Happy Thanksgiving

Dear Ellie,      It is 12:45 am here in Maryland.  So it is probably 12:45 pm where you are in Ch*na.  Just as I do each and every day since I saw your beautiful face, I am thinking about you.  I can't sleep so I am writing you this letter,  I'm sitting here wondering if you just had lunch? and what did you eat? are you getting ready for a nap? are you happy? are you sad? are you healthy? do you like stories being read to you? do you like music? what's your favorite color? what makes you giggle?  There are so many things that I cannot wait to learn about you.
     Just as I do every time saddness rushes over me at the thought of you being so far away from me, I stop and pray.  I pray that you will feel the very depth of my love for you, that you will know the warmth and security that waits for you in your Daddy's arms,  and that you will know the joy that stirs in your brothers and sisters as they speak your name and imagine your life in Ch*na.  I pray that your Gaurdian Angel will deliver a message of love to you in your dreams from your family here in America waiting for you.
      Today is a wonderful holiday we celebrate in America called Thanksgiving.  It is a time to join our family in friends in thanking our Heavenly Father for all of the many wonderful blessings He has provided for us throughout the  year.  Ever since the first Thanksgiving friends and family gather around the table sharing in a wonderful meal, sharing laughter and love, sharing stories and memories.  This year we have so much to be thankful for in our lives,,,,, and you are a part of our prayers of thanksgiving.  We are so thankful to have the priveledge of bringing you into our family.  We love you so much!!  May God bless you and keep you; may His angles watch over you and bring you safely into our arms.     
                                                                             Love always,
                                                                                     Mommy

Happy 2nd Birthday Ellie!

October 29th was Ellie's 2nd birthday.  As the day approached I felt myself becoming very sad. Birthdays are very important to our family.  We loving celebrating the day God chose to bring our children into the world.  The night before the children's birthday I decorate the house plastering it with their new BIG number.  They look forward to waking up to the celebration on the their birthday morning.  Then we sing "Happy Birthday" and blow out candles with every meal of the day!!! We share with them throughout the day stories of the day they were born.  We tell them what time they were born and how very excited we were to finally see their beautiful faces and hold them in our arms.  We LOVE birthdays!  So as Ellie's big day approached I felt a very deep sadness. I could not celebrate with her this year.  I love this little girl so much and it is hard to describe the depth of my love for her.  Just as I felt a love deep in my heart for my other four children the moment I found out I was pregnant for them, I feel this for Ellie too! Before her birthday I felt sad that we could not decorate for her, sing to her, or celebrate with her.   I prayed that she felt our love surrounding her that day and every day!  We sent her our first care package a couple of weeks ago, hoping it would arrive before her birthday.  We sent a photo album so she could see her new family, a few toys, new clothes from Aunt Jennifer and Uncle Scott, and several beautiful cards and pictures created by her big brothers and sisters.  With every item I prayed that as she held and looked at her treasures, she would feel our love for her.   It's the only birthday present I could hope to give my little girl this year.

Taking their first trip down a hill on a sled

God is awesome!!! And sometimes He answers prayers in ways we least expect it! Sometimes he sends us surprises to let us know that He is taking care of everything.  And sometimes those surprises are HUGE! He sent us an amazing surprise on Ellie's 2nd birthday, a way we could celebrate the day together (with her in our hearts).... our very first SNOW day!!!  Yes, snow!!!!  As many of you know following our blog, we are from Louisiana, and have only lived in Florida and Mississippi with the Air Force.  So we have never experienced snow before.  I had the wonderful opportunity to play in snow last February in Wisconsin as I visited my mom. But have never seen it falling from the sky, or catch it in my hands.  And our children have never seen more than a few flurries we would get on the very rare occasion in the south.  So instead of waking up sadly  to a house we could not fill with birthday decorations for our little Ellie, we woke up to beautiful snow!  We could not wait to go play in it!  All six of us had a wonderful time throwing snowballs, making a snow man, and feeling the joy of snow!  We heard a report on the radio that this was the first time since 1979 that it snow here in MD in October, (and it only snow on Saturday, Ellie's birthday)!  What a confirmation from our wonderful and gracious Lord!  We had so much fun the entire day!  So many times when I was watching our children delight in the snow, or watching the way the snow softly covered the beautiful fall colored trees, I praised God and asked Him to bless our baby in Ch*na with this same joyful feeling we had!  I know He heard and answered my prayer.  Now I pray and look forward to celebrating with her on her third birthday next year!!!

Jon posing with his pumpkin he carved

2nd homestudy visit.....

First of all, thank you!!!!  Thank you so much for all of the prayer support!  My heart felt so lifted as I read all of the wonderful comments on my fb account!  We could feel those prayers yesterday morning at our second homestudy visit.  As part of our adoption we need to complete a homestudy.  This included inspections of our home by the fire department, health department, and a social worker. It included medical exams of every member of your household, fingerprints, police background checks, and child abuse clearances  (in every state we have lived in!).  We have been working very hard since September to complete all of these tasks.  Yesterday was the 2nd of 3 homestudy visits with our social worker.  This was the visit where she interviewed one of our references, inspected our home, and interviewed each of the children.  This was the area I was most concerned about....you never know what will happen with my crew!  My mind was picturing food being thrown, burping, wrestling, and stories of how deprived they are of the best toys! Yet the entire visit was amazing! The children made us so very proud!  They were honest in their answers and very sincere about their excitement of welcoming their new little sister, Ellie.  Sometimes I think we do not give our own children enough credit!  Really they only act the way my fearful mind thought they would... in front of us! So it made me see even more the greatness in my own four wonderful children!!
Thank you again for the prayers!! And please keep them coming!

Welcome to our adoption journey

Hello family and friends.  Welcome to our family blog.  I know, I know......most of you reading this are amazed that we have even started a blog!  As you may know computers are a little challenging for us. And to be honest, Clare, our ten year old,  knows more about them than we do.  But we thought that this would be a great way to share our adoption journey with you.  We would love for each of you to be apart of this journey and to lift us in prayer along our way in bringing our little girl home.
     So the first question you may want to ask us is..... YOU want to adopt? and why NOW?  We may already be blessed to know you already. But if you don't know us please allow me to share a little about our family...
We are the Gautreaux family, Steve, Amiee, Clare 10, Jon 8, Anna 6, Thomas 3, and soon.... Ellie 2. Oh, and our little four legged family member, Molly. We are an Air Force family currently living in Maryland, but will be moving to Nevada in May.  Steve is a full time student, enrolled in nurse anesthesia school,  and I have the joy of staying home with our children.  There is never a dull moment in house, never a time with all the dishes or laundry done, and the only quiet moment in our house is after bedtime.  Jesus is in the center of our family and we feel His love in the middle of our craziness.  We are blessed!  And blessed in so many ways!

One of the most recent pictures of our little Ellie

So back to the question, why adopt and why now?   Steve and I have always wanted to adopt, but have been very busy with all of the little blessings God gave us in the last 11 years of our marriage.  We thought about adopting before our last son, Thomas was born.  But then after his surprise arrival we put adoption plans on hold, possibly even permanently.  After moving here to MD, I started looking into adoption agencies again.  I prayed in secret for discernment of God's will.  I had such a strong desire to adopt, and if it was not in God's plan, I prayed that He would take away this desire.  I eventually talked to Steven about this, and to my surprise, he was on board!  After we decided that this was the time for us to start our adoption process we learned it would take over a year.  We knew wanted to have completed the process before he was finished school.  Deployments are a realty for us after school, and we didn't want our adoption to be affected.  The more we prayed and discussed it, the more we knew that this was the best time for us.  So I began my agency search.  We already decided to adopt internationally, and our hearts have always been called to the Asian countries.  The more research I did, the more I was drawn to Ch*na.  I also looked into adopting from Korea.  But Korea has may state restrictions, and it would have been difficult for us to adopt while we are moving around over the next two years.  As I continued my agency search, I would scroll through the many pictures on the lists of "waiting children".  These are children each agency lists on their website in hopes of finding families for this precious little ones.  There was a picture of little girl who caught my eye.  I found her again on a different website and learned more about her.  The more I learned about her, the more I feel in love with her.  I found myself going back to her picture over and over again.  I started praying for her and for all of the other many children on these websites.  The more I prayed for her, the more I thought about her.  One day Clare and I were looking at a group of several waiting children.  She pointed to this little girl right away and said, "look at her how cute she is".  It was my first confirmation!  I called the agency she was listed with in the morning to find out more information about her. I did not tell Steve about her yet.  We had decided to just get information about agencies now. Then start the process once we were in NV.  That day the agency told me that another family was reviewing her file. So she was not available to adopt.  I was heartbroken, but took it as and answer to pray.  Maybe this was not the right time.  I continued to pray and wait on the Lord.  Then a week later the agency called back and said the previous family declined her file and she was available once again!!! I was so happy! That day they sent us all of the information that had on this beautiful little girl.  When Steve got home from school that night I told him "I found her!"  He looked very confused until I started to explain the story.  We review all of her information together.  He was very interested and thought she was adorable.  The twist to her story is her special need.  She was born with a meningocele and spina bifida.  This means that part of spinal cord was born on the outside of her spinal column leaving her with neurological deficits.  She has limited mobility to her lower extremities and could possibly be in a wheelchair when she is older.  This special need did not keep us from falling in love with her.  We took the weekend to pray.  Then we started the process of adopting, Xiao Fang, soon to be the newest member of the Gautreaux family.  Even though we have preapproval from the CCCWA to adopt Xiao Fang (Ellie) it will still take approximately 12 months to bring her home! It will be a long year of waiting!  Here is where I ask for our first prayer, the grace and wisdom to wait.... to wait on the Lord and to wait to hold her in my arms.

September 2011

 We have our second homestudy visit tomorrow and we are moving along the journey.  I will try to post pictures to share with you.

One of the first pictures we saw of her

One of the first pictures we saw of Xiao Fang

Thank you for your time in reading our very first blog! And thank you for your prayers! My prayer is that as you read this our Lord will bless your life and will give you wisdom and discernment in your life! Thank you!