A Brother, A Friend

I cannot believe that we are getting so close. Last week we received our soft LOA and we are currently waiting for our hard LOA to arrive in the mail. That should happen any day now and from there, we have 8-10 weeks before we are issued travel approval and can book flights to China. So much is happening right now!

We recently participated in a travel seminar to prep us for the trip, we are currently completing our last 9 hour training on post adoption issues, we are building a new set of bunk beds in order to get the rooms ready, we have turned in our final 10 update questions on Maverick and are waiting for those to come back along with the last pictures we will receive from his foster family. My head is swirling in a million different directions as I think about all that needs to be done before we leave. The reality of it is sinking in and making me excited and a little nervous all at the same time.

Last week, when we submitted our final 10 questions, I asked my case worker if we could find out any information about Maverick's foster brother. I had thought about him a lot since we learned that Maverick had a foster brother back in April when we received an update and the birthday video.  I felt this heavy burden on my heart to find out more about this child as I thought about how Maverick would be leaving him. I wanted to have access to his information in case we ever decided to go back and adopt or at least his name to give to Maverick one day. I was told on Tuesday that they found out that his foster brother was actually matched with a family who was adopting him very soon! This made my heart happy to know this little sweetie was also going to have a family. I had no clue who the family was, where they were from, when their adoption would be complete or what agency they were with.

I decided to try to do a little searching to see if I could find the family who would be adopting him. I am on a FB page with other adoptive families who are all adopting or have adopted from the same Children's Welfare Institute. I decided to post a picture of Maverick and his foster brother to see if anyone recognized him, explaining that I would love to have the boys be able to keep in touch since they were so close. After a few hours, I had no response and decided to scroll through the feed on that particular page. I came to a picture that I had liked the day before of a mom, dad and son on their gotcha day. The picture was from a distance and I could only see a portion of the child, but something in my gut told me this was Maverick's foster brother. I looked a little closer and noticed a few distinct details that I had noticed about him from the birthday video we received of Maverick back in April.

So, I took a chance and sent a message to the family, who happen to be in China right now completing their adoption. Turns out, YES, their son, who they just adopted Monday, is Maverick's foster brother. All of the emotions came flooding into me as I realized what this meant. These boys who were best friends for a year and a half and have experienced so much together, were going to be able to keep in touch once they were home in America. Had God not prompted me to dig a little and post that particular day, or look back at that picture, we may have never known. It was all a God thing!

The family has responded and they are so kind and just as excited. They even had pictures of their son and Maverick together and paperwork that said the boys were best friends. They sent the picture over to me and I sent them the birthday videos that their son is in with Mav. We are all so thrilled for this connection and hope to one day bring the boys back together. We do live far away from one another, but plan on skyping once Maverick is home.

Please pray for both of these sweet boys as one is adjusting to life with a new family and one waits for his new family. I am sure there is going to be moments of sadness as the boys realize they are not together anymore, but what a joy to know that they will be reconnected with one another very soon!

The family also told me that it seemed like the boys were well taken care of and their foster mother seems to be one of the best. That was so good to hear as I anxiously wait to go get Maverick. One of my prayers has always been that he is in a good family who truly cares for him. I can only assume she is preparing him for our arrival.

I am always amazed at how God works out little details and continues to unfold this story in such a beautiful way. I am thankful to know that we now have another piece of Maverick's story to share with him, a precious little friend, who shares a bond and a history with him that no one else ever will. What a gift!

This is the picture that the family sent me of the boys (Out of privacy and respect for the other family, I have cropped the image).. These boys really do love one another. They seem to have been together all the time. Just makes my mama heart so happy! Also, note that the boys are the same age, which shows just how tiny our little Maverick is.

Show Hope...yet again

If you have followed our story since the beginning, you may remember that it all began with another story. God began stirring my heart towards adoption after reading Mary Beth Chapman's (Christian singer, Steven Curtis Chapman's wife) book, Choosing to See. After I read the book, I flipped to the back where it listed the website for the Chapman's organization, Show Hope. One of the wonderful things that Show Hope does is offer grants to families who are adopting to help offset the expense, therefore making it possible for more orphans to be in families.

I opened my laptop and found myself on Show Hope's page. It was like I got there without even realizing what I was really doing. I had a moment of confusion as I stopped and asked myself "Why are you looking this up, you don't have any plans to adopt?" Ha! As many of you know, when you tell God you are not planning on doing something, many times He has it planned for you to do just that. So, be careful what you say!

From that point on, adoption was EVERYWHERE and eventually, God brought both Evan and I to a place where we knew that adoption was exactly what He wanted us to do. You can take a look back at our adoption video from a couple years back by Harmonic Films that recounts some of this HERE (that feels like forever ago).

Fast forward to February 2015. We had been in the adoption process for 2 years and God had made it clear to us that he wanted us to switch from the Ethiopia program to the special focus program in China. We had made the switch in January and were matched with our precious son. His file had little information in it, but, based on a picture in his file, I recognized the orphanage floor as being a Show Hope sponsored floor from a random blog I had run across a while back. Our son was now in a foster home, but I wanted to know if he was ever in Show Hope's care at some point.

I contacted Show Hope, hoping they may have some information for me, but knowing the chances were bleak. I gave them our son's name and birthdate and waited. I received an e-mail soon after confirming that he was indeed in Show Hope's care at some point and they had him in their system. Once our adoption was complete, they would be happy to send us any additional information & pictures that they had of him from his time there. I was so elated and it was yet another reminder to me that God's hand was all over this. You can read that full story HERE.

In the beginning of this process, the thought of raising the funds to cover our adoption seemed daunting. It was a HUGE amount of money and pride got in the way many times as we planned fundraisers. But, God has always been faithful and through our village (that's YOU), He provided EVERY TIME, sometimes even to the dollar amount of what we needed. He was so faithful, that I stopped stressing about the cost, knowing that even if it was slow, even if we had to do a million fundraisers, He had this! All of you have been such an amazing support and encouragement to us through these fundraisers and through your generous giving. You continually blew us away! Thank you!

Once paperwork slowed down, we decided it would be wise to apply for some grants. I always knew that Show Hope would be the first grant that we would apply for because of the history there. So, we filled out our grant application and got it submitted one day before the deadline. We prayed over it and knew that God was in control. My specific prayer was this "God, you know who needs this grant. Give it to whoever needs it most. If it is us, wonderful, if not, we praise you for whatever family is blessed by it." After we did that, I just had this gut feeling that we weren't supposed to apply for any other grants. I often questioned myself as to if that was wise, seeing as how we did still have quite a bit of money to raise. But I just did not feel the urgency to apply to any more.

We were told we would not hear anything for 90 days while the board reviewed applications. We were also told that while many families may qualify, there are limited funds and not every family would receive a grant. So, we waited...

This past Tuesday, I was cooking dinner and baking cookies while listening to the new Asian Dreamland kid's CD that I got from the library that day in honor of Maverick. I like to do little things like that to keep me connected to him. Evan walked in from work and said "We got a letter from Show Hope." My heart stopped. I knew this was going to tell us if we received the grant or not. Before we opened it, I said "God, regardless, you will provide. You know best." I knew I would be ok either way, but the excitement of possibly receiving a grant had my heart pounding. It reminded me of how I felt when I opened college acceptance letters.

The letter was long and our eyes scanned quickly trying to find an answer. Suddenly, Evan's eyes caught it. "We are pleased to inform you that you have been awarded an adoption assistance grant."

AHHHHHHHHH! Tears streamed from my eyes as we read it over and over. Like many times, before, we praised God in our kitchen (there is something about the kitchen) and stopped and told the kids the good news. Around the table, we all prayed and thanked God for Show Hope's generosity and His provision and faithfulness once again.

So, it is with GREAT pleasure to announce that our adoption is now FULLY FUNDED. Over 2 years of fundraising and saving and we are finally DONE! Phew!!!! It has been a long road, but a good road! God has never ceased to amaze me with every fundraiser and every generous person. But gracious y'all, the thought of not having to fundraise anymore...THANK YOU JESUS!

So, what is totally cool about this besides being fully funded? This adoption started with Show Hope, we connected with them in the midst of finding out who our son is, and their generosity rounded out our funding. SO COOL! Only God could work out such amazing details like that! We are so grateful to Show Hope and as always to our Heavenly Father, who has been faithful from the beginning.

To God be the glory!

Your praise will EVER BE on my lips, Lord!

For his heart

Lately, my heart has been so heavy for Maverick. He doesn't know it yet, but my heart is already connected to his all the way around the world. He is my son, and the thought of any hurt or pain coming his way makes this mama's heart hurt too. Yes,  I am deeply aching for and ready to have him home and here with us, but, I cannot stop thinking about how hard this transition of coming into our family may be on him in the coming months. Can you even imagine? Being pulled from everything you have ever known, your language,  your home, your culture, your care givers, your country, your playmates, etc. All the while, you are handed over to complete strangers who look nothing like you and speak a language that you don't understand and you are expected to just go with them. I CAN'T EVEN!!!

Obviously, this is a necessary part of the adoption process. This heart wrenching reality has to play out in order for Maverick to become part of our family, to be an orphan no longer. I long for the day when they hand him over to me. The first time I wrap my arms around him, the first time I kiss his face and sing our favorite lullaby, "Baby Mine" in his ear. There is no way to know how he will react, as every child is different. He may come willingly, he may scream and cry until he goes limp from exhaustion, he may try to get away, he may look around confused but calm, he may rest his head on my shoulder as I rock him back and forth. I will not go in with expectations of how I think he will react. I have to prepare my heart for the unexpected, knowing that his world will be turned upside down in an instant. Knowing that all that we can do as parents is to be there and love him as he hurts, and do whatever we can to let him know that he can trust us. 

I have replayed this day in my mind over and over, thinking about how we will feel, how it could potentially look, but most of all, I think about my boy's heart. Not just in that moment, but over the weeks and months that follow. We will love him well and love him with all that we are, but love isn't always enough. You know who is always enough though, my God! He is enough to heal and restore the brokenness and confusion that our boy may feel. He is enough to calm the fear and hurt. He is enough to pour out grace upon grace on Evan and I as we embrace this sweet boy into our family and learn how to do life with him, how to be his parents. 

Because He is enough, I know that I can turn to him with any burdens I have, and so I am. I am praying for our little Mav's heart now, for God to begin to prepare him to leave what he has known and step into our life, his new life. For him to be comforted and for him to be able to attach to us and trust us. For him to grow to love us as much as we love him.

We have about 6 months until we meet Maverick face to face. I know my nerves and emotions will be all over the place as we get closer. In the mean time, this mama is on her knees 7,682 miles away from her baby boy calling out to the one who sees us both, who knows us both, who created us both and who loves us both. I am so thankful for such a loving Father who carries my burdens for me when I am overwhelmed with what ifs and hard realities.  Psalm 55:22 says "Cast your burdens on the Lord and he will sustain you. He will never allow the righteous to be shaken." What a sweet balm to my sometimes weary soul to know that I am not alone in this, Maverick is not alone is this either. 

My God sees, he hears my prayers, he knows my heart and he knows Maverick's too. He doesn't want either of us to be filled with anxiety or fear, he wants us to give it over to Him, and so I am trying. Trying to trust that he is holding Maverick in the palm of his hand and preparing that sweet little man of mine for such a big journey ahead. As I trust and cast these burdens off day by day, moment by moment, I hope that sweet boy will get a sense of that and find comfort in a mama who seeks God's unending faithfulness, even when times are tough and scary and unknown. 

If you have been faithful to pray for our son, may I ask that you join us in prayer over this next season. Will you pray for peace for our little one, for all of the crazy emotions that he will feel, for him to trust and attach to us in a healthy manner, for the days leading up to our gotcha day. I so appreciate it friends. It is encouraging to know that many of you will be praying over Maverick's little heart as he prepares for this huge change.

Psalm 23 always brings a sense of peace to me when I read it. It makes me take a deep breathe in and as I breathe out, release any anxiety, fear and worry that I may have. This is the verse I think of when I pray for peace to just pour out over Maverick (and if I am honest, Evan and I too). 

Awaiting the Acronyms

I just wanted to take a minute to update everyone on where we are in the process. As many of you saw last week on our FB page, we received our immigration approval notice, which is a HUGE step towards Maverick. This gives us permission to adopt a child from a convention country. We still have a ways to go, but we are taking one step at a time and getting more and more excited (is that possible?) with every day that passes

We are trucking right along, and currently waiting for our Immigration to be authenticated here in the states and then our Dossier will be on the way to China. At that point we will have hit the next BIG step DTC (Dossier to China). This means, your entire stack of important papers with all of your personal information, home study, medical reports, and authenticated documents will arrive in China. From there it takes some time to get a LID (Log in date) which means you are officially logged into China's system. Then comes a fairly long wait (blah!) for your official LOA (letter of approval). This is a big one! If you remember, we received Pre-approval for Maverick back in February. LOA means, it is a done deal! Oh, how I cannot wait to get that letter in the mail. There are a few more steps after that before we receive approval to travel, but we will get to those later. Are all of those acronyms starting to blend together to you too? They used to be gibberish to me and now I am obsessed with them.

While some days are just plain hard to wait, I have to say that God really prepared us for this wait while we were in process to adopt from Ethiopia. That road was so long and many times frustrating, that this road to Maverick and the China process has been, well, kind of a walk in the park in comparison. God knew what he was doing! Of course He did! I think he prepared our hearts well for this stage.

The thought that our son could potentially be home before the end of the year, seems almost unreal to me. I mean, here we are in May already! We have been in this process for only 4 months and so much has happened already. So while the ache in my heart is heavy because we want our son home with us, it is also thankful for how quickly this year will fly by. I kind of have a vision that I would love to see come to fruition. My constant prayer is that I will have all 4 of my kids sitting in front of our Christmas tree on Christmas morning. I can see it in my head. It is my heart's desire! I am praying it can become a reality. Will you pray that along with us?

It does seem that Maverick is in a very loving foster family and this gives us so much peace. Being able to watch his birthday video as he sat in his foster mom's lap and she clapped his hands together as they sang, was good for this mama's heart. It kills me that someone else is caring for my child halfway around the world when I want to care for him, but it really does seem like he is well loved for now. That has been my prayer all along. When I thought he was in an orphanage, which he was for some time, I always prayed for him to have favor with his care givers. That they would truly love him and give him extra care (which is hard because you want all of those babies to be loved and cared for). Then, we found out that he was on the Show Hope floor for some time (which is wonderful) and that he has been with this one foster family for a year. God heard my prayers!

We are excited for all that is ahead. We are trusting God day by day with our boy and with this process. I know He is watching over him even when we cannot. I may be watching his birthday video over and over, just so I can see his little face everyday and feel close to him somehow. I find myself staring at the screen with the goofiest grin on my face. Thank you Jesus for birthday videos and pictures! Here are a few pictures from his third birthday, if you missed them on facebook. Seriously, I am in love!

This is the first time we have seen him smile!

He was showing that he is 3! 

On another note, we are so close to our fundraising goal. I cannot even believe it! This has been a long time coming! We may have one more event later this year to knock this out, but we are in the home stretch! We do still have a few shirts left (some sizes are not available). If you would like one, send me a message and let me know what size and style you are looking for and I can let you know if we have it.

Movie Night Fundraiser Recap

Gracious, I am still trying to recover from the fun weekend we had. Our movie night fundraiser was a huge success and so much fun! Thank you to everyone who came out. We loved seeing each and every one of you. We were so very overwhelmed by the people who came. It was awesome to see family, old friends, and make new friends. As I saw each of you walk through the door, my heart was just so thankful and filled with such humbleness, that God has brought you to love and encourage us and support our family for the sake of Maverick.

While we were initially so sad that the night had to be moved indoors to the YMCA due to rain, I honestly am thankful that we did move it. I think being able to be inside without mosquitoes and sloppy grass was a bonus. Although a couple of us may have turned into popsicles from the A/C being a little too friendly:) God was faithful and allowed our event to still take place, and he brought each of you out that night. He always amazes me...always!

I want to take a minute and give a HUGE thank you to our small group. These guys worked their tails off to make this night happen. They planned it without us even knowing, just to bless us. Their love and support throughout this whole process has been UNREAL! While some of them are actually family members (hey cousins), they are all like family to us. I am reminded time and time again how awesome it is to be a part of an amazing faith community. I am so thankful to be a part of our church, who has supported and loved us from day 1.

To all of the people who volunteered your time to help set up, tear down or work the event, THANK YOU! It would not have happened without you. There was a lot of work to be done and you made it run smoothly. If you baked goodies beforehand, thank you, I gained 5 more pounds!

To everyone who donated a raffle prize, you are awesome! We had some GREAT raffle items. Over 2o items went home with people. I heard compliments about all of them and the winners were pretty excited!

What a night! I think all of the kids had fun and I hope the adults did too! We will NEVER forget this event. Thank you to everyone who bought shirts, food, raffles and just donated. We are so grateful to you!

We came out making $2,350.52! That amount will be added to our adoption expenses for Maverick. God provides y'all!

THANK YOU ALL! Here are a few pictures from the event...

Just 10 questions

We were able to request an update on Maverick a couple of weeks ago. We can only request updates every 3 months, and we are allowed to ask only 10 questions. This is wonderful and hard all at the same time. As his soon to be family, we want to know EVERYTHING there is about him, every little detail of who he is, what he likes, what he does etc. However, we only get 10 questions for now. We'll take what we can get:)

Here is what we found out about our little guy:

• He is currently in a foster home with a family that consists of a mom, dad, grandma and 2 other foster brothers. He has been with this family for a year. This is great news! This gives us hope that he has been every well cared for and is more likely to be able to attach because he has had steady caregivers, family and siblings. With there being only 3 children in the home, we are hoping he gets plenty of attention and love. Hopefully this will help him transition into our family a little easier. This is also hard. It saddens me to think of having to pull him from his foster family. Obviously, they could not adopt him, but they are what he knows as family. This hurts my heart for our boy and for the foster family. I am sure leaving will be very hard on both of them. I will forever be grateful for this family who cared for him. I only wish that I could meet them and thank them. 

• His favorite drink is milk, which if he drinks too fast, will come out of his nose due to his cleft palate. That would be the case with any drink and possibly food. 

• His favorite toy is a scooter.

• He is happy when he gets something that he likes :) (Imagine that!)

• He always shares well with children younger than him and when he is happy, he will sometimes share with children older them him. (Uh oh...with 3 older siblings, this should be interesting.)

• The best way to comfort him when he is upset is to hold him and talk to him. If another child did something wrong to him, it makes him happy if you correct that child. (Sounds like he likes justice. This also sounds like my Savannah who is currently the baby of the family. She and Mav will be only 2 months apart. I wonder how their roles in the family will play out together. We might have 2 spicy littles.)

• He wakes up every morning at 7 a.m. and goes to bed at 8:30 (Sounds like he will adjust well to our schedule.)

• They described his personality as outgoing and strong character. (We can't wait to see how he fits into our family)

It is so comforting to know these little bits and pieces of his life. We can't wait to learn and discover who he is once he is here. In the mean time, these little updates help us to hold on, help to remind us that this is real, that our boy who we have prayed for all these years is out there, and he will be home soon.

New Shirts To Help Bring Maverick Home!

UPDATE: THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO ORDERED. THE ORDER HAS BEEN PLACED. 86 SHIRTS WERE ORDERED, WHICH RAISED $860 TOWARDS BRINGING MAVERICK HOME!


You asked for them, so here they are... New shirts to help bring Maverick home! We'll be traveling to China to bring him home later this year and these shirt sales will help us get closer to our goal of what we need financially to make that happen.

We are offering 2 different shirts this time around because we just couldn't decide. We wanted one that was a basic orphan care message and one that was a little more personal and that we thought all of you fellow Louisiana peeps would like!

So, here are the new designs...

These are 3/4 sleeves and are that same super soft vintage feeling material, like our last shirt. They are unisex, but they run smaller than a typical shirt because they are clingy material, so keep that in mind when ordering! If you are between sizes, you may want to go up in size.

These only come in adult sizes S-XXL.

Shirts are $25 (a little more than last time because they are baseball tees and require more fabric). If your shirt needs to be shipped, please add $3 to that cost. 

We are ONLY TAKING PRE-ORDERS this time around, to save money. So, be sure to place your order ASAP if you want one. We will likely not have shirts in stock later.

You can order a shirt by using the "DONATE" button on our blog's home page. If you are on a mobile device, scroll down on the home page. You will need to click "view full web version" at the bottom of your screen in order to see the donate button on the top left of the blog. If you do not have paypal, you can send a check.

PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR SIZE(S) in the message portion when you pay, along with your shipping address if your shirt will need to be shipped.

We will allow a few weeks for orders to come in to us, before we place our big order. Once the shirts come in, we will let you know and send them out ASAP.

THANK YOU FOR HELPING TO BRING MAVERICK HOME THROUGH PURCHASING A SHIRT!