Adoption Garage Sale

It has been 6 months since my last post!! How did I let that happen? Life has changed a lot and we have been quite busy with many adventures.  Throughout the next few weeks, I am going to attempt to play catch-up. There are so many things to share and many things that I want to remember.

In the last post, we were waiting to travel to China. We had a garage sale right before we left for China that just blew us away. We received so much love and support through what started off as your typical garage sale. It turned into a breakfast serving, lunch serving, barn full, outside full, friends & family supporting us all day. God clearly put his stamp of approval on our sale.

Thanks to Mike and Carmon for giving us their barn for 4 months. That was a huge blessing. Nick spent months cleaning out the barn and setting things up for me. I have an amazing husband and he showed me how much his heart was into our adoption.

Nick's parents donated their garage sale items for our sale which was a good percentage of the goods. As the months of preparation started, boxes of other peoples things started to just show up. Everyday that I opened the barn doors, there were more boxes of items being donated. Talk about humbling, I had many amazing friends donate their time and work in prepping for the sale.

My sister-in-law and my good friend, Clacey, came all day to help manage the food that was being served. They were a true blessing as this made me free to explain to customers why we were having the sale and what the monies were being used for.

The money raised that day went towards our travel expenses and was a huge help.

In summary, this was a garage sale that only God could pull off. 

We are so grateful to all of you for your items, financial donations, your time, 

donated food, and so much more

Travel Approval

We have TRAVEL APPROVAL!!!!!!

China has officially approved us and now we get to go to China! 

Our agency is very certain we will be able to travel on June 5th. 

Yes, that is right.... ONLY 13 days!!!!!!! 

We still need to wait for our Consulate appointment date. 

This appointment will tell us when we will be able to come home. 

The holiday on Monday is causing some delays with scheduling. 

We will know Tuesday when our Consulate appointment is. 

After we get this date, we can book our flights, hotels and travel details. 

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. 

Welcome, Little One

Nick and I spent many weeks in deep prayer seeking God's will before starting the adoption process. Finally, on February 17th 2013, we started the journey with an email to our agency.

One year later, February 2014, brought many emotions. As the month started, I was struggling to have faith and my attitude was showing it. My eyes were opened and I spent some serious time with the Lord. Thankful his grace is renewed daily.

On Monday February 10th, Nick left for a week long trip with Samaritan's Purse. Periodically, I go to our agency's site to look at the waiting children. The children listed on this list, have not been matched with a family and are waiting for someone to pick them. I came across a little girl. She immediately caught my eye and I read her info. I wanted to know more about her and I wanted to show Nick her picture and info. I rushed an email to him and his response was " Beautiful..Can we get more info?". Could this be her...Could it really? My heart was heavy for her and by this point, tears were flowing pretty heavily. As I sat at the computer, my hopes were rising but I tried to not get too excited. On Wednesday, I emailed our agency and requested her file but they informed me that another family was interested in her but we could also be considered for her family.  They told me we had a week and a half to decide. My emotions were running wild and Nick was still not home.

I had international adoption doctors review her file and they called with their thoughts on Friday. Their reviews were very positive and realistic. All week, Nick and I spoke at night about our feelings on this little girl. We were on the same page and had a peaceful feeling. FINALLY, Nick came home Saturday morning and we discussed it more. I sent an email telling our agency that we would like to be considered for her family. Now our excitement levels were high. Sunday evening came and I realized that Monday was President's Day and I was afraid our agency was going to be closed. I voiced my concern to Nick and at that very moment, I received an email from my agency. They said the other family was also interested and they would form a committee to decide which family was a better match. I had to answer some more questions to help their decision. I forgot to ask when they would decide by so Monday I was a nervous wreck. Either us or the other family was going to receive devastating news that we were not chosen.

Exactly one year after starting the adoption process (February 17th), our agency called Monday evening to inform us that we had been chosen as her family. WHAT!!!!! ARE YOU SERIOUS???? Thankful tears just freely flowed. Eager to tell Nick, I called him immediately. Easy to say, we were both excited and surprised.

We submitted our LOI (Letter of Intent) on the 18th. The LOI starts the matching process of her to us. The Chinese will then send us LOA (Letter of Acceptance) stating they accept our family for this child. This could take a few days or a few months. We have more paperwork to fill out during this wait and then after we receive LOA, we can start our travel preparations. It will still be another 10-12 weeks till travel after LOA but at least we can start to plan details. 

So it is with thankful hearts and total excitement that we announce we have been matched with a little girl...

Leah Li Bertsch

She is  2 1/2 yrs old and will hopefully join our family this summer.

For now, we are not going to post pictures online for her safety. As you all know, we started the process in the special needs program. Her special need is that she is deaf. God has brought sign language into our family a couple different ways. This is not a special need that we are likely going to surgically correct but a need that our family is going to adapt to. When she comes home, we will have a doctor check out her hearing ability and see what our options are. We have started learning basic American Sign Language (ASL) and the kids are catching on quickly. We have a lot of preparation but we are thankful that God has brought her to us.

We have felt your prayers and would appreciate your continued prayers and support.

Melanie's Servant and Giving heart.

Melanie brought this paper home from school but somehow 

it was missed in the pile of school papers and 

went unnoticed until the evening. 

Nick and I were going through the days papers together and 

we both stopped in our tracks. 

" I would give $20 to the poor. $20 for food and close (clothes) for me. $60 for being a mishonary (missionary). And that is what I would do with $100. Because I love being nice. "

This writing assignment brought thankful tears to both Daddy and Mommy.

I pray that she keeps her eye on the true prize and serves with a faithful heart. 

This honest and sincere project shows us that she is looking for ways to serve.

God is going to use this child and I am very excited to watch.

God Providing

God Providing through you...

Money seems to be a touchy subject especially when you are asking other people for help.

If you do not already know, it is very humbling. Truly humbling.

When we started our adoption process in February, we knew knew that the financial aspect of adoption was going to be a hurdle.

We started asking ourselves tons of questions...Where were we going to get $30,000? Where we in over our heads? Would friends and family help support us? Do we want to ask people for their financial support? Will we be able to take advantage of the adoption tax credit? Will this change our family's financials for the rest of our lives?

We put our faith in the Lord and gave it all to him. Immediately, we started saving money. We cut way back on any optional spending, I started working more jobs to earn extra cash and we began putting money aside from our weekly paychecks. We have faith that God will provide if it is His will but we also understand that we need to do everything we can to contribute. We set up an account through adopttogether.org as a way of tax deductible giving. During our Fall Fundraiser, we were blessed more than expected. We were amazed but had a calm feeling that must have come from the Lord. Although our fall fundraiser is done, we have still been receiving gifts from family and friends.
 Gifts keep coming in and we feel a calm reassurance every time a gift comes through. Your gifts not only provide support but it also shows us that we are on God's path and he is directing the way.

Today, I would like to give you all a little idea of what expenses come with adoption, what we have raised so far and what is ahead of us.

Here is a link to our Adoption Fundraising Page.
This page breaks down all our expenses and shows what we have paid so far.
http://bertschfamilyjournal.blogspot.com/p/breakdown-of-adoption-expenses.html

Since we have raised an amazing amount already, I decided to add a fundraising thermometer to keep track of the total amount raised through Adopt Together and personal donations. Check it out in the side bar and watch for updates.

God has and is doing amazing things in our adoption journey. If you have not already, I would like to ask you to prayerfully consider supporting our journey in bringing our daughter home from China. Your support will be life changing to her life and to our family. We would appreciate your help!

https://www.adopttogether.org/bertschfamily

2 Corinthians 9

LID!

LID!!!

Log In Date

11/26/13

Our dossier has officially been logged into the CCCWA system. 

(The China Center for Children’s Welfare and Adoption).

This is a huge step in our journey. 

We are now eligible to receive a file from the shared list. The shared list comes out once a month at night and agencies wait up to find children that match adoptive family profiles. 

Things will be pretty quiet on the adoption journey until we receive a match. 

Please pray with us as we wait for God to show us our daughter.

we are praying for patience,

we are praying for wisdom,
we are praying for our daughter's health,
we are praying for the paperwork,
we are praying for the caregivers who are taking care of our daughter,
we are praying that God will prepare our daughter's heart for the crazy road ahead,

we are praying that God will prepare all of our children for this transition,
we are praying that He will prepare us for the final part of our journey.

Will you join us on our knees?

Dossier to China!

We are excited to say that we are 

finally DTC (Dossier to China)!!!! 

A dossier is what we have been working on for the past 11 months.
Pretty much an in depth look at our family.

Just a little to explain what went into the Home Study and Dossier...

Home Study:

• Home Study Application, Application Fee, Home Study Fee
• A Family Picture, a Data Sheet and Autobiography of both Nick and myself
• Certified Copies of our Birth Certificates and Marriage Certificate
• Copies of our Driver’s Licenses and Auto Insurance
• Our most recent IRS 1040
• Financial Statements
• Employment Verification Letters
• FBI Fingerprinting for both Nick and myself, as well as background checks
• Medical Statements from our physicians
• A Fire Inspection, Safety Audit and Home Evacuation Plan 
• 12 hours of online adoption/parenting Training
• 3 Home Study Visits with our Home Study Social Worker (These visits are turned into an 11 page biography of our family.)
• Letters of Reference

The completed Home Study was then sent to Holt to be included with the Dossier.

Dossier:

(Most of these items had to be notarized, state certified in Indianapolis and authenticated in Chicago)

• Application Letter
• Our Home Study
• Adoptive Parents Form
• Certified Copies of our Birth Certificates and Marriage Certificate
• Copies of both of our Passport Pages
• Photos of the inside and outside of our home
• Photos of our family together, Nick and myself, and passport size photos of Nick and myself
• Three Letters of Reference 
• Employment Letters 
• Certificate of Financial Status
• Physical Exams and Medical Statements
• Police Clearances for Nick and myself done by our local police department
•  I-797- Immigration approval

On Friday the Nov 8th we sent our dossier to our agency. They reviewed it and found a problem. UGH! We quickly signed an addendum and sent it back next day air. It HAD to get there before Thurs afternoon in order for our papers to go to China on Friday. Whew, they made it! 

On Friday, Nov 15th, our Dossier was sent to China. 

It will arrive in China Monday and they will log it into their system. 

In a couple weeks, we should get our LID (log in date). This is a very exciting thing. After we have LID, we are eligible to receive a referral. 
So, it could happen at any time. Of course, it could take a while too so we are trying not to get our hopes up. 

We would love additional prayers as God reveals HIS plan for us. 

Be sure to follow our blog for more updates.

Fundraiser Blessing

THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU.

During these past couple weeks, I have been trying to come up with the right words to express our gratitude towards the support we received through our Fall Fundraiser . 

Conclusion, there is not a single word to describe our sincere thankfulness. 

Nick's Brother, Matt and his wife Elizabeth, put a lot of hard work and love into this party. 
Elizabeth, had beautiful decorations and the most delicious food prepared. 
She can easily be described as a gracious person. 
Thank you!!!!

Beautiful garage for our food line.

Just a couple of the many food and kitchen help. Thanks ladies for all your help!

Our Welcome table with information and delicious caramel corn.

Nick's sister, Terri, helped me welcome our guests the entire day. She also made all the caramel corn (which was A LOT). 

Thank you Terri for all your hard work and for your help! 

We appreciate you!

On October 20, the Lord gave us a beautiful day to celebrate our adoption.

Many of you, our family and friends and even complete strangers, showed up for tons of food and fun. We were so humbled as we greeted each of you. 

Thanks Bob for helping!

My sweet niece, Alaya

We had come fun activities like......
balloon dart game (thanks Terri!)

 Carnival type games
Nick's Mom bought goody bags and prizes for all the kids. When they finished playing a game, they could fill up their bags with trinkets and candy. 

Nick made this barn rope swing. Tons of fun!

Nick also made a couple of these climbing ladders. 

Such a handy man!

 Playhouse and swing set

 Barrel train ride. 
My handsome husband having fun driving. 
Love you honey!

Hay rides 

 This inflatable obstacle course was the main attraction for both adults and kids. 

My lovely husband being a kid and LOVING it!!!

We were able to capture the entire day through a friend of mine. Kelsi gave of her time to come and photograph the events of the day. Not an easy task but she did a fabulous job! 
Thank you for your kindness and support!


This fundraiser was a huge success!!! 
It exceed our expectations.  
Yes, adoption is expensive but we know that God has a plan. 

Through your generous giving and loving support we raised almost $6,000! 

Wow, our God sure is amazing!
Our family is so blessed!
Nick and I are blown away by all the love, encouraging cards, financial donations and promises of prayer. Thank you!