Mathew 18:5 In whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me!

     I want to start off by saying how sorry I am for not updating the blog in awhile.  Not a lot has changed in our adoption process until this last week.  If any of you have been through the adoption process, there is a lot of waiting.  We have waited every step of the way.  You turn in a little bit of paper work then you wait until you turn in more just to wait.  We are getting closer and closer!

     We went to Naperville this last Monday and got fingerprinted for the last time.  The paperwork is now in the hands of immigration.  This is the last stop our paperwork has to take before we send it to our friends in Taiwan.  We are praying that the paperwork gets through in a very timely manner. 

     We just found out a couple of weeks ago that they are changing adoption in Taiwan quite a bit.  We are adopting independently through a Christian organization in Taiwan.  They have been allowed to give referrals for families adopting.  As of June 1st they will no longer be able to do that.  We are hoping and praying that God stays in the lead on this journey and that he helps our paperwork to get through and in their hands in time.  If not then we wait until this Organization partners with an agency and then we could get a referral. 

     We have learned that the adoption process can definitely be very hard because laws change all of the time.  We also know that getting all stressed out will not do anybody any good.  God has had this whole journey planned out from the beginning and he knows how it will work out all the way to the very end.  We are so thankful that we know and trust in him and he has it all under control.

     We are waiting to hear back from LifeSong an organization here in Illinois that helps financially with adoptions.  We should be hearing back from them any day now.  They help match donations up to a certain amount.  We are planning on having another garage sale/bake sale as soon as we find out.  I still have a ton of stuff from our last garage sale in the basement just waiting to find a new home.  If you would like to donate or help out with the garage sale/bake sale just let me know.

     All together the cost of the adoption is between $26,000 - $28,000.  We still have a long way to go financially but we are getting closer and closer everyday to getting our pictures of our soon to be little one.  I can not wait to see our new family member.  Our hearts are so full of love for this little child that we have not even seen yet.  We know that they are waiting on us right now and my heart aches to hold him or her and let them know how long we have waited and how much we love them. 

     Thank you all for being an incredible support system for us while we have been on this journey.  We know that God has so much more in store for our family.  This is about so much more than adoption.  It is about listening to his prompting and following him to places we never thought we could go.  I really feel that God has a calling for our family and I can't wait to share it with all of you after we bring our little one home. 

     I am sorry once again that it has taken so long for me to update our journey.  As many of you know months fly by really fast sometimes. We love you all and we appreciate your prayers!

Staying on His course!

     I love that when I opened my Bible tonight the first thing I read was Psalm 19:1-8.  It is about staying on God's course.  It says that as long as you keep walking His course and keep seeking him then you will be blessed.  Kent and I just started the 21 day Daniel fast.  We are seeking him deeply and know that he has amazing plans to bless our family.

     As many of you know we have been waiting and waiting for our home study to be finished.  We just found out it will probably be another 8 weeks before it is finished.  It would be so easy to get stressed out and impatient while waiting, but God has given us this extreme feeling of peace.  We know it is going to happen and it will happen right when it is suppose to happen.  God's plan is always on time and his timing is always right. 

     We have got to watch some friends of ours go to Taiwan and adopt there little baby girl through pictures on facebook.  It has been so exciting to get to watch and see the same path being walked that we are walking.  We have got to see the whole thing unfold.  Walking this adoption journey with others that are right there too is so comforting.

     We know that we still have a ways to go.  We have to wait on the paperwork first.  Then we can go to Lifesong For Orphans and they will help us in raising funds.  We are still so far away from our goal but God loves doing miracles and it is so awesome being able to have front row seats to this one.  He has already shown us that he can work through anybody.  He loves to show us his love in so many ways and it is so fun to see it coming from directions that you never expected.

     We are taking this time of waiting to get closer to him everyday.  It is so fun watching him and the closer to him I get, the more I see him everywhere and in everything.

     We love you all and thanks for all of your prayers and support.  There is not a day that goes by that someone does not ask us about our adoption.  We are so blessed to get to have you all walking beside us on one of the most amazing adventures of our lives!

Patience - The will or ability to wait or endure without complaint!

    I want to apologize for not updating the blog in awhile.  As many of you know this is a very busy season.  We have been making ornaments, shopping, spending time with friends and family and trying to keep up with both the kids activities.  We are spending the day tomorrow baking cookies  (which is about a month later than usual.)  Well a lot has gone on and not a lot has gone on with the adoption.  Confused?  I will explain.

     We have completed all we can do for our part of the first process in the State Of Illinois.  We have been waiting for weeks for DCFS to process our paperwork.  We have called our social worker a ton of times.  The only response we can get is that the state is really backed up.  We finally called Bill Mitchell who is the State Representative for our area.  I have worked with him before a few years ago and he helped us out in a situation with Dawson and the school bus.  We knew that he would jump in to help out.  He called DCFS to see what the hold up was.  He was then told that when the state made all their cut backs that was one of the jobs effected.  There is only one lady who processes the paperwork for adoptions in Illinois. 

     We then explained our journey and how the law in Taiwan has passed to stop International adoption.  If we can get the paperwork finished and finish our journey before July we should still be OK.  I know it would just be easier to switch countries and be put on another waiting list but God has not released us from Taiwan.  We really feel as though he has laid this all out and that is the direction he told us to go.  We know that his timing and his plan are always perfect and no matter what happens that it was all his will.  He has had this planned from the very beginning and we have learned that trusting him is so much easier than fighting him and trying to go our own way.

     Bill Mitchells' office got a hold of the lady that does all of the adoption paperwork.  He asked her if she could put our file on the top of her stack due to our situation (the law passing in Taiwan.)  We are now just waiting to hear back and we are praying for a miracle that our paperwork gets found and finished.  There could not be a greater Christmas present. 

     About a month ago God put something on my heart and I feel it is very important to share.  We were having a conversation and he opened up my heart and eyes and said "If you can not trust me 100% in your life then how can you trust me to bring your little one home."  Wow, that is huge.  I go to church and pray everyday and thought that my relationship with him was going just great.  Surprise he loves to shock you back into reality sometimes and he did me that day.  Well, since that day I have been trusting him with all that I have and all that I am.  I am expecting him to do big miracles because I know that he is true to his word.  I have put all my trust in him and I know he will make sure our little one gets home.

Thanks for all of your continued support and I am so sorry it took me so long to update you all on our adoption!  We are just learning to be patient and watching God's plan unfold in his time.

All Things Are Possible Through Christ Who Strengthens Me!

     It has been awhile since I last updated the blog and a lot has came up.  The last time I updated we were just waiting on DCFS to get our paperwork finished.  Well, we are still waiting.  Our social worker told us it would be about 2 weeks and it has been 5 weeks.  We are now going on week 6.  This is only the first of two trips for our paperwork.  It has to be sent to DCFS twice.  I am starting to think that our papers are lost in a pile somewhere.  Prayers for our paperwork to get found and processed are very welcomed right now. 

     There has been another small kink put into our process.  We knew at the beginning of our adoption that they were trying to make some changes to the adoption process in Taiwan.  They were suppose to make these changes at the beginning of next year.  They were trying to pass a law that stopped international adoption in Taiwan.  We knew that it was not a big deal because if you were already in the process you were grandfathered in and the adoption would still be completed.  Well, they decided to move the date up to try and stop international adoption.  They passed the law last week.  Since our paper work from DCFS is still in limbo we have not officially started our process in Taiwan yet.  We are told however that the law will probably not go into effect until July.  If we can hurry and get the paperwork back and get the process started and finished by then we would still be OK.

     We are asking for prayers that our paperwork gets found and processed quickly.  We know that God has our path all planned out and his will, will be done.  I have prayed and asked God to take away all the uneasy feelings and all of the weight that my heart is bearing.  It is so hard knowing that someone else is holding your future in their hands and it can't get started until they make it start.

     Thank you all so much for all of your support and prayers.  We know that it is only by God's will that this whole journey began.  The outcome is going to be an amazing miracle that is a true testimony of his great love.

The Waiting begins!

     I thought I would update you all on how our adoption is going.  As many of you know with adoption there is a lot of waiting that comes along with it.  Well, that is where we are right now.  We finished our home study and sent our paper work to DCFS.  They have to look it over and send it back to our social worker.  Well, it has been a month now and we are still waiting for them to look at the paper work.  Once the paperwork gets sent back to our social worker she has to send one more paper to them and then it will be finalized.  It is really hard waiting for someone else to get your future started.

     We are asking for prayers that our paperwork would get a chance to get reviewed and they would get it mailed back in a timely manner.  We know that waiting is a huge part of the adoption process but usually this is not when the waiting begins.  This paperwork is usually done being processed in a couple of weeks.  We know that God's timing is always right but our hearts are so ready for the next step.  Thanks for standing by us and for all of the prayers.

God Moves In The Most Amazing Ways!

     In Christ I am of royal lineage.  I am a child of the King.  My Father, the King, provides me abundant blessings not only in the life to come but in my day-by-day earthly life.  We have been watching God move in the most incredible ways.  His blessings in the past couple of months have been unbelievable to watch.  I know bringing our little one home is just the beginning in this new chapter in our lives.  His plan goes way beyond that.  I want to share with you a couple of the heart warming stories that we have had the privilege to witness in the last week.

     As many of you know I have a 15 year old daughter who is a young woman after God's own heart.  She walks with him like no other teenager or most adults that I know. If you can't find her around the house she is usually either studying for a test, sending and receiving messages from a couple of dear friends on facebook, or in her room reading her Bible.  God has blessed me with some pretty amazing kids.

     Sam met a young man last year through our church.  He was traveling with a band that came to visit.  He is a 16 year old young man that absolutely loves the Lord.  The two of them have stayed in touch via facebook.  He lives a few states away.  He told Sam one day that he really felt as though God had put a number on his heart and he was going to work real hard and save the money to send us for the adoption.  Sam received a letter in the mail this week with a check for $500.00.  I know that God works through many people but watching him work through a teenager just absolutely warms my heart.  I can not thank him enough for all of the hard work that he did to help give us a donation to bring our little one home.  Now if that is not humbling I don't know what is.

     I have another really cool story to share with you.  We worked really hard to put a garage sale together in 9 days.  Many of you know that we live in the middle of the woods and a garage sale sounds like a pretty bad idea.  That is true unless it is God that that is leading it.  We threw together a garage sale in 9 days.  We held it last weekend at the same time that the Nature Center down the road had their Fall Festival.  I had some pretty amazing friends come and help our family pull together one really miraculous sale.  While my girlfriends and I were sitting and chatting we noticed a lady come in with her 2 year old child.  He was just adorable and we all kind of initiated conversation with his momma.  She walked around and then after a short time of looking grabbed a 25 cent dinosaur and came over to pay.  She handed my friend a twenty.  When my friend Jenny went to get her change she said "No please keep it."  "See our little guy here is adopted and we were out driving and I saw your signs."  "We felt we really needed to stop and do this".  Then as fast as she walked up she exited.  It was really moving to see God at work.

     Our kids proved to be very hard workers the day of the sale.  They stood on the corner flagging down cars with the signs.  They brought us in so many people and we were so thankful to have them there.  Our sale raised $500.45.  Thank you to all of you that came and found treasures and helped us get a little closer to bringing our little one home. 

The joy of the Lord is your strength.  Nehemiah 8:10

We Are So Blessed!

     This week we have been putting together a last minute garage sale.  We have found out that for the nest step in our journey we are going to need $6,220.00.  We have been thinking about having a garage sale but did not think that we could get one put together before winter.  Well God knew we could.  He decided that we could put one together in less than 2 weeks.  The Nature Center right by our house is having their fall festival this next Saturday.  Well, since we live in the middle of no where a garage sale was probably not going to work.  As God would have it this Saturday hundreds of people will be driving right past my house.  Well, we figured why not give it a try?
     We have been getting donations for the sale and I have been going through everything in our house.  I figured if it is around just because I like it and not because I need or use it, then it is time for it to go.  We know that God has provided us with exactly what we have needed so far and there is no doubt that he will keep providing through this whole process.  We know that we have to work at raising the funds and that as long as we are doing our part he will surely intervene. 
     The cool part is we have been watching another couple that is going on our exact journey.  They are also adopting from where we are.  It is so neat to hear their stories and be able to watch God work hard in their lives to bring their little one home as well.  They are a couple months ahead of us on their journey and it is so cool to see where they are and know that we might be there really quick.
     There are 147 million orphans in this world and we are so excited to make that number one less.  I love being pregnant without being pregnant.  It is so awesome when people ask if we are adopting a boy or girl.  Well, we do not know yet.  It is like being pregnant and waiting for the ultrasound.  As soon as we get a referral we will know.  Waiting is hard but it is also so much fun.  The anticipation is overwhelming yet wonderful.  We can not wait to start getting all the baby things ready.  We want to wait and find out for sure if it is a girl or boy and we also want to make sure we know exactly what age so we kind of have an idea of sizes and toys. 
     Our family is getting stronger everyday.  We are all walking this journey together.  There has been a lot of major bonding going on preparing to expand our family.  Dawson and Sam are both so excited.  We babysat for a friend the other night and we all were working together to make things run very smooth.  We had a great time and we can not wait for our little to come home so we can take care of them and love them to pieces.
     Our sale is this Saturday at 8:00.  We have had some close friends offer to help out.  We are so excited to see what God has in store and we hope to see you all there.
     This song is an amaing song that I had to share.  Since this adoption process started this song has a whole new meaning to our family.