By the way...

I don't want you to think we are going to live without a kitchen table! LOL  Jeremy is in the process of building us a large wooden one that seats 6 :)

Fun at the Farley's

This weekend has been packed full!  Yesterday was quite eventful.  We had decided that we were going to sell some large items in our house for two reasons.  1- to make room for our newest addition 2- to raise money to bring home our newest addition.  Instead of waiting for our yard sale, we found this FB page where you can sell items.  It looked pretty successful so we gave it a try.  Saturday night I posted our treadmill, table/chairs, bakers rack, and an ipod shuffle.  By Sunday morning, I already had several requests on the table/chairs and a couple on the treadmill.  Immediately after church we had visitors lined up at our house!  My precious friend, Laura came by and fell in love with the table, and a sweet lady, Tanya took the treadmill.  Shortly after they left we went to Alicia's house to buy our crib/toddler bed for Grace!  What an amazing family Alicia has!  Her girls are all dolls!!  Alicia was such an angel to us.  Below is the picture of the bed in the toddler version.  We also have an attachment to make it into a crib.  It is perfect! 

Tonight I begin painting the walls of her bedroom.  I still have to paint her bookshelf (you can see a little bit of it in the above picture) and re-cover the cushions of her rocker.  We bought a beautiful vinyl tree that Jeremy will put on her wall also.  We are going to buy magnetic primer to put on the wall in her "play corner" for her alphabet magnets, etc. Still have lots to do!

Special day

Today was special! Momma came over. We chatted it up for hours! Then we went over to visit the parents of my special friend, Ann. She and her whole family have been a major part of my life. They are always there!! Ann's parents had a truckload full of items for our sale. Such sweethearts. The best part was visiting with them and getting to share about the journey we have had so far and the one we will take in China. I adore sharing my story especially to people that love me and are truly excited.

Jeremy and I just got back from Home Depot with paint for our baby girl's room. So excited to get in there and transform her room! I am anxious to make it feel so warm and welcoming for her. I'll post pics soon.

So many orphans...

Yesterday was such a wonderful morning at church.  There were several things that happened that really moved me and the songs (which I hear all the time on the radio) did something different and made me tear up.  During one verse of a worship song, I was looking forward and suddenly I noticed a lady's arm that was wearing a 147 million orphan bracelet.  I recently ran across this site http://www.147millionorphans.com/ that makes an impact on the lives of orphans.  There are far too many in this world and this organization raises funds to help those orphans...all over the world!  When I found the site, I immediately purchased 2 bracelets and I wear at least one of them daily.  It is a constant reminder but it also helps me "plug" the site and the need for orphan care. 

I truly needed it yesterday.  I know why I am where I am and I received the confirmation yesterday.  Visit the site or show support where you can.  There are just WAY too many orphans in this world!

Junk into Gold

We are yet again preparing for a yard sale!  Last year we were successful with an adoption fundraising yardsale and made $800.  We had several people that donated their "junk" to us.  We looked at it as gold!!  It was so helpful and it brought profit straight into our adoption fund. 

We have already started spreading the word about our upcoming sale this year (late March or early April.)  It has spread like fire and we are receiving messages and calls almost every week!  The past several weekends we have worked picking up donated items, sorting into boxes and storing it away in our attic or shed.  We have also gone through our entire house, as we do each year before our sale.  It's amazing how much you accumulate in one year...or better yet; last year it was a keeper and since then it wasn't touched so it's now FOR SALE!!  I anticipate this sale as being huge!  We are planning 2 weekends.  One at my aunt & uncle's house and the other at our house during our neighborhood sale. 

The most amazing part of this experience is the amount of people that are so eager to help.  We have such giving and thoughtful friends that donate items.  We have an amazing support team of family and friends that are always there to give and spend tons of their time.  And last but NOT least we have those loving friends that come for the event and to show support.  These are all the people that truly love us and more importantly our sweet baby girl, Grace.

Patience

I have always been told "Patience is a Virtue."  I woke up this morning thinking, "Wow I should be one of the most virtuous people around!"  In all seriousness, this has been a challenge but an awakening experience for us.  We talked the other night about how different this is from a pregnancy.  Most women have 9 months of waiting and preparation.  We have had years.  The advantage is we haven't been under a lot of pressure.  I feel so lucky!  God chose this path for us; we were chosen to take a much different road then a lot of other people.  That gives me chills as I type.  As we close our eyes each night and wait for her, she is doing the same...waiting for us!

Blog-aholic

My name is Sarah and I am a blog-aholic!  I am obsessed with reading blogs!  Not all blogs though, mainly blogs about adoption.  Every day I get up and look forward to reading about the 6 or 7 current families that blog from China.  They are adopting their sweet ones and I just love to read about their daily adventures.  Jeremy has this ever growing list of items that we are taking to China.  Each day, I add to this from reading about the necessities that these families are mentioning.  The ridiculous thing is that this morning I thought to myself, "Oh no! These families will be returning home in the next week or so, I have to find more blogs!!" 

I probably need an intervention.  Should this go on for 6-8 more months???  ;)

Big Steps!

We have really made a lot of progress the past few weeks! I never heard back from the 2nd try on the Biometric Fingerprinting so we assumed that was a good sign.  A couple of weeks ago, Karla (our case worker) said we should be getting close to our approval so she called in to check.  She sent me an email last week saying we should be receiving our approval.  Wednesday of last week I received a strange phone call with the numbers 816.  Yes, only those three numbers.  It was a call from Immigration Services saying I needed to fax her a copy of our marriage license from the courthouse, not our marriage certificate.  So, I jumped right on that the very same afternoon.  Thursday morning I got the "816" and she said she still had not received it.  This time I scanned and emailed it to her.  I asked her (being my nosey self) if this meant that we were closer to being approved and she said "Oh no! I have already approved you!"  Yippee!!!  On Saturday, we received the letter!!  This is extremely important.  This means that now our Dossier (all required paperwork) can be sent to China.  The letter states that we are suitable to adopt from another country.  Karla is working on authenticating our Dossier which takes approximately 2-3 weeks.  We have already mailed the payments for that process and our first payment that will be wired to China. 

I spoke with Karla this morning and she said to expect a referral in March.  After we are matched with a referral, it could take up to 6 months before we travel to China.  We are so excited and feel so blessed!  Thank you, God for choosing us to take this path!