Partnering With Us

I believe prayer and support are vital elements of every adoption that we have experienced.  The pressures and stresses begin with the first application and continue until we return home.  (Honestly, they are a part of life, but increase substantially during the adoption process.)  We enter into every journey with eyes wide open.  We understand the strain this will cause emotionally, mentally, and financially.  We do not take any of this lightly.  However, we also truly believe that we are following God’s design for our family.  We have experienced firsthand the tremendous blessing waiting for us on the other side of this journey and the privilege of loving His children.

When we began our latest journey, we knew that we were committing to a big leap of faith!  We were going to bring home a little boy that spent the majority of his life (6 years) in an orphanage.  We also discussed the fact that we were determined NOT to leave 2 boys at home for the FOURTH trip to China!  China is a part of our family’s life.  We talk about it, watch shows about it, read about it, and dream about it.  We knew that if we were going to China again, the boys were coming with us.  We also realized that our girls had never truly experienced China.  Kaitlyn was too young to remember much of anything.  Meilynn was in Guangzhou for the entire trip, add to that the emotional upheaval, and it wasn’t much of a memory-maker for her either.

We agreed that the only way we were going forward with this next journey was to include our Bigs and Middles on the trip.  That was asking a lot, as we knew the price tag would increase exponentially, but God came through and we secured a home equity loan against all odds.  The deal was sweetened with the knowledge that a full of week of our trip will be spent in Beijing!  I cannot wait for our kiddos to experience the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, Olympic Square, and the Hutong Tour!  Our parents have agreed to take turns caring for the Littles while we are gone.  They will be a handful, but both agree that they can handle them for the 3 weeks.  All 6 kiddos would be WAY too taxing, so yet another reason that they need to come with us.  We also believe that this will help to introduce Greyson and Kristyn into the idea of family.

Life always throws curveballs though.  We had a hornet infestation at the end of summer and needed to get it taken care of as well as our house sealed.  Our water softner gave out (apparently the one we bought 10 years ago was only rated for 4 people… hmmm… who would have thought we’d have 8 in the house), so we are owners to a new high-efficiency close to commercial-sized water softner with a hefty price tag.  Then there’s our little girl.  Of course, I had always hoped and prayed that we would be bringing home two this time, but this means another orphanage donation, higher fees, and a longer stay in China.  I KNOW that God ALWAYS provides!  I also know that we need to do our part.  I have written for two grants.  One is a Show Hope Grant (Steven Curtis Chapman).  The other is the Lifesong grant.  We were awarded a matching grant last adoption and this helped with the cost.  We will most likely not hear anything as to whether we have been awarded these grants or not until the end of March.  

After much thought and discussion Mark and I have decided to put our house on the market!  I know it is crazy, but as we look around we could use a bit more space and ESPECIALLY more bathrooms!!  We love our current house and it will hold us but it will be really cramped.  We have a couple of options that could work for us better with the number of people that we will have, but we leave it in God’s hands!!  

We can really use your help!!  You can help us by:

• PRAYING!!!  Pray that God could bless us by receiving the 2 grants.  Pray for wisdom and discernment in our housing decision. 
• Adoption Fundraiser – I am planning on starting an adoption fundraiser regardless of us receiving or not receiving the grant from Lifesong.  Once we hear back from Lifesong, we will officially kick off our fundraiser.  We applied for a matching grant through Lifesong and if awarded, this will allow donations to go even further!  Even if we do not receive the matching grant, we could still have an account set up where any donations to our adoption could also be tax-deductible.  This will allow us to keep track of all of those who helped to bring home Greyson and Kristyn.  We will use the money towards the two orphanage donations.

Thanks for all of the support you give us!  We couldn’t do this without you!