Libi "my HEART"

We received an update from the orphanage on Libi Faith.

She is doing very well. Since surgery she is more alert and is developing faster physically. I had not seen her for a day and was surprised when I saw her. We are continuing to lift her up- miracles do happen.

Can I get an AMEN on that? Miracles do happen! This whole thing is an absolute miracle and we have just begun to see all that God is going to do. Libi only had her heart surgery 2 weeks ago. We are amazed at God's work in her physical body already.

To share another amazing miracle...Ari's birth mom received Christ as her Savior!!!! I cannot even put words on our feelings about this. We are simply in AWE of God and His amazing plan. HOW GREAT IS OUR GOD!

This whole journey of birthing children is quite amazing. For my biological babies it was different because I carried them in my body. This precious babe I carry in "my heart". That is exactly what her name means in Hebrew, "my heart". God gave me this name a few weeks before I even knew her. All little girls dream about what they will name their children from the time they can breathe! (Ladies , explain this to your husbands.) Maybe not that early but it's pretty early. Names are important. To me, I really desired that if God choose to bring us a baby from a far that she have a name with a special meaning. I went to sleep one night pondering names, Lilly being most prevalent. When I awoke the next AM I had Liberty on my mind. FREEDOM! Oh God, I thought, how you long to set these orphans free! I immediately went to the computer and began looking at the name Liberty. I found, of course, the meaning "freedom" but then I saw this variation in Hebrew"Libi"..."my heart". I just knew that was her name.

There have been moments over the last two weeks where I have understood why this is her name. This is her name because she had a heart condition that needed correcting. This is her name because she is the child of my heart! My heart aches and yearns for this little one because God reserved a place in my heart just for her.

As we prepare to send our first package to our sweet little Libi, how we long to stuff ourselves in that box and get her! We KNOW God has impeccable timing and we trust that completely. One little item in her box is a little bear that Ari picked out for her. It says a prayer, "Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. The angels watch me through the night and keep me in their blessed sight. Amen"

"For He will give His angels charge concerning you, To guard you in all your ways." Psalm 91:11

Libi Faith-Jia Qi

This has absolutely been the craziest ride of our lives! God has been preparing us for this for a long time and now we see Him piecing it all together. As many of you know we have been very blessed to have 3 amazing boys, Jacob, Joel, and Jack. That has been another crazy ride of our life!

God began to stir in our hearts 3 years ago. Psalm 127:3-5 " Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one's youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their enemies in the gate." God opened our eyes and we knew our quiver was not full. We had been very selfish in what we thought was best for the size of our family. Now we know God always knows best and we are building an army!

Through a series of events God led us to foster care. We were incredibly blessed to bring our sweet Ari into our family. It brought feminism to a whole new level in the Arnold house and awakened a love and desire for little girls that none of us knew was there. She has been our JOY! Ari is in the process of transitioning back home to her biological mom. We entrust her into Our Great God's Mighty Right Arm! We do not know what the future holds but we sure know who holds it!

A couple of months ago Brad and I had a conversation about why we weren't moving forward with international adoption. The question to us was not "Why do international adoption?" it was "Why not?" We began some research and here is where it gets a little crazy. I felt very drawn to the children of Nepal. In all my research, of agencies I had chosen, only one agency had a program for Nepal. As we moved forward it appeared that the situation with adopting from Nepal is not very good right now. We could not even begin an application process. It was a confusing time because I had felt so strongly about it. Even driving next to a vehicle one day with the license plate that read: NEPAL. Well, God proceeded to make it very clear why Nepal. He wanted us to be with this agency because this agency had our little girl!

The agency kept asking us to consider their China special needs program. We kept going back and forth between that and Ethiopia. We inquired about a couple little girls from China and God began to draw our hearts in. We had contracts on the dining room table for both China and Ethiopia.

On Tuesday, August 7th, I saw this sweet round face on our agencies website. She was all bundled up in pink. We called and inquired about her and we were told that she was having more medical tests done to rule out some things. We were then told that they would let is know when they get another update on her. That was a Monday and by that Thursday God began to speak very clearly about her. I had lunch with a friend who was preparing to go study in China. She asked me if I had checked out the "New Day Creations" website, an orphanage in China. She had told me about it a couple of weeks earlier. They have a listing of their special needs children on their website. I asked her, if that was in Beijing? When she told me yes, I told her we are looking at a little girl there named Mary! She then told me about a girl in our church, Shannon, who had spent the last year there helping at that orphanage and that Shannon's family was adopting a little boy form this same orphanage. I was amazed and I could not wait to talk to Shannon.

I talked with Shannon and she told me all about this wonderful place called New Day Creations. It is beyond your wildest dreams for an orphanage in China. She told me she KNEW Mary and she had pictures of her that she would give me. I couldn't believe what was happening. By the end of that weekend we had contracts filled out for China!

I want you to really soak this in with me. It is estimated that there are over 15 million orphans in China. The ONE God brings to us is known by ONE in our small church of 100 and her family is bringing home her friend. This truly is IMPOSSIBLE!!!!

As we began trudging through paper work we anxiously awaited any news on Mary. We waited 3 weeks and finally heard that her tests were normal and that our agency would begin presenting her to families that were currently waiting for a healthy child from China. We were in shock because we never knew that she would be presented to new families after there were others who had already inquired about her. We trusted God's plan. We knew that she could be presented to 20 families and if she was ours He would bring her to us. We knew that no matter what He had used Mary to lead us to the China special needs program.

The very next week I received a call from our agency asking if we would like to consider Mary! I couldn't believe it! I was in shock! Could it be that this precious little girl we had grown to love and pray for was ours?? It was a day I will never forget. September 6th, Jacob's 13th birthday. The very same day our neighbors got their referral of their sweet Sarah Beth, of course, China special needs. It was Thursday and we had until Monday afternoon to make a decision. Like one of our neighbors said, "What's there to consider?" We felt that God had allowed us this time for a reason.

During the course of the weekend God spoke so clearly. We knew He was calling us to this little girl. Through our God given connections we were able to speak to the orphanage and learn even more about our little girl. We really didn't have to make a decision...God decided long ago, Libi Faith-Jia Qi is COMING HOME! Praise His name!