Gotcha precious girl

Oh what a blessing. She started off shy, but warmed up to me quickly (the sucker and toys may have helped!!;)) By the time papers were signed, she was all smiles and on my lap. This girl loves to laugh. Let me tell you, she has the BEST giggle. 

I gotcha precious girl. Welcome to the family Adeline. We love you already. ❤️

11 hours till Adeline...

Carey and I had a fun, full two days in Bejing! With our guide, we visited Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, took the Subway twice, rode a very full bus once, did a Hutong (traditional housing) tour, and had (awesome Jasmine) tea with a family there. Today we also visited and hiked an area of the Great Wall that I hadn't been to before. It was a beautiful, clear, blue sky day! We rode up on a ski lift, and after hiking, slid down the mountain on a tobaggan slide. Definitely a highlight (after it was over;)). 

Only 11 more HOURS till I meet Adeline. Oh man, how the wonderful butterflies of excitement and anticipation have started! There are several other families (one whom I already know who were with us in Beijing:)) meeting their children tomorrow here. It will be a memorable day!! 

Tomorrow will be filled with many, many emotions. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers...especially around around 8:30 PM Sunday US time. :) 

Goodnight from China❤️

Walking around Beijing...

Outside the Forbidden City

The Forbidden City in Beijing

Hutoung - Beijing family home 

Riding to the top to hike The Great Wall

Ni Hao Beijing!

We have arrived in China! It's 4:30 AM here, and of course, I'm awake and hungry because it's almost dinner time back home! :) 

My good friend Carey is traveling with me and Paul is holding down the fort with the kids at home! We got into Beijing yesterday afternoon and got settled into our hotel. Today we'll be with our guide, visiting a few spots around Beijing. Looking forward to posting pics soon! 

Thank you for your support, encouraging words, thoughts and prayers. They mean the world to Paul and I! 

2 more sleeps till Adeline!!!❤️

10 leaves in 10 days...

In unbelievable time, we received our TA late last week - our travel approval to go to China to bring Adeline home!

I received my itinerary this morning, and let me tell ya - I'm excited, and lets be honest, a little nervous because...

I leave for China in 10 days to bring Adeline home!!!!!!

We are so thankful for our tree, which has been growing with leaves over the last few weeks. We have over 15 lovely colorful leaves already! We are praying to add 10 more leaves, in 10 days to help us fund our required in country adoption fees and orphanage donation. Will you consider helping to support us in this way?

Here are the steps to be part of our Love Grows tree... 

1.     Donations can be made by clicking the link below or the DONATE button on the side of the blog to securely make your contribution through Paypal. In the “add special instructions” section of your transaction, please list the name you’d like written on your leaf. If no instructions are left, we’ll simply use your name.  If you’d prefer to make a donation by check or have any questions, please email us at lovegrows2015@gmail.com.

2.     One leaf will be painted per donation. You may contribute any amount you feel led to – anything is appreciated. 

3.     Please visit the blog again soon as I’ll be posting pictures frequently of how our tree is growing!

Each time a person or family contributes to our Love Grows fundraiser, a leaf will be painted on the tree, including the family’s name or preferred name written on the leaf.

Please know that your thoughts, prayers and support are equally as needed and appreciated. We look forward to the day we can share with ALL our kids how your love, prayers, and generous support has sustained us on this amazing journey.

CLICK HERE TO BE A PART OF OUR LOVE GROWS FUNDRAISER!

We also received an update last week regarding Adeline stating that she is aware she's being adopted and that she's feeling "happy about that"!;) Not sure how much a 3 year old can totally comprehend what that all means, but we sure know we'll love her through it- no matter what. We can't wait to meet our precious girl!! We received a couple pictures with the update, but they are totally blurry because our girl is ON THE MOVE! She'll fit right in! :)

Update on Love Grows!!

Our tree has leaves! We are so excited and thankful to see our Love Grows tree fundraiser beginning to bloom with color...

Will you be part of our adoption journey by donating $10 or more to our Love Grows fundraiser? With possibly just a few weeks away from traveling to bring Adeline home, any amount is so appreciated - and will be represented on our tree artwork! We are now just waiting on our TA (Travel Approval)!! Wow!

Each time a person or family contributes to our Love Grows fundraiser, a leaf will be painted on the tree, including the family’s name or preferred name written on the leaf.

Here are the steps to be part of our Love Grows tree... 

1.     Donations can be made by clicking the link below or the DONATE button on the side of the blog to securely make your contribution through Paypal. In the “add special instructions” section of your transaction, please list the name you’d like written on your leaf. If no instructions are left, we’ll simply use your name.  If you’d prefer to make a donation by check or have any questions, please email me us at lovegrows2015@gmail.com.

2.     One leaf will be painted per donation. You may contribute any amount you feel led to – anything is appreciated. 

3.     Please visit the blog again soon as I’ll be posting pictures frequently of how our tree is growing! 

Financially donating is just one way you can join us on this journey. Your caring support and prayers mean the world to us as well! We look forward to the day we can share with ALL our kids how your love, prayers, and generous support has sustained us on this amazing journey.

CLICK HERE TO BE A PART OF OUR LOVE GROWS FUNDRAISER!

“He has made everything beautiful in it’s time.” Ecclesiastes 3:11

Love Grows : a fundraiser to help bring Adeline home

We are officially launching our first adoption fundraiser – Love Grows!

We are so excited about this beautiful piece of artwork created for us by FreeStyle Mom (Etsy), and we can’t wait to see this bare tree grow with beautiful leaves representing everyone who became a part of our adoption journey by helping to bring Adeline home. 

Each time a person or family contributes to our Love Grows fundraiser, a leaf will be painted on the tree, including the family’s name or preferred name written on the leaf. 

Here are the steps to be part of our Love Grows tree... 

1.     Donations can be made by clicking the DONATE button on the side of the blog to securely make your contribution through Paypal. In the “add special instructions” section of your transaction, please list the name you’d like written on your leaf. If no instructions are left, we’ll simply use your name.  If you’d prefer to make a donation by check or have any questions, please email me us at lovegrows2015@gmail.com.

2.     One leaf will be painted per donation. You may contribute any amount you feel led to – anything is appreciated.

3.     Please visit the blog again soon as I’ll be posting pictures frequently of how our tree is growing!

Financially donating is just one way you can join us on this journey. Your caring support and prayers mean the world to us as well! We look forward to the day we can share with ALL our kids how your love, prayers, and generous support has sustained us on this amazing journey.

CLICK HERE TO BE A PART OF OUR LOVE GROWS FUNDRAISER!

“He has made everything beautiful in it’s time.” Ecclesiastes 3:11

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!