And so we continue on . . .

In the last month we've continued towards the goal of bringing our little one home.

In January we sent her a "FOREVER FAMILY" Party--she received a pillow with our picture on it, a mommy & baby panda bear set, and a cake. What a blessing to be able to watch a video of her looking at us for the first time (and to hear her voice!!). She is amazing!

We've been working on the process to apply for her immigration to the U.S. as well as gather all the documents that will be sent to China. Lord willing, our dossier (that collection of paperwork) will go out in a couple months. Then we wait for it to be translated, approved and to receive a travel date. This process is taking an average of 6 months. Could be less, could be more. We're praying for (less) summer because of the less hectic schedule. :)

And by the way . . . in our last post we gave a big hint of her name: SONG (meaning: Praise) LIAN (meaning: God has answered our prayer/bright, pronounced Leann). Our girls have Loooooong names--CoraGrace is looking forward to welcoming her sister SongLian home! :) All our kids have a "o" as their second letter (this was totally unintentional)and we made a game of thinking of names with an "o" as the second letter throughout our adoption process. Well little did we know that God had that one all worked out--Song is her current "sir name" and we like it so much we are going to keep it!

We're continuing to sell raffle tickets for the quilt, hair bows (Valentine Bows!), and collect recycles. New: the boys and I are making & selling hot lunches at school once a week. (If I can cook; God is working miracles--cooking for others
is not my strong point!) :) Little by little . .. trusting God will provide.

Thanks again for being a part of our journey! And for your blanket of prayer--we need it!!!!

We Caught One

Praise to God, He has answered with a good and excellent bright gift. Around a year ago God began to press the call to adopt heavy on our hearts while at the very same time across the ocean a sweet little one needed a new family (pretty cool timing). For the past year we've been on a maze searching for what might be at the end of our adoption-thread and faced many dead-ends. This morning we were overjoyed get a YES . . . there is a beautiful little girl waiting for us in Hanhzhhou, China. You can see her picture here, look for "Jady" (this is a fictitious name for the web). Thank you for your prayers and keep them coming as we still have a mountain or two to cross.

Red Thread Adoption

Perhaps you’ve heard of a reference to the “red thread” that ties adopted children to their adoptive parents. We wish we knew the end of our “red thread” story and just who is on the other end of that string—and Lord willing will someday share the joyous news with you that we got her. But for now wanted to share what God is doing as the pages of our red thread story unfold.
While adoption has always been on our hearts, a “red thread” began to tug at out hearts in a stronger way last January. And so in faith we stepped out and began the process to adopt a child from Ethiopia. We had a completed homestudy and were well into the completion of our dossier (pack of papers sent to Ethiopia) when Ethiopia announced a major slow down in their adoption system. This slow down is and was very real—but looking back we feel it was the hand of God directing our family down a different path.
A few weeks after Ethiopia’s announcement we still felt unsettled and not ready to commit to the program in it’s current state when we heard from an agency that we had been in contact with as we explored our options for adoption. The exact wording was, “we received this little girl’s files last night and as I prayed your family came to my mind.” And so, again in faith we stepped out as an unexplainable love filled our hearts for this sweet little girl from Taiwan. We sent off our pre-approval file to Taiwan in March.
May 16th we received devastating news—our family was not chosen to adopt this little girl. As we grieved, we prayed for this sweet little one, believing that she had a family and rejoicing that she would soon be with that family. We turned our attention towards adopting from the special needs program in China, however faced a wait as our homestudy agency needed a Hague accreditation in order for us to adopt from China. July, August, and then September and the accreditation finally passes! We can proceed towards a China adoption. Somehow, our hearts are still in Taiwan—little things make us think of Taiwan all summer, but we brush them off. One day as Eliza checked the waiting children list for Taiwan—just in case there might be a new child that would be a good match for our family—a familiar face appeared on the list. Yes, it is “her”, the sweet one we lost.
Without hesitation, we all agree we have to pursue her again. Our agency contacts her orphanage and we wait to hear if we can pursue her for a second time. September 28th we hear back from the orphanage—yes, they would like us to re-apply to adopt her. October 7th, our homestudy is finalized and sent to Taiwan for pre-approval. And now we, once again, wait in faith that He who called us will be faithful. Trusting in His sovereign plan.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS—for us, for her, for the orphanage workers and birth-family members that must make decisions.

QUILT OF LOVE
And while we wait, we have a beautiful quilt made by Grammi (Lea Hardee) to raffle. What a beautiful picture it is of the loving family waiting in hope for this little one God has planned for our family as well as the thread that connects us all together (you too are a part of her picture!). Tickets are:
$1 each 10 for $5 50 for $20 200 for $50

Thanks. If you have an opportunity to share this quilt with others and sell tickets, we’d love to pass it around! 