Shanghai and our little Gus

Last day in Shanghai

This post is long overdue, and I know most of you have seen our updates on Facebook, but here's for you who have not.

Here he is:

August Jingfan Rowland

We are pretty much over the moon for him.

Ben and Maddie have been incredible this entire journey and they love their little brother so much.

I will post all the details of our journey soon, but for now we are just spending time bonding with Gus.  

He is sleeping well through the nights, so far.

He is very attached to his bottle, likes to sleep with his arms over his head, loves to be held (good arm workout), and is starting to smile and laugh a bit.

Today, we fly to Guangzhou to where the US consulate is and is where we do all his medical check, get his visa, and finish paperwork so he can enter the United States.

Our chinese adoption was official two days ago.  That was quite a process, but very special too.

Shanghai is an incredibly beautiful city.  We will post pics and video very soon.

We are all doing well and are so thankful we are on this journey, we cannot imagine our lives without this sweet boy.

Love to you all.

The Rowlands

Today is the day

Today, is finally, the day.

At 7:12 a.m. we will be bound to Dallas and then at 11:25 a.m. we will be flying across the world to meet our precious little son.  

Today, we all arose in our hotel room with 4 hours of sleep yet rearing to GO.  

The last time my daughter was on an airplane was when she was just 7 months old, so this whole experience is quite overwhelming and exciting to her.

Both kids are nervous and mention this fact often.  I admit, I have been pretty stable emotionally and just committed to keeping everything in ORDER, so it's good that my mind has been distracted all this time.

There is a season for everything and I anticipate that at some point, soon, I'll be an emotional mess, but for now, I'm thankful to own my organizational skills.    

Please pray over our trip, our health, our son who will be in our arms on June 27th.   Without prayer, this would be a whole other kind of trip.  

Thank you ALL for your support each step of the way.  We couldn't do this without each of you.

We will update you more in Dallas, and then it may be a while before we get connected to update once in country.

Love you all.

-the lowlands

2 Days and counting

Here we are, another day closer to wheels up.

Today, my daughter paid for us to get our toes all pretty at a nail salon, and a friend met us as well, so that was special.  So nice to be able to relax a bit, something I don't often do.  LOL

We've done all our last minute packing list items and will be spending the rest of day at home getting suitcases ready for final inspection.

Tomorrow, I'll be posting our itinerary, so you can follow along our day by day in China.

Until tomorrow.....

Counting Days

The countdown.....

Here we are, just 3 days from lift off to China.

On June 22nd at 7:25 a.m. we depart from our airport and fly to Dallas.  We arrive in Beijing June 23rd at 2:58 p.m  

Beijing skyline.

It's very very surreal that we will be HERE in just days.  Today, at our church, our pastor shared Phillipians 4: 6-7

Let's be clear:  Those who know me....know how I WORRY about everything.  I have many anxieties about this trip , the unknowns, our child who will be taken away from all he's known for two years and placed with us (strangers to him), the health of our kids and us, and so on.  We will be in CHINA, so very far away from our comfort of home and our lives here.

It's something I deal with daily and today, I was reminded of who GOD truly is and how He is our protector and He's got us in the palm of his hand, just like a dad with his child will often comfort a scared or hurt child and reassure them, "I've got you.  It's O.K."  

The peace of God is SO MUCH BIGGER than we can even begin to imagine, so we  need not waste time on worrying away any moment.  So today, I am praying this verse on me and I'm asking others to join me.

I'm praying that I hear God's voice telling me....

"I've got this.  You're O.K."

Prayer requests:  

Our kids (Ben and Maddie) as they are feeling nervous.

Health of our family and for little Gus.

Safe travels

Transitions (for August to feel our love and desire to keep him safe in our care).

Blessings from our family,

The Rowlands

Less than a week

Less than a week until G-O time

With only 6 days left, my heart is anxious for sure.  I'm surprisingly not emotional yet.  I'm trying so hard to just keep everything in check for packing, not missing a beat.  I suppose that is why I'm holding back the flood of tears.

I keep thinking about my two kids, Ben and Maddie and how they are going to be on this trip.  I think about what they must be feeling, their excitement and their fears of so many unknowns.  

I think about little Gus and wondering how he will adjust when these strangers come on june 26th, to take him away from all he knows as his home and caretakers.  

I think about that very first moment when we all see him.  I know we can never be fully prepared, and can have no expectations, but my heart is beyond anxious to just SEE HIM.

I'll be updating daily before we leave and then it may be a little while until we have time to send pictures, etc while we are in country.

Your prayers , thoughts, well wishes mean the world to us. 

Blessings,

The Rowlands

9 days

days to GO!

After 1 1/2 years of waiting, we are only 9 days away from going to China and will meet our son on June 26th in Shanghai. 

We are trying our best to prepare our hearts and minds for this incredible journey, but there are so many unknowns.

 We are traveling across the world to meet our son for the first time on June 26th.  He doesn't know us, doesn't know our sounds, our smells, our behaviors.  He doesn't know how much we all love him and have been waiting for this day to come. 

We may try and have a plan for how it will go, but the reality is that we will look to little Gus for what his needs are and adapt as we need to for him. 

When we first meet him, we will taking him away from ALL he's ever known.  The sounds, smells, environment, and people around him will change in an instant.  Nothing will be familiar.  He's not been in a car, or car seat, or airplane, or restaurant, hotel, parks, etc.    The food he will eat will all be different, his routine will be no longer as it was, the way we speak is completely different.

We cannot plan for how he will react when he first see's us.  Of course, I have dreamt of such a day when I long to finally hold him in my arms, he will not understand why these "strangers" are taking him away from the "nannies" he's known for almost 2 years.

Please PRAY for us:

Prayer teams for TRAVEL

Prayer teams for HEALTH

Prayer teams for TRANSITIONS & attachment.

Prayer teams for our kids:  Ben & Maddie, as they adapt themselves to having a new brother, who may have quite a few "hard times" adjusting into our family

In the meantime, I'm packing & packing.

I feel like I triple check every suitcase over and over again which can play tricks on one's mind for sure and at times I feel like I've lost my mind.  

We continue to have our gofundme campaign, as we recently found out that our in country costs have increased in cost, so we are praying over our finances to come through to cover the extra expenses. 

MORE SHIRTS for sale:  message me your size.  Just $22.  We are leaving on the 22nd.  (: 

If you would be interested in donating or if you want to purchase an adoption shirt, you can pay on our gofundme page

http://www.gofundme.com/rowlandsadopt

Thank you for following along  

les, sara, ben & maddie & gus

Update and more.

The time is drawing near

Today someone in the grocery store asked me how I can look so calm.  Inside, I feel I am bursting with a flood of emotions, but for whatever the reason,  I am holding it together on the outside.  

Be still and KNOW that I AM GOD.  Seriously, I remind myself of this promise every single day.   God wants us to go to HIM, to lean on HIM when we are not calm, when there are storms, worries, and fears.  We are His children and He desperately seeks after us, to love us, to protect us, to hold us close.  

Those who know me well, know of my anxious heart, my worrisome personality, my endless multitasking mind.  I am not one to sit still EVER.  

Here I am, two weeks away (TODAY) from traveling across the world, across oceans, to bring home a child whom we've never met.  How great is our Father's love to call us children His children and to make a way for an orphan to be called a son or daughter.  

  I've spent the last year and half doing paperwork, preparing the way for us to bring home our son.  Now, I am on a whole new level of preparation and I'm a bit overwhelmed right now.  I know that it will all come together, but in the preparing for the readiness, I feel a mess in my mind.  I've got a ton of items to organize before packing.  I've sorted through the items dozens of times over and over again, checking my lists too many times to the point I think I'm going crazy.  

Today, I am calling upon prayer warriors:  You know who you are.  I ask for prayer during this time of getting ready.   If you can message me below and let me know you are praying, it would mean the world to me.  

Other requests:  Pray for our health, Pray for travel safety, Pray for our little boy to have peace when we meet him, Pray for our kids (Ben and Maddie) who are going with us, and pray for continued provisions to fall into place as we found out yesterday that our in country costs have nearly doubled.

Thank you everyone.  

Tickets are BOOKED!

Lots of emotions

 Today, we just finished up another fundraiser.  I am totally OK with being DONE with about a year of fundraisers and am way beyond thankful for all the people who showed up and supported.

It's amazing the kind of people who just seem to be planted at a place (even at a rummage sale), who offer a word of encouragment, who share of an adoption story, who are just curious and ask questions about international adoption, and who just want to support our journey.   I'm humbled and grateful.  

Last week we found out that we got: TRAVEL APPROVAL

We believe that we were called to adopt from China.  I cannot tell you of a specific moment we knew, but we just knew.   We are about 3 weeks out from traveling to China to bring home our son, brother, grandson, nephew and cousin to our entire family who already love him and yet haven't met.  What an amazing gift.  

This beautiful little boy will no longer be an orphan.  

We believe that God has placed adoption on the hearts of so many people, and the fact that we have accepted our call to bring home a son from China, makes me love Jesus so much more.  His word says, that He will make orphans our sons and daughters.  What a beautiful God, who loves His children without borders.

"for the God who calls you is faithful, and He can be trusted to make it so.."  1 Thess 5:24.

Please pray for me this week.  I'm super anxious all the time.  We will be leaving soon and our lives will change forever.  We've anticipated this moment for over a year and half.   It's finally almost time to GO.

Thank you for following our journey, it means so much.

_sara