Blessings Abound

Where have I been?! I realized I have not updated on TWO major milestones.

We were DTC Dossier to China on 7/17. It was an expected 3-4 week wait after that...we were told by our case worker. However Jeremy and I had been watching the other families at our agency and their wait typically lasted 2weeks.

On 7/29 I received a phone call that we have LID (log in date.) We are officially in the system in China and are now just waiting on a referral of a child. This is a very exciting time but we need to pray! This is the time we pray for our agency as they search for files for not only our family but several others. Through God's guidance and God's timing they will find perfect matches. Let's just pray them through it!

Much love,

Sarah







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Moving right along!

We are coming up on DTC in the next few days. Since things are moving right along we are trying to get our final costs of total adoption and travel in. We need approximately $5400 to complete everything. Jeremy and I thought we could try something new and offer several fundraisers from now until we travel. We have some really great ideas so stay tuned!

To start us off I have (4) jute handbags available and I'd love to monogram initials/letters of your choice on them! $15 ea. I have (1) tan w/black scarf tie available and
(3) aqua available. The handbag has a zipper closure and one pocket on the inside.
Let me know if you are interested!



(Different views of each color handbag)


"Rejoice always. Pray continually. Give thanks in every situation because this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Much love,
Sarah



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Grace

Grace means "the love and mercy given to us by God because God desires us to have it, not because of anything we have done to earn it."

KEEP GOD FIRST!!

Our I800A was approved on 6/18 (my Dad's birthday!) but now just waiting on the actual letters in the snail mail. Jeremy received his yesterday so fingers crossed mine will be today. Next step is that our Dossier will be sent to China. (DTC) The process has been taking 2-3 weeks lately. After this we will be getting logged in to China's system. That might take another 2-3 weeks. Then finally we will be at the point of this process to receive a referral of a precious child.

I'm already finding times of weakness when I long for my child and anxiety when things don't happen on my timeline.

Lord, I need You
Oh I need You
Every hour I need You
(Chris Tomlin)

I really need to get it together and quit time lining again! I said I wasn't going to do it this adoption. And I fell right back into it. I need to get on God's timeline and trust that there are reasons for every day and minute when we haven't received a document or an email.

Much love!
Sarah

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Be Still

"The Lord will FIGHT for you; you need only be still." Exodus 14:14

I have a ton to talk to you about!

First I will briefly mention a subject that was too painful to blog a couple weeks ago.  Haley moved home with her mom.  Which is what we always wanted to work towards!  I don't want that statement to be taken wrong.  We just wanted it to be the appropriate time.  We knew it was coming so we were somewhat prepared.  She was more than ready.  Her mother had mentioned this to her for the past month and a half so Haley began shutting us out of her life.  Things in our household became quite difficult because she distanced her relationships with us.  It was sad and painful.  Because Jeremy and I have had training and extensive reading relating to this type of situation through the adoptions we were familiar as to why she was showing us this behavior.  Never enough to prepare your feelings though!  All I can say is please love on every foster parent you know!  They are truly amazing people.  We had her for 6 months and she was our child. The day she left hurt me but to her it was an exciting day as she was able to reunite with her mom.

(right before she left)

We had our yard sale this past weekend!!  It was a HUGE success.  We can't say thank you enough to all of you for your fabulous donations!  My generous aunt and uncle let us use their yard for the sale and their garage to help store the abundance of items for weeks.  We spent the past couple weeks pricing in our garage and their garage.  My parents, cousins, aunts/uncles, brother & sis-in-law, nieces, friends helped us for days until late at night to make this sale happen.  The multiple nights of rain (mass amounts of down pour!) did not stop us.

NG testing the items out!

  

The night before came and so did the rain. It didn't stop until 8:00 or so.  I felt so discouraged!  I thought to myself...we have an entire garage full, an enclosed trailer full and we have to be completely set up by 7:00 a.m. tomorrow.  HOW????  Oh and rain expected all weekend so we have to set the yard sale up to be rain ready.  Our crew came together and got everything moved around for us.  We sent everyone home by 10 and Jeremy, Drake, Mikayla and I worked through the night.  We were able to complete a lot but not finish. The trailer had not been emptied and still had boxes and boxes packed away.  Family started to arrive Friday morning to help us and so did the buyers!  We worked and unpacked ALL day!  There was not one minute on Friday that we were without a customer.  I could not believe it.  And no rain either.

So many customers!  See all the boxes of DISorganization??!!  Drives me CrAzY!

 Around 4:30 p.m. we tarped our merchandise and Drake and Mikayla spent another night outside protecting our items.  Saturday morning came early for us to have another successful day. We were prepared by Saturday though.  We had rearranged the setup, all items were out on tables, everything was organized! Rain held off and we even had "buck a bag" from noon until about 2:30.  That helped move the final merchandise.  At the end of the day we were only left with less than a truck load of items!  We donated those items to CCC and done for the day at about 4:45.  Then the rain came.  God fought for us!

We made $2515.21!!!!!


THEN we received this in the mail...

This means we are scheduled for our Biometrics Fingerprinting!  Another step in our Dossier process.  We are going Friday to Birmingham for our appointment.  So excited!  This was the only thing we were waiting on other than the I-800a in the Dossier process.  When we had this process for Natalee's adoption it wasn't so easy.  My fingerprints are hard to read.  They unfortunately do not show up.  The first did not take so I had to return.  They told me to use Corn Husker's or some lotion like that to help moisten my fingertips.  I have been using "Working Hands" every day for months in preparation for this appointment.  Let's hope this has helped!

Please pray with us for some specific requests:
1.  Haley in her transition in her new home life
2.  Our adoption agency and all agencies involved during this paper process
3.  God's perfect timing and our hearts as we understand His timing
4.  Referral as we near that in the next few months
5.  friends traveling to meet their child in China next week!
6.  unspoken for my bff <3

Much love,
Sarah

Let's play catch up!

Last week started with Haley's 4th grade graduation from West Morgan!



Our 1800a was overnighted to the USCIS on Tuesday. I immediately started applying for grants and working on our checklist of items for our dossier. We are almost finished with those items to mail to the agency. The only issue that we don't have yet is Natalee's passport. We are getting that processed this week and having it expedited will take approximately 3 weeks. I somehow dropped the ball on that and thought we had more time. Procrastinator here!

We ended the week with Natalee's end of the year ceremony at our church preschool. She didn't cry this time and she even sang for a couple of the songs. I was one proud mom!



Our yard sale is going to be HUGE! We filled our entire garage and moving it to my aunt and uncle's house and filling theirs too! We are so thankful for the donations. Jeremy, my parents, and I worked and worked all week and weekend sorting and preparing for the sale. Now on to pricing! Beyond blessed! Can you help us spread the word?

5/29 & 5/30
1404 Runnymead Ave SW
Decatur, AL 35603

Prayers for your week to be as abundant as mine!

Much love,
Sarah


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Through Prayer and Petition

This has become so apparent to me this week. I love how God shines on His time not just ours! We received the phone call on Monday! After several weeks going back and forth making changes to our Home Study, it is finalized and approved. We were so eager to get the next step (Immigration) in process so we had actually already filled out paperwork and compiled important documents. All we had to do was receive the call, sign and date the docs, write a check, and drop in the mail. And we did! So we are excited to say we are already in process for our dossier. Even though I was ahead of the game, the agency still has tedious work on their end so it takes time :)

Thank you for all of your yard sale donations! We are so blessed with amazing friends!! We have a packed garage. I mean floor to ceiling! It is still on schedule for 5/29 and 5/30 at my aunt and uncle's house. We also plan on having a Mellow Mushroom fundraising day in June. More details on that soon.

Much love!
Sarah


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Instilling Gratefulness

Gratefulness has not really been a problem for me. My parents were not rich but they were not poor. I honestly never knew what type of income we had growing up. They provided our needs and we didn't want excessively. They taught that gratefulness goes hand in hand with responsibility and respect.

We are trying our best to instill this trait in our home as well. We've had years of the constant prompting of "Thank You's" and sending cards. I must say it feels so good when we are in public and someone does something for NG and I hear her say the words! My insides scream "Yes, Yes, YES!!" You know the feeling!

It's been a bit more difficult with Haley. She has much prompting and still has difficulty convincing to be grateful. I haven't quite pin pointed the issue there but there is always the fact that she spent 10 years in different environments before our home.

I say all this to lead back to this...these are basic necessities for our children. I have learned the importance of this as a parent. I can only imagine if these simple traits are instilled to a higher standard AS toddlers and children, then would Baltimore be in quite the mess? Maybe, maybe not. It all starts with what we teach our children. Parents have to be involved! It may not always work but why not spend every minute you have with that child trying.

Keep God first!

Much love,
Sarah

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