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.

  

Where to Begin...

     Ephesians 1:4-5 says "Even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in His eyes.  God decided in advance to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself through Jesus Christ.  This is what He wanted to do, and it gave Him great pleasure."  Let that sink in a minute.  God chose us and loved us even though we were sinful, dirty, undeserving, and on and on I could go.  He WANTED to do it!!! I don't know about you, but that makes we want to scream praises to Him and shout out the biggest THANK YOU ever imaginable! We deserved DEATH but are given the opportunity to have LIFE eternal if we are willing to accept this free gift.  That's good stuff right there!!!!
      When I was 15 years old, I felt 2 very strong callings from the Lord in my life.  The first was that I was to marry a minister.  Check.  The second was that I was supposed to adopt a child from Asia.  It was a clear message from the Lord that this was an act of worship that He wanted me to do no matter what.  He brought me to this passage in Ephesians and it was like He laid it out for me very clearly.  He called me to action.  There are about 163 million orphans reported in the world.  163 million children in need of a home....that is a heartbreaking statistic!  It is time to do something about this.
       J and I began dating over 10 years ago.  One of our first conversations centered around the 2 callings in my life.  It was so clear to me how God was in the middle of all of it because J had already accepted God's call to full time ministry and he was completely on board with adoption.  Our conversations during those first few months of dating really solidified it in my heart that this was the man God had created and prepared for me and an adoptive journey was the path that He had for our family.  We were married in 2005 and in 2009, we welcomed our beautiful little girl Ella Kate.  We knew we had to wait until we were both 30 to officially begin all the paperwork and the long road to bringing our daughter home.  What we weren't expecting was our sweet Walker who surprised us in 2012.  We can't imagine life without him now, but it did delay our process a little bit since the youngest child in the house must be 1 year old before the home study can be completed.  =)  I am amazed at how the Lord is at work in our family.  We have really been able to have some special conversations with Ella Kate about how our family is going to change and it is so sweet to hear the precious prayers that she offers up for her sister and all the orphans in the world. It is a blessing in deed to see the Lord softening her heart and making her aware and sensitive to the fact that there is a lot more to this life than just her.
    As we begin this journey, will you please pray for our family?  We can not do this alone!!!  We will be updating on this blog and our family blog with specific prayer needs, ways you can help, as well as documenting every step along the way as we get closer and closer to bringing our little one home.  Thank you for taking the time to read my ramblings, but thank you even more for praying for us and supporting us on this amazing journey that God has set out before us.