Whole New World: By God's Grace

O.k. So, I have been a little frustrated for these past few hours because I could not post to our blog!! So, know that I have finally figured it out, I can post about all the exciting things that have been going on!! Of course it is about fundraisers and more fundraisers!! For these past few weeks since setting a date of 11/11/11 for our 1st Annual Adoption Open House, we have been working everyday to get things made and the house decorated, cleaned, cleaned and did I mention cleaned? I think Steve vacuumed the house at least 3 to 4 times a day. I can speak for him, he is glad that the Open House is finally come and gone!! I will get back to the Open House shortly, I wanted to share a few more great things that God has sent our way! By God's grace he has placed us in loving families, a truly loving church and home! God is so great and is getting every bit of the glory and we are overflowing with so much joy that it is so overwhelming. I explained to our preacher that we are so undeserving of the joy that he has provided to us and continues to provide to us! We are learning that being obedient to doing work for the Lord is rewarding with the joy!! We are all adopted into God's family and to be able to extend that love to an orphan is a God thing!! Praise him!!
So, we have a sweet friend that told us months ago that she wanted to do something for us, well she presented us with a check a few weeks ago. She had sold her complete set of "China" to help us bring home our "China baby"!!! What a blessing she is and we just love her dearly!!

Last Sunday was Orphan Sunday, and church service was fabulous! Our great church recognized us and others that have been adopted or fostered or in the process of adopting/fostering and had some really great things to say and sweet prayers! The service was great, the slideshow was great and you could definitely feel the holy spirit!! This is how our Sunday went !!

"First I have to say that God is so good! Yesterday was one of the most
important and touching days that Steve and I have experienced through out
this process! Church was fabulous, the preaching was fabulous, Jennie's
testimony was great, the songs were great and just feeling the holy spirit
in church was overwhelming!! I may be crazy because I don't take things
lightly, but make a "story" out of them. We had plans to attend the St.
Aloysius Fall Festival and we did. We got up early Sunday morning and got
ready,( might I add got ready an hour early because we forgot to change the
clocks back), headed to church with all of the fair stuff, had a great service,
got to the festival unloaded and just sat there and watched the kids play.
There were tons of games for the kids. We sold enough to pay for the booth
fee, supplies I bought Saturday, Carson won (4) 2-liter drinks, that will
be used Friday night ( I will not have to buy any for the Open House) and he
also won 4 movie passes and free Top This ice cream that will be used
Sunday after all this is over!!Throughout the day, I was just thinking about getting home and getting thehouse decorated and making some more stuff. When I finally sat down andthought about the day, I thought to myself, I have thought about the"icing" of the day all day long and not the "cake". God had his hand in our entire day! I thank him so much for that!!! Not only did he provide the
festival, but he provided the funds to pay for it, the supplies I needed
for the Open House and a whisper through my children saying, "Here are 4
movie passes, take a break on Sunday afternoon!" This child will be coming
home soon!!!"

We received the Spirit of adoption, the assurance of our inheritance. For we are the children of God and have been adopted into His family. inspired by Romans 8

O.k So what everyone has been waiting on results from the "1st Annual Adoption Open House". For the open house we made swags, wreaths, garland, frames, camera straps, crayon rolls, chalkboard mats, burlap ornament, burlap pillows and crosses, wooden crosses, decorative lanterns and tons of food!! It was so much fun! I can tell you that God provided tons of customers! I know at one time, it was so hard to even move a step without bumping into someone! This was so successful and we praise God for it!! We have had so much support and love through this process!! Believe me, my house was full of stuff from the dining room to the living room to the foyer! It was, as my daughter says, like a mall!! At 8:30, the last customer left and we sat down and took a breather and started counting the money! A sweet friend of mine, Leslie, was calling the amounts out to me to add up and I was typing each number into the calculator. Now, I will tell you that we prayed for a crazy amount to raise of $1500.00. Yes, I know, how in the world and is she crazy? Well, as I was typing, tears started flowing and Leslie looked at me as I was crying. I handed her the calculator and it showed a total of $1741.00!! In my wildest dreams, did I think that was possible!! Every lost hour of sleep and every late night of working and making one more frame as a customer was coming in to the open house, I knew every minute was worth it!! Yes, I would do it all over again and will do it all over again!!! Praise Jesus!!! He is so good!! We also attended another craft show today at Hepzibah Baptist Church! It was super fun and great to meet great people that love the Lord!! Now the total is $1866.00 between both fundraisers!!

So, what is next?? A few days of rest!! Then we will be going back at it for an "Open House" at a friends house and a craft fair at my mother n laws office, Sirote & Permutt. Then we will be enjoying the last few weeks of December with our sweet family and friends!!!

Now a few updates on the adoption process itself. We have completed the Home Study!! Praise Jesus!! It has arrived at Immigration and will be there until the middle to end of January. While we are waiting on the results of that we are preparing our documents for the dossier to be sent to China. Which is a little bit more of paperwork, passports, originals of our marriage certificate, birth certificates and reference letters, pictures of our family, etc.... When our approval comes back from Immigration, our dossier will be sent to China and hopefully within 2 to 4 weeks, we will get our LID (log in date). At that time, we will be able to start the referral program and start searching for our child!! So exciting!! We can not wait!!! We are also applying for grants through different agencies.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers!!! We are loving this journey!!! God bless you all!!!

Praise and glory to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Through adoption in Christ, God invites us to enter His kingdom. We are adopted children of God.