Mountain obliterated!

Yesterday my prayer was for God to move mountains.  Not only did he move them, he obliterated them!  That's the God I serve!  Praising Him today.  Will be calling the adoption agency on Monday to see what's next for us, and in the meantime getting all our ducks in a row so when we file our official application we have what we need.  Eek!

I know I already posted yesterday, but I got to give props to the man upstairs and give credit where credit is due.  

Baby Steps

Today I received a simple email that said; "Origami Owl deposited money into your account."  Where this may not seem significant, it is very exciting for me. You see that money was my very first commission check!  A baby step in the direction to my daughter.  


On another note, yesterday was Christmas.  We celebrate Christmas day with my Mother in Law (Monica), and the rest of Jordan's family and their children. When opening gifts we start with the youngest child and work our way up to the oldest.  So all eyes are on you when opening gifts.  When it got to my turn I had this beautiful red box to open.  

Now before I go any further, I need to give you a small back story.  My husbands family knows that we are adopting a child from China except for his Sister and her family.  Okay moving on...

So I open my gift to see that my Brother and Sister-in-law got me this:

I was so over the moon happy to receive this gift for many reasons, but one reason was it was a perfect conversation starter to tell my other in laws about the adoption.  The entire family was so over joyed and supportive.  Everyone asked lots of questions and I so very much loved educating them.  One of our family members before leaving for the evening handed me some money and said here this is for my niece.  I have wonderful family members on both sides, so supportive, caring, and loving.  Mei Mei will be deeply loved.

One last thing before I wrap this up, I just want to clear up a bit of confusion.  I've had a lot of people think that we will be naming our daughter Mei Mei, but this is not true.  Mei Mei is a popular nickname in China which translates to "Little sister" or "Little girl".  This is what we will call her now until we see her and can choose a name.  

Thank you to all who have already been supportive of this journey, and for those of you who are supporting my journey with Origami Owl for a greater purpose.  xoxo

Final thoughts for the night: Was listening to the song Mighty to Save tonight, and although the song is about salvation from our sins some of the words struck me in a different way.  The lyrics read:

Savior He can move the mountains, my God is mighty to save, He is mighty to save.

So my prayer tonight is; Lord move mountains to save my Mei Mei.  Prepare her heart for your unconditional love and the love from her future forever family.

An outpouring of love

On Sunday we announced to the facebook world that we have made the decision to adopt.  The outpouring of love and support was overwhelming!  All I can say is our Mei Mei will be loved beyond what her little mind will be able to understand.  

It's still a long way off before we will be able to have her home with us and she already is loved by so many. 

Because we are in a waiting period I feel like I twiddle my thumbs and just want to do more but I don't know what to do.  So I go on Pinterest and look up stuff on adoption until my Origami Owl start up pack comes in and I can dive into that for my Mei Mei.  And I pray a lot!  I know God never gets tired of hearing us talk to him, however if He did I would be that annoying child who never shuts up.  LOL

Introduction to our journey for our Mei Mei

With much prayer, lots of talks and soul searching, Jordan and I have decided to adopt a baby girl from China.  We very much want it to be Gods will and in God's timing.  So we continually bathe this in prayer.  

We are very excited to be walking this new path in our lives and we are inviting you along to take this journey with us.  

We are asking for your prayers and support. For anyone who may not know, and for those who do, adoption is a long road, with a lot of praying waiting praying some more waiting some more and a whole lot of stuff in between.  

We have already started the process and have found the adoption agency God has revealed to us.  We have filled out the pre-application and meet all of the qualifications to adopt from China except for one.  One minor bump that we are in the process of ironing out.

We weren't going to make this public until our official application had been filed, however my plan is to start selling Origami Owl to help raise funds to afford the adoption. And this will be my story that I will share as to "why" I started my home business.  

So come along, join the ride, and please, please lift us up in your prayers.  

Patience

Patience, and time is something from what I understand is very relevant when it comes to adoption.  You wait, a lot.  I haven't even filled out our official application for adoption yet because of a few bumps in the road.  

So until then, we continue to pray and wait on the Lord for His will to be revealed to us.  

A door closes

From the beginning of this journey we have put God in the front and as our Cornerstone.  We want this to be what he want's for our lives, our families lives, and for our Mei Mei's life.  We fully trust that God knows the plans He has for us and in His timing will open doors for us to walk through.

Two nights ago I received a message from the agency we decided to go through letting us know that at this time we do not meet one of the qualifications.  

Now this does not mean in any way, shape, or form, that we are done or have given up.  My feeling is that this minor set back is only giving us time for our Mei Mei to be ready for us.  So until then, we work and wait, and pray that God equips us with what we need at exactly the right time He see's fit for us.

I have to admit that I was very sad when I read that email.  It was right before bed so I prayed and put everything into God's fully capable hands, and went to sleep with a broken trusting heart.  When I awoke I was at complete peace with our circumstances because I know God has a plan.

Here we are two days later and I received another email from our agency saying pretty much the same thing, but gave us a worksheet to fill out to see exactly where we need to be.  So we will be filling that out to find out exactly how far we still need to go.  

"For I know the plans I have for you" declares the Lord.  "Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future."  Jeremiah 29:11

Dorothy

Monica got me in touch with a sweet woman by the name of Dorothy.  She has been through the entire adoption process adopting a child from China.  I have only spoke to her today on a couple of occasions but she has given me so much more knowledge on the adoption process.

One question I asked her was what agency she went through and if they treated her well.  She had rave reviews about the agency and the lady who she had do her home visits.  Something that struck a chord with me was the fact that she said that the agency prays over every family and every child.  Wow!  Now that is amazing.  So I had to check this agency out.

Jordan and I sat down this evening and filled out another pre-application through America World Adoption. (http://www.awaa.org/default.aspx) and are now waiting again for another approval.  The approval process takes up to 3 business days.

This is now the fourth agency I have checked into and I have to say so far this is the agency I feel in my heart is right for us.  When we filled out the pre-application this is what it had on it;

Statement of Faith

*There is only one God; eternally existing in three persons:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Matt. 28:19
*The Bible is the inspired, only infallible, written word of God.  2 Timothy 3:16, Mark 13:31
*Jesus was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died an atoning death and was resurrected. Luke 1:34-34, Acts 2:31
*All are sinful and require justification by grace through faith and rebirth by the Holy Spirit for salvation. Romans 5:1-5

I/We have confessed Christ as my/our Lord and Savior and believe this Statement of Faith and these verses.

Please acknowledge your acceptance by initialing: At lease one parent is REQUIRED to initial.

PRAISE THE LORD, HALLELUJAH!  That IS AWESOME!  An agency doing more than saving orphans lives by finding forever families, but also upholding the call to preach the Gospel to all who will hear.  Now that my friends, is why, I feel this is the agency for us.  Amazing, simply amazing!

Also through this agency I was able to follow links to other adoption websites that pointed us in the direction of the ABBA fund.  An organization that helps people to be able to financially afford the high costs of adoption.

This is very exciting also, because not only do they offer up a website for you raise funds but it also offers No Interest Loans!  AND for the fundraising side of things, for any person who contributes they can write it off on their taxes.

After some discussion Jordan and I decided that this is something we are going to further explore after the holiday.  So until then my plan is to 1) Pray 2) Await on our pre-approval from AWAA 3) Contact AWAA and start asking questions!

So thank you to our new friend Dorothy who has led us to AWAA and a whole slew of new possibilities.

Research

This past week was Thanksgiving, holding up the results from the preliminary application.  In turn giving me time to pray up, study up, weigh out our options, and like always hear and take some godly counsel from my amazing hubby.  

Here are some inspiring verses I have been touched by these past couple days; 

Jeremiah 29:11 - For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 

Hosea 14:3b (NCV) -  You show mercy to orphans.

Psalm 68:6a - God gives the lonely a home.

Matthew 25:35 - 36, 40 (NASB) - For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you vistied Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.  40 The King will answer and say to them, "Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me."

I have decided to check out 3 different adoption agencies to see which one would be a better fit for us.

1.  Bethany.org

2.  CCAIfamily.org

3.  AllGodsChildren.org

There are two different types of adoption out there.

1.  Special needs - Children in China are often abandoned because of special needs.  Because of the one child policy, a Chinese family wants their children to be a healthy male.  One reason for this is because when a Chinese couple gets married they live with the mans family.  In turn the new husband and wife take care of the the males family in their old age.  As one blogger wrote, kinda like social security.  If their child is born and is possibly not capable of taking care of the family some people decide to abandon their child.

In China, children can be classified "special needs" for many reasons.  Where one child may have downs syndrome, another may simply have a birth mark.  

When adopting a special needs child, the wait time to receive a child from the Chinese government is significantly shorter.  You can adopt a child and have him/her in a year or so.

2.  Unidentified needs - This is a child who is healthy with no known defects, disease, etc.  Children from this category take about 5-6 years to be placed with a family because the CCAA is so backlogged.  This is a long time to wait for your child!  From what I read they do not expect for them to ever "catch up".  

Each adoption agency has different fees.  

1.  Bethany: Will be around $40,000.00

2.  CCAI: Will be around $31,000.00

3.  AGC: Will be around $32,500.00 

Each adoption agency, depending on travel and changing fees, the prices are always subject to change.  The amounts listed above are rough estimates.  

So that leaves me with figuring out how to fund something so pricey, yet so worth it.  Here are some options I have found that could be of assistance.

1.  Financial Aid

2.  Grants

3.  Loans

4.  Fundraising  (host our own 5k)

5.  Working our butts off!  lol

Job 5:8-9 - As for me, I would seek God, and to God would I commit my cause, who does great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without number:

Abba, 

I come to you seeking for your direction and guidance.  Lord I desire to adopt an orphan from China and I'm asking for your blessing.  Lord if this is something that would be good for my marriage, my family, this unknown child, my ministry, and my relationship with You Father I ask that you show me and Jordan and provide a way, make it clear to us Lord and let us hear your voice.  

In Jesus sweet precious name I pray and ask these things,

Amen.