Moved to Tears by a Good Samaritan

We're 7 days in to our t-shirt fundraiser for our adoption - we only have 3 days left! And I was feeling pretty low this evening to be honest. It was becoming clear that, for whatever reasons, we were going to fall short - quite short - of our set goal.

And then... a complete stranger became my heroine. That's right... not a friend, not a family member, not even an acquaintance... but a TOTAL stranger stepped up, made a kind purchase, and pushed our total to OVER 50% of our goal.

I'm reminded of the parable of the Good Samaritan tonight:

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

"What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?"

He answered: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"

"You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."
 
But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"

 In reply Jesus said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.
So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him.

The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.'

"Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"

The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him."

Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."

Our T-Shirt Fundraiser That Will Help Bring Our Daughter HOME!

Well... here we are. Waiting, waiting, waiting to be matched with the little girl who will be our daughter. STILL. WAITING. We're about 14 months in to what we've been told might be an 18th month or so wait. <Sigh>.  I thought it would get easier, but instead it's getting harder - especially the last month or so. But, hopefully, sometime in the next few months we will get "the call" that will change our live forever!

While we wait, we are working on fundraising in order to pay for our adoption expenses and fees. If you've been following our journey, you know our total adoption cost will be in the $30, 000 range. And, well, we don't just have that kind of money sitting around. So, hence the fundraising ;) For the last few months, I've been selling handmade items to raise some funds through my little endeavor "All for Love Creations" on Facebook. And now....

I'm excited to announce that, starting tomorrow, January 15th, we will be having a t-shirt fundraiser through the company Chrome Buffalo . The fundraising drive will run for 10 days ONLY. For each t-shirt sold, we will be getting $11 to add to our adoption fund!!! There are several designs to choose from and we think they are pretty nice! Here's what some of the designs look like:

We'd be ever SO appreciative of anyone who feels called to support our adoption by purchasing one of the t-shirts. Just go here to see the selection and buy one (or more!).

THANK YOU, THANK YOU for considering helping us to bring our daughter home :)

P.S. The site will be open for purchasing shirts beginning Thursday, January 15th and the sale runs for 10 days.

LID!!!!!!!!!! We are "paper pregnant"!

So... I received the news today that our dossier was logged into the Chinese "system". Which means the CCCWA (China Center for Children’s Welfare and Adoption) -  the official government system through which adoptions are managed - has received our adoption paperwork. YAY!!

This is a HUGE deal!!! Why? Well.... potential adoptive parents are only eligible to be matched with  children with certain "characteristics"- including girls under 2 years old with minor to moderate special needs, which exactly describes the little girl we're hoping to adopt - after they get logged in. And, now we ARE! :)

Theoretically, we could get "the call" from our adoption agency anytime after today with news that there's a child that's a potential match for us.

HOWEVER.... we actually anticipate a long wait until we are matched with our precious girl ....months...  maybe 9 more months. Sound familiar? ;)

Therefore, we are rejoicing that we have hit this major milestone, but are tempered with the knowledge that we will still need a LOT of patience in the months to come.

Why? What now? Well, we wait...we don't know how long....


“The wait is long, my dream of you does not end.”
- Nuala O'Faolin, My Dream of You

Here We Go! We're DTC!

So.... I've been waiting to start this blog until now. This blog is dedicated to our adoption process. We're pursuing the adoption of a special needs little girl from China. We are SO excited!

We've been working on paperwork, governmental approval, etc. for our adoption for several months now. However, on Friday, October 3rd, we were finally DTC -  which means "dossier to China".  The dossier is all of our collected paperwork and approvals. Therefore, all of our paperwork is now in China. Whew!

The next step will be for us to get our LID - "Logged in Date" notice. That will mean our dossier has been entered into the Chinese "system". That will be a HUGE milestone.... because, theorectically, we could be matched with our daughter anytime after that. We still expect it to be at least several months more until that happens - but it can't happen until we get our LID status.

So... I'll be keeping a record here of our process - the journey to our daughter! :)