God's call to adopt

I am so thankful for the adoption community.  I am thankful that so many adoptive families share their honesty, trials, joys, and journeys through blogging.  Their blogs give insight and encouragement.  They also give perspective and reality.  Adoption is not easy.  We know that.  The hard part has not even started.  We know that the miracle of adoption is the result of great loss.  There will be grieving and sadness.  Can you imagine losing everything you have ever known, TWICE?!  Please pray for Micah's heart as he is about to experience a great loss.  Gotcha Day is approaching and the emotions surrounding it are overwhelming.  We know that through God's grace and mercy we will see His glory. 

I have been wanting to post about God's call to adopt.  It was very clear to our family that we were to adopt Micah.  It was ALL His hands, His timing, and for His glory.  I came across a blog post yesterday from Stefanie.  She blogs at Ni Hao Y'all.  She wrote a guest post for Show Hope.  I encourage you to read it here.  She has an incredible way with words and shares how God worked in her family through adoption.  Check it out!

Update:  We have received our Article 5, which is our U.S. clearance.  We are waiting for Travel Approval (TA) from the Chinese government.  It should be any day!!  After TA, we will have our travel dates.  We should be traveling no later than early July.  SO CLOSE!!  Thank you for your prayers and support.

Support Update

Therefore do not be anxious, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?”  For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.  But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Matthew 6:31-33

We serve a faithful God.  He continues to humble us with His provisions.  We are so thankful to those people that have been called to join our journey.  We trusted that God would provide and He continues to show His mighty hands at work.  Since our last update, our support has reached over $11,000.00!!! 

Thank you to all who donated to and shopped our garage sale.  That sale raised over $800.00.  We will be opening for our neighborhood garage sale on May 16 and 17.

 

 

 

We have not heard the outcome of the KCC Sale, but if you shopped with our flyer, “Thank You!”  We are thankful for opportunities like the KCC Sale to raise additional support.

If you are doing the math, we still need to raise $1,500.00 to meet our goal of $12,500.00.  If we raise a total of $17,500.00 this adoption will be completely debt free!  NOTHING is too big for our God! 

It is not too late to be involved! First, please continue to pray for our paperwork.  We are two pieces of paper away from travel.  We are awaiting Article 5 (U.S. approval) and Travel Approval from China.  We are anxious and excited to get to our little boy.  As school winds down, Nathan and Claire are growing in their excitement, too.

Second, donate to our adoption fund.  As written above, we still have not met our goal.  We are so close!  If you have not donated, we would be so grateful for your donation.  Every dollar brings us closer to bringing Micah home.  Thank you for praying and considering supporting our son’s adoption.

 

Upcoming Sales

A quick update on paperwork...Our visa applications are at the Chinese Consulate and are being processed.  We have received a notice that our immigration application has been received by the Department of Homeland Security.  Now we continue waiting.

In the previous post we shared two upcoming sales that will help raise support for our adoption expenses.  We wanted to provide some more details.

First, we are hosting a garage sale May 2 & 3.  All proceeds will support our adoption.  We are accepting donations of all items (household, toys, clothing, furniture, etc.).  Thank you to everyone who has donated.  We are very grateful.

Second, shop the KCC Sale on Friday, May 2 with the flyer posted below.  The KCC Sale will donate 10% of sales purchased with the flyer.  If you have trouble printing the flyers, we will have flyers printed also.  If you see us, feel free to ask for one!  The pdf file will also be posted on Facebook. 

 

Thank you for all of your prayers and support!

Paper work and Support Update

It has been over one week since our LOA arrived on our doorstep and so much has happened!  We are blown away by God’s faithfulness and provision. 

Beginning with the paper work, the chase continues.  We signed and returned our LOA to our agency. 

 

We sent more paperwork to U.S. Immigration to work on Micah’s citizenship and visa.  We are also working on our China visas.  We are waiting on travel approval (TA) from the Chinese government.  We will travel about 2 weeks after TA.  This whole process should take about 3 months as mentioned in a previous post. 

Next, let’s talk about God’s faithfulness.  We have shared before; this adoption is God’s work.  He called us to adopt Micah; we obeyed.  It was scary to step out in faith.  The thing is, we trust our Savior.  He is faithful. 

It was not easy to send out letters and ask for our family and friends to support Micah’s adoption.  It has been quite humbling.  There was also a fear of the unknown: people’s responses, people’s judgments, and the fear of not raising enough support.  These letters have been covered in prayer.  We know that not everyone will be led to support Micah’s adoption.  We are prayerful that many will bless our family with their support.

We have a goal to raise $12,500.  We have added a thermometer to the right to keep you updated on our progress.  We have been anxious to receive an update from our church with our progress.  We are confident God’s hand is at work and we were looking to see how the body of Christ would support our family.  THEY DID!!!  GOD IS FAITHFUL!!!  We have raised over $7,000!!!!  Over halfway to our goal!  THANK YOU!!!  NOTHING is too big for our God!

We do not have the words to describe God’s goodness.  We are speechless!  We praise God for his goodness and thank him for the works He has done.

Do you want to be involved?  There are several ways to support our family.

1.       Pray

2.       Donate to our adoption fund (Contact us for further information)

3.       Donate items for our garage sale which will be held May 2 &3.

4.       Shop the KCC sale May 2^nd with the flyer we provide you.  (We will post it soon!)

 

Thank you for your love and support!

 

I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, forever; with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations. Psalm 89:1

 

LOA

We are so excited to announce that we received THE CALL!!!! 

 

Our LOA arrived at our agency on Monday.  We are grateful that our dossier has been approved by the Chinese government.  We will be traveling about 3 months from now!  THIS SUMMER!!!!  For now...more paperwork and an updated picture!  Micah, we are coming!

Hearts at Home

Last week I was blessed to attend the Hearts at Home conference.  As I reflected on our adoption journey, I realized that Hearts at Home has been a large part of our story.  My first Hearts at Home conference was in 2012.  I was so excited to attend the conference.  I had given my life to Christ less than a year before and was eager to learn more about Him.  I was blown away at the first conference.  I had never seen so many women in one place worshipping the Lord.  I had never heard women proclaim Jesus’ name and share how He is working in their life.  I was overwhelmed!  For so long I was led to believe that Christian women were full of stereotypes and a minority.  At this conference, I realized I was not alone.  I had sisters in Christ.  It was amazing!

I heard a speaker at the first conference that shared her story.  Her story included a child adopted from Guatemala and three children that she was fostering.  I NEVER would have imagined the impact that talk would have in my life.  I was convinced that my family was complete.  In fact, I felt that God had given me peace with the size of our family.  I had sold all of my kids’ baby and toddler clothing.  The crib was gone. Diapers were on their way out, too.  There would be no more babies in my house.  I was good.  Then I heard this talk about caring for these children that had no hope.  It was the talk that God used to speak to my heart about adoption and caring for the orphan.

The details of our adoption journey can be read here.  There were many prayers, conversations, signs and experiences that led to the place we were at when I attended my second Hearts at Home conference last year.  At this point, Matt and I were ready to submit to the Lord and obey his calling in our life to adopt.  We felt led to adopt from a Latin American country.  We met many closed doors.  I was eating lunch at Hearts at Home when I got the call from our first choice agency.  They were saying “no.”  It would be quite impossible to adopt from Columbia and meet all of the criteria.  I was broken.  I was confused.  I was confident that God had led us to that country.  The door closed.  I chose to be still before God.  I chose to follow his lead.

Another year went by.  I attended this year’s conference as a waiting adoptive mom!   We are so close to bringing Micah home.  He has a name, a face, a file, and most importantly, a family.  Last year’s closed door has turned into an incredible journey.  God’s hands are truly at work.  I am in awe at the work that God has done and continues to do in our lives.  Last year I would not have guessed that I would be telling a vendor that I have three kids who were 4, 5 and 6 years old.  I am blessed.  Thank you Lord for your faithfulness and goodness!

P.S.  By request, you can subscribe for blog updates by email.  You will find that option on the right hand side of the blog.

If you would like more information on Hearts at Home, check out: http://www.heartsathome.org/.

Photo book

We don't have any big updates right now.  Today is day 37 since our dossier was logged in.  We had the opportunity to request an update on Micah.  We also sent him a photo book along with stickers, a note and colored pictures from Nathan and Claire.  We are thankful to our friend, Gina, who translated the book for us. 

Preparations continue for Micah's arrival and transition.  We assembled the bunk beds and purchased new bedding.  Matt began taking a Chinese language class at the local community college.

Thank you for your continued prayers.  Stay tuned for other ways you can support our adoption!