A little late....we are DTC!

With the yard sale preparation I am really behind in all things.  Most importantly in posting the milestones we have passed.  On May 21st our dossier went to China - DTC.  Hopefully, in the next week or so we will hear that we have a log in date - LID.  We are now able to be matched when the next shared list is released in June.  Although we are hopeful for a match in June we know that only the Lord knows when our daughter will be released to the shared list.  We felt him telling us to hurry and we know that He has a child planned for us that we needed to be ready for.

Now that the yard sale is complete I will be concentrating on sewing until the next yard sale in July.  Watch A Cup Quite Full Creations for new items coming soon.

Jesus was all around us

Our first fundraiser, a yard sale, was a huge success.  By huge you just have to see the pile of blessings we received from family and friends.  So many times I would walk into our stuffed two car garage and would just feel Jesus all around me.  The majority of our sale was donated, we wouldn't have had enough rounded up out of our own home to have a fraction of what we had.  It was just so stinkin amazing to me all the people that called and said they had stuff for us.  Each day as more arrived or I brought another load home my husband was about to have a heart attack but I just felt love all around us.

We started the sale on Friday morning at 10 am.  We had a bit of an interesting start to the day when Tri our corgi bit my mom and tore her finger.  I new for sure that a trip to the emergency room was in our morning agenda but after her shower we took a look at it and thought a band aid would do the trick.  I think she probable should have had a few stitches but I pray that her finger will heal quickly.  We headed outside to start putting stuff out right about 8am and by 8:30 we had people showing up.  It took us until 11 to get everything out and ready but shortly there after it was a steady stream.  My mom, sisters and my brother in law were there to help me on day one and I couldn't have done it without them.  At one point we had a traffic jam in front of our house.  I ran to grab my camera but I couldn't get it quick enough.  Here is

what I could get.

We opened on Saturday at 7 am, not something I will do again as we didn't get any real traffic until 8.  We also tried selling Just Love Coffee too and that wasn't as big of a hit as I had hoped for.  We were trying to get our ongoing fundraiser out in the community but I don't think we will see any sales from this.  On Saturday my husband, both of my sisters, their husbands and my cousin and her husband (they drove 100 miles each way to help) were all out managing the shopping crowd.  Friday was a busier day overall which was quite surprising to me.  In the end we made nearly $1400, only Jesus could bring this kind of success.  I have had two yard sales before this and they both earned less than $100 each.  I told myself a few years ago I would never do it again but then I really felt we were being told that we needed to do a yard sale and open up to donations from anyone who wanted to be involved.  Wow, look what happens when you put your trust in the Lord. 

My bloggy friend told me when He gives a vision He provides provision.  I have to say she has taught me so much about trusting the Lord and following His will.  As humans we want to be right, to know what is best for us.  The Lord sends you into situations that are outside of your natural comfort zone, he grows you in ways you didn't think possible and in ways that you would not have chosen for yourself.  When we listen to him and do the works he created us for it is amazing how much your life changes.  I have been following Linny's posts on "How to hear God speak" while I know I have so far to go to have the relationship with Christ that she has I have learned so much about listening to him, No Matter What.  If He is telling you to love people, then love people, that in itself seems to be the biggest thing he has been speaking to me about.  I am finding when you love others before long you start feeling His love coming at you from all directions.

Thank you to everyone that donated to our huge yard sale.  Thank you to everyone that helped us during the busy days.  Thank you to everyone who prayed for us.  Thank you to everyone that loves us.

Wheat and Wildflowers giveaway

Check out this giveaway, giving away a beautiful creation from Wheat and Wildflowers.  I have my eye on a couple of her beautiful necklaces and hope one day when fundraising is over I can place an order.  I'm having a hard time resisting the urge.  Maybe I should whisper a little something to my husband, I do have a birthday coming up soon!  Check it out, she is a crazy talented mama.

Many blessings!

Although there were many emotional trials for me over the last month I have also had some wonderful memory making going on too.  Mother's Day weekend was a wonderful joy around this house.  Time spent with my children, husband and family is always wonderful!

We started the celebration the weekend before.  M was having a rough week at school and really needed some mom and M time so on Friday I picked her up early from school and we had a girls afternoon.  We met up with Nana and Other Nana (my mom's sister that could be her twin, just three years apart) and had lunch, did some furniture shopping, had pedicures (M's first) and then ended the day replacing the toilet and going to a trunk party to buy some clothes.  We all had a great day and really enjoyed the pedicures, M thinks all Fridays should be girl days.

We started Mother's Day weekend off with our local Race for the Cure.  We had a great morning of family time and had lunch out.  The kids enjoy it and it is a wonderful tradition my mom and I started in 2000 and they haven't missed a year since(I missed last year with my husband having emergency back surgery).  On Sunday morning we were up bright an early meeting Grandma Jo Jo for breakfast, a quick stop off at the fabric store (my favorite place on earth) then off to church.  After church we came home and made lunch/dinner of mexican food and my sister and family came over as well as Jo Jo to eat with us.  After dinner husband, M and E and my sister's family all went out on a bike ride and I took a nap.  It was a wonderful weekend enjoying my family and being thankful for them all.

We have also been very blessed with all the donations to our yard sale.  So far we have picked up four truck loads for our sale and have had some deliveries made to us.  We still have a few folks to pick up from and more people planning to bring things our way.  Here is a little glimps of the unorganized yard sale.  I will share with you the end results on sale day.

How blessed we are!  Now off to get organizing.

Crazy Love fundraising

Linny is at it again, she is spreading CRAZY LOVE!  I absolutely love Linny and her love for the orphans but mostly I love her love of Christ and all his children big and small.  If you don't follow her blog then you must start.

I posted a little about where we are at here.  So now we are fundraising, we are selling hand made goods at A Cup Quite Full Creations, we are selling coffee at Just Love Coffee, and for anyone who would just like to make a donation towards our adoption you can use our chip in link on the side bar.  The next thing I am thinking about is an auction site.  If you have any ideas I would love to hear them, send me a message.

Blessings to all of you with Crazy Love!

Our dossier has left, minus one document

Wow, have the last two months been full.  Back in August I felt that God was putting a certain child in my heart.  It hit a point to where I nearly couldn't breath when the thought was there, it was so powerful.  This came right about the time that I started the Women and Children in Crisis class and when I signed up I didn't know why I was in the class because right now a three week trip to Thailand wasn't possible with two three year olds, one having been home only six months.  It finally hit a point that I was so full of this feeling that He was putting in my heart I had to sit down with my husband.  At first my husband was not on board.  But a few days later he told me to try to find her file and see what happened.  If God was putting this on my heart we needed to see where it went.

We contacted a wonderful agency BAAS to look into it for us and I contacted those I knew in China that knew about her status.  Finally in February it sounded like her file should be at CCAA.  Then the first week of March came and I started hearing rumors that children placed on the shared list had to be placed with a family who possessed a LID.  I contacted our China Coordinator and she did some checking and let me know it was not yet set but was on it's way to being the new policy and advised us to get started on our dossier.  At this point we hadn't started because we thought we could do it once we were matched.  I totally understand how CCAA needs to do what they can to get children home to their forever families as quickly as possible and I do agree with the new policy, however, it really stunk for us because we had received notice again that her file should be at CCAA and should be released anytime.  So a lot of prayer went into what to do next and we really felt God was telling us to get our dossier done.  So at lightning speed we had everything done and had our I800A application to USCIS on April 9th.

This then began a rough month for me.  My heart was so committed to this little girl (I had had a false positive pregnancy test in January and when they told me I was pregnant, it was the first time I had ever had one come out positive, I cried and it wasn't tears of joy but tears of confusion about what God had planned for our family).  So the next shared list came out on April 19th and then I received a message to call our China Coordinator.  I knew deep in my heart what she had to tell me.  When I called her back I could feel her compassion for us through the phone.  She called to tell me that the little one I loved so much had been on the shared list that night and that another agency had locked her file.  She did everything she could to try to work it out for us but the rules were set and could not be bent.  At that very moment as I talked to her something came into my heart that told me she wasn't meant to be ours but that there is another little girl out there that needs us and has been planned as part of our family.  Another wonderful feeling came over me that the little one we have watched grow for more than a year and a half would soon be in the loving arms of her forever family, and that is what HE has always planned for her, she beat the odds and was one of HIS Miracles only because HE said it was to be so.  I felt really good about it even though I have to admit I cried a quick tear and then moved on, very anxious to see the picture of who He is sending us for as soon as possible.

Now the enemy has been working on me big time over the last couple of weeks.  I contacted our coordinator a week after her file was locked to see if it had become available again and it had not.  I began to wonder if I was hearing the Lord or my own desires when we began to look for her file.  I began to doubt our ability to come up with the funds needed by the time we travel.  Up to this point we had been able to pull out of our savings but that only gets us as far as getting DTC and then we have travel expense to prepare for.  The doubts just kept coming at me and I couldn't move them aside.  But things have changed today.  I am certain that we need to get our dossier finished and sent off.  He has a treasure out there that needs a mom and dad and we are a family that can't wait to be there for her.

So now, our dossier minus our I800A approval is in the air on it's way to our coordinator, finger prints have been completed a week early and hopefully we will be DTC before the end of the month.  At the beginning of this third journey to our child a great bloggy friend told me when He gives you a vision He provides provision.  We have got to trust him to bring this all together and be His hands and feet.  If He says go we must go, if He says hurry we must hurry.  I know the enemy has been defeated, we do not have doubt about what the Lord has planned for us.  All doubt has been washed from us as we put our dossier in the mail with our remaining agency fees.

"Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am God.  I will strengthen you, Yes I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."  Isaiah 41:10

We would love for you to lift us up in prayer that our fundraising goes well.  We have a HUGE yard sale coming up in a couple of weeks and we have been blessed by so many who have donated to our yard sale.  I can no longer park the van in the garage because it is so full.  My husband thinks we have become the thrift store we have so much stuff but I have great hope that this will give us some of the much needed funds to bring our little girl home.  The only other yard sale we had brought in a little under $150 a few years back but I have this feeling that this one will be an amazing God sized success.  I vowed I would never do another one after the last experience but when He says get moving, you move.

I would also love for prayer of healing as I am suffering from a terrible cold a few weeks in the making.  It hit full force yesterday as I became completly overwhelmed with what He is calling us to do.  I know the enemy has worked on my body and my mind trying to weaken me.  I am rebuking the enemy and pray for healing and strength.  Thank you Jesus, for your unconditional love, even when I doubt things, You are there holding me up.