Earthquakes and Tornados

Several people have asked if Hannah is anywhere near the earthquake that happened in China a few days ago. Thank God she was not....her province is further south (she is in GuangXi and the earthquake was in Sichuan province). It is certainly heartbreaking to see the devastation and suffering.

Others have heard about the tornado in Picher, OK. Picher is about 5 miles from Miami (where most of my family lives) and maybe 2 miles from where my dad lives in Commerce. Thankfully all are ok and neither of those towns had any damage. Picher didn't have much to begin with, but from what I understand there is nothing standing in the town...no buildings, no trees...it was reported that 20 blocks were leveled to the ground...the entire town of Picher couldn't have been more than 20 blocks, so they can probably now erase the town from the map because it is gone!! Equally heartbreaking for all those families that were involved.

Two powerful acts of Mother Nature a little too close to home. Say your prayers, because the next disaster could be even closer. Certainly makes me appreciate and be thankful for today because who knows what tomorrow will bring.

Hannah's growth report

We received Hannah's translated growth report and it appears that she is very healthy and developing normally. The last comment on the growth report was the one that I thought was the best and made me laugh. Here is exact wording as it was translated:

"Long MeiJin is energetic, she could react quickly, and enjoys listening to music, playing games, but sometimes she shows some edgy temper."

Hmmm, edgy temper....seems she will fit right in with our family as we all show some "edgy temper" now and then. I just thought that was an original way of saying it!!

Now look at that adorable little face....can you imagine her showing some edgy temper????? :)

Where in the world is Hannah?

Hannah is in Guangxi Province. We will probably be meeting her in the city of Nanning.

We will also be spending a week in Guangdong Province in the city of Guangzhou. That is where the American consulate is located and where we will finalize her adoption.

Click on the picture to see it larger. Both provinces are in the southern part of China.

Hannah MeiJin Linton

I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. 1 Samuel 1:27.

Our daughter’s name will be Hannah MeiJin Linton.

Mei is pronounced “May.” We spent some time looking up her name and its meaning. We needed to translate the actual Chinese characters used in her name because depending on the tone, the word “Mei” could have various meanings, so we needed to see it written in Chinese. According to the translations we found Mei means “beautiful” and Jin means “bright”. We agreed that those names were perfect and that we would use both of her Chinese names for her middle name.

The story of Hannah can be found in the Bible in 1 Samuel. Hannah wanted a son, but God made her wait until His chosen time according to His will. During her wait, God refocused Hannah's faith on Him. Hannah prayed in faith for a son and promised that she would devote her child to God's service. Hannah eventually gave birth to Samuel, who later became a priest, prophet, and judge over Israel.

We have wanted our daughter for 3 years, but God made us wait until His chosen time according to His will. During our wait, God refocused our faith on Him. He knew before time began that this beautiful little girl would join our family. It is by His grace and favor that she was chosen to be ours. Only God knows what the future holds for our little Hannah, but we will continue to pray for her and be thankful for the blessings of all three of our children.

We prayed for her, and the Lord has granted us what we asked of Him. To give us the desire of our heart, God may withhold the desire of the moment.

She was worth the wait.

Hannah means "grace" or "favor"
Mei 美 means "beautiful"
Jin 锦 means "bright"

Introducing Baby Linton!!!!!!!!

Isn't she adorable???? We love her already!! Love that frown!! We can't wait to see her smile :)


Chinese name: Long Mei Jin
We thought we had a name picked out for her, but now that we have seen her cute little face we want to think about it for a few days. We will most likely keep part of her Chinese name as her middle name but we want to research that a little as well (who named her and what it means). So more on her name later.

Date of birth: April 4, 2007. She will be 13 months old in 2 days.
She is from the Guangxi Province and is currently in the Cangwu County Social Welfare Institute.

As of December 12 she weighed 17 pounds and was 27 inches long.

She has 4 teeth.

She is described as a moderate sleeper, can hold her head up while on her stomach, she can roll over, grasp toys near her hand, sit alone steadily, crawl on hands & knees, locate direction of voices, transfer block from one hand to another, look for a dropped toy, distinguish between a stranger and someone familiar, fond of playing with toys, quick in reaction, ready smile, laughs out loud and is sometimes impatient and restless.

She is so cute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our stork is in flight!!!!!

It has been a long time since I posted to this blog. I have attempted many times, and even went as far as to type the posts, but then never finished. I think there are only so many ways I could say "we are STILL waiting". I just couldn't bring myself to continue guessing as to when we would finally get our referral and travel to China. But the guessing is over and we have some very exciting news to share!!!

Our referral is on it's way from China!!!!!!! That means that within a matter of DAYS (most likely Monday, May 5) we will finally get to see our baby's picture and learn all about her....her age and birthdate, where she is located, her eating/sleeping habits, and her known medical information. So the stork that is flying right now is not actually bringing us our baby, but he is bringing us the next best thing!!!

After we receive the referral we will travel to China in about 6 weeks. This puts us at going to China sometime around the 3rd week of June!!!!!!! We are leaving for China from Oklahoma so we will all be traveling to Oklahoma June 13th. Alex and Tara are staying in Oklahoma with their grandparents while Matt & I go to China. Then we will return to Oklahoma, stay for a few weeks, and come back to Italy either late July or first part of August...with our baby!!!!!!!

To simplify things, I am going to post baby details including her picture to this blog. So keep checking back over the next several days.

This is FINALLY happening!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Almost there!

The last set of referrals from China covered through January 4! This is very exciting for us because it means we are almost there. In fact, we are the very next group of referrals for our agency...meaning the next time our agency receives referrals, one of them will be ours!!!!

Realistically, we are still looking at a referral in May with travel in June. I know I have been speculating for over 2 years about when we will travel, but I can FINALLY say with almost absolute certainty that we will travel no later than June. Our paperwork expires (for the 3rd time!) in July and I have talked with our agency several times about this. Our coordinator has told us to wait on renewing it as she is almost certain we will be home from China by July.

I am finally allowing myself to believe that the end is near. I have always known that we will someday have our daughter, but I have tried to guard my heart with the realities of the long wait. Now I'm so excited I'm about to bust. Matt is equally anxious to bring her home. For the last year or so we would only occasionally talk about the baby with Alex & Tara (even though we thought about her constantly), but it seems like now we talk about her all the time...when we will get her, what she will look like, smell like, sound like. Where will she sleep, play, eat? Will she walk, crawl, take a bottle? And the BIG question...what will we name her??????

We are currently trying to work through the details of when to travel to Oklahoma. We know we have to bring the baby directly back to the U.S. from China, so we have decided to fly to Oklahoma first and then do a round trip from there to China. After a few weeks in Oklahoma with the baby we will fly back to Italy. That's LOTS of flying and LOTS of money, but something we have to do. As it stands right now, Alex & Tara will NOT go to China with us. This has been one of the most difficult decisions to make throughout this process, and I'm not sure it is a done deal. There are definitely pros and cons about taking them and we waver back and forth on which is best decision for all of us. We may not make the final decision until the very last minute.

Stay tuned.....