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.

adoption training

Our agency requires that all their clients attend and international adoption training seminar as part of the pre-adoption training.  So, this past weekend, Scott and I went.  There's only been two times that we have gone out of town together, just the two of us.  The first was our honeymoon 17 years ago, and then two years ago for our 15th wedding anniversary.  So, this was pretty exciting!  Thankfully, grandparents came and kept the littles so we could relax and know they are taken care of for the whole night we would be away.  I'm sorry to say that this training seminar, which lasted from 8:30a.m. til 4:45p.m. was by far one of the most boring things I have ever sat through.  I (yes me) actually fell asleep in the middle of it, with my chin resting on my hand which was propped on the table in front of me.  I never sleep during the day, much less while sitting up.  Texting with friends like a bad kid in high school got me through most of it, along with writing notes to my boyfriend in the seat next to me.  I am truly glad we went though because I got to see my best friend from college who I have not seen in several years.  We met and ate dinner together and though it wasn't as much time as I would have liked, we had a wonderful visit.  Then there was the amazing breakfast at our hotel....shout out for the Hyatt Place!  They made english muffins with egg, canadian bacon, and cheese on it fresh on the skillet --not frozen and here you throw it in the microwave.  There was also fresh cut fruit including peeled grapefruit, two kinds of yogurt with all the necessary toppings to make your own yogurt parfait; cereals, donuts, muffins, bagels, toast with several different jellies to pick from, orange juice, tomato juice, iced water, milk, coffee, hot tea, pancakes, and oatmeal.
So......the fabulous breakfast and the great evening at dinner with friends made it well worth the drive.

Care Package Sent

We finally sent our package to Faith in China.  When we got our pre-approval, we were told we could send her something.  I was so excited when I heard this.  I don't know if it was the idea of giving a gift, or if it was because we would be giving something to Faith.  Maybe it was just the idea of having some sort of connection with her.  I decided to sew a stuffed bunny rabbit doll for all my girls, so she could have something like her sisters.  I also decided to put together a photo album with pictures of each of us, and of her room, our house, and our pets. 
I was told we could include a list of questions with our care package.  I searched all over the internet, reading lots of blogs, and joined a couple of yahoo groups and asked its members, what kinds of questions should we ask.  All I would really like to know is what they call her.  I've heard that often times the nannies in the orphanage call the children by nicknames, and there's usually a reason for the nickname.  My 11 year old daughter wants to know her favorite color, her favorite food, and if she likes music.  So, we included those questions, along with her height and weight.  I wasn't so concerned with her size because I was told we would be told her clothing sizes when we get travel approval. 
   I asked our adoption agency worker if she has been told about us yet.  She said she doesn't know but a lot of times the orphanage uses the care package to introduce the child to their new family.  Aaaahhhhh!  So, this package is going to be the first time she is told she has a family......I better make it good.  Now there was more pressure to make this package something real special.  So, I added some fancy lace to the dress I made for the bunny, and some ribbon with pearls across the waistline.  I added eight pearls because eight is considered the most fortuitous of numbers in Chinese communities.  I bought a 4x6 photo album from Wal-Mart for $1 (love a great bargain).  It's beautiful.  It has a super sparkly pink glitter cover.  We printed out all the photos we needed.  Then, we had my daughter's teacher's foreign exchange student write captions in Chinese for each picture.  The very last picture showed Faith's two sisters holding their bunnies I made and holding hers up to show her they each had one.  I put a small picture of Faith on the front cover with her name written in Chinese so she would know it is hers and that the family pictured inside is her family.
   When I left the post office, after mailing her package, I felt........happy, excited, anxious, and .....nervous.  Why did I feel nervous?  I couldn't figure out why I felt so nervous, but I definitely did.  You see, this package is going to be the first time she is told about us, much like when you are introduced to someone new.  I hope she likes her bunny.  I hope she likes her pink photo album.  I hope she thinks we look friendly and loving in our pictures.  I hope they let her keep her bunny so she can sleep with it every night and think about us.  Here's the crazy thing -- I will never know what she thinks of all of it, because I'm not there to see her reaction.  I pray that she understands, and that she is able to open her heart to love us as we already love her.

We love because he first loved us.
1 John 4:19

Announcing our big news

We are adopting a beautiful little girl from China.  We haven't started telling a whole bunch of people until now.  It's such a long process and it seemed a good idea to wait until we got closer to bringing her home.  But, as I told each individual person, the support and prayers that have been offered are so comforting.  So, why not tell everyone!  All that support should make the wait a little easier right?
So, here it is......
Though it is not her name, in this blog, I will refer to her as Faith.  She is 6 years old and has lived in an orphanage since she was about 6 months old.  Her age is merely a guess because she was found abandoned.  She has Larsen's syndrome, which is an extremely rare genetic disorder characterized by congenital dislocation of multiple body joints along with other unusual features of the face, hands, and bones.  It occurs in only 1 in every 100,000 babies.  It is also a type of dwarfism, so Faith will always be small.....small but mighty.
Faith was born with dislocated knees and hips, and a club foot.  She had surgery on her legs when she was four years old.  This means, however, that for the first four years of her life her bones were growing with her joints in the wrong place.  So, her legs are not so straight and she doesn't walk on her own.  I've seen photos of her legs and feet and I think they are beautiful.  Secretly, I can't wait to paint her toenails for the first time, probably a nice shade of hot pink.  She also has scoliosis.  As for the "unusual facial features", she does have big round eyes and a flat bridge of her nose.  I happen to be in love with her "unusual facial features", and Scott thinks it makes her look "just precious."
We've always known we were meant to adopt a child.  Months ago, I started feeling God calling out to us that now is the time.  The more I prayed about it, the more clear His message became.  The day I found out that her file was sent to our agency exclusively at the same time that I began emailing them, that's when I knew that she was the one He had chosen for us.  Some people ask "why" we are adopting and why we are adopting from another country.  Simply put, we are adopting because it is what God has planned for us.  We are adopting from China because that's where our little girl is, whom He has chosen for us.  How are we going to do this?  Well, I don't know.  But, I do know that God doesn't give you anything you can't handle.  I have complete faith and trust in Him. 
I titled my blog Ready for a Leap of Faith for a reason.  Way back at the beginning of all this, I sat and pondered one day over why it's called a "leap" of faith, and I realized what it means.  You can't just say you believe God will help you through something.  You have to give your whole self to Him, trust Him completely, throw your doubts and fears and worries out the window. 

In all your ways acknowledge Him, and he will direct your paths.
Proverbs 3:6

You have to go 100%, take the leap, not just a step in that direction and then step back when you get scared.  You see, a leap isn't something you can take back.  I was ready for that leap of faith.  We have prayed and He made His message clear.  So, now we have taken that "leap of faith" and we are going to bring our new daughter home.  We have faith that He will get us to it and He will bring us through it.  Like my blog title says, "Faith is not hoping God can, it's knowing He will."

So, now, I ask you all, our friends and family to please pray for our little girl waiting for us in China.  Also, please pray for her nannies who have cared for her for the past six years and will have to say goodbye to her when we come get her in a year or so.  Scott, our children, and I will continue to pray and give thanks to God for giving us such a wonderful blessing.