HELP!

We are praying and brainstorming about some creative ways to do so some SERIOUS fundraising. We will likely travel at the end of November and we still have a WHOLE lotta money to raise. Currently we need $800 to finish paying our agency fees. In addition, we need $10,000 for orphanage fees and about $13,000 for travel and in-country fees. We plan on having a HUGE garage sale next month. We are waiting to hear back from a few different organizations that we have applied to for grants. Any ideas about items that we could use for a giveaway?

Please pray that we would stay focused on the Lord as we work to fund the rest of the adoption. I have struggled with discouragement and fear, but know that He remains faithful and in control. God is good all the time........

In His Mighty Grip,

"I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.

For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies." ~Psalm 57:9&10

LOA! LOA! LOA!

At 2:00 yesterday afternoon I received a call from our China Coordinator that our LOA's have arrived!!! We are hopeful that this put us in a position to travel late October to mid November! Our next wait is for TA(travel authorization)....This could take up to 8 weeks. Thank you to all of y'all who were praying for us!! We are excited and humbled to bring two of God's precious treasures home!!! Now, where is that extra $20,000 that we had lying around?! Ha, not!.... It's ok. As my kiddos would say - "IT'S ALL GOOD!" God knows exactly what we need...
He is FAITHFUL and He did NOT put us on this path to just abandon us at the finish line. This I know for sure.....

Archer and Abel, we love you and can't wait to take care of you forever!!!

Blessings,

"I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him!"

~I Samuel 1:27

An Emptiness in My Heart...

We are on day 35 of our wait to receive our Letters of Approval to adopt Archer and Abel and the waiting is starting to get really hard. It is a difficult thing to explain how you can love someone that you have never actually met but I do....immensely. Although I have not seen our boys face to face, God has placed an overwhelming love for them in my heart. Just as I loved my biological children before they were ever placed in my arms for the first time, I love these two precious boys. The Lord has surely begun an intertwining of our hearts and is preparing me to become their Momma and I can. not. wait.......Until then, I can trust Him to watch over our two precious treasures, and what a comfort that is to this momma.

In His Grip,

"A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling."~Psalm 68:5

Downpour!

We are doin' the Happy Dance around here y'all! We got AMAZING news from our agency, wacap (World Association for Children and Parents), yesterday! They graciously gave us a grant for $5,400.00 toward our adoption expenses!! Just look at that ticker would ya?!! Now, that is a sight for this little momma's sore eyes I'll tell ya!! To say that we are ELATED would be an understatement! I have to admit that the fact that our iPad fundraiser hasn't brought in the numbers that we were hoping for has been pretty discouraging. Hearing about this INCREDIBLE blessing has once again lifted our spirits and restored our energy! God is so good that way. To lift us up when the weariness threatens to start sinking in. Even when my faith is small and I take my eyes off of Him, He continues to faithfully provide. We serve an AMAZING and GRACIOUS God, who LOVES to pour out His blessings on us!

Ok, y'all only a little over $23,000.00 more to go! I know that sounds like a lot, but God is bigger than finances and He is MORE than capable to raise that amount. Remember that our iPad fundraiser is now in it's final week! C'mon folks, you could be the lucky winner of this very cool prize for a donation of only $5!! Not to mention, that you will play an integral part in changing the lives of two little boys forever! Also, we have been blessed to join an AMAZING ministry, Reece's Rainbow, that advocates, helps to match children with Down syndrome with adoptive families, and helps families adopting children with special needs to raise funds for their adoption. They have graciously set up a Family Support Page for us and if you feel led, you can visit their website, http://www.reecesrainbow.org/, and make a tax deductible donation to our adoption fund. You can find our page listed under "New Commitments" or "Compiling Dossier". We would be so very grateful. Thank you to those of you who have donated so far and a SPECIAL thanks to those of you who have helped to spread the word about our efforts! As always, we ask for your continued prayers and support.


In His Grip,





"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."
~Galatians 6:9

Keepin' the Faith

Some friends of ours that are adopting from Eastern Europe are in country meeting their little girl for the very first time. Their names are Gus and Ashley. Her name is Baby J. She has beautiful brown hair and eyes and the blessing of an extra chromosome just like their little boy Mason. They have looked forward to this trip for well over a year and we are hoping and praying that their time together is everything that they ever imagined that it would be. I wish I could be there to see their excitement as they lay eyes and hands on their precious angel for the first time!
I know that as they hold, cuddle and play with her they also will be fervently praying over her. Praying that this first visit will lead to another one and then that they will be allowed to bring her home to live with her two brothers and two sisters where she belongs.
That is the norm in these situations but our enemy the devil is busy with an evil scheme and our sweet friends have found themselves smack in the middle of it.
What was meant to be a joyous first meeting will instead be a meeting where an unwanted cloud of uncertainty hovers above.
Unfortunately last week a judge in their daughter's region denied the adoption of another child with Down syndrome to an American family, stating that it would be best if he were to stay in the institution where he is currently residing.
Can you believe that?! I couldn't breathe as I read about the ruling in an email my friend had sent. We have been told that the entire courtroom was in shock when the ruling was read. This sweet boy would have been the first child with DS adopted from that region. The family is filing an appeal, but in the mean time they have had to return to the states without their precious son. I can't even begin to imagine how very difficult that must have been. I read a statement from the mother yesterday and was completely brought to tears by her grace and determination during this very difficult situation. She is holding on to HOPE and clinging to her FAITH and TRUSTING in her GOD to claim victory over what satan has intended for evil!
Y'all PLEASE join with us in prayer about these children and their fates. Children with Down syndrome are considered to have absolutley NO value in that part of the world. This is truly a life and death situation for these precious little ones! Please storm the gates of heaven on behalf of these helpless children!!

In His Grip,

Progress

Tim and I are having the rest of the necessary documents for our dossier notarized tomorrow! Wahoo! After notarization the next step will be sending everything to the Secretary of State in Austin for verification. After verification our paperwork will then be authorized in Houston at the Chinese consulate, and then we will send the whole agglomeration to China!! We are slowly but surely making our way through this "paperchase" and starting to see a little light at the end of the tunnel! Praise the good Lord for bringing us this far!

"For great is your love, reaching to the heavens;
your faithfulness reaches to the skies." ~Psalm 57:10


In His Grip,

The Cost

Since starting our adoption journey we have been asked quite a few times about the cost of adoption. Most people are shocked when we tell them how much it will cost to bring both boys home. To tell you the truth, Tim and I were also taken aback when we first discovered the cost of adoption. We agree that it is a large amount of money. I think most people would also agree that there is NO cost too high to spare when you consider that this is the life of two children that we are talking about. For those that are curious, here is the breakdown of our expected costs, minus airfare, lodging and other expenses for our trip to China:

$4,ooo Adoption agency fees
$3,900 International processing fee
$400-700 Dossier documenting fees
$1,500 Overseas processing fee
$10,180 (2 children/orphanages) Required orphanage donation
$1,500 In-country legal expenses
________________________

approximately $21,480 with travel, lodging, etc added to that.

Sadly, these incredible costs often deter many from even considering adding to their family by this means. We certainly are not wealthy and our personal finances are limited, but we know that God is bigger than finances! We also know that He has a special place in His heart for orphans. James 1:27 tells us that "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." Keeping this in mind, we are confident that He has put us on THIS path, championing the cause of THESE particular orphans, and that He will be faithful to provide the resources to get our sweet boys home. How exactly? We aren't sure, but we are excited to see how He is going to work out His plan.

All that to say, we are not going to take a passive stance and wait for others to act while we do nothing on our own behalf. We have already been working hard to raise funds and are actively looking for ways to pay for the adoption. One thing we have done so far is a garage sale that we had in December. Friends and family donated items for us to sale and we were able to raise $700. It was so fun for Tim and I to share that experience with our children and for them to witness God's provision through the hearts of those that donated and those that purchased items. We have also been blessed to receive a couple of generous donations from friends and family and plan to apply for grants once our home study is completed. We have a few ideas for fundraisers that we would like to try and are looking for more ideas if anyone has any that they would like to share. Of course, above all we are trusting God to provide for His children to find their way home. After all, He loves them even more than we do and His plan for them is a good one.

"For I know the plans I have for you ," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future."~ Jeremiah 29:11


In His Grip,

Here We Grow Again!!

I know, I know , I am a huge blog flunky! My last post was almost a month ago, but I promise I have a good excuse for neglecting my poor blog. In addition to the hurry and scurry of the holiday season, we have been busy working hard on bringing our boys home from China.

BOYS??!! Yes, I said boys! With an "s" ! Like more than one!! Yes, I'm officially announcing that this time next year, our family will have two more sweet blessings to share the holidays with. We are so excited!!

So, how did we go from adding one more kidlet to the crew to adding two? Well, I guess a little back story is in order here. We had let our agency know from the very beginning of our journey that we were interested in trying to bring home two little ones in the same trip. Our agency agreed to work with us on our efforts and we began discussing with them the type of special needs we would consider. We committed to Min Wu very quickly and then began to look at the files of a couple of little girls that we hoped would fit into our family. One of the little girls, Fu Mei, absolutely melted my heart and we requested her medical file so that we could determine whether or not we could adequately meet all of her needs. After receiving her file I began to research her condition on the web and realized very quickly that her needs were beyond our means of provision. My heart was broken. I cried as I called and told our case worker that we could not commit to Fu Mei. She asked if we would be interested in seeing more files. I really had to pause and consider her offer. I can't fully explain it, but there was a part of me that felt a real connection to this sweet little one that we had to say no to. I was not in a hurry to "replace" her spot in my heart. I declined the offer to view more files and hung up grieving over the reality that we just weren't the mommy and daddy that this precious little one needed. We were overjoyed to hear about a week later that she had been placed with another family and I rejoiced knowing that God had given her the gift of a forever family.

After some time I began to recover from the sadness and we began to talk again about looking at the files of some other little girls. At this point, something changed on our agencies side of things. They let us know that it was in their opinion that trying to bring home another child in addition to our Wu who has DS, was going to be too much when we already had two toddlers at home. We were disappointed at their decision, our social worker was disappointed, our children were disappointed, but we had no choice to accept it. That was early November.

We began to start putting the paperwork together for our impending home study. I have to say that I really had NO idea how much paperwork was involved with an adoption before we started our own. It really is an unbelievable amount and we haven't even started putting our dossier together yet!! CRAZY is the only word I can think of to explain how I felt trying to balance all of it with our already very full schedule. And even though busy can't even begin to explain the pace I was keeping with husband, children, home school, house and holidays, the idea that God still wanted us to try and bring home TWO children from China would not stop invading my thoughts.

So, although our agency had said no, I began to keep my eyes and heart open when visiting adoption advocacy sites. After reading many stories and seeing the beautiful faces of TOO many sweet children that were just waiting for their chance to belong to a family, I was determined to show our agency that we were capable of bringing home more than one child. While visiting our agencies website one day, I saw the picture of an adorable six year old boy with a beautiful smile and sparkling brown eyes. I was smitten and quickly clicked to view his bio. It described him as helpful, thoughtful, articulate and bright. It also stated that his favorite subject in school was English, that he loved super heroes and that when he grew up he wanted to be a police officer (hey, I happen to have on of those! :). He reminded me so much of my Adam and I instantly recalled the numerous times that he had asked us to "please adopt a brother my age to play with". I was so excited about this little boy and the thought that maybe he was meant to be our son. I could barely contain my excitement! But, I still needed to tell Tim about him and then there was the whole agency issue to overcome. Well, of course, Tim was on board right away. Knowing that he was committed and confident about adding this sweet boy to our family gave me the courage that I needed to make the call to our case worker.

I nervously dialed the number to our agency. I can't remember our exact conversation, but I can tell you that she did not in anyway communicate anything at all positive in regards to our chances of her director approving us to adopt this boy. As I listened to her try to find "good and logical" reasons for why we probably wouldn't be approved to adopt two at once, a bit of doubt began to creep into my mind. "It's over", I thought. "They are for sure gonna say no." She let me know that she would get back with me later that day. I hung up sad and dejected. To tell you the truth, I wasn't just sad I was also mad! I went to find Tim and tell him about the frustrating conversation that I had with the agency and of course to cry on his shoulder a little bit. "How could they say no?" I thought. "How could they let this child possibly miss out on the opportunity to have a family?" "Everyone in the adoption world knows how hard it is to place boys, especially older boys, for no other reason other than they are boys!" It just didn't seem fair! Before I could throw a huge fit, God reminded me that if He was for us, then who could be against us? I sat on the couch with My Love to try and think of how to pass the rest of the day while patiently waiting for the agency to call us back with their decision. Not even five minutes had gone by when we got the call from our caseworker letting us know that they had decided to approve our family to adopt another boy in addition to our sweet little Min Wu!! We were sent the file of the little boy I had seen online and learned that his name was Ke Xin, born June 15, 2004. We immediatly began the paperwork to start the process to bring him home. Within a couple of days we had submitted our pre-approval paperwork to our agency and they in turn sent our paperwork off to China. We were delighted to receive a call two days before Christmas letting us know that we had received pre-approval from China to adopt Ke Xin!!

So, here we grow again!!! I'm tellin' ya, our God is SO good!!!!

Ke Xin

In His Grip,

Much To Be Thankful For

I hope y'all had a very happy Thanksgiving! We had a great Turkey Day at our house with lots of family, food, and fun. Like most families we've been enjoying leftover bird and fixin's for the past couple of days. I have to say, I think we may have reached our limit around here. I'm not sure but I might have seen my oldest daughter gag when I pulled out the leftovers at lunch time today! Poor girl! I guess a human can only be expected to consume so much turkey in a 72 hour period. Well, that's probably enough turkey talk. How about we move on to more important and less gross topics, shall we? You may remember that I mentioned in my last post that I had a big announcement and the explanation for why I started this blog. So, without further ado.....

As some of you may know, and others may be surprised to hear, we are happily expecting baby number 6 sometime next fall or early winter!! And NO, I am NOT pregnant!! There is definitely no more room in this little momma's womb. ;) In the throes of our last pregnancy,which was quite a DOOZY for those of you who may remember, Tim put his foot down on the idea of us ever having anymore bio-kidlets. He stated then that if we wanted anymore children then we would just have to adopt. And so, adopt we are!! We are excited to announce that we are currently in the beginning stages of a adopting a precious little boy from China. His Chinese name is Min Wu and he will turn 2 on March 20. Here is a picture of our boy-















Isn't he handsome? Did you happen to notice a slight resemblance to another little guy that we already know and love? Maybe you saw it in those beautiful almond-shaped eyes or that sweet expression? Yep, Min Wu is "chromosomally advanced" like our Asa! As a matter of fact, it was Asa's birth that became the catlayst for our desire to adopt a child with special needs, Down syndrome in particular. Even before Ace was born Tim and I talked briefly about adopting a little one with DS. At the time we weren't sure if Ace would have DS or not, but we thought it would be a wonderful thing for him to grow up with a sibling that would be like him if he did. As most of you know, Asa was in fact blessed with the gift of DS. God's plan, though different than ours, has resulted in a joy that would have otherwise been impossible without the addition of Ace into our family. Becoming his Momma and Daddy has had an enormous impact on our hearts, forever changing the way we look at children born with special needs. These precious babies are NOT defective. They are God's PERFECT workmanship, fearfully and wonderfully made. Our son is truly a gift from God. We are completely humbled and honored that He has chosen us to be the parents of not one, but two of His special blessings.
So, that in short, is the explanation for why we started this blog. We are thrilled beyond words to be starting this journey and excited to share it with all of y'all! I can't promise that I will post daily or even weekly for that matter, but I'll do my best to keep everyone updated on our progress. :)

"Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!"
~2 Corinthians 9:15

In His Grip,