We are currently in one of the many waiting phases of our adoption, specifically for our LOA or “Letter Seeking Confirmation from Adopter.”  This will be our official chance to tell the Chinese government YES! to our son.  The time varies for this process, and we are currently on day 42 (yes, I am counting!).  Our dossier has now been translated and reviewed, it will then be “matched” then we will receive our LOA.  Once we receive our LOA, we will travel in 8-12 weeks to get our son!  Until then, we are trying to accomplish as much as possible, other than counting the days.

With all of the waiting, now is a perfect time to kick our fundraising into high gear.  We are pretty much doing everything at once, and will be working hard over the next 2 months or so until we travel. I wanted to take some time to share all of the fundraisers we plan to do.  We do not expect everyone to participate in every fundraiser, rather, we want to give lots of options for you to be involved if you want!

• Dessert and Coffee bar and craft show – February 20th – Enjoy some desserts and coffee for $5 while you shop.  We will have a variety of fun home accessories and furniture to buy.
• Plunder – Vintage inspired jewelry (available at craft show)
• Just Love Coffee (Available at craft show)
• KEEP Collective
• T-shirt through Fund the Nations
• Lifesong – direct give matching grant (donations will be tax deductible)

Here is a sneak peak of our t-shirt fundraiser – we will have a few other options for styles of shirts.

When we moved into this house, I had grand plans of gutting the kitchen, rearranging the floor plan, and having the kitchen of my dreams.  Lots of things have put that plan on hold for now, so we did a mini-makeover of our own to hold us over.  The layout is still pretty bad and there isn’t a ton of storage space, but it’s better than before!  It looks better and functions better.  One day, I’ll get my dream kitchen.  Maybe.  Hopefully.  Maybe not. Or maybe we’ll just keep adopting babies. We’ll see.

Before…

Goodbye honey oak, cabinets over the peninsula, and fluorescent light fixture…

New recessed lights, painted cabinets, and an open view.

Cabinets are painted with Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint in Marzipan and finished with white wax.

The walls are painted halcyon green by Sherwin-Williams.

And I painted the table the same color (by making my own chalk paint).  That poor table has seen better days!

We replaced a  corner cabinet with these open shelves that Jason built.  They are “stained” with Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint in Curio and finished with hemp oil.  Though we lost cabinets, this provides better utilization of the space.

The kitchen fits in with the rest of the house now!

 

Why adoption?  

Adoption has been on our hearts for several years.  Our eyes were opened to how the rest of the world lives, and though we may not always feel like it, we are truly blessed.  There are over 160 million orphans worldwide (children who have lost at least one parent), with up to 8 million of those living in orphanages.  Early in our marriage we decided that we would adopt if we were unable to have biological children, but God changed our hearts and our plans that adoption didn’t have to be Plan B for our lives, it could be Plan A Part 2.  

The bible is also very clear that we should have a role in orphan care: as a command “Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause” (Isaiah 1:17): to symbolize our adoption into God’s family “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” (John 14:18): and to reflect God’s light in this dark world “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father is this: to visit orphans and windows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” (James 1:27)

Why China?

China has a great need for orphan care.  There are approximately 1 million children in orphanages in China.  Most people think the waiting children are infant girls in China, but the truth is, the majority of these children are special needs, one year or older, and boys.  We are also thankful that the Chinese government has a very straightforward, predictable adoption process.  If all goes according to plan, we should be able to bring our child home next year.  We will spend approximately 2 weeks in China.

For more information on China adoption, special needs and more check out: http://www.nohandsbutours.com

What does the adoption process look like?

I won’t lie, the adoption process is pretty overwhelming.  But since China is straightforward, we at least know what to expect.  Our agency (CCAI) has been amazing and easy to work with.  In short, here is our adoption process.

• Home study
  • Background checks
  • Physical exams
  • Home safety inspection
  • Interviews to discuss why we are adopting, and to make sure we’re doing it for the right reasons.
  • Copies of every document you own (birth certificate, marriage license, drivers license, insurance, etc)
• USCIS approval
  • This tells the Chinese government the United States government approves us to adopt a child
• Dossier compilation
  • All the documents to prove we meet the requirements of the Chinese government, including our final home study

We are currently working on both our home study and dossier compilation.  We hope to have our dossier ready and on it’s way to China in about two months!

Do you know the child you will adopt?

Not yet!  But we could get matched at any time.  Our agency will call us with children that meet the criteria we gave them, then we will review the file and decide if the child is a good fit for our family.  We trust that God will lead us to the right child at the right time!

 

Our transition from end of the school year to the beginning of the summer has been a whirlwind.  I wasn’t quite ready for school to be over, and wasn’t mentally prepared for what summer would look like. To be quite honest, we’ve pretty much just watch too much tv, drank too much coffee (me, well, maybe Noelle too) and have been too lazy.  Throw in a safe families kiddo and we’re pretty worthless.  But we’re starting to get the hang of our new schedule.

We did manage to go strawberry picking the first week of break.  I did most of the picking, Noelle wandered around and demanded strawberries, and Ethan kept asking if we could be done so we could get ice cream.  After I picked about 5 lbs, we went to the gift shop and got ice cream and berry pie.  My expectations were low, so I consider it a success.

Ethan finished his first season of tee ball and was a huge fan!  Though he spent most of his practice/games kicking dirt on the mound, talking with other kids, or practicing somersaults, he was enthusiastic and excited to go.  He now loves everything baseball and keeps asking when he can get a “hard bat.”

We also signed up for the summer reading program at the library, and they had an awesome “touch a truck” event.  Though it was hot and very crowded, the kids waited patiently to see a Fedex truck, a backhoe loader and a street sweeper.  Noelle loves trucks just as much as her brother!

 

The second week of summer we participated in VBS at the church where Noelle goes to preschool.  Ethan had a great time, learned lots of great old school church camp songs, and met some new friends.  A friend from tee ball was in his VBS class which he loved.  Noelle and I were in the nursery (with the volunteers kids age 2 and under) and got to meet some new friends as well.  We can’t wait to go again next year!

We also set up our pool and have had a few days of fun in the water.  We have had a lot of rainy days, but hopefully we’ll get it play in it more soon!

 

Ethan is becoming quite the big boy, and is very pleased that he is now 4 and a half.  He has been an incredible big brother to Noelle and to all of our Safe Families kiddos.  He has adjusted to each beautifully, and tries his hardest to take care of them.  He does however, still favor his own sister, and sticks up for her if he thinks she is wronged.  It is pretty cute, but we have to remind him frequently he is not the parent!  He is a smart little boy and is always saying something that amazes us.  We saw someone cleaning the fish tank at the library the other day and he said “hey mom, is that a siphon?”  The man cleaning the fish tank was quite impressed, and said his teenagers didn’t even know what a siphon was!

Noelle is still our little sunshine, with a few moments of two year old behavior thrown in.  She is quite independent, but loves her mommy time.  Between Safe Family kids and me working in the nursery at VBS, she has become sensitive to me giving anyone else my attention.  She will say “let’s snuggle mom” when I’m holding or taking care of someone else.  She is communicating so well!  While she is still behind other kids her age, she is speaking in sentences, and amazes us every day with the new phrases she says.  One of her favorite is “notch (watch) this mom!” and proceeds to do something adorable, like eat a bite of food.

Until next time…

 

This post is for our TPCC family specifically.  Anyone is welcome to read, but know the points of challenge are for our church friends.  If you are interested in learning more about Humble & Hungry, check out http://www.tpcc.org/humble-and-hungry/.

If you were at church last weekend, you had the pleasure of seeing Jason and I jumbo size, sharing our story about tithing.  With commitment weekend happening this weekend, I feel a burden to share our the rest of our story.  It’s really not even ours, it’s God’s story, and if we wouldn’t have trusted him, I wouldn’t be able to tell it.

Three years ago our church launched the “Generous Giants” campaign.  Generous Giants was the plan to add additional children’s space, build a school in Kenya, and do various other improvements to the church facility.  At that time, we really weren’t in a place to give any more than we already were.  Tithing was already a lot of money, right?  Ethan was a baby, I was working part time, and there were plenty of dreams and goals we had for ourselves.  But God had been opening our eyes to how the rest of the world lives.  That even though it’s easy to compare ourselves to our neighbors and friends and feel as though we are way behind in lifestyle, that we are truly blessed, and living in excess, compared to the rest of the world.  My heart for orphan care taught me that many people were abandoning children because they had a medical condition they did not have the money to pay for, or sold a child to buy food for the rest of their family.  We had clean drinking water, plenty of food, and a roof over our heads, which immediately put us in the category of “rich.”  Though the world around us was screaming that we needed more—bigger house, nicer car, cuter clothes for our kids—we knew God was calling us to something else.

The number God called us to with Generous Giants was scary.  It was more money than we could come up with on paper.  It meant we had to sacrifice, change our lifestyle, and change our expectations about what our life would look like.  We knew it meant we would have to cancel our cable, stop eating out so much, and stay in our townhouse longer than we hoped.  But that was okay, because we knew God’s plan was better than ours.

Three years later, to say that our life looks different would be an understatement.  We had another baby.  I paid off my massive student loan debt.  I stopped working in order to stay at home full time.  We moved to our dream house, which was a process we knew God had under control all the way through.  All the things we thought we were giving up, God provided, in a better way than we ever could have imagined.  And we are quite confident that if we had not been generous with our money, our life would not be what it is today.

But our story doesn’t really end with “we gave and God blessed us,” because that is not at all what we believe.  We are not entitled to any blessing when we obey.  I think the reason God blessed us with what he did was so that we could care for and minister to others through our blessings.  Because we trusted him with our finances, he’s allowing us to do His work through Safe Families.  Like the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25, God is entrusting His resources to us until his return.  What will we do with the financial resources God gives?  More importantly, what will we do with the Gospel?  Putting God’s resources to use for His kingdom by following what He has called you to do with your life is the best feeling in the world—better than anything money can buy.

If you are hesitant to be generous, I challenge you to refocus your vision on what is eternal.  If God is calling you to something scary, trust Him to see you through it.  There is a good chance you will find yourself living a life that is completely different from, yet at the same time better than, what you had imagined.

 

A little over a year ago, after a whirlwind of getting struck by lightening, selling our house, getting a new car, almost being homeless and thankfully buying a new house, I finally stopped long enough to think to myself “now we have a minivan and a five bedroom house, I think God has something planned for us that involves children.”  Fast forward to October, when we heard a presentation about Safe Families.  Safe Families “is a national movement of compassion that gives hope to families in crisis.”   Host families take care of kids for an average of 21 days for parents who are homeless, during a short term hospitalization, or during other crisis situations.  The beautiful thing about Safe Families is the program lowers the chance of child abuse and also prevents children from being placed in foster care.  After hearing of the challenges these families face (not being able to feed their children, being evicted and not having a place to stay, facing a medical crisis and not having anyone they trust to take care of their children), I knew we had to say yes.

After several months of finishing up some house projects, preparing a space for more kids, completing our training and home study, and various other tasks to prepare, we were approved to be a host family and will be hosting our first family starting this weekend.  Though I am anxious about how our kids will do, how I will handle extra kids, and how long it will take us to get out the door in the morning, I’m so excited to see how God will use us in the lives of the kids and the parents.

You can learn more about Safe Families of Indiana here.  They are always looking for host families and other volunteers.

We had a great Christmas at home this year!  Jason’s family (Ryan, Liz, Mike & Karen) spent several days with us.  We got to celebrate Christmas Eve at our church, Christmas Day at home, and Noelle’s birthday the day after Christmas.  We also got to Skype with Jason’s brother and sister-in-law, Stephen and Allison, and their kids Julianne, Lorelei, Morgan and Nolan.  My parents came up the day after to celebrate Noelle’s birthday.  It was a fun Christmas, and per usual, we got way more than we needed!  I was afraid to walk into the play room for about two months.

Noelle continues to be the cutest little girl ever.  She is constantly smiling, babbling, “singing”, and laughing.  Her personality has really started to come out, which sometimes means she throws herself on the floor crying when she is mad, but for the most part she is pure joy.

Noelle had an uneventful 15 month appointment, except for the usual fluid on her ears.  She weighs 19lbs 8oz (and jumped to the 25%) and is 29.75 inches long (24%).  She continues to have a giant head in the 67%.  Our wonderful Pediatrician recommended we see an ENT since we have been battling this for a year now.  I made an appointment for the next week and he recommended we do tubes, especially since she still isn’t talking.  They were amazingly able to get her in for tubes the next week (this past Tuesday the 15th) and her procedure was quick and easy.  She seems to be hearing better already.  Like I said, she really isn’t saying much.  She does babble and make noise all the time, but very few words.  She loves the ABC song and will say “HIJK” and will also say “amah!” (amen) when we are done praying (she also folds her hands, which is pretty much the cutest thing ever).  In the past few days she will sometimes say da to Jason and will also say da when she is done eating (I’m not sure if its supposed to be done or down).  Though I’m sure the ear problems contributed to her speech delays, I think she just hasn’t decided she wants to talk yet!  Though she isn’t talking much, it is obvious that she understands what we are saying (she understands no very clearly) and communicates to us when she wants something.  When she wants a snack she just goes to the pantry and gets out it, brings it to me and shoves it in my face and says “nahhh!!!” until I open it for her!

Noelle is a busy little girl.  These days she almost always has a bruised and/or skinned knee.  She is a little nature lover and loves to be outside.  She can climb up and down stairs like it’s nothing, and is frequently caught standing on top of something she shouldn’t be (chairs, tables, doll houses, etc).  She will definitely be our first kid with stitches.  Her favorite toys are her shape sorters, her stacking tree, and anything her brother is playing with (especially when he doesn’t want her to play with it).  She is generally pretty happy being in the middle of what everyone else is doing.  She loves her mommy does not appreciate being taken away from her.

Noelle is still a little garbage disposable when it comes to eating.  I was not surprised that she had increased in her weight percentile because she is finally starting to feel heavy.  She loves to eat.  She loves fruit and will eat pretty much every kind.  She is doing a great job feeding herself, though it is very messy.  There are a few things she does not like and she will very dramatically spit them out.  She also loves sweets and loves to get in on the dessert action.  Poor 2nd child gets way more sugar than she should!

Noelle continues to be a rock star sleeper.  She is down to one nap a day.  It is amazing to me how different she is from Ethan in this respect.  She will be ready for a nap any time between 11 and 1 ( usually 1) and will sleep anywhere from 1-4 hours.  Ethan was so much more structured and was a disaster if we got off schedule.  And if she fall asleep in the car I can easily transfer her to bed.  Give that girl her pacifier and blankie and she is out in 2 seconds.  She sleeps well at night too, as long as she’s not sick in which case all bets are off.  Most days she lets me sleep in until at least 7 or 7:30, and of course reserves her sleeping in until 8:30 on the weekends that I’m working and up at 6:30.

Noelle finally has 3 teeth!  One at 13 months (bottom) and then one top front and the next incisor a few weeks ago.  She has a very crooked smile now!

Here are some pictures of our little princess.

 

 

Last weekend Ethan got to experience his first county fair and he had a great time!  He loved seeing all the animals, especially the horses and cows.  We even got to see several horses out of their stalls out in a field.  Every time a horse would go out of sight he would say “neigh go?” (Where did the horse go?).  We also got to eat some delicious fair food including and elephant ear.  Ethan got to bounce in the bouncy house and we ended the evening by listening to a live band for a while (Ethan demonstrated his dance moves).  Here are some pictures from our evening.

Loving the bouncy house.

Silly boys eating french fries.

So excited about driving the truck!