A Letter from Johanna!

Today we received a letter from our Josie Ling. Instead of telling you how it made us feel, I think I'll let her words speak for themselves.

Dear Dad and Mom,

How are you? I am very glad to be your daughter. Thank you for giving me this chance to have a family. It is great to have dad, mom, all relatives and friends. Are you going to send me some pictures? I really want to see all of you and my future home. I hope you can come to China ASAP to pick me up, I really want to go home and get all your love.

In the end, i wish my dad and mom health and have a happy life forever.

Your Daughter,

Ling

She has a name!

Introducing our newest blessing......



Johanna Ling Bergey

"Josie" for short :)

Johanna means "God is gracious" (oh, how He is!) and Josie means "God has added" (this one was all HIM, none of us) and Ling, her current name, means "precious, exquisite"....

God has added a precious child to our family.

And we love her with all of our hearts. The journey has just begun!

First Skype Call

My heart is so very full right now. We unexpectedly got to skype with our new daughter tonight. It was so amazing! How I wish all orphanages would allow just one skype call between adoptive parents and their new children during the long, difficult wait. It literally is priceless....

She's beautiful! Her face was lit up with a smile the moment we started the call, and she smiled almost the whole time. We let each one of the older three children say "I love you" in Chinese, and she said it right back to each of them. She told us she's very excited that we're coming to get her, and she said "I love you Mama and Baba" several times. How can you feel a connection to a child who's literally a world apart?

All I know is that God planned this for us and her. He knew we needed her, and He knew she needed us. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd be the mother of a teenager this year :), but oh, how precious it is to follow the leading of the Lord, wherever it may lead. We KNOW this is God's doing, and we are willing to do whatever it takes to bring this girl home and give her a family!

Okay, back to the Skype call. LOL. She sang "Twinkle, Twinkle" to us in Chinese, and then Ellie sang it back to her in English. Then Nathaniel wanted to sing, and he chose "Jesus Loves Me". I'm wondering if that's the first time she's heard that Jesus loves her? She'll hear it often soon enough.

I need to brag on our China coordinator, Sabrina, a bit. We Skyped with Zhong Ling while Sabrina was translating via speakerphone. Sabrina worked with us for Gabbey's adoption last year, and we loved her then, but this time, she's been amazing. She is not charging us her fees for Zhong Ling's adoption, and yet has had to work SO much more than usual in order to get CCCWA (China) to process our paperwork at lightning speed. She expects our LOA on Tuesday. To put that into perspective, usually it takes about 2 to 3 months from LID to LOA. If we get ours Tuesday, that's only ONE WEEK. Then from LOA to TA (travel approval, the document you need to actually travel and pick up your child) is usually 2-3 months. We need ours in less than 3 weeks from our LOA.  So you see, there's alot of expediting going on behind the scenes and Sabrina is the one making it happen. I can't express in words how special she is. Thank you, Sabrina, from all of the Bergey Bunch! :)

Still no name for this precious child. I'm so thankful for all of the suggestions so far! I read each and every comment, and I wish I would have had time this week to answer them more.  Unfortunately, I've been overwhelmingly swamped with paperwork. But don't stop commenting! :) It's such a blessing to know there's people all over the country supporting us and praying for us. God is working miracles and so many of you are playing a part!

Hopefully Brent and I will have time to pick a name tomorrow night. I'll announce it when we do!

Love to you all!

Skype is Set Up

If everything goes as planned, we will get to "see" our daughter on Sunday night around 9 pm EST. Needless to say, we are super-duper excited!

Now we're trying to think of things to talk about. One of the orphanage staff ladies who speaks English will help translate for us. I imagine it will be difficult to not have "dead" time, though. I think I'm going to make a list of questions and things to talk about. I will let you know how it goes! :)

I can't help wondering what must be going through her mind........fear, excitement, curiousity, nervousness, joy, anxiety.....probably a little of all of these emotions. Our goal with this first "meeting" is mostly to show her that we're nice people. Really. She must lay in bed and wonder if we're going to be loving to her, or if she'll be mistreated. I'm praying the love we already have for her will shine across the ocean through the miracle of Skype.

Please pray!

Pre-Approval and Log-in-Date!!!

We got both our PA and our LID last night. In the words of our coordinator, "Now the race is on."

I have already spent about 12-15 hours JUST working on paperwork, emails, and phone calls this week. UGH. So thankful that she's worth every single second. Remind me of that when my laundry piles up and the house is messy this week! :)

I am tentatively leaving for China to pick up our girl on Saturday, July 16. Less than four weeks! AND we're heading to Family Camp at the Bill Rice Ranch next Saturday, so aside from mountains and mountains of adoption paperwork, travel plans, packing, etc, we're having some much-needed and anticipated FAMILY TIME before Mommy and Gabbey head to China.

We need a name for our newest girl.....going to skype her this weekend and we would like to let her pick from a couple of names we've chosen. Problem is, we've already chosen TWO girl names this year, and our minds are quite mush. LOL  She can't stay "the girl we're adopting" for much longer! She needs a name! :)  Any ideas are welcome! We prefer feminine sounding names that can be shortened (think Eliana/Ellie, Gabriella/Gabbey, Alyssia/Lyssie) and have a good meaning. That narrows down our choices quite a bit.

Well, I've rambled enough for tonight. I am SO excited to share all the ways the LORD is answering our prayers regarding the details of this adoption, but it will have to wait until this Momma has had some sleep!

Goodnight, all.

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.