Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Rice and Beans
A month or so ago, I couldn’t take my kiddos complaining about their food anymore. The solution…RICE and BEANS for one whole week. The result, my girls love taco soup with rice and beans in it! Fast forward to a few days ago, when I asked our 6 year old, “How long would you eat Rice and Beans, if it meant adopting a child?” Her reply, “I’d eat them ’til they were gone and we had to get more at the store. Then I would eat them until the one we’re adopting got home” How sweet!!
Well the real reason for this blog is to keep our friends and family informed about our Adoption Journey. We have talked about adopting since we were dating. Then decided to adopt about 4 years ago, but it wasn’t God’s time for us. After having our twins and 4 foster children, felt like it was time for a break. Off and on over the next several months I went between longing to adopt and thinking it would never be our turn. We started researching DRC adoptions and were looking at waiting boys. A few weeks ago I came across a girl in Ch*na who was waiting for her forever family. I immediately felt strongly convicted of praying for her to find a family. This turned into not being able to get her sweet face out of my mind and continuously praying for her. Also asking God to help me know the right time to share my feelings with my husband.
Guess What, God came through! On Saturday, February 25th I shared with Travis how I had been feeling I started crying and we just knew at that moment that she was our daughter. So Lord willing sometime between November 2012 and February 2013 we will be bringing our 5th daughter home.
Well the real reason for this blog is to keep our friends and family informed about our Adoption Journey. We have talked about adopting since we were dating. Then decided to adopt about 4 years ago, but it wasn’t God’s time for us. After having our twins and 4 foster children, felt like it was time for a break. Off and on over the next several months I went between longing to adopt and thinking it would never be our turn. We started researching DRC adoptions and were looking at waiting boys. A few weeks ago I came across a girl in Ch*na who was waiting for her forever family. I immediately felt strongly convicted of praying for her to find a family. This turned into not being able to get her sweet face out of my mind and continuously praying for her. Also asking God to help me know the right time to share my feelings with my husband.
Guess What, God came through! On Saturday, February 25th I shared with Travis how I had been feeling I started crying and we just knew at that moment that she was our daughter. So Lord willing sometime between November 2012 and February 2013 we will be bringing our 5th daughter home.
Monday, March 5, 2012
One Week
It’s been one week since we started this process. God has already shown Himself in many different ways and we are thanking Him for that. So far we have our application turned into the adoption agency and will mail the application to home study agency today. We have a good start on the rest of the paperwork for our homestudy. We are also planning a garage sale to help offset the HUGE expense of adopting. We are excepting donations for the garage sale. They can be priced or not and you can bring them to our house anytime or we can pick them up. Also if you have children who are interested in getting involved, Dezirae and Pippi have some change bottles made up that their friends can save change to “Help bring their sister Home!”.
Of Course PRAYER is the biggest help at this point:
1. That God will provide for the costs involved with adoption
2. For God to prepare/open “Dawn’s” heart to us, starting now!
3. That God gives us patience to complete all of the necessary paperwork
4. For God to ochestrate this perfectly, so that we can bring her home before she ages out
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Just Another Day
It’s not that I have nothing to post, it’s that there is so much going on that I don’t have time to post 🙂 This morning, I changed the twins, went in the bedroom to help my 6 year old practice putting her hair in a ponytail…..and when I came out, both twins were running around naked. At any given moment in our kitchen we will have popcorn, cereal, dishsoap, sugar etc. spilled all over the floor. Not to mention that for 2 weeks now we have been tearing carpet and trim out. Widening a doorway and cutting stone….MESSY!! Adoption Update: We are in between paperwork and working on fundraising. Since I will not be 30 until October we can’t send our letter of intent to China until Sept/Oct sometime.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Blessings
God has blessed us in so many ways that my heart is bursting. One night this week, my dad came over and ripped the girls bedroom door out and widened it for a wheelchair. Friday, family friends came all the way from PA to help us put our wood floor down. Not only is it beautiful, it will be so practical for “Dawn”. Pippi and I went to check out the handicap play ground that is only about 5 minutes from us (I think it was put there just for us) Three times in the last week, God has put people in my path who have a child with Spina Bifida!! AMAZING! They have campouts at a special campground, just for Spina Bifida families (that would be us). We are working on choosing 2 or 3 names that she can choose from…one will be her Chinese name that she has now. We have been assigned a worker with the adoption agency and hope to set up our first home visit for our home study (we need 4 visits). Our girls continue to be excited about a new sister. It’s so amazing how they have taken to calling her their sister and praying for God to “help us bring our sister home”.
My heart is bursting with the love God has given me for this sweet child of HIS! I feel so protective of her and am excited about every little detail of meshing her needs with our lifestyle. I am scared that she will not love us, so pray for her heart to beging opening to us now. Also for us to have the wisdom to parent a teenager. Since she is the same size of Dezirae, I plan on holding her, snuggling and reading to her every day that we are in China with her. Hopefully this will help with the bonding process. It breaks my heart to think that she was abandoned and has been waiting for a family for so long. Don’t give up hope sweet girl….Mommy and Daddy will come to get you as soon as we can!!
My heart is bursting with the love God has given me for this sweet child of HIS! I feel so protective of her and am excited about every little detail of meshing her needs with our lifestyle. I am scared that she will not love us, so pray for her heart to beging opening to us now. Also for us to have the wisdom to parent a teenager. Since she is the same size of Dezirae, I plan on holding her, snuggling and reading to her every day that we are in China with her. Hopefully this will help with the bonding process. It breaks my heart to think that she was abandoned and has been waiting for a family for so long. Don’t give up hope sweet girl….Mommy and Daddy will come to get you as soon as we can!!
God’s Perfect Plan
Recently we were sitting around a table full of people…..the topic was “what do YOU want in a church”. I couldn’t help but think what about what GOD wants. We thought that we wanted a boy or two and we had looked into nearly every country except China. It was when we surrendered to HIS will and prayed for our hearts to be open to what GOD wanted for us, that He revieled His perfect plan. Sometimes what WE want gets in the way of something even better that GOD wants for us. We more excited and more in love with Dawn, than I had ever imagined possible. So glad God opened our hearts to His will!!
Friday, March 23, 2012
All things are Possible
I have spent part of today, fighting back tears at the task before me. There is no light at the end of the tunnel with this paperwork and everything that I am finding out that needs to be done, costs money. Many people don’t understand why adoption is so expensive, and while I’m not entirely sure my self…I am keeping an expense journal and want to share that with you.
1. Application to lifeline (adoption agency) $ 250 (this is a processing fee, leading up to this and since then we are in contact with our worker at lifeline at least daily.)
2. Homestudy application (JCB) $ 250 (processing fee, there is a ton of info to review in the application)
3. Education Fee for Hague training $ 100 (this is an all day training that we will attend on March 31st)
4. Mailed second set of paperwork to JCB FREE!! March 15 or 16
5. 2nd batch of paperwork mailed to lifeline $ 1,926.25 (250 of this goes towards humanitarian aide and 140 to special needs and the rest is for agency expenses)
6. Medical exams (HIV, TB testing, more bloodwork and urinalysis for Travis and I), Medical forms for our girls, New copies of birth certificates and marriage liscense $ 180 (plus whatever our co-pay doesn’t pay for testing)
7. 8 copies of my passport picture (UGLY!!) $ 20 (this was at 50% off, thanks to the nice man at Walgreens)
8. I have 3 books ordered $ 17 (these are books on attatchment, bonding and “hurt” children)
Please continue to pray for “Dawn’s” heart to be open to us and Christ, Pray for me to remember that sweet face who didn’t choose to be born into her situation, for our family as “mommy” has lots of paperwork, phone calls and computer work to do.
Donations
$31.10 from the change bottles
$500 towards a camera
And tons of stuff donated towards our garage sales!!
We are praising God for all of the ways He has shown Himself to us!
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
April 3, 2012
So our life is staying pretty busy. Friday Travis and I had our very involved physicals, complete with blood work, urinalysis and TB testing. Saturday we had a class all day in Columbus. This class helped to prepare us for the worst. Thankfully from all of the foster classes we have taken we were able to come away from it with some helpful tools and not just doom and despair. My autobiography is now finished(seven pages long) and Travis’ is about half way done. Today in the mail we received not one but two bilingual Bibles from one of the ladies from our class on Sat.!!! What a blessing to have crossed paths with such resourceful ANGELS!! We did our fingerprinting today and have our fire inspection scheduled for Thursday. Here are some more costs involved. We have started reading two books at the same time!! And are wishing that we knew about them when we had Marley and Lexie.
9. $ 70 Copays for Physicals
10. 140 Fingerprinting
Dezirae had her first soccer game Saturday. Once my sister got her out on the field, she had a blast. Pippi is recognizing letters and starting to put them together to spell words. Felicity and Evalena started kissing each other on the mouth today and had their first lawnmower ride!!
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Blessings
Felicity, Dezirae, Alexandra “Pippi”, and Evalena
We have been so Blessed!
Sunday, April 8, 2012
More Blessings
We have also been blessed with more donations: $116.28 from the change bottles 176.60 profit from donated sale items 140.00 cash donation
In addition to the financial support we have made some great contacts for Spinal Bifida (SB) resources and have located someone to loan us a wheelchair for our trip! The SB Association of Cinci has been awsome and just sent us a huge information packet!
Thank you all for your prayers and donations. We know that we can not do this alone!!
If I did my math right we are 2.3% of the way to paying our adoption off!!!! I must add that we have a garage full of stuff for our fundraiser sale! Several people still have things to donate to our sale!
In addition to the financial support we have made some great contacts for Spinal Bifida (SB) resources and have located someone to loan us a wheelchair for our trip! The SB Association of Cinci has been awsome and just sent us a huge information packet!
Thank you all for your prayers and donations. We know that we can not do this alone!!
If I did my math right we are 2.3% of the way to paying our adoption off!!!! I must add that we have a garage full of stuff for our fundraiser sale! Several people still have things to donate to our sale!
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Bumps in the Road
First, I must apolagize for not updating our blog for sooo long. Last week was rough and I’m really still not sure what to write. Tuesday started us down our Homeschool Journey. A year ago this would have brought me to tears; however this is actually going to be a blessing. With a trip to China in the middle of the year and the realization that we would have had 3 children attending school 3 different places, not only will this best meet our children’s needs at this time, but also our family as a whole. Then on Friday we received some not so great news. Our Home Study has been put on hold until after we meet with a therapist, who specializes in adoption/attachment and get an update on our child from Ch*na. While this was extremely discouraging at first, we are seeing the blessing in it. This will spread our interviews out over a longer period. In the mean time we are working on education, pricing garage sale items, making phone calls and getting fingerprinted multiple times. Yes today, I was fingerprinted a third way. They told me by the time I’m 50 I really won’t have much of a fingerprint left.
Our online seminar cost $150 Donation update $100
Please continue to pray for our family….for us to complete our home study ASAP, to not lose sight of who called us to do this and the POWER that HE possesses! Also pray for our Adoption worker….she is in Ch*na right now! And for Dawn, that God will heal her from any traumatic past and prepare her heart for us and most importantly for Him.
Our online seminar cost $150 Donation update $100
Please continue to pray for our family….for us to complete our home study ASAP, to not lose sight of who called us to do this and the POWER that HE possesses! Also pray for our Adoption worker….she is in Ch*na right now! And for Dawn, that God will heal her from any traumatic past and prepare her heart for us and most importantly for Him.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
4/24/2012
Today some dear friends stopped by and translated the shutterfly book that we made for “Dawn”. What a blessing this was.
This was a great pick me up for our dreaded day tomorrow. We have to go see a therapist, so she can share concerns involved with adopting an older child, especially out of birth order. We covet your prayers as I am sure this will be very draining. So glad that my parents are going with us. Blessings on your day….more to come about our appointment.
This was a great pick me up for our dreaded day tomorrow. We have to go see a therapist, so she can share concerns involved with adopting an older child, especially out of birth order. We covet your prayers as I am sure this will be very draining. So glad that my parents are going with us. Blessings on your day….more to come about our appointment.
Dandelions, Fake Skin and Therapists
If it weren’t for the first two (dandelions and fake skin), I’m not sure how I would survive the stress of the third (therapist). Last week I was sitting in my room when I heard D say “This fake skin is always so weird”…..I turned around to find her trying to put on a pair of my pantyhose! Oh my goodness, I laughed so hard I thought I would fall out of my chair!! Later in the week we were outside when I heard Felicity fussing. When I rounded the corner, to see what was wrong, she was standing there with a mouth full of Dandelion seeds 🙂 Yep she tried to eat a seeded dandelion….impossible to get off of a wet tongue that she can’t stick out in the first place. Add 2 boxes of cereal that ended up dumped out on the floor, butter in big sisters shoes, and learning how to open doorknobs 😦 So glad for all of the busy-ness and laughter around here!
So this brings us to the therapist. If this post makes no sense it is because I have such mixed feelings about how things went and really won’t know how it went until next week. T and I were so thankful that my parents came along to support us. That was the best part of the whole day. It just gives you an uneasy feeling when you know people are going to be talking about you. It is also exhausting when they talk in circles…..”you don’t know this”, “the file is almost never correct”, “you need more information”….so we share what we do know and “but they don’t talk to them (the kids) the right way”………and it goes on and on and on. I am too busy to parent another child. And my thought is when won’t I be busy? Your children could get hurt. Yes they could OR they could be just fine. This is going to be hard. We know that God doesn’t ask us to do easy. How do you feel about having to cath a child. Uh, hello, that’s what I do (okay, so I really said “that’s not a big deal”). Then she said, “It’s not a big deal, nothings a big deal” Okay this gives you an idea of what our household is like and how our appointment went!! Thank you all for your prayers and for all of the support you have given us.
Isaiah 41:10 “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right had of my righteousness.”
T and D
Expenses $ 95.00 Therapist
Donations from BCF $2,687.50
So this brings us to the therapist. If this post makes no sense it is because I have such mixed feelings about how things went and really won’t know how it went until next week. T and I were so thankful that my parents came along to support us. That was the best part of the whole day. It just gives you an uneasy feeling when you know people are going to be talking about you. It is also exhausting when they talk in circles…..”you don’t know this”, “the file is almost never correct”, “you need more information”….so we share what we do know and “but they don’t talk to them (the kids) the right way”………and it goes on and on and on. I am too busy to parent another child. And my thought is when won’t I be busy? Your children could get hurt. Yes they could OR they could be just fine. This is going to be hard. We know that God doesn’t ask us to do easy. How do you feel about having to cath a child. Uh, hello, that’s what I do (okay, so I really said “that’s not a big deal”). Then she said, “It’s not a big deal, nothings a big deal” Okay this gives you an idea of what our household is like and how our appointment went!! Thank you all for your prayers and for all of the support you have given us.
Isaiah 41:10 “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right had of my righteousness.”
T and D
Expenses $ 95.00 Therapist
Donations from BCF $2,687.50
Monday, May 14, 2012
We are at a stand still with our homestudy for a while. We are waiting on a back ground report for T and psych evals for both of us. Apparently it is quite complicated to schedule the psych evaluations and we are on day 11 of waiting to be able to schedule an appointment 😦 Also found out today that these evaluations will cost a total of $2,000 for T and I together. “I will never leave you or forsake you”….thank you Lord!! On the up side We made over $ 900 from the stuff we sold at the Mom’s club sale, $27 (bottle change) and have our fundraiser garage sale coming up in about 10 days!! I know that God will provide.
Friday, May 18, 2012
Wishes
Oh, how I wish I were a writer and could make this journey beautiful on paper. Or a techy mom who could post pictures every day….or maybe an actress so that I could make the psychologist magically believe that I AM “Dawn’s” mommy! I do not want to be a reporter, florist, journalist or race car driver and I don’t know if I would draw flowers if I were an artist(yes these last 5 things were questions on our psych test that we had to take today)!!! What I do know is that ONLY GOD could have made me sit still for 3+ hours at the psychology appointment today, ONLY GOD could have gotten T to agree to going to the appointment, ONLY GOD would send us on this journey that without Him would be impossible!! So we survived our first appointment of our psych evaluations! We will have another day long appointment on June 9th. That appointment will include our children……….that will be interesting. The great thing about today thanks to 3 of our “Grandmas”, T and I went on a date after our appointment. This was the perfect end to such an exhausting day! Blessings to all of you and hopefully we will have this homestudy wrapped up by the end of July at the very latest. In August we can submit our LOI(letter of intent) to CH*na that we plan to adopt this child. I know it will fly by!!
Keep Me and Love Me lol 
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Sisters
Friday, June 1, 2012
Fundraiser Success
We are still at a stand still with our homestudy. Please pray for the hearts of our Social Worker, psychologist and the others involved with our homestudy. Pray for us to have peace.
And some more pictures just for fun!!!
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
SHE CAN MOVE HER LEGS!!
Next, T’s fingerprints have all came back and his RAP sheet (whatever that stands for) came in the mail. That whole mess is now resolved after weeks of emails, phone calls, more money etc. I must say that the people at the jail, where they do the fingerprinting have waived several fees for us. I’m thinking that we will owe them coffee before this is all over with.
Our next answer to prayer came to me as an email………YES, we received pictures and an update from the orphanage!!!!!! We have been waiting over a month for this update, as it is required by our home study social worker. Just yesterday we were told that because of new restrictions that CH*na has placed on updates, that we may not get one at all. Then today, Miracle of Miracle’s I have an email that made me shake and want to cry and laugh all at the same time!!!! This update is more encouraging than we could have imagined possible!! She wants parents to love her “the best thing” I think is what they said, she said. Oh sweet girl we do love you more than you can even imagine!!!
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Just another Day at our House
So this kinda goes along with half a gallon of bubble bath spilled all over the dining room table (floor, chair etc.), the barely used bottle of poppy seeds that the twins polished off in addition to a bottle of candy sprinkles…..I am quite confident that my 21 month old twins would not have passed a pee test that day!!
HERE ARE SOME PICS TO HELP EXPLAIN!!!
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
17 July 2012
Trusting God to work all of the details out and give us strength to endure whatever the outcome is.
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Proceed to LOI!
Thursday, August 9, 2012
OBX 2012
Monday, August 20, 2012
Letter of Intent
Friday, August 24, 2012
PA!!!
We have been so blessed by so many people and thank all of you for the garage sale donations, change bottles, financial support, and prayers. WE ARE SO BLESSED!!
Monday, August 27, 2012
27 August 2012
Friday, August 31, 2012
31 August 2012
The care package contained jogging pants, jacket, shirt, 2 pairs socks, 2 panties, 1 stuffed Giraffe, 2 tablets, crayons, colored pencils, OHIO State pen, approx. 100 pieces candy, a recorded book with Travis’ and my voice on it, pictures, a letter, disposable cameras and hair stuff. She should be able to write back to us….maybe by my birthday!!