Gettin' Our Girl!!!

Lily"s coming home!!!!!!!!!!!!

Although I've been "blog absent" this summer, things with Lily's adoption have been clipping along.

Let me catch ya up real quick:

Our dossier was sent to China on May 7th, and our Log In Date was May 12th. We hoped to receive our official approval to adopt her by July 12th.

Because of Lily's medical condition, her file got marked"Expedited", and we received our official Letter of Approval to Adopt on June 24th.

Now let's just take a moment to celebrate that MIRACLE :)

Basically, from the time we found out that the CCCWA wanted to pull her file in February, we've been moving forward in faith…..TRUSTING that we'd heard the Lord clearly and were walking in obedience to pursue her adoption.

So when we got that final approval…..oh my.  Mama was excited :)

I was actually driving to my friend Terri's house when my adoption agency called to tell me the good news.

I know exactly where Terri's house is, but I made FOUR wrong turns because I was soooo OVER THE MOON!!!

I was going to Terri's house to share my testimony with one of our church's community groups - a group of the sweetest girls who turned out to be the first people to hear our great news.

It was such a blessing for me to be able to share my journey of faith with them and then tell them that the next stop on the journey would be here soon because my Lily-girl was coming home!

So on June 24th, we got our Letter of Approval and were told that because Lily's file was marked "Expedited", we could be leaving for China in ONE MONTH!

I died!!!

We got busy, busy, busy getting Lily's room ready.

And when I say "we", I mean Doug and my mom.

I'm a great boss vision-caster :)

Doug went to town painting walls and furniture while my mom sewed curtains, bedskirts and pillow covers.

In the midst of all my "vision-casting", I was also pushing Homeland Security and the National Visa Center along.

Calling. Emailing. Calling. Emailing.

Until FINALLY they gave me all the approvals we needed to prepare for Lily's immigration to the U.S.

Next we had to wait for Travel Approval from China….which we received LAST MONDAY.

And on Wednesday, we got word that our appointment with the U.S. Consulate in China had been scheduled for AUGUST 26th!!!!

Which means…..

We're leaving in THREE DAYS to go get our girl!!!!

That's right, people…..THREE DAYS.

Did I say I'm dying???  Cuz I'M DYING!!!!

I can't believe it's here!!!!!

Our little girl will be placed in our arms on Monday, August 18th!!!!

Are y'all ready????

Cuz I'm SOOOOOOO READY!!!!!!!

It's Art for Adoption Day!!!

 We're so excited about our second adoption fundraiser tonight:

Art for Adoption

Cups Coffeehouse in Clinton, MS

5-9pm

Here are some - not all! - of the pieces that will be for sale tonight.

Numbered Print by Wyatt Waters

 

Numbered Print by Yuval Wolfson

 

Numbered Print by Walter Anderson

 

Clinton folks, do you recognize the place in this picture?

Numbered Print by Mark Millet

Peavey Music Store in Meridian, MS

Numbered print by Mark Millet

 

"Spring Confetti" - Original acrylic/water color 30x30 canvas by Suzanne Guild

"Out on a Limb" - original acrylic piece by Megan White

For all you Ole Miss Football Fans:

Sketch by Paul Morgan

Charcoal by MaryKelli Bethea

Zentangles by Michelle Davison:

Photography:

by Charise Wilson

by Michelle Davison

by Paul Morgan

by Jeff Chao

To see more, visit:

Art for Adoption Facebook page

We look forward to seeing you tonight!!!!

Dossier To China!!!

In the world of international adoption, this is a monumental day: Our dossier has been sent to China!!!

When I got word today that our dossier was on its way, yes, I was excited; but more than that, I was RELIEVED.

For the past 5 months, we've worked diligently to compile all the paperwork needed to send to the CCCWA.

Many. Many. Tears have been shed along the way.

It's an arduous process.

And I often find that I am practically holding my breath from one checkmark to the next.

But PRAISE THE LORD! This task has been accomplished and now we begin a new phase of the adoption process:

Waiting.

And more PRAYING.

We have requested that the CCCWA expedite our request to adopt Lily because of her health situation.

I hope they will.

But for the first time since we began the adoption process, I can honestly say that whether we are able to go get her sooner or later, I trust that we will go in God's timing. 

"I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted." Job 42:2

Lily with a friend of mine who was able to visit her several months ago when she went to China to adopt her little girl.

In other news:

I've totally neglected posting pictures of some of the artwork that will be for sale at the Art for Adoption Fundraiser this Friday night.

But I have a good excuse.

We spent this past weekend in the hospital with our li'l man :(

Sometimes Benaiah's muscles just refuse to push his poop out (sorry if that's TMI) and we end up at the children's hospital for a good ole cleaning out.

Day 1: Feeling sooooo bad

Day 2 AM: Feeling even worse

Day 2 PM: Starting to turn the corner

Day 3: Happy and ready to start eating again!

Ever since we got home from the hospital, I haven't seemed to be able to catch up on things, but I'm hoping to spend some time tomorrow posting some photos of the beautiful art that is being sold to help us bring Lily home.

Art for Adoption

Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who participated in our Boston Butt Fundraiser at Hinds Community College!!! We haven't received the final dollar amount yet, but it looks like you helped us raise around $3000 toward Lily's adoption costs!!!!!

Now we are moving on toward our next fundraiser which is coming up SOON!

Our friend Michelle is spear-heading an Art for Adoption fundraiser coming up next Friday, May 9th, from 5pm-9pm at Cups Coffeehouse in Clinton.

Several amazing artists from the area have donated some INCREDIBLE pieces for us to sell at the event. 100% of the proceeds from the art sale will go towards Lily's adoption costs!!!

From now until the event, I'm going to showcase some of the pieces here on my blog. If you see something that grabs your eye, be sure to come by Cups and make a purchase! Or, if you don't live in the Jackson metro area, contact me and we can reserve your purchase.

Even if you don't end up buying any art, we'd absolutely LOVE for you to swing by the Art for Adoption Event - just to enjoy a cup of coffee, talk adoption or, of course, learn more about our sweet Lily!

Want a Butt?

A Boston Butt.

I'm talking about a pork roast, people!

And we're selling them to help raise money for our adoption!

{FYI - a Boston Butt is located on the shoulder of the pig. You'd think it would be at the other end, ya know?}

Our good friends at Hinds are donating time, energy and resources to help us out. They are going to cook Boston Butts and have them ready for pick up on April 17th - just in time for Easter dinner!

I'm actually pretty late to the game. I should have posted this last week when the sale began because these babies are sellin' like hot cakes! I had no idea pork roast would be a best seller!!!

Seriously - there are very few tickets left, so if you'd like to purchase one, contact Marcille or Terri. Their contact info is at the bottom of the flier.

Here we go, y'all…..Let the fundraising begin!!!!

Lily, we're gettin' closer, baby girl!!!

"She is very sweet"

I checked my email right before I backed out of our driveway to go pick Benaiah up from school.

When I read the short update I'd received about Lily, I hopped out of the van and ran back inside the house to tell Doug what I'd just read.

"They said, 'She is very sweet'!!!!"

I kissed Doug on the cheek, did the happy dance and said exclaimed again,

"Did you hear that?! She is very sweet!!!!"

I almost burst into tears out of sheer excitement!

It was a proud Mama moment.

They are words I use every day...

"Oh, so-and-so, is so sweet!"
"You are so sweet to do that!"
"She's the sweetest l'il thing!"

But when these are the first words you've ever heard about your little girl that actually describe something about her personality.....

about her countenance....

about her disposition....

about HER.

Not about her health problems.

Not about her physical abilities or disabilities.

But about LILY.

Let me tell ya....

It thrills a mama's soul.

These 4 little words have somehow helped me know her better.

Of course, I'd always assumed she was sweet...

But now it's confirmed :)

The little update we got about her was just that.

Little.

But the other thing we learned about her sooooo encouraging.

She has been at the medical care center for less than 2 weeks and has already gained a whole pound of weight!!!

Lily is very malnourished - She is 3 years old and only weighs 18.5lbs.

Make that 19.5lbs!!!!

Please continue to pray that the Lord will continue to move mountains on behalf of our VERY SWEET little girl!!!

Garden Party

Saturday we attended the annual Garden Party fundraiser at The Little Light House.

This is one of the school's four primary fundraisers.

Money is raised through ticket sales to the luncheon, raffle tickets for "baskets" and an auction.

All of the families at TLLH were put on teams to fill their baskets.

Ours was an "Outdoors Basket".

Doug literally spent an entire day going around to different businesses asking them to make donations to our basket.

He ended up coming home with A LOT of loot - gift certificates for deer processing and taxidermy, rifle scopes, and deer stands just to name a few things.

Our basket ended up being worth over $1000!

There were over 30 baskets being raffled.

The one we wanted to win was the "Grill Basket".

I somehow made everyone in our family believe that I'd use a grill if we had a gas grill {as opposed to our charcoal grill} Ha!

We were REALLY hopeful that someone in our family's name would be called.

Unfortunately, the "Grill Basket" was the most popular one, so we had some stiff competition.

Our name was not called.  Boooo :(

Doug says we "got hosed" - LOL

Although we didn't win the grill, we didn't walk away empty-handed.

You see - there was a Hat competition for the ladies and a Tie competition for the gentlemen.

I did NOT win the Hat competition.

You should have seen some of the hat-creations several ladies wore - a couple of them were at least 2 feet tall!

But guess who won the Overall Tie competition?!

My boys!!!

Yep! They were twinsies! :)

(I found these great daddy/son ties at www.myfavoritepal.com}

Benaiah loves it when his daddy shakes his arms up and down!

We were packed in like sardines, so getting my big camera out to take better pictures just wasn't happening. Instead, we relied on the ole iPhone camera :(

These are the best pictures we got of me and Benaiah:

Pitiful.

THANK YOU to EVERYONE who has financially contributed to The Little Light House on Benaiah's behalf.  

We have officially met our family's fundraising goal!!! YAY!!!!

Thank you!!!!