Here We Go Again!

We are so excited to announce that our new puppy was born on September 10th! We will not get to see her, actually pick her out, for about three weeks but we are thrilled!! The kids have been waiting forever. Having three dogs will be a challenge, but we are up for it!

I bet you thought we would be announcing something else, right? Well, if you did..you were right!

We are adopting again! 

Well, we have started the process to adopt again. Because we do not take the normal route of adoption, (choose an agency, have most of your paperwork done, then chose a child) we are announcing this earlier than most families would. Think along the lines of first 3 weeks of pregnancy. Yes, that early. The reason we are doing this is for prayers. We need them.

Backstory: We have known for quiet awhile that we wanted to adopt again. Most of you are probably aware that we wanted to adopt two on our first trip but we never felt "right" about any of the children and were not comfortable as the situation progressed. So, we held off but kept it in the back of our mind. We know now that this was God. Having Peter come home by himself was the best decision for all of us. We receive about 5-10 notifications a day from different advocacy sites but have stopped looking because it hurts that we cannot get them all. I joined a group on FB that our adoption agency has for support. On the first day that I looked at it, the very first post was about a little girl that needed a family and the title was "Be still my heart." Well, I looked. Looked again. And again. Showed Eric. Looked again. Started to fall in love. Eric started to fall in love. Requested her file. And we prayed. HARD! We wanted to make the right decision. This was all during the visits to Children's for Peter. We were being thrown so much and I wondered if Eric would not want to purse adoption because of all this. Would it be to hard? I actually spent an hour on the phone with a friend grieving this. Then Eric said these words: "It's never convenient to adopt. Let's go for it." Oh my word! Be still my heart! I fell in love with him all over again. We contacted Lifeline, told them our decision and that's where we are.

Where we are: Sweet T (as we will be calling her) is on the Special Needs list. We have no problem with that because so was Peter. But this is causing a bit of a slow down for us in locking Sweet T for our family. If C*ina had placed her on the Special Focus list, we would be able to reuse our dossier from Peter and lock her in right now. But C*ina has been placing more kids (girls specifically) on the Special Needs list. Because of this we cannot lock her file until our new dossier is completed. A dossier can take about 4-6 months. Our agency is trying to have her moved but there are no promises. And if they move her, our dossier may have expired by this time. (we are pretty sure we are looking at no longer than a three week window) We have already contacted our home study social worker and they are hurriedly updating our home study. To continue with the rest of the paperwork, we must make our first payment which is not exactly small but God can do it! As soon as that is done, (please pray for this week!) we will have our medicals done, (again) and start processing the rest of the paperwork. Because we cannot lock her file, we will not be sharing much information on Sweet T. We will tell you that she is younger, (God can work a miracle on this stubborn mama! HA!) is the most precious little Chinese version of Abi and Grace ( our friends daughter and what our Abi prayed for) that we have ever seen, and has a smile that lights up a room. If we have shared video, pictures, or information with you, we ask you to please keep that private. (we have showed family) Lifeline and C*ina are pretty adamant about keeping a file private until the file is locked. This also means that another family that is farther along in the process could get her file and start the process. This hurts to type but we know God has a plan either way. If Sweet T is not to be ours, then God has the perfect child for us. We are praying that it is her because we are so in love. Yes, we will grieve. Adopting is a bit like a pregnancy; you fall more in love with the child every day, you dream about this child, you make plans. You cannot simply forget. We have lost a child and know the grief that goes with it. The difference with adoption is the grieving period. There is hardly any wait time before you must decide if you will pursue another child or stop. All adoption paperwork must be dated at certain times so you can lose months of work, plus thousands of dollars, if you do not decide quickly. That is hard but again, God has this!

Questions you may have:
Why? We expect this question. Why in the world would you want five kids? Why would you go back to C*ina when there are so many kids here? Why would you spend the money again? Let me answer  these for you.
Why? Because God has commanded us to. We are to be the clay; He is the potter. We are to mold to His will, not the world's. What we are doing does not make sense to the world. That's ok. It doesn't make sense to us sometimes. But He has specifically commanded all of us to care for the Fatherless orphans. Over the years this command has looked different to us. At this moment, it is to adopt and make them our family.
Why 5 kids? Why not?? Since when did children become 'leeches', 'problems', and 'annoyances?' Children are a gift from the Lord!! Yes, our children are not perfect but we are adore them. They are so much fun! They bring us such joy. Yes, there is heartache but life has heartaches. Eric and I have always wanted a large family. And here's the shocker: We may not stop at 5! *Gasp* It's all about where God calls us! We cannot be fruitful and multiply due to medical issues so we are thankful for the mommies who have been fruitful, made a hard decision, and allow us to participate in this wonderful journey! We are not the typical, normal American family who needs the latest and greatest. Do we want the latest and greatest? Yep. But do we need it? Nope. These kids need families more than we need the best clothes, cars, house, and material items. Yes, supporting five kids will not be easy but it's doable with Our Lord!
Why C*ina? This is where our hearts are. When we were there, Eric and Chelsea twice and the rest of us once, we all left a part of hearts there. But we are not to be guided by our hearts; we are to be guided by the Lord. And the Lord specifically led us here again. Yes, there are kids here but there are kids there too! Does that mean we do not care about the orphans here? No!! We are all called to different places for different reasons.
Why spend the $$ again and where is the money coming from: Again, the Lord has led us to this so He will provide. We saw this happen with Peter. Yes, we will be fundraising. We do our very best to make sure the fundraising is fun and that you also get something out of it. We do our best not to bombard you. We know God will supply the funds however possible. We have seen Him do this multiple times and we know He will again. If He leads us to this decision, He will guide every step of the way. We have faith that He will provide all of the funds needed to bring Sweet T home. We have told the kids if they want to go, they will have to raise their own funds also. Look for Abi's fundraisers to begin soon. (ha!) She's been preparing them for awhile. The boys are on the fence. Peter does not want to spend his money or work for it so he may stay home. He did not like the "20 minute plane ride" (hahahaha!) home when "he could not play outside" so that's another con for him. He found out he could stay with his grandparents (who "buy him stuff and are cool") and Caden so we look for him to stay home. Andrew hates the plane ride, loves China, but really hates the plane ride. ;-) So we look for him to stay home also. We will not just leave one child at home. It's either 2 staying home or they all go. We could use prayers in that area. We are not even close to this point yet but the thought is hard!
How are the kids taking the news? Very well! Abi is beyond excited! She has wanted a little sister forever and she cannot wait to have her "little doll" (as she calls her) home! (I'll let her live in her fantasy world for a while! LOL Kidding! I love having a little sister!) Chelsea is excited and was expecting it. Andrew and Peter are good with the news. We weren't sure at first how either boy felt so Eric and I talked to them individually. Once we convinced Peter that she wouldn't take his video games, he handled it better. ha! Andrew is just a typical teen boy(nonchalant in his emotions) and told us he would be honest with us about every decision. He assured us that he is excited about it. I am sure that this princess will have them wrapped around her finger before we know it! We are really talking it up to Peter about being her big brother!

Prayers:
Funds-Please pray that God will provide the funds just when they are needed. He is never late. He is always right on time!
Sanity-LOL We've done this and we know it's consuming. It's hurry, wait, hurry, wait. We also are in the first year still with Peter and do not want to miss these exciting moments with him. (like right now as he is walking around with his shirt unbuttoned so I can see his muscles. My word)
Locking of the file-We want God's will in this but we also know we are to pray our hearts desire. Right now, it's Sweet T! We are not sure how this process will end up, but we know Who guides it.

Thank you for reading all of this if you did! This is mainly a documentation for Sweet T when she asks for her "birth with us" story. We do ask you to please be excited for us. We are excited! It's a new child!! Yes, it's like a second pregnancy but every child is to be celebrated! We love you all and are so excited to start this adventure with you again!!!