DTC!!!!

What an exciting time for sure! Here are some photos of the fun things we did in October!

As of November 4 we are officially DTC (Date to China). As I type our paperwork is in Hong Kong. It's too cool to watch it travel to Beijing hopefully to be logged in the the Center for China's Adoption Affairs soon.

Now I get to go into nesting phase. We have decided to play musical rooms yet again at our house so next week we will be moving all three girls into the big bedroom in our house. The boys were actually excited to get a "new room". Isaac's first question was, "Will Joshie be with me?" There is not a day that goes by that I don't thank God for those two brothers. Especially given the very rough 6 months they had "getting to know each other." It's funny to us that they rarely fight now and absolutely LOVE having a brother. Grace wrote a paragraph at school the other day that had to compare two things and their similarities and differences. It was so cute because their differences included their appearances but their similiarities were that they LOVE to run around the house shooting guns and yielding light sabors!! And how true that is!

I am in the process of gathering ideas to send to Joy for Christmas. One of my ideas is to send her more photos but this time of the pictures of her around our house and once we get the girls' room settled I will photo that too. I want her to start to realize that even though we don't know each other yet she is part of our family FOREVER!

In November Faith is celebrating her 8th birthday and Joshua will have surgery to revise his p-flap. I dread that but we hope it will help him close off his nasal passageway from his mouth to push more air out his mouth instead of his nose when he talks. Please pray for him and us! Surgeries tend to be hard on us all!

You know you're adopting when.....

1. You talk with you husband about a thousand dollars like it's pocket change!

2. You get an update on your soon to be child and the name is slightly different than you thought it was so you aren't sure what your child's real name is!

3. There are photos of a child you claim as and feel is yours all over your home but really you don't know them yet although your heart tells you differently!

4. There are PILES of paperwork in your kitchen (that only you know where everything is in the midst of it... most the time)!

5. Your daughter sees your emails and asks, "Who is Lola (LOA)?" You proceed to go over with her what the different acronyms mean and why others are so excited about them.

6. You get on the scale and realize you've gained a few pounds (ah... the paperwork pregnancy) something had to go in order to get all this done and it seems that exercise was it!

7. You feel like the mailman is Santa Claus and he always wonders why you or one of your kids is waiting in ambush for him at the mailbox!

8. Last but not least you remember all these things from your last adoption but are so grateful to have the opportunity to do them again!!! And you know that just like difficult pregnancies you forget the first time you meet your precious child!!

One More Thing Checked Off the List... Closer to China

We were able to get our USCIS fingerprints finished on October 8th. Somehow we feel like that step was big. I guess it's really the last thing we do before sending our dossier to China... except wait on that approval letter from USCIS that is! Anyway we made a day trip to Atlanta with the kids. My dad took us to the Spaghetti Factory and we toured the Federal Reserve Bank and the Secretary of State building since we also got some seals but on our paperwork. Grace got to miss school. I figure with missing 2 to 3 weeks in the spring to go to China she's not going to win any attendance awards this year anyway. You can tell I'm a homeschooler at heart... I like those life lessons and hands on field trips more than book work any day. Thankfully Grace's teacher agrees

We are also getting closer to the amount that we'll need to send our paperwork to China and are just amazed at God's provisions. When we felt God stirring in our hearts to adopt again this summer we said to each other, "Let's start saving and then maybe summer 2010 start the process with a little money." We started looking into domestic adoptions. Well God had other plans and He is definitely supplying everything we need. Friends that Clayton is doing carpentry work for have been generous when contributing to our adoption. Clayton has also been able to work some overtime and that is helping. We've had a yard sale that brought in about 3 times as much as my normal yard sales do and the kids got to sell lemonade and tell about their new sister. Friends that we home school with have set up a donation table at a co-op we participate in and people have been generous. Another friend even went with her kids and sold cookies door to door in her neighborhood to help with Joy's adoption. All of these things have also given us and those that know us opportunity to talk about adoption with others and we pray spark a desire in others' hearts as well.

One thing that we are becoming increasingly aware of is that God is in adoption. Our adoption into His family and His care for the fatherless on this earth. Joshua has started talking about China now that we talk about Joy being there. He'll look at his scrapbook that has the photos in it of his first two years of life in China. Before he would only want to look at the photos that included us in China and his life here now. He also put his hands up to his eyes the other day and was pretending to look through them like binoculars and saying Joy's name. I asked him if he was looking for Joy in China. He said yes and that when he was in China he'd look through his hand for mama. WOW!! I'm so grateful God provided someone that would talk to him about us and love on him there. Joshua obviously went to bed hungry a few too many nights and couldn't have consistent love and care like a forever family provides but God is using those hard experiences to shape him now too. We pray for Joy MenQian that way too. That she would sense God's Hand on her life and know that we love her. We pray that even now she'll start to understand what a forever family is and that God would put people in her life in China that love her.

Meanwhile we are making plans for revamping Faith's room to make is Faith and Joy's room. We have pictures up of Joy and have made up her bed with some things that will be hers. Some Christmas gifts will be sitting on her bed for her. We are excited about getting our paperwork to China so that we can prepare for her arrival.

Trip to the Beach

We had a fun time at Top Sail Hill State Park camping at the beach. It rained two out of the four days but everyone liked the waves that the storms produced and one of those days it wasn't lightening so the kids got to swim in the rain. We ate at a very fun restuarant (all you can eat seafood) called Captain Kids. Holidays and vacations can be difficult when you're adopting because you always feel like you are missing someone, wishing they could be there, and wondering what they are doing. I've held it together so far and really just tried to pass by without too much staring at the picture of Joy on our refridgerator. Well on this vacation the emotions began. While we were eating and all the kids were talking and having a great time I began to feel the tears well up. Emotions come at the craziest times I know.

We have gotten our USCIS fingerprinting appointment, Oct. 20. Not as soon as we'd hoped but that's what it is nonetheless. So... it's still looking like spring... possibly even April/May instead of March. All we can do is trust and pray that it'll happen in God's perfect timing and know that He is caring for Joy and us along the way.

This is how I've been feeling... and then God sent a glimmer of hope!

ADOPTION PAPERWORK HAS ALMOST KILLED ME... OKAY AT LEAST MADE ME FEEL LIKE POOR JOSH DID ON THIS NIGHT AT DINNER. Today though I went downstairs to check my emails and received updated information and pictures for Joy. Made it all worthwhile...(I highly recommend using www.redthreadchina.com to send your child in China things. You get updates and it's much cheaper than sending a package from the US.)





Isn't she absolutely adorable? We are all so excited. She has grown 5 cm and gained 2pounds since her last update about 6 months ago. That's great!! We hope to hear something from her soon!

Summers Over

Clayton and the kids extracting honey! Yes, we have honey bees!

Grace the beekeeper!

Cute Faith!

Joshie sunbathing... as if he needs a tan!

Isaac is so proud of his trophies!


It's hard to believe summer is over! Usually I am ready for school to get started and feel refreshed. Not so this year. We had a lot of doctor appointments, then when God led us to adopt again the frantic paper chase began!! This was our first week of school and it went well though. Isaac and Joshua are enjoying "doing school" and Grace enjoys Trinity Day School. She had a few days of feeling overwhelmed but overall seems to enjoy it. Faith is liking all the girl time with mom although she does miss her sister's companionship.

Announcing Our Newest Blessing- It's a Girl!

Yes, we are adopting again! We are so excited, overwhelmed, and amazed!! Excited and amazed by God's handiwork in the lives of our children. Overwhelmed at the tremendous amount of paperwork involved! We are naming her Joy Menqian and she is 8years old and lives in southern China. Grace and Faith will be traveling with us this time.... so please pray for lots of things but for now just the preparation of paperwork and hearts in ALL of our lives. It will be difficult for Joshua and Isaac to be left out of the trip even though I know they'll have a memorable time here. Well, I'll be posting more soon I'm sure since it seems the only time I get into blogging is when we're adopting or their is a major holiday. Thank you in advance for all of your prayers for God's work to be done in our family's life!

If you would like to help with our adoption financially we would welcome and be grateful for the support. We look forward to seeing how God will provide and are reminded that with God all things are possible. We are looking for construction jobs that Clayton can do for a little extra income, selling things at yard sales, and mowing some yards in our neighborhood for our builder. If you know of anyone that needs something done feel free to give them our contact information. If you would like to support us and receive a tax deduction you can go to Kingdom Kids website and their link is in the sidebar.

We are set up with this non profit organization and can obtain the support designated to us at any time. Again, we are so grateful for you prayers and support. We can't wait to bring Joy Menqian home!