It's a BOY!

On October 6th, we got a call saying we had been matched with this sweet, sweet little boy.

 This is the picture we received, along with his medical records and a report from his orphanage.  After much prayer, we KNEW this sweet boy was meant to be ours! 

We had to submit a letter of intent to China along with photos of us and our family in order to "lock him in" as ours.  It was a long wait (a whole WEEK!), but we received word today that this little guy is OURS!!!!

He will be 1 year old at the end of this month.  Here is an updated picture they sent us just a few days ago: 

Josh is jealous of his haircut. 

Words cannot describe the emotions running through us right now.  We are so very happy and excited to get to see the little face that God intended to be ours from the very start. 

We cannot WAIT to hug and hold this little guy, and tell him he is loved. 

I just want to throw my hands up in the air and run around crazy while shouting:  "Yay, yay, yay, yay, yay!!!!!  Praise God!"

Oh wait.  I've done that already!

Link and Drink

This week we are doing a link and drink fundraiser with the fire department.  The local union gave us the money to buy the supplies, and the Chief gave us permission to sell the links, chips and drinks to the firefighters who are on shift.  For three days we are (today is day two) cooking and delivering links and drinks to all of the fire stations to those who ordered them in advance. 

What a blessing this has been! 

The kids have bagged all of the chips and written "Thanks" on the side of all of the bags.  We have even had others who have heard of the link and drink fundraiser and have ordered, too!

I'll update when it is all over our total raised from this fun fundraiser!

Fundraising Update

Well, we have been busy raising money, slowly but surely! 

A friend had a catalog party for my Tastefully Simple business, and that brought in $150! 

I had a jewelry party that brought in $350!

We went to the local Trade Days and sold my kids' crayons and my mother-in-law's crayon rolls and made $206!

We have also had wonderful anonymous and not-so-anonymous donations!  Woo hoo! 

One Saturday I had a knock at the door.  A sweet woman was there and asked if I was the one who had the Adoption Garage Sale.  Yes, yes, I am... I said.  She wanted to know if she could give me several car / truck loads of things to put in our next garage sale! 

Yes, yes you can.... I said!  :)

With that said, we are working on a date REAL SOON to have another garage sale.  We are taking donations and storing them in our garage.  If you have anything that we could possibly sell in our garage sale, please contact us!  We can even come get it.... (within reason).

I am in awe of how God is moving in people's hearts to help us bring our son home!

We are currently working on a t-shirt design!  Be on the lookout for our awesome t-shirt fundraiser!

While you're at it, put your email in the top right... I promise it doesn't hurt... and it helps you stay in touch! 

Scary Home Study

The thought of having a social worker come to my home and look in every nook and cranny is a *tad* disturbing.  Nevermind the fact that I have already sent her documentation detailing just about every detail of our lives... AND the fact that she had to interview each and every member of the family... seperately... ALONE. 

Those of you who know us, know that you will NEVER know what will come out of our son's mouth.

Which is why I was worried.

The social worker was coming to the house the Tuesday after the garage sale.  (Why does the house look like a bomb went off inside of it when you have a garage sale?  Just wondering...)

My dear sister, Crystal, took her Saturday and came to my house and cleaned it while we were garage sale-ing. 

Then Tuesday came. 

The social worker knocked on the door. *gasp*

And she was the most delightful, pleasant person I've ever met.  She interviewed each of us.   Our son reigned in his imagination for the interview.  *phew!* 

She said it would be two weeks before we would get her finalized report.  After we get her report, we're sending it to immigration.... after THAT, we'll be nearly finished with our dossier!

The social worker called me Friday.  She is working feverishly to get our homestudy done, and could we please look it over for her before she sends it to the adoption agency to get their approval? 

Well, sure....

Now we are expected to get our homestudy this week. 

Praise God!!!



Oh, Wow

God is so, so, so, so good! 

The garage sale was such a success!  

We made $2,436.17!!!

Woo hoo!  Can you believe it?  From a garage sale! 

I was blown away by the generosity of random strangers.

 

A friend brought items that one of HER friends donated.

One lady at the garage sale on Friday left and came back with a truck load of stuff to donate!  One of the items was a nice treadmill!

Another kind woman who visited the garage sale left and returned with a van and truck filled to the brim with nice, already priced things.  When asked, she said "I was going to have a garage sale, but decided your cause was worth more!"

Not to mention all of the people who very kindly donated their items in response to our letter.  Words cannot express our gratitude! 

Thank you, God... for giving us such blessings!

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Garage Sale!!

Yay!  Garage sale THIS weekend!  Busy, busy, busy! 

A big THANK YOU to all who have donated items. 

We are so blessed! 

We are asking for volunteers to help with the garage sale.  It's going to be big, so we are going to need some people to corral the crowds! 

Interested? 

email me.

Hurry Up.... And Wait.

We are working on our Dossier to send to China.  Basically it is a set of 13 documents that introduce us to the Chinese government.  We have to include certified copies of our birth and marriage certificates as well as passports.  We have ordered the birth and marriage certificates, and when those come in we will apply for our passports. 

So.... hurry up... and wait. 

Sigh.

Our home study home visit is to take place October 18th.  We will have to write out a $1,800.00 check at that time.  

We are confident God will provide!

Several friends have asked for baby bottles to fill with change... THANK YOU! 

Remember, the garage sale is October 15th. 

We are confident that between the two, God will provide the $1,800 needed for the home study!

We are going today to get our passport photos.  China wants three passport photos of Josh and three of me.  This should be fun!  :)

Who knew?

I'm finding stuff out about myself that I didn't even know.  Ok,  not really.  It sure feels like it with all of the forms and "certified copies of" and "pictures of" and, and, and, and.... that have been submitted to the homestudy office. 

Surely our case worker knows that if we go to all of this trouble, we've gotta be good parents!  Of course, it would help if I was organized in some way.  Moving two months ago has helped... I've been able to lay my hands on 90% of the items needed!  yay!

Of course, now come the interviews.... I'm worried what our son might come up with.... you never know with that guy!

Now on to the Dossier.....  oi!

     We have been very blessed through our 12+ years of marriage to not only have a very happy marriage, but a very happy family as well. Our daughter & son are now 9 and 7 years old, however, we have long felt something was missing. Our very happy and loving family has been incomplete. After years of prayer, God has impressed upon us that now is the time to be obedient to His will, and provide a happy and loving family home to one who does not have that biologically. Because of this, we have been called to adopt a child from China.

After much research, we have found that this adoption will cost us roughly $35,000.  We have wondered why God would impress this upon us at this time, but realized that coming up with $35,000 is a small thing for Him! If we are obedient to Him and His will, he can do BIG things! We are reminded of the scripture in Ephesians 3:20, "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us"   

All four of us are excited beyond measure for this adoption. The excitement can barely be contained. Even the kids have been brainstorming fundraising ideas as well as praying over their new brother or sister every night!

We thank you for visiting our blog & taking a brief peek into our journey.  Please bookmark this page and/or submit your email on the "follow by email" box located at the top right-hand corner of this site.  We covet your prayers & thank you for your support.  

Please do not hesitate to share our blog with others.

Super Cool Crayons!

 Our daughter and son have been working very, very hard (on their own) trying to come up with a fundraiser to help bring home their new little brother or sister. They have decided that a great fundraiser would be to make cool, shaped crayons and sell them!  

Here they are working hard peeling the paper off of old crayons:

 And here they are putting the crayons into the molds to make their super cool shapes!

 Finished product!  

Who wouldn't want crayons in the shape of Legos or little people?

 Please, please, please buy some!  

They're for our new brother or sister!

 Here are some examples of how they can come:

(minus the actual crayons, they are just there to make the photo look pretty)

Rainbow Lego pack 

Rainbow People Pack

 Single Person 

(you choose the color)

 Variety People Pack or Variety Lego Pack

(tell us what colors)

 Single Lego

(tell us what color you want)

 Please note that these are made solely by our 7 and 9 year old children.  

This means two things:  

1.  They are NOT perfect!  There may be traces of other colors on the lego blocks or people, or a little of a different shade of color mixed in, or if you order tie die, they're just fun!  

2.  These were made with lots and lots of LOVE.

 These are all sold by donation ONLY!  

Click on the "donate now" button to pay, just make sure you specify what colors, how many, what pack, and how you would like them shipped.  

Please keep shipping costs in mind when making your donation.  

We will pad them with bubble wrap in their shipping carton to ensure they arrive safely.

 This is the face YOUR kid will make when they get their new crayons!

Thank you!

A Daughter's Dream...

Josh and I had decided on a few parameters for our choosing a child.  None of which were discussed with or even around our children.  First, we had decided to ask for a child with special needs.  Wether that be cleft lip / palette, club feet, missing limbs, etc, etc, etc.  We had decided not to specify gender, and be open to a child from 0-4 years old.  We had not discussed names, however, in my heart I immediately thought that if we received a girl, I would love to name her Lillian. 

My 9 year old daughter has been in fervent prayer for her new brother or sister.  Each and every time she prays.  Before school, at meal times, at bedtime... and every time in-between.

She is not a morning person.  Neither is her father.  She buries herself further and further into the covers each and every time I come to her room to wake her up.  However, one day last week, that was not the case. She literally popped out of bed.

"Mom!  I had the best dream ever!"

Oh, really?  Well then please tell me about it!

"OK!  I dreamed we all went to China to get our new little sister.  We went to the place where we were to pick her up, and you and dad paid them money.  They were soooo nice!"

Really?  What else?

"Oh, our new little sister was very quiet and shy and she was just so nice!"

Oh?  Well how old was she?

"Um... she was about 4 years old."

What was her name?

"I can't remember.  It was either Lilly, or Elizabeth."

Later, as we were sitting at the breakfast table, she was telling her brother all about her dream, quite excitedly. 

"... and they were all so nice!  And our little sister was so nice and quiet and shy, too.  She is going to be a great little sister.  OH!  Mom!  I forgot to tell you!  Her feet were fixed!"

*gasp*