Garage Sale...

SAVE THE DATE.......

We have been blessed with a wonderful location. 

Mike & Carmon Bertsch are allowing us to use their huge barn. Donations have already started to coming in and we have some really good stuff. I will be posting pics later next week of some of the larger items. 


Our girls would are very excited to have a part in this garage sale. 
In the early morning hours, they will be selling doughnut holes and coffee. 

Be sure to stop back by for a delicious lunch served by 
my excited children, husband, and family. 

We would like to not have any pre-sales. 
We do have a lot of items that would be easy to sell before the sale but these items are also the items that will bring more people to the sale.  Thanks for understanding!


Hope to see you all there!

Baby Picture

Adoption is hard but so rewarding. It felt great to finally be able to share a picture of Leah yesterday. It made it all seem a little more real. It is still hard to believe that in just a few short weeks, I will hold her in my arms. Now, she may not like me to hold her but I am excited to be given the chance. 

After accepting Leah's file in February, we have been blessed with pictures and videos but no baby pics. Leah was found and was taken to the Shangrao Children's Welfare Center on August 7, 2012.  By this time, she was 13 months old   Her mother did not know that she had difficulty hearing so she likely was planning on keeping her and was well taken care while still in her care.  Huge praise!!

One evening, I was researching her orphanage in Shangrao. Well, I found something that was totally unexpected and brought me to tears (doesn't take much). As I scrolled through the first page of images that Google brought up, I found myself staring at a little girl... IT WAS LEAH!! 

Our agency Holt, did an article on her orphanage back in April 2013 and put a picture of her in it. This is the youngest "baby" picture that we have of her so far. In this picture, she had been at the orphanage about 7 months. We had been given a picture almost identical to this one just days before finding this picture through my Google search. 

Our first "Baby Picture"

20 months old

Introducing our daughter Leah

We are so happy to share with you our daughter....

I800 Approval

4/23/14

Today we received another piece of the adoption puzzle. This morning I received an email with our I800 approval, which is the Petition to Immigration to make Leah an immediate relative. Next we are waiting for a PDF file and numbers to file for Leah's visa. This should come beginning of next week.

Tomorrow, I am sending our visa applications to Chicago.  Those will take a week or two before we receive our passports back, stamped and ready to go.

We are almost there, just a couple more steps to go before we get our travel approval. 


Praise be to the Lord!!!

Fundraising Friday....

Fundraising Friday....

The expense part of adoption is messy, tricky, and scary. It took a lot of faith for us to begin the international adoption process and not have the funds available.We started the process and God provided every penny. We started working extra hours, spending less, and also starting fundraising. 

After we set up our account through Adopt Together, we sent out a support letter and was given the gift of a fall festival to raise funds. WOW, we were blown away by the support and generosity. Your giving has been such a blessing. 

Our expenses are split into 3 sections...

• Section 1 was the applications and a lot of the paperwork. PAID  
• Section 2 was the orphanage donation and agency payment. PAID 
• Section 3 is travel. 

Since we are now ready for the final couple of steps, we are now ready for our travel expenses. To understand our costs more you can check out this page.

Because of your giving, we were able to send a check to 

our agency which paid for section 2. 

THANK YOU!!!!!!

LOA!

After  50 days of waiting...WE HAVE LOA!!!!!!!

Yesterday, my agency called and said they have our letter of acceptance.
This letter states that we have been accepted to adopt Leah.
We will have it in our hands today! This is a huge step in the waiting process.
All the other steps from here are little ones (week or two) and very predictable wait times. 

Our next packet of papers going out today is the I800.
This paperwork ties Leah's papers to our paperwork in the US.
We will wait about 2-3 weeks to get this approval.

A very likely date of travel will be either 
June 13th or July 4th. 

Our agency only has a couple days per month that they allow 

travel because they like to have everyone in groups. 

We have a lot to do to prepare.

Besides more paperwork, IT IS TIME TO START PACKING!!!

Please pray for Leah. 

She has received our family photo book but will not understand 

what is happening and why we are taking her.

Taking her away from the only thing she has ever known. 

Taking her away from her foster family. 

Taking her away from her normal routine. 

Taking her away from everything familiar. 

Please pray for her heart to prepare for this journey. 

Now that we have this acceptance, we can share pictures. 
I will post soon. :)

Cleaning out the house...

We are still waiting on our Letter of Acceptance. It has been a long 45 days and could be another 45 days. God's timing is perfect but the waiting is not easy. 

While we wait, we are planning a HUGE garage sale in the near future. This will be our last adoption fundraiser before we travel. You have blessed already with so much and we are so grateful for your generosity. The money that we raise with this year's garage sale, will go towards our travel expenses and in-country expenses. I will post later how our fundraising is going and what is coming next. 

 Maybe you need to clean out the house or attic but do not have time to have your own sale? If you would like to donate items to our sale, we will gladly take them. We are expecting this to be larger than our normal yearly garage sale. We are still looking for somewhere to have the sale. If you have a large place that we could use for the sale, please let us know. 

We have been so blessed by our family and friends. It is so fun to share this journey with all of you. 

YOU have been a huge part in this process. Thank you.

Exciting update.....

When we said yes to Leah, her file was about 6 months old. We had 3 videos and 4 pictures with her initial file. We asked for an update and received 2 photos that really terrified me and concerned me. I was concerned her health was declining and there may be more issues. My agency also had concerns and thought the pictures looked VERY different. They requested another update to see if those photos were just "bad pictures" or if she was sick. Last week while on vacation, we received a video. Leah was healthy and well. This calmed my worries a little but the video still did not look current. Through all the videos and photos, I could not get an exact timeline of when they were taken and what was current. I was scared that they were hiding something and worried she was very ill but they did not want to show us. This was our second update and was probably our last. 

By total surprise last night, we received a wonderful surprise... ANOTHER UPDATE.....with 5 beautiful photos and 5 amazing videos. YES, 5 of each!!! She looks healthy and a little older which is wonderful. This update really does look current and she is very healthy. ALL my concerns and worries went away.  

Philippians 4:6-7

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Blessed and thankful for this update of our daughter.   

Soon we will be able to share her beautiful smile with you.

Please continue to pray for Leah as we get closer to her 

joining our family but leaving the only place is has ever known.