This is our journey of the unexpected adoption of a princess with Down syndrome waiting for us in China making us a family of 7!

Friday, February 27, 2015

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Moving Right Along

Our process to Karsynn is now moving right along.  We received our finalized home study finally on Monday.  Receiving our home study is really the end of one step of the process and allows us to begin the next step.  We are now officially done with the original agency and have completely switched to the agency we need to be with to help us through the rest of this journey.  We now send a copy of our home study to homeland security for our I-800a application, along with about $1000 for fingerprints (because Katelyn is over 18 and has to be fingerprinted as well), for their approval to adopt internationally.  As we wait for that approval, we send our documents all off for authentication and certification with the state.  Once those all arrive back, we will finally be DTC which means our documents will be on their way to China!  That is always an exciting time because that marks the end of all the endless paperwork.

Here at home we are entering into our busy time which is also known as swim season.  The good news is that this year it is only Bradley we have to get to and from practice (including 5:30am practices) and attend meets of.  Tomorrow is his first meet.  Katelyn is flying through her first year of college already and has recently met the most amazing guy.  She is looking forward to her spring break in a week.  Brayden is doing pretty well in school and we are working hard to remind him that his hard work in school will help him in the future; he thinks his video games will.  We are looking forward to celebrating 7 years with Kennedi home with us next month and cannot believe she will be 13 soon.  We just went to Disneyland and experienced their Chinese New Year Celebration which was a blast!

Here's your Day 5 of the Seeds of Change Devotional:

"When our family stepped out of our comfort zone and into the world of adoption, our lives were forever changed.  Having personally witnessed the plight of orphans in Haiti, China, El Salvador, Africa, and here in the USA, having seen their pain and heard their heart's cry, we knew we needed to respond.  Our journey has not been easy, comfortable, or something for which we were even prepared.  Yet God was calling us to step out, be different, and start responding to the command of James 1:27 to care for orphans in their distress.

I have sat in church services with thousands of Christians, all crying for justice, saying that God is up to something-that a new "thing" is happening.  But we are staying there, in that place, arms raised high but not reaching out.  After we hear the plight of the hungry, the needs of widows, the reality of the fatherless...what?  How do we Show Hope in a world that is so desperate, a world that is truly hopeless?  How do we respond?  Beyond what is comfortable, beyond what is easy, beyond simply enough to cross it off of our list of "Christian" things to do.

If we will respond to the needs of orphans to the same degree that God responded to the need of His orphans, by sacrificing His only Son, then imagine, just imagine what could start happening.  If we respond beyond our ease, beyond our convenience, with our focus on Jesus Christ and Him crucified for us, what would start to happen?  If we respond like a people who have been given the best, the greatest gift in the world, life eternal, through the hardest sacrifice ever made, what would we do?  Would we take the path of least resistance?  Or would we throw ourselves before the Lord, exulting in His goodness and plead with Him to show us what our role is.

All of our parts are different, and I am the last to pretend to know what is right for each of us. That is truly between you and God.  But I am asking one thing.  Be willing to go beyond easy.  Ask God to have His way with your life, even if it means that He must really stretch you, really push you to the limit.  You may find yourself adopting when you thought you couldn't.  You may find yourself serving in another country when you thought you would never go.  You may get involved with the fatherless children in your neighborhood who were orphaned by divorce or death when you thought it would be too much.  I am so glad that our family has walked some of the harder roads, because the difficulties we have experienced pale in comparison to the blessings of the peace, joy, and purpose that God has given, just as Christ could take our place at the cross because of the joy that was set before him.

Really pray, and really consider the cost that has been paid for you.  Our salvation was purchased at an astronomical price, the price of an only Son.  How great is the love of God!  are we willing to share that kind of sacrificial love with the orphans for whom God has asked us to care?  Jesus called us to love as He loved because He wanted His joy to be in us so that our joy "may be complete" (John 15:10-12)."

~Mary Beth Chapman


I am always so glad that we decided we would not play this thing called life "safe".  God has sent me (and our family) on some amazing and humbling journeys that I could have never imagined going on.  Be brave.  Follow God's calling on your life, you won't regret it!

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Move over Satan!

For those of you that actually read my blog (or that ONE person who does)...I am so sorry for the delay in my next post.  I had every intention of writing a new post a week and a half ago but we went to Disneyland that weekend and it didn't turn out to be the weekend we expected.  The whole reason we were going to Disneyland was because they do a big Chinese New Year celebration that we have never gone to.  So for Christmas my parents gave us annual passes so we could go.  Ummm yeah well, I had the weekend WRONG! We walked into California Adventure and saw Goofy right away and he was NOT dressed up the way they said he would be.  Hmmmm.  We then look around and there are no lanterns or Chinese dragons to be seen.  Oh goodness my heart sank.  Katelyn looked on her phone and it is actually February 19th-22nd! We of course still had fun on the rides and things...we were in Disneyland so how could you not?!?  However, I guess I had a little too much fun on the rides because I developed tendonitis in my shoulder and couldn't move it on that Sunday at all.  We rode a couple rides and then came home early so Mark could watch his team play in the Super Bowl. Unfortunately they lost in a terrible play at the end of the game.  Poor Seahawks.  Oh well.  We still had a good time in Disneyland regardless and will be returning next weekend for Chinese New Year!

Then I was going to do an update for you all at the end of last week but some things materialized with our adoption that I knew I had to wait and figure all this out before posting.  So here we are as of today...we are changing adoption agencies unfortunately.  Long story short...

we were only using this agency, that we had never heard of prior to this ordeal, because they were the only ones who would be getting "Nissa's" file.

we were on this journey because of "Nissa" and "Nissa" only (or so we thought)

we have been waiting for "Nissa's" file to be prepared since September and still cannot be given a time frame of when to expect it

so we continued down this road, because of the love we have for this sweet girl, giving money to an agency when we hadn't even reviewed this girl's file

the whole time I am leery of this agency and feel there's just something not right with things but we keep moving forward one day at a time

last week (without getting into details) I talk to a few other families and moms who confirm my suspicions and we begin to question the integrity of this agency

we decide we have no other option but to leave our agency because of the things we have heard and lack of trust with them because we were at a point in the process where it was leave now or be stuck for the rest of the process, unfortunately this means the loss of about $1000

but more than that, this means giving up on our little girl "Nissa"

we contacted our agency we used with Brayden (who is wonderful by the way) and they helped pull files for us and look at other children who were waiting

unfortunately when comparing them to "Nissa", none of these children pulled at my heart like she did

was told by another sweet mom that when we found the girl for us we would know

on Monday our 'new' agency told us we needed to tell the agency we were leaving because things in our home study needed to be written a certain way (we were not wanting to tell them until our home study was in our hands because we don't want them to mess around and not get it to us in a timely manner)

Monday night I wrote the hardest email ever to the agency letting them know we would not be continuing.  It's one thing to talk about doing so but another thing to actually do so.  They know how much "Nissa" is a part of my heart and heard from me almost daily about her and her file.  They knew the heart break this is causing.  They knew.

Also Monday night the new list of waiting children in China (called the Shared List and comes out usually once a month) came out.  What timing!  This list is a list of hundreds of children who's files are prepared and any agency can pick them up for their families.  I have a facebook friend who has access to the list and sent me the most stunning 6 1/2 year old girl I had ever seen!  STUNNING!  "Nissa" is cute and seems so spunky but this girl in front of me Monday night was stunning in my opinion.  I had to get my hands on her file!  This FB friend sent me her file and I knew she could be our daughter.  I knew.  

Yesterday was really hard

really, really hard

I woke to two emails from the agency we are leaving saying "well good luck on your new kid".  That's it?  You know how heartbroken we are and how much this girl is a part of our family (she was on our Christmas cards for goodness sake!) and that's all you have to say?  Then I see these two women have "Nissa" posted all over FB looking for her family because "the family we had for her backed out of no fault of Nissa's".  No...it was your fault!  They posted her and commented on her post over and over all day long as to rub it in.  Talk about a knife to the heart.

BUT, Satan will NOT win this battle!  

We know God has gone before us.  He knows exactly which child will be our daughter.  He has known all along.  Maybe "Nissa" was used by God to get us to just consider adopting again and adopting a Down syndrome child.  Maybe God will lead "Nissa" to our family eventually, maybe he has the perfect family for her and it is not ours.  But we know He is faithful and has just what we need in His plans

And we are submitting our Letter of Intent (LOI) today
for this STUNNING girl from Qingdao, China!

"Nissa" will always have a place in my heart.  I pray God has just the perfect family for her and that they find her.  And if not, this agency has 3 months to find them and if they don't her file has to be released to the Shared List so any agency can pick it up, and we WILL be bringing home two girls! Haha!! ;-)

So please just be in continued prayer for our journey if you think of us.  Pray they do not hold up our home study and will hand it over to our new agency as soon as possible (I posted a complaint against them on a "rate your agency" site on FB yesterday and they have someone who is a snoop and reports any negativity back to them), that we get an update with more pictures and hopefully a video of this sweet new girl of ours, that my necklaces continue to sell well (I am making necklaces that a couple friends helped design that you can see on FB here or look us up on Instagram at Handmade Hope), that we receive some grants we are fixing to apply for, and that we can now move forward smoothly and quickly with the rest of our process.

I am certain, it's not an adoption without roadblocks Satan tries to throw at us.  I know that a year from now we will say it was all worth it like we did with our other two adoption processes.  It just hurts my heart right now.  Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.

Day 4 of the Seeds of Change Devotional:

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." ~Hebrews 11:1

Life is too short and full of too many responsibilities to invest in every good idea that comes our way.  As for God ideas, we do not want to miss those and are willing to sacrifice much in order to be a part.  In church work and 'ministry', there seems to be innumerable 'good ideas', but they often accomplish far less good than is anticipated.  Such cases remind me of God's words through the prophet Haggai, "You have planted much, but harvested little." Why? Where did the Israelites go wrong? They were busy building their own paneled houses (individual ministries) and not building up God's house, allowing Him to be the architect.  Far too often we, in the church, invest in things that seem good but are not best because they are not of God.  Still, we foolishly wonder, when the dust settles, why God did not empower our plans and work.

The Lord is our Shepherd, so we need not worry about our path as long as we are willing to follow Him and "do" for His name's sake.  What does this look like?  God recently reminded me that "without faith it is impossible to please God," (Heb. 11:6) and that the very definition of faith is "the substance of things not seen" (Heb 11:1).  In other words...Faith is hope shown!  Showing hope is a God idea and has been in His mind before the foundations of the world.  God calls His children to reveal the authenticity of their faith through obedient and loving actions to a needy world.  Did not Jesus Himself show us the way to walk?

So if we are to "show hope", we must first ask ourselves what are those things for which the Word calls us to hope: the hope of glory, the hope of restoration and redemption, the hope of the weak becoming strong, the lame becoming whole, the poor becoming rich, the hope of joy replacing tears, the hope of a heavenly home...

We must always remember that these actions are to flow out of a continual, daily walk with Christ-a relationship founded on prayer.  Prayer maintains our perspective.  Only in light of our heavenly hope does our work on this earth make sense, remain sustainable, and have eternal value.  To walk in the good works that God has prepared for us beforehand, we must stay connected to the source! 

~Scott Hasenbalg

Wow, wasn't this fitting??

XOXOXO