Dreaming of Her: Quite the most important event of the year is our referral for our new little girl. We are so excited! I will write a separate post, because it deserves it's very own spot to tell all about how we came to be her parents to be and her, our precious daughter to be. This news came to us late May one day, and caught us by surprise. Aren't the best gifts those we weren't expecting? She is a gem. I promise it will be next to tell all about her. For now, those that are interested in our "stats", we have PA for her as of June 8th (after our LOI, Letter of Intent, date of June 1st). We didn't hear of our PA until June 21st though so that was quite a wait! We have finished our fingerprinting for our I800a application. This approval is what we are waiting for now and comes through USCIS. This whole process is not for the faint of heart and comes with many hoops to jump through. We are jumping through them now for our I800a approval. Next up comes our dossier being notarized and authenticated, then what all adoptive parents wait for...three little letters....DTC. Dossier to China that is. Basically our life story gets sent overseas, gets matched with our girl's file and our PA (Provisional Approval). Then we wait again for the China gov't to issue us LOA, Letter of Acceptance. Have I lost you yet? It's a lot to take in, this internationally adoption process. Every step requires approval by someone and every step require waiting by us. My arms already ache for her to be in them and oh how I want to give her little sweet tummy a squeeze. She is in my dreams and prayers daily. Trying hard to trust in God's timing - He is good all the time.
Fundraising: Last up on our fundraising train was our big Trash to Treasures yard sale and how big it was! A friend arranged for us to use her church parking lot and it was the perfect location. The trip there had us driving a loaded Suburban (can you see my daughter in the pic - it's kind of like a Where's Waldo, but Where's Jessica pic), a pick up truck full inside and out, and a trailer full of donated items. Of course, shoppers began arriving before we finished setting up - those early birds. My girls baked some yummy goodies for their bake sale and really put their heart and soul into helping with the adoption. One shopper came back later in the day just for Grace's cookies (PB Choc Chip... so good!). But what we took away most from this day is the friends that came out to help us. A few couples we hardly knew came from our church bible study group and stayed the whole day. Some donated their clothes & goods, others came to shop. Another bought a pan of cinnamon rolls for way too much. They were all such blessings to us and truly touched our hearts.
I've thought a lot about posting how much money we made that day, and I want to encourage others fundraising so I will. We raised $1900! Just in time to send in our next agency payment (which happened to be $2088) too. So if anyone might be thinking the yard sale is too much work, it is A LOT of work, but it's very worthwhile. We only had one day to sell our donations, so we had a lot left over which was then re-donated to another charity.
Summer Fun:
The rest of this post promises to be light hearted and fun! Craft Week was so much fun and the girls participating did such a good job on all the projects. It was a week full of color, in the form of paint and fabric, full of learning (all the girls learned how to sew on a sewing machine for the first time!) and full of making new friends. We gear up and do it all again with 12 new girls later this month!
VBS is on the horizon and this is the first time I have a driver in the family to take the kids. The older girls are volunteers, the younger girls participating, which leaves me and Brett Henry to do..... I'm not sure yet! VBS at our church is always a blast so I know everyone is looking forward to that. I may even get to sew that week! Goodness knows the shop needs some inventory and I've got a bunch all cut out - and they are super cute!
We've been visiting with family near and far, getting to know our neighbors better (after almost 2 years, it's time!), swimming and enjoying hot, lazy days which come in the slowerness of Summer. Granted it's never dull, quiet or too lazy around here! Right now the kids are watching old family movies - I forgot how much they love that and it's always funny to hear the little ones ask "where am I?" when its from a time before they were born. Then comes an answer from a sister who says "on a cloud, waiting to be sent from Heaven".... so sweet.
Back soon! Keep dreamin'!
~Lisa
