And the winner is...

We have had an unbelievable fundraiser with our painting!!!  Altogether we received $1,000.  Did you see that? $1,000!!!!!

It amazes me that so many people love and care about Jiang. God's hand surely is not short and little by little we are moving closer to getting him home. Unbelievable. I am amazed!

So, with all that being said we put all the tickets together...

and shook them up...

and drew out a name...

Ashley Galloway Metzger 

a dear friend from my college dorm days

who by all accounts deserved to win this painting!!!

And a runner up (because I'm a softy) who will get a print of the painting

Dick Jusino from our church! 

Thank you seems too small a term for this, but we thank you from the bottom of our hearts to all who participated. 

God has once again surpassed my expectations

and we stand humbly amazed.

His first momma

Jiang's first momma has been on my mind so much lately. I wish I could meet her and ask her so many questions. What went through her mind? Who is she? Did her heart grieve when she knew she couldn't keep him? Was her goodbye kiss salted by her own tears? Did he scream for her when she left?

She had him for over a year before leaving him all alone in a McDonald's. I know she knew that was a place where he would be found, but he didn't know that. He thought they were going for a treat. Maybe they had ice cream first. Maybe she wanted to see him eat his first ice cream cone and drip with the sweetness and smiles they always bring. Maybe she wanted her last memory of him to be a happy one.

I am so thankful to be his new mommy, but the truth is I wish she had kept him. I wish he never knew the pain of being abandoned by someone he loved. I wish a thousand things for him for his future, but if I had one wish above all it would be that he could have stayed with her.

I know the stigma of unhealthy children in China is more than likely what drove her to leave him. They would have found his diagnosis right around the time that she left him. What did her heart feel when the doctors told her he had thalassemia? Did she cry in his office or wait until she got home to break down? Did her heart know in that instant that she couldn't keep him? Did her family pressure her into giving him up? Did he have a daddy that grieved the loss of his son? Did she keep him for a few weeks hoping that he would somehow be okay and be able to stay with her? Did she put on her favorite outfit for him and rock him one last time that morning?

While I know she will never read this I'd like to somehow send this out and pray that she knows that I will love him. I wish she could know that he has found a family to take care of him. I wish that she could know that I will teach him of her the best that I can. I will teach him forgiveness and love. Together we will love her and pray for her. We will pray that God will heal her broken heart and breathe His peace into her soul. We will pray that God whispers into her heart that her baby is safe and alive and so incredibly loved. Somewhere in the darkness of her pain I hope that God's gives her the light of His hope.

Father God, mark this mother for Your Glory. May she be redeemed. May she somehow hear of Your great love and know the goodness of Your grace and forgiveness. In Your loving kindness can You speak to her of her son's redemption? Bind her broken heart and give her comfort. Tell her that I love him. Above all mark her for Your Glory, place Your seal of salvation on her soul. Save her, Dear Father, save and love her. I ask all this in the name of Your Great Son, Jesus Christ. 

What a weekend can bring

This weekend has been full of blessings, almost too many to count! We had our garage sale this weekend and it went so well. We were ready a day early so we were open for three days instead of two. The kids had their own lemonade/bake sale stand and did incredibly well. All together we raised close to $700 at the garage sale! That's huge since I was only hoping for $100-$300. God surpassed my expectations...again.

Then I was surprised when I walked into church today and they announced our next fundraiser and many people donated and entered for our painting giveaway. So far we have close to $200 donated for that already. I stand amazed, simply amazed.

It was as if God reached down and hugged me again and again this weekend. I cannot tell you how many people who came to our garage sale had adopted themselves and encouraged us to continue down this road. We even had the privilege of meeting a birth mom who took the time to talk with us. It was just person after person giving us the encouragement that our hearts so badly needed. It felt as if everyone knew someone who had adopted and they stopped to talk with us and let us know that it encourages them to see what we are doing.

To top it all off as we were going out for Father's Day Lunch we bumped into a couple that adopted a five year old girl from China last year and they live near us! I had been praying for God to grant that wish for me, that I would be able to meet other moms who have gone down this road and that our children could play together. As I talked to her I thanked God for answering what I felt was a silly wish and totally unlikely to ever happen in my tiny edge of the world. But even in that He proves to me that He is in this. He is walking this road with me and taking care of my emotional needs as well. He is providing friends for Jiang that will be able to remind him of home and talk to him in his own language. Even now my Savior is showing me that He is watching over Jiang.

My heart is overwhelmed with the gifts God has given me this weekend. I can't figure out if I want to cry or laugh or just sit and soak it all in, but I know that I want to give Him the praise for a weekend of answered prayers. We came into this adoption with great need and I have learned that to have great need is to know the greatness of our God in a personal way. I have empty hands and He fills them. My heart aches to hold my son and yet God soothes my soul by reminding me that He is holding him for me.

I have no idea how this will end. I have no idea what tomorrow holds. What I know is that my God shall supply all my needs and I have learned that is all I need to know. I am thankful for this humbling. I am thankful to have great needs. I am thankful because in this place I can see the hand of God. He is truly Great and Mighty.

Mark your calendars!

We have some amazing friends with an incredible talent for painting.

They have very generously donated 

a painting that we will be hosting a drawing for

next Thursday the 21st.

Visit their gallery 

http://www.derekclarkstudio.com/#!adoption-auction

Each entry will be $10 and you may donate as much as you like

and continue getting your name in multiple times!

There will be other prizes given for second and third place as well.

The daily humdrum

So, we continue to work on paperwork but now it is for our official dossier! Exciting, and a little frightening. Everything has to be done just perfectly before it is sent off to China. According to what I'm told it will take us the better part of the next few months to complete this thing! 

We are hosting a garage sale next Friday and Saturday. So, this week means the house is turned upside down trying to get stuff ready. Should I mention I've never done this and organization is not exactly one of my strengths??? If you happen to stop by in the next week, have mercy and try not to judge the status of my house! 

We have another home study to schedule. China apparently requires us to meet together a minimum of four times. Our agency is graciously trying to use our previous domestic home study to count as one of those! 

We are also working on a super amazing giveaway fundraiser! We have some great prizes and one spectacular grand prize that I may or may not be wishing I could win for myself!!!

That's it. Not much, right? 

Gideon and Grace

Here's the update on our progress:

We are finished with our first round of paperwork and getting it in the mail today! Phew.
One done, a million to go.
Now we get to start the fun dossier.
In real terms it's more legal paperwork which all goes over to China. China!
We've already got a good headstart on the dossier since we already had to send a lot of it to be approved by China to adopt Jiang.
We have raised/saved close to $2500!


I don't know if there is any scientific evidence to what I am about to say, but I am here to tell you that all of those crazy preggo hormones exist in the adoptive process. Why? I have no idea! I guess my body and mind know that I'm going to a mom again, but shoot keep the hormones! Hot flashes, restless leg syndrome and lactating are not my friends these days. My husband has that deer in the headlights look that he has for the nine months of pregnancy which means one thing. I am not imagining these hormones! The poor man. Add him to your prayer list...he's going to need it. However, the one comfort that it brings to me is that I know deep in my heart Jiang is MY son. My mind knows it, my heart knows it and my body is proving to me that it knows it too. Weird. Really weird, I know.

This week has been one of those weeks that I feel anxious. One of the weeks where I break down in the middle of my run sobbing because I wonder if we will reach Jiang in time to save him. The what if's have broken through and are shouting into my heart and it leaves my heart anxious. I am anxious to see God's mighty hand working in ways that leave me breathless. I am anxious to see and hold my son and know that he will know me. I am anxious to know that my son has heard the name of Jesus and has known His love. I am anxious. I'd like to tell you otherwise, but I promised myself to write a truthful blog on our adoption and anything else would be less than my honesty. I am anxious.

To calm my anxious heart I have started a journal that I call "Remembering God in the Impossible." Everyday I write down stories from Scripture where God did the completely impossible. Feel free to remind me of those that you think of, it has been immensely helpful.

I have been encouraged by one of our prayer partners to read Gideon's story again. I am so glad for that push to dig back into his story. I was reminded of how God took Gideon's already small army and made it even smaller so that God's people would see and know that He alone did this great work. It hit home and made me realize that God has me right where He wants me so that the world will know that He is doing this. I am so thankful that Gideon heard and answered the call of the Lord. I am selfishly thankful for all of his doubts and that God in His grace recorded them for me to read all these years later.

Precious in His Sight

There is an amazing fundraiser going on for this little one's 

upcoming surgery.

It's called the red envelope. 

If you have never heard of the red envelopes go read about it here.

You can donate as little as $1 or as much as $500. 

It gives everyone the chance to do something.

I keep hearing the part of Jesus loves the little children in my heart where it says, "They are precious in His sight."

She is precious in the eyes of my Jesus 

and she is precious to me.

Please, please spread the word for this little one. And go grab a red envelope!

Read more about Alea on her blog Hope for Alea.