The weekends seem to be the hardest when you are waiting for something to happen in International Adoption.  During the week you have some hope that you might here something about the next step but the weekend you know all bets are off.  Officially we are at day 54 tomorrow waiting for our LOA.  No new pictures of Sophia and no idea of next week will be our LOA week.  Our coordinator has been on vacation and will return tomorrow so maybe we will hear a small morsel of an update on our dossier status through the process in China. 

What did we do to keep ourselves busy.  Well I had the van oil changed bright and early on Saturday.  Hurried home and picked up the kids to go to my sisters house to do some painting, she is renting a house that wasn't loved by the last occupants.  While the big people painted the little people played some, argued a lot, and watched a couple movies.  Watching E and P fight makes me think that in the end E will like being the only son in this family.  The ended with a trip to Costco, that is always an exhausting adventure!

M lost had lost her voice on Saturday morning when she woke up, could it be from the yelling and tantrums she has been doing a lot of lately!  Daddy is leaving for work very early each morning and it has really been hard on her.  She is a child that likes predictable routine and is use to having Daddy help us get ready in the morning and help her into the van.  We will get use to it but right now it is not bringing out the best in her early morning disposition.

Sunday has been a lot quieter.  M wasn't feeling good, her voice is still gone, so she spent the morning with JoJo while we went to church.  We came home from church, ate some flat bread pizza and then naps for all.  The evening is going to have to be a little more motivated with laundry and a little houseworker before our busy week starts.

In a couple weeks E starts soccer and they will both be starting their first year of Awana.  Personally, I am so excited for the Awana's, I grew up with Awana from my very early preschool days when my mom was a leader long before I was old enough to be in the club.  I hope it brings the lasting memories for them that it did for me.

Help bring home Ellie

I have met a wonderful person and friend, Anne, through our journey to Sophia.  We were both up on June 21/22 you could say late into the night or early into the morning hanging out together via email.  I have no idea how many emails went back and forth between us as we waited for a call from our China Coordinator.  We notified each other immediately upon our matches and have been hanging out together through the process since.  This is one lady I truly hope to get to travel to China with.  Unless something happens almost immediately with our LOA that may not happen but I am praying we can spend a week together in Guangzhou getting to know one another and enjoying our beautiful baby girls.

Anne and family are fundraising families just as we are.  They have some great fundraisers going on right now.  Please check them out here.  I know our girls will be wearing some of the cute clippies that her friend at Yogi & Cecils' Clippy Creations are making for her fundraiser.  This picture is a small representation of the beautiful items they have.  Please help Anne and her family bring Ellie home.

The Journey

I am an avid follower of A Place Called Simplicity and love what Linny does to advocate for the orphans.  They are living the ministry of orphans no more and are encouraging to all that they too can change the lives of orphans.

We were matched with Sophia on June 21st almost immediately after we were DTC.  Our baby "S" has a large hemangioma on her leg, bottom, and possible internal.  Like most international adoption medical reports hers are very vague and we won't know a lot about it other than she is our daughter.  We go into this with a lot of unknowns but we have been blessed with a wonderful Christian doctor that will help us find the answers.  We do know that once we get home she will need an MRI so that we can determine if it affects her spinal cord or any internal organs.  Best case scenario it will go away or reduce as time goes by, worst case we have no idea but I do know that He will equip us to handle it.  Regardless of the unknowns we felt the moment our phone rang and it was our China Coordinator that she knew who our child was and we were about to find out.

This journey began with a lot of unknowns and I know it will end with the Lord blessing us with our baby "S", the child he has ordained to be part of our family.  One thing that has been really hard in this adoption is the unknowns.  The journey started with a special little girl in our hearts and will end with us loving a different child to the end of the earth.  It also began with us wondering where the funds will come from to pay for this adoption.  We were blessed with the funds to get our documents to China when our dossier was ready and I know deep in my heart that the Lord will provide for the rest of it.  We have had our bumps and our trials in this journey emotionally and financially but I pray that they are molding us into the parents and the advocates of orphans that Jesus plans for us to be.  We are still short about $7100 of our in China expenses as well as the airfare to China and back for Sophia and myself. 

Please pray for us that the we will hold strong with the fundraising and not allow the enemy to defeat his plan for our family.  May he give me the inspiration to sew the things that catch others eye and help me find things in our home that we can sell that may help provide those much needed funds.  Please check out our auction blog Bringing Sophia Home, I would appreciate any advise or ideas you have to share.  Fundraising has been a very humbling experience, much harder than I ever anticipated and I expect an experience Jesus wanted me to have.  While the journey may be long and hard, our children will always be worth it and so much more.

Orphan Sponsorship

There are two organizations that are very dear to my heart.  E's life was changed and made so much better by both organizations and we will be forever grateful to them. 

E went to live at Philip Hayden Foundations Shepherd's Field Childrens Village when he was 15 months old.  The earliest picture I have of him is the day he arrived at SFCV.  He came to them such a tiny little guy and they showed him the love of Jesus until he was matched with a family and had to return to Jiaozuo two weeks before we arrived.  He then went and stayed with a wonderful organization Eagles Wings China where he stayed until I arrived in Henan. 

Both of these organizations do wonderful work in China for children that would otherwise be forgotten in an orphanage.  They work so hard at earning the support for these children as they pay 100% for their day to day support as well as raising the funds for the medical intervention these children desperately need.  It's amazing how much they do for the children on very limited budgets, glass eyes for children who are missing an eye, open heart surgery for children who wouldn't be able to make it without surgery, cleft lip/cleft palate surgery, and encouraging the orphanage directors to prepare the childrens file for adoption that there is a family out there waiting for the child.  Won't you consider improving the lifes of orphans in China through one of these organizations.  There are many ways to help, sponsor a child, sponsor an ayi (nanny), one time gift giving, corporate sponsorship.  Both organizations are working on big projects and could use your help.  Eagles Wings is planning a school not just for orphans but for special needs children in general living in Jiaozuo, a family will be able to send their child to school when they would not be welcome in the standard public school.  Philip Hayden is working on a vocational training school to teach job skills to those that may not be elligible for adoption.  They could both use the help of all of us!

Adoption is not something that every family can do, I hope that I have shared with you something you can do to make a difference in the life of an orphan.  You may not have a heart for China they way that I do so I would like to encourage you to look into a ministry that does speak to your heart.  We support both Philip Hayden and Eagles Wings and feel very blessed that we are able to continue to help those that have not joined their forever families.

God is looking for people through whom He can do the impossible. What a pity we plan only the things we can do by ourselves.
A. W. Tozer

Still Waiting....

In the world of adoption it is a never ending cycle of hurry up and wait.  I am an avid follower of China Adopt Talk better known as Rumor Queen.  RQ got me through the wait for M when the wait started to get longer and no one knew why.  Kept me informed when we were journeying to E.  And now it is my lifeline or better yet my scary movie as we wait for Sophia.  By scary movie I mean the one where you don't want to watch but you can't help it.  I checked in many times today as the LOAs rolled in wondering if we would be in this batch.

After many hours of waiting and watching I followed the advice of a dear friend and called our agency.  Until I made that call I was able to live in the hope that maybe today would be our day.  Unfortunately, it wasn't.  Maybe next week.

On another note I have to say we have some of the most awesome big kids that live in our neighborhood.  They are of the age that they could easily tell the littles that live in our house and next door to go away but they are so good with them.  E told me last night that he loves one of them.  Of course she told me how cute he is, as in cute as a puppy kinda way.  I just love how good they are to all the littles in the area.  I really need to write the parents of the two sets of siblings a thank you for raising such awesome kids!

The winners are.....

Thank you to everyone for participating in our followers giveaway. The winners are.....
Ashley - A Cup Quite Full Creations bag
Amy Murphy - your choice of Just Love Coffee
Ashley - Mary Kay Satin Hands set (email me your selection)
morekids4me - Wild Olive tshirt of your choice (email me your selection)
ourchinagirls - Scared by Tom Davis
Please email me with your address and full name so I can get your prize on the way to you. We appreciate all your support to help us bring Sophia home.