Half the Sky

What is Half the Sky?

Half the Sky foundation seeks to ensure orphaned children receive the early childhood
opportunities they need to thrive by providing infant nurture programs with trained nannies to love and care for the babies, uniquely tailored preschool education for toddlers and beyond, personalized learning opportunities for older children, and loving, permanent family care, medical care and guidance for children with disabilities. HTS offers the care, individual attention and development environment that a loving family would otherwise secure for a child’s
healthy development.

"Changing children’s lives does not require new facilities or expensive playthings or complicated new procedures. Human contact is the most important ingredient, and caretakers can make a huge difference—just by taking an extra moment whenever possible to hold the babies, talk to the children, hug them all, and assure them that someone cares." —For the Children, Half the Sky’s training manual

Selah's orphanage is a Half the Sky orphanage. She lives in a "foster village". Basically a group of foster families that live in apartments next to the orphanage. The foster families typically care for 4-5 kids so that they may grow and develop healthy attachment in a family atmosphere not an institutional setting. During the day they do go to the orphanage for classes/services. The foster village is sponsored by Alliance for Children Foundation. If would like to learn more about the set up of the foster villages click on the link above!


When we were sent Selah's updated pictures we were also sent these PRECIOUS pictures as well! Taken in September.








I noticed this is the same picture she is looking at in her Half the Sky book (which is her record book they have kept of her since she came to the orphanage). This is a very special book! From what I have been told this will be coming home with her. I am currently trying to find out if this is her foster mom or a nanny at the orphanage.

Nathan and I often talk about the sparkle of JOY in her eyes. We are so thankful for the care she is receiving here.

Psalm 68:5 A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.

Thankful

Sweet Jesus...I am thankful for my adoption found in you. Life is found in you. I have so much to be thankful for this season. I pray that this life in you would not be wasted but used to it's fullest. Because of love. Because of love all things are possible. Thank you.


This Thanksgiving I am thankful for....







Our DOSSIER and it being finished!!! Our life on paper, approved by agencies and the government. Documents notarized, State certified, Department of State certified and Chinese authenticated, completed and now out of our hands and in our agency's!





I am Thankful for ....


The very next morning after our dossier was sent we woke up to an email from Ann at Red Thread( Ann lives in China and has good relationships with the orphanages). We had contacted her less than 48 hours earlier on sending a care package to Selah. She was also able to request an update and new pictures!

You can imagine the emotions that hit us as we laid eyes on her sweet face!






The pictures that came with her file are now 8 months old so we have longed to see a recent picture of her. These were taken just two days ago.... just for us. Something about that messes me up inside. I am honored. I am wrecked.



Then there is this picture....HALLELUJAH there is this picture! She is WALKING y'all!





We did not know if we would get to see this until after we got her treatment for her feet. It is such a beautiful sight! Oh and her shirt says "Wanna Play?" Do you hear that...it's the sound of my heart breaking!

Here she is looking at her Half the Sky book... I am just about undone at this point.



In just a couple days she will be receiving our care package and she will be given a new book, a photo book of HER FAMILY!

The post I have longed to write. Introducing.....

It is with greatest joy that we would like to introduce you to our daughter!





Introducing... Selah Jie Ya Joy Coriell ! Her birthday is March 29, 2010 (she is just about to turn 18 months). She is from Guangxi, the City of Wuzhou.



Back in September we received our I800A approval. I remember excitedly posting on facebook "Next month we will be able to be matched with our Selah. I can't believe I will be able to say NEXT MONTH!"

Our precious Lord must of had a smile on His face as he knew what was to come in the next few hours.

We would see our daughter's face.



She literally took our breath away...





There are so many details over that faithful night and days leading up to and following. That God has His hand over us. Leading us to her, her to us. But that will have to wait for another time. Today we are celebrating that we have received PA for our daughter! We are celebrating that we can finally post publicly and share our joyous new and her oh so precious pictures!



It has been a loooong road to get here, but SO WORTH IT! Selah sweetie....your DADA and MAMA are coming!

So Loved!

Wild Olive Tees:
"So Loved was created to help bring Esther home from China to her forever family. Two months before coming home, Esther passed away from a virus that was complicated by her heart defect. We are proud to carry “So Loved” in our store in honor of Esther, and orphans around the world, so that God’s love will be glorified.

100% of the proceeds of the sale of each So Loved tee will be used to fund a future heart surgery for an orphan in China."

I love how this family has chosen to honor Esther who was no doubt, So Loved! It grieves my heart to know there are more precious ones just like her waiting for their chance at life. You might be thinking " That is heartbreaking but what could I possibly do?" Well it's simple, you can buy this really adorable t-shirt and.... make a difference!

While you are at you could check out the fundraising section and add another shirt or two to your cart and help us bring our Selah home!

"Bring Our Children Home"

With everything going on right now, this video WRECKED me!But OH.....HE IS FAITHFUL!


"When we cannot see you moving
When it seems the dark has won
May you find us still believing
That you want this more than us
You will finish what you started
And your plans for us are good
Help us cling to what you promised
You are faithful, You are sure "

Be sure to *pause* music playing at the bottom of the page

Wild Olive Tees

We have been so blessed to be accepted into Wild Olive Tess adoption fundraising program!

"Wild Olive adoption tees have been created as a means to help families fundraise for their impending adoption. Our goal is to partner with adoptive families to help them gain support from friends and family to offset the cost of their adoption, and in turn, help bring children home to their forever families!"

These tees are some of the cutest inspirational tees I have ever come across! Here are few examples:









They even have tees for the littles!






You can check out their store by clicking the above button or the one located on the side of my blog. When checking out be sure to enter our family code CORIELL0722 into the coupon code field. (Note: this will not discount the price, but give our family credit for the sale ;)
UPDATE: Fundraiser has ended. Thank you to those who participated!
Finally... Please help us spread the word! :)

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