Here am I. Send me!

Downtown Disney

Our beloved Disney

winning the world series

playing at Busch Stadium

Jack at bat!!

Won't pose right for even just one pic!

Yes it has been a while since we have updated last. Since our last post in May, we closed on our new country home and sold our home in town to a good friend of ours. We all seem to be loving the country life. It seems that we have worked more in our yard in the country than we ever did in town. One thing we never experienced in town is having to cut up a fallen tree so that we could get out of our drive way. The boys have been very excited to see deer and wild turkeys in the field next to us. So we made a good decision to become "country folk."

We made our annual trek to Disney World in July. Again we had an amazing time. This trip we actually relaxed and spent a lot of time around the pool. Hudson grew enough so that he could ride some of the bigger rides. He LOVED Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Test Track, and Tower of Terror. We also celebrated Hudson's 4th birthday while we were there.

We survived another season of Little League. This may have been Morgan's last year to play. He doesn't know if he wants to move to the next level or not. Jackson's team went undefeated and won the World Series. His team was also chosen as one of the Redbird Rookie teams to play at Busch Stadium. They had a blast playing at Busch Stadium. Fred Bird was the pitcher. Jackson got a hit his first time up to bat.

This summer brought several roller coasters. Most were at Disney World but the biggest one was on our adoption journey. Before we left on vacation, we were told that we were very close to receiving our referral since we opened ourselves to a Waiting Child. While on vacation we were making our plans about traveling to China to meet our daughter. When we got back, we found out that our adoption agency was denied their Hague accreditation by the COA. This put an immediate halt to our journey. Our agency has requested to be reconsidered for accreditation and will have an answer within the next two weeks. So most of our prayers right now are focused on our agency.

So what does "Here am I. Send me!" mean. Well, we must be honest about our faith being shaken recently. A couple of weeks ago, God spoke through a song on the radio that said "Here am I. Send me!" He reminded us that we stated these words in some form in the beginning of our journey. This journey began with our desire to have a daughter but has moved to one in which we continue to tell God to send us because we are ready. Well tonight we heard these words again. Tonight was our church's monthly youth event called Pure Intensity. The speaker ended the sermon with asking the question from Isaiah..."Who will go forth?" Our answer is HERE WE ARE (READY AND WILLING), SEND US!!!!!!!!!!!

Keep us in your prayers as we continue our journey to our daughter.

News...News...News!

Well where should we begin since we haven't posted for almost 2 months. Since our last post, we have moved. We have become country folks. For the past two years, we have wanted to purchase a house near where Tammy grew up. Well, we moved in at the beginning of May. In addition to the move, we have been working on our house to prepare it for sale. The boys have been truly enjoying living in the country. One plus is as Jackson put it...the air is cleaner in the country. He has such a unique perspective.

On the adoption front, our agency is putting in place changes to their Waiting Children process. It is a positive change. We have to turn in more paperwork on May 27.

God has truly blessed us recently. I (Chris) have always wanted to be in control of the financial end of the adoption even though I knew God is the One truly in control. At the end of this past Sunday's service, I asked the prayer partners to pray with me. The prayer partners for the day happened to be two dear friends of ours. I asked them to pray for God to increase my faith about the adoption and to pray that He could decrease my pride so that I will accept help with the adoption. After the service, we were given a financial gift for the adoption. We never could have imagined that we would receive a gift this size. We were given $10,000.00 to put toward our adoption costs. WOW!!!!!!!!!!! When God blesses, He truly blesses. We now have half the money we need to complete the adoption.

We will try to keep this updated more often than we have.

The Other Family

Well, most everyone who knows us knows about our recent experience with the Gour Family. Just in case you haven't heard, a couple of months ago, we had the privilege to review the file of a precious little girl from a waiting list of special needs children our agency had received. She had been diagnosed with a form of Spina Bifida and we were sure she was meant to be ours. But, God had a different plan and after an agonizing few days of fervent praying and searching our souls, we called our agency and declined her referral. The Gours are the family she was always meant to be with and I have had the opportunity to connect with this family via e-mails. It has been an awesome experience and I guess our agency agreed because they saw our families' stories on the Gour's blog and decided to feature it in their monthly newsletter. I was contacted today by our agency, also, requesting permission to send our story to larger publications. When all of this first started, I wondered why God allowed us even to review Claire's file, because we had already begun to bond with her, and turning her down was absolutely heartbreaking. Why did He allow us to go through all that emotional turmoil? I now see that this has become so much bigger than I ever thought. If we can help one family that is going through a similar situation, it was worth every second of hurt. I do know also, that this whole thing has helped affirm the Gour's decision to adopt Claire, and knowing that has helped tremendously. Here's a link to our agency's newsletter.

http://www.childrenshopeint.org/E-News/Mar08/email.htm



We are "The Other Family"

What an evening!!

Last night Chris, Morgan and I had the opportunity to work as volunteers for Shaohannah's Hope Foundation at an information table during a Steven Curtis Chapman concert. Our duties included handing out information on the foundation as well as international adoption. We also carried around large buckets through the crowd collecting money. The money collected was given to a local couple at the end of the evening, who was pursuing international adoption. We collected over $2,200 dollars!! It was an amazing evening of testimonies and worship. We were able to enjoy the concert between the intermission.
A few weeks ago, we were contacted by a couple who lives in a nearby town. They adopted their beautiful daughter from China, a little over a year ago. We had e-mailed each other a couple of times a while back, but had regrettably lost touch recently. Well, when I got her e-mail last month asking us to work the concert, I immediately said "YES!" We were finally able to meet this wonderful couple last night, and were able to talk about their experiences. They offered SO much advice and support. I'm so glad we now can include them in our support system! We were also able to talk with other adoptive parents, and swap stories. Then, to hear Stephen Curtis Chapman's adoption testimony, WOW, it was just the icing on the cake! We all had a blast and hope someday we have this opportunity again.
Another positive, 2005 LID's are finally done!!! CCAA has finally begun referring 2006 families.
At least we can now say they are working on our year. We are only 9 months of LID's away from our referral, but it could realistically take another 2-3 years before our turn is finally here.
We continue to pray for patience, peace and perseverance.