Our Journey - Fundraising and Travel Update

I can't believe I'm writing this but it's official, WE ARE GOING TO CHINA!!!  

On Thursday we got our Travel Approval AND our Consulate appointment.  After spending 4 hours on the phone with Delta, our flights were booked.  We leave the day after Thanksgiving and will officially hold our son for the first time on Monday, November 27th!!!  I can't even put into words the nerves, excitement and butterflies that go along with that statement.  

We will be in China until December 8th and the idea of being away from John David and Madison for 2 weeks is terrifying.  Anybody who knows me, knows that I have a super hard time leaving my kids and we almost never travel without them. (We have only gone on two weekend getaways since John David was born over 8 years ago!)  We know they will be in great hands with family and friends but please pray for all of us while we are apart during this time.

Your support during this journey has been amazing!   We've cherished all the words of encouragement you've sent us and have saved the notes for Thatcher to read when he is older. 

You guys have raised $4495 to support our family!!!  We are shocked and humbled by your generosity and will be forever grateful for all of your prayers and financial support. 

That being said, we are only about $500 away from reaching our fundraising goal!

SO if you have been praying and God has laid it on your heart to financial contribute to help us bring Thatcher home...NOW is the time to donate.

There are two ways to donate.  One is through the Paypal link located on the right side of our blog (kristen7@gmail.com).  You can also mail your donation to us at 12525 Silver Fox Court, Roswell, Georgia 30075.  

No donation is too small!  Whether 50 people donate $10 or 1 person donates $500, it all gets us closer to achieving our goal.

We are truly blessed to call all of you our friends!  Please continue to pray for us over the next 2 weeks while we finalize all our plans to travel and finally bring Thatcher home!  We will continue to update you guys and plan to share pictures of our journey while in China.  We cannot wait to share pictures of Thatcher in our arms in just a couple of weeks! 

Our Journey - Traveling to Bring Thatcher Home

WOW, the last 2 months have been a whirlwind of excitement, nerves and no surprise...LOTS of paperwork.  I pride myself on being an organized person but ALL of this paperwork is definitely testing my abilities.  A lot of people have asked where we are in the process and when we will actually be traveling to China so we thought we should post an update on the steps we have completed and what we have left to do.  Here it goes...

This is the last update picture they will send us.
The next picture will be of him in our arms!!!

September 7 - Received Thatcher's File (spent the weekend reviewing all of the information)

September 11 - Officially said "YES" to becoming a Family of 5!!!

September 12 - Submitted our LOI (Letter of Intent) to China

September 13 - China granted us PA (Pre-Approval) for our adoption of Thatcher

September 19 - China granted our official LOA (Letter of Acceptance)

September 22 - Submitted our I800A application to USCIS

October 5th -  Dave and I applied for our visas (needed for us to travel to China)

October 6th - I800A was approved and sent to NVC (National Visa Center)

October 16th - Submitted our DS260 to US Dept of State

October 17th -  NVC letter sent to US Consulate in China

October 18th -  Dave and I received our visas from Houston Consulate

October 19th - Article 5 dropped off at US Consulate

November 2 - Article 5 picked up and will be sent overnight to CCCWA


NOW....we are waiting on the CCCWA (China Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption) to grant us TA (travel approval).  We expect this to take 1-2 weeks but we are praying for a quick turnaround!

Once we get TA we will apply for the earliest possible Consulate Appointment and will travel about 2 weeks later!!!  We are guessing we will leave the week after Thanksgiving but unfortunately we can't book any of our travel (flights, hotels, etc) until we receive our official Travel Approval.

PLEASE continue to pray for quick turnaround times for our last few steps...we desperately want to be in China with Thatcher for his birthday at the beginning of December!  Also pray for Madison and John David's little hearts (and ours)...we have never been away from them for more than a couple of nights so being separated for 14 days is going to be HARD on all of us.


Also, I will do a FULL fundraising update this weekend but you guys have been AMAZING!!!  We are seriously blown away by your generosity to our family!  I posted a thermometer on the side of our blog so you can see the progress...we are already half way to our goal!

Our Journey - Adoption Fundraising

Many of you received fundraising letters from us recently and we feel so blessed by the support you have already shown us.  We also understand that fundraising brings lots of questions.  We want to answer some of the ones we've been asked because we realize many of you may also have these same questions.

First, we know money is an awkward and taboo subject.  However, we do not want this to be uncomfortable for any of you.  We realize and completely understand that not everyone is going to feel called to donate and that is okay!

How much does it cost to adopt?
International adoptions on average cost between $30,000-60,000 and about half of that amount is due after you receive your child's referral.  This amount goes to lots of things but some of the biggest are agency fees, immigration, orphanage fees/donations, travel, etc.  What does this mean for us...we are spending about $25,000 over the next 2 months!

What happens if you don't raise enough money?
We recently readjusted our family's budget and cancelled upcoming home projects and family trips to save money.  Beyond that we 100% believe God is going to provide the money we need to complete our adoption.  We know that He hasn't brought us this far to forsake us now!

A couple of years ago we had a fairly large agency payment due and we weren't sure how we were going to cover it.  We prayed about it incessantly and felt God telling us to sell Dave's motorcycle.  Within days of listing it for sale, we received an offer for the exact amount we needed to pay our agency fee.  This is just one example of how God's shown us during this journey that He is truly in the business of performing miracles!

Your ways, God, are holy. What god is as great as our God? 

You are the God who performs miracles; 

you display your power among the peoples.

Psalm 77:13-14      

How can we help?

Pray!  The most important thing you can do is pray for us as we conclude our journey of "adoption" and start our journey as a "family of five."  And then pray about donating.  If God puts it on your heart to contribute toward bringing our son home, we will forever be grateful.

When do you need our donation?
We tried to make donating as easy as possible.  We set up two ways to donate. One is through Paypal and there is a link located on the right side of our blog.  You can also mail your donation to us at 12525 Silver Fox Court, Roswell, Georgia 30075.  While it is never too late to donate, we are hoping to travel in the next two months and all of our outstanding fees are due before then.  If you could have your donations to us by November 15th it would really help.

Can we share your fundraising letter/post? 
YES!!!  The more people that are a part of our journey the better.  There can never be too many people praying for us!

We are truly blessed to call so many of you our friends!  Thank you all for continuing to support us as we finalize everything to bring Thatcher home and become a family of 5.  As always, please feel free to ask us any and all questions you may have.

I thank my God every time I remember you. 

In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy. 

Philippians 1:3-4

We can't wait for you all to meet our son!

Our Journey - BIG NEWS (Finally)

WOW...it has been a LONG time since we posted on this blog. Our journey over the past 4 years was harder than we ever imagined. There were so many setbacks and slowdowns that it just became too painful to share status updates when our hearts were breaking. When we made the decision last November to leave the Ethiopia adoption program and switch to the China program, it was the hardest decision we've ever made as a family.

When we switched programs we also had to practically start the entire adoption process over from the beginning and it definitively tested our faith. I wish I could say I never doubted His plan for us but that would be a lie. I honestly can't even begin to count the number of times I read this scripture...

Trust in the Lord with all your heart 

and lean not on your own understanding; 

in all your ways submit to him, 

and he will make your paths straight.

                                                       Proverbs 3:5-6

God is good! Even when things don't go according to our plans and we are left broken and defeated, HE never leaves us. God ALWAYS has a plan even when things seem impossible and out of reach.  

SO after 4 long years, we are beyond excited to finally introduce our son, Thatcher.

We are frantically working on completing all of the paperwork required to travel and bring our boy home.  We ask for your prayers that all of these steps and processes go smoothly and quickly.  We are so grateful for your continued support these past few years and are excited to share with the you the rest of our journey.