Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Our Christmas Wish for Little A

Little A,

Our wish for you this Christmas is that you would know that you are loved and you are wanted.  The baby who came and was placed in the manger over 2000 years ago came for you.  He came that you might have a relationship with your Heavenly Father, God.  Little A, you have a Heavenly Father who loves you much more than any of us can ever comprehend.  He formed you in your birth mother's womb, He protected you and gave you life.  He watched over you as you grew and continues to watch over you now as you await your forever family and He is watching over us too.
Of course, I wish you were here with us as we celebrate Christmas and the birth of Christ, but ultimately my wish for you is that you would one day personally know the one whom we celebrate today.

I pray that today you would know you are loved.  I pray you would not be afraid or lonely.  I pray you would feel the love of Christ enveloping you and that you would hear Him whisper in your heart, "I created you, I love you, you are mine and you are wanted."

Merry Christmas, Little A.  Hoping and praying you will be with us next Christmas.

Thursday, November 28, 2013

A Letter to Little A on Thanksgiving Day

Little A,

Last year at this time we had just begun the adoption process and the journey that would lead us to you.  This year, we had hoped we would have our referral and had seen your face by today but that was not the plan.  We continue to await our referral.  We continue to await the introduction to our little ladybug.  Today we are celebrating Thanksgiving and giving thanks for the many blessings in our lives.  We have so very much to be thankful for.  Little A, we are thankful for you.  We are thankful for the ways you have already impacted our family and we have yet to meet you.  We are thankful for your life.  You were fearfully and wonderfully made by your Heavenly Father and we cannot wait to get to know you.  We are thankful for your birth parents and for the gift of life they gave to you.  We are thankful for our adoption agency and the people who are working hard to bring you home to your forever family.  We are thankful for the people who are caring for you while you are away from us.  Most of all we are thankful to God for calling us into this wonderful adventure of adoption and for watching over you until it is time for you to come home.

We love you Little A and are praying that you will be here to celebrate Thanksgiving with us next year!

Love,
Mama, Daddy and E

Friday, September 27, 2013

Tiny Whispers

A year ago this month Daniel and I stepped out in faith and sent an application to Holt International in anticipation of adopting a little girl from China.  A year ago yesterday we were accepted to Holt's China program.  One year!  Reaching the one year mark of our journey has been a little hard but in recent days God has provided tiny, gentle whispers to my soul as we continue to await our referral.
We have been on the waiting family list 5 months now and to be honest I am feeling a little impatient.  I wake up each morning wondering if today will be the day we get "THE CALL!"  Will I answer the phone and hear "Hi Gloria, this is your referral call!"?  As I am out and about doing the daily tasks of life I hear a baby cry and I wonder if my little one is crying.  Is someone caring well for her?  Does she know she is loved?  I see a teenage girl in a restaurant and I wonder if our Sweet A will one day grow to look like her.  I play peek-a-boo with our friend's little one and dream of the day I will be able to play peek-a-boo with my own precious one.

But God is SO faithful.  It is in the hard moments He provides those tiny whispers.  The reminders that He's got this.  His timing is perfect and His grace is sufficient.  The reminder that Little A is not alone.  She has a Heavenly Father who loves her and knows everything about her.  It is the young lady I see in the restaurant, the little girl with a repaired cleft lip on the playground, the adoptive family at the zoo, the ladybug that lands on my window while I wait in the car pool line, the email advertisement from Asiana Airlines.  My Father has got this.  He whispers to me to trust Him, trust His timing, trust His will.

So thankful for the tiny whispers and so thankful that God is faithful!


Saturday, August 31, 2013

If I Had A Dollar

I am sure many of my fellow adoptive mama friends can relate to this post and so I write.  As a disclaimer - I am not writing this because I have been offended or hurt.  I just wanted to share some things that have been on my mind.  If as you read this post you think, "is she talking about me?," chances are the answer is NO. 

One of the frequently spouted off comments to adoptive families is "I bet you will get pregnant after you bring your little one home from (insert country)."  Most people who make this statement have no idea what has brought you and your family to the adoption journey.  In our case, adoption was always a part of our family plan, however unexplained secondary infertility brought about this chapter in our lives a little sooner than we anticipated.

As we have walked this happy road of adoption I have heard the above referenced comment at least 50 times if not more.  My response has been and will remain, "I hope you are right!"  However, I feel it is important to share that if this does happen I do not want to become another one of those stories - you know the ones I am talking about - "I have a friend who tried to get pregnant for many years and was told it would never happen.  They adopted their son/daughter from (insert country) and 2 months later she found out she was pregnant." 

The truth of the matter is that it could very well happen to us.  We have been pregnant.  More than once.  We have a beautiful little girl who entered our family through birth and we will have another beautiful little girl enter our family through adoption.  There is no physical reason for us not to be able to have another biological child.  So, if God chooses to bless us with another child after Little A has joined our family - Praise Him!  If He chooses not to bless us with another biological child after Little A has joined our family - Praise Him! 


If you have ever made the aforementioned comment to an adoptive mama, it's OK.  If you have made that statement to me - it's OK.  I hope you are right! However, just know that for some women it is a hard statement to hear.  They know the circumstances that brought them to adoption, they have possibly grieved the loss of biological children or are still grieving, they have faced difficult days and could face more in the future.  So please be sensitive.

And if I ever have the privilege of sharing that we are pregnant again, please do not say "I knew it would happen" or "I told you so!"  THANKS!


Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Becoming Color Aware

As you may already know, there is a lot of training and reading involved in the adoption process.  Daniel and I had to complete many hours of online training, read articles and even do homework as part of our home study assessment.  One of our take-aways from the training was the idea of being color aware instead of color blind.  When we become color aware we acknowledge that there is a difference but we do not place expectations, stereotypes and labels on people.  Becoming color aware allows us to appreciate an individual's culture, ethnicity and heritage.  I have always felt drawn to people of different ethnicity and really enjoy learning about different cultures, languages, etc. 

As we have navigated our way through the adoption process it has been such a neat experience to see our precious E develop color awareness.  No matter where we go, whether it be the playground, grocery store, mall or even Chick-fil-A our little girl is drawn to children who are of Asian descent.  She often comments on how her little sister might look like a certain individual we encounter while we are out and about.   I absolutely LOVE this.

Just this past weekend we went to Chick-Fil-A and then made a trip to IKEA.  While at CFA, E went to play in the play place.  Immediately she approached a little Asian girl and began to play with her.  Later E told me that she had asked the little girl if she was from Chi.na and told her that she was going to bring her little sister home from Chi.na.  Later that same day while we were in IKEA E spotted a doll that looked Asian and immediately asked if we could purchase it for baby sister. 

We have tried to encourage E in this area of becoming color aware by introducing books and toys that depict Asian children.  We are so looking forward to the day that our sweet Little A joins our family and finds dolls and books in her room with children who look like her.  It is our hope and prayer that Little A would know that we have not become color blind but that we are color aware and that we want to incorporate her heritage into our home. 

What fun it will be to celebrate Chinese New Year and to share in cultural celebrations that are unlike our own.  We are looking forward to creating some new family traditions that will blend both the Chinese and American cultures as we strive to help our daughters become more and more color aware.

Friday, July 26, 2013

Encouraged

One of the most wonderful parts about the adoption journey has been the support and encouragement of friends and family and even people who were strangers to us when the journey began who are now in our cheering section.  Daniel and I both know that we could not walk this road alone.  It is a long road and the journey that led us to this place was even longer (not just time wise but experience wise, if that makes sense).

It is such a blessing to receive phone calls, emails and messages on FB inquiring how things are going, where are we in the process and are there any new developments.  On the days when it seems like we might wait forever we catch a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel and have the opportunity to share our story with someone.

I have been blown away by the kindness of brothers and sisters in Christ whom we know through other friends who have donated time, energy, services and even financial resources to make this possible.  Our concert and silent auction back in April was one such example.  We received auction items from people we have never met, families attended because they heard about the event from a friend and wanted to support us, dear friends reached out on our behalf and on behalf of a little girl whom we have yet to meet.  Our garage sale in May was another such example.  We had 3 garages full of donated items to sell at our sale, much of it coming from people we have never met.  Strangers who have stumbled across our blog have sponsored puzzle pieces to bring our puzzle completion to over 1100 pieces.  Just a little over 800 pieces to go.  AMAZING and so OVERWHELMING!

Thank you does not even seem an adequate response to all those who have come along side and shared in this journey.  We cannot wait to see where this road leads and hope that through our experiences we are able to encourage and support other families as well.

I share all this today because I woke up feeling encouraged.  Hope you are encouraged as well!

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

The Latest

I wish I had lots of exciting news to share today but we are still in the waiting stage.  We have now been on the waiting family list a little over 3 months.  This is possibly the halfway point of our wait on this list, possibly not.  There are so many unknowns in the adoption journey but we have such peace as we wait and encounter glimpses of God's hand all along the way.

We received our 797 approval a little over a week ago and are now diligently working to get our dossier authenticated and to our agency in a timely fashion.  Once our dossier makes it to Holt and they approve it, all of our paperwork will make its way around the world and begin the journey through Ch.na.

Just this morning I had a neat opportunity to share about our adoption journey with another mom at E's swimming lessons.  As we continue our wait I am thankful for opportunities to share our story and encourage others to consider adoption and orphan ministry.

Monday, June 24, 2013

Continuing to Wait

Today as I watched my sweet E play with a group of little girls my heart ached for our Little A to be home with us.  The road ahead is still quite long as we continue to await our I-797 approval but this mama is ready to have our referral in hand and to see the precious face that will be joining our family.

We have been on the waiting family list for a little over 2 months.  Our agency says many families are on the list anywhere from 1-6 months with some families waiting a little longer.  So we do not know how much longer we will be on list.  Most days the wait is not too hard but there are times like this morning when I watch E play with friends or when I see a little girl who could look like our Little A or when we have a fun family adventure planned that I feel that empty place in my heart. 

E continues to talk about her sister everyday and continues to amaze me with her thoughtfulness and love towards a sister whom she does not know. 

Continuing to wait and enjoying the moments but we cannot wait to share them with Little A.


Sunday, May 12, 2013

A Letter to My Girls on Mother's Day

Dear E and Little A,

Today as we celebrate Mother's Day, I wanted to stop and write you a letter.  I truly believe that being a mom is by far my greatest accomplishment in life.  I may not do it perfectly and there will be times that I will fail you as a mom but I will try my hardest to be the best mom I can be through God's strength and grace. 

My sweet E, you were the blessing that made me a mom.  I remember the Mother's Day I was pregnant with you and all of the emotions that came with that day.  I remember feeling you move in my womb and hiccup and just being in awe at the life that was growing inside of me.  I was overcome that God has chosen me to be your mom and I anxiously awaited your arrival.  I remember the day you were born and the realization that I was now responsible for this tiny little life.  I have made many mistakes in the past 4.5 years as your mom and I know there will be many more in the future but you always tell me "that's ok mama, I forgive you.  Do you forgive me?"  Thank you for showing me grace and for helping me become a better mom.  I promise to always love you my sweet little chicken noodle!  I love you and I am so blessed to be your mom!

Our dear Little A, my heart is missing you today as you are away from our family.  I hope that in some way you have experienced a mother's love today.  I think of your birth mom and dad and my heart hurts for them as well.  I pray that your birth mom feels loved and honored today.  They are making a sacrifice that will one day soon allow me to become your mom.  I cannot wait to see your face for the very first time and to know that you will be joining our family.  I long for the day when you will be placed in my arms and when I can whisper in your ear how much you are truly loved.  I promise to always love you my dear girl and cannot wait to watch you blossom.

E and Little A, it is my prayer that both of you would grow to know and love the Lord and to follow Him all the days of your lives.  I pray that you would know how very much your daddy and I love you and how very thankful I am that I get to be your mom.  I cannot wait to watch the two of you grow up and hope that one day I will have the privilege of seeing you become mothers as well.

I love you with all my heart,
Mama

Thursday, May 9, 2013

An Unexplainable Love

Next week we will have been on the waiting family list for one month.  This month has passed quickly and without much excitement.  We are currently waiting for USCIS to send us our appointment for fingerprints.  We wait for documents to be certified and authenticated.  We wait for the greatly anticipated "this is your referral" call.  We continue to wait for the little girl God has for our family. 

While we wait we love.  Little A's name is never far from our lips and thoughts.  Numerous times a day E will say "when baby sister comes home" or something to that effect.  We constantly talk about life with little sister and pray for her daily.  E talks of baby sister so often that people frequently ask if we know when she is coming home. 

Each day I find myself wondering what our Little A will look like, how old she will be, what will she like and dislike, will she adjust and attach to our family well.  Each day my love for this little girl whom we have never met or even laid eyes on grows.  It is unexplainable and almost indescribable.  I feel a fierce love for a little girl thousands of miles away who may not even be born yet.  I feel the protectiveness of a mama as she longs for her little one to be well taken care of.  I feel a slight emptiness in my heart as I know our family is not yet complete.  As Mother's Day approaches I think of our Little A's birth mother.  I think of the loss she has or will experience in the days to come as she places her child for adoption.  I think of her as courageous and strong.  I am thankful for her.  Thankful that she is choosing life for her daughter.  She is choosing love.  It is an unexplainable love.  It is grand.  It is beyond comprehension.

We wait and we love.  We love with our whole hearts and cannot wait to embrace the precious child God has for us. 

Monday, April 15, 2013

Approval

Finally, after what seems like an eternity (only a few weeks in reality), we received our home study approval from Holt.  We will now wait for our case worker to send us notarized copies and then we will file our I-800A with USCIS.  Our dossier is almost complete and once we receive the home study we will make a trip to the Secretary of State's office and the consulate for certification and authentication. 

We are getting closer.  One step at a time, one day at a time.




Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Ephesians 3:20-21

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us,  to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.  


Our family was overwhelmingly blessed this past week by the goodness of God.  

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, we ran into a little speed bump in the paperwork process a few weeks ago.  This speed bump could have possibly required our home study to be sent back to DCFS for another round of approval.  On Friday afternoon we found out that our home study will not need to be resent to DCFS.  Our original approval date will remain and our home study is now ready for approval by Holt (our placement agency).  Our home study agency is in the process of moving offices so it will most likely be next week before our case worker is able to send everything back to Holt but things are moving once again.

Daniel and I have gathered all of our dossier documentation and are ready to take it to the Secretary of State's office for certification and then on to the Consulate for authentication.  The only missing items for our dossier are the official home study, our 797 (documentation that comes from Immigration), and photos of our family and home.  There is a light at the end of this tunnel!

Friday evening we hosted a children's concert, dessert fellowship and silent auction.  We were SO blessed by everyone who helped and attended.  There were about 65 people in attendance and everyone had a great time.  Daniel and I had an opportunity to share our heart for adoption and a little bit of our adoption story.  Over 50 items were donated for our silent auction.  In fact, we had so many items a few of them were not bid on.  Thanks to several amazing ladies from our church we had an abundance of delicious desserts and our talented pastor's wife put on an amazing concert.  We could not have done this event without the support and encouragement of so many and we are just extremely grateful.  

Our God truly is able to abundantly more than we could ever ask or imagine.  To God be the Glory!

Friday, March 29, 2013

Never Once

After what was a shockingly quick endorsement by DCFS we hit a little bump in the road.  Because we are using two agencies, one for homestudy and one for placement, our homestudy needed to be approved by our placement agency after we received our endorsement from IL.  A week and a half ago we received word from our caseworker that our placement agency wanted some revisions to be made.  Most were minor wording revisions but one of the revisions may require our homestudy to go back to DCFS.  We were hoping to avoid this step but unfortunately here we are.  We have approved the requested changes and have taken care of things on our end and are hoping to find out next week where we stand.

Of course this bump in the road was a little discouraging and disheartening but it is a minor thing in comparison to some of the other difficulties we could have and can still encounter.  Even though I wish we had not hit this bump in the road it was a good reminder that God is fully in control of this process.  He will not allow our girl to come home one day or even one minute too late. 

Just days before we came upon this bump in the road I heard the song, Never Once by Matt Redman.  It has quickly become our theme song for this process and I have a feeling it will one day show up in our Gotcha Day video when we finally bring our Little A home.


I am so thankful that we have never once walked alone in our journey with secondary infertility, miscarriage, and now the adoption process.  I am also so thankful that our Little A, wherever she may be, will never once be alone.

Monday, March 11, 2013

Endorsement

We received the email today stating that we had received DCFS endorsement on our Home Study.  Now we wait for final approval from Holt and then we will mail our I-800A to USCIS Immigration Services.

I told Daniel that I feel like my water has just broken in this paper pregnancy!

Concert and Silent Auction Fundraiser

 Kids Concert and Silent Auction

for the Cooley Family

An Adoption Fundraiser

April 5 6:30pm-8:00

La La Lisa and the Big Green Alligator
Suggested donation of $10 / family
Our extremely talented pastor's wife, Lisa Weyerhaeuser, will be performing with her band La La Lisa and the Big Green Alligator. The concert will be followed by a dessert fellowship and silent auction.
Amazing items for auction:
·      Computer Service / Training
·      Scentsy Products
·      American Girl Doll
·      Tastefully Simple
·      Photography by Kristina Capps
·      and many more
All proceeds will go towards our adoption costs.
Help us bring our Little A home!

If you are interested in attending please leave a comment and include your email address and we will send further information.


Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Movement

We received an email from our case worker today asking for approval for a change in wording on our home study.  This is great news because it means she has completed the home study and it has been sent to our placement agency for approval.  We have approved the changes and hopefully this means the home study will soon be headed to DCFS for approval!

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Puzzle Update



We have currently had 1102 puzzle pieces sponsored!  Woo Hoo!  That leaves only 898 more pieces to go!  This puzzle has definitely been challenging but I cannot wait for it to be completed.  We are still behind a little on putting it together but it is slowly coming together.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Keeping It Real

Not a whole lot of movement on the adoption front right now.  Our case worker is currently writing our homestudy report and we are working (or supposed to be working) on our dossier documents.  I have felt a little overwhelmed with the process the past couple of weeks so have not made much progress in regards to all the paperwork we need to get done.  However, just when it seems so daunting someone or something comes along to bring a word of encouragement.  Just this morning I received an email from a dear friend who is sharing our blog with her friends and family.  It was the push I needed to get moving again to bring our Little A home.  I know that our girl will not come home a minute too soon or a minute late and that brings comfort.

Last week I was in south GA/FL for a weekend away with another dear friend and we spent a day walking on the beach.  I was reminded that God knows exactly who our daughter is to be.  He knows the number of her days, His thoughts towards her (and us) are greater than the grains of sand and He knows the exact moment we will meet her.  I took a few minutes to pray for our sweet A and then released her to Him.  Little A we love you and cannot wait to see your face.


Thursday, January 10, 2013

Lovey

Anyone who knows Eleanor knows how fond she is of her lovey.  A couple of weeks before Christmas we were walking through a store and Eleanor found the perfect gift for little sister, a lovey of her own.  I had told myself I would not buy anything for Little A until we had a referral but I just could not pass this up!  We cannot wait to give Little A her lovey! 



Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Time for an Update

Happy New Year!  We are hoping and praying this is the year we bring our Little A home. 
Over the Christmas holidays we were asked a number of times where we are in the process so I thought it was time to update this ol' blog.

We have our final homestudy interview on January 18th.  Once this interview has been completed and we pay our homestudy agency our caseworker will begin writing our homestudy report.  The homestudy report will then be sent to our placement agency (Holt) and then to the government for us to be approved as adoptive parents.  Between now and January 18th, Daniel and I have a few more training hours to complete as well as our CPR certification.

While our homestudy is being written and sent for approval Daniel and I will gather all of the documents needed for our dossier.  The dossier along with our approved homestudy report will be compiled and sent to China to be approved by their government.  We hope to have all of our paperwork in China by April (there are a number of factors at play here and this may not be an accurate time frame).

EXCITING PUZZLE UPDATE- 1072 puzzle pieces have been sponsored!  A picture will be coming but we are behind on putting the sponsored pieces together.  Thank you, thank you, thank you to all of you who have made a donation and sponsored puzzle pieces.   We are over half-way done with our puzzle fundraiser.

Thank you for your continued support as we walk this happy road.  We cannot wait for our referral and the awesome privilege of bringing our girl home!