The Wait

    Yes, we have begun a new school year and we are still waiting for our girl. 

It is hard to write those words and even harder to say, I feel as though I might choke saying them. I'm not going to lie, the wait is hard.  It is hard to describe but part of my heart is on the other side of the world with a little girl we've never met.  "She" is ALWAYS in the back of my mind. We aren't matched yet, but hoping and praying for soon. VERY SOON. 

We continually hold onto 1 Corinthians 2:9 But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”...

This summer was busy with family and fun... A few highlights...

The boys came home from the last day of school to their dad and two older cousins in from Kentucky
"surprising" them with an all-out water balloon war. Over 200 water balloons gone in less than 5 minutes.
They have the BEST dad.

Lots of sand..

And lots and lots of swimming!

Ranger game

Champe's first Camp

Eli at baseball camp. He could have done this all summer!

Champe performing in Kid Summer Praise

Celebrating Eli's 7th birthday with a "drive-in movie".

Genevieve's first gymnastic lesson. She loved it!

Lots of fun this summer, but our sweet girl is ALWAYS on our hearts. Sweet Genevieve drew this picture one day.
The people in the pic are her and her daddy (she has the pink legs :) ). The object on the right is China. She decided enough with this waiting... She and Mark and just going to go get her.  We all just want her home!

 Praying for a great school year and hoping to bring our baby girl home this year!

Will you pray with us?

Love and Blessings,
 
                               Melissa

My mess

I love a tidy, organized house.  My husband, who although appreciates an organized house, is definitely the creative of the family and doesn't mind a little mess if his creative outlets are flowing. It wasn't until God gave us our little shop, https://www.etsy.com/shop/sonofwhale?ref=pr_shop_more  that Mark has taken over the garage. And I mean taken over. It is one, big woodworking shop out there. No room for cars anymore. I promise, there is an inch of saw dust everywhere. I can't stand the mess. I just like to shut the door and pretend it's not there.  But, for my husband, that is where he creates and invents all sorts of things that ultimately is bringing our daughter home. We've had people ask to see the "shop".  I tell them, "you don't want to see it".  And it's really me who doesn't want people to see it because I think it's too messy. It wasn't until a very wise friend told us one day (love you Amber), "you know, you better be taking pictures of all this." I told her she was crazy because I didn't want to remember this mess! But then, she said the most profound thing, "when your daughter gets older, you can show her the hours upon hours, the sweat and tears, the prayers, care and LOVE that went into making each letter, table, cross, etc. all to bring her home." WOW. She was right. This mess that I have swept up, cleaned up, tried to hide, is how God is bringing our sweet girl home. I now embrace that mess. I photograph it. I want our sweet girl to know all the time we spent waiting and working to bring her home. 

It made me think, so many times, I say I am a mess too!  I think I'm not good enough for God. And that is when God quietly and tenderly, like He can only do, says, "Melissa, I want you and all your mess." He wants all of me. All the junk that I want to try and "fix" before going to Him, when all he wants is me. And all He wants is YOU. Not perfect. Just willing. Just You. 

So now, I embrace my mess. Ya'll I can be a mess. That mess is my life. And my life for GOD'S glory. He took my mess and He made it good. I see God's hand making my mess something He adores and sings about. 

Zephaniah 3:17 

The Lord your God is with you,

    the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
    in his love he will no longer rebuke you,
    but will rejoice over you with singing.”

Oh and here is a picture. Told you I am embracing it. Since this picture, it has gotten a lot more organized. For father's day, Mark got organization stuff for the garage... 

Still a mess, but organized. :)

PS.. For those of you wondering, we are #12 on the list. Just waiting for that phone call for our referral. :)

Our yes on the table...

It was three years ago this month.

Three years ago, Mark and I said yes to adoption.  Our sweet Genevieve was two months old when we made the first phone call to our agency, Faith International Adoptions. I still remember sitting at the kitchen table and being in shock that I was making that phone call. I remember telling Mark all about it and us praying, saying ok God, if this is your will, open the door. We are putting our Yes on the table. And although it was slow going, we knew that day that this is the road God was taking us down. We have done the paperwork. We have had our homestudy.  Now, we sit and wait for that phone call. And we are so ready...

It's also so neat to see how God provides. We didn't really know how we were and are paying for the adoption costs but slowly we are collecting it. One night, Mark was on a walk praying about how he could pay for the adoption and he came home and said he's going use his hobby of woodworking. If you don't know, I am married to one of the MOST creative people on the planet. Really. His mind never quits. He's always thinking of creative ways of sharing God's love, sharing people's stories, creating anything. He hardly sleeps. He is always on the go thinking, creating and using his imagination. He is also the hardest worker I know too. He loves hard, works hard and plays hard. Can't believe how the Lord has blessed me with him. He makes us laugh constantly too. :)

Here he is making letters with mini-me, I mean, Eli Hampton...

After that walk, we started up a shop on etsy. We didn't know how God was going to bless that. We opened it up and put the two things Mark had made me for Christmas. People seem to like them. :)
You can look here:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/sonofwhale?ref=search_shop_redirect

Here is the story of why our shop is called son of whale. All after Mark's dad. This is Mark's personal blog...
http://sonofwhale.wordpress.com/about/

It started with this "W"

And now we have lots of letters...

And other things Mark creates...

So, why we wait and pray (we are #14 on the list), we make letter by letter to get to our little one.  They say it should be this summer (fingers crossed).. It is so cool to watch God provide some of the adoption costs through a little imagination, some wood and glue... Although we are raising a good amount through our etsy shop, there is still a GREAT more we need to raise.

We were incredibly blessed to receive a matching grant from Lifesong!! When someone gives to Lifesong in our name, they will match it dollar for dollar! The only condition is, it can't come from us. It has to come from friends and family.. just someone who wants to bless our adoption.  So, if God is laying on your heart to give, we would be so thankful.  It is through your support, yes, YOU, that we are moving closer to a little Japanese girl joining the hustle and bustle of our family.  Our hope would be that through our story, it would be echoed in your home and that we might be an encouragement to reach for the dream God has put on your life.  From our heart to your home, our entire family is thankful for your support.   Thank you for helping us with our family’s adoption.

 Here are the directions to give, just put our family number : #3604.

Give by Check
Please make checks payable to Lifesong for Orphans.
In the memo please note your gift preference with Family Account Number and Family Name.
(ie: Preference 1234 Smith)
Please mail checks to:
Lifesong for Orphans PO Box 40
Gridley, IL 61744
Lifesong has been blessed with a partner that underwrites all US administrative and fund-raising costs (TMG Foundation and other partners). That means 100% of your donation will go directly to the need...helping orphans.
Give Online
1. Go to www.lifesongfororphans.org/give/donate
2. Select Give to an Adoptive Family
3. Complete online form and fill in Family Account Number & Family Name Fields
*Please note that PayPal will charge an administrative fee (2.9% + $.30 USD per transaction). Your donation will be decreased by the amount of this fee. 

Orphan Sunday

Today is November 3rd... November is National Adoption Month and today we celebrate Orphan Sunday. I never want to forget the millions of orphan children all over the world. 

November is also a month of giving thanks. So on this 3rd day of November, I am thankful. I am thankful for my Heavenly Father. I'm thankful for my three awesome children. I'm thankful that I get the blessing to share Jesus with them.  

This is my sweet Genevieve today. We have another special marker in November, Genevieve's birthday. My sweet girl will be 3!  This is her sitting after she kept running away from me...  She is so stinkin' cute, even in time out. I just love her. I am thankful God has allowed me to be her momma. Parenting sure isn't for the faint of heart... :)

I also have an incredible burden for the 147 MILLION orphans around the world who have no mom. no dad. no one to call family. It breaks my heart. I am humbled that one day, we will add to our family and help give a child a family. Our child... And what a blessing she will be to us as well... 

We had the blessing of having two Hungarian girls come and stay with us this weekend. Our church has a partnership with a school/Baptist Union in Hungry. There were eight teams that were sent out this summer in Hungry to teach English and share God's love. We had a few come to Texas to work out things for next summer and they brought 4 students with them. 

We had the two girls, one 7th grader and one 5th grader. We got to talk and share the weekend with them and had a great time, but it wasn't until they left that I found out that one of the girls, (let's call her Juliet) was not living with her step mom as she told us but in foster care. Ugh. I can't get that precious girl out of my mind. After learning her mom just up and left and then her father, my heart aches for that precious, little girl. She doesn't have someone whom she can run to and know that they will always be there. She doesn't have a family to call her own. She is a nine year old girl who needs love. And there are millions just like her.

I will never forget her face. Oh how I wish I would have given her one more hug, one more love or one more encouraging word..  But I do know this... I won't forget.  She stayed on my sweet Genevieve's bed to sleep each night and wrapped herself to sleep with Genevieve's blanket. She got cold the first night so she came and found me for another blanket. She played with the boys and ate at our table. But, I wonder will she have a family one day? It grieves my heart. Sweet Juliet...

And yet we know this... He is a father to the Fatherless. 

Lord, 
Father to the fatherless, we pray that you raise up workers today and throughout National Adoption Month. Bless the efforts of all who are serving the world’s waiting children during this time of focus and advocacy.

Homestudy completed!!

Feeling blessed!

We have finished our home study!! Another step closer to bringing our little girl home. It's those small steps that encourage you to keep going. We are now finished with our home study and will be sending off our I-600a form to USCIS.  This is our advanced petition for approval of adopting an orphan. Our boys are so excited about having another little sister and I can't think of better big brothers for our little girl to have than Champe and Eli. 

We are working on our funds for our adoption now. We know God is the ultimate provider and we are trusting in that!! If you don't know it, when my hubby Mark isn't working at the church doing all things visual, (video, web, print) he's doing creative things with wood. He loves being creative. We have opened an Etsy shop and are selling a few of Mark's creations to help with the cost. 

Please stop by! 

http://www.etsy.com/shop/sonofwhale?ref=search_shop_redirect

We are grateful that God is putting us on this journey and are thankful we have wonderful friends and family to share it with. 

We love you!

Melissa

homestudy

We are moving forward. Finally beginning our homestudy.

I say that because we have been waiting a year to even start.  Just too many people on the list. I find it amazing that there are so many orphans who need families and yet, it takes so long to be placed. So many orphans who don't have a mother to hold them or a dad to love them. We just continue to be faithful and walk through the doors He opens.

I'm beginning to realize (not that I didn't know it but it's so different when you live it out) that when we have our daughter home it will ONLY be a miracle from God. My van just happened to break down last week. Never has before. Never needed anything other than maintenance. Yet, as we get ready to do our homestudy and pay for our homestudy, we have a major problem with my car that need seven hundred dollars worth of work. Seven hundred. It's funny, I'm not worried. I know those things will happen. And I know the God who is bigger. It's just money. We believe He gives us everything and He will provide. We would covet your prayers as we continue and finish our homestudy...

Just walking in faith. And so humbled He has called us to this journey.

     ~Melissa

Laughter. Crying. Giggles. Singing. Clapping. Screaming. And mostly, "Mommy!"

These are just a few of the sounds I hear on a daily basis. I adore the sounds of the three energetic  passionate, loving toddlers that call this house a home. That's what it is. A home. It may not be the most organized (although I do love a clean house) or decorated (love that too), but it is a home that is filled with love, laughter and most importantly, is overflowing with God's love. I want it to ooze out of everywhere. I desire when people see me, they see God.  Not for all the things I can do but all the extraordinary things Christ does IN me. And when they enter our home, they know it's different.

I long for the day when people see my three littles, they see three sold-out lovers of Jesus. 

So many people have asked when was I going to start blogging our journey. Well, today is the day. Today is the day I am going to step out again. Step out you say? It's stepping out to me because I love to keep things personal. Why? Probably because I like to think I have it together and honestly, want people to think that too. But with honesty comes freedom. I was sitting beside a dear church friend this morning and while talking to her, I realized she didn't know about our decision to adopt. After sharing and hugging and crying, I decided I am going to start to write it down. I NEED to write it down. And if I end up helping or encouraging one person, then I did what I was supposed to. But also, there are people who want to join our journey with us and we need their prayers. We need their encouragement.

We are adopting a little girl from Japan! We have actually been waiting a year since December 2011 and have received acceptance letter from our adoption agency this past December (2012). We are so very excited and eager to have her join our family. It still looks like a long journey, but we will take the steps God has before us and let Him lead.

So thank you for joining our adventure with us. We are blessed.

Love-

Melissa