Newell News

http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20091212/ARTICLES/912119956/1177?p=1&tc=au\ torefresh This is a wonderful news article about our friends' adoption story. We had the fortune of getting to know them on our trip, and the girls really bonded. Neat story, hope you enjoy!

Molly's first day of 1/2 day Kindergarten at our local preschool was VERY successful. She absolutely loved it, loved her teachers, loved her adorable and sweet, sweet classmates (all 10 of them). She is thrilled to be there and has a lot of catching up to do as Kindergarten isn't the same as it used to be. They really work hard and know a lot already, like how to write full sentences and how to read LOTs of sight words. She's practicing a lot at home and has amazing initiative. It is very exciting to watch her learn so much, so quickly! She continues to amaze us with her relationship with her siblings. It is truly beautiful to see the love they share, something only God could create and grow. It's a good thing!! We truly are blessed more than we could have ever asked or imagined. We're so grateful to each person and family that is in our lives and for God, in Whom All things are possible!

We'd love to take this time to wish all of our friends and family a Most Wonderful Christmas and Holiday Season! We feel so blessed this year to be adding another stocking to our mantle...The stocking belonging to: Amelia Grace Newell, born 12/26/03 in Kunming, China, adopted 10/26/09. A quick catch-up to those new to the blog. Our little Molly was born in Kunming, China close to December 26th, 2009. She was left at the gates of a women's hospital approximately 9 months later. She was taken in to the orphanage, given the name Pan Jia Qi and then placed in a "Foster Village" setting where she was raised in a rural farming community. While in the community she helped care for other small children, hand-washed laundry and helped cook meals. Her adoption paperwork was placed in the system at the same time that we started our adoption paperwork and we were matched with her in the Spring of 2009. We traveled to China in the Fall with Abby to meet her and bring her h

We made it home last night after a 26 hour trip. The three boys raced to her at the airport. She was frozen, not really sure what to do, but did have a HUGE smile on her face. We're so thankful to the Grandparents for helping with our boys and it is great to have Oma and Opa here for another week. God is good!

Hi All, Today is our last day in China and tomorrow morning (Thursday night US) at 5am we leave for a 2 hour bus ride to Hong Kong to begin the long trek home. We are sooooo ready. Things are fine here, mostly very good days. We had a great day yesterday at the park and spent some good family time together. The big event was to swear Molly in as an American Citizen to get her Visa at the American Consulate. It was almost like she knew it was a very meaningful event. She hugged Heidi and said “Thank You Mommy” immediately afterward…it was a pretty emotional moment I must admit. Here’s a few more pictures.Thank you all so much for the prayers. Can’t wait to get home! Love Mike

M-We talk regularly with mom and dad on skype. Molly is all smiles and loves my sister Abby. They come home this Friday night. I cant wait to see them. And i will put more pictures on soon.

Hi All, We have a cute little girl in our hands now. She is absolutely adorable and you all will love her so much. She walked out with a little backpack on her back and clutching a the panda bear in her left hand that we had sent a month ago. She held the hands of another woman in the orphanage who brought her over. It turns out they had brought her back to the orphanage a week ago to prepare her. In her backpack, she had three little tiny little dolls, our camera and pictures of our family (including Tilly, the boys, etc.). It was heartbreaking and adorable. There have been no tears yet and she hugged Heidi and let me hold her. She fell asleep about 30 minutes after we hade her (in our arms). She is very reserved, quiet and I’m sure very scared so please say a prayer. I am attaching a few pictures and will send more soon. This is amazing, God is good. Love you all, Mike

Hi All, We gets lots of smiles now! Abby and her hold hands, wrestle, sing songs to the Chinese video we brought. I hid under the covers and they asked “where is Daddy”? She pointed at the bed and I popped out (she laughed, and laughed, and laughed). This is fun and going extremely well.

We have just talked to mom and dad on skype.We saw molly and she is so happy. She smiles a lot and she told a cab driver that my parents were really kind. We gave her a doll and she plays with it 24/7.

We finally received all of our travel documents today and our In Country Itinerary! It is such a relief! It feels like the very last thing that could hold us up from meeting our Molly on October 26th, God willing! There is a little bit of "Until we're on that plane..." but overall we're so thankful to be at this point and words simply can not express how much we can't wait to meet Miss Molly!

This has been an extremely exciting time. We had our travel meeting yesterday which was a conference call with our travel director and the 19 families that are going with us. 19 families! Some are adopting babies and many are adopting special needs and older children, all girls except for one boy ;-) We can't wait to meet everyone in Beijing. They all come from different parts of the United States and have completely different stories as to what brought them here. Many have blogs and I can't wait to read them, I'll add them to my blogs I follow. There was a glitch with getting our travel documents out this week, so please pray for our group that all the documents get delivered next Tuesday (some families are traveling Wednesday!). As each day passes we get more and more filled with wonder as we anticipate meeting Molly. What will she think of us? Will she know? Will she understand? Will she have been prepared? How will she grieve her foster family? What will she be l

At this point, 2 weeks from today, we will have met Molly. That may explain why I wake up at 5:30am every morning with excitement & butterflies:)! I have these thoughts/visions now. This morning, I imagined you ABBY walking down the streets of China holding Molly's hand. Amazing. I am absotulely blown away by how you kids are embracing this. The passion you have for bringing this little girl into our family is indescribable. I have never been more proud of you all then during this time. This is clearly God's calling for our family and you are faithful. I am so, so proud of each of you and love you very much. Dad

Many families who adopt have a blog to journal their adoption and many of us who are still on the road to ours get much needed advice, information and overall encouragement from them. If you have a chance to read the last blog "I have a home" from Adoption Road (check the blogs that I follow - scroll down on the left). It is beautifully written and something I know I'd love to share with Molly when she begins to formulate the same questions.

We are thrilled to have booked our flights. It does make it seem much more real all of a sudden. We will be flying out on Friday, October 23rd (Newark to Beijing), arriving Saturday afternoon (13 hour flight). From there we'll fly to Kunming where we meet Molly! Then on to Guangzhou for more paperwork and appointments, and leave on Friday, November 6 to come home! (15 hour flight on the way back :-) We pray that Molly will be prepared by her foster parents to meet us and that she'll have peace and comfort during the transition, that she isn't scared but has some understanding of what is happening in her little life.

Since our blog is brand new, I thought I'd give a brief update of the Molly story. We first began discussing adoption seriously in May of 2008. There was a lot to think about, foster parenting, domestic adoption, international. We became passionate with China after reading the story of the Steven Curtis Chapman family. They were definitely an inspiration to us. I was so excited I started immediately gathering information for China and found an agency and got as many papers together as I could. Then M came to me and said that he really felt we should switch agencies to America World Adoption. At first all I could think of was all the additional paperwork, but I quickly realized that his feelings were strong and most likely correct. We left our old agency on October 15, 2008 and started up with AWA on October 18th. By April, we had all our paperwork over to China (DTC) and had received notice that we were logged in (LID). A few days later, we received a referral of a little

We are counting down the days until we meet Molly...we're thinking that it will be Monday, October 26th, but we've yet to book our flights :-) We're still hoping to do that today, our agency let us know that the price of the flights is coming down this week! So, that is great news for us!! Psalm 100:1 & 5 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness, come before Him with joyful songs. For the Lord is good and His love endures forever. His faithfulness continues through all generations.

Just when we thought we couldn't wait any longer for news...we received word that our consulate appointment is set and we have concrete travel dates. October 22 - November 5th. We just can't wait to meet our Molly and discover who she really is. Since May, we have only had these photos and a medical exam and biosocial profile. It says that she is active, extroverted, likes to play with children, likes to experience new things, loves the outdoors, gets along with others, obeys her foster parents, likes to dance and play along with the shows on television :-) and she can pick-up peanuts with chopsticks! We can not wait to meet her and pray that all continues as scheduled. We're so thankful for God allowing us this amazing experience and trust that He's caring for her all the days that we can not.

“Hopefulness of final victory is ours, if we only remember that we are fighting God’s battles. And can He know defeat? He who is the God of the great world around us is the God of the little world within. It is He who is contending in thee; thou art but His soldier, guided by His wisdom, strengthened by His might, shielded by His love. Keep thy will united to the Will of God, and final defeat is impossible; for He is invincible.” George Body sent to me by my sister-in-law, thank you!

From Mom - we're still waiting and praying and hoping to hear word of our Consulate Appointment so we can book plane tickets for October 22, 2009. We are trying to trust the Lord with all our hearts and not lean on our own understanding. We're thankful for all of our friends and family and your prayers on our behalf. We just know God is doing a mighty work. Practically speaking, we're packing and preparing for the trip and planning for Grandparents to stay with the boys. Abby will be coming with us, she is so very excited. Some advice I received was to prepare ahead for Christmas shopping and Adoption announcements so I think I'll move forward with those. I know it will be crazy when she gets home. The purpose of this blog is to share our China experience with friends and family in the States. We should be able to access it and post photos and blog from there. Although they block blogspot, we are supposed to be able to email to the blog. So, we'll see.

From M - C get on the blog.

From M - Hi mom, I don't mind the feminine touch, i liked the neon background better though, for Molly's sake I will keep it this way. And mom if you get on again try to download a picture of you. We all feel better then yesterday about the adoption. We are thankful that the Lord is even letting us adopt. And i can't wait any longer to meet my new sister! We will get there it just takes time.

From W - I'm so excited to meet my new sister

From Mom - I admit that I was overwhelmed at the thought of trying to start this blog, so I had M and C get it up and running...Now, while they're busy at football, I've snuck in and cutified the blog :-) I am so thankful that they started it, hope they don't mind the feminine touch!!

From M -"Our family has four kids. We love the Lord and want to serve him with all we have. Today was a sad day. We have just been notified that we won't be going to China to get the sister we are hoping to adopt until October 22nd. We thought we were going in the middle of September. But the date keeps getting pushed back. I have been looking forward to getting a new sister, and so has our family, we don't have to wait much longer and we are really looking forward to it. The only thing that I'm not to happy about is, I won't be able to go to china because I have to stay in school and go to football. But I can't wait for them to one day come home with my new sister."