Some Unexpected News

So earlier last week I received an email from my family coordinator that had encouraged us to talk to anyone interested in adopting to give her a call.  Come to find out there are more kids who need adoption than they have adoptive parents.  

I wrote my FC and asked her what that meant for us.  She told me that my original estimated time frame of 12 months has been pushed up to 6 from our LID date!!!!  That means we are looking at getting our referral around early March instead of September.  

After we receive our referral and say yes to it then we head into more paperwork and hopefully short after bring our baby girl home. 

So we have about 6 months to fund raise and sell Origami and Jamberry  like crazy so I apologize in advance if I annoy you. ;)

Update

So I have had a lot of people ask me recently where we are at in our adoption.  

Currently China has all our paperwork in hand and we are considered "paper ready".  Basically that means we are recognized as adoptive parents.

Now we wait on the adoption agency.  We are basically in a "take a number" kind of a line.  The program we are in about 90% of families are asking for the exact same child that we are, 0-2, female, minor to correctable special needs.  The agency only gets so many files released to them to match with families.  

So say there are 20 families ahead of me and they only receive 5 files, then I still have to wait for 15 more files to be released before they get to me.  Files come randomly, sometimes in large quantities and sometimes just a few.  So in a nutshell it's a waiting game.  A very HARD waiting game.  

A year ago from this week is when we started exploring Adoption.  Some days it feels like just yesterday and others it feels like its been a life time.  I can't wait till we get that phone call telling us a file is going to be sent our way.  Until then we will just pray for our little girl that she is well looked after and that God holds her in His arms until I can hold her in mine.  

And to keep us busy during the wait we will raise funds to pay that $25,000 bill that will come when she is ready for us to come get her.  As you already know I sell Origami Owl but now I've recently added Jamberry to the resume.  ALL commissions will go directly into our Mei Mei account.  

We also plan to run some more fundraisers as soon as the holidays pass.  Some things we were thinking about doing is a concert, BINGO, Restaurant fundraiser.  If you have any ideas that could help us get closer to our goal I am open to any and all suggestions!  

I would like to also take a moment to thank ALL of my friends and family for being SO supportive.  We could NOT do this without out all of you.  We are continuously blessed day after day by you, so thank you for being great!

We have our LID!!!

Last Friday 8/29/14 we got an email telling us our Dossier was on it is way to China (DTC) it made it to China on Tuesday 9/2/14, and yesterday I received an email with our LID (Log In Date) 9/4/14!!  That was super fast, I know some who have had to wait a month to get it and ours was 2 days!!

Feeling so much excitement and anticipation for the road ahead of us.  Now the prayer is that God hand selects our baby girl and puts her in our path at just the right time.

Until then, we will raise money to go get her.  Onto the Amazing Race!

Dossier to China

I keep updating facebook but forget about writing it in my blog.  I will get better..... I hope.

The whole family took a trip to Chicago last week.  I was so very excited to receive my I-800a papers in the mail so I could travel to Chicago before work started up.  August 11th, my birthday, I spent sitting in the Chinese Consulate.  I loved being there!  We were one of the only white folks there and we were admist a handful of little babies running all around.  One little girl came up to me and said "hi", I said hello back but I was a bit dramatic.  I responded in a way as if this little girl was Mei, Mei, minus tears. LOL  I'm pretty sure I scared her father.  HA!

    

We received our Dossier back Fed Ex this Tuesday 8/19/14.  We immediately went to our funds and started pulling them all together.  The bill this time around is $6,200.00.  I have now spent all of our Mei Mei savings on this step plus we had to use up all our savings and emergency account money to pay this bill and we still end up short.  No worries though we were able to scrape up some more other places to just make the bill.  Waiting on funds right now to be transferred into our account. We were going to send our Dossier in to the Adoption Agency today but decided to wait one more day for the funds to show up.  So tomorrow we will send this lovely package off to McLean, VA. where it will be translated into Chinese.  

Now I understand a lot of people do not fully understand what is going on and most of the time I'm not sure if I do either.  But I will try my best to educate you so you will have a better understanding.

Our Dossier (big giant file of a ton of paperwork) will be sent into our Adoption Agency tomorrow (8/22).  They should receive it Monday morning, will translate it, and then send it off to China on Friday (8/29).

Once it arrives in China they will look it over and Log it into their system.  Basically saying we received your file and it is now in our system.  They will then recognize us as someone who wishes to adopt from their country.  We will then be notified and be given a "Log in Date" also known as a "LID".  

After we receive our LID is when the real waiting begins.  Even though it seems as though we have flown through this process so far, that really means nothing in the grand scheme of things. After we receive our LID we wait on our referral.  (Referral = Child's file).  This can take anywhere from a couple months, to years to get our first one.  I have emailed my Family Coordinator and asked her for some clarification on the wait.  Hopefully she can shed some more light, and I pray that it is more closer to months than years right now.  From what I understand once you receive your LID you get "in line" and you have to wait your turn before getting referrals.  

My prayer is that we will get Mei Mei in God's timing but if he see's fit would he please move mountains so we don't have to wait 2 years.  

That's about all I know right now.  I do know once you say yes to a child there is paperwork and more waiting for Travel approval (TA).  

So if you're reading this right now then that means you stuck with me through this whole blog and I thank you for supporting us during this big event in our life.  I appreciate ALL your prayers, kind words, encouragement, gifts, donations, and general support.  You all are a blessing to me and my family.  

Now onto selling the crap out of Origami Owl and Fundraising like a beast to raise $25,000.  That's our next bill.  Yikes!  Completely worth every penny.  :)

Ending Phase 1

I'm so excited I can hardly contain it.  On Monday first thing in the morning I will be going to the Secretary of State to get our Dossier state certified, then Monday the 11th (my birthday) we will be going to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago to get our Dossier authenticated.

From there we wait for it to be mailed back to us.  Once it arrives to us in the mail off it will go our Adoption Agency to be translated. This will signify the end of Phase 1 out of 5.

Phase 2 will then begin: After translation it will be put on a plane and travel across the world to China.  Once they receive it and review it they will Log it in and give us a log in date, also known as a LID.  This LID is SUPER important and exciting because it means that we will FINALLY start receiving referrals.

Today was filled with many emotions for me.  Thinking about how far we have come already and yet how far we still have to go.  And about all the people in our lives who surround us and who continue to support us day in and day out.

Today I feel incredibly blessed.

Fingerprints and Fundraising

Well yesterday Jordan and I took a trip downtown to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services building to have our fingerprints done.  It took us all of 15 minutes and was easy peasy.  They did it a little different then when I had to be fingerprinted last year for my job but it was pretty much the exact same thing.

For something so small it is a big deal to us because it is the last piece of paperwork we need for our adoption file.  Once we get the results back in the mail we can get our entire file certified and authenticated to be sent off for translation and then to China.

Before we know it we will get to select who our little girl will be then board a plane for China.  I am praying and trusting that the Lord will provide the funds needed for these next steps.  My God is bigger than the financials.  He has already proved that in this journey so far.

So project fund raise like crazy has commenced!  lol  We have two fundraisers currently on the board.  The Amazing Race Road Rally I have already previously posted about and our new 144 fundraiser.

Basically you pick a number between 1 and 144 and donate that number amount worth of money.  If we get people to fill up each number we will have raised just over $10,000!  That's amazing especially since for travel alone it is about $25,000.

See the pricing list for yourself.  We have just about completed section one and have to still yet pay for section 2-4.  http://www.awaa.org/programs/china/cost.aspx

We are continuing to save and filling out an application to get an Interest free loan.  Praying that it goes through because that could help out a ton.

Until then, I will continue to pray and ask God to go ahead of us and prepare the way.

Biometrics

It finally came!  Our appointment for Jordan and I to get our fingerprinting done.  Just one more step closer to Mei Mei!

Short, sweet, and to the point.  Just want to continue the documentation for our precious baby girl to be able to look back on. :)

Letter came today (June 30th)
Fingerprint appointment is set for July 17th, 2014

The Amazing Race

In an effort to raise funds for our Adoption, Jordan and I have put together an Amazing Race Fundraiser!

What is it you may be asking yourself?  Teams of 4 will embark on a journey around the world (Garden City, Livonia, Dearborn, Dearborn Heights, Canton, Westland areas LOL)!  They will be given a series of clues that lead to different locations.  At each location their team must complete a road block (a fun activity) before receiving their next clue.  

First person to cross the finish line will win ***ONE MILLION DOLLARS!!!!  

***One million dollars OR more likely a fancy first prize that is not equal or greater than One Million Dollars, but still worth your while.*** Heck if we had that kind of money to give away we wouldn't be in the need of a fundraiser! 

So fill your car with a team of 4, gas up, and meet us up at MorningStar Church for an evening that will for sure leave you with lasting memories!  

Early Bird Registration:
June-August
$60 per car of 4   ~OR~
$15 per person

Prices will go up to $20 per person after August 31st

Prizes will be awarded for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners.

Blessings

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.  ~John 15:7

This blog is to serve as a testimony to the awesome power of Jesus Christ and the love He has for His children.  Last night I sat in complete defeat and poured my heart out asking my Daddy in heaven for help.  He's a good listener and truly does not want to see his babies upset.  I guess you could say that I am a Daddy's girl.  

I can report to you today that my Father in Heaven heard my cry and my woe's of yesterday are no more.  I have cried many tears today of gratitude to the great big God that I serve and to those who have allowed Him to use them as His vessel.  

Blessings.  

Blindside

I should have known better, I should have been aware, but it slipped by me.  We just found out that we have to pay just shy of another $2000 tomorrow to finish up our home study.  I'd like to say that I was calm and collective about that but in all honesty I had a mini meltdown.  I felt like the water I was treading along on consumed me in that moment.  

As I was sitting at the table (that I've been sitting at since I got home from my day job, it is now 9:51 p.m.) working on Origami Owl work, I got all choked up and poured my heart out to Jordan saying it's just not enough anymore.   Don't get me wrong, Origami is more than a blessing and has carried us thus far, however at this moment it is simply just not enough.  

So to add to the $2000 I thought I was behind on, I now have to tack on another $2000.  

So in the midst of my defeated feeling I cry out to God and say, "Lord you got this right?   Cause I don't, so I'm trusting in You to carry us through this one."  And a peace washes over me.  

Just keep swimming as Dory would say...... just keep swimming.

This blog will document the good, the bad, and the ugly.  I hope you will pray along side of us through all those moments.  :)  

The First of Many Wahoooooo Moments!

Wahooooooo!!!!!  Just got the news that our Home Study has been approved!  

The Waiting Game

I will probably say this a lot but I'm tired of waiting.  I have to constantly remind myself that my little girl just isn't quite ready yet and that in God's timing she will be here.  However, it still sucks!  Today we are waiting on our Home Study to be approved.  My social worker had it completed last week and sent it over to my Family Coordinator over at the adoption agency (AWAA) but she was out of the office until today due to a family emergency.  So now she needs to play catch up with all her peeps which is making the process of approval take even longer. 

So until then we are doing what we can with our I-800.  More forms, ugh!  One thing that we did find out was that our I-800 is WAY more expensive than we orignally thought it to be.  We were told by our Social Worker that she thought it was $60 per person filing to have the fingerprints ran.  NOPE!  It is $750!!  That is total, not each.  Our next payment to the adoption agency follows closely behind when we send in our Dossier, that is over $4000.  

SO, with all that being said while we wait for our Home Study approval we are looking up ways to fund raise for our little girl.  Looking at doing a Bowling Fundraiser on June 27th, who's down?  It would be $20 per person and it includes 3 games of cosmic bowling, shoes, and pizza.  We need all the help we can get at this point, and I'm trying to do as many Origami Owl parties as I can to make the money to pay these next two bills.  I'm currently about $3000 shy.  

I fully trust that God will provide us with the funds as he has so far, now it's just to make it happen.  

Love you all for always supporting us and loving on us.  We appreciate all our friends and family more than you will ever know.

Home Study Complete!

Another milestone in this journey.  Our Home Study visits are finally finished!  Now with them all wrapped up it will be typed up by our Social worker and sent to her boss, us, and my adoption agency for review.  Once it gets the seal of approval from all of us it will be notarized and finished!  Whoo-hoo!  For those of you asking, here are our next steps:

• Notarize our completed Home Study 
• File for our I-800
• Take all our Dossier documents to the SOS and get them State Certified
• Travel to Chicago to the Chinese Embassy to have our Dossier Authenticated
• Mail Dossier to our Adoption Agency
• Adoption Agency translates Dossier to Chinese and sends it to China
• China approves it and Logs it in .  Giving us a Log in Date (LID)
• Start receiving referrals. 

The Dreaded Needle

On Monday we finally got our physicals completed.  All four of us which was quite a shock seeing as the boys were just supposed to be "checked in" since they were new patients.  However the doctor was super awesome and did all of them that day because he said he wanted to be sure we all had our results at the same time so we wouldn't have to wait any longer.  I thought that was super nice of him, he really is a great doctor.

I totally hate needles, especially that darn TB test.  Being in the education profession I knew what I was getting myself into and this time around she jabbed me so hard it bruised me, and I don't bruise easy. :(

On May 1st my notary will be coming with me to the local police station to get our records notarized and then we will head over to the doctors office to notarize our physicals.  I hate that everything is only open during business hours since I work business hours.  Taking off work while trying to adopt is frustrating.  I get out for the summer the second week of June, but I hope to have my Dossier done by then so we can go to Chicago in June for authentication.

I'm excited to get our home study finished so I can file my I-800 and apply to the Waiting Child Program. So much rests on just having that done.  The hardest part is all the waiting!!

In the meantime I will just keep reading other people's blogs, pray, and rejoice with them.

So close I can see a little light

We have been working for quite some time now on pulling together our Dossier.  We have worked diligently on getting everything we need as quickly as possible so we can move onto the next step and get our baby girl here quicker.

A couple things we are waiting on:

• Two reference letters
• Jordan's Employment Verification letter written by a CPA
• List of our Month Bills / Financial statement
• Police Clearances 
• Our physicals
• And our picture pages
• Jordan's Passport
• Home Study to be completed
• File our I-800 and then complete that process (fingerprinting)

Looking at the list it seems like a lot but when I see that list I see the end drawing near and it excites me!  

I know one of the reference letters is already completed we are just waiting for it to be notarized. We actually found a CPA and will be talking to him on Monday and he has already agreed to write the letter for us. Jordan can just take an hour and compile all our finance stuff with no problem. The doctor did ALL of our Physicals today even when he wasn't originally going to.  Picture pages are a snap to put together.  Once our physicals and Jordan's passport comes in we can send them over to our Social worker and have our final meeting with her to close the study.  Once we close our study we can file our I-800 papers.  

I'm so stinking excited!  What started out as a dream, and casually talked about through the years is finally coming to fruition and I will have my baby girl with me.  

When I write this I know it will sound like we will bring her home soon, however this is just the end of the first BIG step.  We will still have a lot of wait time on the government and other agencies.  The referral process can take a long time too.  

Nevertheless it is still very exciting to be able to put a check mark next to this step in the process.  

We've all got Questions

Currently I am reading a book called "Cross-Cultural Adoption" How to Answer Questions from Family, Friends, and Community. It is such a good book and has given me many tools to be able to answer some of the most common questions about adoption.  

If any of you know me on a personal basis you know that I am a talker so I love to answer questions.  So should you ever have any please feel free to ask.  In the meantime I loved this book so much that I wanted to post some of it's contents on here to benefit others.  

This post is specifically for my friends/family who have young children.  I am asking you if you would please have a discussion with your children about adoption and about us adopting.  In the book it gave a real life story about a family who brought home their 3 year old daughter from China, Lily, while at a family gathering Lily's cousin was asked to go sit by her at the dinner table.  "Daniel go sit by your cousin at the dinner table."  Daniels response; "But she's not my real cousin!  She's Chinese!"  

Although his remark was innocent it was also painful for Lily's family and for Lily.  Even at 3 children can still understand and Lily was effected by it.  The error in this story was not so much the comment that Daniel made about Lily but rather that it happened because his parents did not prepare Daniel and explain to him what adoption is.  

So what does "adopted" mean?  Seeing as I'm asking you to talk to your children about this, I wanted to take an exert from the book that lays it out in a way for children to understand.

Adoption is one way of making a family.  Families are made in many different ways.  Most times, to have a child, a mom and a dad get together and make a baby.  Another way that a child joins a family is through adoption.  That means the child grew in one woman's  belly but another family raise the child.  The child is "adopted" by the family.  A child can be adopted at any age - from a newborn baby to a teenager!

Lots of people are adopted, and every family is different. Some families have one parent, and some have two.  Some children are raised by grandparents or step-parents.  What makes people a family is that they love and care for each other.

-Cross-Culture Adoption by Amy Coughlin and Caryn Abramowitz.  

Hands Across the Water

So today was our first visit with our Social worker.  Not sure what to expect we went it excited and a bit anxious.  Katie was super sweet and made the visit a pleasant one.  She asked us questions about ourselves and our families, explained a little bit about what's to come, and then gave us a test.  The test was rather hilarious because they should have just titled it the Spanking quiz since I think at least 75% of the questions were related to spanking a child.  The whole test was rather comical if you ask me, and personally I feel it was stupid.  It was direct answers with no room to explain your conclusion.  It was nice to hear that she felt the same way about the test.  Something I guess you just have to do.

Our next visit is scheduled for Saturday April 5th where she will come out to our home.  I had to ask her what she was looking for coming into the home seeing as I have no carpet in my front living room and the floor looks awful.  Or the basement full of stuff sorted into different piles.  To sell, to donate, to trash, to figure out a place for....  Ya, I have one of those basements.  I thought two weeks is just simply not enough time to figure that mess out.  But she assured me that she is just making sure there is no threat to a child and there are no creepy people hanging out in your home.  LOL

The cool thing is I thought the home study process took a long time to complete but she said that she could finish it quickly.  So all I need to do is get the rest of this paperwork done, find a CPA, get our police reports, physicals all taken care of, and Jordan's passport to finally come in the mail and I think we can move on to the next step.  She said we were way ahead of the game and was impressed.  To be completely honest, I'm a little impressed myself.  A Dossier is suppose to take 4-6 months to complete, or so they say, and I've got mine just about done and it's only been about a month.

So onto working at getting the rest of the file complete so we can move onto the next step.  It would be cool to take a trip to the Chinese Consulate once we get out of school for the year. :)

Making Progress

Last week was a very productive week.  On Wednesday we had a Snow Day here in Michigan leaving a whole day full of adoption progress.  We were able to talk to our family coordinator, talk to the home study agency, both Jordan and I finished our autobiographies, did some more rounds of training, turned in all the required paperwork to get our home study up and running and paid another big bill.  The boys originally had the day off of school on Friday for record day but because of our lovely unexpected snow day they had to make it up so Friday was back in session.  We were suppose to go to Ohio on Friday but because of school being back in we had to stay home.  I already had the day planned off of work so Jordan and I took the boys to school and then headed downtown where we were able to get our certified copies of our birth certificates, and marriage license.  We then headed to the post office and got Jordan's passport ordered and went to the police station to get our criminal record checked, too bad they were closed.

                                                 Being Silly Downtown

I feel like we are making record time collecting all the necessary paperwork.   I like feeling a head of the game, but I don't like the feeling of my home study agency not on the same page.  They are slow, and I want them to be fast.  *Insert temper tantrum here.*  I guess it's not so bad since we have to wait on our references to write our letters of recommendation and our employers/CPA to write up our employment verification.  We still have yet had time to talk to the CPA to see if and how much she will be charging us to write one up.  And I still have yet one more person to ask to write a letter for us.  Plus every single document has to be notarized.  My goal is to have ALL paperwork collected, notarized, and state certified so we can head to Chicago in the early summer to have it all authenticated by the Chinese Consulate.  

Until then I will just keep working my butt off selling Origami Owl and work on finishing up the rest of the adoption training and other documents.  

We already had some people donate to us through the Eternal Fund program, we are SO thankful for each and everyone who helps us along this way, we truly feel so blessed and loved. xoxo

Update & Eternal Family Program

Hello friends and family!

We are so thankful for all of your encouragement, prayer and support in this process so far.

 A quick update for you: We have our home study agency selected and are at a point in the process where we have a LOT of information coming in. This is both exciting and a little overwhelming-there is so much to go through!

We are also taking online courses and both Jordan and I have passed all of our exams so far!

Many of you have asked if there is anything you can do, and here is a way you can help us. Through our adoption agency, we are automatically enrolled in the "Eternal Family Program". What is that you ask? It is designed to help families going through the adoption process, like us, get financial help from friends, family, co-workers, church family or even someone who just happens to be following our story that we haven't met yet.

So far, we have been able to pay for every bill that's been attached to this adventure, but we also know that adoption is an expensive adventure.

I have continued selling Origami Owl which has helped a lot, but we have also had a few people simply give us donations, stating that jewelry is not their thing, but they wanted to help. These acts of generosity are so kind and we are extraordinarily grateful to all who have helped us along the way!

If you would like to help our family during this process, we recently found out that you can! It would be an enormous blessing to our family, and would help alleviate some of the costs of the adoption process.

Here's how you do it. Click on the link below or copy/paste into your address bar. From there, scroll down and on the right you should see "Support a Family. Donate today." Underneath that, you fill in your information and the family you are supporting. We ask that you enter: "Jordan & Dusty Duncan" into that section. After that, it will ask you to enter payment information. Here's the link!

https://www.awaa.org/give/eternal_family_program.aspx

We have actually known about this program for a while now, but honestly feel a bit odd asking for people to just give us money. Please know you don't have to give anything, but if you want to, we will gladly accept! Thank you so much to all who do! If you cannot afford to give us anything, please give us your prayers!

The Process

I have 3 goals with this blog, 

1. Memories
2. Keep friends and loved ones informed
3. Information for others who are adopting

When Jordan and I decided to adopt I spent hours online looking up blogs from people who adopted from China and spoke about the process.  I wanted to know as much information as I could and learn before I had even filed any paperwork.  So this post is mostly for those who are like me and really want some good information to go on.

So far the process has gone like this...

In November we decided that we were going to make our dreams come true and adopt.  We prayed and decided that China was where God was drawing us to.  We researched Adoptions, Adoption agencies, home study agencies, and of course looked for others who had gone through the process already. 

In December we filed a pre-application.  Not really knowing what we were doing we just guessed on a lot of our answers.  NOT a good idea, especially if you are trying to adopt from China.  Luckily the pre-app cost nothing and didn't mean a whole lot.  In fact it was a great learning tool on what and what not to do.  We underestimated our net worth by ALOT!   

We decided to wait until we received our tax money to file our actual application.  A lot of up front costs are involved once you file so we wanted to make sure we had money on hand.  We are trying to do this as debt free as possible.

January we compiled all our tax documents and filed ASAP.  We received our money in February.

February we filed our official application with America World Adoption Agency.  (I highly recommend them if you are a Christian and want a GREAT agency. )

Feb. 20th - Got a phone call congratulating us on being accepted to the China Program and received an email with legal paperwork to be filled out and sent in with another payment to the agency.  

Feb. 21st - Mailed in the legal documents with first payment.

Feb. 22nd - Checked into financial options, loans, fundraising, etc. 

Feb. 26th - Was assigned our Family Coordinator and received an email with all our documents to get started on selecting a home study agency, compiling our dossier, and information on the Child in Waiting program.

Feb. 27th - Called Home Study Agency to ask questions and get the application.

Feb. 28th - Filled out the Home Study (17 page) application and wrote the check

March 1 - Mailed the Home Study Application/Check, and signed up and paid for our Adoption Training

Going to the Lego movie now with the hubby and the kids.  Then later tonight I will be sitting down to make a check list of things we need to do.  

Hope that helps and you find this blog informational.  :)

Approval and Dossier Preparation

Well it sure has been a whirl wind around here lately.  On Thursday I got a call from our agency congratulating us on being accepted into the China program.  I was so overwhelmed with emotion that I started to cry my eyes out on the phone and had to ask her to hold on a minute so I could compose myself.

Thursday night I came home to an email with a bunch of paperwork we needed to fill out to agree to the terms of the adoption agency.  Of course I was too excited to sit on it so we both read all the fine print, signed our names, and sent in the first big payment.

Yesterday, (Tuesday), I got an email telling me they received the paperwork, the payment and all was well.  She told me that I should be expecting a phone call from our Family Coordinator the following day.  She also informed us that we could now sign up and proceed with our home studies and Adoption training.

So, today (Wednesday) our Family Coordinator got in touch with me and sent me two emails chalked FULL with information.  I should have prepared myself better for what I was about to digest.  I was so excited and ready to get started and then when I saw all the information it completely overwhelmed me.  There is SO much to know, do, and ALOT of money needs to go out up front.  So, needless to say we are going to be having ALOT of Origami Owl parties and will be checking into some other financial avenues.

We knew this when going into the adoption process, and none of this is a shock, but we will be leaning on Jesus and trusting that He will go before us and that He paves the way, we will not be afraid or discouraged (Deuteronomy 31:8).  He provides for the birds and how much more valuable are we?! (Matthew 6:26, Matthew 10:31)   So we will trust in the Lord with all our hearts and lean not on our own understanding.  In all our ways we will acknowledge Him and He will make our paths straight.  Proverbs 3:5-6

We will be clinging to His promises because we will need that assurance along the journey.

We're Having a Baby!

It's Official we're having a baby!!!  Just got the call from our Adoption Agency today where they informed us that we have been accepted into the China program!  

I was and am elated!  I cried my eyes out to the lady on the phone (poor girl) and thanked her probably a million times.  

What was also very neat to experience is when I called home to share the information my children's reactions.  

Isaac: REALLY?  No..... REALLY?!  Oh, YES!!!!!  
Jacob: Yay, yay, yay, yay, yay!

I had to tell Jordan to explain to them that it didn't mean we were bringing her home today.  I can't wait to walk through the airport and see their faces when they finally get to meet her.

So tonight I spend most of my time working on the mound of paperwork that was emailed to me so hopefully I can drop it in the mail tomorrow.  

Here's to the next steps of my journey to Mei Mei. 

It's Official!

It's official, it's official!  Money is now invested and the Adoption Agency now has all of our information.  We are on our way to a baby girl!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Phase 1 - Application Process

So I have had about 75% of our application filled out and ready to go, tonight I filled in a little bit more, and hopefully by next week it will be completely filled out and ready to submit.  I'm so stinking excited I can hardly stand it.  

So for those of you wondering what the application process consists of here it is in a nutshell.

• Submit Online Application
• Upload a Family Photo
• Submit the "Letter of Request"
• Submit the Processing Fee

But first before I can submit my online application I have to sign up with a Home Study agency, this phone call will be made tomorrow.  Then I will know more about what all of that consist's of and what we are required to do through them.  I know one thing we have to do is have some kind of "adoption training".  I'm really interested in what that will all entail and how much I will learn that its exciting.  

I can't wait to be able to post my next post!

Origami Owl

In November 2013 Jordan and I sat down and discussed adopting.  No sooner than when we agreed and started bathing it in prayer and discussing the financial side of all of it a friend of mine called me up and told me about Origami Owl.  

I had heard about it before but wasn't sure what it exactly was.  She said, "Dusty all I could think about was you the whole time I was there, I knew you would just love this stuff."  So when I got off the phone with her I looked it up and then the next night I became an Origami Owl Independent Designer.  

It seemed only logical that if you're praying for the finances for International adoption and the rather steep bill that comes along with it and something just happens to fall in your lap as this did, to look at it as Gods provision.  Now I've been in the home party industry before, not typically my cup of tea, but this one... this one was different.  For two reasons, one to provide funds for a purpose worth working my tail off to achieve, and two the commission rate was shocking.  You make good money selling with Origami Owl, in fact currently they offer the highest commission rates of all other home party businesses. 

So I decided to jump in with both feet and trust God to keep me afloat. :)  And so far He has done just that. I had my first O2 party (debut) with my mentor Karen by my side.  It was a HIT!  Then just this past Saturday I had my very first solo party and it was SO much fun.  My February calendar is already full and my March calendar is about 90% full.  So to say that God had His hand in this would be an understatement!  
100% of my commissions will be going towards the adoption and I am well on my way.  Now I just need to create two living lockets.  One for myself and one for Mei Mei to remember that this was instrumental in bringing her home.  

To those of you who follow my blog, and who purchase any Origami Owl jewelry or host a party from me, your support means the world to me and I will forever be grateful.  xoxo

In Waiting

With each new day, the waiting gets more difficult. 

 I just want to move on to the next step.  Just saying.

Somewhere in Between

What a fitting title for this blog, somewhere in between.  Because that is exactly where we are at, somewhere in between.  We are closing in on being able to file the final application we are just waiting for some final things to happen and then we are on our way, oh how I long for that day.

I feel like every next step I will long for, dream about, pray on, and look forward to with great excitement and anxiety.  Every step of the way I will faithfully put in the fully capable hands of my Lord and Savior with great anticipation that He is in control and He will guide us.

There is never a day that doesn't go by that I don't think of our Mei Mei.  I wonder so many things about her. Has she been born yet?  Why did her family choose to abandon her?  Will she accept us?  What will she look like?  What kind of personality will she have?  And the list goes on and on.  I'm sure my questions will only reflect all the many questions she will have as well growing up.  I know I will never have all the answers for her, but will always pray that she finds peace in knowing that the God of this universe perfectly orchestrated our lives coming together as a family.

I may have many questions for the rest of my life, but there is one thing I know for sure, that she is loved.  I know this because I don't even know her and yet I love her already.  I know that Jordan and my boys love her already.  And I'm sure so many more will too.  I know that she will never have to worry about being abandoned ever again, and that even if there is a day where we fail her, that Jesus never will.  I pray for her salvation, and her desire to walk hand in hand with Christ.

Now I anxiously await the "next step" and pray on.  Would you please pray along with me?