Benefit Chili Dinner

September 26 some of our good friends put together a awesome benefit dinner for us.  Early on we thought about doing something like this but every time Andrew & I would talk about it we would get overwhelmed with how to make it happen.  It was a night of blessing to us.  I think the biggest thing was to see a community of people from all walks of life there to support us in bringing Selah home.  Some day she will see the pictures and read all the messages wrote to her and understand the community that is behind her.  We had two fundraisers that weekend which brought in almost $4000.  WOW!!  Which now makes us a little over half funded for those who are interested in the financial details.  We have spent October applying for lots of adoption grants, compiling documents for the dossier, and biometric fingerprinting.  Everything is sitting in Birmingham, AL waiting fingerprinting results.  When that is in everything will be notarized and dossier will be sent to China.  From what I understand then begins the long waiting process.  We are probably 7-8 months from travel if everything moves the way it has been lately.  It feels great to be mostly done with the mountains of paperwork that I'm sure won't be forgotten anytime soon.  Here's some pictures of our benefit evening.

 

 

Beautiful setting

 

The chili server

 

Kiddos bobbing for apples

 

The cotton candy tent

 

The community of people

 

 



So Many Questions

So many questions having been running through my mind about Selah.  What did she think about finding out she has a family?  What did she think of all the pictures we sent her of us?  Is someone taking good care of her while she waits?  How long is this going to take?  Can we be there before her birthday in the spring?  Are just a few of the non stop questions running around in my mind.  Someday I know we will have the answers.  Until then we wait and pray for her everyday.  God did the calling and someday I expect to find out how He was encouraging her while she waited and wondered if anyone would pick her.  Sounds crazy but I miss her and don't even know her.  That's a God thing!

Benefit Dinner

Some of our wonderful friends are hosting a benefit

chili dinner for us.

 

Everyone is invited!

The Long Silence

This blog has been silent for to long!  The craziness of summer, visiting family, and adoption paperwork/education has kept us BUSY!  We do have some exciting news.  Yesterday we received our PA (pre-approval) to adopt this sweetheart. 

 

 

 

After many name discussions and a family vote her name is.......SELAH GRACE which means "to praise, pause, reflect the grace of God".  Today we have our rough draft of our home study in our hands after 8 long months.  Hoping to get that finalized soon and then on to our dossier since we are now on a ticking 6 month deadline to have that submitted. 

 

Another exciting piece of news is we received our first grant from http://belongandbeloved.blogspot.com/

 

We are hoping to have some fundraisers coming up to help with our expenses.  If have you ideas on that or wish to help with your talents let us know.  There's also a link to our paypal account above if you would like to invest in bringing home a child. 

 

Thanks for all your support and prayers on this exciting journey with all its many twists and turns!



John Waller "Orphan"

Haden

In the past couple weeks we have become interested in a young man in China that is aging out in Jan 2014.  We are very interested in him but not sure how it's going to work out because of timing and insurance problems thanks to Obama Care.  So we are going to advocate for him in hopes that someone can give him a home.

 

Haden - 13 year old, male.

13 year old Haden is a handsome, bright boy who desires a family. Haden is healthy, and developmentally on target for his age. He loves sports and especially track. He enjoys math is described as very friendly! Please email Emily.Flynt@lifelinechild.org for more information.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's a video of him:

 

http://cristchronicles.wordpress.com/2014/05/24/a-family-is-warm-and-inviting/

 

 

 

Another Fundraiser

My sister-in-law is putting together a Pampered Chef fundraiser for us.  Here's the link to order if you would like to help out.  Thanks in advance!  In case you are wondering it costs $35,000-$40,000 to adopt from China. 

http://new.pamperedchef.com/pws/conniebuescher/guest-landing/8872676736155