Every New Beginning Comes From Some Other Beginning's End

What. A. Day.

There are so many clichés that we can throw out there: (The waiting is the hardest part! We are making memories! What an emotional roller coaster!)

But today, November 17th, 2014, we met Campbell for the first time. We gave her a new name. We gave her lots of hugs & kisses. We gave her a photo album of her new family. We gave her formula & some diaper changes. We gave her a bath. We gave her a stuffed Panda. She gave us more than she'll ever know.

It was surreal, honestly, the whole day. It began at the Civil Affairs Office. One minute we are laughing nervously with some new friends who are also here adopting through our agency, then the next minute they call our name, we walk to the middle of the room, hand Campbell to us, and we are suddenly "Mullis Party of Five." We are so grateful for how God has woven all these pieces together to come together at such a time as this!

We were able to meet with Campbell's caretakers today. It was an honor to see them and thank them for their care. It was quite a journey for them; they deliver the children to the Provincial Capital City (in our case Guangzhou, China), and that is about a 5-hour trek from her orphanage & hometown...one-way! We hope to visit there on Thursday, but that is still yet to be determined (read: they did not yet give us permission).

In addition to the long journey, she also had to say goodbye to these folks. The only people she has ever known. She also had a little friend who was adopted today by a family from Washington. They have been together for many months in the same room, and suddenly they are apart. So today Campbell had some new beginnings, but we also saw her experience some painful endings as well...thus the title of this post.

Campbell's caretakers and medical officer journeyed 10 hours roundtrip to bring her to our arms!

We spent the rest of the day getting to know each other. Playing, eating, trying to comfort her. She has been on such a traumatic journey, so we knew it would not be easy. She's still in some shock, I'm sure, and honestly so are we. But we went to sleep tonight (after a few rough attempts to get her to relax and give into the need for sleep) with a daughter. In a crib. Beside our bed. In cute pink PJ's.

Fast asleep after her big day.

We promise to keep you updated as we have several more days here and lots & lots of appointments all over the place. But here are some prayer requests that are on our hearts at the moment:

Please pray for:

• A deep bond of trust to form between us. We felt this the most when putting her to bed tonight...she was so scared (and rightly so from her perspective!). Pray that we can do all the "little things" throughout the days ahead that demonstrate to her that we can be trusted.
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• The unknown's. Yes, we've only begun to get to know her, but it is becoming obvious that there are some undiagnosed health issues with our sweet girl. We pursued a Special Needs Adoption with a clear calling from the Lord, so we won't be shaken from that. But we are experiencing some physical challenges with her that were not on her medical records anywhere. We were told that was possible (normal even) when dealing with adoptive medicine, but that is now our reality and not just a possibility. Pray for us to tap into a deeply seated trust in God's majestic plan for Campbell's life!
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• Sleep. The most discouraging thing about jet-lag (to us at least) is that you're so exhausted when you go to bed, but you can only sleep in 3-4 hours spurts. Pray that we can find the rest we need to function properly!
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• Erin and myself. This might sound totally weird, but we need to trust in ourselves. Not like trusting in our own strength / flesh, but trusting that we are God's provision for Campbell as much as she is His provision for us. He will give us grace for the moment, but pray that we will live in that reality abundantly over the next few days / months / years. 

Thanks for getting to the bottom of the post. :-)  We can't imagine doing this without a team of family, friends, and ministry partners. We made the statement the other day that we're so proud of and humbled by the Kingdom of God working itself out through our adoption. You all are the best.

谢谢！Thanks!

明天见,

The Mullises, Party of Five.