Puzzle Update, Week 25

We are grateful for some very generous donations over the past couple weeks.

225 new pieces!

That brings it to 885 total pieces = $8,850 (and our thermometer goes up past $21k!!)

And, do you notice something about our puzzle??
We finished putting the pieces together this week!!  I can't even explain how much fun it was to fill in those last few pieces.   Now the plan is to turn it over and write the names on the back.  We decided to do it a little differently than we originally thought..... because this fundraiser isn't about who gave the most money (and then who would have their name on the most puzzle pieces).  It is about a community coming together, each giving what they can.  And all together, we can bring this sweet boy home.  So for each person that donated to the puzzle fundraiser, we will write their name on one piece (no matter how much they donated).  If someone sponsored more than one piece, the rest of their pieces will have hearts on them.  We are so grateful for every donation.  From $10 up to $500, they all mean so much to us and they all were huge in bringing our son home.  And really those who donated large amounts did it out of an overflow of generosity and God's work in their hearts - they didn't do it so that everyone would see how many puzzle pieces had their name written on them.  It will be a beautiful work of art to see all the names and hearts on this puzzle, friends.

If you haven't given yet and were wanting to, there is still time.  There are 115 pieces left.  One piece is $10 and truly every $10 given is a sweet blessing!!

Once the names are on it, we move the puzzle to wax paper and brush on the Mod Podge (I'm totally looking forward to doing this!).

Otherwise, in adoption news, we are still waiting to hear back from China. We wait prayerfully (please pray with us!) and knowing that God is at work.  There is more going on than our eyes can see.  So we wait. And pray. And trust the One who is over all things.

A Journey Worth Sharing

Our story was shared on the blog called A Journey Worth Sharing today.   A group of college students started the website to advocate for adoption by sharing adoption stories.  I have to say that not much tugs at my heart strings like adoption stories.  Thanks, A Journey Worth Sharing, for making this website and for letting us be a part of it!

For those coming to our website from there, let me update you:

• We got our immigration approval.
• Our dossier was sent to China (DTC this is called).
• Our agency sent us the files of 2 boys they thought might be good fits for our family.
• We met with our doctor and God gave us clarity on which boy to choose.
• We fell in love with this boy!
• We are waiting for China to accept our dossier and our request to adopt him.

Our boy

We continue to fall more in love with our boy.  As we learn new things about him and re-read over his file, we are just smitten with this little guy.  We want to get on a plane right now and go to him!

However, he is not ours yet.  We still need China's approval of us in general and their approval of us adopting this specific boy.  And we need it fairly quickly because his file is scheduled to be taken from our agency and sent to the China Shared List on May 13th.  If we do not have China's approval by then, we could lose him.  The details are complicated.  And we just learned about this on Friday.

Please pray with us that:

1.  China would approve our dossier. 

2.  That China would accept our request to adopt this boy.

3.  That it would all happen quickly and before May 13th.

We love our boy and we want to call him ours officially..... so we covet your prayers.  We will battle anxiety and will have to put our trust in the Lord during the next couple of weeks.   He called us to this and He promises to be with us as we go through it. And "He who promised is faithful." (Heb. 10:23).

Chick-fil-A Fundraiser

We are so excited about our next fundraiser!  The Chick-fil-A at Six Forks and Strickland Road is donating 15% of all the sales we can bring in on Thursday May 9th between 5:00 and 8:00pm to our adoption!   We would love for you to come out and eat some dinner with us that night. We will be there the whole time.  Please mark your calendars and spread the word!

Clarity

Our meeting with the pediatrician was great.  He shed light on so many little and big questions that we had.   We felt like it was very clear which boy was to be ours by the end of that meeting.  This clarity is a huge answer to prayer!   And since then it has been even more confirmed in our hearts!   This boy is precious and amazing!!  We can’t wait to share details with you.  In the meantime, we do have a few prayer requests:

• The one step left to be sure he is ours is for China to accept us.  Please pray that our documents get to China safely and that they approve us.
•  Pray for our son.  We can’t share details yet, but just pray for him.  And praise God for how we can see He has already been at work in his life.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!!  We are excited!!

Regarding the other precious boy:

I don’t know why God made our adoption process go this way – where we would have to choose between two beautiful sweet boys.  It is a gut-wrenching, heart-breaking, devastating thing to have to do.…. but I know there are reasons that He brought the other boy into our lives.  I want him adopted.  I want him in a family.  The reality is that I will probably never know what happens to him and as much as that hurts, I know it is part of the story God is writing.   I have heard that the hardest part of picking up your child from their orphanage is seeing all of the other kids you are leaving behind.  It is not how it should be and every fiber in you wants to grab an armful of children to bring home.   If you are reading this, will you please pray with me that this boy will be adopted?  Pray that this specific boy would be brought into the loving hands of a mommy and a daddy.  Maybe one of the reasons he was brought into our lives is so that we could ask you to pray… and then God might act mightily from that.    

DTC!!

DTC = Dossier to China.  This is a major step and we have been waiting for the label "DTC" ever since we started this adoption journey.  Yesterday (April 15th) it happened!  Exciting stuff!!

We met with our pediatrician to have him review the two files this morning and it went well.  We will have our news from that once we know how much we are allowed to share and are able to put it into words.  The past few days have been emotional, for sure.  To those who prayed for us this morning  - thank you.  God is good!  

Two Files

We got a call today from our agency. I thought, for sure, that something was wrong with our paperwork or there had been a hiccup of some kind.  Instead, she was calling to tell us that because we are so close to having our dossier in China, they wanted to go ahead and send us the files of two little boys who are in their orphanage partnerships that they thought would be good fits for our family!!  I think my heart skipped a beat!!  This is unexpected and surprising for us, as we thought we were going to be waiting another month or so before anything like this.

Basically, we have the paperwork for two boys, detailing their medical needs, daily life, and all known information.  Our options are to choose one of these boys or decline both and wait until our paperwork is actually in China.  So please pray for us as we review these files.... they are little boys not simply pieces of paper.... and there is much to consider.   At this time, we can't share any details about the boys, so feel free to ask us how it is going but don't ask for details about the boys. Neither is our son (yet) so we need to keep their details private for now.  We will be showing their files to our pediatrician in the next few days to get medical opinions/advice, but beyond that the details are not ours to share.

Pray with us for these two sweet boys.  And pray that God would give us clarity as we read, re-read, pray, and wrestle with things over the next few days.