LOA!

Today, I received a call from our agency that we have our Letter of Acceptance or LOA. This matches us officially with Josie and we are approved to adopt her. We will sign a letter early next week saying we will accept her and then we will begin the final parts of the process with our government for immigration purposes.

It's impossible to know how soon we will travel, but I have been told an estimated 8 weeks if we move at the anticipated pace. There is one part where we can be expedited due to Josie's health and that could help things along even faster. This is where we need you!!!!!

1. Prayer: we would be so honored if you would pray for us during the final weeks of the process. Not only for the adoption to keep moving forward as it has been, but for Josie as well as she is about to experience so many changes in her life. Pray for her health that she would be ok to travel and that we can meet her medical needs in country. Pray for the finances to fall into place as we are still short on travel funds. We want to be able to go as soon as we are allowed to. Pray for two grant applications specifically that we are waiting to hear back from.


2. Support: We will have a fundraiser soon that will benefit family preservation efforts as well as our adoption. Please stay tuned, it will be ready to kick off soon.
We also have our Reece's Rainbow account for donations, if you feel lead to give.
And for the month of July, we are on of the 5/5/5 families on Reece's Rainbow if you would like to help 5 families at a time, monthly.

5/5/5 Families

I have shared before how dear Reece's Rainbow is to us. They were instrumental in helping Eve home in 2013 and they are also part of Josie's journey into our family. The grant program is 10 years old and has assisted 1600 children into forever families.

A year ago we went to a Reece's Rainbow reunion and it allowed us to meet so many families and advocates in person. I absolutely love that they want to stay in touch after the children come home.

There is a special program within Reece's Rainbow called 5/5/5 for Families that focuses on 5 adoptive families and raises a special grant just for them, $5 at a time. I was glad to find out that we were chosen as a 5/5/5 family for the month of July along with 4 other adoptive families.

I would love to find 10 people who would like to join this program. $5 donation monthly along with other supporters lifts the burden off adoptive families and children come home! I don't know what could be an easier way to be part of adoptions.

If you join the program, could you let me know? I would like to send you a personal thank you note to let you know how much this means to us.

Grants, Grants and More Grants

This is so my life right now...filling out grant applications. We need to be ready to go at a moment's notice.

Praying for an expedite!

This week, we should find out if the current part of our adoption process will be expedited. Our dossier is in China and our wonderful agency is requesting a faster process due to Josie's medical needs. We know her long term health and life expectancy requires quick medical intervention here, but expediting requires the person deciding it to agree with that. There was a time Josie had frequent medical care and surgeries but lately the information has been harder to obtain. These tumors grow without chemotherapy and our local experts are urging us to expedite. So we pray that the people deciding these things will agree with the medical opinions we are presenting to them.

Would you pray for Josie as she waits? And pray for this process to be expedited for her?

We were so blessed to meet our matching grant and also to receive another grant recently. That has allowed our agency fees to be paid on time and our adoption to move forward. Praising God for this need being met!

There is still a financial need to be met to complete our adoption. As we learn how soon we can travel for Josie, we want to make sure we are prepared. Please come back to the blog to find out about our fundraisers and we also humbly accept donations through our Reece's Rainbow account, which is a tax deductible way to give.

Adoption Update

We made our matching grant last week, which was a huge financial blessing. We will now add another $2000 to our adoption. The thermometer on the right column can sometimes look intimidating, but slowly, we will get there.

Imagine my surprise, when I was notified that we received a grant that will add even more to our adoption funds and of course to our lovely thermometer. It was such a positive boost that I needed during an otherwise difficult time.

Eve was hospitalized 3 weeks ago and she is still recovering. We are also leaving out of state to visit a specialist and the preparations are occupying my mind. I want to keep Josie at the forefront of our minds at all times as we continue to parent our children at home. It will be a busy summer but it's the good kind of busy. Sports, preparations for Josie and hopefully travel. Our adoption paperwork is all done on our end so we just have to wait as China processes it.

Prayer request: would you pray that Josie's adoption is going to be expedited in China? Her medical condition can take a turn at any moment and we have everything ready to care for her tumors here.

We are also in need of funding for our travel related costs. Please check back here for new fundraisers soon. We also have an account with Reece's Rainbow that is tax deductible. You can access it HERE

Josie has already changed us

In the process of adoption, it's so easy to think of what a difference a family will make to a child that doesn't have one. Love, safety, security, medical care, food and opportunity to live a full life. With each of our adoptions, I have seen the changes in our children when they know they belong, but this story is not about that. I wanted to share how Josie has already given us the most beautiful gift.

This is our daughter Eve. She was adopted nearly 3 years ago with the diagnosis of cerebral palsy. We knew we would encounter many unknowns as her medical diagnosis was not based on any testing, just an educated guess. Over the years, Eve began having more seizures, her body started moving involuntarily (dystonia), we found out she was deaf and we had a few crises that left her doctors baffled. We were referred to genetics to see if we could find a cause.

A few months after Eve's first genetic testing, we learned about Josie. We took a long time to discuss what saying yes to a child with cancer would mean to our family and how we would manage all her needs. We looked at the outcomes for her tumors and what life would look like for her. Welcoming Josie into our family would definitely be better for her than being alone in an orphanage. And while we prayed for clarity, we had discussions about all our children. The truth is, that we think we have control over our children's health, future and longevity of their lives. With Josie, the odds might be against her, but she really needed a family to increase those odds. It was so much easier to say yes to her, when we gave all our perceived control to God and knew that He knew the number of her days, all of our days.

Then, we received news about Eve's health. She was diagnosed with a devastating rare syndrome. It's progressive and most children do not survive into their teen years. It's awful, plain and simple. We have grieved this information but at the same time, Josie had given us a gift already. Just as we had given her life to God, Eve's life was no different. There was the peace that passes all understanding. The quiet whispers that comes from an all knowing God. He is with us, He knows this about Eve and we are to increase her odds by being her family. In working through these emotions with Josie, we were already a few steps ahead with Eve.

Two girls, soon to be sisters. We are so blessed.

If you would like to be part of Josie's journey, you find see our Reece's Rainbow account here

Our fundraising thermometer is on the sidebar, once we reach $10,700 we will receive $2,000 as a matching grant.

We Swapped Mugs

Last night, I attended a mug swap fundraiser a dear friend had organized as part of a mug swap fundraiser we are doing online. Just a few ladies got together, brought mugs to share and we caught up on life and such.

The mugs were fun and creative, I received this fun ice cream sundae mug, it was super cute and my kids are drooling over the toppings.

The ladies were beyond generous and combined with another mug swap, I have updated our thermometer for our matching grant! When it hits $10,700, we will receive our $2,000 matching grant!!!! Would you help us get there?

Our Reece's Rainbow, tac deductible account is HERE

I can't wait to see pictures of the online mug swap when they begin to pour in!