Updates all around...

I wanted to update everyone this morning on where we are in the adoption process and also in fundraising.

I want to thank everyone so much that has participated in one way or another in the iPad mini give away and those of you that have offered your time and talent to the upcoming auction. You have no idea how much it means to us to have YOU right beside us in this fight to bring Everly home.

So our i800a was approved and we FINALLY have immigration clearance! That is such a HUGE step for us as we were given an RFE (request for evidence) and that took almost a month to get through. But we got it!! That was the last piece of paper for our beautiful dossier that will head to China in the next few weeks. Once our dossier is sent to China (DTC) we will then become LID (Log in Date) and that is where the REAL wait will begin. I anticipate being DTC hopefully, prayerfully by July 11th. It usually takes a week or so to be LID. Once we are LID it is **usually** 4-5 months until we can get Everly. I would *anticipate* traveling the middle of November. BUT that could change at anytime. Could be sooner, could be later. I am praying sooner. She needs to come home...

*FUNDRAISING*
The tentative date to complete the iPad give away is the end of July. I know lots of you have asked when the drawing will take place. We may extend that but I PROMISE we will have three winners. We are praying that it will pick up and people will enter to win! Please share on facebook and in doing so, make a comment on your post that it is infact for a fundraiser so people will know. I appreciate it!!! To enter, click the fundraiser button on my blog and fill out your info. Easy as that...

-TShirt!!! We finally found a really awesome local company that will produce our tshirts. The will be a charcoal gray with the white anchor and verse. I will take orders/payments for one month and then place the order. It will be a week turnaround and the shirts will be in your hands... fresh from the press :) I cannot wait to get one of these!! Our friends have been so gracious in designing them and helping us find someone to make it all happen!!! As soon as I get a "mock" design I will begin taking orders :)

- Auction: The auction will start August 1st and run approx. 2 weeks. We have had so many incredible donations from local companies and people. WOW!! I cannot wait to share this with all of you!

-Cut-a-Thon: *MOREON THAT BUT WAIT ON YOUR KIDS BACK TO SCHOOL HAIRCUTS!!!

Thank you for praying for our family. Please keep Everly forefront in your mind and prayers. We are still far from our goal but I know that God isn't going to keep us from our girl. It is such a humbling experience to walk this road and depend on HIM alone.
I updated the thermometer with the most accurate information...
Thank you for EVERYTHING you are doing to help us bring her home to her FAMILY!!

Bringing Everly Jane Home...

Our daughter Everly is 9 years old. She has lived in an orphanage in China just as long. She is beautiful, has the most precious voice and she is missed here more than words can say.

There is not a moment that goes by that I don't think of her and wonder how she is doing. This is pretty normal for all of the adoptive mommas and dads that are living half way around the world from their kiddos. The empty seat at the kitchen table, the extra seat in the car, a room filled with one that should belong to two. Brothers missing their sister. A sister missing her other half. Momma and Daddy missing a piece of their heart.

Oh, my heart. It soars at the thought of her. Soars at the thought of holding her for the first time. Seeing her toothless grin as she is missing one of her permanent teeth. Memorizing the lines on her hands and every freckle she owns.

I am so thankful that I get to be her momma. So thankful that God chose this family to live out life with this beautiful girl. No matter the road. No matter the journey. I am thankful.

I think about her and smile. I think about her and cry. My heart skips a beat. It drops and twists and turns when I think of her. When I think of how well she is or isn't being loved. How much or how little she is eating. What she endures, what she has seen. Prayers are sent every day for her. Prayers from this mommas heart, silent prayers from a tenderhearted father, from protective brothers. And the prayers of a 7 year old sister that would just break you.

It is hard to be a momma of a daughter halfway around this world. For part of me will be there with her until we are united. Oh, what a glorious day that will be. Beautiful indeed.

As we embark on our dossier being thisclose to making its way to China, a typical time line from here is once we are logged in by China and the CCCWA we have about a 4-5 month wait before we can travel until we get our Everly.

This is where is gets tricky. We need about 16,000.00 for travel. We have decided that it would be in everyone's best interest (and safety) that Shannon travel too. To put it in to perspective... Wouldn't you expecting mommas want your husband in the delivery room? Well, this delivery room: International airfare, hotels, incountry travel, orphanage donation, medical exams, food, flights home.... yeah. All that adds up.

We have been given some pretty amazing opportunities to raise money for travel. God has been so good to us, our friends have been so good to us. There is not one day that we are not thankful. Not one. single. day.

So without further ado... Here are the fundraisers that we are doing currently and ones that are up and coming.

#1 We have a fundraiser going on RIGHT NOW for winning one of 3 iPad minis. These were so graciously donated to us and we are so thankful!!!
The link to your right will direct you to a page where you can buy chances to win. The more chances you buy, obviously the more opportunities to win one of these pretties. Once you select your entries and fill out your information it will direct you to a paypal account where you can submit your payment. Once that is complete you will be entered and given a number. We will use a random generator to select 3 winners and your ipad mini's will be mailed to you :)

#2 T-Shirts: Parker and Ashley Simpson so graciously donated their time and skills to create this one of a kind t-shirt for our family. **COMING SOON!!!***
*As most of you know the song by Hillsong called "Oceans (where feet may fail) is one of my favorite songs and also the song that is so close to my heart as we bring Everly home. It is a perfect reflection of waiting and yearning for our daughter to come home... Hence the anchor of HOPE...

#3 We will be hosting an online auction that is going to be AWESOME. Donations range from haircuts and color, prints, oils, jewelry, ahhhh and the list goes on and on. It is going to be awesome!!! More info on that the closer to time :)

#4 Another awesome friend has offered to host  a "Back to School Cut-A-Thon" for your kiddos at a salon in North Charleston the second week of August (final date to be determined and confirmed). What a great way to send your kiddos back to school! A fresh cut and some love for our girl!

So I know it seems like a lot. I feel overwhelmed too. $16,000.00 is ALOT of money. But it is nothing in the eyes of God. And I have faith that we will meet this. And our girl will come home. I cannot wait for all of you to meet her. Heck, I cant wait to meet her!

This money isn't for us to go on a lavish vacation. Not for us to shop til we drop.
No, this is going to bring our daughter home where she belongs. Home. A word that precious child has yet to know. Home. Safe, warm, where everyone loves her and where there will always be someone that has her back.

Thank you for being the hands and feet. Thank you for keeping our family in your prayers. Thank you for the encouragement and the love. We feel them. Please continue to pray for Everly and the children that live with her.

Until they all come home...

Lighten up the load...

In the midst of this world wind we call life I am able to do a bible study by Ann Voskamp called "One Thousand Gifts." The purpose of the study is "to live fully right where you are." You daily record your gifts you have been given:

- the smell of my children after they are all bathed and jammied up

-my husband returning safely home from work

-our conversations around the dinner table

Those little moments that could very well pass you by and maybe not even recognize them as a "gift."
I have been writing them, I have been reflecting on them. But have I truly lived FULLY right where I am? Well the answer to that is no. Not even a maybe, but flat out no.

See, I have mentioned this before but this adoption has been.... different. Different for several reasons. It has been our most emotional adoption by far. For me anyway.

It has been filled with twists and turns and upside downs that often make me nauseous. It has been one thing after another financially. It has been a train wreck of a paper trail to this child.

Maybe it has been most difficult because she is older, because she has undoubtedly seen many things that children should not see or endure. Because she goes to bed at night without someone tucking her in. Because she doesn't have her family. Yet.

Eucharisteo:  Joy. Grace. Thanksgiving.

I have really been trying to wrap my head around this word that I can barely pronounce, yet I am drawn to it. Drawn to its meaning, to its place in my life and to the three words that proceed it.
Joy. Grace. Thanksgiving.

Have I been living in Joy? Have I taken advantage of his grace extended to me? Have I fully recognized the Thanksgiving that is due Him?

The answer again is no.

I have been concentrating on everything that has gone wrong. I have been fixated on time lines and setbacks. I have been consumed with getting things done in the time frame I feel we need to be on.

I feel at times that this isn't really going to happen. I feel that we are not prepared ( and we aren't!! the poor kiddo has a dress and a pair of shoes!!). I feel in my heart that she needs ME, that at times I am fighting for her soul. I am fighting tooth and nail for her to be my daughter. I am exhausted. I am a hot mess. I am depleted.

I worry constantly because we are lacking about 12,000.00 to bring her home. I will now be traveling alone due to our financial crisis. I call it a crisis... because it is. I will leave my family and travel to a foreign country to get my daughter. Without my husband. I'm not scared, I can do this. But I don't want to. I want my husband in that room with me. I cannot do this without him. It is like being in the birthing suite without your best friend, your soul mate, your rock.
I'm a little bitter and confused.

Why? Why is the fight so hard?

Because it isn't about me. It isn't about Everly. It isn't about the money or the struggles.

It is about the testimony. It is about what God is doing in her life... and in ours.

It is about this really awesome wicked cool story that we are going to share one day, a story that only GOD can be in, empty of me.

Everly belongs to God, just as my other children do. He knew her before she was formed in her mother's womb. He knows how many hairs on her head and every desire in her sweet heart. He knows the needs that she needs met and we are prayerful that He is preparing her heart for us.

So in this day to day I will strive for Eucharisteo. I will strive for Joy and Grace and Thanksgiving. I will strive to be filled with grace and thanksgiving at each set back. I will strive for joy when things take a little longer. I will tell, with thanksgiving, all of the amazing ways that people are stepping into our lives and are giving of their time and talents and monetary donations. I will be intentional about living in the moment and living fully. Not with bondage or sadness, not with frustration or stress. But with thanksgiving that she is my daughter. My beautiful daughter that WILL come home in HIS time.

I am thankful for those of you that have really touched my heart. I am thankful for the encouragement, the hugs and phone calls, the ways that you are helping bring Everly home. The ways your are, right at this very moment praying our daughter home. 

She will be home.

It takes a village, it takes a lot of hard work, it takes faith. But she will be home....

In a little while...

These last few days have been exceptionally difficult for me. Not for any other reason but that I miss my girl. I have thought of her often and the kids daily remind me that "When Ev gets here she will..." In a little while she will be here.
She will splash around the pool with her sister and brothers. She will jammie up after a bath and watch a movie with her people. She will love or hate pizza, she will definitely love Target.
This time next year will be very different for our family. We will be a family of 6...
I am so looking forward to that day of hugging her for the first time. Kissing her on top of her sweet head, readying her room and making her bed.
To be honest this has been the most difficult of our adoptions. Just about everything that could go wrong has. I am praying that the rest of it will go smoothly. I know that God has a plan for us and for Everly. I know there is a reason behind all of this waiting and mix ups. I know that God has already orchestrated this beautiful reunion to His liking. I know there is reason why financially it doesn't make sense.
But honestly, in my heart, I'm struggling. When I see you out and about and you ask me how we are doing and how the road to Everly is coming along I will smile and say fine! I love to talk about her and the thought of her being close to us :)
But I miss her. I miss her being near and I miss her in our family. See, when you fall in love with a child halfway around the world you tend to be only 3/4 really there. The other 1/4 is in an orphanage. My thoughts are constantly with her. My heart is always with her.
It was our choice to bring home Everly. It was our choice to sacrifice and fundraise and save and fundraise some more. It will be worth everything once she is home. And I may never really understand the holdups and the incredible amount of time that I feel this is taking (although I tell Shannon all the time that we should actually be bringing two home and that is why this is taking soooo long).
But until then I will dream. I will pray and I will be thankful. Because in a little while....
She will be home.

Update...

It is so hard to believe that it has been so long since we have updated this blog! I have such great intentions when it comes to this blog but finding the time to sit and be still... yeah that kind of escapes me.
We are done with our paperwork and homestudy and we will be sending it to the courier tomorrow to be authenticated and such. It will go to the Chinese Embassy in Washington and get all stamped up and prettied. But believe me that I will be waiting with baited breath  until it is safely at WACAP! Once it leaves us it will go directly to our agency for review. We are however waiting for a clearance from GA from the time Shannon spent there in the Army. Somewhere between sending off our immigration and our homestudy being done GA opened up it's clearance data base. So we will need to get an addendum to our homestudy once that comes back. We will get a "pink slip" from immigration since it isn't all together. Please pray that this is done quickly. This has been the most frustrating adoption paperchase by far and mercy, I am pooped! Seems as soon as we get one step ahead something comes up to push is back. But we will not falter. God is in control and that is just what I keep telling myself.
We did get an update and she really hasn't grown too much since we got her last update in December. She is really so incredibly precious. Another family was able to get a 3 minute video of her and she has the sweetest voice and you can just tell she is full of personality!
People have asked for ways that they can help us. I normally don't just put things out there but we need help financially. It is so hard for me to put that out there but this really isn't about me. It is about bringing our daughter home.
We had some things come up and left us with very little in our savings. LoveGave and a generous donation from a family in our home church was applied to our homestudy and agency fees. We actually owe our agency a whopping $30.00 which is amazing and God has moved some serious mountains for our Everly. We will be yard sale with a  few other families at our church in May, we are tossing around having a family fair/craft kind of thing. We will do whatever we have to do to bring our girl home.
I know that God has this. I know His plan is for us. But my flesh begins to fret when it comes to bringing her home. We are saving for travel right now and her orphanage donation. We have established that only one of us may be traveling.
Please pray for our family that we not have anymore set backs ad that the much needed funds will come to us and that we will be given the opportunity to work and save more. Please pray for Everly that her heart will be open to our family and she will make a smooth transition away from the only home she has ever known.  

And just like that

I got a message that a family was able to see and hug our girl. Today. 30 minutes after I posted my last post I saw Everly's face. From today.

I cannot even wrap my head around it. I have looked at her picture a thousand times today.

Proverbs 25:25 "Like cold water to a weary soul is good news from a distant land."

Thank you, Lord. I needed that today more than ever.

Running in place...

Many of you have asked for an update in where we are in our adoption process. Well, I feel like we are running in place at the moment.

We are STILL waiting on Shannon's NJ clearances to come back. Seems they (NJ) decided to change the process where clearances are concerned. Our social worker sent the clearances and got word we had to resend with more necessary  paperwork. Awesome.
Once our home study went to our agency for review (meaning it was DONE and we were just waiting for their stamp of approval) they thought it was necessary to have my step mom included in the clearances. So we get her paperwork filled out and sent to the home study agency. We wait. And wait. And are still waiting on clearances for her. She will also need to be fingerprinted by USCIS which is another 85.00. All of this is necessary (??) because she keeps our children in our home overnight (with my husband here, mind you.) Their (placing agency) thought was that because she is included in our HS as staying in our home it would be easier to get it done rather than them request it once it has already hit the fingerprint stage.

So we wait. And I am so not good at waiting. I know, it is all in God's time. But to be completely honest I suck at this part. I want to move forward. We cannot get an update until our HS is complete. We cannot apply for grants until our HS is complete. We cannot move forward in BRINGING HER HOME until our HS is complete.

I have been in the biggest blah funk ever. I am sure I felt this way with Sam and Norah but cant remember.

There are several families in Luohe right now bringing their kids home. Some have posted pictures from the LOCC and just knowing that my daughter is in that building is KILLING me. I need a picture, a sign, a little something that takes the heaviness off of my heart. Something. Anything. I need some relief. I am feeling desperate, my insides are all out of control and antsy. I pray every night to dream of her, just to feel close to her.

I know this sounds crazy but I feel like she needs me. Now. There is just a heaviness. I can't explain it. I pray every night that God will protect her. That she will stay safe.

Please pray for Everly. Please pray that this paperwork will be completed quickly and the rest of this process will move along.

Lord, I know all of her life is in your hands. I need not feel like I need to be in control because she is YOUR daughter too. Please help me to surrender this process to you, as it is yours. Please prepare her heart and ours to unite as a family. Please take care of her. Please comfort her and protect her. Amen...