The Princess has arrived!!!

Well everyone, she's here and what a tiny beautiful angel from God!  We stand in awe!!!

TRAVEL APPROVAL!!!!!!!

Travel Approval was received only 4 days after our Article 5 was picked up.  So, we are on our way to bring Piper home!

DEPARTURE DATE!!!!!!!

We are leaving Wednesday, June 25th!!  These past few days have been very stressful!  We now have our flight tickets and are preparing to leave the country.  We will pick Piper up on June 29th.  Lord willing, we will be able to get pictures downloaded to FB or this blog!! 

In the meantime, please be in prayer for the kids who will be here at home and little Jon that won't understand where Mommy & Daddy went.  AND, please pray for Piper to adjust well and begin attachment early with us both.  

Thank you all for your support and love and encouragement!!  Love to All!  

Article 5 pick up!!!!

I am so amazed to be where we are today!!  All I can say is...but God!  Here we stand at the end of our adoption journey and it makes me look back at where we came from.  It was almost a decde ago that The Lord grabbed my heart at a Steven Curtis Chapman concert and showed me the needs of orphans around the world.  I had never considered adoption and our "quiver" seemed very full.  We were on deputation raising support to go to the mission field of Australia.  I called every adoption agency I could find and requested information on every country they served.   Asia was top on my list but everything I read, I knew that we just weren't in a position to be qualified.  We had:  4 children between 10 & 14;  living in a 2 bedroom trailer;  traveling for 6+ weeks at a time to churches sharing our ministry in Australia; & were making about $1,600/month.  I was frustrated and threw them all in the trash.  Over the years The Lord kept tugging at my heart but never did we see an open door.  I settled in my heart that we would not adopt and was wondering what empty nest would look like as a Pastor's family.  We began the study, "Experiencing God" and knew to hold on tight. It was our 2nd time through the study & God did not leave us the same the first time.  When Jeff came home and said we needed to consider adoption, I was not on board.  My fear was that he would want to go domestic and I did not want to go through the chaos that I had seen with friends and their journeys.  Jeff went to see a friend and saw a picture of a beautiful Chinese doll and asked what the story was with this little girl.  David shared with Jeff their journey to adopt Jaelynn and he called me on the way home. It seemed like everything aligned and our lives were about to change forever!!  I can't say that we jumped with both feet.  Fear gripped my heart due to finances and wondered how in the world we could ever afford to adopt a child and especially a child from overseas.  As we started making appointments to check out the process of adoption,  I had only been able to write the "M" of our last name on the application.  We finished the app and took it with us to the meeting in case we needed to refer back to it.  As we were leaving the office that day, I grabbed the app and just left it with them.  No more praying about the what ifs and how's and what do we do.  We left it with CCAI and ultimately left it in God's hands to open or close the door.  We were approved in September of 2012 and off we went on this wild journey.  We had no idea that God had bigger plans than just sitting and filling out paperwork to bring our China doll home.  Jon came into the picture as a pure miracle of God.  What I had said 'No' to...God  said 'Yes'!!  Here we are  21 months later and we have a new 2 year old little boy...Jonathan Benjamin and in about a month, a new 20 month old little girl.  It is amazing what happens when we let God write our story.  Even when we do not know the who, what, when, where and why's ...we know that God has all those answers.  God has provided so much for us along the way. He has provided financially and emotionally and spiritually.  The journey has not been easy and there were days when I wanted to give up....but God! He wouldn't let us and we trust Him fully to bring it all to finalization on Chinese soil.  Thank you all for your love, prayers,  financial support and encouragement.  We are waiting for our travel approval, which should come in about 2 weeks and then we will book our flights.  Piper Jade is not a burden in a heart anymore but a real little girl with hopes of a family and a life outside an institution.  A Mommy and a Daddy to love her and dry her tears and let her know that she is safe, wanted and chosen by God to display His salvation to a lost and dying world.  She and Jon will have a story to tell of their own and I pray by God's grace that He will be at the center of every tale.  We will keep you updated as we complete this journey and pray that your hearts will have been touched in such a way that your life will never be the same!!  When God extends a call...don't waste time fighting Him by questioning.  Surrender and KNOW His blessings....they are out of this world!!  All our love!!!!!