-
- Meeting Hope
-
- A Smile from Hope!
Hey Everyone!!! Yesterday we went to the Civil Affairs office again & signed tons of papers to make Dang Haoyang officially Hope Kathleen Cyphers. We received her passport today, but are waiting for the notary papers & can’t leave her province until we have them. We do covet & appreciate all of your prayers. This has been an EXTREMELY hard part of our journey. Don’t get me wrong, we love our daughter & can’t wait for you all to meet her, but this province is not as accustomed to foreigners & hardly anyone speaks English. Even our guide’s English is sometimes hard to understand & she doesn’t always understand us. There is very little to do here, so we are left in our hotel room A LOT, missing our boys especially because it is Christmas. We have nothing planned for Christmas Day, so please do pray for us as it will be a VERY hard day for us. As I was thinking about our situation last night & how discouraged & frustrated we feel right now, I couldn’t help but think of Mary & Joseph & how they must have felt so many years ago. For us, Christmas is a very special & joyous time as it should be, celebrating Christ’s birth, but I’m guessing for them, it wasn’t completely that way. Being in a strange place, with a baby on the way, & no place to stay…..I feel one step closer to understanding how they might have felt. Yet, they knew as we know that God was with them, thankfully. We can’t tell you how much all of you mean to us & again, how much we need your prayers for our safety(I was within inches of being hit by a car yesterday going the wrong way into 3 lanes of oncoming traffic:)) & for our sanity. 
Hope is doing well & is clinging mostly to me, not too sure of Alan yet. We can’t imagine all the fears & doubts she must feeling right now as well. We are enjoying getting to know her but again, can’t wait to get her home. Merry Christmas everyone. We love you all!!!
She is beautiful!! Thanks for posting the pictures.
) I will keep praying for you. I can’t imagine how hard it is for you to be so far from home at such a special time of the year.
She is so cute. I love that smile. Our family is thinking of and praying for your family. We really appreciated your post and found it touching. Hope is beautiful and we can’t wait to meet her.
Annie (and Debbie and the rest of the Blakeslees)
Oh, Hope is so beautiful; what a precious little package.
What a hard time you are having now, but so much to look forward to. Please take lots of photos and share what you can. This is so exciting, but you are surely too exhausted now to be able to appreciate it. May Christmas be a day of rest and recovery for all three of you, a time of bonding, of course, but also no stress or pressure. Enjoy this precious time alone with her.
May you be aware of God’s presence and pleasure in your actions.
Blessings,
Laura Sawyer
Kathy and Alan- You’re daughter is so precious! We are sitting here in Hefei and I decided to look at everyone’s blog. I read yours and it is amazing-it was like reading our blog! From the traffic (scary) to no one speaking English and the frustration and homesickness we are feeling being away from our family on Christmas and being alone in this city. We can relate and will be praying for you guys!!! We can’t wait to see you all in Guangzhou tomorrow!!! Becky
Merry Christmas to the Cyphers: Alan, Kathy, Hope in China and the boys in the US. Hope does look precious; thanks for posting the pictures. What a wild experience for all of you. Poor Hope trying to figure out all of this. I am sure that once she is “home” and meets her brothers she’ll find peace in her heart among the exuberance in the house. When she sees how her siblings interact with Alan, she’ll find her way. I’ll be praying about your interaction with the authorities, language barrier, and the mountain of official documents.
It’s great to see you and read how things are progressing. You seem to come to mind at the oddest moments and we are prompted to pray. We hope things continue to go well on you journey home.