Last Night on the Mainland

Tonight as I sit in bed and think about what the next couple of days hold, there is a lot of traveling ahead.  Tomorrow morning we take a van 3 hours over to Hong Kong where we will stay one night and also get to meet up with a friend from our days in Shanghai.  Then early Saturday morning we will begin the grueling travel back to Orlando.  We take a 4 hour 30 minute flight to Tokyo where we will have a 3 hour 35 minute layover. From there we take a 11 hour 30 minute flight to Chicago where we will have another 3 hour 35 minute layover. Finally we will take a 2 hour 30 minute flight to Orlando for a grand total of 24 hours 40 minutes of travel! This will be a real test not just for Promise but also for both of us as parents.  To say we will need lots of prayer is an understatement!

Promise showing a little sass in her new dress before
we go to the U.S. Consulate.

With that said, the last few days have been unforgettable. We have been Guangzhou, China so we could take the final steps with the U.S. Consulate to get Promise home. Yesterday was an awesome time as we actually went into the U.S. Consulate and Promise was on U.S. owned property for the very first time!  While in the consulate we took an oath for us as parents. It was a very special moment as we thought about the life ahead for us as parents and the life ahead for Promise in a Christian home! We were once again flooded with emotions as we thought through the last 16 months as we prepared to bring Promise home and how God, time and time again, provided. As always, He has continued to show Himself faithful.

Today was a great day of enjoying mainland China one last time before we head to Hong Kong tomorrow morning.  To think back to what life in this country has meant to us over the years is hard to put into words.  We have seen so many lives and so many families changed! There have been more people come to Christ than we can count and swimming parties (baptisms) to go along with them! We have seen one young lady come to Christ and in turn lead her husband and best friend to Christ. We saw a college student believe and lead a house church and his friends to grow in Christ. We have seen discipleship take place to the 3rd and 4th generation and a house church started and continuing to thrive!

Having some fun in the hotel room. Her laugh
and smile are such a joy to have in our family!

And now we get to see our family changed in a new way forever with our daughter! After just two weeks with her we never could have imagined the amazing impact she would have on us! It is like one of our close friends said, it is hard to remember having experienced life without her.

Our prayer for her is that she too will believe in Christ and follow Him with all of her heart, soul, mind and strength as so many of her friends here in China have.  That she will be a great warrior for His kingdom all the days of her life. That she too will have a heart for the nations. That when she stands before the Lord one day He will say to her, "well done good and faithful servant." We truly believe that God will not only answer those prayers but will do far more than all we can think or imagine. After all, God promised her and we know that she belongs to Him first and foremost!

Overall it has been an amazing 2 and half weeks in China. We were definitely reminded of the heart God has given us for the people here and we are once again going to miss many things about life over here.  At the same time, we are excited for our life as a family of 3 in the U.S.  We know there are some major trials and bumps ahead as new parents and with Promise's medical condition, but we also know God has amazing things in store for Team Hill too!

Of course we will continue to post here but not quite as often as we did while here in China. We hope that you will continue to follow us as we strive to glorify God by giving a picture of God's story in how it relates to mankind in His adoption of us.  We also pray that many of you will gain the same heart for orphans and adoption as God and that you will begin supporting orphans in one way or another. We also hope and pray that you would even consider adoption for your family one day. No matter how old or young you are, our dare to you is this: pray and ask God to show you His will for adoption in your family and be obedient to whatever He leads You to do!  Don't worry about the logistics of it all because, "He who promised is faithful" (Hebrews 10:23).

The families of our travel group with CCAI

Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. 

- James 1:27

The Body at work

One week into this parenting thing and we just continue to throw more and more challenges into the mix. While our little girl is 17 months old, she has the mental and physical development of a child who is 7-9 months old. This in and of itself is not a disability but rather a result of the life she has experienced and something most every orphan in China faces. The good news is that just like every other orphan, with some love and time she will overcome it and be just like any other child her age. With all that said, the new challenge we faced the last few days is picking up and moving to a completely different part of the country. It may not sound like much but when you put it with the fact that she has been ripped from the only home she has ever known, she has a special need, she has just overcome an infection and a fever of 101 degrees, and the fact that we are new parents, it was quite an experience!

Before I tell you more about the trip, let me tell you a little bit about the amazing friendships we are forming with some of the families that we are with who are also adopting special needs children through CCAI.  There is a family who worked with the IMB for 2 years, a family who has been continually praying for us, a family who has many of the same passions as us, and many other families who are ultimately our brothers and sisters in Christ!  Overall, our travel group has been a beautiful picture of the church as a group of believers working together for the glory of God!  We have been so encouraged by them and so thankful for their wisdom and guidance for us as new parents!  They have blessed in more ways than we can ever pay them back.

One family we have gotten especially close with is the Roark family.  They, like us, are in their early thirties and first time parents.  It has been a blast learning to be parents a long side of them.  No matter what happens, we can just step back for a moment and just laugh at it together.  The other night we went to dinner together and it was a great time of encouraging each other and and just slowing down and enjoying life as new parents with our children and each other.

The next morning, however, started the challenge of traveling with Promise for the first time.  She had grown fond of our room for the week and was excited every time we returned to the room. Now we were packing up everything and moving her again. The difference this time was that she was moving with her forever family this time.  The majority of the travel went extremely well but that doesn't mean that we weren't nervous going into it. Because she is cleft lip/cleft palate, she is prone to have many problems with ear infections and being able to equalize the pressure in her ears. Our fear was that on the plane when the pressure changed, it would cause her great amounts of pain.  Our plan was to feed her as we were taking off and hope that would help her equalize the pressure in her ears.  Well, daddy messed up that plan by accidentally letting her see the bottle before we took off and she had a meltdown.  We had held off her feeding time for a bit for this plan and she was hungry. To make a long story short, we fed her before take off and she was happy the whole time.  She did get fidgety towards the end but we made it.  She even came very close to falling asleep!

A point of prayer for you prayer warriors is that she will not get bored on the three long flights home in a week, that there will be no problem with her ears at any point, and that she will even sleep good on the trip.

We finally made it to our new temporary home and she actually loves it here!  What we are discovering with her is that she is not so concerned with the place, the food, the atmosphere or any other variable; she is only concerned with whether or not her mommy and daddy are there with her and continuing to love her!  It is an awesome picture of the great joy we get when we are in the presence of our heavenly Father. After all, in His presence is the fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11). There is nothing else that will bring true joy. Ultimately, heaven is not going to be about the gates of pearl, the streets of gold, or the crystal sea. It is going to be about spending eternity with our Lord and Savior and knowing that He loves us more than we can ever imagine! He is the source of all joy and He is the reason that Heaven really is Heaven!

We absolutely love her laugh and have heard many of you say that you also enjoy it too so below is a video or Promise cracking herself up with an empty water bottle. Enjoy!

Big Steps

The last couple of days have been a roller coaster of excitement. Then again, I hear this is always the case with a first child, this is always the case with adoption, and this is always the case with a trip to China. It seems that we have a rolled into the perfect storm of trials and excitement but the rainbows we continue to find at the end of this journey have no words that can describe them or contain them because they are created by God Himself!

Yesterday was a long hard day for our family.  At 9 am we boarded a van along with two other families adopting through CCAI and headed for the town of Promise's orphanage.  Chinese law just changed so that to get a passport for these children, their pictures and application must be taken place in the same city as their orphanage. Unfortunately for us, this city was 3 and half hours away.  The trip there, however, was relatively easy and uneventful. We even had lunch with no problems. Then, the storms came.

We were stuck at the PSB office as they made these children take the "perfect picture" for their passports.  After fours hours of pictures, more pictures, feedings, diaper changes, naps, and finally some more pictures, all three children were cleared after they decided to photoshop the pictures together! Our questions was why they couldn't just photoshop after 1 or 2 pictures. We knew the answer to be very simple though... its China.

The trip got really rough on the way back. Here in Henan Province of China exists a large farming community. This time of year is a transitional stage where they harvest their crop, burn the fields, and prepare for the next crop.  The problem with this is you have a province the size of Florida or Wisconsin with over half of it on fire. The smoke is almost unbearable. On some days in the city the smoke is so dense that you can only see a few blocks at a time.  This is the type of throat burning smoke we had to breathe for the 3 and half hour trip back. Everyone has been struggling from it today. BUT, God is good and we keep moving through all the necessary steps here in China.

Today, has been a blast!  Promise's fever finally broke and she has started eating like a champ! She is also starting to come out of her shell and babble a lot and laugh a lot! One of the highlights for today was her discovery of bubbles. She absolutely loves them! In fact, that is what seemed to drop her guard the most thus far. We have also started to see her show more interest and curiosity in absolutely everything. She even had a good time at the park today. It has been so much fun!

(Click on video to watch it)

Of course it is not all fun and games in the parenting world as we are learning.  Those of you who are parents reading this should get a good laugh.  Promise has been dehydrated with the infection and fever she had been battling. Finally today Shannon was able to get her drink a lot of fluids.  She had a full bottle of slightly sugared water and some pedialyte in the last 24 hours. Well, while Michael and Promise were sitting at the computer watching her first cartoon, she unloaded so much fluid that it filled up the diaper and overflowed it... right into Michael's lap!  Then, at dinner, she did it again... right into Michael's lap!  But, there was no time to be angry or upset. After cleaning it all up and changing her diaper and clothes, all she could do was laugh about it!

Overall, to this point so far, it has been an amazing journey and we are just getting started!  The greatest lessons, however, are gaining a better understanding of God's love toward us and His adoption of us. Promise was born with 3rd degree cleft lip and cleft palate.  Just a few years ago neither of us could have imagined trying to deal with this condition in our child.  But God's love has filled our hearts for Promise and we love her just the way she is. She is absolutely beautiful.  Yes, coming from the orphanage, there was an overwhelming odor coming from her and she was absolutely filthy. But we accepted her and loved her just as she was.  We brought her back to our room, fed her, let her take a nap, and bathed her.  She hated the bath but it was what she needed.  Down the road she is going to have a few surgeries and it will be painful, but it is what she needs.  God does the same with us! Some people think they are too messed up or too filthy. But, just like Promise who could have not been more filthy and has some serious problems, God will accept us just as we were able by His grace and love were able to accept her! And to try to explain the love we have for her is impossible. This is the love that the Creator of the universe has for us!

Thank you for taking the time to read this lengthy post and for continuing to pray for us! It may be a few days before another post but Lord willing we won't leave you hanging for too long :)

Promise opening the card her American friend Chloe Perry made for her :)

Trials and Blessings of Adoption

Well, we are now the proud parents of one beautiful little 17-month old girl.  The joy that fills our hearts and the excitement we are filled with in her smiles and laughs is overwhelming.  In the 40 hours or so as we have now had two full nights and one and half full days with her has been one incredible roller coaster. While there was many things we were prepared for, the enormity of being first time parents was not something we saw coming.  God, however, in His faithfulness, is continuing to supply all our need in this life journey!

I will have to say that there is nothing like holding your daughter for the first time after knowing she has faced so much without you for the first 17 months of her life.  I think one of the most amazing moments we had with her was the moment they handed her to Shannon and she buried her face in Shannon's chest.  She had found home and she did not want to ever leave the security of mama's arms.  That was one of the more heart-warming and exciting moments of the day. What has also been exciting is that she loves her daddy just as much.  It doesn't matter who is holding her, she is just as happy to be held by the other parent and loves to bury her head in both of our chests.

Day two with her has been a testing and trying time for both mom and dad.  She woke up with a slight fever from chest congestion and what seems to be an ear infection. We gave her some children's medicine to help with pain and the fever and she became a new person full of life.  That, however did not last long and we were given the wonderful opportunity of taking her to a Chinese hospital. This was probably one of the most trying things Shannon and I have ever had to face.  Not only were they checking her health but were also running other tests on her general well-being and development. While this in and of itself was extremely trying on a new mom and dad, there was one particular moment where they were testing the development of her motor skills. Her face scrunched up into what turned into a silent scream and then crying at the top of her lungs. This was extremely hard for both mom and dad. But, as they wrapped up this particular test, who did she want?  US!  Not the nanny from the orphanage she came from, but us!  As soon as she was in daddy's arms and could once again bury her head in his chest, she was fine! A few minutes later when mommy started to hold her, she was still just as happy!  At that moment, nothing could be clearer that this was an answer to prayer that God had put it into her heart to know who her parents were! This truly is our daughter!

Yesterday evening we signed the final documents that made her officially and legally ours.  Before we signed those papers we were asked the question if we were certain that we were ready to take her as our own with the "special need" that she has.  For both of us, this led us to tears to even consider what her life would be like if we turned her down.  Who would she end up with? Where would she go? These were questions that grieved our hearts. We were quickly reminded of the clear calling God had placed in our hearts to take Promise as our daughter and we joyfully signed our papers.  We know much of what lies ahead as there will be surgeries and therapy. BUT, we also know who she will be doing this with.  She is going to be doing it with the God of the universe who loves  her more than we will ever be able to. She is doing it with her forever family who will never stop loving her and will never give up on her. And she is doing it with one of the most amazing support teams we have ever seen for a family in you guys!

Last night she continued to battle the fever and we had the wonderful privilege of dealing with throw-up for the first time as new parents but we feel so blessed.  We know the road ahead is long with many speed bumps and trials.  As new parents, however, we also acknowledge that we don't yet fully understand how high the highs will be and how low the lows will be.  We covet your prayers as all three of us are learning the dynamics of our new family.

At the end of the day, we were all so tired and had no problem sleeping.....

Gotcha!

It has been an incredibly long journey but we finally have Promise! This is just a short video clip of the very moment we got her! There will be more videos and photos in the days ahead but now we are joyfully learning to be parents for the first time! Thank you so much to all of our prayer warriors!! We love you guys and ask that you continue to be a part of this journey with your prayers.

Check back in the days ahead for more updates.

Gotcha Day Eve!

Right now we are settling in for the night... our final night before we become parents! We are being overwhelmed with so many different emotions.  There is excitement, joy, nervousness, relief, and uncertainty. The greatest feeling, however, is the confidence we have in knowing that the Lord has indeed called us to this and orchestrated every step along the way! We know that in a little over 12 hours we will finally be holding Promise, the precious little girl that God promised to us late spring of last year!  While the thought of being parents of a child born with cleft lip/cleft palate at some times seems a little overwhelming, we can take great confidence in the fact that God has called us to this. He has shaped and molded our hearts for her, and while we may at times not have the strength to move on, He is always faithful to supply all our need. After all, just as Hebrews 10:23 says, "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful."  God gave us this verse and 8 other verses early on to confirm this adoption and we know He will faithfully see us through it!

Right now we  have a few prayer requests for everyone to be lifting up.  Michael has been battling with some allergies but is starting to feel a little better. Shannon, however, has been battling sinus problems and a sore throat today.  Please pray that both of us will be fully healthy tomorrow as we receive Promise.  Also, please pray for Promise as tomorrow she will be handed to complete strangers who talk and look different from any person she has been around.

Tomorrow is the big day! By midnight Sunday night Eastern Time in the United States, we will have Promise!!! Thank you again to all of you who have been praying with us and who have played major parts in bringing her home.  Whether you realize it or not, you have been a picture of pure and undefiled religion just as James 1:27 tells us.  Below you will find the last picture of Promise by herself as every post after this will have us together as a family!

Reconnecting and Waiting

The last couple of days have been a whirlwind for sure.  It is hard to believe that only a few days ago we were going to sleep in our bed in America without a child for the last time! Since then we have flown on three planes, traveled a total of 28 hours, fought jet lag, reconnected with friends, and enjoyed some REAL Chinese food! And now, we are about 48 hours from finally holding our little girl in our arms!  The story itself seems almost unbelievable but it is definitely evidence of the great God we serve working all around us!

The trip itself was uneventful for the most part although on our longest flight (13 hours) God blessed us with an empty seat and gave us an entire row to ourselves!  Once we arrived in China we were immediately met at the gate by some of our close friends here.  We have been staying with them and enjoying a great time of reconnecting with them.  They too are in the adoption process and it has been wonderful to encourage each other through this process we are sharing.

Then on Friday morning we got to see some of the brothers and sisters here that were a major part of the work while we lived here.  The most encouraging part is that the work is continuing on and even thriving in many ways!  Below is a picture of one of the key leaders and his new wife (they were married on September 15th!) and one other great leader.  

 After spending some time with these amazing Brothers and Sister we were able to connect with some other great people and also revisit some of the places in Shanghai that mean so much to us. We stopped by our first apartment where we saw God do so much and we also went to the campus where we studied Chinese and were a part of some great movements of God. Below is picture of the Chairman Mao statue where we would often share the Good News to those practicing their English and then there is also a picture of us sitting in a field on the campus where God gave us clear direction in our future and gave us a great promise.

We also got to have some of our favorite foods too!

Overall, it has been a great few days but the best is yet to come.  It seems like after waiting for more than 16 months since we started this journey a couple days wouldn't be that hard but the wait has been very challenging.  We fall asleep thinking and dreaming about her, and she is the first thought on our mind in the morning. But, our God is faithful and we know He has a perfect plan in all of this! 

Keep checking back for more updates! You can also see more pictures on our facebook at http://www.facebook.com/michaelshannonhill

Thank you to all of you who have been praying!

It's Time to Go!

In just a little over 12 hours we will be on a plane on our way to China!  It is hard to believe how quick time has passed us by since we began this process last summer. In addition, we will be holding our little girl in less than a week! All of this is a great reminder of our amazing and faithful God.  Just like His Word tells us, "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful" (Hebrews 10:23).  God is faithful to His promises and we are seeing Him take care of every detail for the great promise He has given us in a daughter!

As we prepare to leave, please continue to pray for us. Because Promise is cleft lip/cleft palate, we have to take over a lot of speciality items for her.  Please pray that all of our luggage makes it over with us.  In addition, please pray that we are both well rested physically and emotionally when we hold her for the first time on Monday, October 8th.

We also ask that you pray for Promise.  The last few weeks have been very tough on her as she has been removed from her "foster home" and placed back in the orphanage.  In addition, she will be torn from everything she knows in less than a week.  Please pray for her transition and that it would go as smooth as possible.  While we know we can give her a great life full of the love of Christ, she does not yet understand this.  It is the same as the lost trying to understand giving up the things of the world.  It is foolishness until they experience it.  So please pray for Promise.

Thank you to all of you who are joining us in this journey as we bring our daughter home. So many of you have been such an encouragement in your prayers and gifts! We are thankful for the family in Christ that God has blessed us with!

Check back in a few days more another update!