Wednesday, August 27, 2008

very old posts-#2

AGAIN, READ FROM BOTTOM OF POST UP


Buy supplies early!
August 19, 2007
You'd think with all the money worry we've had with this adoption that I would have thought ahead and been buying supplies for months! Wrong! Big DUH to me! Please learn from my mistakes! Buy something every week with your groceries. You wouldn't believe what all that children's medications, adult medications, travel stuff, gifts for the orphanage, nannies, etc. cost when you start buying it all at once. I went off another experienced mom's packing list to write down everything I needed and went to four stores in two days and spent a small fortune! I came home last night with a big knot in my shoulders from the stress of spending so much and woke to the beautiful gift of another donation for what I'd spent the night before!! GOD IS GOOD!! And I thank the people that have helped us so much!!!
People don't realize how hard this journey is and without the help of others, whether it be financial, emotional support, encouragement, words of advice, everyone helping to make our trip possible by watching our children at home while we're in China, and having a great adoption agency, there's no way we could do it. We thank everyone. It takes a family to raise children and we're very grateful that we have a family that realizes how important our little girl is to us and are helping us bring her home.
We realize we're having to ask several people to take time out of their lives, take financial risks; we know the inconvenience this is for so many people, and I can't tell you what it means for people to understand how important this is and how instrumental they are to bringing this new member of our family home. We are very blessed. :)




WE GOT A GRANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
August 17, 2007
Well, all my late nights not being able to sleep had me up to 2am last night but I woke to a beautiful message this morning, WE GOT A $4,000 GRANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my gosh!!! I can't believe it! We're soooooo excited and grateful to God, we needed this so badly!!! Just when things were seeming so bleak, God comes through again. You'd think I'd learn by now, huh? I can't thank God and Gift of Adoption enough!! We pray to get TA (travel approval, maybe this Monday) and try to travel August 30th.




Come on TA!! Mama's got to sleep again some day!
August 15, 2007
Ok, silly me, I started adoption thinking, wow, won't it be neat to start my daughter's life without the exhaustion of just giving birth??? HA!!! I haven't slept in months and it keeps getting worse! I guess there are good points, did you know the internet works much faster at midnight?? Sleeping pills you say? Ha again, my body laughs at such amateur attempts to sleeping! Who knew one's mind could be so occupied with things such as 'hmmmmm our update said Kaylee was a big girl, I wonder what size diaper that equals out to??' or 'I wonder if those smaller outfits we got her will fit', 'I wonder if she like hats or those hair clips???', 'I can't wait to sing to her the same songs I sang to my boys when they were little and crying.....' The thoughts go on and on, I thought I'd share with my fellow moms. :) Plus maybe staring at a computer screen will be mind numbling enough to make me sleep. :)




A history lesson for me on Kaylee's first days
August 05, 2007
I decided to give myself a little history lesson of what life was like the day Kaylee was born. I wanted to find out for myself if her name meaning 'rain' went with the weather the day she was found. It did. From closer inspection of our papers and internet research, I found the following, she was found the opposite road of Shi Jie Town Home of Respect for the Aged in Dongguan City on July 22, 2005. The doctor decided her date of birth to be July 20, 2005 due to physical results and development information. She seems to have been named at the orphanage. I wasn't able to find weather history for Dongguan City but found it for nearby Guangzhou. Below is a website address for the weather history for Kaylee's day of birth.
The day our daughter was found, it rained for approximately 7 hours straight. From noon until 7pm. I have to think that somehow her mother must think of her on similiar days. ***update, Kaylee's Chinese name meant 'watches the rain'***




So close and yet so far...
August 03, 2007
So close and yet so far....
It's hard to describe the feelings you have at this stage, it's a mix of all kinds of feelings all at the same time. Our TA (travel approval) could be days away or just a few weeks away. On one hand, it can't get here soon enough; after seeing her little face the other night, that's all we've thought about-getting to her; on the other, knowing the finances are still needed, I know a little later could be better. I just keep praying for grants. It's so hard waiting and knowing the waiting could be for nothing (in regard to the grants), we've applied so many times before and not received them, of course with our new financial hardship, we could be qualifying much better for them now. I hope these recent hardtimes will be outweighed by the blessing of badly needed grant money. I'm hoping the hard times we've been experiencing these last few weeks were all part of God's plan to help us get to China.
There's no magic words to say to people to ask for help, I think I've tried everything I could think of already, several things more than once and from a different angle. :) It's not that I think we deserve the help as much as I know She deserves us getting there as soon as possible. She's been through so much in her short little life, I just want to start making her life better. Put a smile on her precious face. :)
Sorry, I just got to rambling tonight, I know so many other families are in our exact same spot and my prayers go out to you as well for God to help us bring our babies home. :)
Blessings, Charlotte




Possible Kaylee sighting!!!!!!!!
July 26, 2007
Below is an email I just received from a family in China now!!
Dear Charlotte-
We are in China now, coming home tomorrow. We got Zeke last Monday, and had an unexpected free day today. Our guide was able to arrange a visit to the orphange. They did not allow us to tke pictures of any children. But they took us in one room full of babies. The nanny was holding one little girl, and said that was Zeke's best friend. I'm almost positive that was your Kaylee! I touched her little hand and looked in her eyes, and so wanted a picture of the two of them, but no luck there. The ladies told us that Zeke and his friend (does her name mean "raining"?) used to push a cart through the halls! He is a very happy boy, and I'm praying that Kaylee is too! I showed my husband her picture on the yahoo group, and he also thinks it's the same girl. I hope this brings you some comfort. I know it's not as good as having her in your arms yourself... SHe was very quiet during our visit, but that could be because Zeke was wailing up a storm and freaked her out! Again, we're not 100% sure, but we're pretty sure. Please keep me up to date on your travel.
God bless!

me----Oh my gosh, even the thought of this being her brings so many feelings to surface, I've read the email over and over! We've heard several translations of her Chinese name to mean rain!!




LOA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
July 17, 2007
We received our LOA today for Kaylee!!! (for months she was known as Maegan, if anyone missed my post, hubby and I went through a lot the last two weeks and on our road back we decided to get us back on track TOGETHER our first step, naming our daughter together). :) DH and I with the boys are very excited. God only knows where the money's going to come from, I mean that literally; but I've learned a good phrase from my friend, 'God take the wheel'. I know after everything we've been through in the last few months, and an especially hard time recently, God has a plan and I need not worry because He has it all planned out. :) I wanted to share my joy, the first I've had in weeks. :)





More dreams of Maegan
June 24, 2007
I dreamed of Maegan a lot last night. I dreamed of Glenn and I sitting in a room and them walking her in to us. Her hair was long (something that won't be true due to the tradition of them cutting the younger children's hair short for easy maintenance) and she was short and chubby. lol :) She made me smile immediately though. This child in my dream looked unlike any of the children I've seen in pictures. She was dressed in layers, a little dress and a little white sweater that was too big for her. I remember picking her up, trying not to scare her since she won't know me as I know her. I again looked in her mouth to check her cleft palate (as I did in my other dream of her), I guess in my subconscious, it must be the protective mother in me wanting to check her health. I remember being over come with emotions but trying to hold back tears.
The other dreams I had related to her last night were about myself surrounding myself with things I'd consider for her, Strawberry Shortcake sheets, etc.
I always try to write these dreams down so I don't lose them. When I was pregnant with Jaycen, I dreamed of a child that had his exact physical characteristics, hard to do consider he was born with almost white blonde hair and Glenn and I both have darker blonde/brown. :)




God has been teaching me
June 23, 2007
If God has taught me anything this last month, it's that I'm not in charge. I thought the approval process was done and we had that beat, He taught me different, I thought I had the funding sewn up with those grant applications, He taught me different, I thought I knew when we'd be basically traveling, He taught me different, I thought I had a clue! lol He taught me different. He taught me, the hard headed child I am, that I have to leave everything in His hands. I was reading recently that those that renounce their sins (even our good inteneded ones to be in charge) and pray for His mercy, receive it. I tell you, I put the Bible down right then and there and asked for forgiveness for trying to lead this journey. Our intentions are pure of heart and are obeying His commandment to us to care for His orphans. I believe with all my heart (even though I of course worry) that God will bless us for this. :)




No celebrating quite yet
June 22, 2007
Just got a call from our agency. CCAA (China's Adoption people) reviewed our case again last night while we were sleeping. According to our agency's China representative, they expect to be able to obtain our final approval this Monday morning, Sunday night while we're sleeping. Please don't let up on those prayers quite yet. They expect no problems but we're not celebrating until we have that final approval. Thanks for sticking through this with me.




Our God is full of mercy!
June 19, 2007
Of course we still don't have a 100% answer yet but our agency just emailed me that their China contact now feels very confident that she will have us a 100% full approval by this Friday with no further problems!!! PRAISE GOD! Of course we're still praying 24/7 till we know for sure but this is a wonderful update! :)
Our God is full of mercy for this servant that has grown very weary on this journey..... :)




Please continue praying
June 17, 2007
It is already Monday morning in China. Our agency hopes to have a final answer this week. Please continue praying for us, we know God is all powerful and His plan will be achieved. Please continue to lift us up in prayers as we await His answer for our adoption.




God is in control!
June 14, 2007
Friends thank you so much for your prayers! They mean so much. I've of course thought of nothing else since we heard last night and one thing has rang true. Why would God want this to happen, to put this extra step in front of us? He knows me, he know that when I need him most, I reach out for help from everyone around me and share his witness of what he can do in our lives. He knows the best way to reach his people is by examples of his love and what better example would this be? When I am scared, I have strength to reach out to people about God that I normally wouldn't be brave enough to.I pray daily and try to lead a Christian life but I'm not a daily Biblereader, yesterday I felt a strong need to do this. I've always openedthe Bible and read where God has me land to see what he has to teach me. Yesterday he opened the book to the story of Ester. I knew the story but never knew she was an ADOPTED ORPHAN who later saved her people because of the love and strength she had from the family that raised her. I didn't understand why God wanted me to read this except for the adoption part but an email helped me to see something I had not thought of. We are bringing these children home to Chistian homes to be taught to follow God. Who knows what God has in store for them? We are yet vessels in his plan and have nothing to fear because we are following his plan.I believe God wants me to reach out to my fellow Christians for helprignt now. I have a peace about this, I know God will reward us forour following Him through this journey. I've got to keep this faith.I know God loves us and the journey has not been for nothing. Iappreciate these prayers as I am praying 24/7 myself. I am trustingGod with all my heart.
God is with us, we have nothing to fear!!




WE NEED YOUR PRAYERS!!!!!!
June 13, 2007
Ok, here's the situation, China is at 80% at approving us for our adoption. They are being forwarded the documents that were used to obtain our PRE-pre-approval the end of last year. (for those of you not familiar, China placed new restrictions in place May 1st, we were logged in March 27 but the new rules would restrict us from adopting there, the pre-pre-approval was obtained to make sure they would approve us) We need your prayers now more than we've ever needed them!! I KNOW God has the power to move this mountain of red tape to bring our little girl home but I need your help, please help me in praying to Him for our approval and being able to bring our little girl home.
We've come a long way and I know God is in charge and can make this happen! We should know a definite answer hopefully by next week, in the mean time, please forward this email to anyone and everyone who would pray for us. You all know how dear this child is to me. PLEASE PRAY WITH ALL YOUR HEARTS!!!
Thanks, Charlotte

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