One Year Ago

One year ago today at this time we were flying over the ocean to adopt Peter. We were probably over Siberia and about ready to come out of our skin from being on airplanes. ;-) Since we have a very full day and night of appointments tomorrow, I wanted to make sure to remember Peter's 1st Gotcha Day today!

We can still remember seeing Peter for the first time from the van windows into the hotel lobby. I cannot imagine the emotions he was feeling. I know that this mom was about to come apart from excitement. Thirty five hours of travel and 1.5 years of waiting and the day was finally here. Peter knew 'hi' and could count to ten in English. That was about it. By the end of the trip he could say thank you, banana, and I'm hungry. Not bad. He and Abi were about the same height and he seemed eager and a bit apprehensive about having a new family. I think we all felt the same way.

The first couple of months were the honeymoon phase where he was experience lots of new firsts. He rode a bike, started school at home, went to sleep with a mommy and daddy kissing him good nights. So many firsts. They were fun months full of new things.

 

 

 The next few months, well, the honeymoon had ended! ;-) We started to experience the hiccups that most families experience with adoption, especially with an older, international child. There were days I could not even speak I was overwhelmed. The name of Jesus was all I could call upon. Frustrations ran high but love ran higher. We kept loving, kept encouraging, and kept remember this sweet child had been through more than any of us had ever been. And we still had some good times...first 4th of July, first Artsview play, first airsoft war, first swimming lessons and first mohawk.

 

 

 

Summer came to a close and we were on 8 months of being home. I had heard that 8 was the magic number and I had laughed. Lo and behold, it was. Life started feeling..normal. We had all settled into being a family. So much so that we said, "Let's do this again!" Life settled into our new normal of flag football, appointments at Children's, ELO, and real friendships. Friendships that had grown over time as these sweet boys (yep, they are sweet) gave Peter the space he needed but yet gave him the friendships he craved. Peter became closer with his sisters and brother. He started to trust Eric and I. And we were able to introduce him to his first vacation, Halloween, new puppy, hunting trip, Thanksgiving and Christmas. We also were able to dedicate him at our church. What a happy day for our family to share what God did through their prayers and hard work to help bring Peter home. And one of the most special moments, celebrating Peter's birth!! He woke up knowing he was love and he has a family that is so excited that he has life!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 And here we are...one year later. I cannot believe how far he has come in one year. It's amazing. We serve an amazing God who watched over this child for 10 years, pulled on Eric and Chelsea's heart to go to C*ina and then made him our son. Most importantly, he is a child of God. Peter, I love you to the sky and we could not be more thankful that you are now Peter James Ming Jun Akin. We cannot wait to see what God has in store for you.

Fundraising Success!

Wow! Our fundraiser was a huge success!!! Thanks to our amazing family and friends we raised $2100 to bring Sweet T home! Praise the Lord! And not only did we raise a lot of money, we had FUN! The soups were great, the friends were great, the weather was great, everything was just great! God did a beautiful job in orchestrating a beautiful event for us.

We have decided to start the dossier process over. We both feel at peace about this decision. Thank you for your prayers. Our prayer is to have our I800A done by Christmas. (Fingerprinting) All of our kids medicals are now up to date so our homestudy should be completed very soon.

We are still selling T-shirts for those who are interested! Our cookbooks should be done the week before Thanksgiving. We are working hard! The recipes in there are amazing. I cannot wait to have the book in my hands. You may also donate for Sweet T's puzzle by visiting our Go Fund Me page. For every $5 you donate, we will put your name on a puzzle piece for Sweet T to have forever.

Thank you for all the prayers!

What's goin' on 'round these parts you ask?

First of all, thank you for asking! ;-) Let's update on Peter first.

PETER READ TWO STORIES THIS WEEK!!

I'm just a bit excited! This is huge news for a young man that was told he could not learn and did not amount to much. He has been home almost 10 months, had no language skills whatsoever, and we started from the beginning. I cannot tell you how it thrills my heart to know that he is learning so well. Instead of saying, "I can't do it" all the time now, I have heard "I can do it!" several times this week. He still apologizes when he makes a mistake in school and it frustrates me but I get frustrated only because I know he is doubting himself and believing the lies he's heard over the years. Well guess what? My boy is smart!!! We aren't believing your lies anymore satan! 

Sweet T news (dude I almost typed her name here! oops!) I talked with our fabulous caseworker Elyse this afternoon and we received some news. Some good and some ok. We have been working very hard to process our paperwork quickly so we could reuse our dossier. We had been told by someone that it would save us loads of money and tons of time. Well, for us, it's been crazy. Non stop crazy. Our homestudy case worker Jenna was super woman and worked her tail off for us. One of the issues is that Abi needs a well check visit. Her Dr. changed clinics to somewhere that does not take our insurance and the boys Dr. cannot see her until December. Hmm...still working out some details on this. It doesn't seem like a big deal but it sort of is because we do not want to pay $100 for a check up. But $100 is pennies in the long run. So, we need that done. And then we will be able to schedule our I800 fingerprints. That is a 70 day wait right now. January 14th, which is when our dossier expires is 73 days away. Hmmm...and there is nothing they can do to move it up. Yep, this would be the biggest deal in reusing our dossier. Elyse shared with us today that it does not seem likely that Sweet T will be moved from the special needs list. Why is this a big deal? Because you cannot reuse your dossier for special needs children. (new C*ina law) So, now we must decide how we are going to proceed. We feel strongly that this is our daughter. We still cannot lock her in. If we decide to proceed with reusing the dossier, it could prolong it more. We would appreciate prayers for wisdom.

Tomorrow is our biggest fundraiser! Again, we will not be doing many fundraisers this time around so come and join us!! Remember, you can still order t-shirts! Thank you for all your prayers, love and support! We love you all!

Shirts!!

Hi all! We are selling these t-shirts to help bring Sweet T home! As I said, we are not doing a lot of fundraising and this is a fairly easy one! They are $15 each and we have all sizes. (not colors!) If you are interested, please email me, comment on here, or reach me somehow. Payment is due at the time of purchase. We will make the order at the end of November (to give everyone plenty of time) and you should have your shirts within the next week. I love these, don't you??

Update and Fundraising News!

Hello family and friends! We have not updated in a while. Life has been crazy around here, but a good crazy! We spent two weeks in CO! We were blessed by my sil's parents and were able to stay in their home on top of a beautiful mountain for FREE! We have started Peter's "Operation Mouth" process which requires a visit to Dallas every two weeks. Abi and Andrew have both been actively involved in our local children's theater in different ways. (Love Artsview!!) Peter has started flag football and it's so cute..I mean..awesome. ;-) Hunting season is upon us and the kids and dad have been preparing a lot so they can provide meat for our family. And during all this, we have been working on adoption paperwork. Here is where we stand with adoption as of now:

To reuse our dossier, we must have our homestudy and I800A complete. The homestudy was a quick update, medicals and Texas has a new law requiring fingerprinting for those 14 and over in the household for background checks. (sigh) We have done our update, our medicals will be completed Monday and we will be fingerprinted on Tuesday. Jenna, our amazing caseworker for our homestudy, will then furiously work to get that completed and send it to Lifeline. Lifeline will then hurriedly schedule fingerprinting (on a national level) for our I800A. In the meantime, we will be calling our officer for the fingerprinting begging for a quick appointment. Why the rush? Our dossier expiration date is January 14th! We have heard the wait time for all the fingerprinting is 70 days. We do not have that so we are going to be begging. ;-) China needs to receive all this information by that date. When that happens, Lifeline will then asked for Sweet T to be moved to the Special Focus list because the new law in China is that you cannot reuse your dossier for a Special Needs child. So...we need prayers!! We covet your prayers!!! Now on to fundraising....

We will be hosting our big fundraiser on Saturday Nov. 2nd! We are SO excited! We will have multiple vendors set up for Christmas shopping, a bounce house and train for the kids, a soup competition, a bake off, cake walk, movie, popcorn, live music and more! This event is FREE except for $1 entree for the cake walk. We are not hosting this event to just raise money. Yes, that is a plus to this event but we also want to thank everyone for their support and to involve you all in Sweet T's life. If God leads you to give, that would be great! If not, please continue to pray for us! This event will take place at my dad and stepmom's house 900 Stonelake Rd. (please enter from Hamby Rd. not 1845) from 4:30-??? My sister says it's a true party when there is not an end time!

We have also started our puzzle fundraiser for Sweet T! Just as we did for Peter, every $5 you donate to bringing her home, we will write your name on the back of a puzzle piece. It will hang in her room as a forever reminder of how loved she is and how much we prayed for her before she arrived. You may hand us donations, mail them or enter them at our GoFundMe page. Here is the link: http://www.gofundme.com/4z4q40

We cannot thank you enough for all your prayers, support and love! You will never know how much it means to us! We love you all!

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!!!

8 months...somewhat normal...

Well, almost 8 months. It's so hard to believe it's been eight months since we traveled to China to bring Peter to his forever home. A wise friend told me that at eight months you start to feel normal again or in better words, to be a bit more adjusted to your new normal. And you know what...she was right! Yes, we still have bad days, but all kids have bad days. Are his bad days like my bio kids? Yep, except my bio kids were smaller when they had them and did not have a bad past to add to the mix.

What has been going on in the last eight months? A LOT! Let's hit the main parts:
-Peter performed onstage in his first musical! He had a speaking role, danced and sang.
-He has learned to spell some words and to read a few at the same time
-He can now count by 10's very well and almost has the 2's and 5's downs.
-He has told all of us that he likes us.
-Peter has made several good friends and has what he considers a "best" friend.
-He hosted his first party and he was a great host.
-He has started speech therapy and loves his Mrs. Mallary. He cannot wait for Mrs. Mallary days.
-We visited Children's in Dallas and have a bit of a plan, along with some answers, for the future.
-He is enjoying reading time with mom and will even snuggle up on the couch with mom.
 -The dogs seem to truly like him now.
 -The fits are farther apart. They are hard but we can talk through most of them now.
 -Peter is starting to believe that he is smart.
 -He attended Pine Cove Base camp at our church and had a great time. He prayed out loud several times.
-He attended an overnight 456 retreat with our church and fell in love with horses!
-He has been expressing emotions to us which is a big thing.
-Peter has now met most of his extended family and did great at the meetings. They were all big parties. 
-His English has gotten so good!!
-He and his siblings are forming good, solid bonds!

and the best one of all:

HE ASKED JESUS INTO HIS HEART!!

He came to Eric and I one morning and told us he had asked Jesus to live in his heart and he would be in Heaven with us. We think he fully understands this because we have talked about it a great deal. Just this morning he spoke up in front of 30 kids and asked for prayers for a friends dad. He is working hard at learning the Bible and to apply it to his life.

What he has coming up: so you know how to pray and stuff!

-Flag football evaluations on Tuesday. He doesn't know a soul but since they pray there and talk about Jesus, he wants to play "Jesus football." How adorable is that?! He may also play with our local homeschool group, depending on the times and how much he likes it.

-He will be taking a homeschool class at our local children's theater that will involve writing. They will give him grace, of course, but this class will make him think. He's not always fond of that but they do such a great job of making it fun that he will not even notice.

-We start back to our co-op classes on Wednesday and he will be more active in them this year. Because mommy wants him to be. 

 -We will be adding more to school this week because he can handle some of it now. We will be working on maps and some history. He still does not like things that do not look like a 'normal' school but is getting better with playing games to learn, etc.

So that is what our life looks like now. It's not easy; it's hard. But life is hard. And I'm glad that God chose this life path for us. I wish I could share everything on here because it's amazing to see God at work. Some of it is very personal and some you just cannot put into words. But to see the hand of God at work is such an amazing thing. We say it over and over again that Peter has brought silly back into our family. That statement in the best description of what he has done. There are tears, there are hurts, there are days that all I can say is "Jesus!" but I would do it all over again (and I am sure that I will!) to have this young man as part of our lives. He is a such a precious gift to us and I am glad that we were chose to be his parents! Now I must prepare to be invaded by him and his friend tonight so..

For your viewing pleasure.....make sure you scroll to the very last picture for the cutest one!

 Pine Cove

 First sleepover!

 Zoo trip with all the cousins (on my side)

 Scary, aren't they?

 First to us tooth to lose!

 Peter and his Pine Cove counselor

 I have a picture of Andrew and Jared just like this! I love it!

First time playing in a water hose outside

 Pop!

 Rockin' C Ranch Retreat!

 First 4th of July! It was comical!

 I told you! Progress! I do not have many of him and Andrew together because they are always beating each other up. I am told this is 'normal' for brothers? They do find if funny!

Oh and did I mention that he got a Mohawk?? Adorable!!