Kim, as best as we could, put into words, the whole range of emotions that accompanied that call to go and pick up our daughter immediately. We jumped in the taxi and raced over there. I wanted to share briefly what my experience was like…

We arrived at the orphanage and were warmly greeted by several of the workers. Kim was immediately pulled into a conversation and I made my way to the room where our daughter was waiting for us. I took off my shoes (they had a no shoes in the kids rooms rule) and took a couple of steps into the room. My heart was racing. Every other time I walked into that room, I left the way I came… empty-handed. This time would be different. She was leaving with us.

As I took those first couple of steps into the room, my eyes were fixed on her crib. Three steps in, I see her face up against the rails of the crib. We made eye contact and she began to giggle with excitement. I beamed with anticipation. Just then, Jeremiah called me. He needed help getting his shoes off so that he could come into the room as well. As i turned back to help him, the excited giggle turned into a sorrowful cry as I stepped out of her line of sight. She couldn’t believe I was leaving already. After I took off Jeremiah’s shoes off, I once again turned toward her. And, once again, as soon as we made eye contact, she began to giggle with excitement.

For the rest of my life, I will cherish those precious giggles. They were the giggles of a girl about to join her family. They were giggles of a girl who knew already my deep love for her. Thy were the precious giggles that matched my excited tears to know that, finally, she was my daughter.

We made it!  We have our beautiful daughter here at home with us!  She fits right into our family…just goes with the flow and is sleeping peacefully in her pack ‘n play next to our bed as I finally take a deep breath and write this post.

So, you’re probably wanting to hear some details:)

At 3:45 this afternoon, after a crazy and exciting day for the Larkin family, we finally were told…go get your daughter right now…you have to be there before 4:30 or you won’t be able to get her until Monday…I’m coming with the papers.  So, we ran down the road to get a taxi and raced to the House of Moses to get there just in time.  What a joy to be able to celebrate with the family that we have grown to love at HOM!

So, we officially began fostering Charis Gift Jeantet and have filed for her adoption.  Charis means “grace” in Greek and Gift was the name given by her birth mother.  So, she is our “gift of grace”!  She is 1.5 years old and an absolutely beautiful little girl. We have a long ways yet to go, but she is with us, and for that we are grateful. Continue to pray that God would watch over us throughout our rescue mission and enjoy a few pictures!

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PS> We are going to keep pictures at a minimum during the fostering period, but we know everyone wanted to see our beautiful girl!

It’s a girl! Today is the day we have been waiting for. Our daughter has been officially cleared as eligible for adoption. She is not yet with us, but we hope to have her in our arms by Friday. Thank you for praying and for your support. We are grateful. We will share more soon (like a name), but we wanted everyone to know that a beautiful little girl will be joining the Jeantet family very soon. Our rescue mission will be a success.

Only two more sleeps til we can bring you home! My precious daughter, this journey has been long and filled with so much waiting. We knew that when we began this adoption road in the fall of 2009, but we never thought it would be this hard once we arrived in Zambia. It was one thing to endure the wait at home before we knew you. But we loved you the moment we met you in the toddler room at HOM and it wasn’t long before we just knew you were our daughter.

Over the last two weeks, we have fallen in love with you more and more each day. Leaving you every afternoon has been the worst feeling ever. You are just devastated every time I have to put you back in your crib and just walk away…soon baby…very soon…then you’ll be ours forever!

You have the most beautiful big brown eyes I’ve ever seen and the cutest cheeks in the world…I can’t stop staring at the pictures I was finally able to take of you…it’s finally real!

Ephesians 2:8-10
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

One of the joys of this adoption journey was when God suddenly moved that our good friends, Luke and Kelley Larkin (along with their 3 kids) would accompany us to Zambia and we would go through this adoption adventure together. Yesterday was an incredible day for them as God moved in a most unexpected way to drop a 2 month old boy – which they have since named Samuel Lukas Larkin – into their laps. It is their story to tell, so we will leave it to them, but it really was amazing. What a joy to see God bring this beautiful little boy into their family. After two weeks of our families being here in Zambia with both families feeling as if little (read: nothing) happening, it was a great encouragement and an unexpected blessing. Congratulations Luke and Kelley! We are privileged to share this journey with you and delighted that we are the very first to meet this precious baby boy of yours. May he grow up to love and fear the Lord. May he never know a day apart from Jesus.