A Little Light Reading

So to keep everyone updated Isac's paper work has been sent off to China last Tuesday. So now we wait for LOA (Letter Of Approval) for him to come. This process can usually be a 60-90 day wait but some of that wait time is getting logged into China's data base, but we already did that for Nina, so they just have to approval us officially for Isac and then we can move on to the next step. Sadly though, we have NO clue how long this could take. Like I said, we have been told it shouldn't take long since we are already in the system, but there have been so many back ups that it's really hard to know. 

To catch you up with the hold ups. The U.S. side of the process wanted to catch up to the rest of the world and scan in all of our paper work to send it to China instead of waiting for it to get there via snail mail. Well in all the updating, a job that was suppose to take a few days turned into weeks, backing up and holding up more families from moving forward and making more children wait even longer. The system does still have it's kinks, there has been rumors of things getting lost and such, but things are moving...s   l   o   w  l  y...

Well just as soon as things start moving in our systems China started working on theirs and there were set backs. Now the building that everyone has to go through to get Visa's for their children will be closed for 2 weeks as they move to another building. So another slooow down for families. 

Last week we also received medical updates on Isac's and we were so excited to see how he was doing!!! We also learned more about his background which was heartbreaking, but his future is extremely bright! And i can't wait to wrap my arms around this sweet boy!

Last week if you would have asked me I was a mess!!!  I was sad about waiting, I was tired of the process and I was being beaten down left and right. I was tired of feeling stuck and i was letting it get to every part of my present life. My feelings of, "am I going to be good enough to raise these to precious children" "are we ever going to be able to get enough money", "who am I to be called to such an amazing journey"....

But I'm in a good place right now. I have great friends and an amazing husband, (who I might add sees me at my worst and comes home from work to paint a tree on the wall for me in Nina's room) xoxox. 

Nina's room! that reminds me! I'm not ready to reveal all the work I've been doing in her room yet, but we were so blessed to find very sturdy bunk beds for Nina and Anna's room that have dressers in them and they were in our price range!!!!!  AND Josh was able to find van seats that go to our van that turn our van into a 8 passenger van instead of a 7!!!! And again at a very good price! And both of those items were more perfect than what we were hoping for!!! Oh how i love watching God supply all our needs!!!!

While my heart is split between two countries-my babies here and my babies over seas- the verse my pastor gave us to memorize this week will be my go to to get through verse...

2 Corinthians 12:9-10

9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

And as i rest in my Father's arms, I will get there to my babies eventually...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAMbEPZfWCY

Have a great week everyone!!!! 

PS-If you can pray for a few great friends I've gotten to know through this journey-they will be meeting their babies tonight!!! (Their 8a-1p China time, our midnight time) PRay for their sweet hearts that they will be ready to leave. They will be leaving all they have ever known, seen, heard, smelled and  felt any feelings for. Pray for the new momma's as it may be heartbreaking for some of them to watch their child grieve the loss, and for these sweet children to learn to crave their momma's. 

Happy Birthday To Such a Special Child

Right now as my children are getting ready to wake up and start their day and I begin to write my blog post, my sweet China baby is laying her head down to sleep after a day of celebrating her birthday. I pray her day was special for her because she has a mommy and daddy on the other side of the globe praying daily for her. I pray her day was special because this sweet girl has made a HUGE mark on our hearts already and we love her as if she were born from my womb. I pray she got to spend her day giggling with her friends and eating the cake we bought for her and opening the gifts we sent. I pray these small things will help her to see, and know, and feel so loved and wanted, because she is.
I also pray for her parents...two people Josh and I pray for daily. The laws of China make keeping children very hard. We may never know the reason behind Nina's story, but as a mother, I can't even begin to imagine having to make that choice. I pray one day she and Nina's father have the opportunity to learn about God, so one day she can hold her sweet baby again.
Our family went to dinner to celebrate and remember our sweet girl. We also bought a balloon and wrote messages to her...

Elli ended the evening with, "So mommy then the balloon has to fly past the playground to get over to China?" How small our world around us seems. :)

Not a day goes by that my heart doesn't ache for this process to be over so my girl can be home with her family and she can know the love of a mommies arms, the attention of an amazing father and the laughter and secrets shared with her brothers and sisters....and today, today it aches just a little bit more...

Happy Birthday Sweet girl! Hope your day is filled with lots of fun! And praying your day more than any other day was special!

Love you all!

PS Here birthday DATE is actually the 20th (well the orphanage day they gave her anyway) I'm getting a day ahead of myself-no surprise there)

BIG BIG NEWS!!!

HEADS UP:THIS IS A LONG ONE-BUT YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT!

Nine years of marriage and four children later, God called Josh and I to step forward and answer the call to care for His children through adoption. Though we were doubtful, confused and ...well scared as ALL GET OUT, we stepped forward and answered His leading to bring home a little girl. We became more confident, yet still unsure of what our future would hold for us but we knew our God always promises to fulfill His plan, in His time and in His way. While we waited I was hearing God's still small whisper saying, "don't be afraid I have more in store." But I was sure I must have heard wrong. After all we are moving forward, we are answering His call, surely He wasn't saying, keep giving, I have more to show you. But as I prayed the whisper became more and more audible, as if He was screaming so loud I could hardly think of anything else. I cried out to GOD! Lord, I love you and I want to do what you ask, but honestly, I don't want to be Noah. Building a boat in the middle of the dessert, claiming he needed it because it was going to flood all over the world, WHAT IS RAIN?!?! Why an even BIGGER STEP?!?! Lord you know one of my biggest life struggles is what people think (sad I know), what are they going to say now! But still very unsure I brought my thoughts to Josh. I told him, I am not saying this is what we should do,or even something I thought we COULD do, but I can't ignore what God has been telling me any more and I thought if I said it out loud to you, you would give me an answer and we could move from there. (Ready to hear him say what we had been saying, no way, we weren't ready for this, we can't do anything else, these big plans would have to wait.) My husband (who has way more faith in me than I do in myself self most days) is such an amazing man of faith, though what may lay ahead is HUGE and WAY more than either of us were ready to even think about, said let's pray. The chances of it even being able to happen are so small, that we will know for sure. So we prayed, we prayed and we cried and we prayed like mad crazy some more. But we both couldn't deny it any more. God WAS telling us to try and bring home TWO of His children.
In the mist of all this I saw the face of a sweet baby boy about Levi's age that a sweet friend was advocating for. He even looked like a Chinese version of Levi. He had my heart, though I was trying desperately to not get attached since in the adoption world, you NEVER know. After asking my social worker it turned out another family was moving forward with adopting him. Always a bitter sweet moment as you want him to have a forever family, but it made me question if this was what God really wanted us to do, or was it all just emotional decisions, after all I first saw his face right before Josh and I decided to move forward. But in my heart I felt God was using this sweet face to move my heart forward in following His plan, and made a SUPER sweet friend in the process.
Now if you read our story from the beginning, you know we just barely qualified for China's adoption financial qualifications, but they didn't ask us for a waiver, which we were very happy and grateful for. We just saw it as another sign from God we were in His will. Well being that we barely qualified for one, neither of us thought we would qualify for two, especially without filling out a waiver, so we figured that would be another God thing if it was going to happen and it was His will. So we filled out all the paper work and started all the work in looking for a little boy. On March 5th I saw a picture of a little boy that another AP (Adoption Parent) was advocating for and I emailed her to get more information. Little "Danny" (his agency given name)  caught my heart again. He was with another agency which had me doubtful, some agencies aren't big on transferring files, but after a call to a sweet woman who worked at the agency she was willing to transfer if we were sure we were going to move forward.
So after much prayer and a LOT of waiting (I'm getting a little better at this...well I'm trying to get better at this) we got an email from our agency saying we were PA (pre-approved) for "Danny"  on April 8th!!!! And as far as we know, with NO waiver!!! Josh and I just stared at each other in shock! Now God was just showing off! :)
So without out making you wait any longer-I want to introduce to you...Isac David Ning Noll

He is two months younger than Levi. Those of you who have seen our adoption video...does he look a little familiar? :)

Some may wonder if we are crazy. (I think this question was answered and confirmed when we had three close together and then had another, ya know because apparently 50 million 4 kids is WAY A LOT!!!!)  Some may wonder how in the world we can afford this. The answer is, I don't know how the Lord is going to show up in all this, but I know it was His plan from the beginning and He will complete it. I'm just lucky enough to get a front row seat in watching Him work. :)

I'll leave you with a video of us telling the girls last Friday...needless to say they were very excited and Elli a little prophetic! LOL.

http://vimeo.com/68419307

Hope you all have a fabulous day!

While We Wait...

Ahhh yes...more lyrics to a song...

There is strength within the sorrow,

There is beauty in our tears

You meet us in our mourning,

With a love that casts out fear

You are working in our waiting,

Sanctifying us

When beyond our understanding,

You’re teaching us to trust

CHORUS

Your plans are still to prosper,

You have not forgotten us

You’re with us in the fire and the flood

Faithful forever,

Perfect in love

You are sovereign over us...

Aaron Shust -Sovereign Over Us

Pure and simple we are sitting back and praying we get front row seats to the biggest miracle we have ever seen. We need more funds. (The thermometer is some of our funds but there are other fees that aren't added into all that yet.) We still have other things in the works. We will be doing another garage sale, we are waiting on two grants that we should hear about at the end of this month, there is the t-shirts, and there is something else I'm working  on with a friend that will be revealed soon. 

On top of these funds will you pray with us for other things more specifically? Being our funds are tight already there are a few bigger items that we don't have to have but would make life a little easier. I thought it would be fun as a community to list some of our needs wants and watch God answer while we check them off. 

We are looking for:

*wooden bunk beds

*a video baby monitor (with Nina's condition we'd like to be able to keep an eye on her)

*bench seat in our van (to replace the captain seats) 

*Phil and Ted double stroller (yes very specific and expensive-but it's lighter not as wide or long and still fits 2 kids)

*a few extra dining room chairs (no they do not have to be fancy but nice would be nice ha)
*an unlocked phone that takes a Simm card for China (I'd really like an iphone 4s because it would be nice to have afterwards too since this phone isn't that great (my God knows my heart haha))

Please know I am NOT asking any of you to go buy any of these things. If you have prayed about it and you truly feel God telling you to help out, I'd be okay with that, but I just thought I'd be fun to have you all pray with us for these things and watch God provide. And if you happen to be out garage sailing and you see it feel free to call us up! :)

And  many of you have been asking when we will be leaving to get Nina. I wish I had an answer besides were not sure. I really don't mind the question, we just don't know too much yet. We are still hanging on to an August trip, but there have been so many hold ups in China that it could be pushed back. But God is bigger and He knows as much as we would LOVE to have our sweet Nina home, we still have much to do here to bring her home!

I hope you are all having a very blessed weekend! 

Love you all!!

ICE CREAM Social and Our Video! You Don't Want To Miss IT

Alright ya'll, I said I'd do it...and I'm finally doin' it!!! The pictures for the ice cream social! And the best is saved for last!!! Our video we showed-saw many tears...cried myself :)

A BIG BIG BIIIIIG THANK YOU again to all who came, all who prayed and all who gave! Your support means the world!

Hre it is :)

http://vimeo.com/66569533