Thankful For Sundays

I am so thankful for Sundays, for our church family. What a great morning! I got the honor of helping in our praise band with my two brothers & husband. What a great morning of worship to our Father. And I am so excited about all the community outreach programs our church will be starting soon. What great ways to show love & spread His word. As we worship & come together each Sunday with our church family, I always rejoice knowing our son Gavin got to attend church in Taiwan the night before. Ted & Bev who run the orphanage have a church service there at the home! All the older kids at the orphanage hold all the babies during church!
Sweet Little Gavin, oh how we love you, oh how Jesus loves you.
Just got an email from ShrMama Bev. She is very concerned about Gavin as he has been eating very poorly & struggling keeping his food/medicine down. I had to ask another mom adopting from the home what the amounts meant that Bev told me since they don't use ounces there. Yesterday he only would eat 8oz. His energy level is great, Mama Bev says he just smiles & is so happy but just won't eat. So we rejoice that he is happy but ache that he isn't eating & gaining weight.
So we have so much to pray about & so many decisions to make. We just ask you keep praying faithfully as we know you are. Thursday 2am we will be calling to see how his Friday appointment went, since they are 13 hours ahead of us.
We trust Ted & Bev completely & know they love Gavin so much too. So if they along with the doctors decides he needs surgery than we will be supporting their decision 100%.
We will keep you updated as we know, we appreciate all your prayers & love. We are so thankful for you all.

Below is our first picture of our Gavin Pan. His Chinese name is Ding-Dung Pan. So my family gave us a box of ding dongs to be silly! This was the very day we got the call about our son, October 10th, 2009!

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear. Psalm 46:1-2a

Here is our new blog, just changed a few things with scripture verses that have lifted me up & new blog name.
Update on our sweet Gavin. He is back at the home, what an answered prayer! But the month long hospital stay did not help him as the doctors thought it would. He still is so little & struggles to eat. So he is taken to the doctor by the missionary wife each week. Next week's appointment may be the final decision. If things remain the same way, that Gavin is still struggling to eat & gain weight, they may decide heart surgery needs to be done there in Taipei, Taiwan.
We are praying constantly for our sweet Gavin, for all the doctors & for wisdom, for all the workers at the home.
We are so incredibly blessed to have Gavin in our lives, we thank God for him everyday. We are heart broken that he is sick & struggling. But we know God is our creator, that he loves Gavin & is right there with him, holding his hand when we can't.
And we know He is in control.
I love how Gavin is so loved/prayed for by so many already, even though we only heard he was our son just 15 short days ago. He is so loved by his Jesus, his daddy, mommy, big sister Lyndlee, family, friends, Papa Ted, Mama Bev, and all the people taking care of him right now at the orphanage. He has such a sweet smile & such big sparkling eyes. We can't wait until God brings our family together, as a family of four!

Our Baby Boy Gavin Pan

Hello family & friends,

We have news! Many of you know that we went on the waiting list again for our second adoption back in April 2008. We just emailed our home-study last Friday to Ted (the orphanage owner) in Taiwan. This is the same orphanage that Lyndlee is from. We got called Saturday morning, saying they had a baby boy for us! His Chinese name is Ding-Dong Pan. Yes you read that right. Many of the workers at the orphanage call him "hostess" Janna's mom & dad even bought us some ding dongs as a silly congrats gift!
So we are calling him Gavin Pan Conklin. He was born June 9th, just turned 4 months old.

We are so overjoyed & are experiencing all the same emotions as we went through for Lyndlee's adoption. We melt at every picture the orphanage sends us, we didn't know you could stare at a photo for so long. Lyndlee thinks he is cute although we know she doesn't understand everything! And we check our email all the time & can't wait to call international for updates about our baby boy!
Please be keeping our family in your prayers as we begin to make our appointments for our adoption process. Also please be keeping our baby boy in your prayers, as some of know he has a heart condition. He has a small hole in his heart, we know it can heal on its own but also are aware surgery may be needed. Currently he is in the hospital for pneumonia & is on a feeding tube but we are praying he can be back at the orphanage with his sweet Mama Bev, she misses him! Also they are trying to fatten him up as he only weighs 11 pounds right now.
We know our God is a faithful God & we trust in Him. We know our baby boy is safe in the arms of Mama Bev & the arms of our Heavenly Father. He is getting so loved & taken care of & we find so much peace in that while we are apart.
So enjoy the pictures.
We love you all!

Janna, Brennan & Lyndlee Jya-Ying

Painting Pumpkins & Final Homestudy!

Busy weekend we had! Brennan went to a men's retreat so Lyndlee & I took a very short trip to Joplin to stay with my family & to also pick up our homestudy papers. My mom is always so cute with party ideas/games when all the grandkids are over. So it was time for painting pumpkins & bonfire. The kids all had a blast. Lyndlee was super funny as she decided to paint her pumpkin blue & would not finish until it was all blue.

Than I was able to meet with our social worker & get our final copy of our homestudy. We are very excited & emailed it to Ted in Taiwan. We know that waiting & praying is what we do now until we get that phone call. After the phone call, all the appointments & stress start and I can't wait! So please keep praying for us as we wait for our precious child. We are anxious to see all that the Lord has in store for our family.

We are staying busy with youth/church events.

I love it how our calendar fills up so quickly & we are really loving being in Branson.

We sure do miss Haiti, our students & fellow teachers.

We pray for them daily & keep them on our hearts & minds.

Until next time, enjoy the pictures!

Branson, Life, Adoption

Well I realize it has been awhile since I posted. Seems like we have been so busy since we have moved. The Lord provided a job, at just the perfect time. Brennan is the student minister at Tri-Lakes Christian Church in Branson, Mo. I never thought I would live in Branson, vacation here yes of course! But we love it here. We love our church family, our youth kids, and our new home.

Lyndlee is doing great, talking a lot more each day. She really enjoys being at church & seeing her new friends. Although I know she misses her dear friend Naiyah in Haiti so much. But we talk about Naiyah & her family all the time & pray for them each night. They are wonderful people & wonderful friends.

Sept 3rd we had our first homestudy for our second adoption! Of course I was super nervous, cleaned the house all day but everything went great. We are hoping to email our homestudy 1st of Oct to Ted in Taiwan. We went on the waiting list April 2008 but realized nothing could happen while we were living in Haiti. So now we are back in the states & ready! We realize that more waiting is ahead of us, but we are excited for God's plans!

My heart sometimes just aches to have/hold a newborn baby. I have been praying about it & the Lord has taken care of my heart ache, He is such a wonderful provider! So I have started watching babies to help pay for our adoption. So Lyndlee & I play with 4 babies, all under the age of 1! One baby was just born this Monday. I watch them part time & they come on different days but we are still busy. Lyndlee had a hard time at first learning to share toys & share her mommy. But now is doing great & is such a little helper. I am excited to watch her with these precious babies & can't wait to watch her with her baby sister or brother one day.

Enjoy the pictures!