Wow it seems like it has been a while since my last blog. A lot has happened in the last month! Including a crazy tornado that shook up our little town. It has been so awesome to see what the Lord has done through the storm. Storms always bring rainbows!! I love that about my Lord! I could not believe the destruction from the storm but it was amazing to see the whole town come together to bring restoration and healing. It made me think of what sin does to our lives. It comes in and leaves a path of destruction that doesn't come without cost. It cost Jesus pain and suffering on the cross so that we could be forgiven and our lives could be restored to have a right relationship with God. He comes in and cleans up our hearts and renews our minds. Praise be to God that he loves us so very much!!!
Update on Meili....
Okay so let me just give you some background on our precious child. Meili was abandoned and brought to the orphanage at 1 month old. When brought to the orphanage she was diagnosed as special needs because she has an extra thumb. As she was in the orphanage she was not doing well and was considered failure to thrive. She was developmentally delayed and not growing properly. Her head size was a little large in proportion with the rest of her body and we thought she might have hydrocephalus or something else we just didn't know. At 8 months old they moved her to foster care because of her "poor constitution" and at 1 year she weighed only 13 pounds. I prayed and prayed and prayed that she would be okay. We prayed and prayed and prayed as a family she would be okay and I know that you all have been praying for her as well. That is why right now with great delight and joy and excitement I have such wonderful news!!!! Meili is doing great!!! They say that a picture is worth a thousand words and as you can see from these pictures that she is just doing wonderful!! She is now 17 months old, on target developmentally, and her head looks great and she looks healthy and well now!!! Seriously I can't thank our precious Lord and Savior enough!!!!! He heard all of our prayers and answered them!! It is truly a miracle of God that she is doing so well now!! I thank God for her foster family for taking such good care of her!! We are so happy so excited and so beyond blessed by the Lord!! We can't believe this gorgeous little girl is ours!!! We love her so much and it is so hard to wait to go get her.The update could not have been better we are so thankful to the Lord for taking care of her.
What we are waiting on now....
We are currently waiting on our LOA (letter of acceptance) which the Chinese government sends after they have reviewed our dossier paperwork. We are hoping to get it by April. After we get that we will sign it and return it to Holt and then we will file Meili's immigration paperwork with USCIS which will take 10-14 days. After that they will give us her approval and we will mail that to Holt with some other papers and then we will be waiting for our TA (travel approval) which takes about 2 to 3 months. Once we receive travel approval we will travel in about 2 to 3 weeks. Anyway that is why it is taking so long...
Where we are at on the money...
God has blessed us so much!! He has amazed us in how he has been faithful to provide for this adoption. What once seemed impossible he has made possible! I can't thank everyone enough for all that they have done and given to us. Your support and encouragement to us has been life changing and amazing! Holt sent us the final bill for what we still owe on the adoption which was $13,000.00. Due to the wonderful giving from family and friends and Uncle Sam's tax return we only lack $3,000.00 to pay the rest to Holt. Then we only have travel costs which is $10,000.00 (okay yeah that's a lot of money) But I know God will continue to be faithful as we are being obedient to him. My next fundraiser will be another huge garage sale! (which I need to get busy on setting up)
What you can do to help...
Please continue to pray for our precious Meili. Also please pray that the Lord would continue to have his hand on everything in this adoption. Please let me know if you would like to come over and help me set up my garage sale (I could use all the help I can get) Also if you have any tables I could borrow for the sale that would be great too! Right now I'm going to work on getting everything organized and set up...so I will keep you posted on when I figure out the actual date. Since the weather has been so nice it would be great to do it earlier if I can get it all together. Thank you all so much for following us along on our journey....
Here she is!!!!
