I needed to hear this truth today. 

I admit, I'm a bit discouraged.

In our journey, everything is on hold because we don't have enough funds raised to send our dossier to China.  We are $1856.00 short.

The sooner our dossier gets to China, the sooner we get our referral (see our son)

As we wait, so does our little boy.  Waiting is hard; yet I know and pray for my heart to calm, because God's timing is perfect! 

My praise for today is that I've had people encourage me, including our social worker who knows my heart and said the right words today that gave me courage to have more patience. 

You can check out my FB site, and also our instagram @theprairiemama

We appreciate that you are following along, it means so, so much.

WAITING TO SEND

Today, I received the email that our dossier (paperwork that goes to China, so we can get our referral), just got AUTHENTICATED in Washington, DC and is back at global headquarters just waiting to go to CHINA.

Our reality:   We are short in our fundraising campaign and do not have the money we need to send our dossier off.

I admit that today was a bit difficult as I struggled through my joy of hearing the news that our dossier is ready to go and yet the reality sunk in that we don't have the money raised to send it to China......

Our immediate need is:  $2556.00

Then, as I was pondering on ways to make money, a friend came into my store and bought two adoption t shirts ($40 raised!)
Then, I had a customer give ($10) to me for our adoption.
GOD is so good.

It's amazing how what people may consider little contributions can actually make a HUGE difference.  We are so very thankful.

This next step is so hard to be patient for, because once our dossier gets to China, we are ready to be logged in for our referral, and that just makes this much harder to wait.   Please pray for these next steps.

I'll be selling items from my home and store this next week (for my local friends), stay tuned.  Lots of great items will be on the rummage sale site.

We still have adoption shirts left, so let me know if you still want one.

Thank you for following along our incredible journey to bring home little Gus.

Praying to see you

For you, our little one:  we pray.

We believe that God has brought you into our hearts because He knows of our desire to welcome you into our family and love you, beyond borders.  

Although we have not yet met you face to face, we pray that God connects our hearts to each other each day that we await the moment we hold you forever.

I find myself dreaming of the day we first see who you are.  It's hard to wait.  Are you a little baby, a toddler, or bigger?  Do you have lots of crazy hair or no hair yet?   Do you like to be held?  (your big sister cannot wait to hold you).

Do you like music and lego's (your big brother can't wait to play with you). 

There are so many anticipations for your arrival, so we keep praying.  

Family & Friends

Please join us in praying for our little one.  

We don't know what his needs are, but pray we are prepared to provide the best care for him.  Pray that God prepares us all for our first meeting.   Pray for the orphanage where he is, and for the caretakers.  I can't imagine the care involved in so many orphans.  Pray for forever families to adopt them quickly.  

We are waiting to send our dossier off to China.  Praying for provisions to come through.  

-Sara and family

The phone call

Today was the day we had "the phone call".  It's a conference call with the China team and its purpose is to go over the "openness list".  What is that?

It's a list of special need conditions that you are asked to check a YES or NO or Willing to discuss box.    It lists things such as brain conditions, missing limbs, cleft palate, blood disorders, autism, down syndrome, and on and on.  It's tough.  

You are basically asked to "chose" your openness to such.  This is the 3rd time we've had to go over this, and this call was to confirm those decisions as YES or NO.   Bottom line:  It SUCKS!
We will love our child unconditionally, without a doubt, but this form is asking us to chose special needs in a way that determines which children we will get referred to.   

I ask any of you reading this to continue to PRAY over all the waiting children.  Pray for our little one, and that we will have a peace in knowing that THIS child is the one God brought to us.

May His plan unfold according to His will.  "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord...." Phill 4: 5-6

Stay closely tuned.  

The wait is on

We are waiting.   

How our adoption process works is that every step we are now taking is leading us to a:  referral.  This means that once our (dossier), documents we just completed, gets sent to China,  it gets translated and authenticated and reviewed.   This takes about 3 weeks.  After that, we are ready to get matched with our child.

Our files get assigned to a team that will go through all the waiting children and they will "match us" with a little boy.  

However, we cannot get to this point, until we have the money owed, raised.  We currently need:  $2556.00

Our paperwork will stay at the global headquarters in Michigan until the money is raised.  This is hard, because we want so badly to see our little boy.  Who is he?  Who has God chosen for us to be son, brother, grandson, nephew and cousin and friend?

Current Fundraiser:   We are collecting TENNIS SHOES( teen & adult sizes ONLY) .  We get money raised by the weight of the shoes we collect.  If we collect 500 shoes, we could raise $750!  This is HUGE for us.  Please consider donating.  Shoes must be clean, good condition.  We have a drop box at my store, or you can contact me and we would be willing to come and collect them from you.   If you have a unique way you can help us collect, please do!   The more it weighs, the more we raise.  

We  only have 5 more weeks to collect 10 boxes or 500 pair!  We need to have shoes put in U-Haul style shipping boxes (extra large).   If you want to purchase a box and put it in a location to collect for us, we would gladly come and pick it up.    

Thank you for following our journey, praying for us and our little boy, and supporting us.   

Soon, we will be able to see his precious little face.  

Waiting for our referral

Where we currently are:
Our dossier (paperwork to China) will be sent off this week and goes to Michigan to the global agency where it is reviewed.  It cannot be sent off to China unless we pay $3100 that is due for this part of the process.
It's very hard at this point, because we cannot get our referral (picture and file of our little boy) until this amount is paid.
Today, I woke up to a message on our go fund me account that said we had just received a donation of $530!   Praise God.

We long to see a pic of this beautiful little boy we dream of calling our son and brother.  As I looked back on what we've raised from the start of this journey, I saw God's work at hand because up until now, we've had all the money raised through fundraisers and the generosity of many people we call friends and family.

Please continue to pray for this entire journey and pray for our little boy.  We cannot wait to hold him in our arms.  We feel like we are finally getting closer to seeing him.  We trust that the funds will just show up when perhaps we least expect it.  God is capable no doubt!

Thanks for following.

Stay tuned.

Another Approval!

To catch everyone up on what's been happening with our journey.   For the past few months, I have been working on gathering a multitude of paperwork to complete the requirements for our dossier:  which is all the paperwork so we can be registered to adopt in another country.

The last thing I have been waiting for so our dossier can be sent off to China is our next approval called the 1-797 which officially approves our 1800-A application.  Are you confused yet?  (:   

I called to check on our status and after getting a recording most times, TODAY I talked to a real person!   She said that our 1800-A was approved yesterday.  Our official approval letter (needed to complete our dossier), is on it's way to our mailbox.  

Our petition has been accepted by our government, which is awesome news.

What's next?

It's exciting, because now we get ready for our referral.  Once our dossier packet is sent to China and reviewed, we will have a long conference call with the China team to go over our special needs openness form (which goes through all the medical needs and such that our child could potential have) and we have a detailed discussion of what our specific openness is for our child.  It will be a tough phone call, but for us, we totally trust in God to prepare us and prepare our little boy for what is best for everyone.  It may seem odd to some that we are asked to "chose our child's special need", but it's just how it has to be in this situation where the children are in orphanages with many unknowns.   We have to trust what we know we can best provide for and commit ourselves 100% to his needs and care.  

Once we are "matched' with a potential child, we have 24-48 hours in which to access his medical care needs and review it with a our medical team.  

 This is an exciting, but cautious time, as you are making a decision on who will be this child you will call your own.  Can you believe it?  Soon, we could be sharing with you a picture of this precious boy .  Amazing to think about.

We ask our friends and family to PRAY.  Pray for us as we make this decision.  Pray for all the waiting children.  Pray specifically for our little boy, that we will have peace in our hearts and know he is the one meant to be ours.  

I'm also on Instrgram now, for quick updates, so follow me on:  Instagram/theprairiemama