5 Days!!!

We are down to 5 days.  5 days until we get to hug him again.  5 days until we get to see his sweet smile.  5 days until we get to hear his sweet l@tvian accent.  When I sit here and think about the airport pickup, I can not help be think about how much is different this time than the last time we were waiting at the airport.  The level of excitement in the family is getting higher and higher each day.  We are all so very excited!

I am still trying to figure out how I am going to blog about our hosting experience this time.  We are in a totally different place than we were the last time we hosted.  We will have to be a little more limited with the information that we share in order to protect ourselves while in the process.

Many of you have asked what we are going to be doing with him while he is here.  We are very excited that he is coming during the 4th of July, because he loves fireworks.  He is coming at an exact opposite time of year, the hustle and bustle of Christmas and all of the commitments that come with that time of year are not there.  We plan on slowing down a bit, spending a lot of time in the pool, attending local festivals and giving him some experiences that he has never had before.

If anyone has any question feel free to fire away!

Excitedly waiting!

Here we are...

It has been a while since I have turned my thoughts into words, about where we are.  The excitement in the house is growing as the summer hosting approaches.  We have begun to plan a few things that we are planning to do as a family with him.

The other day I was thinking back to last December when we were at the airport nervously waiting in anticipation for what was coming next.  It seemed like in an instant everyone else was gone and we were left standing in the airport all alone.  Fast forward to June 27th 2013, and I can only imagine how different this airport pickup will be.  We are all so excited for him to come back.  It is precious to hear our 4 year old ask when he is going to be here and just talking about him.  It is absolutely amazing how God has shown himself to to me through our kids in this process.  I am thankful that we stepped out in faith and obedience when we chose to host last winter.

We do not know what the future will hold for us,  the decision is up to him as to where we go from here.  At the age of 12 and above L@tvian orphans get to choose for themselves what they want to do.  If a family would like to adopt them they can say no and stay where they are, o r they could stay where they are.  We have been blessed to meet some children that have been adopted from that region after being hosted and have learned a few valuable things from that.  We hope to make use of these relationships as we move forward.

Last week was a very busy week for us as we worked to put together what ended up being a very successful garage sale.  Thank you to so much to those who donated items to help us.  We continue to have people use our Amazon Link.  Over the last two months, friends have used our link to shop and we have made just over $150 thanks to them.  If you do not know about our Amazon Link it is very simple to use.  If you are making a purchase off of amazing just click on our link and make your purchase as usual and Amazon will give a portion (4%-7.5%) of your purchase to us.

Thank you all who have come alongside us and assisted us in any way and I do mean ANY way

Starfish (Written by Linda)

So many people are asking us what is new, what are we doing, what's going on?   We are still moving forward with or paperwork!  We will be sending off our I 800 - A ( This is a document that allows us to get some really expensive fingerprints done LOL)  We have everything that can be done at this time for our Dossier ( another adoption term but this is the biggie)  This is the Starfish Story.  I love this little story because I do believe that God put this little man in our lives and I know "  it made a difference for that one"  I can hear it in his voice when we talk,  I know the change that we saw in him while he was in our home,  I know he knows we love him, and  I know he knows he is wanted. 

Before we hosted it was easy to not think about the orphans around the world.  Since hosting that has changed forever.  We have often talked about how many orphans are out there world wide.  There are between 143,000 and 153,000 orphans worldwide.  If you lined them up shoulder to shoulder they would circle the equator 3 times.  If you drove past this line at 60 mph for 24 hours a day you would still be passing children after 60 days.  When you start reading about all the statistics some people begin to say what is the point,  I can not help all of them.  The story below is a good picture of what hosting is.

Once upon a time, there was a wise old man,

who went to the sea to contemplate.

One day, while walking along the shore,

the wise old man looked down the beach,

and saw a gracefully dancing human figure.

The wise old man wondered out loud,

 “Who would be dancing all alone on the beach?”

He began to walk faster to catch up.

Getting closer, the wise man saw that the dancer

was a child, who was not dancing at all.

The child was reaching down to the sand to pick up

something, and was very gently throwing it into the sea.

The man called out to the child,

“Good Morning! What are you doing?”

The child paused, looked up and replied,

“Throwing Starfish into the sea.”

Surprised, the man said,

“Yes, I see that, but WHY are you throwing Starfish into the sea?”

The child smiled brightly, pointed upward and

with perfect simplicity replied,

“The sun is up, and the tide is going out.

If I don’t throw them in, they will die.”

“But, don’t you realize, “asked the man,

“that there are miles and miles of beach and Starfish all along it?

You can’t possibly make a difference!”

The child listened politely.

Then bent down, picked up another Starfish,

threw it gently into the sea, just beyond the breaking waves,

and joyfully declared,

“It made a difference for that one.”

These past few weeks have been difficult. We were shocked and very saddened that he is not wanting to pursue adoption right now.  Honestly we were completely caught off guard.  God has placed a burning fire in our hearts for adoption.  We have no idea where this road is taking us but I am peacefully resting in God. ok I have to be honest the first couple of weeks I was frantic.  I was reaching and searching for anything I could do to change this.  It felt as though I was drowning.  It makes me think of Matthew 14:29,30

 “Come,” he said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. ³⁰ But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” 

I took my eyes off of God and tried to find any way I could to possible change this.  I hate the way I reacted.  It goes to show me how  little my faith can be at times and how I will forever be a work in progress.  

So this summer we are going to be hosting for 5 weeks.  We are going to approach this hosting the same way as we did the first time. Share with him FAITH, HOPE and LOVE.  We are going to show him a family, unconditional love, share the gospel with him, teach him the English language, and hope for his future.  We are so THANKFUL that we will get to see him again!  We are crying out to God that he changes his mind.  

Thank you for all of your support, encouraging notes, and love that you have given us.  You have no idea  how much this means to us.  Especially during this difficult time.  Thank you!  

Thoughts and findings of the last week.

Tonight as I sit here with the kids laying on the floor having a sleepover in the living room it is hard for me not to think back to a few months ago when we had 4 kids all lined up sleeping in our living room.  Tonight I am really missing the little boy that is not here physically.  It brings back alot of great memories that we made over the 5 short weeks that he was with us.  We have been working through piles of papers trying to get everything done and everything done correctly with the right color ink with the correct amount of each one signed, notarized on the proper letterhead.  It has been exhausting.  There have been late nights, there have been a lot of trips to the notary with another lengthy trip coming up.  Documents have to be done in triplicate so thats a lot of signing!

This past Wednesday we received an email from our social worker letting us know that we have received endorsement from the State of Illinois.  We can move our paperwork forward and move onto the next step of the process.  Our next step is to send our home study and application to Immigration.

The end of last week we received a call from our adoption agency.  We knew something was going on because most of our communications with the has been through email.  I answered the phone and Cathy (our Agency worker) let me know that the orphan court had asked him if he would like to be adopted.  At this point in the conversation my heart was racing in anticipation as to what she was going to tell me.  She went on to say that he said he would like to be hosted again before he made a decision.  At that point it felt like all the air had been sucked out of my body.  To be  honest with you at that point in time I was sad, confused, hurt and mad.  I do not even remember how I ended the conversation with Cathy.  The call could not have come at a worse time either.  I was in the middle of fixing a customer problem and things were not working for me.  I was trying to get things done and rushing through it and making even more mistakes.  I wanted to get home to talk to Linda about what I had found out.

After thinking about the information that we were given and talking to Linda about it, we got back in contact with Cathy and had a few questions for her about it.  After talking to her our feelings were put at ease when we found out that older children often have that response when asked.

Looking back at the way I reacted and the way I was feeling I see that my feelings were that of selfishness.  The response was not the response that I wanted to hear.  I thought that my way was the best way.  I had forgotten that what I think is the right thing does not mean that he thinks it is the right thing.  I am not the one that would leave the only country he has ever lived in, his friends, the family that he has, his culture, his language, everything that he knows as his life, for the unknown of America.  He would be coming to a new culture  new language, new family, new future, but all of that is unknown and not familiar to him.   when I stepped back and looked at it from that perspective I understood his answer a lot better.

So where does that put us now?  We are continuing with the paperwork so that everything is ready to go and there are no delays in our process after hosting.  We will be hosting again for sure this summer and anything beyond that is in God's hands.  We plan to show him the love of a family and build trust with him letting him know that we will love him unconditionally.

Many of you have asked what you can do to help.  Honestly the first and the most important thing that you can do for our family is to pray.  Pray that we know how to respond to him and how to build the necessary trust in him.  We know that it would have to be a little scary leaving the only thing you have ever known.

There are some tangible ways that you can help as well.

We will need a 28" rolling suitcase to take back with him.  It must have wheels and must be 28".  All children will have the same size suitcase and if he has a smaller suitcase than everyone else it would not be good.  Likewise if it is bigger than 28" it would not be good either.  It must have wheels on it because he has to be able to take his own belongings with him without the help from anyone.

We will have to send him back with some very specific items that have to go back with him so if you felt led you could donate a gift card from Walmart, Target, Kohls or a similar store.

We have to also send him back with a backpack.  Even though he will most likely come with one it is required that he take a new one back with him.

He can have an inexpensive mp3 player(no ipods or name brands).  It can not have a camera on it of any kind and it would be best if it were rechargeable via usb because they do not have much access to batteries.

As I mentioned above in addition to the hosting fees we are responsible for a round trip ticket from New York City to Chicago, or St. Louis (roughly $300)

Thank you everyone who has and is supporting us in any way as we go on this journey.  Your shopping on Amazon.com through our link raised $89.50 last month.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

Summer Mission trip for the entire family

Have you always wanted to take your entire family on a mission trip but have not been able to afford it?  Have you ever thought about turning your home into a mission field?  We did it over Christmas and you can to for 5 weeks this summer.  New Horizons for Children is a hosting program that brings children to the United States for 5 weeks during the summer and 4 weeks during the winter.  The goal of the program is to teach orphans what a loving family is like, to share the love of Jesus to them.  If Linda and I can do it, you can to.  There are over 100 children that are still looking for a family to host them this summer.  If these kids are not hosted they will go to a "summer camp" which is often a worse situation that what they are in at the orphanages.  We are re-hosting this summer from L@tvia and have friends in the area that are hosting from the Ukr@ine so either way you go you will have someone in the area that you can talk to if your questions are country specific.  They have hosted before as well and are actually the people that told us about this amazing opportunity.  All of these children have a story.  Some are host only.  Some children are host only because they are to old to be adopted but have not aged out of the system or their parents have not had their parental right terminated.  These children NEED LOVE.  The love that a host family shows them could be the difference that they need to make it when they are on their own.  The statistics are not good for the kids that age out of the system.   Can you make a difference for just one?  To find out more about these children you can click here.  The deadline for these children is April 15th.  Everyone can do something.  If you can not host a child, maybe you can host a chaperone (which is free other than food and entertainment),  you can become a backup family, pray for host families to come forward, or give financially in the form of a scholarship for some of the waiting children.

Dossier paperwork getting closer!

Our dossier paperwork is getting closer and closer.  We got our medical reports completed and signed in the proper way.  It was a more difficult process than I thought it was going to be but we got it done.  We have everything collected and now have to get them all notarized.  We have to have 3 of every document, and every document has to be original .  That is going to be a lot of signing and notarizing.

Our Pampered Chef party closes Today, Thursday 28th.  If you would like to place an order check out our fundraiser page and follow the link.

Thank you to everyone who took part in our 31 party.

I would also like to thank everyone that has used our amazon link for all of their amazon shopping.  We are currently at earned $70.60 with a few more larger purchase that have not been added into the total yet.  (as a reminder the link will be available to use and benefit our journey throughout the duration of our journey.

Home Study and Fundraiser Updates

This morning we got word from our social worker that our home study was sent to the State of Illinois on Friday.  We pray that there are not many home studies currently on her desk because she is the only person that reads  and approves them.  Hopefully we will hear something back by the end of the week and then we will be able to send it off to immigration so that we can get their approval!



As you may or may not know, tomorrow (Tuesday, March 26th) is the final day to play the 31 orders!  Thursday is the final day to order Pampered Chef.  We also learned tonight that Friday will be the final day to order Mary Kay.

This week will be a big week for us with these three fundraisers coming to an end.  You can click here to get to our fundraiser page or click the link at the top of the page!