Fundraiser

First adoption fundraiser -- handmade bunnies

Every member of the family had a part in the bunny making process.

 I made a bunny for each of my girls, including Faith.  We sent hers in her care package.  Then, a few friends asked if I could make some for them as well, and that's what started the bunny making fundraiser.  Before long, and thanks to friends sharing with their friends, (especially my sis-in-law who rocks!) we had lots of bunny orders.  In an effort to get them complete in time for Easter, every member of this family was given a job.  Some changed jobs when we discovered they weren't that thrilled with their job.  But, I now have a 13 year old son who is great with an iron, turning things inside out, pinning patterns to material, and sewing arms on bunny bodies.  Three kids are all about stuffing bunnies.  The youngest would prefer to just stick with dressing the bunnies.  Then, there's Daddy......who now stuffs bunnies and with much grinding of his teeth can also sew arms to body.  And....... my fabulous friend Carol came over and helped with every stage of the process, despite several pricks of the finger with a straight pin (Don't bleed on the white fabric Carol !!!!)   And, Carol's enthusiasm and motivation helped on the few drab rainy days when one doesn't feel like doing much more than sitting on the couch drinking hot cocoa.
I love every time someone shares our fundraiser on their facebook page, and I love every time another order for a bunny comes in.  I am SO grateful and hope it continues as it is certainly pushing us closer and closer to our goal. 

More Exciting News!!

I know, I know....how can we possibly have more exciting news ?!  Well, because God is AMAZING !  Not only did we finally get our final approval on our home study yesterday, but we also got a pre-approval to adopt a 2 year old boy.  We are so thrilled, excited, and overjoyed at this!  I know this gives people lots of questions.  So, here's the deal:
When you adopt an older child, you obviously aren't able to make a baby book for the child.  So, it is recommended that you make him/her a Lifebook.  You gather as much information about their listing on the internet, the whole adoption process, the trip to go get him/her and you put it all in a book or binder.  So, I went online to print a blog listing that had Faith listed so I could put it in her Lifebook.  Well, to get to her listing, I had to go past many children and I saw this photo

So, any of you who know my husband, know that he constantly has his eyebrows wrinkled, just like this little boy (yes he's a boy, even though he's wearing pink )  So, that's the first thing I notice and I think I fell in love just by looking at this photo.  Of course, then I click on the link to watch his video.  Later, I show the photo and video to my husband, who instantly said, "He is just precious! How would we get him too?"  I was temporarily in shock.  I couldn't believe how instantly eager he was to make this little boy ours too.  In my heart, I wanted nothing more, but needed to make sure it was the right decision.  We talked a long time about adopting two versus one, and about their special needs, etc.  Then, as we sat on the couch, I told him that if he is in the same province as Faith, that would mean no extra flights and no extra time spent in country.  I felt like if they are in the same province, then it's meant to be.  He agreed.  So, I emailed the lady at the adoption agency and she sent his file.  I was somewhat surprised and excited when I saw that not only is he in the same province, but he's also in the same city, in a different orphanage but only minutes from Faith's orphanage.  I ran downstairs and told my husband.  He said, "Then, I guess we're adopting him too.  What do we need to do?"
This prompted an email to our home study social worker because now we had to have an additional short interview.  We had to get approved to adopt more than one child, which we did.  Then, we sent our request to China to adopt this sweet little guy, and one week later, we got the phone call.  We have been pre-approved!  He is ours!
We are SO excited!  And, so in love with this little guy!

Some times God talks to us......are you listening?

A couple of weeks ago, the social worker who is writing our home study suggested a good book to me.  I went online and searched for it, then decided to just go purchase it at the store.  Of course, my slacker side kicked in and I didn't do it.  An acquaintance yesterday mentioned this book he and his wife are reading and suggested that I read it.  I grinned and thought how funny is it they both recommended the same book to me.  And these two people don't know each other at all.  Then, yesterday afternoon I went to the severely overcrowded pharmacy, where I was 7th in line.  When I first walked up, a lady yelled at me not to dare thinking about skipping her in line (scary).  I just smiled politely and said absolutely, you're fine.  I did think to myself how rude that was, but figured she probably wasn't feeling well.  Then, I saw a gentleman looking at some products on the end of the aisle.  So, I asked him politely if he was also in line and he said, "I'm trying to be."  Then, he turned back around and smiled at me, saying, "I'm in no hurry so if you'd like to go ahead of me, you may."  I loved his smile.  I don't know why, but it was like we stared at each other for half a minute before he spoke, and I felt "good".  I thanked him for his offer, but declined, because I too, was in no hurry.  As I moved forward in the line, and the man made his purchase and left, the lady behind me spun a rack of books around and one of them smacked me on the shoulder.  She quickly apologized, feeling terrible about it.  I looked over my shoulder and told her it was no problem at all.  What book smacked me on the shoulder?...........the SAME BOOK !
I closed my eyes and said to Him, "Okay, I hear ya. I'm gonna buy the book. "

This really left me thinking the rest of the day.  There are always moments in our days where we see someone we don't know but we feel like we do.  And, you smile at the person, even if you don't know why you're smiling.  When they smile back, it makes you feel good and you don't need to know why.  It just feels good.  I believe that was an angel, that man who smiled at me.  Or maybe it was actually Him.  I believe that we can all make someone's day a little better just by smiling at them.  So, when you see me next time and I've got a great big smile on my face, now you'll know why.

When we got our update photos of Faith, I couldn't stop staring at her smile in every photo.  I've had a smile on my face since that moment and I think it's going to be here for a while. 

Feeling the LOVE !

So, we finally got an email letting us know that our care package was received.  We got answers to all of the questions we had asked, and we got 8 photos of her receiving the gifts we sent for her.  She knows now......she knows that she has a family and that we are coming for her as soon as we can.  She knows what we look like from the photos we sent.  She knows that she now has 3 sisters and 3 brothers.  She knows that we have 3 dogs and what they look like.  She knows what the front of our house looks like.  She knows that we go tubing at the lake at Granny's (from the photos).  What she doesn't know (yet) is how much we love her already, and how much more we are going to love her when we finally do have her in our arms. 

 Now, I am experiencing something new.  I was already excited, but now I am REALLY excited! Though I'm not yet impatient, I still sometimes feel like shouting, "I can't wait!!!!"  I know that there is a good amount of time left to wait before we get to go get her, and strangely I am okay with that.  I feel like the time is going to fly by.  Boy, getting pictures of her and staring at her smile, makes the wait much easier.