Dossier is on the way to Holt!!

I am extremely excited to announce that the COMPLETED DOSSIER is on the way to Holt where they will review it and then send it on to China! The next thing we will be waiting for is our LID as soon as we have that that means we are officially in the system and can receive a referral!! What a great way to start off the new year. We thought we would never get done with all that paperwork! God knew he would get us through :) Happy New Year everyone! Love to all of you...

Just Received our I-797 Approval!!!

Today was a great day!!! Today we received our I-797 approval!!! We are super excited that we have been approved and now all we need to do is get it notarized, state certified, and authenticated. Then we mail our completed Dossier to Holt!!! I am hoping to get it mailed off  by next week!!! Merry Christmas us!!!

Is Beyond Blessed By Friends

I am writing this post just to say that I am so beyond blessed by all the beautiful people in our lives. How much they love and how much they give is so amazing to me. God continues to show his love through his followers. Right now we have a family that is auctioning off a piece of award winning artwork and giving 100% of the proceeds toward our adoption which is absolutely AMAZING of them to do! We just thank them and give praise to God for what they are doing to help and for raising adoption awareness in the community. If you haven't checked out the art work I encourage you to do so. It is a beautiful piece of art with so much meaning behind it .....Here is the link.... http://www.ebay.com/itm/Orphan-Award-Winning-Artwork-Matted-and-Framed-/280792921653?pt=Art_Mixed_Media&hash=item41608ff635

Many Blessings to you all...

New Blog Additions!!

After spending almost the entire day playing around with this, almost having a mental break down,  making several phone calls, and  getting some huge help from a lovely lady (thank you Amy!!!) the blog is looking better!! I have added our adoption timeline, some music and a new back ground. Enjoy!! Sheesh : /

Waiting for USCIS Approval....

Just a quick update...we are still waiting to receive our USCIS approval. Hopefully we will receive it by December 21st. It is hard to be patient and anyone who knows me knows I struggle with this a lot! The adoption process seems cruel at times and I know this is only the beginning. Lord help me to rely on your perfect  timing and to remember that YOU are captain of this ship. I can't help but think that next Christmas Meili will be here! I can't help but wonder where she is now...but God knows...

USCIS FINGERPRINTING APPOINTMENT

Hello everyone it has been a little while since the last update because processing documents takes a LONG time. Since I last wrote I have sent everything off to be notarized, state certified and authenticated well everything except for the I 797. That is the last piece we need to add to our dossier. We have a fingerprinting appointment on November 23rd and we will be traveling up to St. Louis to get it done at 9am. After that it takes another 4 to 6 weeks for them to give us approval. As soon as we get our approval we will send it off to be notarized,  state certified and authenticated and then we will mail our completed dossier to Holt!!! Then  we will be waiting to receive the picture of the precious little girl that God has for us. And you all can be sure I will be shouting from the rooftops from excitement and delight knowing who she is!! Out family has been in prayer for little Meili for 6 months now. I can't believe that in just a couple of months we will know who she is. We already love her more than she knows and can't wait to bring her home to our arms. Please continue to pray for Meili and that we have safe travels to St. Louis and back home. We thank you and we love all of you....

Immigration Paperwork Mailed off Today!!

Today I mailed off our USCIS paperwork!!! We are hoping that they process it quickly, and that we are approved quickly. It usually takes about 8 weeks for it to process. In the meantime we will be notarizing documents. We also found out that we have been put on the waiting list for a child!!! We won't be top priority though until our Dossier has been logged into Holt, but still just to know we are on the waiting list is VERY exciting!! We also completed our parent training last weekend and got to meet other adopting families and a family that just got back 6 months ago with their little girl. We will continue to keep you all updated...

Also please pray that we would be approved by homeland security quickly because all of our documents are time sensitive and we really need to get our approval quickly. Thanks again for your prayers :)

The Latest

Hello everyone seems like it has been a while since I last updated the blog. Our family has been VERY busy! The garage sale was a huge success! The grand total was 2,238.00!!! God has continued to provide for this adoption and blessed us beyond imagination. We again want to thank everyone for their donations, support, and love. We are now able to pay for our Dossier and immigration paperwork! Speaking of paperwork we have been very busy getting that finished up as well. We are on the home stretch for finishing up our Dossier and Immigration paperwork. We just need to send all of our documents for notarization, certification with the state, and finally authentication at the Chinese consulate. Then we will be ready to send our completed paperwork to Holt International! From there it gets translated into Chinese and sent to China. Once China receives it Holt will be looking for our child match. They said we should be matched quickly! We could use your prayers that the Lord would send us the little girl he wants us to have. We will continue to keep you updated and let you all know when we have officially completed the Dossier and Immigration paperwork.

Love to you all...

Adoption Fundraising Sale This Saturday!

Well its been almost a month of planning and preparation and we are so excited for our fundraising garage sale this Saturday!! Please tell everyone you know! The amount of stuff that has been donated is unbelievable!! I just have to give the Lord all the praise!! We just want to thank everyone who poured out the love of Jesus on our family and gave to us generously. Thanks to our loving friends and family we have a packed garage of wonderful exciting treasures!

Here is the information for the sale again...

We live in the Spring Meadows subdivision. Our address is  2815 Sandpiper Dr. Branson MO. The sale will be this Saturday from 7am to 4pm. We will have furniture, appliances, tools, firearms, clothes, shoes, bags, crafting items, bedding, home decor, Christmas decor, books,.movies, games, tons of baby and children items, kitchen items, and much much more!
 We also plan to sale donuts in the morning and hot dogs and drinks in the afternoon. Don't forget to stop by our baked goods donation table for some yummy home baked treats! We are praying for a great turnout!

Hope to see you this Saturday!

What a crazy amazing week!

Let me just start off by saying how wonderful the Lord is! He has been so present in our lives and so real I can't even describe it. As you all know we are having a garage sale fundraiser and God has already had his hand all over it. We have been hugely blessed by so many loving friends and families in the community with donating things for the sale. At the beginning of this whole thing I was concerned about advertising and getting enough donations etc. But I knew in my heart that the Lord just wanted me to trust him and I knew if I put forth the effort he would be faithful. Wow has he ever! I have tons of stuff for the sale, the advertising is going great, and I think we are going to have a lot of shoppers for our sale. I am very excited for the 24th!

Also earlier this week a good friend of mine gave her life to Jesus! Just amazing! Oh and this is such a praise.. someone anonymously paid my ticket to Beth More! And the Lord has just been at work in the lives of my friends...so amazing just to see him at work all around me.

Other news..
We cancelled cable to help save money for the adoption. Carters children s clothing called me back a few days ago and decided that they wanted to hire me. Wow I guess the Lord does want me there. funny :) Also the Lord has provided an organizing job for me to do on the side to make extra money too! Awesome! Ian starts soccer this week.

On the paperwork front...
Still working on the Dossier forms and USCIS (immigration paperwork). We are going to be attending a parent training course on October 8th and 9th looking forward to that. Karl and I attended a webinar on adopting from China last night which was very informative. I am reading a lot of information to prepare us for the challenges that go with parenting a child who has been in an institution and has special needs. All of that information has been great as well.

Currently...
I have been working really hard to get everything organized, cleaned up, and priced for the sale. It's been a big job! I am thankful the Lord has given me some time to work on it. If you want to know where I am you can find me in our garage..lol I'm not sure when I will start work at Carters yet. I am looking for a few ladies to bake some yummy things for my fundraising baked goods table at the garage sale. So if you or anyone out there loves to bake feel free to bake away and drop it off around the 22nd or 23rd. I am also looking for a few volunteers to help out on the day of the sale. Let me know if your interested :) I guess that's all for now. I love you all and thanks for all your support and encouragement!

Exciting News and Updates

We have received our completed home study in the mail!!!

Also just wanted to let everyone know that I have added a donate button on our blog so you can easily donate  through paypal!

Update on the garage sale...

 Things are going great and I'm getting a lot of great donations, but I still need more in order for the sale to be a HUGE success. Please check your closets and storage areas for anything you would like to donate to our fundraising sale. Your unwanted stuff is going to help change a life!!! Hope to see you all at the garage sale on Saturday, September the 24th.  OH did I mention we will have food, drinks, and baked goods! It's going to be a fun time :)

Changed the Fundraising Garage Sale Date

When: Saturday, September 24 from 7:00 am to 4:00 pm

Where: 2815 Sandpiper Dr. Branson MO in the Spring Meadows subdivision

Why: To raise funds to bring Meili home

Hope to see you there!

Fundraising update

Just wanted to let everyone know that I have planned a huge adoption fundraising garage sale that will have items that have been donated from the community. Please tell everyone you know about this awesome opportunity to be a part of bringing Meili home. It will be held September 22-24 at my house. Please let me know if you need directions. Also if you have items you would like to donate or would like to help in any way please contact me at 417-593-1446. Hope to see everyone there. Your efforts are such a valuable gift.

Fundraising!!

Today I am brainstorming ideas to help us raise money for our adoption. A new friend of mine gave me some great ideas.Thanks Jennifer!!  Here are the ideas.  If anyone else has any great ideas or would like to help me with some fundraising events please let me know because that would be AWESOME! Some of the ideas that I am really considering are...

1. A huge garage sale. I would ask all my friends that if they have anything they would be willing to donate or they just want to get rid of to give it to me so that it can go in my fundraising garage sale. Advertise it big and pray that its successful.

2. A bake sale. There would be no set price on things, but people could just make a donation to help us bring our daughter home. Any ideas on where to do this though cause I haven't figured that part out yet. I will make cookies but if anyone would like to donate their baking talents as well that would be really great!

3.Making and selling t-shirts that say something about adoption on them.

4. Making and selling hair bows.

5. A dinner with an auction. I would host a dinner and auction off things that people would be willing to donate or do some sort of raffle thing??

6. Putting up a thing on my blog where people could donate. Haven't figured out how to do that yet...

7. Acrobats of China is willing to do a show where I could make some money on ticket sales that would go towards the adoption.

Anyway let me know what you all think are the best ideas and if you are interested in helping. Thank you all so much for being on this journey with us.

The Adventure begins....

Preparation...

When we decided to be obedient and adopt we were so excited, then the excitement turned into an overwhelming feeling. Just try and do a google search on adoption and you will see what I mean We joined an adoption support group through church and had awesome support from a couple from church who had adopted several years ago from China. They gave us some priceless advice. We got a book on adoption.We learned from the book that the first thing you need to do is pick a country so you can chose an agency that works with that country.We began to look at the different countries and each countries requirements and that started to narrow the list down fast. After prayer and research we felt God was calling us to adopt from China.

Choosing an agency...

The next thing we did was choose an agency. Some people take a long time and agonize over this decision, but after looking at several and calling several we just had a gut feeling that Holt International was the one for us. It looked like they had a great standing with China and had been working with them for many years. Also they were always really nice and easy to talk to.

 Starting the process...

 In May we mailed off our application to Holt and we were accepted! Since then we have completed our home study and are just waiting for approval from Holt.We are currently working on our Dossier which is a lot of paperwork that you have to do and send to China. We can't actually send our Dossier to China until I turn 30 which is in November. That is actually a good thing because we are swimming in paperwork! Please pray for us that we would get it all done by then =)

Where we are headed....

Once our paperwork is sent to China we wait for them to give us a match which is where they will send us a picture of our daughter!!!! Can't wait for that part! The Dossier has to be in China for 6 months before we can travel to pick her up. We could travel as early as next summer. That was the really short version of things, but I hope to keep up with this blog weekly and keep you all updated on where we are in the process and whats going on. We hope that you will follow us along on our journey to our daughter and also to see how God works in our lives along the way. Please keep us in your prayers including the little person who will become part of our forever family.

How we got here and the rainbow after the storm...

After going through infertility treatments and finding out we had "unexplained infertility" I found myself in one of the hardest trials of my life. I couldn't understand why God would not bless me like he had blessed so many around us. I felt there must be some sin in my life, that I just didn't pray enough, or that maybe he was punishing me for something I had done in my past. I felt abandoned by God.  The truth was that he didn't abandon me. He had different plans for us, and now I can say with all confidence that his plan is far better than any plan we could ever have had.  Through the trial of infertility the Lord has taught me many lessons about my relationship with him and with others. I can say now that God is good not because he gives me what I think I want, but because he is God.

How the Lord worked in the trial....

 In the beginning of the trial I started out with a positive attitude and decided to keep busy while waiting to get pregnant. I felt the Lord was calling me to volunteer at a clinic for moms who were facing unexpected pregnancies (funny I know). I ended up counseling young women and helping them chose life for their babies. The other awesome part was that I got to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with these hurting women. They ended up blessing my life in so many ways. The Lord gave me a peace while I was there, a peace that I can't explain. I felt honored that God would use me to speak his truth into their lives in their moment of despair. To get to be the one to tell them about the hope that is in Jesus. I wouldn't change my time there for anything. It was an honor to know that the Lord was using me to love on these women and I enjoyed every minute of it. If  I would have gotten what I thought I wanted, which was to be pregnant I would have missed out on what Gods purpose was for me during those months. 

 Another wonderful thing that happened as a result of the trial was that I learned what the true purpose of prayer was. That is to make HIS WILL for my life what I REALLY WANT for my life. It was not about getting what I wanted but about total surrender and trusting that he knows whats best even if I don't understand or like it at the time.When Jesus prayed in the garden he said not my will but your will. That's really hard when you really want something. Before I understood this I kept praying that God would do a miracle and make me pregnant. One night as I was praying I said " God what are you doing?" and I remember this clear thought that came into my mind and I believe it was the Lord saying "Jessica remember Habakkuk?"  "He prayed God what are you doing?" " And how did I reply?" " I am doing something!" " Something you wouldn't even believe!" "You have tried so hard to get pregnant through fertility treatments and I have kept it from happening!"  Wow not quite the answer I was looking for, but an answer that I learned a lot from. 

 I also learned about being faithful to God. I thought of Job how the Lord had considered him faithful and special and allowed him to go through some really bad trials (that made mine look like no big deal) but God had faith that Job would get through the trials and remain faithful to him. I learned the importance of being faithful and also how difficult it can be to be obedient and faithful to God in trials

 But the biggest thing I learned was that God just wanted my ultimate desire to be to know him and to give myself to him no matter the cost and have freedom and fulfillment in that. He put several people in my life to convey that truth to me. But I distinctly remember one day that he made it very clear to me. I was driving and  God had used Beth Moore on the radio to speak some truth into my life. She was talking about how only God can give you the fulfillment that you need, and that when the Bible says that God will give you the desires of your heart he wasn't talking about earthly desires. He was talking about the one desire that the Holy Spirit groans for and that is to KNOW the Lord. To give yourself to him no matter the cost and have freedom and fulfillment in that.. When I got home that day I remember I fell on my face before the Lord in worship giving him praise and thanking him for reminding me to keep my eyes on him. I felt the Holy Spirit so fill me that I wept with joy praising and thanking my God who is all powerful for loving me and giving me the honor to go through the trial of infertility, not to break me but to lead me to know him more. 

In the end of it all he gave me a new perspective on trials and how to handle them along with a new attitude. One of praise to my Holy God who is all powerful. I learned I was not abandoned but instead  loved more than I could ever know by the creator of the universe. He gave me this scripture. It's Jeremiah 17:7-8 But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit. I love this verse! It's such a beautiful picture of how to handle trials gracefully. It gives me such hope that I can handle future trials with joy and fruit in my life letting his glory shine in the midst of the trial. 

Wow I am still blown away. What an amazing God I serve!!  I remember singing that old hymn "Oh Victory in Jesus" the day I learned that Jesus really is enough and that there is pure joy in that victory. I learned it is possible to be fully content in Jesus. I have learned that no matter what happens in this life, my hope is in him and that hope is awesome and so amazing nothing can compare to it! I have truly learned what it means to have victory in Jesus. It's this to consider it pure joy my brothers whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith develops perserverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete not lacking anything. And blessed is the man who perseveres under trial because when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. Had I not gone through the trial of infertility I would not have gotten to know my Lord like that. It was worth the tears and the pain to really learn who God is and what he wants and desires.

A new chapter...

 I can say that the Lord did some major refining work on me through the whole trial and that it had many purposes. I know all of this was to prepare me for my next chapter in life. Which just happens to be a very exciting chapter for our whole family. After the last failed attempt of fertility treatments we knew that the Lord was making himself very clear that pregnancy was not what he had for us. He really began to put adoption on our hearts and reveal that it was his plan for us to start the adoption process right away. We felt such a peace and joy in our hearts knowing that the Lord had chosen us to love a specific child. .That adoption was his plan and calling for us, and so the adoption journey begins....