Eight Months Home

The boys have been home now for eight months.  So much have changed in such a short time in their little lives.  Anderson is now 3 years old and is so happy.  He jumps around the house constantly and is learning English very well.  Alec has had a lot of changes.  He now has a cochlear implant and he is learning to listen, speak, and use signed exact English to communicate with others.  He is doing extremely well with that.  For example, he read to the principal the other day at school all by himself.  So impressive for a child who had zero language just eight months ago!!!

The children all love each other very much.  Adelaide and Anderson walk around constantly holding hands.  They sing to with one another and are great play mates.  Ayden and Alec were instant twins.  They do everything together including play soccer together.  They played this last fall on a soccer team together with dad as their coach.  They would pass to each other and worked with one another to lead the team to victory. Alec did extremely well considering this was his first time to play an formal sport. 

Our journey with the boys is not over.  We are in the process now of formally requesting change of birth date for Alec.  China had to make their best guess on his age and he has such a unique story.  I am sure China does a good job determining ages but Alec's situation was just so different.  Our doctors and dentists have evaluated him and determined him to be 6 years old.  We have changed his birth date successfully in Alabama, but now we are waiting to hear back from our federal government.  Please pray for him and that the government does the right thing for him. 

We are so blessed and are surrounded by so much love.  We want to thank everyone for the continued love that is shown to us and support.  It is uplifting to know so many people care for us and pray for our little family. 

Home

We have made it home.  We enjoyed our three weeks in China, but we are all very thankful to be home.  Life in China was different and now we have to adjust the boys to our schedule and life.  They seem to be doing really well. Alec and Adelaide have become friends and AC and Anderson are buddies.  Anderson has quickly attached to me as he wants me to hold him all the time and carry him instead of walking.  On the other hand, Alec is such a big boy and he loves to play with John and Ayden sports outside.  We are all still very tired from the time zone change and I 've been told it will take around 2 weeks for us to get back on track.  I hope that we adjust quickly and that we can get a good nights rest. Anderson was in an orphanage and was given milk in the middle of the night.  This is a very bad habit that we are trying to break as we don't want his teeth to rot out of his mouth.  I have been working on it for a couple of weeks now and it is still a big issue.  He gets up around midnight every night and screams for milk.  Luckily, my children have a great pediatrician who has given me tips for helping him through this.  On the other hand, Alec is a great sleeper and will lay down and not get up until I go in his room in the morning. 

We were told that both boys were deaf.  Now, we have hope as the baby can hear what we say and is repeating words and phrases.  We have a doctors appointment for later this month and hope to find out to what extent he is deaf.  Our older son is deaf and we are teaching him sign language as he did not have any language to communicate before us.  He has caught on to some words and uses them such as "thank you" "sorry" "good" "I like" I don't like". 

Both boys are super cute and sweet.  We just love them so much and enjoy getting to know them.  We feel so blessed to have them as sons.  Also, we are so thankful to all the people who have helped us in this journey.  So many people have helped us in different ways and we are so thankful for the support. We know without you this would not have happened so quickly.  Thank you!

Traveling to China

In five days, our family will travel to China to adopt our boys.  We are picking up the older son first and have a scheduled Gotcha Day for 4/14.  The younger son will be picked up 4/21.  Our family is so excited and feel so blessed by God to be called for this journey.  We believe our God is mighty and is in every detail of this path.  I know He knows my tomorrow and will provide for us.  Personally, there are so many feelings going through me right now such as excitement to get my boys, overwhelmed by packing, anxious for meeting the boys, frustrated for all the people who will have to ride on the airplanes with our family, and love for all my children.  I had no idea that this journey would be so emotional and long.  This past year has felt like a long time.  We knew who our boys were and that we would get them back in July/August of last year.  To most, that is not a long time.   However, with every day that passes, every milestone, every holiday, and every step in the path our hearts have longed for our boys.  We want to meet them and let them know they are loved.  I can only imagine that God feels that way with us as His children.  He wants us to know Him and to seek Him.  So many people turn away from Him and close off their hearts from Him yet He desires us to know Him and love Him.  We do what we do because He first loved us and adopted us into His family. Thank you to those who have been apart of this journey with us and have prayed for us.

"And now these three things remain: faith, hope, and love.  But the greatest of these is love."  I Corinthians 13:13

Article 5 Drop off

Received a letter Friday that the NVC had our paperwork. So, upon demands from my sweet friend who is also adopting, I went ahead and called the NVC. I requested that they send me the cable letter via email(Monday). The NVC also let me know that they had our paperwork as of Friday. On Tuesday,my sweet friend, urged me to call again to get the information I needed. I do not like to be pushy, but I knew we have to be in China by April 18. So, I reached out to some friends and had their families and my family pray at the same time that whoever answered my call would have empathy and would give us what we needed. After 30 minutes of being on hold, a man answered the phone. He said, how can I help you. I told him what I needed and he said do you have pen and paper? I couldn't believe it! What an awesome God who listens and answers prayers. I stayed up late filling out paperwork. Then, at 4:00 this morning I realized I didn't ask for our PDF. Ugh! So all day I kept starring at the screen and hitting refresh on my email. I asked for more prayers. Around one o'clock I got the email! I immediately sent it to my social worker. By 3:30 she had sent me an email saying our Article 5 was sent to China and will be dropped off tomorrow! Now we are waiting for pick up of article 5. Next will be Travel approval and then Consulate Approval. This will put us in China around April 16th. So exciting!!! Please pray that we get there before April 18th and for the boys. So much to do! And so much to be thankful for!!!!

The Trials of Waiting

We have been waiting since January 10th to receive paperwork from the government.  Unfortunately, we have not received what we need nor have we heard anything.  It is really hard waiting, especially since we submitted our paperwork with someone else who is also adopting two children and she has received her paperwork back.  This is very hard watching others progress in the process and know that our boys will have to wait a little longer than we had expected.  We are still not sure completely about when we will travel but we expect to leave sometime this spring.  Please pray for us during this time.  We are struggling with not being able to go ahead and get the boys. 

Living a God First Life

Today, my family visited a local church.  The title of the sermon was, "I have decided".   As I listened to the pastor, I couldn't help but reflect on my personal journey as it applied to his message.  Throughout this journey, we have encountered people who have questioned my husband and myself about what we do.  Such questions include, how can you possibly parent all your children?  What about your biological children God gave you? How can you afford all those kids?  What about college? Why not wait until your own kids are out of the house? How can you protect your children from being hurt from those kids?....My answer has always been because we have faith.  God has put us on this journey even when we tried not to be.  He continued to speak to our heart, put us in specific places, and led us down this path.  We are not adopting to "impress people"  or because "adopting from China is a new accessory".  We are adopting special needs children-I assure you they are not a new handbag.  I am glad to hear that adopting is spreading but realize that the body of Christ is becoming more obedient and realizing this is a mission field.  Christians are adopting because they want to be "the hands and feet of Christ" not because it is a "fashion trend".  John and I have decided we are not going to let anything keep or distract us from our calling in life and we are going to be faithful to our Lord.  We know what we are supposed to adopt and yes, we are doing this now because it is God's time for us.  We are not waiting, because that is not God's time for my family.  Is every family supposed to adopt and do it today? NO! We all have different callings in life and that is okay, none are more important than others.  It is also okay to wait if that is God's timing for your life.  I do not know what God calls other people to do nor the timing.  I can only speak for me and my family.

 As I end this post, I want to reflect on a passage of the Bible.  Luke 10:38-42  As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him.  She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said.  But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made.  She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself?  Tell her to help me!"  "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed.  Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."  There are a lot of distractions in life.  Too many times I have been like Martha.  Right now we want to be like Mary, we are choosing to live a God first life. 

LOA is on the WAY!

Praise God! Praise God!  We found out today that our letter of approval from the Chinese government is on the way.  We are just over joyed with the news and so eager to get to China to get our babies.  We are expecting travel to be around 3 months from now.  However, we are unsure if we will be able to travel at that time because we have some commitments (please pray for us that we figure out when we should go and to have peace with it).  Next week, we will attend a meeting about traveling to China and what all we need to know at that time will be available.  So, for those of you who have asked for a "wish list" from us, I might have something for you next weekend.  In the meantime, our family has been preparing for our boys to come.  We have taken steps to learn a new language which will help the boys, met with specialists, the school, and school board.  Everyone has been super generous to us with their time and resources and we know that God is equipping us with tools and friendships that will assist us in helping our children.  I am so amazed at how wonderful our God is and how he specifically designed us to be these boys parents.  God has led us down specific paths throughout our lives to lead us to where we are.  I am over joyed that I have been blessed to be these boys-and all my children's-mom. 
Along those lines, we heard more good news today.  Months ago, when we were reviewing files of children, John and I had to make hard decisions.  We had to recognize which children were supposed to be ours and which ones were not right for our family.  It was very hard and there were lots of nights where I cried because choosing these boys meant not choosing others and what did that mean for those un-adopted? During that time, there was one boy who stood out and I instantly fell in love with as well as John.  OH! He was precious!  However, I had to recognize that he just wasn't the right fit for us and we weren't the right fit for him.  Today, I received news that a family in another state sent in paperwork for him and the Chinese government has granted them Pre-Approval.  I have been crying tears of joy for this little guy and his family.  I just can't believe how God works.  He knows! He knows! He knows exactly what each one of us is doing and will do! He knows our plans, our dreams, and our journeys.  He placed it on my heart to move on away from this child and onto my boys so that this little boy could go to exactly the right family for him.  Today is a great day. 

I can not say it enough, God is Good! God is Good!