Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Bethany says....

YES! Bethany (our adoption agency) has given up aproval to adopt Megan at the same time as Adam. Now we are waiting to hear from China.

Did I ever tell you that I am NOT a patient person? :smile:

Beth

Wow. I have no words...

A mother of a teenager who was adopted 4 months ago posted something on her blog. I cannot say it as eloquently as she did. Please read what she posted about older child adoption. Thank you.

http://joyunspeakableandfullofglory.blogspot.com/2010/01/older-child-adoption.html


Beth

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Update on Adam and Megan

We met with our social worker on Jan 13th to talk with her about the possibility of adopting Megan. She will go over her notes with her supervisor and they will, hopefully, let us know this week if they will recommend that we be allowed to adopt Megan when we adopt Adam. We are also waiting to hear from the head of the "China Team" if China will allow us to adopt Megan and Adam together.

We are still waiting to find out when our dossier was logged in. The dossier was sent before Thanksgiving and, two months later, we are waiting to hear if we have a log-in date. We are still waiting for our LOA (Letter Of Acceptance) for Adam. Once that is here we can send him his first care package.

Right now we are not thrilled with "red tape". There is so much red tape during the adoption process and it is very frustrating.

Our family attended a "International dinner" that our adoption agency does every year. We met families who have already been through the adoption process and there were also families who are still waiting for their child. The families who have already adopted a child(ren) brought food from their child's country of origin. There was food from China, Guatemala, Philippines, Ethiopia and several more. There were games and crafts from the different countries. It was a fun night. Abby gave it a "thumbs up"!

Our family is planning on celebrating Chinese New year twice this year. Bethany has a Chinese New Year celebration and there is also one at the Delaware Art Museum that we are looking forward to.

I will probably be posing about some of the traditions of Chinese New Year as it approaches. FYI, Chinese New Year starts on Feb 14th this year...does that date sound familiar? :smile:

Have a great night.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

We cannot ignore the call...

We just started telling our church family on Sunday that we are trying to adopt a 12 year old girl at the same time we adopt Adam. We plan on naming this girl Megan. I am sure that there are those who are wondering why we would adopt an
almost-teenager as well as an 11 year old. We feel that God has called us to adopt these two children.
I read something on a blog about a family that adopted a 13 (almost 14) year old girl last year. The mother of this family gave me permission to post it here. This is her response when people question their decision "It was not what we were planning to do. It was what we were called to do. And we could not ignore that call." Mark and I both feel called by God to adopt these children and we cannot ignore that call. God's callings are not always easy but we believe that God will give us the strength that we need.

We covet your prayers as we work to add these children to our family.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Exciting news!!!

Our family felt led to ask if we could adopt another child at the same time we adopt Adam. THere is a girl from the same orphanage that we felt led to ask about. We just found out today that she is available for adoption. We cannot give out any information on her but I will ask you to pray for her. God know who she is and if she will be a member of our family someday.

Unfortunately another child also means added cost. Our adoption agency has estimated another $12,000 dollars will be needed for us to adopt her. Obviously we do not have that money laying around the house. We know that God can provide this money for us, we know that if God wants us to adopt this young girl that he will have to be the one to provide this money, we cannot do this on our own. Please keep us in your prayers. I will also ask that if you have a blog that you will either link to our website or post something to let others know about our need. Thank you all.

Beth

Friday, December 25, 2009

Please pray for my daughters...

I wanted to write a cherry, joyful Christmas post but today we gave away my daughters' puppies. In Sept we adopted two black lab puppies and our daughters were thrilled. We went through the normal puppy stuff but recently our 5 month old pups started fighting and drawing blood. They never showed agression towards the kids or our older dogs but, with no provocation they would start fighting and end up bloddy by the end. We thought we had figured out the problem but this morning they attacked each other and the boy had his sister on the floor with his teeth inches from her jugular. The time had come. I cannot rationalize having puppies who are this unpredicable with each other, especially when my kids are in the "baby gate" area with the puppies all day. Emily's puppy has already been adopted and someone should be here any minute to look at Abby's puppy. My daughters are sobbing and my heart breaks for them. Thank you for taking the time to pray for my daughters and the puppies that they love.

Beth

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

So thankful!

A family that we met through our adoption agency just got back with their son. We got a Christmas card from them yesterday and there was a surpise inside. They sent us a donation for Adam's adoption, right after they got back from China! We are so blessed! Thank you all! By the way, we put your card next to the pictures of Adam!

Beth