LOA's

We was so excited to find our LOA's (letter of acceptance) this morning when we opened our email.  Literally hours before a 10 day shut down in Ch*na.  Now everything that needs to happen is in the states.  We are still hoping for a January 5 gotcha day for Selah and January 12 for Shane.  It's in the hands of the Chicago consulate to decide that for us now.  If they can't get our visas processed before January 1st then we will do Shane's January 12 gotcha day first and then the following week would be Selah's.  We are hoping for the first plan since it would mean one less plane ride in country which equals less money.  Things have been hitting at a very fast pace which is good so we can bring home Shane in time but this picture I had in my mind when we first started the adoption process has totally been destroyed.  I don't look at it as a bad thing but only preparation of things to come.  God wants me to totally trust Him in all areas of my life.  That's truly what I want but sometimes I try to grab it back thinking I can work it out faster or better.  This adoption thing has been totally out of our control.  We have been running to catch up with the amazing things God has been doing and doors that He has been opening.  Clear back in Feb on my way home from grocery shopping God told me to get a big jar to start collecting money in it for the adoption.  The only jar I had was a 2 gallon one.  I laughingly pulled it out of the cupboard and showed it to Andrew.  We decided to dream big and deemed that to be our jar.  Through the months that jar has been filling and filling in amazing ways.  The most touching was two cousins dumping in all their piggy bank money to bring home two new cousins.  Several times through the months we would be tempted to pull it out and count it just for our own peace of mind about where we was at in the funding of this adoption but every time we would go to do it God said wait.  Wait until when?  Until God said it was time which was Christmas eve.  We counted the jar which weighed over twenty pounds and was 3/4 full of cash and change.  We estimated that there was $2500-$3000 dollars in there.  The stocking total was $4801.  Why was it stocking?  This is God we are talking about.  I believe that this jar has been like the story in the Bible of the loaves and fishes.  It just kept multiplying.  In two weeks we have went from needing $18,000 to probably around $5000 from being 100% funded.  This has all been because of all of you who have understood what it takes to bring home orphans no more.  You have been the hands and feet of Jesus to us and them.  We stand in awe!

The money jar

 

Missing two at Christmas

Updates

Friday December 19th we were DTC and today we are LID with hopes of having our LOA by Friday before the week long China shut down.  We spoke with our social worker this morning who is committed to working on her Christmas break if need be to make all this happen in time to hopefully be traveling in less than 2 weeks in pick up Selah first and then Shane a week later with a total time in China being 3 weeks.  I will have to say that we are a mixture of weary and excited all rolled into one.  I'm hoping to finish up a couple things today and then take a couple day break from adoption things to focus in on our family before the final crazy push.  Merry Christmas everyone!

Photo credit goes to https://annewithanephotography.wordpress.com/

His name is Shane

I'm finally getting around to sharing the story behind Shane's name.  We had been struggling with coming up with a name that we liked that was short and yet strong sounding and was beginning to wonder if maybe we would use his file name of Haden.  We liked Haden but yet it didn't seem special to just use the generic file name.  One night we decided as a family to have 10 minutes of quiet time together with the Lord to listen to what He would tell us for a name.  About 4-5 minutes into it the Holy Spirit says to me his name is Shane.  Then starts the 5 minutes of me arguing because it's not my pick of names and I could list more reasons.  (I'm sorry if your name is Shane!)  When time was up Andrew asked if anyone had heard anything and I'm sitting there thinking I'm not going to speak what I heard because then it speaks it into action.  While the family is talking I'm looking up the meaning of the name Shane.  His name means God is gracious; gift from God.  After reading that I knew I had no choice but to share with everyone what I had been told.  We talked about it off and on for a couple days and then one night I had a dream.  In my dream the Holy Spirit is saying over and over his name is Shane in a very strong way.  I still was being stubborn about this whole name thing and had to argue in my dream again.  Then He said you like the name Laine how is that different from Shane and then I knew that HIS NAME IS SHANE.  We are still getting use to it and are learning to like it.  God has been putting this together in a perfect way and I know that I can trust Him but somehow I thought I had a better name!

A Story That Only God Could Write

About 4 weeks ago we realized that the young man that we had pursued before Selah still didn't have a family and he's aging out in January.  So we talked to our social worker about how we still felt about him and we were willing to consider bringing home two.  That started a journey of WAITING and answering questions and answering questions again that stretched us so much.  We understand why our agency was slow to approve us for two since this isn't something they normally do and we haven't ever adopted before.  Through this time we came into contact with a family in Utah that was raising money for a family to bring him home which lead us to connecting with her sister too.  These two connections and lots of other family and friends praying for us is what got us through the doubts, wondering of what the agency would say, and wanting to give up because it seemed so hard.  This Tuesday Dec 2 Lifeline said yes and today Dec 4 we received our PA (pre-approval) from Ch*na super fast.  Our last two days have been mountains of paperwork and sending so many expedited things.  We are so happy that the door was closed for this young man earlier because we found our daughter Selah which wouldn't of happened if we said yes to this young mans file back in May.  It will take a miracle to get him before his birthday but know that God is writing this story and we get to set back and watch it happen.  Not that we are literally sitting in case you wondered.  We have bedrooms to move around, paperwork, clothes to gather but know no sizes yet, paperwork, Christmas to think about for our family, probably more paperwork, more grants to fill out since we aren't completely funded yet, and the list goes on and on until my mind hardly will stop to get some sleep.  So we would like to introduce you to our new son who right now we haven't even had time to come up with a name.

His file name is Haden and we may end up naming him that because that is all we have known him as the last 8 months.  I really don't like asking for money but if you would like to help bring home our to children I'm going to share a link that where you can donate.

http://www.youcaring.com/adoption-fundraiser/help-haden-get-a-home-/262236

There are not enough words to even express this amazing experience so far and the community of people behind us.  Thank you for all you have done or are doing to help bring home our children.