Bring My Sister Home!

 

 

My girls have seen us trying to raise funds for our adoption.  They know that we have to pay for documents to be notarized, court and government fees, airline tickets to fly to China, and a place to stay while in China.  They decided they wanted to help get their sister home.

Here are some items they have made to try to FUNdraise.

 

 

Each knit hat comes with a matching scarf(working on those now).  They just wanted to get these pictures on the blog now, so that they will have time to keep up with their orders!

 

 

Hats are $15 and Scarves are $10

 

 

The Ipod bags are $10

 

 

 

The soaps are $6 each

 

They are handmade from ALL NATURAL products.

 

 

A little digging

Two weeks ago, the weather was REALLY nice.  Try 85 degrees in the middle of January!  So we figured we should check on our garden and begin to till it and get it ready for our next spring planting. 

 

Look at the treasure we found!

 

 

 

 

We continued to dig ........

 

 

 

 

 

BEAUTIFUL!

 

Next Steps

Everyone keeps asking what we have been doing and what is the "Next Step", so here is:

The paperwork that we have been compiling for the last few months:

• copies of our tax returns
• copies of our W2's
• passport photos
• photos of our home and yard
• septic tank inspection
• water bill
• rabies vacination of our dog
• a letter telling the location of the schools, hospitals, police station, grocery stores, parks, and churches in our area.
• certificates of hours of online parenting classes
• copy of our medical insurance
• Robbie's physical
• my physical
• a statement from our pediatrician that our current children are in good health
• copy of my driver's license
• copy of Robbie's drivers license
• letters from employers
• criminal background checks
• fingerprints from the FBI and GBI
• birth certificates
• marriage certificates
• divorce decrees - agh
• referrence letters from family members, friends, employers, the kids teachers
• the 20 page social workers report of Robbie and I (which basically summerizes our childhood, our friendships, our education, our previous and current jobs, our current health status, our home and neighborhood, our parenting techniques, our discipline techniques, our future plans and ANY possible medical treatment, emotional support, cultural changes, language barriers and any other challenges we may encounter.)

We have completed all of this paperwork and it is all at our agency awaiting the approval from Homeland Security. (which we got on Dec 28 HERE).

Our next step is for all of our paperwork, the Dossier, to be State Certified.

Then our Dossier will have to be Authenticated (Consulate in Houston, TX)

Then our Dossier will be sent back to our adoption agency in Alabama to be translated into chinese.

Then our agency will send it to China. 

This is DTC.  Dossier To China

A VERY big step.

All of these steps are really out of our hands now. The adoption agency takes over from here. That is a good feeling in some ways, but hard to know that you are no longer in control of your timeline. This is were God kicks in. He is ultimately the one in control.

Jumping for Joy

We are JUMPING for joy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

December 28th we got our Immigration Approval.

 

 

Basically it means that the United States has agreed to allow us to adopt a child and bring them into the U.S.



Wild Olive Tees Fundraiser

Get Your Shirt HERE

Go to the above link to order a T-shirt. 
Use code MEADE 1207 so that we get the credit.

This is a great site that has mens, womens and childrens t-shirts.  They have agreed to help up raise money for our adoption!  For each person we refer to them that makes a purchase they will donate a portion of that sale to our adoption fund!

These are just a few of the choices:

 

 

Waiting........

WAITING..........it seems like that is all that I can tell anyone who asks about our adoption process these days. 

We filled out our application to get approval from immigration on October 22, 2012 and we waited.
I began to pray that our appointment to be fingerprinted would be for the week of Thanksgiving.  Robbie already had the time off, so it would work perfectly for us.

The letter came on Saturday the 17th of November.  Our fingerprint appointment date was set for December 4th 2012.  We had been told by MANY people that the South Carolina office was great and as long as you had your appointment LETTER,  you could walk right in without an appointment.  So..........................

 

On November 19th, we went to South Carolina to get our fingerprints taken

 

 

and went to get ICE CREAM, what a great day!

 

Renovation

Wow 2013......the begining of another year.  I find it hard to believe that another year has gone by so fast.  Usually, I feel like I have a clean slate.  An opportunity to start doing things differently, a new start to doing things better, renovating your weight, your house, your bad habits.  But this year I feel different, I am Not excited.  More like overwhelmed.

I feel like there were so many things that I did not complete in 2012.  There were so many things that I did not do.  I even have a hard time keeping up with this blog!  It has taken me days to even write these two paragraphs.  I am NOT good at just writing down my thoughts.

I know that most of the things I have been doing in 2012 would be things that God would want me to do, but I feel like I have not been doing them well enough. I feel like someone else could do a better job than I am. 

I follow other peoples blogs and they seem to have it all together.  They know the best ways to decorate, the tastiest recipes, and come up with some of the funniest pictures and stories. 

So.....This morning (Sunday Jan 6th)I got something I really needed.  A wake up call.

We had a "Guest" speaker at our church.  Our youth pastor was filling in because our pastor and his entire family had come down with the flu.  We were asked this question.  "What is wrong with the world and why?"  He talked about how everyone is trying to renovate themselves for 2013, but God is calling us to renovate our hearts.

We need to focus less on what we can do and focus more on what God wants us to do. 
God is calling us to renovate our hearts. 
God wants us to get serious about Him in 2013.

God has promised us so many things:
 
If we are in Christ, we are made into a new creation.  "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!"  2 Corinthians 5:17

Who can stand against us?  We have no enemy that can threaten us because God is so powerful. " If God is for us, who can be against us?"  Romans 8:31

We can do all things through Him because He strenthens us.  "I can do all this through him who gives me strength."  Philippians 4:13

Whom shall we be afraid of?  "The Lord is my light and my salvation— whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life— of whom shall I be afraid?"  Psalm 27:1

As for me and my house we will serve the Lord, we will not give our hearst away to anything else.  "But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”  Joshua 24:15

So while the begining of the new year should mark change, make sure that you take a look at yourself and your heart when you decide to make those changes.

I am not Ask Anna who knows how to clean anything and organize and decorate on a limited budget.  Ask my husband who thinks I am a horder packrat.  I have gotten better. lol
I am not Hannah or Katie two wonderful YOUNG ladies who have moved to a third world country and dedicated their lives to caring for children.  Though someday that may be the case, although I will be far from YOUNG!
I am not any of these people.  They have wonderful ideas and they have done an awesome job with  the gifts that God has blessed them with. 

I am me.  I need to be who God made me to be.  I need to use the talents that God has gifted me with and He will take care of the rest.