Chili Cook Off & Bake Auction

Eric's sister, Brandy, and her family will be hosting a chili cook off and bake auction for us on November 3rd. This is going to be a FUN event! We still have a few details to iron out but be looking for them sometime next week. So far we will have a band, courtesy of our talented nephew Zack, and a bonfire!! And the food! The food will be sooo good! Because they will be your wonderful creations! ;-)There will be a prize for the best chili so start getting your chili recipes ready. There will also be a prize for the baked good that sells for the most money. This will be a fun night to hang out with your friends while supporting a good cause. We can't wait to see you there!!!

A couple of fundraisers...You'll love them!

Our wonderful friend Teresa Grimes, owner of Across My Heart, is a talented artist who makes mosaic crosses. Teresa has generously offered to host a fundraiser through the month of October for Peter! Check out her facebook page to see her wonderful creations and mention that "It's for Peter!" when ordering. Thank you! Across My Heart We still have shirts for sale! They are such good conversation starters plus they are so nice looking! Here is what we have left: Y small-yellow (not a icky yellow, a pretty yellow!) Y small-pink (This one is a bit small than the yellow one) A M-lime green A L- 2 gray, 1 white, longhorn burnt orange A XL-2 gray, lime green, pink, yellow You really need to see these to appreciate them. If you would like to see a picture, please email me and I will send you one. lil_blesins@yahoo.com We are still selling puzzle pieces! We have a lot left. Let's get these sold so Peter can see how wanted he is!!

Some Updates!

We have received our LOA! (Letter of Acceptance) This is the letter from China that says we can officially adopt Peter! We have a bit more paperwork to fill out, along with some waiting then we will receive our travel dates!! We have been told 2 1/2-3 months! Can you believe that? It's really going to happen! We held our garage sale last Thursday and Friday. We raised $4200!! WOW!! It was a great two days. We had so many people helping us. Seventeen kids came and helped us throughout the day. It was so overwhelming at times and we were so happy. The weather was great, the customers were great, the help was awesome, and so much more. We pray that at least one person had a seed planted for adopting or fostering. Thanks to those who came and helped. Our Scentsy party was the a week ago last Thursday. We had such a fun time. We also had our friend Teresa's crosses here along with some other little fundraising ideas. We raised $350 through Scentsy and $96 from crosses! What a great night! A huge thank you to Linna Sutton and Teresa Grimes!

Need some new items?

Hello friends! We are starting 2 more fundraisers and wanted to let you know about them. So if you're tired of reading about our fundraisers, you should stop reading now! ;-) Both involve the talent and generosity of CHEC mom's so I hope you will support them! 1. Our sweet friend Teresa Grimes is donating a portion of the crosses that we sell to help us bring Peter home. Please check out her page Across My Heart on Facebook to see her designs. If you decide to order, please let Teresa or I know. You need to mention that what you order is for Peter's Fundraiser. These make great gifts! I have given one as a gift and they loved it. It's never to early to start shopping for Christmas! ;-) 2. Another sweet friend, Shelly Sellers and her daughter Jessi, have created these awesome t-shirts to sell to bring Peter home. We are asking $12 for each shirt. Coming up with this price was very hard for us because we know they are worth at least $18, if not more, but we want a lot of people to be able to get these. They are not only a great way to help us bring Peter home, but they are great conversation starters about fostering and adopting. So not only are you helping Peter come to his forever family, you may start a conversation that leads to another family to foster or adopt! We have many different sizes and colors. Please know you cannot pick your colors. She has pre-made several, out of the kindness of her heart, and that's what we have. Thank you all for what you have done for us!! We appreciate you more than you know!

Crayon Bags & Cosmetic Bags

My mom is making these wonderful crayon bags to raise funds for our adoption! They are $5 each and come with your choice of crayons or map colors. She has several different fabrics to choose from. (Picture below) She is also making cosmetic bags for $6! These would make great, inexpensive Christmas gifts for the girls in your life. ;-) Again, she has several different fabrics to choose from. Please let me know if you are interested and we will get you set up! Thanks!

You can now donate online!

We have a new feature on our blog! You may purchase puzzle pieces online or donate to our adoption online. We are so glad that it will be easier for people now. Just remember to let us know you donated so we can put your name on the puzzle piece!*Please note that paypal does charge us a small amount. We are fine with eating that money but we did want to make you aware of this. God will handle all the details!!

Fundraisers And More..The Real Story

We have been so blessed by friends who are helping us bring Peter home! Before Andrew and I left for our missions trip in late May a friend had called and asked if we wanted to take their date for a Chick Fil A fundraiser because they were no longer in need of it. I told her the name of another group who I thought could use it more and I thought that was the end of it. Nope! When we returned home 14 days later, Eric informed me we were having a car wash the next Saturday! This worked out great for me because it didn't give me a lot of time to think. We sent out texts and emails asking for helpers. We were so blessed by the amount of helpers we had! My kids had friends helping, we had friends helping, we had friends friends helping; it was great! We worked for 6 hour and we raised a total of: $1,000!! Our next fundraiser was a cooking class that our two younger children taught. This was great not only for fundraising but for their public speaking skills and being in charge skills. ;-) The classes were set for Thursday and on Wednesday night we only had 4 people for each class signed up. We had prayed for a total of 8. We were a bit bummed but were thrilled that we actually had people coming. On Thursday morning, we had 12 kids in each class!!! God is so good! 4 hours of work and we raised: $350!! (I am not counting supplies because it came out of my grocery bill!) Fast forward to the next Thursday..Our wonderful friend Allison hosted a Piggies and Paws party for us. Piggies and Paws is such a great idea anyways because you receive such a beautiful print. On Wednesday night 11 people were coming. I do not know how many people actually ended up coming (or coming later) but Ali said this was the biggest gallery she ever hosted at her home. We also sold necklaces that my sister made and puzzles pieces. We were there for about 4 hours. Total made: $500!! From three fundraisers we have made $1850!! God is so good! We spent a total of 14 hours on these. AND the fundraisers were not work. They were fun!! We had a great time visiting with our friends each time and seeing them get something in return. We know of at least 3 more fundraisers (besides the puzzle pieces) that we will be doing; Scentsy home party, garage sale, (HUGE ONE!) and mosiac crosses. I also plan on selling bread at our co-op and anything else I can think of! It's been amazing to watch God provide the $10,000 so far that has been needed. So if money is the reason you are holding up on adoption, don't let it!! He always provides if it's His plan!

A Puzzle For Peter

Puzzle for Peter This puzzle will me a lasting memory for our family and especially for Peter. When you purchase a puzzle piece for $5, your name will be printed on the back of the puzzle piece. When Peter joins our forever home, we will show him each name so he can see how wanted he was. We will then put the puzzle together as a family and hang it as a forever reminder of the miracle of God bringing Peter home. You may purchase as many pieces as you would like. We chose a boat puzzle because Peter loves boats. This fundraiser will be ongoing until the adoption but pieces could go fast so hurry and get yours! Thank you for your support! If you choose to send a check or the money in the mail you can mail it to: Aimee Akin 1406 Ruth Dr. Longview, TX 75601 Please indicate the name you would like on your pieces along with your payment. *Make sure you read the post below!!

Technology is awesome at times!

And this time it's really awesome! We had the chance to speak with Peter tonight on skype for an hour and a half!! How awesome is our God?! He is just adorable! Oh I am thrilled at the thought of having town sons!Oh my! Our translators were awesome!! May and Ryan have known Peter for three years now so they can get him to talk. He was very shy but very excited when we talked about the things we would be doing as a family. His face would light up when we talked about our fishing boat, playing with Andrew, and when he saw his room and place at the table. He did not receive his care package, :-( but he did know he was being adopted. The whole BMH staff is awesome and they are really working with him to make sure he understands adoption before he leaves. We wanted to make sure that he knew that even though he wouldn't see us for six months that we think about him every day and that family means love and forever. I honestly could just burst with happiness right now. I am beyond excited! He thought Abi was cute. LOL We have to make sure he understands she is his sister. Waiting six months will be hard but after tonight, I know how much more sweeter it will be!! He told his buddy that he is nine but we will still celebrate like he is 11 for now. He also knows about God but we are not sure if he "knows" about God. Eric read a passage to them all (about Peter & Andrew in the book of Matthew) and Peter asked his translator if that was from the Bible. So that is awesome! I wish I would have recorded the conversation. Oh, I am so happy right now!! God is so good!!!Praise Him!!!!

Cooking Classes

Our cooking classes were a success! We were thrilled with how well they went. We had twelve kids in each class! How awesome is God?! On Wednesday night we only had 5 in each. He is so amazingly good to us! I think all the kids had a good time. We haven't heard otherwise. We had two boys who were recently adopted from China and that was neat for us. We are blessed with the most amazing friends! Thank you to all who came and helped us! You raised $300 to help bring Peter home!!

Abi's class

Andrew's class *Coming up this week: Wading, Walking and Running through Paperwork and more fundraisers!

You Can Cook Cooking Class

Hello all! We will be holding two cooking classes this Thursday, July 26th. The money raised from the class will be used to help bring home their new brother Peter from China. One class will be taught by my daughter Abigail who is 10 and one will be taught by my son Andrew who is 12. I will be supervising/helping the entire time of course! They will be teaching the class to show that your kids can cook the items they will be making that day. (with adult supervision only!) We will also talk about kitchen and cooking safety while making our desserts. Each child will be able to take a small sample of their cooking home with them along with the recipe. Abi's Sugar It Up Class What they will be cooking: Abi's awesome sugar cookies! Many people have exclaimed these are the best sugar cookies they have ever had. The Cost: $10 What to bring: An apron or wear something you do not mind getting a bit dirty How Many Students: 8 What Time: 10 a.m.-12 p.m. Ages: 5 and up Andrew's Messy Cake Madness What they will be cooking: Andrew's Messy Cake. This is an award winning cake that has been handed down for generations! The Cost: $10 What to bring: An apron or wear something you do not mind getting a bit dirty. How many students: 8 What time: 1 p.m.-3 p.m. Ages: 7 & up If your child would like to take both classes, they are welcome to stay through lunch. You will need to provide a lunch for them. Please be aware that each class costs $10, not $10 for both classes. If we have enough interest, we will consider hosting the classes on Friday also.

The Search for Peter

When Eric and Chelsea returned home, they were sent with information about all the orphans. It listed where they were from, their Chinese name, and their disabilities. Almost every child at the camp has a disability. (Peter has a cleft palate) We also had the contact information to talk to some of social workers in China. I emailed them as soon as we were sure about what avenue we were going to take. It seems like it should be a fairly easy process, doesn't it? Well, not always. This was about the 3rd week of August last year. The social workers emailed me back and told me that Peter was not adoptable. WHAT?! Um, that was not what Eric and Chelsea were told. We kept insisting on more information (my heart still hurts because I'm sure the social workers thought I was crazy!) and found out that Peter's file was with an adoption agency in Spain. What that means is this: Adoption agencies will go into certain orphanages and get the children paper ready. They must have papers to even be considered for adoption by the Chinese government. It is up to the adoption agency if they will release the papers or not. Again, I thought this was fairly easy. I would call the agency in Spain, explain the situation, they would love us and just give us Peter! WRONG! I did get in touch with them and they were on board with us adopting Peter but they wanted us to have an agency here. Ok...we can do that. So I started calling every agency I could find. I called several and just did not feel comfortable with any of them. Some were scared of our case and some did not have the passion for our case. I called my last name on the list. (and this was after searching and searching on the internet)JACKPOT!!! Lifeline was an answer to our prayers! (and still are!) I spoke with Lisa and she had such a passion for helping us. Not only did she have a passion for our case, but she had a passion for the Lord! I was thrilled! I then called the agency in Spain and informed them we had an agency. Lifeline had said what needed to happen is that the Spanish agency would need to put Peter's file back on the shared list so they could get his files or the Spanish agency could give the file directly to them. I corresponded many times with the Spanish agency and they kept repeating they wanted to talk to our agency. Lifeline said something didn't sound right with that. Finally, the Spanish agency outright asked us who was going to reimburse them for the expenses they had put into Peter so far. We asked how much and it was doable. I let our agency know and we were willing to pay it. Anything to get our boy home! Lifeline asked us to hold on while they checked on some things. That was a very frustrating 48 hours! We received an email in 48 hours stating to stop all contact with the Spanish agency. They were in violation of the CCCWA (the Chinese equivalent of our CPS is the best way to describe them) governing rules. We could go to jail if we gave them any money. Thank you Lord that Lifeline caught this! At this time, we had no idea what was going to happen. The agency in Spain was not happy with us and we were not sure they would ever hand over Peter's file. We again contacted some of our contacts in China and they did some visiting to some people for us. We found out from them that the orphanage was thrilled that we wanted to adopt Peter!(the family who ran the orphanage sent their son to camp with their orphans so he knew Eric and Chelsea) This was good news! They told our contacts they would ask for Peter's file to be released. Our agency heard from their contacts that his file would also be released to the shared list (the list of adoptable children) around October. We were very excited to hear this. We officially applied with Lifeline, were matched with our case worker Logan, (LOVE HER!!) started our education that was needed and started to prepare for our homestudy. October rolled around, nothing. December, January..nothing. But Lifeline told us to keep praying because He had a big plan for our family Then on February 12th we received this email: Hi Eric and Aimee, I am so excited to send this to you. Attached you will find Peter’s file. Take your time to review his file. I will touch base with you this afternoon to talk about next steps. Praying for you! YES!!!!

The Decision

Bring Me Hope camps are unique. They bring in orphans from all over China and pair them with a "family" for a week. The family consists of an American, a Chinese translator, (normally a college student in China) and 1-2 orphans. The purpose is to show the love of Christ to the orphans and the translators, using only His Words when asked. So it's all about walking the walk. The first week they were there their kids were fairly young.But oh my were they cute! Here they are:

Every picture they sent and every story they shared just grabbed me. Oh how I feel in love with the little boy that Eric had! The second week the kids were older.

These children grabbed my attention for a different reason. In China, orphans cannot be adopted after the age of 14. So many of these kids were close to that age. My heart broke upon hearing this. These beautiful precious gifts from God have a huge chance of never having a forever family. As Eric and I talked (before telling the kids) we tossed around the pros and cons of all the children there. We have always said we wanted to adopt an older child. There were two main reasons for this. 1) They do not have as high of chance of being adopted 2) Our kids are now older and we really do not want to start over with a much younger child. We prayed and prayed because we wanted it to be God's decision, not ours. One morning while doing the laundry, Eric came into the laundry room and said he felt certain that God was calling us to adopt 2nd Peter from week 2. (Both of his boys were Peter's. 2nd Peter is Darth Vadar in the picture) I was thrilled! When Eric started to send pictures from China, I felt a connection with this sweet boy. Eric loved all his kids from the weeks but he had a heart connection with 2nd Peter. When we told the kids we had something to tell them, they knew immediately! When we went and told them who, they immediately guessed who! That is so God! Since we had all Peter's information, we thought this would be fairly easy. But God had a different plan (sound familiar?) for this journey. So the search began........

Our Back Story

All adoptions must start somewhere and isn't it just more fun to know how this came about? Eric and I have always wanted five children. We love the idea of a big family and were so excited to start our family. Life didn't go exactly the way we planned but it went exactly the way God had planned it. We had Chelsea when we were married (for those that don't know Eric was previously married) and Andrew followed in 1999. We found out we were pregnant when Andrew was 10 months old. God had a different plan and Hannah returned to Heaven on January 15, 2001. We were stunned to find out we were expecting again in May of 2002 but Abi made her early debut in March of 2002. My Dr. suggested that it was not in our best interest to have any more biological children. We were very sad but we, too, felt this was the best decision for our family. But we knew God was not done...... In 2003, we moved into a new home. God put a precious family into our lives and we have been so blessed to share life with them. At that time, Debbie (single mom) was working nights so D and Taisha spent many evenings with us. Even when Debbie was home, we were all together often. D became the brother Andrew always wanted. We have enjoyed many meals, game nights, movie nights, and other things over the years. Taisha graduated this year (We were so sad to miss her graduation!) and D is a Jr. While they are in no means, "grown" or out of lives, God began stirring again..... In December 2010, our oldest daughter Chelsea became a believer! In January of 2011, she made the decision to be homeschooled. In February, a speaker from Bring Me Hope spoke to our home school co-op teens and Chelsea knew God was calling her to work at a Bring Me Hope camp in China. And she knew God was calling her dad to go with her! Eric was thrilled because he had been praying for two years that Chelsea would desire to go on a mission trip with him. This was even better because it was her idea. So the planning began, along with the praying.God moved mountains and provided the $9,000 that Eric and Chelsea needed to get to China. It was overwhelming how He answered! Before they left, we committed as a family to pray how God would use our family after this trip. We knew this trip would change them but we were not sure exactly how it would change them. The trip was life changing for them and for us....... When Eric returned, he was greatly moved by what one of his translators shared with him. He asked Jane why she decided to help at Bring me Hope. When she became a Believer she started reading the Bible. She read James 1:27 ("Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.") and knew she had to do something. He was struck by how she didn't just pray, she did. He knew that was what our family was called to do. We needed to do. (Chelsea wanted to bring every orphan home!) We started to pray as a couple about adoption and knew that was what we needed to do. We then started praying once that decision was made about the who. Once God made that clear, we shared with the kids about the next adventure God was calling us into........ Stay Tuned!!!!

It's here!!

We finally have our new blog up! We will be posting our story soon so stay tuned! And yes, it will be very soon! :-)