SO CLOSE!!

Hi friends!!

We are so happy to tell you all how close we are to bringing our sweet Luke home!!

We are just waiting on travel approval from China! We are hopeful and praying it will come next week, once we have travel approval we can book flights and travel within 7-14 days! Can you even believe it?!? 

Our lives have changed so much over the last year...beautiful changes that we did not expect. We are so thankful to be back in Boise after gaining lifelong amazing friends while in Montana. We are thankful to be in our home that is closer to work and schools. We are completely amazed that we are ADOPTING...and leaving in a few short weeks! This has been such an amazing journey. There are no words to express our awe in how God has worked out all of the details of our adoption and how you all have sacrificed and given to our adoption-you have donated your money, time, and loved on us through this very emotional time. 

Thank you all, please continue those prayers! Pray that China will issue our travel approval quickly, that flights will be affordable and available, and mostly that our Luke will transition easily. Pray for our other children at home while we travel and our sisters taking care of them!!

Thank you all for continuing to give to us...check out our updated sidebar total!!

We will update soon with our travel approval!!

Aaron and Sarah  

WOW!

Our Both Hands project was on Saturday and it. Was. AMAZING. We were hoping to have between 30-40 people show up to help--but we had 54!!! Everyone worked so hard and just smiled the whole time. It was such a good work to do for Ms. Karen, but I think we were all blessed as much as she was at the end of the day.

We are so very thankful to all of our friends and family that sent out support letters, that continue to share our video to spread the word, and that gave us support as we took on this project. It was a lot of work-but so very worth it. There were bonds made on Saturday and friendships that grew deeper. There was so much joy and laughter. We watched our kids become servants and begin to understand how important it is to think beyond ourselves.

Here is the video and a few behind the scenes shots

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cqxduSs0ISE&feature=youtu.be

And....in other big news-over the weekend another $1400 has been donated via mailed checks to our home.

 I have to tell you all how amazing this is-- we have the orphanage fee that is due no later than 7/7. This fee is $5800. So with the added $1400 coming in, the Both Hands project has completely paid for our orphanage fee (plus a couple of hundred to go towards other fees). We should not be surprised at this point, but again and again I am completely amazed-every time we have more fees due, a way is made to pay them. It may be through donations, through a grant, or through overtime pay, but God provides. Every. Single. Time.

Thank you for your generous hearts, thank you for loving us and loving our boy. We are on the countdown-likely less than 60-70 days until we meet our Luke!!

Much Love, 

Aaron and Sarah

Updated totals

Our Both Hands project is just 2 days away!!! We are going to help Ms Karen's house sparkle, if you want to come help-please contact me through the blog or email or phone or text...etc :)

Take a look at our sidebar--we are so grateful for all of your support! The new total just for our Both Hands project is $4804 (including the matching grant from lifesong)!!! This adoption thing seemed impossible when we started our journey--and with God and all of your help--it became REAL AND POSSIBLE!!! 

Thank you all again so much for your love, prayers and support. 

Aaron and Sarah 

Great News!!

Hello again friends,

We have some amazing news! Our Both Hands project amount is up to $2294!! This is so SO huge for us because, as many of you remember, Lifesong (a grant organization) offered to double what we could raise up to $2000--so just with this project so far YOU all have helped raise $4294!  And we are not even finished yet!! We are getting closer every day and lifesong will continue to allow people to donate to this (remember--tax deductible!) until he is home and the local adoption papers have been filed. ***Reminder to myself and update for you all. I am adding this number in our sidebar total so we have a good update of funds so far**

We are so thankful for your generous hearts, for the love shown over and over to our boy and for the prayers being said daily for him. It is possible we will be able to travel in late July (Aaron always shakes his head at me when I say this--I am definitely a "best case scenario gal") but it is more likely we will travel early August. Our generous families are taking care of our older kiddos and will be in our home holding down the fort.

Please pray for our Both Hands project this weekend, pray that this will be helpful for the woman we are serving and that she will feel love through this. And, as we always request, please pray that our Luke (see the last post if you missed the name change!) will be well taken care of until we are able to bring him home. Pray that he will adjust as well as he can and know we are trying to give him a home, and pray that we will help him through the potential grieving process.

Thank you all again
Sarah

Short and sweet update!

Things are really moving forward for our Both Hands project that is set for Saturday 6/13--the current total raised with this project is $1657 (which will be doubled by Lifesong for a total of $3314 so far!  **Please note I am not updating this to my total on the sidebar as it is increasing daily and difficult to keep track of otherwise**

We are gearing up to serve the sweet woman, Karen, who needs projects done around her house. Home Depot called us this past week offering a couple of gift cards to help with supplies we may need for Karen's home. We are so thankful there are companies out there willing to help put money toward service projects! We are still looking for a company to provide snacks and/or lunch for all of you who have generously donated your time!

We were able to get more news on our boy this week, he seems to be doing well but often asks his

nanny at the orphanage when we will come get him-which totally tears my heart out. We are coming soon, sweet boy!!

Paperwork-wise, we have filed for our visas, filed for Z's visa, and are waiting on more time-sensitive documents to arrive in the next few weeks. We are getting CLOSE to being through with this paperwork and onto being this boy's family! It is no wonder people call adoption a "paper pregnancy" it is uncomfortable and mentally exhausting but at the same time is SO exciting!

We have also had to decide what our boy's American name will be. We have been encouraged by many, including the director of his orphanage who knows him well, to give Z an American name. For those of you who don't know, the name he is using right now is not the name he was given by his birth mother, it is the name the orphanage assigned him. So, his name will be officially changed to Luke!! We have both always loved this name, we love that it means "light giving" we love that it has Biblical roots-just like the names of our other children.

Please continue to keep him in your prayers, that he would be comforted when he is hurt, that he would know how much we love him and pray for him daily. There are times I almost think he is here, even though I haven't even held him in my arms yet. He is already part of us. Please continue to pray for our paperwork to go smoothly and quickly---if there has ever been a time I believe that God hears us it is now. We have had such smooth paperwork so far and although I know God doesn't always answer us in the way we *think* He should, I am so grateful that He has chosen to move this paperwork smoothly so far.  Lastly, we ask for prayers for our dear friends Jonathan and Shawna, they too are on this rocky road of adoption and are currently in Uganda meeting their (hopefully) future daughter. They will not get to bring her home yet, but had a meeting with a judge and are hopeful they will be able to travel back soon to get her. Every country's adoption requirements and processes are so different and this is the way Uganda has chosen to carry out adoptions for their country. So please pray for all of their hearts as they leave their sweet girl and pray that they would be allowed to go back soon to get her and bring her into their family.

--Sarah

Again and again we are amazed!

***UPDATE! The totals you see in the sidebar DOES NOT include our both hands project--it was proving to be very difficult to keep the numbers for that straight with the doubling from Lifesong and funds still coming in. I will update that part onto the sidebar after our project! Thank you!!!**

We have had such a busy but amazing week. First of all our Both Hands project is rolling and we already have $1209 in donations!! This number will be doubled (up to $2000) by the grant from Lifesong. We are beyond thankful to all of you who have shown such love in helping us serve a widow and bring our boy home.

Another pleasant surprise-Titus checked the mail yesterday and brought it to me-i opened a letter from a grant organization called Families Outreach--and in it was a grant check for $1000!!! I have applied for many grants-and the paperwork on them is a little grueling-but we are so very thankful to have received this one from Families Outreach and the matching grant from Lifesong!! 

Our last bit of news--we have HARD LOA!! This is a fancy abbreviation for a paper that China sends after reviewing my our dossier-the title is "Letter Seeking Acceptance. This is China's way of asking if you actually approve of the child you are matched to. We signed that piece of paperwork so quick and had it back at our agency within a couple of hours! This is BIG news in the adoption world!! For many people travel is just 8-10 weeks away! We are praying that God will just continue to work everything out for us as He has so beautifully so far.

For now, please please continue to pray for our sweet boy. We are so excited to hold him in our arms-but the reality is, he will face the loss of everything he has ever known when he comes into our family. Please pray for the rest of our paperwork to go quickly (mostly visa stuff and Chinese travel approval at this point.) Please continue to pray for our Both Hands project to go well and that we can show love to the woman we are serving. We are so grateful for everyone's support!!

Much Love

Aaron and Sarah 

A little reflection

We are so happy that our Both Hands fundraiser is already off to a good start! Just a reminder-this project involves helping a sweet lady do work on the exterior of her house that she is no longer able to do. We are asking for support while we do this-in the same way someone may ask for you to support them to run a 5K or play golf to support a good cause--only with this you are supporting a good cause (our adoption!!), helping a widow, AND it is tax deductible! 

We have had $492.20 donated to this great project. We are so thankful for those who have already donated to help bring our boy home, prayed for us, and asked how things are going. Your words of encouragement and love hold us through the tough times and we can never express how much it has meant to us.

Recently in a discussion with other adoptive parents, there was some concern that those who help support adoptions don't always have the "inside information" about what the adoptive parents are doing to help raise money, which can lead to confusion on why the adoptive family is asking for donations but not sacrificing. We want to be very open and honest about this, you may not be interested in this part-but indulge me so I feel that we are being transparent with all of you. Aaron is picking up overtime whenever he can-lately he has been working 12 hours extra per week-sometimes night shift, sometimes day shift-whatever he can get. I was also working extra October-Feb (full time instead of part time) but Aaron's overtime pays much better than my extra hours-so he has been working more than me since Feb. We do not have cable TV, we have cut our grocery bills drastically, only go out to eat for VERY special occasions (we did go out on Mother's Day and it was SO NICE!) and I have been trying to buy things from second hand stores or garage sales. But--through all of this-we have actually learned we don't need that much!! Many things I used to buy were actually luxuries and I didn't realize it.  

Through this process we have also had clarity in our giving. I have had such appreciation for every penny that has been donated. So sometimes, we may only be able to give $5-10, but we have tried to be more intentional about giving at the opportunities presented. So thank you all for helping us learn this!!

Enough rambling, we will leave you with some sweetness...please continue to pray for our sweet boy that we can't wait to hold!!