New Pictures!

We were so excited to find this little face waiting for us in our email this morning!  My first thought was "wow, he has grown so much!"  He has gotten so big!  And this is a good thing - it means he is eating and growing and that warms this momma's heart!   After those thoughts, we realized the preciousness of his outfit (by preciousness I mean that it's so an orphanage outfit) - pink shoes, Angry Birds shorts, and yes a girls sailor shirt.  I do realize that they make boy sailor shirts, but based on the low cut top and the frilly on the collar and sleeves, I'm confident it was meant for girls.  I also think the sweet orphanage nannies might have thought they would put on the nicest shirt they had to take pictures for us... or maybe it was just what he was wearing that day, I don't know.  Either way, I will treasure this picture!

Oh, little buddy, we can't wait to get to you!!!

It's August

Hello August!  We've been anxiously waiting for you!  We thought that you would bring with your our LOA (Letter of Approval).  But, it seems like maybe you forgot.  You left it behind.  You passed it on to September?  If it is possible, can you get it back?  We're glad you're here, but we'd be even gladder if you had our LOA in your hand.

Sigh.  It looks like at the rate things are moving in China, our LOA will probably not come in August, like we previously thought.  China changed the way they do their database, which means there are tons of kinks in it and LOAs are coming very slowly because of that.

I know in my heart that God is sovereign over our wait and that he is with our son.... and overall, most days, I'm okay with that. Okay to trust him.  But some days (some moments), I just ache to be with my boy.  It happens a lot when I'm spending sweet time with Daniel. It just hits me that my other son is living life without a family right now (and has been his whole life)... and I want to run to him and it hurts deep in my gut to not be able to do that.

We'll share updates when we get them, but we're in the thick of waiting, friends.  This (not the paperwork, not the fundraising) is the hardest part in the adoption process, in my opinion.  The waiting and waiting and waiting... while your child is without you.

Speaking of fundraising, though, it's time for a little update.  Thanks so much to everyone who donated during our Give1Save1 week!  Every dollar helps and we are so grateful.  In addition to that, in our mailbox the other day was a sweet card from a friend along with a very generous check!  It was an amazing thing to get that in the mail.  Praise God!!  So our total raised comes to just over $25k!  Wow!  We are so close to our goal, friends.  We are humbled and excited by that!   Once we do get our LOA, we want to be ready to roll with the next set of fees.

Pray for our son, as you think of him!  Pray for God to be near to him during this time.  Pray for China's database kinks to get smoothed out (there are lots of families waiting just like we are right now).  Pray for us to be patient and trust God that His timing is perfect all the time.

And, because it's fun to share pictures and give you a glimpse of our family (and because when I look at these, I am beyond grateful for these 3 blessings, but I also picture our other son. He belongs in pictures with his brother and sisters. He belongs there, y'all!), I thought I would share these first day of school pictures. This school year holds some exciting times (and the best field trip ever) for these kiddos.

Give1Save1

We are so excited to be the featured family on the web site called Give1Save1 this week.  Since we started our adoption journey to China, we have been following it and have "met" some amazing families.  We have seen God graciously provide for their adoptions.  So, we are thrilled to be featured on their web site this week!  The idea of their site is for people to give at least $1 to the family of the week.  Click here to go to their website and see their (very sweet and gracious) post about our family.  Thank you, Give1Save1, for having us - it is an honor!

And, we have something else so fun to share! The very talented Josh Sliffe made a video for us, capturing our adoption journey.  Here is our story:
Harmon Adoption from Josh Sliffe on Vimeo.

Little Feet

 Leah is learning to tie her shoes.  Today, for the first time, she wore her "tie shoes" out to the park.  

 As I was taking pictures of her tie shoes, Molly and Daniel wanted to get in on the action:

 I love pictures of feet.  Sweet little shoes can tell so much about personality of a kid.  I can't wait to have another little pair of feet to take pictures of.   We do have this picture of our other son's feet:

He has on the new blue light up insect crocs that we sent him.  Well, a sweet lady in China picked them out for us and sent them.  She was super excited about them and just knew he would love them.  I do love having this picture of his feet.

Every picture of him or tid-bit of info we can get from the orphanage is a treasure for us.  We are trying to piece together his story, but there are lots of things we will never fully know about him.  I wish I could know his true birthday (not just their estimated birthday for him), how much he weighed at birth, when he started sleeping through the night, when he started crawling.  Little milestones that mean more to a mommy than to anyone else.  

I'm so thankful though, that his story doesn't end there.  It doesn't end with milestones unnoticed.  What is broken (the fact that he doesn't have a family) is being restored, renewed, redeemed (he does have a family now) and friends, that is beautiful.  It's also our story - that we are broken sinful people yet we are restored, renewed, redeemed in Christ, and that is the most beautiful thing there is.  

And, just because it's fun, here are some pictures of pre-trip-to-the-park bubble blowing on the back deck.  I can not wait until our family is all together, until our son is home blowing bubbles on the back deck with us! Can't you just picture him right in there with these 3?  I can and it makes my heart so happy!

Waiting

Many people have asked where we stand in our adoption process so here is a little update.

1.  We have been matched with this sweet little boy.  And here he is with our picture in his hand.  We are totally in love and can't wait to get him home!

His medical special need is a bone issue in his chest wall.  His sternum is raised and on his left side, his ribs scallop out to the side.  There is a specialist here in Raleigh that will help us evaluate his condition when he gets home.

2.  We have PA (Preliminary Approval).

3.  We are waiting for our LOA (Letter of Acceptance) from China.  We hope to get that in August.

4. Then, we will submit our immigration/visa paperwork and wait for our Travel Approval.

5.  We are still hoping to travel in November, but that could change.


Overall, we are doing really well!  God is faithful in the waiting.  We've seen him work in such cool ways.  He is at work in the details, friends.  Hopefully we can share some of those stories on the blog soon.  In the meantime, thanks for walking with us.  We are so grateful!

Puzzle Update, Week 33 (final puzzle update!)

115 new pieces were sponsored since our last puzzle update.  Which means that...

every single piece of our puzzle has been sponsored!!

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!  Praise God for his amazing provision!

Once I get all the names and hearts on there, it will be a full beautiful picture of community - of God's people working together!

And, while you are here on our blog, scroll down to the last post and take a look at our little man again - isn't he the cutest!  Oh my word, I love him!

Care Package

 Our agency works with a sweet lady in China who organizes care packages for adoptive families.  She sent us a list of options of what we could include in our package and then sent it for us.  This is the picture she sent us of what was included:  5 sweaters as a donation to the orphanage, disposable camera (which we will get full of pictures when we pick our son up - love this!), treats for the nannies, a photo album (3 pictures), and some blue crocs.

She notified us that Love Manor had gotten the package and sent her these pictures of our little man!!!!

 That's our son holding our picture!!

The shoes light up when you walk... wonder what he thinks of them. :)

So so exciting to see updated pictures of our little guy and to know that he has seen our faces!!

God is good.