of the next two days and we have a final travel meeting on Thursday and I want all the paperwork ready to go through when we have the meeting.
Please continue to pray for us. May God's face shine upon you.

We have our travel dates. August 21 is when we depart and we will return on Sept. 5. Our airline tickets are purchased. We will be there soon to pick you up Myli. We are not going to Beijing. We will fly into our daughter's province and maybe see some sites there. I am in the process of getting all of our paperwork together. Yesterday, our passports came back with our visas. I have to make some copies of all our paperwork so we can have two copies of everything when we travel. It would be terrible to get over there and find out that we had left something or lost something that we needed.
School started on Wednesday. I do not think the boys were ready for it to start, but they seem to jumped right into the flow. There was no complaints from them the last two days. It is good for them to be in a routine.
Did I mention that I was coaching a Upward soccer team. Me and another man is coaching a team of 4 - 6 graders. I found out on Thursday of last week that I was. Liz had signed me up. I was wanting to, but because of going to China I thought I wouldn't. I enjoy it very much so it will be good. I will have to miss 3 weeks of practice because of the trip. Upward is a good program not only to teach some soccer skills, but to also present the gospel to the children and parents.
Continue to pray for us. May God's face shine upon you.

We rented a pontoon and spent today on the lake at Dale Hallow. Everyone had a blast. The pontoon had a slide on it and all the kids enjoyed themselves(and me as well). Landon is turning into a water dog. He has never swam in the lake before today. He did wear a life jacket, but he just jumped on in and swam everywhere. It was just a very good family day.
I have to work most of the next two days. We still have not decided what we are going to do about China. We will have to decide quick. Hopefully we will hear in the next few days about our dates. Less than three weeks away now. Wow!

Our agency received our travel letters today. He is requesting a date at the consulate where we finalize everything right before we come home. It should be on 9/2 - 9/4. We should hear by Wednesday what that date will be. We are still on for travel on 8/21. Isn't that exciting. We will have to tell our agency by Tuesday what we want to do. Will we go to Beijing and see the Great Wall and the sites, or just go on to our daughters province? We are leaning toward going to Beijing. It is a once in a lifetime experience for us and we hate to miss it. It will cost a more than expected because of the Olympics, but we may have to splurge a little.
I took the boys swimming at the city pool this morning. Loren, Landon, Luke and Whitney went. They were very good. Landon has decided that he wants to swim and he is. I have tried in the past to instruct him but he didn't want to. He now wants to swim and he just swims. I am so proud of him. When he sets his mind to something he will do it.
The band sounded good. They do not have the complete show completed yet, but it is going to be good.
May God bless each of you.

I don't believe that I have said what Myli's full name is. We have named her Myli Elizabeth Lan Gaskin. We liked the name Myli so that is her given name. Elizabeth is after her new mommy. Lan is part of her Chinese name. It means flower. A pretty name for a pretty girl.
I was hoping that by now we would have our TA and things would continue to move along. We haven't heard anything yet. We have her picture and her information, but we still we can't go get her. We waited two and a half years, rather patiently I think, and now it is hard not to be anxious. I have to continue to tell myself that God is in control of this time thing. He is in control of everything. We will travel at the precise time that we need to travel. We waited this long for the exact little girl that God wants us to have. God is amazing. If you do not have a relationship with Jesus Christ, seek him out. Let him have control of your life.
Jeremy had band camp again this week. They are having a cookout for them at lunch today and a performance at four this evening. I haven't heard or seen their show yet so I am looking forward to that.
Loren and Landon are back to their old selves now. They love each other so much. They may be playing one minute just fine and the next one of them is upset at the other. That is brothers.
Liz's work thing seems to be better. Thank you for praying for her.
We are going over to Dale Hallow lake on Sunday. Us and some friends of ours are going to rent a pontoon and go out on the lake. The boys have never done anything like this so I expect them to enjoy themselves. We will have life jackets on them.
Continue to pray for us.

Loren had a wonderful time at camp. He talked about swimming, talent shows, dress up games, and messy games. He was also excited about getting to ride and groom horses. He did come home with a burn where someone spilled hot chocolate on his ankle. That kind upset me that this happened and they did not call us. They had doctors there so they took care of it, I guess. We are the parents and should be informed if something happens to our child. Besides that, he had a wonderful time.
I believe Landon was glad to see his brother. They kind of hugged on each other and bonded some. He has had a lonesome week without his brother with him.
There is rumors that the TAs are arriving. Those are travel approvals. We may hear this week that we are appoved (or invited) to travel to China to pick up Myli. That is exciting. That means that the 21 of August is right. We will have to be approved after that for a consulate date in China to make sure, but is still exciting. We waited for so long without any news and now it is happening. Praise be to God.
I ask you to pray for Liz. She is having some difficulty at work.
Thank you for visiting us on our blog.
May God bless each of you.

Hey there everyone,
We went to our travel meeting on Monday and they still tell us that we should travel on 8/21. That is just four weeks from tomorrow. We have to send off for our China visa and wait for our travel letter. It is exciting to think that we will travel so soon after waiting over two and a half years.
We met two couples on Monday night at the travel meeting. One is from Lexington and the other is from Georgetown. They are real nice couples and it will be good traveling with them.
They tell us that the costs in Beijing will be higher due to the Olympics. Hotels that are generally $100 a night are now charging as much as $250 or more for the same rooms. We are debating if we should skip going to Beijing and seeing the Great Wall and the other sights due to the extra cost. It might be a once in a lifetime experience to see the sights, but we have to consider our budget.
Loren went to camp on Monday and he is still there. He must be having a good time. I miss the little fellow. He is growing up on me. To be gone for a week without his mom and dad is a big step for him. Landon misses him. He was just not the same child on Teusday without his brother.
Jeremy has band camp this week also. Landon and him is going to Bible School at night.
Please continue to pray for us.
May God richly bless each of you.

Hello everyone,
I have had two wonderful days fishing. I have never caught any walleye before and this was a good experience. Yesterday I caught one and today I caught three fish. Our boat caught ten today and a total of 16 over the two days. We won the tournament for most fish total. Our pastor won it for biggest fish.
It has been good being off from work these last few days. It seems that I have had another mini vacation.
Bible school starts Monday night at our church and lasts through Friday. We will not get to be there because we have our travel meeting in Lexington.
Please continue to pray for us. May God richly bless each of you.

The boys and I have had a guys day today. We went out this morning and played a little baseball together in the front yard. It was mostly me pitching and them hitting and getting the ball, but it was good. After lunch we went to the swimming pool for a while. Jeremy had band camp again today.
We went to the funeral home tonight. My aunt Clarine passed away on Teusday.
In the morning I am going fishing with some guys from church. We are having our own little fishing tournament. I am looking forward to it.
No more news about Myli. I don't know if I mentioned it or not but our estimated travel date is August 21. It wll be here before we know it. Please remember to keep us and Myli in your prayers.
May God bless each of you.

It has been several days since our last post. I have switched my schedual at work and I have not had much time the last few days. We are still very excited about our daughter. I promised a little more detail about Myli.
She was found abandoned at the gate of People’s Hospital of Xia Jiang County on Oct.31st,2007. A guy who went to the hospital for some business found a baby abandoned at the gate, he reported to Shui Bian police office of Xia Jiang Public Security Bureau right away. After searches and investigations made by the policemen, there was nowhere to find her biological parents or relatives, so she was confirmed to be an abandoned baby. She was sent to the Social Welfare Institute of Xia Jiang County for care. When she was sent to the institute, she had black hair, narrow face, light skin, there were a pack of formula, a bottle and two sweaters with her.
According to the information provided by the People’s Hospital of the county, it was estimated that the baby girl’s birthday and abandonment date are same, Oct 31st ,2007.
That is how our little girl became available for us to bring home. We are going Monday to a Travel meeting at our agency.
Before I forget, we are joining "The Story of You" website and will have a page on there for you to check out. We have a link on this page but here it is: http://www.thestoryofyou.net/Myli.html. (JOURNEY TO MYLI)
The rest of the family is good. The younger boys are playing their days through and the oldest has started band camp this week. He is a junior this year. Wow! He will soon be 18 years old.
I guess that is all for now. More later.
May God richly bless you.

I am sorry that I have not posted this week. It has been so exciting to show off the pictures and everything. We received our packet in the mail on Teusday and received the translation through email.
Her Chinese name is Xiao Xiu Lan. As far as I can translate what her chinese name means is Pretty Elegant Flower.
Everything seems to be wonderful. She is a healthy little girl and seems to be progressing well. Liz and I know that this little girl is from God. We need to have our acceptance letter in on Monday so Liz is going to take it to our agency then. I ask for you to pray as we get all the paperwork together for the wonderful trip to go and get her and pray for her continuing safety.
Hopefully I can get into the grove again to keep everyone posted on our journey. I will include more about her province and all maybe in the next post.
I can't thank everyone enough for your prayers for us.
May God bless you

We sure got a blessing today. I got a call at lunch from our agency to give them a call because they had some information for us. He said that we needed to call asap. I thought that they might have told us with what loggin dates we were with. I called and asked what was up and I was told we had a referral. I was so shocked. We were not expecting any news for a while. I could hardly believe it. We have been so disheartened by what has happened over the last 2 months.
Right away I asked for them to email us a picture of our precious child. She is so beautiful. I tried to call Liz with no avail to tell her the wonderful news and could not get in touch with her. She was in a meeting today and her phone was dead and she had it in her office to charge it up. It might be a good thing because I doubt that I could have come right out and told her right then without breaking down in tears. I left her a message to call me, call me, call me, call me.
Her birthdate is October 31, 2007. She is a little over 8 months old now. Our packet is still in Chinese so we do not know very much at all about her. Our agency is sending us the originals overnight.
God is so wonderful. He allowed me to go to Mexico City on a mission trip and He blessed me there. I came back home and He has blessed me again with the referral of my baby daughter. God allowed this to happen this way to give us this blessing when we were least expecting it. It was Him showing that He was in control.
We have already been calling people and showing the pictures off. If you did not get a call, we are sorry. It is hard to focus. Our prayers, and your prayers for us have been answered today. We ask for you to continue to pray for the rest of our journey as we now prepare to go and get her.
May God bless you and keep you.

Hi Everyone!!

Well, we still don't know anything new. We are still waiting. I don't think we will hear anything new just unexpectently get a referral. That is what our adoption agency thinks will happen anyway. We will keep you all posted.

Please pray for our friends the Bailey's. They left on the 26th and should be arriving in China tonight. You can follow there journey on our adopting friends link.

Also, please pray for Martin. He is leaving tomorrow for a mission to Mexico. Pray that the mission team has safety and are able to reach others for Christ while they are there.

Love you all!

Hi everyone..this is Liz!! I hope everyone had a blessed holiday!

Well...we wanted to share with everyone that we have filled out paperwork for special needs adoption. I had a lot of misconceptions about special needs. When I researched it, I realized they were not true. The big one is that I read that if you put in for special needs then you were pulled out of non special needs. AHH told me you do not make a complete switch until you choose a child. That has helped broaden our options!

Our family adovate emailed us last week and said China still was not giving them any answers on what referral group we are with. In fact, they told them not to ask again. I think they got up on the wrong side of the bed! :)

Please pray for the Steven Curtis Chapman family. My heart has been hurting for them with the loss of their daughter. Martin and I received a grant from their assistance program, Shaohannah's Hope, for our adoption. We are very thankful for their ministry and their love for orphans. The link is on our blog.

Liz went today a bought us a new kitchen table. She has wanted one for a long time. We moved the old one out and they are to deliver the new one tomorrow morning. It is fun getting new stuff.
We don't have any new news about our adoption but we have wonderful news about our friends. China has found their LOAs and everything is back on track for them. That is wonderful. Prayer does work. Continue to pray for us.

I am sorry that we have not posted for so long. We have been told that we are just to wait and see. Our agency has been in touch with China and they told us that we may be matched in the next few months.
One thing that has been on my mind over the last few days is how God works. I should say "when God works." God deserves all the glory. When all things seem grim and impossible, it is bright and possible for God. I think that we need to get out of the way and let God do His thing. In Matthew 6, God tells us not to worry. So far, I have not been very dependent upon God. We are going to pray and wait upon God.
Our friends that received their referal is having trouble and need your prayers. Their LOAs (Letter of Acceptance) has been lost. The mail went to the wrong place or something and now China in not happy. They are asking for letters of apology. They may be delayed months now in receiving new LOAs and their travel papers. You can check out their link from our blog under adopting friends and check out their journal.

Hello All! We don't have the best news to report. We had AHH to send us all the emails that they got from China. With that being said, the news is not very good. In looking at them, we have came the conclusion that we came out of the review room three months later than the other people in our group. We will be matched with whatever group we were with when we came out. We do not know with what LIDs we are with so we don't know how much longer we will have to wait. According to RQ information, we are probably in the Feb.06 to Mar.06 LIDs. That is who came out of review in Feb. 07.
Like I said, not the best news to report. We do know one thing. God is in control and He can change outcomes. So please pray, pray, pray.

Our agency could not find out any more information today. The CCAA would not say with what batch we have been put with. It almost feels like a step back from yesterday. Medication may be needed before we get through this.
We have talked to someone elso today and they say that this is just like what the CCAA does. They will not be pinned into giving anymore information. We did get the information that we would be in the next LIDs. Our agency will keep us updated weekly. They do not want to get them mad by checking daily.
It has already been 6 days since the last batch. June will soon be here and we can have hope. What do we do if we do not get a referral in June? We don't know. Continue to pray for us.

We did get some news today. Our agency has been in touch with China and they told us we would be in the next LIDs. They are not sure if we will be in the next referrals that are issued or the next ones that our agency has logged in. They were going to clarify the information tonight. The next LIDs that our agency has is around the 24 of January. I am really glad that we actually have a dossier there. I had some fear that it was lost or discarded.
Our agency did try to get them to issue our referral now but that did not happen. We will get the information tomorrow on what our wait may be. We have waited 28 months. All I can say is hurry home my daughter.
Please continue to pray for us.

We have no news to report yet. We have talked with our agency today and they are going to get in touch with CCAA tonight and then send us an email with whatever they find out, but nothing yet. They said that they could not reach anyone this morning. I guess since it was 12 hours ahead of us and it was in the middle of the night. So we are just waiting.
Our agency has frustrated us with this. We were told that they would be on our side this morning and we had to try all day to talk to them and then all they said was they will try tonight. So we are checking email and rechecking our email. Will we hear tonight? I hope so.
Continue to pray for us.

Well, we have almost made it through the weekend. Hopefully we will find out good news tomorrow. Liz said that she just wants to know something. I want to hear that the referal is there and we get her picture and information. I admit I am a bit pessimistic about the situation. I was looking forward to seeing our daughter so much that now I fear the worst. If the CCAA has us in a later LID or rejected us for some reason, what then? How much longer do we wait? They are sending referals for about 3 to 5 days at a time each month right now. If we are delayed one month, then that could take from 6 to 10 more months wait. We have already waited about 28 months. You can see what my thoughts are doing. I guess my mentallity is to hope the worst and then anything above that is that much better.
I have grown to love this little girl even though we have never met. I was the reluctant one entering this adoption process. But now, I have a longing to bring my daughter home. This not knowing anything is just dragging me down.
Liz keeps telling me and I try to tell myself that God is in control and everything will be alright. I have said previously in another post that God's will be done. Whatever we find out, God is still God and I will still praise Him. He forgave me of my sins by the blood of Jesus and there is no other but Him.
I ask everyone to continue to pray for us and Myli.

We don't know what to do. We got news today. Referals did come in, but ours was not in with the others. We talked with our agency and they do not know why. They looked into our file and everything is in order. So many things could have happened and our mind is racing. Of course it is Friday and we can not find out anything until Monday. We are just sick. What are we to do if the worst happens? We have waited for so long and now when it actually is our time we don't know anything. This was my fear, and it has happened. All we can do is pray, wait, and then make a decision with whatever comes our way. Please pray for us.

Oh my goodness. There is word out there that something is in the air. We may just have a referal tomorrow. It will most likely be Monday or Teusday if these are referals that are coming. We can almost see that stork in the distance coming in for a landing. Wow.

No news yet. We have not even heard about any packets in the mail. I guess it will be next week before we know anything. It is a bit disappointing, but what are we to do? We know that time is in the hands of the Lord, and everything will happen in His timing. All we can trust and obey. Please continue to pray for God's will to be done.

Is the stork finally about to land? Will we have a referal by Friday, or will it be next week? We are checking RQ several times a day and hoping to hear more news. After 28 months, we are going to have the information on our daughter. We are so excited and nervous.
Everyone, pray for us and our daughter.

I have been slacking on posts. Mommy was gone four days for work this last week and it was just us guys at home. We sure missed her and was very happy when she got back home.
We are puting the room back together since the water leak. I put up some ceiling tiles one evening this last week and I will be touching up a few more things this next week.
I took my dad to the VA clinic today to have his eye looked at. He has been having some difficulty with pain and watering of it for the last little while. The doc said that he had a blocked tear duct and poked around in his eye and expects for it to be fine. After the doctor visit we got to eat out and go shopping.
No news yet on Myli. WE ARE HOPING AND PRAYING that we will start hearing rumors the first of the week and get her referal by Friday. We know that every day is one day closer to bringing her home.

Not much to report from the last week. Last weekend we stayed the night at the state park and let the boys swim. It was a fun time and very affordable. We all enjoyed spending the night and swimming.
We had an eventful day yesterday. A water pipe broke and we had a little bit of a mess. A few ceiling tiles will have to be repaced and a few touchups here and there but not too bad. We will look over everything real good to make sure we don't miss any damage that needs to be replaced. We are blessed. It could have been a lot worse.

Today was another beautiful day. We had to go to Louisville to have our fingerprints redone. It was quick and easy. We didn't have to wait and we were in and out of the city easily.
After that, we took the boys to the zoo. It was a very good day,and we all enjoyed ouselves. It had been a little while since we had been.
We also had the opportunity to stop in and see some friends that live in Lousiville. It was good to see them. John, if you read this, sorry we missed you.

Today was the first weekday of spring break for the boys. It was a beautiful day. Loren got us four little plum trees and we planted them when I got home from work.
Well, it is official I guess. The cutoff date is Jan. 9th. We will have to wait one more month. Should we absolutely expect to get a referral in the next batch? We are going to be looking for it. After all this time we are excited, but we know anything can happen. We know that God has led us this far and we have to trust. Every day is one more day closer till we get to bring our daughter home.

Today is Sunday. It has been a wonderful day. It was beautiful and warm outside. After church today, Loren went to the park with his cousins. Landon and I took the bb guns out and hunted "monsters" in the woods. Jeremy had to work.
We are hoping that we will hear something tomorrow if we were in this batch of referrals or not. Will we have our daughters picture this month or next? We are hoping.

We are still waiting to hear what the cutoff date is. The rumors are that the cutoff is the 9th. We were getting so excited and now we don't know what to think. I guess we will have to wait until Monday. If we have to wait one more month, I think we can handle it after all this time.

Legacy of an Adopted Child

Once there were two women who never knew each other. One you do not remember, the other you call mother. Two different lives, shaped to make you one... One became your guiding star, the other became your sun. The first gave you life and the second taught you to live it. The first gave you a need for love, and the second was there to give it. One gave you a nationality, the other gave you a name. One gave you a seed of talent, the other gave you an aim. One gave you emotions, the other calmed your fears. One saw your first sweet smile, the other dried your tears. One gave you up.. that's all she could do. The other prayed for a child and God led her straight to you. And now you ask me, through your fears, the age old question unanswered throughout the years.. Heredity or environment, which are you the product of? Neither, my darling, neither. Just two different kinds of love.
Author: Unknown