A New Chapter for the Bergey Bunch

Chen, Zhong Ling(see post below if you haven't read it yet!)  now has a family.









OURS.






It was, beyond a doubt, the most agonizing decision Brent and I have EVER made. We are well aware that most people will think we have seriously lost our minds  :).......but we know that we bathed this decision in prayer, we know that the moment we saw her face we loved and wanted her, and that YES, we are scared to death to adopt a teenager, but we have complete peace from the LORD that she is meant to be ours. We will literally have to move mountains to complete this adoption by her 14th birthday on July 22. (And yes, this means I will be traveling to China in 4 weeks and Brent will travel this fall for Lyssie.)

Please join us in prayer for the following:

-----Smooth, quick paperwork on China's end
-----A helpful Congressman who can expedite her immigration approval
-----For Zhong Ling to accept our love and not be scared of joining our family
-----For wisdom as we make many, many decisions in the next couple of weeks

Lastly, and I hesitate to add this one, but we need prayer for the money to complete this adoption. We are short about $10,000. We KNOW God will provide....we're just not exactly sure how yet. :)

Now, about our newest girl: she's adorable, loves music (but not math!), her favorite color is pink (so is mine!), and I am utterly amazed at the amount of love I already have for her. We will be changing her name, but want to give her a say in that, so we'll pick 2 or 3 and let her choose her new name. If all goes smoothly this week, we should be able to skype with her soon!

My heart is full tonight. I never "planned" to go from 4 children to 7 children in one year. But oh, how good God is. I'm so very thankful for a husband who loves children as much as I do. Who couldn't let go of this little girl any more than I could. Whose heart is so gentle with his children, that I KNOW he'll be a great daddy to our newest blessing. How I love my man!

I'll update more as things start happening. Stay tuned for the unfolding of this new chapter for the Bergey Bunch!

Her Last Hope!

TAKE A FEW MINUTES AND SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT CHEN, ZHONG LING!!!

This beautiful little girl will "age out" in China on her birthday, July 22nd. If a paper-ready family does not come forward in the next couple of days, there will not be enough time for her to EVER have a family!

Brent and I have been praying about this sweet girl since Friday night. We have not received the "green light" to proceed with her adoption at this time, but we VERY much want her to know the love of a family.

We heard back from her orphanage director on Sunday night. Here is what she says about Zhong:

"Zhong Ling really wants to be adopted and have her own daddy and mommy. Everyday when she get off from school, she sees other students were picked up by their parents, she asked Ms. Zhong when she will have her own family. She knows that she will be aged out next month, so she would come to Ms. Zhong's office daily to ask if she had found a family for her. She lives in the orphanage so she is used to a "big" family. She is very helpful to take care of the younger children and she has a very pleasant personality. Her biggest wish is to have her own forever family."

She has a repaired cleft lip and palate (beautifully done, I might add). Her language is reported to NOT be affected by her palate.

My heart is literally breaking for this child. Life is SO unfair. This girl deserves a family of her own. I cannot imagine knowing that I would never have a Daddy or Mommy, no siblings, no uncles and grandparents, no family parties and vacations, no one to call when things got rough, or I needed help. No family at Christmas and birthdays, graduations and weddings, heartaches and celebrations.

PLEASE, will SOMEONE please take a close look at her? The oprhanage is easily contacted (our coordinator has called twice) and CCCWA will work with a paper-ready family to expedite this adoption. 

She is on the shared list, and I do have a copy of her file.

Flowers or Weeds?

A very large bunch of weeds fills a vase on my kitchen table tonight. When I took my littles to a park the other day, the two oldest came running up to me with their hands overflowing with these WEEDS.

"Momma, look what we found growing all over?! FLOWERS!!! We picked some for you and some for Daddy!"

Momma's response: "Oh, how lovely! Thank you! Why don't you keep them for me?" (What mother hasn't tried this one before? :))

"Oh, no, Momma! They're too beautiful! You HAVE to take them home and put them in a vase so we can show Daddy!!! Here. Hold them for us."

And with that, I was left sitting with my lap OVERFLOWING with weeds flowers. Of course, I brought them home. Put them in the vase. Watched my children's faces beam with pride when Daddy came home. They even made him close his eyes to add to the surprise.

I never did have the heart to tell them the truth.

That it's really a vase full of WEEDS.

But you know what? Sometimes we grown-ups try too hard. We're almost LOOKING for the weeds. When life hits us, as it so often does, we're expecting weeds, we see the weeds, we GET weeds. The baby cries for the 100th time today, and we see weeds. Older child won't pay attention in school, and we see weeds. Husband doesn't react the way WE think he should, and there are those ugly old weeds again. Friends let us down, family disappoints us, and all we can see is the weeds.

One by one, the trials of life (whether big or small) come our way, and instead of embracing gratefulness, instead of thanking God for loving us enough to allow us to be tested, instead of LOOKING FOR THE GOOD and counting our sweet blessings, we're too busy with our head in the weeds.

This week, I learned a lesson from the vase of weeds on my kitchen table. I'm determined, by God's grace, to see the flowers in life....

When the laundry must be folded, I'm using the time to pray for each person as I fold their clothes.

When the messy areas in my home encompass more floor space than the clean areas, I'm praising the Lord there are children to make the messes.

When the pressures of life (money, job, family, friends, ministries) seem to overwhelm me, and I feel I can't do it ALL......I'm looking for the flowers.

We got home from the park that day, and the littles ran off to play outside. A few minutes later, they ran into the house with some GREAT news:

"Momma, you'll NEVER guess!! We have tons of those same BEAUTIFUL flowers IN OUR OWN YARD!!!"

Yep, I'll be seeing the weeds flowers (both figuratively and literally) alot more around here. :)

If You....

If you looked at a picture and fell in love with a tiny soul, traveled around the world to bring her home, watched in awe as she fit perfectly into your family, swelled with pride at the way your other children treated her so gently, snuggled her at night and felt her melt into your body, laughed at her giggles, ached at her struggles, and found yourself helplessly in love.......

If you opened your eyes to the plight of orphans around the world, opened your ears to their hopeless cries, went to an orphanage and felt a pain in the depths of your heart like none you'd ever experienced before......

If every time you picked up one of your children, you thought of the motherless child....If every time you fed your children, you thought of the hungry child....if every time you went to the doctor, you thought of the needs of the "special" child......

What would you do????

We can't get orphans off our minds or out of our hearts. And to be quite honest, we don't want to. The work the Lord has done in our minds and hearts these past couple of years has been amazing--He alone receives the credit, for GREAT things He hath done.

So it is with the greatest JOY that Brent and I would like to announce the newest member of the Bergey Bunch:

Alyssia

"Lyssie"

She's 18 months old and waiting for us in Hunan, China. Described as "outgoing and playful", she stole our hearts in an instant.

Love those chubby cheeks!

If everything goes smoothly, Brent should be traveling to China sometime this fall, maybe October, to bring our little Lyssie home. Ethan will turn two next month, and Gabbey and Lyssie will both turn two in September.........I'll let you do the math as to how many TWO year olds will be in our home this fall :)

For my dear friends on Rumor Queen, here's our details:

LOI sent March 13th

PA March 20th

We are reusing our dossier, redoing our HS now, and our I800a doesn't expire until August---hopefully our LOA will come before then!

Join us in celebrating a new flower in our family:)

Gabbey's Heart

Our appointment with the Pediatric Cardiologist went beautifully last week.....our Gabbey has a perfect heart! Her murmur is simply a Stills murmur, apparently very common with children.

The only thing truly "missing" was a family----and she has that now!

New Blog Look

Special thanks to Miss Courtney (MCK on Rumor Queen) for her help yesterday with my blog. I'm afraid I'm not very savvy when it comes to my blog layout, but after many hours, I WAS able to do some of it myself!

The rest of the credit goes to sweet Courtney :)

Pictures from the last month

Daddy snuggle time

Eliana's 9th birthday, with her friends Emily (on right) and Elise

Watch out---babies on the loose! :)

Family birthday party---Eliana received a Violin for her birthday and is now taking lessons and LOVING it!

She's NINE!

Lovely shot of Aunt Rhonda and Gabbey

Mohawks in the bathtub! You can see how NOT happy Noah was about this :)

Lovin' our girl...

Dinner at Carrabas for "Uncle Mike's" 40th birthday party. Mike is married to my sister Ruthie.

Grocery shopping with two toddlers is, um, shall we say, exciting? I pulled out the camera and this is the face Ethan gave me...

Then Gabbey started attacking him! LOL



"No, No, Gabbey---NO touch!" You can tell how seriously she's taking him...



Friends again ;)

I've been sewing! I made pillowcase jumpers for both girls and am excited to work on some more "spring" projects!

Too cute for words.....LOVE this baby girl!

Our growing family of seven......

Life is busy around here, but I'm happier than I've ever been (and I've pretty much always  been happy!)......I tell Brent every day-----I LOVE MY LIFE. Truly, God is good, and has blessed us abundantly. All praise goes to HIM. He gives and He takes away---and I'm so thankful I can trust His plan for our lives.


Gabbey goes for an appointment with a Pediatric Cadiologist tomorrow morning. Her doctor found a blowing heart murmur and wants to get her checked out. We would appreciate your prayesrs.....for peace and trust, no matter the outcome.