Home Study Approved/USCIS (I800A) Bound!

We just heard back from our home study agency a couple days ago! Our adoption agency has had our HS for the past 2 weeks, they have reviewed and approved it...which means come next week we will be USCIS bound! Thank you JESUS! I can't wait to get that home study into my hands and FedEx it off, starting our next step!

So what is USCIS?

USCIS stands for United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. This government organization will be an important part of our adoption process, as they will approve us to adopt a child and will also issue our child an immigrant visa! United States Immigration makes sure that everyone immigrating into the United States of American is doing so lawfully.


The average wait for this step/approval is about 2 months. Then Oct. when Nathan turns 30 we will then be allowed to submit our dossier to China and be MATCHED!!!


I will be a adding a brake down of our timeline and adoption lingo post to the "adoption" tab soon. I remember when we first started out and went to our first adoption conference all these terms seemed like a foreign language to me.
So hopefully this will be helpful in following along on our journey. :)


Now for an update on the littles!!

Noah is still our little rock star! Nathan took him out for a little daddy/son bonding time and Noah had his first experience at the Guitar Center! From the report I got... he.was.in.HEAVEN! They found him the smallest guitar and he strummed away! He even was eyeing another guy playing and was trying to keep tempo with him. If you know our Noah you know his love for music! I think he will have many more visits to the Guitar Center in his future!

Little Miss is turning into such a lady....and a comedian! She is quick in humor and if there is anyone that can get you to crack a smile it is this girl! I seriously need to keep a journal of the things this girl does and says....really I need to do it for both kiddos. They grow up all too fast and we forget these precious little day to day conversations that have us busting at our seems.

We are also doing a lot of celebrating around here as Madelynn has chosen to kiss diapers goodbye!YAY MADELYNN!!! :)

Thank you so much for following along! Please continue to lift our family,children and adoption in your prayers. We appreciate them more than you know!

"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it." Matthew 13:44-46

It's a ZOO around here!

Not quite ;) But a lot has happened since the last time I have posted! A big milestone is that I am now

WOOOOOHOOOOO!!!!!







Other happenings....We have completed both Home study visits, our Hague/adoptive parent training and another MASSIVE 2 day yard sale (which brought in close to $1000) Thank you Jesus!! Step by step we are getting there.


I have also started a new fundraising page on facebook if you have not already, be sure to check it out!

Because JOY calls

On this page I have picture of the wipe cases/tubs, nightlights I make and just recently I started making these really adorable air fresheners! The air fresheners are $6 each and 100% of the profits goes to our adoption fund!








They come in super cute packaging!



So please be sure to come over to our FB page and check out all my creations!


After this last Home study visit we stopped in at the local Zoo with Grandma. We had such a good time! I love seeing life through the eyes of children! I forgot my camera, so phone pics it was :) Enjoy!

A black bear swimming right in front of them!







Blessings :)

Easter

He is RISEN!!! Hallelujah! So THANKFUL for the gift of Jesus!

Matthew 28:6 "He is not here; he has risen, just as he said..." Oh PRAISE the ONE who paid my debt...just as he said!!! May we never doubt that we can trust Him!

Praying that we will celebrate everyday like Easter Sunday! For He is WORTHY!!!


Here are a few pictures of day. Enjoy!

Swept Away!

I have the BEST HUSBAND EVER!!! Yesterday we celebrated our 7 year anniversary. Thanks to a certain 4 year old *snickers* I knew he had something up his sleeve but I did not know what. The man had me DOOPED! He had me believing a long list of tales ending with that he had dinner reservations for the evening. WOW I thought....must be a really nice restaurant, we never eat anywhere that requires reservations. Silly me. He had a babysitter come at 2:00pm (thanks sis!) and he whisked me away for a one night stay at The Inn above Onion Creek, an amazing bed and breakfast. What is so wonderful about this place is it is nestled on the gateway of the hill country so it FELT like I was many miles away from home. SO beautiful and relaxing. I can't believe he pulled this off having planned it months ago! I always find out his surprises but not this one. All pictures are provided via cell phone sense I had no clue and did not bring my camera! When we first got there we just spent sometime on the porch listening to the breeze rustling through the trees and fields. “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalm 46:10 Dinner was at 6:00pm and Nathan had reserved the library for a private dinner for two. We exchanged gifts and my beloveds gift had me in tears.... He gave me a photo album (on the cover you can see China) and inside it he placed a book he made me of all the Psalms with Selah in them. The way he printed them to read is just beautiful! Word's can't express how much this means to me!!! Oh how our Selah has been loved and wanted. For so many years. One day soon she will know! After dinner we went back to our little cottage and it was just about sunset time. The porch was calling our name again, this time we busted out the Yahtzee because that how we roll....ahaha get it?? Roll?? Ok...ok...yeah I'm a dork :) While we were outside showing off our mad rolling skills to each other we met the couple who was staying on the other side of the breeze way of the cottage. While we were celebrating our 7 year anniversary they were celebrating their 52 year anniversary!!! AMAZING COUPLE! We talked for quiet a while before turning in. :) The next morning we had scrumptious breakfast and then decided to go for a nature walk to the overlook. This is the view of the back of the Inn. By the time we got back to our cottage we had an hour before check out. We only stayed one night but I was walking away feeling so blessed. We walked into our doors and to our surprise the radio was on, not only was it on it was playing "Here I am, Lord send me..." My heart jumped! An alarm must have been set by past guests but whatever the reason, the timing was perfect. We were packed up pretty fast so we went out to our favorite spot on the porch to play some more Yahtzee. Our neighbors across the way were just getting back from breakfast and came over to talk to us again. I can't tell you enough what a JOY it was to talk with them! We talked about everything from children/family, life, work to politics and the world. We had mentioned we were adopting the night before and so they asked more questions this morning. So we shared our story with them and the dream God gave me as a teenager and how all those years ago He comforted my heart by showing me her name would be Selah. I then brought out my gifts that Nathan gave me and they both loved them. It was time to say goodbye and we gave each other hugs, our new friends congratulated us on our anniversary and told us they would never forget our dream. We told them it was a JOY to meet them and spend time with them and congratulated them on their 52 years of marriage! My heart was FULL! We went back inside and gathered our things. When we came back out to lock the door we were greeted by our lady friend coming back over. She scooped my hand in hers placed something in my hand and said "This is for your adoption." I think my heart stopped. I thanked her and gave her a big hug!! We exchanged addresses and will be keeping in touch with this wonderful couple! I pray we can be just like this couple. Now and in 45 years, so graciously investing time, love and gifts into others. Thank you Lord for my amazing Husband to walk this life with and who shares my dreams. Thank you for this blessed little getaway. How you had a greater plan for it, to encourage my soul. I want to hold onto this feeling and never let it go!

Where we are at....

If you have been following our journey y'all know that we have been anxiously awaiting Nathan's turning the magical 29 1/2 so we can start our home study so we can adopt from China's SN program. What you did not know and what I was debating about sharing was that we came close (but so far) from being matched with a sweet baby girl who was waiting on our agency's list. Knowing that she was a "special focus" child and that perspective adoptive parents would have 6 months to have their dossier logged in, we knew would be 30 by the time all our papers we logged in. So we asked our agency if they would be willing to ask the CC@@ if we could have an age waiver. We had never heard of it being done ....yet we had never heard of anyone asking either and especially in light of the new special focus program. We were in love and told our agency we wanted to submit a LOI (Letter of Intent) if they would give us an age waiver. I did not realize the answer would come back so quick. A couple of hours later we were informed that the CC@@ said they would not be granting waivers to families under the age of 30. Heartbrake. So this precious one who came so close (but so far) from having a family continues to wait. Maybe her family is just around the corner or maybe when it comes time for us to be matched she will still be waiting. What I do know is that God is sovereign. I trust Him. He loves this precious one (more than I can) and He has placed her on our hearts and she now has a family praying specifically for her. Weither it be our family or another, she is loved! So where do we go from here? We press on! Now that April has finally arrived we have been information gathering for our home study. Once we get all the paperwork/documents turned in we can schedule the first home study visit! We will also continue to collect our documents for our dossier, so come October when Nathan turns 30 we can be matched! From there sense the majority of our paperwork will be done we can be in China in about 4 months! WOW! We have a lot of work to do! Alot of saving and fundraising and leaning on/ trusting that God will provide for all our needs. Ephesians 3:20-21 Now unto Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond what we ask or think, according to the power that is at work within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus and throughout all generations, forever and ever Amen!

Your Great Name!!!

I know I have not posted in a while. To say I have been having a hard time would be an understatement. It has been said to enter into orphan care is to enter into spiritual warfare....that is no joke. It has been relentless the past few weeks. At times I did not know wither to laugh at the absurdity of it all or cry. It was usually the latter. Praise be to God this battle is won, I just had to share with you this song that has been a HUGE blessing to me. I pray if any of you are struggling, that you will find strength in Him and know you are not alone!

No Passengers

I am dedicating this post to point you in the direction to my friends, the Bollingers blog post @ Morelovetogive. What was written the other day left me with two words on my lips......WOW......AMEN! Please read it be encouraged and challenged!