Just an Update!

No cute or clever titles today- it is what it is- a little update :)

First off, thank you so much to everyone who has contributed so far to our first fundraiser. We are selling t-shirts for our girl, and so far, we've raised over $500 in three days. We are blown away by the generosity of friends and family from all over our country, from every point in our lives. Thank you.

Currently, we are in full blown grant application mode...

My sweet parents were visiting for the past five days, and it was such a joy to have family here, seeing our home and our community first hand. The weather was beautiful, so we were able to really show everything we have fallen in love with out here- and the beauty that surrounds us daily. It was so hard to drop them off yesterday, but luckily, we were meeting with our social worker literally ten minutes after I got home so we could sign off on the FINAL COPY OF OUR HOME STUDY, which I've just been counting down for, so that softened the goodbye a little :) Yay!!!

She gave us the green light to start requesting our home study summaries for our grant applications, so this whole afternoon I've been knee deep in the first five grant applications with the closest deadlines. Lord-willing, we can have everything submitted by their Oct 31st/Nov 1st deadlines with a little bit of wiggle room.

THAT is a major answer to prayer.

We have seen God's faithfulness and provision so much. In addition to the tax refund we are receiving back from the IRS (I posted previously how they tried to come after us for more money from a long time ago, only to discover we were actually over taxed and they are now sending us an additional refund- WOOT!), Kris was approached by our neighbor who is a PA at an allergy clinic to participate in an allergy study since his allergies have gotten so much worse since moving out here... and it pay's $400! I know it's not a TON, but guys, we are seeing these decent amounts coming in really unexpected ways, and we're able to be reminded so frequently of God's faithfulness.

Today in church, we were singing the song "The Lord Our God" by Kristian Stanfill, and oh my heart. One verse just struck my like I'd never ever heard it before:

"Promise maker, promise keeper
You finish what You begin
Our provision through the desert
You see it through 'til the end"

GUYS. We've had God's promises on post-it notes throughout our house through this process, but somehow, I find myself still wondering if He's going to provide. What an awesome reminder this morning that our God will not leave us hanging in this- He finishes what He begins, and He see's it through 'til the end. Oh how thankful I am for that.

Anyway, just a little update.

Here are some ways you can pray for us if you are willing:

1) Continue to pray for Caroline's little body and mind: pray that she will continue to see progress in her therapies, and that God would lay His hand on her little body. Please specifically pray for her to see an increase in mobility between now and when we meet her in approximately seven short months! If she doesn't, God is still good, and she is still so precious and valuable... But for her sake we are committing to pray this over her. Will you join us? Pray that we would be prepared to care for her, no matter the level of mobility.

2) Please pray that these grant applications will not go out in vain. Pray that God would soften the hearts of the decision makers to understand where we are, where we need to be, and that they would see our heart and commitment to our precious girl.

3) Will you pray for generous hearts towards our adoption fundraiser? Truthfully, fundraising is one of the hardest parts of this adoption. The minute you start to fundraise, you start being put under a microscope and every decision you make is scrutinized further. I struggle with this, and we are trying so hard to make disciplined decisions- will you also pray that we can look for the approval from our Heavenly Father rather than from man?

Lastly, if you haven't yet, please check out our awesome t-shirts. We'd love to have pictures of everyone who has one with our girl when she finally gets home! If you do feel inclined to purchase a shirt, please make sure to PM me with your size and shipping address :)

 https://www.gofundme.com/sweet-caroline-help-bring-her-home-2u5r998c

We are just so thankful for every one of you friends who are rallying side by side with us, encouraging us, and cheering us along the way. We would get so tired and discouraged without you.

You're the best. :)

While We Wait

This process has SO MUCH WAITING. For a control freak like me, this is probably the most difficult part. I can hardly wrap my mind around the waiting and the unknowns at this point. The weirdest part in adoption versus giving birth is the amount of unknowns time-wise. You just know when you're pregnant that you have a due date, and most likely, the doctor's won't let you go too far past that due date.

 

In adoption, there are SO MANY dates that you're waiting on, and it's a total moving timeline since every date is contingent on another date or step coming to completion. I mentioned previously that we are waiting on getting our home study back from the State of Colorado so we can send in all of our grant info. Once we get that done, we can send in our request to US Immigration for approval to bring a child home, which is the last piece of our dossier that we need to send in on my thirtieth birthday, and we will send the piles and piles of grant applications in:

I have no idea how people apply to grants when they have a job. Thankfully, I've spent the last month working on grant applications almost every naptime. It is SO. MUCH. WORK. We have spent so much time and energy on these. Will you please pray over these with us, that they do NOT go out in vain? That God would lay our family and our girl on the decision makers hearts and provide through these grant agencies?

 

I don't even feel like it would be wise to start fundraising yet- we've applied for a couple matching grants, and if those are awarded, we'd love to see if some of the fundraising events would be willing to contribute to that matching grant... we want to be good stewards of every single opportunity and penny raised, so we want to wait until we have the ability to move forward wisely with fundraising with friends and family.

 

So what do we do while we are waiting? We're trying to live and enjoy life. A family at our church went through this same process, and it was so refreshing to speak with her. She confirmed exactly what I've been feeling: this process is all consuming. When you're in the middle of it, it's always on your mind, and there's this hole everywhere you look because you're just waiting for that child that you know is on the other side of the world just waiting for you too.

 

Keegan has definitely noticed the "crunch" on our budget as we're putting every extra penny towards this adoption. He mentioned to me this week that we should "still do some fun things." He was so right, and I was so convicted. Not everything is expensive, but with a family of five it adds up. It's important to do some fun things, even if we have to spend some money to do so.

 

So today, instead of the normal basement closet fort building:

We decided to head over to a nearby pumpkin patch after church. And it was SO FUN!

It's been over a year since we last visited a pumpkin patch, and oh my how these dollies have grown. Such big, and precious boys.

They got balloon animals (which Bennett popped as soon as they were back in the car)...

And balloon swords...

Jumped it out on the jump pad...

And relaxed in pools of corn. Bennett even snuck some of this corn into the petting zoo to feed the animals :)

 

These boys are truly some of the best, and most loving people I know. I am so excited for them to have a sister and experience this whole process along with us. It's so cool to see how their (Keegan especially) compassion is increasing, and their are thinking of Caroline all the time. We walk through Target, and Keegan is no longer desperate for things to buy for himself; he walks around pointing out things he thinks we need to get for our sister.

 

The other night, Keegan was very concerned about Caroline...

 

Keegan: Mom? Does she know she's ours? What if someone else buys her first?

Me: First, we don't buy people. It's just a very expensive process because it takes a lot of work to adopt. SHE doesn't cost a lot of money, the work to bring her home costs a lot of money. And no, she doesn't know, but the people in China that handle adoptions already knows that she's ours.

Keegan: BUT WHAT IF SOMEONE BUYS HER FIRST?! Why can't we just pay now, and bring her home?

 

Oh sweet dolly.

 

This has already provided so many opportunities for conversations. We've talked about how God makes everyone different, and that no one is any better or worse than anyone else just because they're different. We've been able to talk about her birth family, and the tough choices they had to make for her. They're heavy, heavy things, but they're gospel things, and I definitely don't think a child is ever too young to be privy to such information that allows their hearts and minds to grow in compassion and mercy and grace.

 

When I was a little girl, I wanted a dollhouse... Bad. You know, the ones you see that have lights inside, and fancy Victorian décor? My dad bought one for me one weekend I was at his apartment, but for one reason or another, it sat unbuilt under my bed there forever.

 

So my mom and I saved, and bought our own kit, and together, both totally clueless on how to build anything, we build the dollhouse. It's super precious to me, and my mom saved it, and gave it to me a couple of years back. I was a little irritated to have it- I had all sons! I didn't need a dollhouse. Now, I'm so thankful to have it. This week, while Kris traveled, Keegan, Benny and I worked to repaint the dollhouse. We decided to use all of the leftover paint from OUR house to repaint the outside of the dollhouse so they would match. We even added OUR address onto it, and we couldn't be more excited to give Caroline her dollhouse when she comes home:

 

 

And just for good measure, here's this little cheeser, who started posing, completely unprompted with the finished product!

 

 

 

Anyway, we are waiting, and resting and trusting. I'll update again soon, hopefully with some progress regarding moving forward with the things listed above. Thanks so much for joining us on this journey!

 

And just to see you off, here's another picture of the cutest girl I know: