Sunday, July 22, 2012
Friday, July 6, 2012
Puzzle fundraiser / Bringing Lena home soon!
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| Thank you so much to everyone who has contributed to our puzzle to bring Lena home! If you would like to add your name to the puzzle, you can donate through our PayPal button on the upper right of this page. We hope to have the edges completed with the names of everyone who helped to bring her home. :) |
Thursday, June 14, 2012
God is so good! But we already knew that!
Time for an update! Lots to catch up on. As I said from the beginning, I'm not an enthusiastic writer so my posts are pretty sparse. We have had a lot of amazing things happening lately. We were waiting on our LOA (Letter of Approval) to come from China. The average wait time has been 80 - 100 days. We were on day 50 when I received a phone call from our agency telling us we have our LOA! It was so amazing because it wasn't even close to the time I thought it would take. This considerably moved our travel time to sooner than we expected. We are now looking to travel at the end of August! Unbelievable! Time to make preparations... room, crib, clothes, car seat, etc. Hopefully not diapers! :) So much to do...so much to do...
Now, for more good news!! I got an e-mail tonight from the amazing, wonderful organization, JSC Foundation, telling us that we were awarded an adoption grant! This was for a significant amount, which means that our agency program adoption fees are now paid - in- full! Amazing! I love seeing the evidence of God working in our lives. Though we actually can see God at work every day in small and in big things. He is faithful! He is Jehovah-Jireh! Thanks to the initial grant our agency awarded us and now this recent grant, our whole agency adoption program fee was completely paid for by outside provision! We, of course, have paid many other fees and costs but the entire adoption program fee was a gift! We are so humbled and grateful beyond words. At this point, we only have our travel expenses to pay. I'm looking forward to seeing God's hand in the remainder of our journey.
Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us and supporting us in this journey. We look forward to bringing our sweet girl home!
Now, for more good news!! I got an e-mail tonight from the amazing, wonderful organization, JSC Foundation, telling us that we were awarded an adoption grant! This was for a significant amount, which means that our agency program adoption fees are now paid - in- full! Amazing! I love seeing the evidence of God working in our lives. Though we actually can see God at work every day in small and in big things. He is faithful! He is Jehovah-Jireh! Thanks to the initial grant our agency awarded us and now this recent grant, our whole agency adoption program fee was completely paid for by outside provision! We, of course, have paid many other fees and costs but the entire adoption program fee was a gift! We are so humbled and grateful beyond words. At this point, we only have our travel expenses to pay. I'm looking forward to seeing God's hand in the remainder of our journey.
Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us and supporting us in this journey. We look forward to bringing our sweet girl home!
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Lena sees her new family!
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Waiting and counting our blessings....
I just thought I'd write an update even though we don't really have any new news to share. We are really just in a waiting stage at this point. Today is day 39 in our wait for our LOA (Letter of Acceptance) from China. The average wait time for this LOA has been 90-100 days at this time. We are praying for a paperwork miracle to speed this up! Meanwhile, we have been working on our travel documents. The time frame from LOA received until travel is usually around 3 months. According to this time framework, we hope to travel around October. Fortunately, we know she is being well taken care of until we get there.
We have experienced many blessings during this process so far. First of all, we have been so blessed by the support of our friends and family. Our agency has been amazing to work with! Secondly, we received a grant from them which reduced our adoption program fee. They also lowered our agency fee, which was a big surprise! Because of these blessings, the majority of our overall remaining adoption fees consist of the mandatory China orphanage "donation" of $5000! Pretty awesome! We also, of course, have to pay for our travel expenses and 2 weeks of in-country expenses. As it turns out, our international adoption costs consist mainly of travel / and overseas expenses. This has been a pleasant surprise to us! God has indeed been making this possible once we stepped out in faith and said "yes." We are still waiting to hear from another grant we applied for and praying that it will come through.
Therefore, our only "fund-raiser" we are doing to help off-set the costs is our puzzle fundraiser. If you haven't read about it, I'll summarize: We have a puzzle that we are going to have hanging in Lena's room (pictured below). We are asking that our friends and family "purchase" a piece for $10 dollars. Each donor's name will be written on the back of the puzzle piece. We will preserve the puzzle with the names visible on the back to be a reminder of how so many people helped to bring Lena home to our family. Already, it has been such a blessing to us. Honestly, we are not extremely comfortable with "asking for money" from friends and family. Therefore, all the money we raise, will go directly to the China orphanage donation. Therefore, it not only is helping our family, but it is a way to help support many orphans who remain in China. If you would like to help, you can donate through the Paypal "Donate" button at the top of our page.
We have a couple recent pictures from China of our sweet girl. We are so blessed by the director of the children's home that is responsible for Lena, who sends me pictures periodically. She has been wonderful and we are so thankful for her! As our journey to Lena continues, we appreciate all your prayers and support.
Prayer requests: For our paperwork to be processed in a timely manner, for Lena's care and development while we are waiting, for Lena's foster parents, for Lena' birthmother, for the caregivers and children at the children's home where she spent her first year of life, for our travel arrangements to go smoothly, for Lena to adjust to our family and bond with us, and that our family will adjust well and embrace our "new normal."
Until next time...
We have experienced many blessings during this process so far. First of all, we have been so blessed by the support of our friends and family. Our agency has been amazing to work with! Secondly, we received a grant from them which reduced our adoption program fee. They also lowered our agency fee, which was a big surprise! Because of these blessings, the majority of our overall remaining adoption fees consist of the mandatory China orphanage "donation" of $5000! Pretty awesome! We also, of course, have to pay for our travel expenses and 2 weeks of in-country expenses. As it turns out, our international adoption costs consist mainly of travel / and overseas expenses. This has been a pleasant surprise to us! God has indeed been making this possible once we stepped out in faith and said "yes." We are still waiting to hear from another grant we applied for and praying that it will come through.
Therefore, our only "fund-raiser" we are doing to help off-set the costs is our puzzle fundraiser. If you haven't read about it, I'll summarize: We have a puzzle that we are going to have hanging in Lena's room (pictured below). We are asking that our friends and family "purchase" a piece for $10 dollars. Each donor's name will be written on the back of the puzzle piece. We will preserve the puzzle with the names visible on the back to be a reminder of how so many people helped to bring Lena home to our family. Already, it has been such a blessing to us. Honestly, we are not extremely comfortable with "asking for money" from friends and family. Therefore, all the money we raise, will go directly to the China orphanage donation. Therefore, it not only is helping our family, but it is a way to help support many orphans who remain in China. If you would like to help, you can donate through the Paypal "Donate" button at the top of our page.
We have a couple recent pictures from China of our sweet girl. We are so blessed by the director of the children's home that is responsible for Lena, who sends me pictures periodically. She has been wonderful and we are so thankful for her! As our journey to Lena continues, we appreciate all your prayers and support.
Prayer requests: For our paperwork to be processed in a timely manner, for Lena's care and development while we are waiting, for Lena's foster parents, for Lena' birthmother, for the caregivers and children at the children's home where she spent her first year of life, for our travel arrangements to go smoothly, for Lena to adjust to our family and bond with us, and that our family will adjust well and embrace our "new normal."
Until next time...
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