What a blessing!

Our adotion agency asked Megan and Adam's orphanange if the second orphanage donation could be waived for us. Each adopting family donates $5000 to the orphanage for each adoption so we would have to donate $10,000. The orphanage just told our agency that they will waive the second orphanage donation! Yay! What a relief.

Mark and I talked about it and we do plan on sending the orphanage a donation when Mark's adoption benefits from his job come through...which is unfortunately not until after the adoption is finalized.

Praise the Lord for this exciting blessing!!

Beth

Yay!!! New photos of Adam and Megan

Here are our new photos of Adam and Megan. I am so excited to see these photos!!!


Beth

Photos coming soon!

We have found out from our adoption agency that we will be getting updated photos of Adam and Megan sometime next week. I will post them as soon as I get them. I can't wait to see new photos of our son and daughter. The most recent photos we have are from last August, when a family visited the orphanage with their daughter who had been adopted 11 or 12 years ago. This is a photo from that visit. Megan is in front in the white shirt with purple stars and Adam is standing in the back with the white shirt.

Beth

Drawing results

The winner of our ladybug watch/necklace drawing is Jennifer! Congrats!!! I will be starting a new drawing in the next day or two. Keep tuned!

Beth

Strawberries!

Our first produce from our garden is the strawberries that we planted last year. We've gotten 4-6 berries a day for the past week but today I filled one bowl to overflowing! (Keep in mind this is the kiddie-size bowl...) I split them between two bowls for Emily to carry inside. Here's a photo.

Don't miss out....

There is less than a week for the ladybug watch/necklace drawing. You don't want to miss out. They are so lovely!! Right now there is only one person entered in the drawing...let's get a few more names in the hat! Our son, Brian, will be drawing the name of the winner, let's give him a challenge.

Here's a picture of the watch/necklaces...to refresh your memory...

Today is Mother's Day

Today is Mother's Day, I celebrated with Abby, Emily, Brian and Mark (husband). But right now I know that I have two other children who do not yet know me, who have read a letter from me and seen a picture of me but they do not know me and they will probably be nervous and scared when they meet me. I am anxiously awaiting the day that I will meet them and that they will be a part of our family, officially. I need to remember that the day that is so joyful for me will be scary for my children.

Megan and Adam, I am waiting to become your mother. I love you already and I pray for you. Next Mother's Day I will have five children to hug and kiss. Stay safe and healthy and I pray that God sends a hug from me to you today.

Beth

Watch/necklace drawing!

We are trying to raise money for our adoption so we plan on doing a drawing every other week with some GREAT prizes! For the first one I have a set of three ladybug watch/necklaces. The ones in the photo are the actual prizes. They each have a organdy ribbon. One is silver, one is white with black spots and one is black with white spots. Perfect for a gift, they are all lovely. The winner will receive all three. A donation of $10 will enter you into the drawing and you will get additional entries for $5. So, if you donate $20 you will get three entries. I will print out the entries and have one of my kids pick the winner on May 18th. I will then start another drawing on May 19th. I have alot of new items that I will be using for drawing prizes, mostly books. You can donate through our chip-in on the right or email me beth_c_smith at hotmail.com (change the "at") and I will email you our address if you'd prefer to enter "off line".

Have a great day!

Beth

If I could send a letter.

The Saturday before Mother's Day is sometimes celebrated in the adoption community as "Birthmother's Day". We may never know who Adam and Megan's birthmothers are. Current laws in China may keep us from ever knowing. If, one day, we are blessed to know their birthparents I would like to send them a letter with my thoughts before we adopt these children. I would like to thank them for carrying them to term and for the care they gave before they allowed them to be found. I would like to thank them for placing them where they would be found quickly. I would like to tell them what their child is like now. I would like to share that we hope to encourage the children to know about their birth culture.

I may not be able to send these letters. I will pray for the families who cannot share the lives of these children. I will pray that they will hear about Jesus and that one day we will be able to meet them in heaven.

Beth