Making Progress

    We have been a bit busy this week on a crazy paper chase.  Last week, we received an email from the China program telling us we could begin collecting our Dossier documents.  We were thrilled and immediately began getting organized and making the to do lists.  One of our to do's was a police clearance letter.  Well, I am happy to report that after 4 trips to the JPD with my dad's paralegal alongside us, we successfully have our letters and we were even able to participate in the JPD tornado emergency drill that happened in the midst of our visit today.  We are thankful to be finished with that office and also feel very prepared in the event of bad weather.  Good times people!  

     We also were told that our Home Study had been approved by everyone that needed to approve it, so we were finally able to submit our immigration paperwork to USCIS.  Now, we just sit and wait for our appointment with USCIS to have our fingerprints done.  Once we are cleared, we will have the last piece of our Dossier to submit to China and then we will wait to be matched.  We are still a long way off but every step we take gets us one step closer to our little girl!!! 

      Adoption is such a beautiful thing.  As challenging as the countries might try to make it and as silly as some of the hoops we have to jump through may be, it is still beautiful.  I am so thankful for so many friends that are on this journey with us.  One of my closest friends in the world is almost at the end of their adoption journey as they get ready to welcome their sweet boy home to his forever family THIS WEEKEND.  Will you pray for the Gordon family and this transition that is about to rock their family's world?  You can check out their blog here for specific prayer requests and to read their story http://thewesgordonfamily.blogspot.com/  God has truly shown up and shown out and I can't wait to be at the airport to welcome His precious gift to Mississippi....with my water proof mascara on for sure!!!!

It's Been A While

   Things have been busy in our lives lately, and I have neglected to document our adoption journey.  It can be summed up with this statement, "The Lord has been faithful."  We want nothing more than to bring home Emma as quickly as we can, but it the midst of the move, things had to slow down.  While in Hattiesburg, we were one step away from completing our home study process.  All we lacked was the home visit and we were ready to move on to Immigration and Dossier paperwork.  Well, one week before our scheduled home visit, the Lord opened the door to Christ United and our visit would have to wait almost 2 months! Ugh!!! We got settled as quickly as possible and scheduled our visit with our case worker for yesterday.  We are so blessed to be surrounded by such an amazing group of family and friends that covered us in prayer as our visit was taking place.  I was a nervous wreck as to how our kids would act, and how the entire visit would be, but things went as well as I think they could have!! Our case worker said she would have the home study complete in the next week or so even though she has 30 days to do so and then we will move on to the mountain of paperwork that is the Immigration and Dossier process.  She is hopeful that things will move quickly and smoothly and then we will FINALLY official be waiting on Emma!!!!  My heart hurts for her so much.  The thought that more than likely, she is already born and in an orphanage consumes my mind and thoughts.  I pray for her, her birth mother, her loss, and her place in this family often and I am confident that the Lord has his hands in all of this.  I absolutely am blown away as Ella Kate talks about Emma.  It is amazing to hear her heart break for the fatherless.  I think she talks about Emma and adoption more than me!!! She tells anybody and everybody, and it just makes my heart smile!!!
    Now, I said the Lord has been faithful and I want to share some of those ways.  He has been so faithful in the waiting.  He has given me patience when that is not my strength at all!!  I guess because this adoption has been 16 years in the making, I am just anxious to expedite the process as much as I can.  But, this is not about me and what I can do...thank goodness!!!  He has been so good to us by providing an amazing community to support us through the process.  One of the questions our case worker asked us was about our families and if they were on board with our adoption.  We immediately responded with absolutely!!!! We are so lucky to have support and encouragement given from our families.  We have amazing friends as well.  It is so great to be able to talk with other adoptive families who "get" what we are going through!!! It is such a comfort!!!! Another way that God has been at work is through the financial aspect of the adoption.  We have been BLOWN AWAY by the generous giving that has been shown to us!!! We are getting close to completing Emma's puzzle which has been such a cool thing to watch come together.  Through the garage sale, Emma's puzzle, and people's generous gifts, we are a little over 2/3 of the way to being completely funded!!! Y'all!!!! That is INCREDIBLE!!!!!!  Thank you so very much to all who have supported us along the way, because we could not do this without you!!! We are so very thankful and we can't wait to tell Emma about all the people that made it possible for her to become part of our family.
   Thank you for your prayers for our family.  We are forever grateful!

Emma's Puzzle

Jesus has proved Himself faithful in our adoption journey time and time again.  We had a goal for our garage sale fundraiser...He exceeded it.  We had a specific amount we were hoping to have in our adoption account by May 1...we are beyond that.  And we had a hope of where we would be in the process with our adoption agency by May 1...that goal was met as well.

As we began our adoption process, I heard Wesley say to someone, "We are going to work hard and trust that, in turn, Jesus will provide."  Jesus has provided thus far, but our work is not finished.  We have not met our overall financial need yet and so we are hoping you might help us with the next step in the process through our "PUZZLE FUNDRAISER."  This is especially important as we finish our home study and enter into the Dossier & international fingerprinting processes (both of which are a significant financial commitment (5-8 thousand dollar expense).

So what is the PUZZLE FUNDRAISER and how does it work?

We have a 550 piece puzzle that we want to put together.  We are selling each piece for $5 (or more) and for that we will put your name on it.  Not a big deal and certainly not worth your $5, right?  You would be correct if all you got was a name on a puzzle piece and it went in a box, but the super thing about this puzzle is that it will be framed and put in Emma's room with 550 names of people who love her and helped bring her to her forever home.  We hope you'll choose to be part of that group of 550.

We introduced this idea a few months ago and are so very thankful to have had 50+ people join us on this journey.  THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!  Our next goal is to sell 20 pieces a day by July 1st.  Ambitious, yes.  Possible, absolutely!  With the money received, we will be able to pay for our immigration paperwork and our Dossier will be able to be submitted to China!!!!

Getting involved is easy!  On the side bar of this blog, you will see the pay pal logo.  If you would like to purchase a puzzle piece for $5, click on the pay pal logo that says "Pieces for Emma's Puzzle."  If you feel led to contribute more, there is another pay pal log that says "Orphan to Ours" and you may choose your desired donation amount.  Checks/cash are always great options and we also have a credit card reader on our phones, so if you see us and would like to go that route, we are happy to do that as well!

Thank you once again for loving our family and for being a part of what the Lord is doing and will continue to do as we prepare for Emma.  

Interview #1

We are making progress and every day gets us one step closer to our Emma. This past week, we had our first home study interview with our agency Bethany Christian Services. Because we are international, we will go to Jackson for 2 meetings and our case worker will come to Hattiesburg once to see our home. To be honest, I was terribly nervous about our meeting. I guess just the unknown and just not being sure of what to expect left me feeling like I had a tummy full of butterflies. Luckily, it was no where near the big scary deal I had made it out to be in my mind! We had a nice time getting to know our case worker and letting her hear our stories and what brought us to the point where we are now. She asked several questions and that was it! We will meet again the first week in June after she returns from vacation. I am so thankful that we are moving along. I know this is going to be a LONG process and I will get plenty antsy at times so I am thankful for any progress that can get us closer to our little girl. My heart is so full today as I got to spend Mother's Day with my beautiful children but I couldn't help but think about Emma. Chances are, she has already been born. My heart aches for her to be with us and for us to love, protect, and teach her the love of The Lord. I have thought so much today about her birth mother as well. I may never know all the details that brought her to the point where she would give up her child, but I wish there was a way that she could know that she is prayed for and that her sacrifice has not gone unnoticed. I just love the picture of redemption that is painted through adoption. It is such an amazing reminder of the grace given to me and my heart is so full of thankfulness because of it!!!!

Emma's Garage Sale

As I sit here, I am completely in awe of how the Lord had His hands on our efforts this weekend to raise support to bring our Emma home.  Over the last 2-3 weeks, treasures have been pouring in to our garage.  Each day I would come home to find bags, boxes, furniture and more stacked to the ceiling of our garage.  Sometimes I would know who had been so generous, other times, I had not a clue.  But to all of those kind people, we are thankful.  I knew that we would have some AWESOME merchandise for our sale because of our gracious friends and family.  Now, everyone kept telling me not to get too excited or have too high of expectations because there were several things NOT working in our favor.  First of all, it was not the first weekend in the month and several people told me this would automatically cause trouble.  Second of all, the forecast looked fairly grim as well.  40% chance of rain was predicted for sale time.  Not so pleasant!!! Anyway, I spent the week just in prayer that God would just work these hiccups out as only He could.  Well, I am happy to report that He provided in a major way for us and blessed our sale far beyond our wildest dreams!!!!  As Aunt Carolyn, Mom, J, some sweet friends and I were attempting to get things organized on Friday morning (like 7:30 am), people started flooding in to our yard...mind you, the garage sale was set to begin the next morning at 6am.  Well, with things in no real order and prices made up on the fly, we started selling things left and right.  It was chaos, but we just went with it.  As the last person left at 9:30 pm with flashlights in hand, I thanked Jesus for providing so many shoppers and I just assumed that was His way of providing since rain was still in the forecast.  We made it to bed finally, sore, tired, and sunburned.  When we got outside at 5:15 the next morning, the air was damp and I didn't really know what the day would bring.  People started arriving and did their shopping by the light of their cell phones.  The sun came up and the sky was clear and GORGEOUS!!!! It was a perfect day and the shoppers continued to flood our little sale.  By noon, there were only a few items left.  One of the last people shopping mentioned that her church just down the road was having a garage sale fundraiser the next weekend for a mission trip fundraiser.  We got in touch with the youth minister who brought his trailer and picked up the remainder of our things.  YEAH!!!!  We were so overwhelmed by how generous some people were and are so very thankful that because of this weekend's efforts, we are that much closer to our Emma!!! We are excited to report that with the donations we had received before the sale, and with the proceeds from the sale, we are a little more than 20% funded!!!!

There are so many people who made this weekend possible.  Countless people donated items and got the word out about the sale.  Our sweet friends Stacy Wallace, Louise Meyer, and Lauren Hutto came and sorted things and got everything organized.  My precious best friend Kristen (in the white hat below) worked her tail off and is the queen of garage sales! We seriously could not have made it without her!!!! My Mom, Dad, and Aunt Carolyn were absolute troopers and "thank you" is simply not enough.  They are amazing!!!!  Wesley Walton and his precious mom Dawn brought us dinner and Wesley entertained EK for HOURS!!!! He even slept in our driveway to protect the goods on Friday night! AMAZING!!!!  Taylor and Lauren from my d-group came to help for a while as well.  Countless people were praying for this weekend's success, and we could feel it!!!! We are so blessed to have so many people willing to walk alongside us in this journey!!!!

Sweet Joanna Keith and Elleigh took Ella Kate with them for donuts and a fun play date while we were super busy.  That was such a huge help!!!

Mrs. Mary Anna took Walker to Columbus for several days which was so helpful. I love my little guy, but we were a lot more efficient without the little monkey getting in to anything and everything.  From the looks of things, he had quite a fun time at Nana's!!!!!! Thank you so much to Nana and Pop....they will sleep well this week, no doubt!!!!

   

Our garage sale was definitely a team effort and we so appreciate all of the people who helped to make Emma's sale such a huge success!!!! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!

Pieces of the Puzzle

Time and time again, scripture talks about how important each individual person is in the functioning of the church.  Every person has a specific role, just as every part of the body is important and necessary for the body to work in the way that it was designed.  In the same way, our journey to bring Emma home from China will require many people...doctors for physicals, lawyers for paperwork, bankers to help with financing & lots of friends like you.  We are excited to let you know about an opportunity to help us with the enormous expenses that go along with an International Adoption.  We would like to ask you to help us complete a puzzle that will be hung in Emma's room.  We are asking that you purchase a piece of the puzzle for $5.00.  Each piece you purchase will have your name written on it and we will frame the completed puzzle in her bedroom as a constant reminder of the amazing people who prayed for us along this journey and also supported us with financial gifts.  Our goal is to raise enough money to pay for our home study which is our next big expense.  The home study will cost somewhere between $2000-3000, so if we can sell each piece in our 550 piece puzzle, we will have enough to cover this expense!!!  Please feel free to purchase as many pieces are you would like, and if you feel led to make any donations to our fund, we would be forever grateful!  The adoption will cost anywhere from $30,000-40,000, so any support you give us will be greatly appreciated!! =)   I will be documenting the progress as the puzzle comes together!!! There are several ways to help us out with this:

1) on the side bar of both of our blogs, there is a button for pay pal.  You can hit "Buy Now" to chose a
    $5.00 piece, or if you feel led, you may chose the "Donate" button and enter the amount of your
    choice.  If you would like to purchase multiply pieces, you can also select the quantity from the "Buy
    Now" button.
2) If you see us somewhere, we have a credit card reader on our phones and we can take a payment
    that way
3) Cash or checks--if you email me at wesleyclaire@yahoo.com or message J on facebook, I will send
    you our address

We are so very excited to finally be in the process of bringing Emma home.  It is going to be a long journey for sure, but we are trusting the Lord to work out all of the details in His timing.  We are so appreciative of your support, prayers, encouragement, and love.  We are truly blessed!!!!  Now, go buy a puzzle piece...PRETTY PLEASE!!!

One Man's Trash is Another Man's Treasure

Spring has officially sprung and with that comes "spring cleaning."  Cleaning out your closets, attics and storage rooms are never any fun but this year that can change.  Your stuff can make a difference in the life of a little girl whom we have not even met yet but hope to soon call "daughter."  We are having a garage sale on Saturday, April 27 and we are hoping for it to be an absolutely HUGE GARAGE SALE.  That is where we need your help...or more specifically your stuff and we need it by April 20th.  Clothes, furniture, home decor, electronics, cars & boats (I figured while I was asking)

You can drop your things off in our garage if you are in the Hattiesburg area or you can call us and we will come get it.

If you are in Jackson or Columbus (or anywhere else for that matter)...we have friends who are willing to come get stuff from you as well.  

Again, our garage sale is going to be on Saturday, April 27th in the side lot by our house.  We will be putting up fliers all around town and could use any help you could give in the publicity department.  Maybe you know somewhere we could put up a flyer when that time comes.  If so, let us know.  

I hope you will consider helping us in some way.  We would be so grateful because, quite simply, unless Jesus makes a way, then we can not do this.  Fortunate for us, as one of my seminary friends has previously written, "God has untold resources to draw from."  We are trusting this to be true.

Also, be on the lookout in the next few days for an opportunity to be a part of something special for Emma that we are super excited about!!!!!  It's quick.  It's easy.  You can do it online and it won't even cost you much.


You can contact us at wesleyclaire@yahoo.com, through J's Facebook page, or just comment on this post.