She has a name, and we have LOA!!!

Well, we FINALLY decided on our daughter's name. :o) Charlie was able to get in touch with a Chinese professor at TCU, who was kind enough to check into the meaning of her name. After looking up the characters in her name, this is what he found: "Qing" means a color like blue, but the Chinese believe it is more beautiful than blue (probably like an aqua blueish-green color). "Chu" means pretty/beautiful.

We were relieved to find out that it had a sweet and kind meaning, yet we had not had the time to think and pray together over whether or not to use it as part of her name. Since we had this last minute trip (just the two of us) coming up, we decided to think it over individually and try and make a final decision when our minds were free to think more clearly.

July 7th we headed to the beautiful Kennebunkport, Maine. Oh, what a blessing this trip was to us in so many ways!

On our last night there we (I mostly, since Charlie was already there) finally got the peace we've been looking for. So here is Charlie and I writing her name for the very 1st time.

Hannah QingChu Campbell. QingChu will be one word (which is how most people do it). "Hannah" means favored by God; Grace, or merciful. It feels really weird to call her Hannah now, yet there is a sweet peace in it too. Yeah, one more major hurdle behind us! :o)

I've been saying all along that God will not grant us our LOA (Letter of Approval/final approval from China) until we come up with a name. We have been waiting on this a bit too long. Well, I was right! Between flights on our way back to Texas July 11th (the following day after agreeing on her name), we got the call from our agency, "Congratulations Mr. & Mrs. Campbell, you have been given LOA!" What perfect timing! We were SO EXCITED!!!! This is us getting that call and looking at our approval form online for the 1st time.

We were told to get everything ready because we will travel to get her in 6-8 weeks from now. So, that puts us the last week of August, or the 1st of September. Hearing this semi-final date sent our heads spinning. Not really sure why, it's not like we didn't already know this general time frame. The mental list of all the things still to do before we go began to flood our excited minds. Oh how sweet God was to provide a time of rest and togetherness before we begin this final count down. "We're coming Hannah!"