Sophia Meilin

Introducing our daughter Sophia Meilin. She is 15 months old and is from the Guangdong Province.  We have been blessed with another beautiful treasure from God.

We received her referral call at 9:45 pm on June 21st. We knew immediately that she was our daughter. We submitted our Letter of Intent to our agency that very night and it was submitted to CCAA by our agency on June 23rd. We are very excited to receive our Preapproval on June 24th and anxiously await travel to bring her home.

We are diligently working on fundraising to raise the needed funds to complete her adoption.  Please visit our fundraising auction blog Bringing Sophia Home.  Please consider putting our buttons on your blog.  We could use all the help in advertising our fundraiser as possible.  Blessings!

Trusting

Such a significant word is trust and I put my trust in the Lord.

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

During trials in life it is so easy to ask "why did He allow it".  My belief is that God doesn't necessarily allow the struggles of life we have, however, He takes those struggles and brings good out of it.  When we live a life that is status quo we stay in our comfort zone but He doesn't plan for us to stay in our comfort zone.  He has so many things planned for us and when we face the struggles and trials of life with trust in Him, our Lord can do so much with us.  He can mold us into the people he created us to be from day one.

I have been asked many times if I have grieved not having children biologically.  I will honestly say that I have not because I don't feel that it was something to grieve, I have no loss but wonderful gifts.  He knew the day he created me that I would love all children.  I can clearly remember the day in my life that I learned about adoption, I can remember the conversation I had with my mom when we were working in the garden telling her about how cool it was that the neighbor's aunt (she was the same age as the neighbor kids) was adopted and how I was going to adopt when I grew up.  Many years later we realized we were not meant to have biological children but that He had planned for us to adopt.  My heart is so full knowing that our Lord planned that as my gift.  He put it in my heart and let it grow and many years later it bloomed and now I have the two most wonderful children and will soon be adding a third blessing.

When I came home from China with E I didn't know if our family was complete.  Two children were really more than two children.  We had a lot of adjusting to do and a new routine to establish.  We started sponsoring Ginger at Philip Hayden when we were matched with E.  We watched her grow in pictures, heal after her surgeries and then one day I had this feeling that she was meant to be a part of our family.  That feeling became all consuming and I shared it with my husband.  We then began the journey to our third child, believing her to be that child that was meant to be a part of us.  Then it came to be that she was not the child He planned for us.  At first the pain was there, for her I grieved, I had already envisioned our life with her.  As time has gone by and a month has passed I know deep in my heart that He gave me love for her so that we would be ready for the little one that He planned for us.  Had we not loved Ginger we would not have started this third adoption and with all the changes in IA we really needed to get started so we could be ready.  And here we are now, waiting for Him to reveal our daughter to us.  We are ready and waiting for his timing, it will be perfect, she will be perfect!

I have become such a believer that He only plans good for us.  Trying times will come and go but it is His plan that will persevere.  As we are human we wish that would could know more about the journey ahead so we could prepare for it but if we are prepared how can He teach and how can we grow.  Is it really better to know what lies ahead?  Would we avoid the journey if we new what it held?  My guess is that we wouldn't so I am choosing to lean into Jesus, trust Him to guide the way and that he will grow us to be better people and better followers through the journey.

On a side note I promise that I will soon post some updated pictures of M and E.  We have been a busy family this past month and have some great pictures to share.  Please keep us in your prayers as we prepare our hearts to be open to His plan with the release of the next shared list.  We may know who our little one is in the near future.

The Journey to Simplify

As you probable have noticed by now I really enjoy A Place Called Simplicity a lot.  Linny and family live their lives for Jesus and I love the ministry of her blog.  I don't know if she calls blogging a ministry but to me it is.  She has taught me so much about listening to God and acting on what he is speaking to us about.  She has been instrumental in a lot of changes going on in me and my family.  It really all started with her Crazy Love post and it just keeps going, she is writing about the things that are in my heart. 

I have been feeling the need to simplify our lives.  We are a family of four with enough possessions for a family of at least six if not eight.  We live in a modest size home that is stuffed to the gills with THINGS.  They are not cherished things, most of them are not things we can't live without and we somehow keep getting more things.  We just had a wonderful huge yard sale of things that were donated from others and a few things from our home, mostly things from the attic but not the things that are making our lives hectic and are consuming our thoughts and energy. 

I have been feeling so overwhelmed by the messes that are all over our house.  Our children do not treasure the possessions that they have, they have so many they can't keep track of what is precious to them.  Unfortunately, I am certain that the rest of my family is not yet in the place that I am.  M did go through her room and parted with a grocery bag of odds and ends from her room but that is just a small tip of the ice berg.  My family really likes THINGS.  I remember when we moved into our house we moved from a much smaller house and so much of our house felt empty, eight years have passed two children have joined the family and the house if full.  I have found myself dreaming about our old smaller home, wishing we were in a smaller home.  The American Dream is usually to have a bigger house and I am dreaming of a smaller house. 

With all major life changes small changes start the process.  I am hoping that by clearing out the THINGS that I have excess of or have not used in a long time I will lead the transformation of our family.  That we can simplify our lives, be happier with each other not with the things that own us.  I had been changing some of our spending habits by making our own laundry detergent, using foaming soap that I make myself instead of buying a new bottle,  each time we run out but those are very small changes, it is time for our family to make some really big changes. 

My prayer is that by the time we are ready to our fall fundraising yard sale that we will have a great amount of things for sale from our own home.  That our excess will help us bring our daughter home.  I encourage you to follow along with Linny as she shares her experiences in Simple Living, I know that I will be.

The first of the initials start to arrive!

LID!!!!!

Our LID is May 31st!  I have to say this is the fastest we have ever heard we are logged in.  Our coordinator at BAAS, Xiaoqing, is totally on her game.  I can't recommend her enough.  Praying June is the month we find out who our little girl is, we can't wait to see her.  Already starting to think of names but won't be able to decide until we see her.  We will keep you all posted.

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.