Roller Coaster of Love

I'm sitting here at the computer when I really should be cleaning the house. But honestly, I'm sick to death of it. I've got so many things on my mind that I thought maybe blogging would help me chill. So here goes.

This week has been full of many fabulous ups and one not so fantastic down. The I800A not only got approved, but I received it Friday. I had it in my greasy little hands for about 1 hour before I rushed to the post office and overnighted it to Alison, the lady in charge on Hong Kong adoptions. Before you ask, yes, I made a copy of it before I mailed it off.

On Tuesday I found out that we were accepted for the Promise 686 Grant. If you aren't familiar with Promise 686 I'll give you a quick tutorial. Perimeter Church in Atlanta ( a Presbyterian PCA church like us) backs this grant. It is a matching grant of up to $8000. Meaning they match dollar per dollar up to $4000. You have to live within the greater Atlanta area to qualify.

I cannot tell you how thrilled we were! And the crazy part is that we already have people giving us money. I'm trying desperately trying to figure out how to set everything up. What an amazing problem to have!!

I have to tell you, I'm not a very eloquent prayer. It usually sounds something like, "Please, please Lord let so and so happen ", or " Please, please Lord heal my kid, save my kid, help him/her find a Godly spouse". See, not very original. But one of my best friends, Allison (who happens to be a wonderful Godly woman), had told me that she prayed for open or closed doors ( in a situation they were dealing with). So that is what I did. And guess what? He has blown the doors off the hinges for us!

We did not have the money to do this adoption. We were in a doing ok financially only because God had led us to Dave Ramsey. We had become debt free in October '10. But we were still working on our emergency fund when we started considering adoption. Money was probably the biggest hindrance to adopting. How were we going to come up with the estimated $20,000 it would take to pay for this adoption? I spoke to some ladies at my church who had adopted multiple times and asked where the money came from? They said that it just comes. What?? How in the name of Sam Hill does that happen? We were about to find out.

For some reason, we decided for forge ahead without a check for $20K sitting in front of us. The first thing we did was have a garage sale. I've blogged about that. It was AMAZING! So to date, we've paid $8700 to the adoption agency and probably $2000 in miscellaneous bills related to the adoption ( passports, I800A, doctor visits etc.) So where did we get the money? We made about $4500 with the yard sale. The rest was just bizzaro. We got a tax refund, and somehow we had the rest of the money in the bank. Crazy, huh? Not crazy, but God. David and I didn't do anything fantastic but trust that God would provide. I can't explain the amount of peace I have had with the "money" issue. I just trusted it would be there. If you know me, you know this is SOOOOO not my personality. I'm a worrier and I especially freak out when it comes to money. God is providing in more than one way.

We still have about $10K to raise. But as crazy as this may sound, I'm looking forward to raising it. This adoption process and helped strengthen my faith. If we are doing His will, He will provide. That has been shown to us over and over again.

So, as for the bad part of the week, I think I'll wait and see if that situation sorts itself out. It could look pretty bad for a company and for their employee. I'm not into bashing them publicly on the internet. Not saying I wasn't ticked, but I've had time to calm down. David and I made a decision together to turn the problem over to our pastor and elders (if it is not handled properly). I am much more at peace knowing I don't have to go after Goliath by myself.

Ahhhhh! I already feel better ;0)

Hopefully Alison will mail out the dossier to Hong Kong on either Monday or Tuesday. Then we get to wait for Hong Kong to give us a referral. After that we travel!!! Please pray for an expedited referral. The little boy we are adopting is turning 3 in July. We'd really love to have him in our arms to celebrate his birth.

One last thing I forgot to mention about praying. David and I had about an hour long discussion with our pastor a few weeks ago. It was and interview for a grant that requires your pastor to ask you some questions about salvation etc. It turned into a "mini" counseling session. It was fantastic. One of the little gems I picked up while there was another way to pray. My pastor said that a way to ask God to expedite our plans, and help with funding would be to make our case to God. Basically list the reasons why we want to hurry up an get to Hong Kong. List the reasons we need the money to make this trip possible. I am so grateful for this advice. David and I are truly blessed to have such a wise and Godly man as our pastor.

That is all for now. Hopefully we'll have that referral soon!

Would You Like Some Cheese With That Whine?

It is so hard to write on my blog when I'm frustrated. I think it will sound whiny and pathetic. But maybe if I get that out of the way real quick it won't sound so bad??? So here goes!

It is taking forever to get the I800a form back. For those of you who don't know the "adoption lingo" that is some form that has to go to INS. Once they take a look at it they send me a form to get our fingerprints for our VISAs. It's been almost 7 weeks and still no appointment for fingerprints. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!

The adoption agency is calling INS every other day. They are also submitting some form to speed up INS. Ha! Speed up the government. Good one.

If this form doesn't work they'll have to get GA's sentator, Johnny Isakson, involved. I'm just so over this. I asked if there was anybody I could call and bless out. They said no. Dangit!! I really need to unload on the government employee who is holding up the process. And people wonder why I REALLY dislike the government. Hmmm???

The super, fantastic, incredible news I got last week came in the form of pictures. They sent me pictures from the orphanage!! I screamed and cried and smiled! And then I did them all over again. I also showed everyone around me the pictures. Since David was at work and all my friends weren't around I had to show them to the Home Depot guy and the ladies at the dry cleaners. Bless their hearts, they pretended to be happy for me at least.

It was great taking the pictures to church yesterday and showing him off. Everyone clucked over him just as I had hoped. It was great. Now they have a picture in their heads of the little boy they've been praying for.

I'm hoping I can put his pictures here on my blog. We'll have to wait and see though. They are very funny about putting kid's pictures out there.

In other news, Calvin signed up for football. I think it is a conspiracy b/w my son and my husband to see how much stress I can take. He'll be playing for a home school league but I hear they are fierce. Great.... Calvin is tall and thin. He wants to play wide receiver. I assume this means he wants to be the one to catch the ball when the QB throws it. Eeek! I just hope he's fast.

I hope all of y'all are doing well. Thanks for reading!

Social Security Numbers and Such

My social security card arrived in the mail today. That thing was a pain in the rear end to get a hold of. I am so excited it is here!

Why, you ask, am I so excited that a government issued ID card has arrived? Well, because it is the latest piece of information that was missing which I desperately needed to finish up some of the paper work.

I think I am close to being done. I have to take some of the paper work to the county clerk and then take it to somewhere in Atlanta to get the state seal. This is a monstrosity of a pain. But, I'm jumping through these ridiculously silly hoops with a smile so that I can get my hands on our baby.

Woo Hoo! Join me is saying Hallelujah, Praise the Lord! There is no way my social security card could have gotten here this quickly without a little help from our Lord. It was less than a week ago that I went to the SS Admin to put in the request. It had to be mailed from Baltimore or Boston (some where starting with a "B").

OK- I'll post more soon when I know something.

Adoption & Stomach Viruses

Good grief! It has been a long time since I have updated my blog. Well, hold on to your hat. Here goes.

Adoption:

The home study was finished and approved in December. We paid for it ($3800) so now it is put to rest. We still owe about $4000 in adoption fees. Hopefully David's W2s will hurry up and get here, the government will issue our refund check, and we can pay that fee.

The next step is the dossier. If I understand right, the dossier is similar to the home study but it requires different documents which are specific to Hong Kong. I spoke to the lady from Bethany who is in charge of adoptions from Hong Kong. It looks like we are still looking at traveling late summer(ish). That is assuming the funding is there.

When I started writing this post I remembered I had to pay for the I800A (about $900). I believe that has something to do with immigration. I really can't keep up anymore. I think it takes about 2 months to get approval.

Please don't hear me complaining about money or the high cost of adoption. I am simply stating how much we owe. For those that are considering adoption, you need to know what you are facing. David and I also know that God will provide one way or another. This is a big leap of faith for us. We really don't know how we'll get the money to pay for this. All my friends who have traveled this road before me have said the money will come.

I have been working on applying for grants. I just can't emphasize how much NOT fun that is. If it were just about filling out a form and signing on the dotted line that would be one thing. But unfortunately, you fill out forms, sign on the line, and provide about a bazillion documents to prove that you are legitimately adopting. What they don't know is that perseverance is my middle name.

Life in General:

Holley Kate has had a stomach virus this past week. Again with the not fun. She seems to be getting better slowly. Gatorade and soda crackers have been our friend. School work has been minimal, at best, this week. Calvin has used this to his advantage. What he didn't realize is that I would have lots of time to spend with him doing English. :0)

Oh and one more thing. Even though we haven't "matched" with our little boy in Hong Kong we have already picked out a name.

We have always given our kids family names. Holley is actually my great great grandmother's maiden name. Kate came from David's grandmother, Mary Kate. Calvin is David's dad and grandaddy's name. Jeffrey is David's middle name as well as his uncle's name.

David and the kids were happy with the name we picked out but I was still struggling with it. And really it was all because both of his names (first and middle) came from David's side of the family. Yes, I am petty like that. However, the other night I stumbled across a book at my house that chronicles the Rushes since the original one (Abraham) came over Germany. Guess what?!! The name that we had picked out is the same name of my great, great, great, great, great Grandaddy Rush. Woo Hoo! I'm happy with it now.

I'm not going to announce the name now. But if you really want to know, my loud mouthed kids will probably tell you. I just want to keep it somewhat under wraps until we are matched.

As always, David and I appreciate your continued prayers. The kids are memorizing Romans 8:28 right now which I believe is very appropriate to put here. It is what I repeat to myself when things seems to not be working out the way I think they should be.

²⁸ And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Crochet Hats

I'm selling crochet hats (made by me) to help raise funds for the adoption. I know this is a small beans kind of fund raiser but I am pulling out all the stops to bring my little boy home!

This one is the bomber hat. I just love it! It is great to keep little ones ears warm. I also made this for a neighbor of mine without the bow ( it was for a boy). It turned out great!

This is the butterfly. I can't tell you how cut this one is on!

Here is the "dressed down" version. I like this one for boys especially. I can do them in camo or I can add the skater boy look with a stripe around the rim. Anything you like!

Just email me (or call) and let me know what you'd like! Thanks y'all!

Truly Blessed!

This weekend we had the mother of all yard sales. This was our first fundraiser for the adoption and quite possibly the last yard sale I will every do:0) Wow! I knew it was going to be a lot of work but didn't realize how exhausting it would be. I'm not sure having a garage sale in a yard that has the same slope as Stone Mountain was the smartest decision I have ever made. I'm sure the guys who helped us unpack the garage felt the same way.

Anyway, about 2 months ago I emailed everybody I have ever known and asked for any items in their house they were planning on getting rid of. David and I said we would come over with our trailer and pick it up and use it in our yard sale. And boy, did we get a response. We spent weekends and week nights hauling the trailer around the Atlanta area picking up everybody's stuff.

Here is my garage the morning before of the sale. And yes, both David and I could park in here before we got all the donations.

Here's the formal living room with books, games, and boxes of clothes. I believe I had at least 100 boxes in my house full of mostly clothes.

Here are all the clothes that would end up in those boxes. David decided to bring all the bags of clothes into the dining room for sorting (along with the books, CDs, DVDs, and VHS tapes). He then jumped on a plane headed for Baltimore as quickly as he could. Grrrr!

Before we started all this I asked God to open or clothes the doors for me. Actually, I was hoping for an email from the Almighty containing step by step directions for carrying out this adoption. But seeing as how that didn't happen, I just prayed that God's will would be done. If He wanted this adoption to take place I knew He would provide a way. When I sent the email out I figured we would get the random bag of kid's clothes and maybe a few dirty kid's toys. I never expected all this.

Or this,

I was completely overwhelmed, but in a good way!

Sooooo many people came out to help. There is no way we could have done it without them. There were people unloading boxes, moving furniture, organizing clothes, and taking up money. During the middle of the day I zoned out and couldn't figure out what I should be doing. I sort of just stood there in awe. I had to ask my buddies to tell me what to do. They were the glue that held the yard sale together.

So, all in all, the yard sale was a success. Some of the nicer items donated I sold earlier on Craig's List. So with the Craig's List money and the yard sale we made..................................................................

$4000!!!

That's double what we prayed for. God truly blessed us!

I want to thank everyone who donated items and also those who helped out with the yard sale. I am thankful beyond belief. It's hard to believe that people would take time out of their busy schedule to come and help us raise money to bring out little boy home. But they did. And we couldn't have done it without them.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

Meemaw

Back when my kids were real little, Grandaddy Ang and Meemaw would take the kids to either Six Flags, Ga Aquarium, White Water, or some such entertainment arena.

To be perfectly honest, I thought they were insane. Not only did they take my children but they also took all the other grand kids.

Needless to say, either David or I went with them for crowd control. It was always a hot sweaty day but boy did those kids have fun!

This happened to be one of those times that I was not there, I believe. I'd say my son was either very hot or very sunburned. Maybe a little of both.

This picture must have been taken at Six Flags ( it could have been American Adventures). Meemaw is the one hiding behind Murry Margaret. Wasn't that handsome looking group?

They stopped taking the kids a few years back. Maybe they got a look at their credit card bill after one of their trips and decided they'd had enough. Or maybe they just started having so many grand kids they decided that going to a theme park wasn't a good idea. At last count there were 10 grand kids with one more waiting for them in Hong Kong.

Today is a hard day. Today is Meemaw's birthday. She's not here to celebrate with us. The Lord took her to be with Him on Feb. 14, 2011. It has been a long, hard 7 months. My kids know that Meemaw was not their biological grandmother but it didn't matter because she was their Meemaw. The funeral was awful hard. Both kids sobbed and begged me to take them home.

I just told Holley Kate about her birthday and she started crying again. It's hard to loose your grandmother at any age but 8 and 10 years old were especially hard.

My father-in-law still struggles daily. October is a hard month. Not only is it Meemaw's birthday but it is also breast cancer awareness month. Everywhere you look there is a pink ribbon. For those that are unaware that they are at risk, the ribbon is a subtle reminder to get those mammograms. For those of us who have lost a loved one to breast cancer, seeing the ribbon is a reminder that not everyone survives.

I do know this though. Meemaw would be mad with us if she knew we were crying for her on her birthday. So, I'll wipe my tears that are dripping off my nose and wish a Happy Birthday to Meemaw in heaven!