The Sweet Face of Our Grace

A lot has happened in the last few weeks, not to mention the holidays! :) While we felt very blessed to spend time with our family over the last week, we were even more elated to finally have a face to put to the name God gave us so many months ago!

WE ARE OFFICIALLY MATCHED WITH OUR FIRST DAUGHTER!!!

How sweet it is to be able to write those words . . . after waiting nearly a year, we finally know what our sweet Julia Ann Grace looks like! 

Our sweet little one will be 3 at the beginning of February and we are just smitten with her! I cannot wait to hold her in my arms and to hear her squeal echoing through the house. We have a short video of her and she laughs with her whole body; something I already love about her!

We have a very neat story about how we knew Julia Ann was the one God was leading us to, but I will save that for another post. For now, we just wanted to share her sweet face with all of you and to thank you once again for all the support you have and continue to show us on this journey to bringing home our Grace and Faith!

Upcoming Online Auction!

We are excited to announce that we will be holding an online auction to help us bring home our little Grace and Faith. The girls and I are working hard to organize all of the items and get pictures of each to post on our new Facebook page. Be sure to check out these awesome items, most hand crafted; they would make wonderful Christmas gifts for others or yourself and it's a win win, get a great gift and help an orphan! :)

Waiting on LID

It has been another trying week with more ups and downs on our adoption journey, but in the end we received clarity from God and have a peace about what has happened over the course of the last two weeks. We are certain that God called us to adopt TWO little girls and that has not changed, just our execution of that plan has.

The following quote from a book I am reading sums everything up so well with what we are going through: "Just because something is complicated or doesn't turn out quite the way we expected, that doesn't mean it isn't God's ordained plan" (Ott, 2013). This path is indeed complicated and laden with paperwork. There have been many bumps in the road, but in the end we know that God's plan will prevail and we put our full trust in him to carry us through whatever may come up.

I titled this post WAITING ON LID because that is indeed where we are. We are waiting to be officially logged in to the Chinese Government Database for prospective adoptive parents. Once we have this date, we will begin the referral process and hopefully be matched with one of our daughters very soon!

We are about two weeks into the waiting process that is supposed to be three weeks long, but with the holidays, I am not sure if there will be yet another bump for us to deal with; we shall see.

Another Successful Fundraiser!!!

As I mentioned before, we were vendors at the Calvary Chapel Holiday Bazaar this past Saturday. We were packed into our booth with so many goodies I was surprised it all fit! The bazaar was a huge success to say the least! Once again, God confirmed that he was going to continue to bless my obedience to him telling me to "use what I know" to help bring the girls home. We ended up nearly selling out and raised over $1600 for our adoption! Praise the Lord! We are so grateful for all of you guys that showed up to support us and for all the help you provided to us while we were getting ready. I also want to thank all those who donated the great pieces to us to make this happen! We are overwhelmed with gratitude and thankfulness at how God continues to bless our efforts and for the people he has moved to support us!

DOSSIER TO CHINA!!!

We got the call Friday, 11/22/13, that we are officially DTC, or Dossier to China! Woohoo! This means that in a few weeks we should have official approval from the Chinese government to adopt a child from them! At that point we will be considered Logged In and will begin receiving referrals/files of children that match the special needs profile we filled out earlier in the process! We are hoping to be able to put a face to the name God gave us for our daughter to her face very soon.

I want to clarify, if any of you have noticed, I have been writing in the singular, as in ONE daughter. While we got amazingly exciting news this week, we also received some very hard news as well. The agency we are working with is no longer allowing families to adopt two children at one time and thus we will not be able to bring home both of our girls in one trip. We are STILL adopting two little girls, our time frame has just been altered. We will have to complete the adoption of one of our girls first, come home with her, and then wait 6 months before starting all over again to bring home our second little Chinese princess.

We would very much appreciate your prayers as we continue to walk with God on this journey. The news hit us hard, but we are just clinging even more to Jesus to give us strength to cope with the change. Prayer for guidance and clarity would be much appreciated and for the right perspective on the situation.

Hopefully we will have pictures of our daughter to share very soon!

Another Fundraiser!!!

As some of you know, when I asked God how/what we could be doing to raise money to bring the girls home, he told me to "Use what you know." This is exactly what we have been doing and God has blessed us richly for our obedience. I think it is so amazing how He leads all of us so differently and allows us to each use our unique gifts from Him to feel like we are part of this process, even though I know that all of it comes from Him!

All that to announce that we will be participating in the Calvary Chapel Tri Cities Christmas Bazaar next weekend, November 23rd, 2013! I am super excited and working very hard to create some awesome pieces to sell. I have a wide range of refinished furniture, rustic decor, fun shabby chic accessories, and even some great hand made pieces for your little Princess thanks to my Mom's handiwork! 

Be sure to come check us out . . . we will literally be center stage at the event! 

Don't worry, I have lots of projects for everyone! :) 

Just hoping I can get them all done in time! We are packed to the rafters in the garage with awesomeness thanks to some very generous people and lots of amazing garage sale treasures!

Authentication!

Just wanted to share a quick update. We are now in authentication (about halfway done with this step). We made it through the county side of things and our paperwork was sent to the consulate on Tuesday to get more stamps/notary seals placed on everything in preparation for sending it to the CCCWA. Hopefully, by next Wednesday, we will have them back and be DTC (Dossier to China)! We are so grateful for continued movement towards referral.

In the pic above you can see better where we are at in the adoption process from China. We are hoping to be able to highlight step 7 next week! :)

Our Awesome Halloween Treat . . .

Pumpkin Courtesy of Sammy! :)

Instead of a TRICK this Halloween, we were awesomely given the TREAT of receiving notification of our I800a approval! Praise Jesus! When I called yesterday, Halloween, I was informed we were approved and that our letter went out in the mail on the 30th! Can't wait for it to get here so that we can start the authentication process.

Happy Halloween Everyone! :)

More GREAT News!!!

I just called immigration and was informed that we have been assignment a case worker!!! Woo hoo!

USCIS received our 1-800a application on 8/21/13 and 69 days later, we have been assigned an immigration officer! Funnily, the lady who answered the phone informed me that she was OUR officer and had just pulled our file a little bit ago! She stated that she would be reviewing the file this afternoon and if all was in order would be sending out approval in the mail tomorrow.

I am beyond excited to have movement today! Praise Jesus; he must have known I needed a boost today! ;)

HFTF Adoption/Orphan Conference

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A year ago, I went to this conference alone as Isaac got called into work. I debated heavily about just not going since I felt awkward being there by myself. I even asked the girls to come along with me, but in the end, I got up early, drove to the church and sat alone drinking in all the info I could about adoption. Heavy hearted, I felt alone in the whole thing. God had been breaking my heart for the orphan for many months at this point. I knew God was calling us to adoption, but Isaac did not. And so I sat, feeling awkward, knowing no one, but wanting to learn more about what this whole adoption thing was and what it was like to call a child, not of my own flesh, my daughter.

This was a big day for me and one where God was faithful to move, showing me I was meant to be there. It was here that I was introduced to our social worker from Lifeline and here that I was encouraged to learn more and not give up hope that God was indeed calling us to this journey with him.

I am in awe as I sit here writing this today because of just how much God has done in the past year with us and where I am sitting now. After the conference, I posted a comment on a message about the conference saying that "next year I hope that our family will have our own adoption in the works" not fully believing that that would actually happen. But, I was wrong and God had so much more in store for us than simply sending us on the private adoption journey that I pictured that day. He was calling us to the front lines to fight for the millions of children that need families and are desperate for someone to love them.

This year, I am not only attending the conferenece in the place I had so hoped to be that day, in the process of adopting a little girl, but also in a place I could never have dreamed of! We are working to bring home TWO little girls from China, as well as working with HFTF to help other families bring home children from around the world as the Fundraising Chair for Alongside Fundraising. We are not only attending the conference, but working at it, setting up a booth to share how God is calling us to help other families fundraise, and, God willing, perhaps speaking at some of the break out sessions about this adventure! God is sooooo good and I am blown away at how our lives have changed since my hesitent attendace to this amazing conference last year!

Our Brief Layover in Immigration Land

Hello everyone, I promised an update on our actual adoption process so here goes. We finally completed our home study after a grueling 7+ months of bumpy turbulence. It seemed that all we did was wait and deal with cancellation after cancellation in addition to the craziness with Isaac's job.

I am so glad we made it through and I know that all of the things that seemed to be delaying us were things that God is using to lead us straight to our girls at just the right moment. I have to admit, my patience is being tested, but also being made much stronger in this whole thing too! Praise the Lord for that because I am certain I will need it when we begin the transition to a family of 6.

Now that our home study is complete and in our hands, we have moved on to the I800a immigration application. We are currently 69 days into our wait and I am not going to lie, it is grueling! I am feeling a bit discouraged at times as it seems like there is nothing to do, other than fund-raise, right now.  I know, I know, that is a big job, but it sometimes does not make me feel like we are making progress.

If you would like to pray for us, we could really use prayer that we would be matched soon with a case worker and that our paper work would be returned quickly. It can take up to 90 days to get a case worker, but we are hoping we are one of the lucky ones that does not have to wait that long! As we are only waiting on this one final piece of the puzzle for our Dossier, it makes it all the harder to wait.

Once we get this final piece of paper, our Dossier (the story of our life on paper) will be sent through the authentication process, which usually takes two weeks, and then scanned and downloaded into the CCCWA, China Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption, database so that we can begin the process of being officially approved to adopt from China and receive our LID (log-in date). This little number is our ticket to starting the referral process and the point at which we will finally be introduced (on paper) to our daughters and have tangible pictures to hold!

I guess that about sums it up. We are hoping to have our referrals by Christmas time, but this is all God's timing and we are willing to wait to ensure that it is his will and not our own being done here.

Photos In the Park

So excited to have a new adoption pic to share! My sweet friend volunteered at our Photos in the Park event and edited this amazing pic from our session! I just love it! :)

So what is Photos in the Park you ask? Well, this was an idea formed from the combination of a friend, some internet research, and a whole lot of God's leading.

THE BASICS. Over the course of two weekends we had 7 photographers volunteer their time and services to take 30 minute mini sessions of families. We ended up scheduling over 70 families for this event and were able to sponsor two other adopting families from the area!

I was a bit nervous putting this event on in the beginning as I knew that it was going to be big and take a lot of time and effort to fill all the open slots we had. But God had other plans and thanks to him we ended up selling out in the matter of hours! YOU READ THAT RIGHT, HOURS!

THE SCOOP. After sending out some flyers and creating door hangers to put out, I began Facebook chatting with a friend of one of our photographers that wanted to get her family's photos taken. She then referred three other friends and I jokingly told her she was hired! :) After contacting me again to schedule a fourth family, she informed me that her friend worked for the local news channel. She went on to ask for more information about our family and our adoption as well as the event. I shared the short version and a link to our flyer for the event, which she passed on to her friend who had offered to perhaps put a post on their Facebook page. I prayed that God would bless us and boy did he!

The next morning we got up early to head to my family's for our annual trip to the beach. 9 am hit and all of a sudden my phone began to ding relentlessly notifying me of incoming emails. I had no clue what was going on until I began to read through them and realized that not only had this awesome lady posted about us on her Facebook page, she had actually written an article about our event and had it on the news website front and center!

By 5pm that night I had over 400 email conversations completed and 7 photographers fully booked! It was amazing and I was so humbled and joyful, I could hardly contain it!

God is so good and, as I have mentioned before, we feel so blessed that he has given us the opportunity to be walking this journey with him. I love that he is giving me jobs to do as I wait as I am not sure I would stay sane if I were sitting here idle! Although we are very aware of the fact that he does not need us to provide the money we or the other families need to finish our adoptions, I love that he cares enough about us to let us be helpers! :)

Benton City Daze

I forgot to share about our adventure to Benton City! We decided, totally last minute and totally as a leading from God, to be a vendor at the Benton City Daze event. We had a cute little booth, pictured above, and spent the day hanging out in the beautiful weather. Although we didn't sell a lot, we met some great people and were able to witness to a lot of people about adoption and what God was doing in our lives. It was a super cool day all in all and we ended up coming home with this:

Meet Rosa, our newest addition to the family. What can I say, we were in an adopting mood! ;)

A big thank you to my Mom and Andrea for coming over for the week to help prep for this event and make some awesome wares to sell!

New Updates!

Ok, so I have been so busy that I have not taken the time to give any updates. Here's what's been happening over the last several weeks:

WE HAD ANOTHER YARD SALE! :) The last one of the season and it was a big success for the time we got to sell before it started raining. Ughhh! God was good, however, and blessed us with so many donations and lots of people to buy up lots of our treasures!

WE FINISHED ANOTHER ALONGSIDE FUNDRAISING EVENT! For our second alongside fundraising event we held a Photos in the Park event over the course of two weekends. It was a massive success and I will share more details on this one in a separate post.

WE ARE WORKING ON OUR NEXT FUNDRAISER, THE CALVARY BAZAAR. We are super excited to continue on this adoption journey doing what God leads us to do. He has been so good to bless our labors and we continue to "use what we know" as He told us to. We are hard at work refinishing lots of new furniture pieces that I have been gathering that were both donated by generous friends and even past patrons as well as pieces picked up on craigslist, facebook swap sites, and at yard sales. The garage is packed and all of us are doing our part to get all the awesome pieces finished and ready.

WE ARE PREPPING FOR OUR NEXT ALONGSIDE FUNDRAISING EVENT! With our Photos in the Park event finished, Isaac and I are already in the early planning stages of the next big event we will be hosting for Heart For the Fatherless. I absolutely cherish this ministry and am so grateful that God plugged us in here! We are hoping to do a Night of Wishes as our next event in which we will be launching a few hundred Chinese lanterns, that people have inscribed with their wish, near the Chinese New Year. We are super excited about this event and hope that it is yet another way we can support other local adopting families as well as bring awareness to the community of the many children that need families and how they can help even if they are not called to adopt themselves.

I will post more details in a separate blog entry about where we are in the adoption process. Thank you all for your continued support; we are so grateful for how our family and friends continue to rally around us as we prepare for the addition of two little girls into our family! :) 

Updates . . . One Yard Sale Down, One to go!

Ok, so I have been horrible about posting lately, but I have not had a lack of stories to share! I think my lack of writing is, on the other hand, due to the fact that so much has been happening!

Over the last few months we have been busy, busy, busy, raising more money to bring the girls home! We held another massive yard sale that was super successful thanks to the help of some really fabulous friends and all the donations people in our community showered us with!

Along the way to prepping for this sale, God brought some really amazing people into our lives. We met a Chinese family who donated to us and, on top of that, offered to teach us some Chinese, discuss their culture over dinner, and help our girls maintain their language once home! How amazing is that!

In addition to meeting that family, we also met a couple who came from Burma and Thailand. We got to speak to them for a long time and they shared with us how life in their countries were. They so generously gave to us, we were blown away. They did not have a lot themselves, yet they were willing to give all they could to help us bring the girls home. It was a lesson for us about how God expects us to share with our neighbors and that our money is not our own, but rather his to use as he directs us. Our job is to listen and move when he calls us to.

We have seen this happen time and time again as we put out the call for support to our sales. Funnily, I have been relying mostly on craigslist to get donations and, surprisingly, the response has been phenomenal! In the beginning of our adoption journey I questioned how, in this community with a lot of families adopting, we would be able to raise the money we need when competing for support from the same people. God has shown me the foolishness in those thoughts and how he is in charge. I am finding that when people hear our story they are moved and want to help!

As I write, we are gearing up for yet another Yard sale; we are praying that God will once again provide for us as we have just sent out a good chunk of Cash to fund this portion of our adoption process. I know he will provide as we go and we are eager to see who God puts in front of us this time and how he will move his people to get our daughters home!

Another Massive Garage Sale Fundraiser Out West!

This past week we have been working hard to put together another massive garage sale to help bring the girls home. I have to admit, I was a little worried about this one. We had planned on having a sale on the West Side for over a month and I had asked around with family and friends to see if they had any goodies to donate. While we did get some yeses we had no idea what to expect and headed over a week in advance with absolutely nothing! Three days later, my parents' house garage was jam packed and half of my Dad's shop was stuffed full of donations! We have been absolutely blown away by the generosity of our family and friends and others in the community that did not even know us, but wanted to help support us and help us bring our girls home!

God is soooo good and we are again overwhelmed by the blessings he continues to bring our way! We cannot wait to get our girls and now, thanks to everyone's generosity, we are one step closer!!!

Fundraiser Drawing

In addition to our garage sale fundraiser this weekend, my sister has generously donated two treatments at her acupuncture and massage business. In order to get your name in a drawing for one of these awesome gift certificates, valued at $75 each, we are asking for a $1 donation. If you want a chance to win one of these, please use the drawing link to the right or stop by our sale and enter there! We will be open Friday and Saturday 8-3 at my parent's house in Kelso!

We will run this through the weekend and draw the winners Monday, 7/1, night! Her office is located in Longview, Wa so this is for all our west side friends! :) We would super appreciate your support in helping to bring out little ones home!

More Wood (continued) . . .

Ahhh the suspense! :) So back to the phone call . . . I guess I should share a bit of back story here leading up to this phone call. A friend and I have discovered a hobby that almost beats garage saleing! I know, I know, ya right, but really, this is even more of an exhilarating treasure hunt -- dumpster diving, well, I probably should call it sidewalk scrounging, but the aforementioned has a better ring to it! :) Here, people are allowed to leave large items meant for the garbage man on the side of the street next to their cans, and let me tell you, I can't believe what some people throw out! Anyway, as we were driving around late one night, eyeballing peoples trash, we drove by a house that had a huge trailer full of wood with a bunch of debris burying it. I immediately knew it would be perfect for some sort of pinterest project that I could sell to make more money for the girls and I wanted it! Since it was 11:00 at night I couldn't just knock on the door so I decided I would swing by the next morning and see if I could catch someone. The next morning came and I got the girls up early so that we could make our way to Pasco to inquire about the wood. We knocked and there was no answer so I went around the corner to my friend's house to check on how she was doing at her yard sale. She encouraged me to be bold and write a note to tape to their door. So, after five minutes, I had a page long note ready. My friend started laughing and I replied, what? too much? lol. I'm a writer,what can I say! 30 minutes later we were back in the car heading to their house to tape up the note. It was a gamble, but I was hoping our story might encourage them to give me a call.

A day passed and I figured that they probably thought I was crazy or just didn't want to bother with the hubbub of calling me back and setting up a pick up time. I was bummed, but thought, oh well, there will be more wood. God had different plans and, once again, had gone before me to orchestrate yet another chance, but divine meeting that would lift our spirits and remind me that he is with us and for us!

The phone rang and I actually didn't pick it up because I was napping after our long work night and early morning rise to get ready for the garage sale. I didn't recognize the number and figured it was not important. When I heard the voicemail dingle, I picked up the phone to listen to it. To my surprise, it was the lady with the wood! She said we could have it if we wanted it and to come pick it up as soon as we could since they were planning to head to the dump later that day.

Isaac, sweet hubby that he is, had been in town all afternoon getting new tires on my van, washing it, and getting it vacuumed for me while I took a nap! I was excited about getting the wood (Isaac had not seen it at this point and had no clue as to what I was asking him to go and get!) so I called Isaac and asked if he would help me go and pick it up in our new trailer. Tired, he grumbled a little, but gave in to my begging and headed home to pick me up. :)

Once, there, he was surprised that it was a huge stack of good quality 2x6s that would indeed be awesome stock to have for upcoming projects that was worth a lot of money if we had to buy them new! We knocked on the door and met Emily and her sweet littles. We spent the next few minutes talking and here is where God began to shine once again down on us and our journey.

Emily told us that the wood was actually from a service project her and her husband had recently done. They had helped out another family by cleaning out and fixing their home. I immediately thought "wow, God, how cool that you are using service project leftovers to bless the journey you sent us on too!" But wait, it gets even better. We began discussing how God had called us to adopt and where we were in the process and that we were getting two little girls from China. She proceeded to tell us that adoption had also touched her personally as her sister had just domestically adopted a little girl! Once again, we were blown away by the fact that God had orchestrated this meeting through something as crazy as my new hobby of dumpster diving! :) He indeed knows my heart!

As we drove home, it was evident that God had truly instructed us to USE WHAT WE KNOW to bring our girls home. The wood and chance meeting with Emily were undeniable proof. We were humbled, yet again, by Gods love and provision for us on this journey. I am blown away by the ways in which he chooses to provide for us and I am so grateful for the ways he encourages and reminds us that we are on the right path every time we need a boost. Needless to say, our day went from down in the dumps to once again raring to work harder to create beautiful things out of the provisions God continues to bring us.

One man's trash is indeed another's treasure! I will post pics once I have some of the things built. :)

More Wood!!!

As many of you know, I have been praying and seeking God's guidance on what we should be doing to bring home our two littles from China. I felt a strong, resounding, USE WHAT YOU KNOW, and so we began gathering wood and outdated furniture pieces. Isaac, the girls, and I all worked tirelessly through the last few weeks to make a stack of signs from the barnwood we were given, refinish the handful of furniture pieces I scoured garage sales for and revamp some antique windows into message boards.

Once everything was done we loaded it up in our new trailer and headed for the Calvary Chapel trunk sale. It was super hot that day and we didn't have a lot of foot traffic. We ended up bringing home most of what we had made and left early feeling super discouraged and heavy hearted, thinking that maybe we had misheard what God was telling us. Then, about an hour after getting home, I got a phone call . . .

Time For an Update!

Well, a lot has been going on, mostly paperwork and education, but we are making progress! It feels good to be nearing the end of the first hunk of required paperwork and we are excited to be quickly coming to the close of our home-study process.

Our first alongside fundraiser was great fun and everyone who came, about 80 people, had a great time. We are so grateful to our wonderful Ice Skating teachers who made this event so fun for all that came! They were super sweet to donate their time and skills to provide lessons and games for the kids.

As the preparations continue to bring our daughters home, we have been in prayer a lot as to what God wants us to do next. Sooooo up next is another, hopefully, massive garage sale on the west side. We are in need of more donations and have faith that God will provide both the product and people we need to make this as successful as our first garage sale. We are excited to be heading west to do this fundraiser so that more of our family can be involved and see God move in our journey.

We appreciate all the prayer our friends and family have been faithful to provide these last few months and ask that you continue to keep us in them as we seek the Lord's guidance on something big that is brewing now!

Our First Alongside Fundraising Event!!!

I am super excited to finally have most of the details worked out for our first alongside fundraiser event! We will be holding a family skate extravaganza at the end of April and we are soooo excited to have been given the opportunity to not only work towards moving forward in our own adoption, but to help others do the same. 

I have struggled the last week about whether or not I was hearing God right and doing what he was asking of me. I was unsure of whether he wanted us to only help others at these fundraisers that he had shown to me or if we were to be involved as well. However, last night God was faithful to answer my prayers and he spoke clearly to me, reconfirming it through another friend's post this morning. 

For the past months I have been going through a book called Hinds Feet On High Places with my women's bible study group.  God has really used Much Afraid's journey to speak to my heart about our own adoption journey and last night was no exception. Although I finished reading the book weeks ago, a friend encouraged me to revisit some of the things that I had highlighted. When I sat down to do so last night, the book fell open to the following: 

 All you have to do is trust yourself to the chair and be carried in perfect safety to the place which I wish to take you and without any struggling and striving on your part. 

(From the Devotion) Jesus, I choose today to take the risk of doing it Your way! 

I quickly realized that God was showing me that I was questioning the plan he had for my family and the fact that he had put me in this place for a reason. I had been struggling to determine what he wanted us to do, not because HE had changed the plan, but because I was concerned about what others might feel about said plan. I had taken my eyes off Jesus and faltered because of it. 

Here was my second confirmation from this morning: 

"Are you debating whether to take a step in faith in Jesus or to wait until you can see how to do the thing yourself? Obey Him with glad reckless joy. When He says something and you begin to debate, it is because you have a conception of His honour which is not His honour. Are you loyal to Jesus or loyal to your notion of Him? Are you loyal to what He says, or are you trying to compromise with conceptions which never came from Him? "Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it.""

I am so grateful that God has new mercies for me every day and that he is faithful to remind me of things he has told me regardless of how much reassurance and repeating that may entail. 

MASSIVE Adoption Fundraiser Sale

Our first fundraiser was a HUGE success and I cannot believe how immensely God blessed us over the past weekend! It truly was God moving here and providing for our needs in ways that we never dreamed possible. We are so grateful to all of the families that donated items to us and came to help run the yard sale. Thanks to everyone's generosity and hard work, we are now able to move forward in our adoption process and have enough to cover the second child application fee along with our next payment! 

I was literally brought to tears from the generosity of everyone and the fact that God continues to move physical things for us in order to provide for the things we need to bring our girls home! I spent days before the garage sale sporadically weeping when I went out into the garage to work and get things ready. I was overwhelmed with how people, many of whom didn't even know us, were willing to donate to us in order for us to bring our daughters home!  

To top all of this off a family that have witnessed to us in the past, continued to do so over the weekend in ways we will be forever grateful. I am truly blessed to have all of you in our lives and thankful that God has sent us on this journey in which we are able to share his goodness and glorify his works. 

Please pray for the safety of our daughters and that we would continue to obey God's calling regardless of where/what that might be and hear his voice leading us.  

 

The Doubling

Although this is something that happened further back in our adoption journey, I thought I would share how/why we are adopting two little girls.

When I was first called to adopt by the Lord, I have to admit, I was terrified. First off, I was unsure I was the right person for the job as I doubted I could even do this and, secondly, I was afraid of what Isaac's reaction would be when I told him.

After a short time, I worked up the nerve to bring up the message I had received from God to Isaac. I was not sure what he was going to say, but he surprised me with his reaction. Thank goodness he did not give me an absolute NO, but rather took things in and said he would pray about it and see if God would give him a sign that this is what we were supposed to be doing.

Months passed and every time I brought it up, Isaac would say, "I haven't heard anything." I began to question if I was actually really told this is what we were supposed to be doing, because I didn't understand why God would tell me, yet not my husband. How could this ever work or come to pass if we weren't on the same page? I fought with this for quite some time and asked for confirmation from the Lord, which he was faithful to give several times. Finally, I came to the realization that it was simply not God's timing and I would have to WAIT on the Lord for Isaac to be brought to the same page. A sweet friend even gave me this little sign to sit on my desk as a daily reminder that this is what God was asking me to do.

So I geared up for a long wait, thinking it might even be years before this mission would come to fruition. I began to pray for our daughter (I still only believed we would be getting one), but I still struggled with how this would all work. Isaac wasn't on board, I could not fathom how on Earth we would be able to come up with the money, and my mind whirled trying to conceive just how our family would function with another child. Finally, I thought I had it all figured out; how I would continue to work, homeschool the girls, and take care of this new little person. That said, I was still worrying a lot about how we were going to get her home.

I continued to pray that God would speak to Isaac's heart, but did not have any expectations that it would happen any time soon. However, God had other plans!

A friend of ours was holding an adoption fundraiser for another family adopting two little girls from China. I wanted to go because it sounded fun and I wanted to meet other families that were adopting and had adopted so that we could see what that looked like and ask questions. After going back and forth as to whether or not to go, we finally piled into the car, with two of the girl's friends in tow, and headed to the benefit dessert.

When we got there, a bunch of little ones were running around, some biological children, and others adopted from China. We started talking with families and Isaac ended up talking with the husband of the family that was gearing up to bring their girls home from China that following week for quite some time. After getting the girls loaded back into the car to head home, Isaac turned to me and said, "God wiped the fear about adopting from my heart tonight!" I was blown away and, although I had hoped seeing these families and the kiddos running around would help, I had no idea that God would use it to speak to Isaac! I, of course, began to cry. ;)

For weeks before that night, I had begun to notice a change in Isaac, although he continued to tell me that he had heard nothing. The most significant change was how he was praying and what he was praying for each night.

As we drove home, he teased that maybe we should just get two girls as well. I was adamant that I thought he was crazy and I could only handle one new baby at a time and that I had it all worked out. Two was too much and ridiculous! I still couldn't fathom how we were going to get enough money together for one, let alone two. Little did I know that God was speaking to Isaac about this before he let me in on the plan!

The next morning, I received a text from Isaac saying, I needed to figure out how to bring our daughters home! I was in shock. It was soooo unexpected that I found myself being the one unready to move. I had readied myself for the long winter of waiting; I had prepared my heart for hibernation on the matter! ;)  God had said to wait and so I was waiting. I felt like a rug had been pulled out from under my feet and I began to panic a little. God, however, was faithful and calmed my heart, at least for a few days before the wind was knocked out of me yet again.

A few days later, during Sunday morning service, God once again spoke to my heart about our adoption. Unfortunately, part of it was a rebuke for me thinking this was about me and that I had any power over planning what this adoption would look like. God began to use a book I was going through at my Women's Bible study to paint a picture for me. He told me that this journey was not about me or my abilities, in fact, it had little to do with me, but rather everything to do with HIM. He told me that if I could not trust that he would provide for this one child that he would double the size of the mountain in front of me (I had been feeling like I was at the base of mountain (our adoption) looking up at a peak that I could not see the top of) and show me just how GREAT HE is and what HE is capable of doing. And thus, I was told we were going to be getting not one daughter, but two, from China!

Confirmation of this came a few days before Christmas at a church service in Longview that we had attended with one of Isaac's close friends. I was a bit bummed to have to miss out on Christmas service at our own church and was leery about attending another church. I figured it could not be as good as our own church and had no expectations of hearing from the Lord that day, but, again, he proved me wrong when both Isaac and I were moved about a lot of things including the fact that we were absolutely the parent's of two other daughters that simply had not come home yet!

Home Study

Progress!!! We are excited to finally be making headway in our adoption process. We had our first Home Study call last Friday and are gearing up for our in home interviews and home tour next week!

So far so good. We are trying to get things in order at the house and working to clean up from the winter wind storms in the backyard. :) Other than that, we are trying to decide upon the design of the built in bunk beds we are going to be building in the girls' room. (I will post pics once we get started.)

It is an exciting time and we continue to pray daily for our daughters, that they would be fed, properly cared for, and that God would be working in their hearts, showing them his love, and letting them know they are not alone! 

We appreciate everyone's support and ask that you continue to pray for our family as we make this journey.

An Opportunity to Serve

A lot of things have been happening lately, so many that sometimes I have a hard time keeping up with all the sharing! :)

As I have continued to seek the Lord in this journey, my heart has begun to be pulled to the adoption ministry. Although I am anxious to see our little one's faces and bring them home, I am also driven to do more for all of the orphans and other families working to bring their own little one's home from far off places.

God has been moving in my heart and urging me to reach out to other families going through the adoption process. At first, I was unsure of what he wanted me to do and then things began to move. This new journey began with my prayer to open doors for me to get involved more in this ministry. Next, I met up with a wonderful new friend involved with the Heart For the Fatherless adoption ministry at our Church. After extensive discussions about a fundraising opportunity that could potentially help other families in the process too, she mentioned the need for a fundraising chair person within Hearth For the Fatherless.

I prayed for weeks about this and asked God to open doors and make it clear to me if this is what he wanted me to do. Finally, after I spoke at the Orphan Prayer night, I knew God was calling me to dive in. I am soooo excited about this new venture as I love to do this kind of thing, but more than anything, I am overjoyed at the idea that God is allowing me to serve others and become a part of this ministry.

I have already begun planning our first fundraiser in April that will help to support two other local families! I am excited to see what God does with this and where he will lead me!

Boxes

God has continued to show me just how faithful he is going to be in totally and utterly providing for our adoption journey. As many of you know, we are gearing up for our first adoption fundraiser, which is a yard sale. As donations have come in, the girls and I have been pricing and organizing things. I have been purchasing some moving boxes to keep things flowing and organized in our garage. One night, as I was in line with more boxes, a man came into Home Depot to return something and saw me in line. He came up to me and asked if I would like 100 more boxes just like the ones in my cart. I was a bit taken aback for a second and then said "YES".

I knew this was not a random meeting and God had, yet again, walked before us and provided for our needs. It blew me away to know that God was not only working in other people's hearts to bring us an abundance of donations beyond our wildest dreams, from people that don't even know us, but he was going to take care of it all, even so far as to provide the boxes he already knew we needed!

A Gift!!!

THE BARN

What, you ask, is the above . . . well, another gift from God!!! This wonderful old barn came into our lives through craigslist. While searching for a wood dresser, a random post about this barn popped up, or rather God put it in my path. After emailing back and forth with the owners about the wood and discussing why we wanted it (for an adoption fundraiser in which I will be making signs) they decided to DONATE all we wanted to take!!! 

I couldn't believe it! Not only had God answered my prayer for finding wood to make up signs to sell at our garage sale, but he had walked before us and worked on this wonderful family's hearts to donate this to our cause! I am amazed and humbled by the generosity of others that don't even know us and their willingness to help us bring our girls home!

And to boot . . . this is the view we had as we worked this afternoon: 

BEAUTIFUL!!!

A Chance to Share

Last night was yet another example of God's work in our adoption journey. I was given the opportunity to share part of our journey with others who I would have never met had God not given us this mission! Our lifeline social worker, who is quickly becoming a dear friend, asked me to come and speak at the Orphan Prayer Night she was holding for families in the area after hearing about some of the recent things God has been doing along our adoption journey. At first I was very nervous, but I said yes right away because I knew it was an answer to a prayer.

Since beginning this journey, the plight of the orphan has become a passion and I feel a pull to this ministry. I have been praying that God would show me how I can minister to others going through the adoption process and/or those who also have a heart for the orphan. Last night was my first step in that direction! Thank you God for your goodness and faithfulness!

I have to admit that for the last week, I have been very nervous about speaking; it is something that I just have never liked. All day yesterday, I prayed that God would give me the courage to speak and share the awesome things he has been doing for us and how he has been giving us confirmation that we are doing what we are supposed to be doing. By the time the girls and I made it to the church and went inside, God had been faithful and spoken to me reminding me that I was not alone and that with Him by my side, I had nothing to fear! In that moment, the fear was wiped from my heart and I got up and spoke with no sweaty hands or even the inkling of a single butterfly in my stomach! It was amazing and I am so encouraged that this is something, too, that is going to be part of my future.

Approval

Oops, I guess I forgot to mention that WE WERE APPROVED!!! :)

We are now in the process of filling out more paperwork and gearing up to begin our home study as soon as we get our first payment and the rest of this paperwork submitted.

Thank you all for the support you have shown us thus far and for sharing in our journey!

Confirmation

A lot has happened since our last post and God has been faithful in calming our fears and just letting me know we are in his will and doing what we are supposed to be doing. 

Two Sundays ago during pizza, dinner, fellowship, we ended up sitting next to a gentleman we have never met. We tend to sit with friends, but the kids had a full table so we branched out! :) As we visited a bit, discussion of our families, of course, arose and we mentioned the fact that we were working on adopting two more little ones from China. He went on to tell us that his own daughter had recently adopted from Ethiopia, however, her story was amazing! He told us that she had originally begun working in Ghana, however, the program was shut down in the process, which is why she was led to Ethiopia. Two weeks after she had put in her paperwork, her agency called to say that there was a woman from Ethiopia in the US due to give birth in two months, was she interested? I don't know the whole background about why she was here, but it was what he said next that blew Isaac and I away. He went on to say that "God had literally laid this little one in her lap." Over the last few months, I have felt convicted that we were not to be looking at the orphan lists through our agency when choosing our girls, but rather that the Lord was going to bring them to us. In fact, those are the exact words that Isaac has been praying for months since we are at a loss as to how we will know who our girls are. God just confirmed that he is going to bring them to us just as I was feeling and as Isaac was praying. We are in awe of how awesome he is and how faithful he has been to continually squelch our fears and show us that what we are asking is no big deal as he has done it in the past! 

But wait, there's more!!! :)

Last week, I went to Kelso to visit my family with Sammy and Sera. On Friday, my sister and I decided to do a Portland Goodwill tour, as we love thrift store hopping. After a long day, we were really wanting to hit the big Goodwill in downtown Portland, but it was 5pm and we decided fighting rush hour traffic didn't sound fun. We decided to go to one last Goodwill on the way home that we hadn't been to in about 4 years. We got there, looked around, but didn't find anything special. On our way out, we passed by an end rack with some random pairs of shoes. Tucked between a few pairs was several pages that had been ripped out of a journal; we saw that it was a letter and, as it was worth nothing, decided to take it to read later. After getting home, we forgot about it and fed the kids and visited for several hours. Right before my sister was about to leave, I remembered about it and so she proceeded to go and get it from the car and read it out loud to all of us. Several sentences in, shock set in . . . this was not just a random journal entry from some teenager that had been thrown in a heap and brought in to donate. It was several pages of the detailed journey of a mother who had decided to give her son up for adoption. It followed her journey from about two days before the baby was born until he was around 5 months old. 

I was blown away at how God continues to move things in my life on this journey and bring things, tangible things that I can hold, to comfort and bring peace to my heart. For the last several weeks, I have found myself feeling like I am grieving over the loss of something. I couldn't explain it at first, but God was working on my heart and had been reminding me that although this is an exciting and wonderful time in our lives, this is also one of devastation and loss in another Mommie's life. The night before I had been talking to my Mom and Dad about the fact that many of these babies are left not because the parents don't want them, but because they cannot provide the medical care they need. I had also explained how God had been reminding me that there is another Mom out there that had to give up her little one so that our family could grow. We were speechless as my sister read the letter and realized that this was not a random find, but a message set there specifically for me from God.