Introducing... Adeline!

It's been an eventful and quick several months in our household! Wow. I feel like I use the phrase "time flies" far too often, but it is so true! There's much to catch up on since I last posted, but for now...jumping right in.

OUR ADOPTION UPDATE! 

Many of you have followed our few adoption updates via Facebook, but we decided for this last leg of the process, and during travel, bringing back the blog would be the way to go!

We were officially matched at the end of May. It has been quite. the. journey. We have truly seen God work in AMAZING ways to weave this story together. I can't wait to share it with you sometime in the near future.

Our precious daughter waiting for us in China is 3 years old, and like our son Noah who came home from China 3 years ago, was also born with cleft lip and palate. I hope to travel to bring her home in September! Paul will be holding down the fort at home while I am traveling (more on those details to come)...

We were absolutely elated to wake up to our Letter of Acceptance (LOA) notification on July 6th (on day 40 after PA for those who like the stats;)! Since then, we've been wading through the next steps of the process, currently awaiting our Article 5 pick up in China! Next step will be TA (Travel Approval), which we hope to receive before the end of August.

It's hard to wrap our heads around the fact that she is half way around the world, with absolutely no (or very little) idea who we are, or how much her life is going to change in just a few months. Of course we have already been planning for this precious girl, praying for her, staring at her pictures every day and combing over every ounce of information we're thankful to know about her thus far. We've fallen in love! The kids talk about her every day as if she were literally arriving tomorrow. The incredible intricacies of her story...weaving together with our story, is not lost on me. In fact, I think about if often.

If you feel so led, please join us in praying that her little heart will begin to be prepared for us - her forever family; that we will all be patient, understanding, and tender to her transition and the many emotions she will go through as she steps away from the life and caregivers she only knows; that we would be sensitive to her story, and forever thoughtful to the journey that brought her to our family.

Seriously- this girl has captured all our hearts. We cannot wait to bring her home! (Does anyone remember how much a couple of our kiddos loved a pair of red rain boots? Yep - this cutie does too!)

We didn't fundraise for Noah's adoption, but have decided to fundraise this time for many reasons. Many have asked how they can help, and this is just one way. Truthfully, we are facing some big expenses over the next month or so, and we are praying that the necessary funds will be there- in whatever way that comes.

We will SOON be officially launching two fun and tangible ways to be a part of Adeline's journey to our family, with a goal of raising the remaining portion of our adoption related expenses (around $15,000) over the next month. This is super daunting for me to write because this is a really big number. I've actually wanted to avoid sharing this because it's hard and incredibly humbling for us to ask, but we have faith that God will provide and are excited to see how things unfold in the coming days and weeks.

More to come very soon on our two adoption fundraisers, Art for Adeline, and Love Grows. 

We'd love for you to be part of her story and ours!