Welcoming ONE such Child~

Matthew 18:5~

"And whoever welcomes ONE such child in my name welcomes me."

I began this post last night and just didn't know where it needed to go...

so I put down the top on my computer and went to bed.

Today we all went to church and I just had an undeniable feeling it was time to try Evie in her class.

~She's been home 13 months completely coccooned with me except a time here 

and there with my mom or Rosie here at home.

~She asked to go last week.

~Needed to give her a chance to see I ALWAYS come back!!!

Honestly she screamed her lungs out at first but in one minute it was over 

and she was playing with Mills (volunteer) and a baby doll.

I stood right outside the double doors the whole service just in case she needed me... 

she stayed the whole time and when I went to get her I found her~

 Perfectly fine having a snack.

When she saw me she lit up like a Christmas tree and yelled,

"You always come back???"

YES! I AWAYS come back! Forever!!!

Why was it such a perfect day for Evie to try her class other than she was ready?

The sermon...  

It was JUST for me!

Perry preached the scripture we have inscribed on our tshirts... 

the one at the top of my post~

Matthew 18:5~

"And whoever welcomes ONE such child in my name welcomes me."

Such an amazing sermon and One everyone could grow from hearing.

Sometime this week please visit http://newspring.cc/ and watch!!! 

As I listened I kept hearing the words Welcome One in my heart.

Anyone who WELCOMES ONE such child...

What does Welcome mean to you?

Our Welcome is adoption.

Maybe Welcome means advocating for orphans.

Maybe your welcome is praying for orphans, waiting families, adoptive families/children already home.

Maybe it is welcoming One through adoption or foster care.

Maybe Welcome is finacially supporting an orphan needing care, surgery, or an education.

{Friend Blog Posts you HAVE to read!}

~Crazy Life of the Wilks Family

~One Love, One Family

The Bible gives us a clear insight into Welcome~

James 1:27~

 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: 

to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Day before yesterday someone shared another video of Holly eating soup with her orphanage mates.

I can tell you I have watched it about a thousand times.

I of course screenshot some photos and have looked at them a thousand times too!

Two things I learned about our sweet baby...

1. She is left handed and

2. She has the sweetest dimple ever~

SHE is our ONE we will be welcoming home very soon!

Since we logged in on February 10 our dossier is making its way through the process fairly quickly and we are looking ahead to travel.

As with all of our adoptions, we have always trusted and obeyed God's lead to bring home each of our children.

We haven't come to them with a giant savings acount ready to take care of all the fees...

 just hearts full of faith.

Once again we come to the place where a large sum will need to be wired to China and to be honest we have no idea where it will come from.

We ARE sure God knows and will bless our obedience to trust Him.

In anticipation of Spring we are offering another beautiful color for our ONE tshirts... Canary~

 I really love it!

You can order it by clicking the Buy Now button on our sidebar.

Our sales have been very steady and we are so very thankful!

This has been a great fundraiser to help bring sweet Holly home.

 

Back to Welcoming One and how you can specifically bless our Holly...

 

~Pray for God's providence 

~Buy a tshirt

~Donate any amount by clicking the Donate button on sidebar

{You can't outgive God and He is sure to bless immeasurably More than we could ever imagine.}

 

The Bible says in Ephesians 3:21~

 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

  We have no idea how God is going to bless this journey to Holly but I can tell you we are excited to see His miracles bless One home to her forever!

LID for HollyMei~

Our dossier went to China Jan 23rd and we were hoping it would be Logged In before Chinese New Year.

It wasn't but~

If there is one thing learned during the adoption process, it is to

Wait and believe timing is always God's perfect will.

CCCWA opened last night our time and I was anxious to hear if we had a LID {Log In Date}.

We received an email from our case worker confirming we were indeed LID TODAY, 

Feb. 10, 2014~

Now we are in the official LOA {Letter of Acceptance} wait now.

We are thinking our travel will happen sometime middle to late June.

In celebration of this awesome news,

we are adding a new shirt color to our fundraiser~

a beautiful watermelon color!

I wore mine today!!

You can order a shirt by clicking on the Buy Now button on my sidebar to the right.

Thank you again for helping us bring our precious HollyMei home!!!

 

DTC Today~ {HollyMei}

On August 1st, 2013 we began our journey toward HollyMei with an application to Lifeline.

Our timeline so far~

• Started Second China Adoption Using Lifeline 8/1/13
• Home Study Started 8/4/2013
• LOI Letter of Intent Sent 8/8/13
• PA (Pre Approval) 8/22/13
• Home Study Completed 10/15/2013
• I800A mailed 10/24/2013
• Fingerprint Appointment 11/29/13
• I800A Approval 12/19/14
• DTC Documents to China 1/23/14
• LID (Logged In Date)
• RA (Referral Acceptance)
• I800 Approval
• NBC-Cabled
• Article 5 Issued
• TA (Travel Approval)
• Leaving for China

 Today our Dossier went To China~ DTC!

Now we are waiting to be Logged In... about 2 weeks.

This precious photo of Holly was taken by another mom picking up her sweet one @ Holly's orphanage...

just one of maybe 5 that we have already.

I did send a care package today hoping to get an update in the coming days.

With this HUGE step closer to our baby, please consider a tshirt 

supporting our travel costs to her probably in May or June~

You can order using the link in the sidebar for just $20 including shipping.

Your support means the world to sweet HollyMei and her forever family!!!

Our Chinese New Year celebration just got a ton sweeter!!!

Stocking Stuffers~

Thinking our tee shirts would make a great stocking stuffer this Christmas so please get your order in~

 Easy to order using the sidebar Buy Now button~

 Thank you to the all the people already wearing One shirts~

You are a BIG blessing to our family!!!

Speaking of Christmas, Evie asked... 
 'my friend Santa bring my baby?'

I said yes on Christmas 
{even though she has NO concept of when they might occur}...

still this was her reaction~

 Sweet wonder of Christmas time!

Growing Whole Hearts today.
 

Thankful Day 18 {Rosemary}~

I could NOT be more Thankful for Rosemary! 

She wore her One tshirt to school today... Cute!~

I'm also Thankful for the time she spends with her little sisters and brothers... 

sitting in the floor teaching them thumb war. :)

Order you shirt today! Blessings!!

SO sweet!

 

Thankful Day 10 {HollyMei}~

One of the hardest things about adoption is wondering what your baby does each day, 

if they're well, and what they look like.

For the past few weeks I have wanted a new glimpse of our girl and have had so many people ask if we've had an update.

Updates are hard to come by and usually pretty pricy but we definitely pay for one after LOA~ 

we're not even close to that yet.

All that to say, I have needed a new photo and guess what?

I am in a group on FB of other moms with children from Holly's orphanage. 

Just like most other adoptive friends, we are instant friends and sharers of all info concerning our children. 

I have certainly been blessed by them!

Last week I got a message that someone had been online searching Chinese websites, 

found a collage of children from Handan City SWI,

 and a beautiful child's face was the first one.

My new friends were convinced it was our baby!!

OUR BABY!!!! 

A glimpse of our sweet baby Holly!!!!!

 First photo I ever saw of her along side new one~

 Newest photo we have of her along side new one~

I'd say pretty confidently, she's our baby and isn't she beautiful?

LOVE that smile and her eyebrows take my breath away!

Just what this mama needed during this long wait!!!

Where are we in the process?

We received our fingerprint appointment with USCIS on Saturday and are scheduled for that on Dec 3rd.

We're making progress and for that we are very Thankful!

We are also super Thankful for our awesome t shirt sales so far~

We mailed our first batch Friday late and my sweet friend Lyn posted this pic on IG Saturday~

 What a sweet sight to see!

My littles were thrilled to see their friends wearing shirts to help bring their little sister home.

What a testimony shared and also another blessing to be Thankful for.

I am Thankful for every single person who has ordered, thought of ordering, or just donated to our adoption.

Our precious HollyMei is greatly blessed by each you and one day I will tell her ALL about how well you loved her even before you knew her.

Sounds a lot like how Jesus loves each of us too...

more than we deserve and better than we could imagine.

Blessings and love to all!

1 Cornithians 13:13
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. 

But the greatest of these is love.

Love Adopt T Shirt Update~

We are very happy with the donations from t shirts so far~

 We have one big change to share~

Shipping will now be included in the $20 donation fee 

{I have refunded everyone that has ordered so far}

unless you are out of the US then I will invoice you the shipping cost.

Please consider sharing our link with others everywhere on your blog, twitter, facebook, IG, etc...

Your support is a great blessing to our family 

and a little sweet one waiting for her forever in China~

HollyMei is ONE of God's gifts blessed by your donation.

Ecclesiastes 3:11
He has made everything beautiful in its time. 

He has also set eternity in the human heart;  

yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

Thankful Day 4~ {Will Perry Day}

Two years ago today we met our first son Will Perry @ Shepherd's Field and it was love at first sight~

 Barely three years old with so much love ahead of him!

He was a little handful in China with a temper and little fits but fast forward a year and just look~

{First WP Day}

 All smiles and no eyes. :)

WP is the sweetest, kindest, most sharing kid I know.

When anyone needs something he has, he does not hesitate to give his away.

He has fit right into his new family and continues to do so well.

Here he is today on his second WP Day~

 Isn't he looking older?

He has grown up so much since Payne and Evie came home.

Stepped up into his big brother role SO well.

I can't explain the connection he has with them.

It seriously is as if they have always been together.

He and Payne are best friends for sure and he protects Evie with a gallant fierceness.

November is National Adoption Awareness Month and was the perfect month to bring home this sweet boy.

SO Thankful for this amazing son!!

In case you missed it last night, we have revealed our

 Love Adopt One t shirts.

Please consider supporting our adoption with a donation for one.

{see our sidebar to order}

LOVE that Amelia wore her shirt today and sent me a pic~

 Thankful for my Bigs loving their Littles!!!

 

Thankful Day 3 {Orphan Sunday}~

Today I am SO thankful for my beautiful children~

Bigs and Littles alike!

They are my heart walking around outside my body...

the VERY soul of why I was created to be on this earth!!

I ADORE each one and live to show them!!!

Today is Orphan Sunday...

On Orphan Sunday, Christians stand for the orphan. We are a people called to defend the fatherless…to care for the child that has no family…to visit orphans in their distress.

As I pondered how to share my heart concerning the orphan I thought of David Platt's quote...

“We learned that orphans are easier to ignore before you know their names. They are easier to ignore before you see their faces. It is easier to pretend they’re not real before you hold them in your arms. But once you do, everything changes.” – Radical by David Platt.

 I want to share our little faces before we knew each other and how everything changes~

Shuang Jiang~ EllaKate

Jing Jing~ ShayleeJoy

Minzhong~ Will Perry

Qingying~ Payne Curtis

Wen Fan~ EvieClaire

Qiuhan~ HollyMei

{Still waiting for her forever}

Maybe you have prayed or thought about adoption in the past...

 more than anything we want to encourage you to reach and pursue your calling.

We would LOVE to be an encouragement to you and support your journey along the way.

It is not an easy road or even a popular one but I promise it is blessed beyond measure.

Over and over we have experienced God's provision to bring home our children.

Maybe you aren't called to bring ONE home but we are all called to take care of orphans.

There are lots of ways you can bless ONE...

~ finacial support for a family waiting to travel

~ Sponsor ONE waiting for a family

~ Help with a surgery needed by ONE

~  Sponsor ONE that may never have a family

~ Pray for the ONE47 millon orphans in the world

Nothing speaks louder to the plight of the orphan than scripture~

 Isaiah 1:17

Learn to do right; seek justice.
    Defend the oppressed.
Take up the cause of the fatherless;
    plead the case of the widow. 

James 1:27

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

In the past months as we have felt God calling us back to China once more for HollyMei,

He has given me another scripture as encouragement for our journey...

Matthew 18:5

And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

ONE...

Love ONE, Adopt ONE= Support ONE

Today seems like the perfect day to reveal ONE way you can support our family in bringing home sweet HollyMei.

 Love Adopt ONE tshirts~

 I think my Favorite thing about these shirts is they reflect every single place on Earth that is home to an orphan.

No matter if a child is from North or South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, or Austrailia...

This shirt represents their plight.

Each ONE is loved desperately by the ONE that loved us first.

Wouldn't you love to share your love for adoption by wearing this shirt?~

 We have several colors and come in every adult size~
{Kid sizes too!!! S, M, L, XL}

 You can order with a comment here, an email, a FB message, or going to our Paypal button in the sidebar.

We are asking for a donation of $20 per shirt with a shipping cost of $2.

Please know we will do our best to get your order filled as soon as possible.

We are Thankful to share this ONE shirt on Orphan Sunday and pray God's richest blessings for each and every ONE of you!!!