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!!

Happy Birthday Sweet Boy!

Yesterday our boy turned 4. It was so bittersweet. It was good to know this is his last birthday without a family, but sad that we couldn't celebrate it all together. But, without going into too much detail in a public forum, we were able to hear his sweet voice and see his sweet face. I may have almost ugly cried when I heard him say "I love you Mama." There was no greater moment in our adoption so far and we are so thankful. He speaks more English than we were expecting. His nannies at the orphanage seem amazingly dedicated to easing his transition.

We feel like we are getting so close to having him home. We are waiting on on our "Letter of Approval" from the Chinese government--if timelines stay about the same, we should have this around June 15-at this point the ball really gets rolling again with paperwork.

In the meantime, we are rapidly approaching our Both Hands project date. Some of you will be getting letters in the mail explaining this further. We are so excited to be helping a sweet older woman while fundraising for our adoption. We will be helping her work on her home with painting, staining, and landscaping on June 13. We have already had some donations to our account for this, and we are so amazed and humbled-thank you to those who have donated!
Our goals for this fundraiser (besides the obvious raising funds for our adoption) are to help this woman with some needed home repairs and show our children and others how good it is to help others and to bring more awareness to adoption and just have an overall great day serving and talking and laughing. This project is an amazing opportunity for us and we know we will look back on it feeling proud of the job we did, but in all honesty, this project is a lot of work--so anyone in our area willing to help with the planning and day of service, please let us know!!

Please continue to pray for our boy. We are so thankful for the care he is receiving and pray that it continues to be good until we can get to him. Pray for our paperwork to be processed quickly and without problem. Thank you all for your love and support. We are getting closer!!

--Sarah

Sweet boy...

We are getting closer to our boy every day! We are still waiting on the Chinese government to approve our dossier paperwork. It typically takes around 60 days from the time it is logged in so we are hoping to have that approval around June 15. The waiting is hard, but we are staying busy catching up on things around the house we neglected while we were so busy gathering our dossier and with fundraising the last $15,000 we owe for the orphanage fees, our last agency fee and travel to pick up our boy.

We have been so thankful to get another email with pictures, a video and an update of our boy. It makes this wait easier knowing he is living in a clean facility and really-as far as orphanages go-he is in a good place, but obviously, it isn't a home or a family. 

Our boy opening his birthday box

Thank you to all of my friends who ordered t-shirts from us as part of our fundraiser! My sister and her husband are gracious enough to take on this project-and I LOVE them so much! I love that they signify our boy coming home to Idaho. They should be here soon and then I can start delivering!

We also have our "Both Hands" project is in the planning stages. We are so thankful to have found a woman who will help us in this fundraiser-she is gentle and kind and has some things on her house that need done that she is unable to do for herself. We are excited to be able to help her and she in turn is helping us bring our boy home. We are looking for people who want to help us serve her. The date is set for June 13, we will be washing windows, trimming hedges, painting trim, staining porches and railing among other small projects. We expect this to take about 4-5 hours at the most. We are happy to have all ages help-this is a great community outreach, while at the same time a great fundraiser to bring our boy home!

As always, we are so thankful for your support-your prayers, your love, your kindness, and financial support. We are constantly in awe of how much our world and perspective have changed over the last 7 months.

-Aaron and Sarah

Family

I brought some of the teens from church to a youth rally in a town near my parents house this weekend and all I can think is how thankful I am to have family. I am sometimes overwhelmed at how much we have-how much Aaron and I have always had-just because we have a family. Love. Security. Honesty. Advice. People who actually care about what is best for us. 

We want to be this family for Z. It completely boggles my mind to think that he actually doesn't know what family is. He has nannies that care for him in the orphanage-and I am so thankful for them. All of the information we have points to a well run facility with children learning and being active. But this sweet little boy who is turning 4 in a couple of weeks has never experienced a family. He has people who have taught him good things, but he had never known the security of a brother and sisters and parents and cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents who will always love him, always want him, and always care about him. Even when he is an adult-we will love him and call him and ask him about his struggles and find interest in his hobbies and his life-because we are his family.

I can't wait to show him little by little that we will never leave. That he will never "age-out" of our family. We cannot wait for him to be here with us, to be part of us. Come home soon sweet boy. 

Our paperwork is still going smoothly,we are still hoping for August travel. We have a "both hands" fundraiser project scheduled for June 13. We need volunteers! We will be working on a widows house while raising money for our adoption--this is such a wonderful program and a chance to give back to our community. Please contact me if you are interested in volunteering a few hours of your time to help both an orphan and a widow. Most importantly, please continue to pray for Z and for us. Pray for his continued safety and for our process to be smooth so we can bring him home as quickly as possible. Please pray for our continued fundraising efforts. And please pray that someone else will be affected by our story and soften their hearts to a sweet little one who needs a family.

We are so grateful to all of you--

Sarah

We have an update!!

We got an update of our boy on Thursday night with pictures, a video, and a report on how he is doing in his orphanage preschool! These little snippets into his daily life are so good for our souls. Things are still moving right along and we are so thankful for that. We will update again soon with our update on our Both Hands project.
In the meantime, keep praying for this sweet little face and for our paperwork to continue going smoothly so we can kiss this sweet face as soon as possible!!

Much Love,

Aaron and Sarah

Matching grant!!!

In my last post, I referred to a HUGE BLESSING--a matching grant....here is a little update on this! We applied through a group called Lifesong for Orphans and are so excited that they have offered us a grant up to $2,000!! This is HUGE news for us, this could make such a difference in helping to fund our adoption and we are so grateful for organizations and supporters like you all that are fighting for the babies out there that don't have parents and the families that desperately want to bring one or two of these sweeties home. I can't think of a better mission in life-and I hope to advocate for organizations like this both now and after we get Z home. Here is a link to their website for anyone that is interested http://www.lifesongfororphans.org/

So, how are we going to raise this money to take advantage of the matching grant? We are doing what is called a "Both Hands" project. Here is a short explanation of this amazing opportunity from the Lifesong/Both Hands organizers:

Our family finds a widow in need of help around her home. We assemble a team of friends to complete a Both Hands Project. Then the team (including us) sends out letters to family and friends asking them to sponsor us for one day, as we work on the widow’s home. All funds received will go toward our adoption expenses. It’s just like asking someone to sponsor you for a 5K race.

Here is a short video clip that gives a good explanation as well (get the tissues ready).
https://vimeo.com/threadandfilm/review/102788071/7a509a4f3d

They have already sent us a paypal button that you will see on the sidebar of our blog =====>>>
It is set up so any donations made through paypal with this button go directly to our lifesong/both hands project--which means any donation you make is tax deductible AND it is doubled through the grant we have been awarded!  

I know this may seem like we have already asked of all of you. And you are right, we have. But, we will never stop asking for what our boy needs. We already feel the direct relationship parents feel to their children-no matter how they come into the family. We will fight for him and love him and give him every opportunity we can.

Again, we are so thankful and proud of all the people we know who have shown love and support and prayed to help us on this journey. We are halfway to being fully funded for our adoption and we know this is a direct reflection on all of you who are fighting for a child who has no home, no parents, no family. We are so joyful to be able to be this for him in 4 short months, but we know we have not done this alone.

A little reminder of the adoption timeline

Some other BIG news from just today---we have a "log in date" or LID for our dossier-today 4/15/15!! This is such a big deal because it is one more step of China combing through our dossier and hopefully soon approving us so we can get our visas done and get to travelling so we can hold this boy in our arms and show him what family means!!

A few pictures to share with all of you before we sign off...we are so proud of how our older kiddos have handled all of the changes and sacrifices we are making as a family. We could not love them more....

Abby made Titus a birthday cake- so sweet!

A paper Hallie brought home from school--makes me have a little tear!!

Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!

You guys! This is the best email week EVER! Look at this email that is so beautiful I want to kiss it!!!

Is it not so beautiful?!? Seriously, I feel like we have been waiting on this day for so long-SO much hard work and tears and some of my sanity  have gone into these documents. We. Are. THANKFUL. So thankful to be on this journey, thankful that we have already been blessed by this little boy, thankful that we have been able to grow and realize how *great* the need is for adoptive parents, and thankful to see the support of our families, friends and community to get our guy home!! 

So, where do we go from here? Our next steps involve more paperwork for immigration and fundraising. We got another email this week (I told you-best email week EVER) and have been awarded a matching grant through lifesong and the permission to do what is called a "both hands" project. This involves helping a widow while raising funds for our adoption. We are so joyful to have this opportunity-a chance to live out James 1:27-to care for widows and orphans in their distress. If any of you know of a widow in the Boise area who could use help with projects-house painting, yard work, building a wheelchair ramp, ANYTHING--we would love to hear about them and consider them for our project. 

Again, we are so thankful for you all-for your love and gentleness toward us and our little 3 (almost 4!) year old boy half a world away. We want to bring him home as quickly as possible and are doing everything in our power to make it happen! Please continue to pray for quickly processed paperwork and for Z's every day well being and for him to feel loved and secure until we can get to him and bring him HOME!!

Much love--

Aaron and Sarah

Joyful in hope...

This has been my verse the past few weeks-I have set it on my phone lock screen, I have prayed it over and over when the stress is heavy.

 And today-I have so much joy!! Our final piece of our dossier arrived at our door. Getting Aaron's birth certificate properly authenticated has been time consuming. It has eaten up 2.5 extra weeks that we were not anticipating. But every day, I have had to remind myself that God is seeing our needs, He already is taking care of us and our adoption and actually my worries and anxiety don't help things move any quicker :)

So as of today all of the dossier paperwork is out of our hands, it will finish the review process, go to China, and be translated. 

So, friends please keep praying for the paperwork to be quickly reviewed and accepted by the Chinese government, pray for our boy to feel loved, and pray for our fundraising. We have had more donations and we are more grateful than we can ever express. We also

Got a call this week from a grant organization-we are being considered for a matching grant and a project where we could do community service for widows in the area and seek donations from companies and individuals for the project that would be later granted to our adoption fund-it is called a "both hands" project by an organization called lifesong for orphans. If you have time, look them up-they are an amazing organization.

Thank you again for the prayers, keep them coming. And I am keeping our donation totals updated on the right side of the blog (read in web version if you can't see it). Thank you for helping us make this all possible

Much love

Aaron and Sarah 

 https://purecharity.com/aaron-and-sarah-johnsons-adoption

Paperwork dance...

 Most of our dossier is officially done at the Chinese embassy and at our agency for review!
The one hold up has been Aaron's birth certificate. For whatever reason, the state of Oregon certified it wrong. *sigh* So it was sent back to Oregon and is now back in Washington D.C. going through the secretary of State (again) and the Chinese Embassy (again). But every day we are getting closer to bringing home our sweet boy! 

We are praying to have our dossier completely reviewed by our agency and submitted to China within 2 weeks. By all calculations I can find, this will likely give us a travel date of late summer.

Chinese embassy seal....so intricate!

We have been so relieved to have some contact with Z's orphanage and see updated pictures. The new information they sent us gave us updated measurements and he appears to have grown a lot since the last measurements! I am a little worried a few of the shirts I have bought him may be too small! They also sent us the sweetest video of him opening our first care package-he finally received this package 2 weeks ago-it was sent back in November!!

We continue to ask for your prayers for his safety and for our paperwork to go smoothly. We are getting much further in this process, but there are still several steps with immigration to get through before we can travel.  We also ask that you pray for Z specifically as he will likely have to be moved from the smaller orphanage and everything he knows, back to the much larger orphanage he was in as a tiny baby. While we know his basic needs will be met in this larger orphanage, it will not be his familiar caregivers or his familiar bed. It is likely they will not move him until just before we are able to travel to pick him up, but we know this will be another loss for him, and our hearts just hurt for him.

Thank you all for your continued support and prayers. We are continually amazed how smoothly this adoption process is going and how much we have learned about the love you all have for one sweet little boy who has a family waiting and loving him until we can hold him tight. Much Love, Aaron and Sarah

Adoption Auction

I am just now getting time to update you all on our auction. It. Was. Amazing. Out goal going into this auction was for people to have fun, celebrate Adoption, and break even cost wise-if we made a profit to go towards our adoption fund, we would feel blessed. If we didn't make a profit for our fund, we prayed someone else would show interest in adopting an orphan.

Let me tell you, this was beyond our dreams. It was fun, we saw friends from all aspects of our lives-work friends, our

kids school teachers, church friends and people were bidding on donated items, eating spaghetti, making necklaces, and having their pictures taken 

We had SUCH a fun night. And we had so many friends and family members helping us that we didn't even stay too late cleaning up!! 

The hot items of the night were probably the t-shirts and the chalkboard art. 

We are SO amazed and thankful for all of the help we received, for the generous supporters that came, for the donations given by people who couldn't attend, and for everyone showing love to our sweet boy. 

And... OUR GRAND TOTAL AMOUNT RAISED.... $3211!!!

I cannot even believe I am typing those numbers right now! 

My sister is working on more t-shirts and chalkboard art--so you will hear more about that soon if anyone wants to put in an order. In the meantime, we are feeling the love you all are sending and want to again say THANK YOU. The love being shown for our sweet boy leaves us speechless and teary. 

And...a few updated pictures!!!

Much love, Aaron and Sarah

How are we?

I feel like when we got the call about Z back in October, I had NO IDEA how we would make this work, how we could possibly afford to adopt when the cost was greater than my typical yearly paycheck? I have worked part time for years (on the days Aaron is home) to offset our living expenses, but how in the world would we double that AND have someone to take care of our kids? I should have known then, but I really didn't have to figure out anything. God has completely, undoubtedly taken care of these details and we are so beside ourselves.  We have both been able to pick up extra hours at work, our sweet Abby has helped out so much with her brother and sister when she needs to, our friends and family have picked up my kids from school. People have texted me on days when I needed it the most just to ask how we are doing and if we need anything. We have received random, unexpected donations in the mail, change jars that people from church and friends have filled and given to us, and paypal donations from friends around the country and even Canada! We have friends and family helping with our adoption auction and dinner this Saturday. Our boy has been loved by others since the day we first made all of this public. So, here we are again, so humbled and thankful.

There have no doubt been tears (lots), and long day of paperwork, and unexpected delays. There have been days I just didn't know if I could fill out another grant application. But, those long days are always tempered with the love our family and friends show us again and again.

So, thank you all. Thank you for showering us with love and joy. Thank you for supporting us when we are feeling the pressure, thank you for helping us see that it will all be worth it once our boy is home. Thank you for talking about him and knowing that he is a real boy, a helpless little three year old boy who does not have a family yet.

So, the next opportunity is our adoption fundraiser. Please consider coming if you live in Boise and let me know if possible how many in your party (so I can cook enough food!!).
For those who have asked about a way they can donate AND have it be tax deductible-we have chosen a new option (long story-the first option we chose had higher fees and a minimum donation amount and time frame). We have decided to use purecharity. This fundraiser is set up to go to our adoption agency, so we only wrote in the amount that would be paid directly to our agency. We will still have travel expenses and orphanage fees, etc but this would be another HUGE step into funding our adoption. https://www.purecharity.com/aaron-and-sarah-johnsons-adoption We have already had a very generous donation to this account and we are grateful beyond words

Here are a few pics of what is to come at the auction! We have had so many wonderful donations-it is going to be so much fun!

In other exciting news, we got an update last night and Z looks like he is being well taken care of until we can get him. We are so grateful for this. We will update more on this next time with new pictures of him as well!! Thank you all again so much.
Aaron and Sarah

What a week!!

This week has been one full of ups and downs. As you saw in my last post, our immigration approval arrived-which meant we could get our dossier mailed to the courier. The courier then takes this whole pile of paperwork to the State Department in Washington DC, then to the Chinese Embassy-also in Washington DC for the "sealing process."  The State Department verifies the prior certifications on our documents-basically they put their stamp on it saying we are not big liars or forgers. Then the Chinese embassy says "YES! ADOPT YOUR BOY!! (as soon as you jump through 4 more months of government hoops)"  Long story short-we had a major potential setback on Tuesday night after our agency emailed telling us there was a potential problem with an extra staple (yes, you read that right, a staple) on one of our documents. The Secretary of State here in Idaho had attached an extra page-which meant there were 2 staples when there should have been one and the letter they attached was not supposed to be attached to the exam form. Without going into long boring detail that only those of us in this weird adoption vortex love to chatter about-the potential problem turned out not to be a problem-but it was a harrowing 16 hours of waiting to figure out the problem on Wednesday morning. Moral of the story-extra staples are bad on government paperwork.

In exciting news, we should have our dossier back to us by late next week, (insert HUGE SIGH OF RELIEF) we then can review it (again), send it off to our agency and then it will be reviewed there, sent to China and translated! From the point it is logged in the Chinese system-we have what seems to be a 4 month wait of more paperwork and fund raising before we go bring our boy home to his family-to the home and people he has never known but who love him already.

We do need your help and support. Please spread the news to anyone you know about our adoption auction, please invite people and above all please pray that God will be used to open all of our eyes to see how very much we all have in this country and how much we can give-not just to our family and our specific adoption-but to all of the children out there who have never had a home, who don't know what it is to have stability, food every day, to be snuggled into bed at night.

Thank you all so much for your love and support-and see the sidebar! We have had more donations from our change jars that we deposited last week into our adoption account. As always, we are grateful and overwhelmed by your love and prayers.

Immigration Approval!!!

We received this beauty in the mail yesterday

 

 

This is the little teensy piece of paper that has been holding us up for the last few weeks and I am so excited to hold it in our hands! This is basically the US immigration department stating we can adopt a child from China. We still have a couple more immigration steps to go through- but this was a big one!!

 

Tomorrow, Aaron will take this document to the Secretary of State to have it certified and then Tuesday, after we say a little prayer, we will send our dossier to the courier where it will be taken to the US Secretary of State then the Chinese Embassy. It is a little freaky to mail off a huge pack of paperwork that has been consuming our every free moment and thought for the last 4 months, and trust that the courier and agencies will take care of it (and possibly hold it like a baby for me and sing it a little song) and get it back to us as soon as possible.

 

These steps are expected to take up to 4 weeks, then it will be sent to our agency for review, translated, then off to CHINA!!! We still have several months to go until we hold our sweet little man, but we are so VERY thankful for things progressing and for the prayers said by everyone for our sweet boy to be safe, to feel love, and to know we are coming for him.

 

We still have not gotten the update from the orphanage that was requested in January. We are so disappointed as we were hoping for some new pictures and an update on how our boy is doing. Unfortunately, our agency can only make the request--whether or not the orphanage accepts the request and gives more information is not in our control.

 

In the meantime, continue to pray for speedy processing of documents, continue to pray that we can meet our goals of completing this adoption with little debt, pray for our upcoming adoption auction (that's March 14 for all of my Boise peeps!), and continue to pray for peace as we go through the paperwork, applying for grants, and preparing to bring our sweet boy home who has never known a family.

 

Much Love to you all.

 

 



Immigration

Short update, we were finally able to get our fingerprinting done last week. So now, again, we wait. We should be getting immigration approval this week or next and then our dossier can be routed through the government authorities, translated, and on to China. It feels like we have been waiting on this step forever...but this is just the way the adoption process goes apparently.

A member of the facebook group (thank you Mandy Rae!!) I am in made this little graphic on the adoption steps--so, for anyone interested-this is basically what we are going through. There is light at the end of all of this--and our boy is worth the wait! We are basically on step 5-but it seems steps 1-4 are some of the most time consuming since we are already matched with our boy. We are still hopeful for mid-summer travel!

 

 



 

  We also did a lot of prep in getting the bedroom ready for Titus and Zhen to share. We painted the walls and ceiling and got the bed ready to put the bunk on top. They may not share right away-as with any new child coming into a family, we will take it as it goes and just try to meet everyone's needs as they arise.

Thank you all again for your support. Please keep praying for our adoption auction on March 14.  And, as always, please pray for our boy's safety and for him to be loved on. Pray for continued forward progress in our paperwork so that we can go to him as soon as possible.

 

Much Love,

Aaron and Sarah

 

 

 

 

Create change...

We tried to walk in early for our immigration fingerprinting earlier this week.... but apparently, Idaho stopped allowing early walk-ins for this. Womp-womp. We were bummed, but we have our fingerprinting appointment on Tuesday. So, we won't be ahead of schedule like we were hoping, but I am trying to remember, we are exactly on the schedule that God has already decided on. As much as I think I want control of this process, I don't have control. And realistically, I am human and would probably mess something up--so I will choose to be thankful that I don't have to be in control and have everything figured out.

We are still gearing up for the great Adoption Auction fundraiser! My sister-in-law is super creative, and had the great idea to make some necklaces to sell at our auction and online. Here is a little sampling of what we have been working on.

These necklaces! They come in several sizes, I am wearing the larger size in this picture. It is a map of China with a heart over Z's province.

 These are a few of our other creations. There are maps of Idaho, Montana, some vintage prints and a few other options. I think they are adorable! There are some up in the etsy shop my sister-in-law has started and the rest will be at our auction. So exciting!!






In other news, the weather has been beautiful! The kiddos and I took a little bike ride to the park and had such a fun time. It is so amazing to think that soon there will be one more sweet boy with us. Soon, this sweet boy will know what it is to be part of a family, to be loved, to have siblings who adore him and, I am sure, occasionally irritate him. He will learn that sometimes family won't always agree, but we will never leave. He will have extended family, friends, and church friends who love him just the way he is, who want to see him succeed and encourage him to love and be loved.

We also had more friends donate change jars and check/cash donations to our adoption fund. We deposited another $326.81 today!! Again, we are so humbled and so thankful. One of my favorite quotes I read this week is this
"The world may not change if you adopt a child, but for that child, their world will change"
We are so very thankful for all of our generous friends and family that want to see this sweet boy's world change.

Much Love,
Sarah

Immigration!!

I have never been so excited to be fingerprinted in my life!! We got the notice in the mail today that we have an appointment to be fingerprinted by Immigration. This is so exciting because this is one of the steps to the US Immigration giving us permission to adopt from China. After we are fingerprinted and have the appropriate permission (which usually comes about 2-3 weeks after fingerprinting from what I understand) then we can send our dossier to the rest of the required government agencies then off to China!

After our dossier goes to China there are still several more government required steps. But this will at least get us one step closer to our boy. We are likely looking at late summer travel to go get Z, but I am still praying for early summer! 

Our agency also let me know today that our update has been requested from the orphanage, but they are often slow to respond. She said it is oftentimes more than a month before they get a response...so we (not so patiently) wait. And pray. And wait. And pray.

We also have had a few donations from companies to our adoption auction that will be taking place March 14! My friends, sister, and sister in law have helped me so much in this! We have 4 roaring springs tickets, a Texas Roadhouse gift certificate, 2 months to a great Boot Camp, some fabulous necklaces including some handmade and some from the adopt shoppe, a cake/cupcakes/goodies from the amazing local bakery Amaru among other things! This is going to be amazing!! So all of you mark your calendars-March 14 at 5pm!!!

As always, thank you friends for all the love. We have more change bags to take to the bank the next time I have a day off. I have people ask me about our sweet guy at work and at church, and friends that call or text and ask me how things are going. It means so very much to us. Z is constantly on our minds, but to know others are thinking about him, loving him, and praying him means more than you will ever know! Thank you all! In the meantime, pray for continued speediness on the part of USCIS (immigration) and for our dossier to smoothly be pushed through all of the agencies and on to China.

Much Love,
Aaron and Sarah

Adopt Together

Adopttogether.org is a non-profit agency that is willing to team up with adoptive parents to help ease the financial burden. They provide a tax deductible way for families and companies to help bring orphans home. This is good news because we want people to have the ability to have a tax write-off for every dollar they donate! Our profile can be seen at https://www.adopttogether.org/aaronandsarahjohnson I will warn you...you may see a picture of one of the most beautiful 3 year old boys I have ever laid my eyes on. :)

We also have some "general" timelines for our boy coming home. It sounds like it will most likely be an August homecoming for our little guy. We were initially SO hopeful that he would be home by May or June, however if our adoption goes on the "typical" timeline it will be late summer.  However, I would encourage you all to still pray for it to be sooner and that all barriers to paperwork and the various government "hold-ups" for paperwork would be smoothed out and we would be able to go get our boy and hold him in our arms just as soon as possible!

As always, we are so very grateful for everyone's prayers. I find myself staring at Z's picture through the day and wishing he was sitting on my kitchen counter while I make dinner just like my other kids did when they were 3, or helping me put the laundry soap in the washer or sitting beside me while I read him a story. I can't wait to hear him chattering to me in the car or watch him play with his brother and sisters. So many memories to make! We are coming soon, sweet boy!

Happenings...

The tellers at the bank are beginning to know our faces, and this last week when I went in to deposit more change, the teller excitedly asked how much I was depositing this time.  I am so excited to tell you through change jars and another paypal donation from our amazing friends and family, our adoption savings is up another $274.41!! To see the small steps toward a HUGE goal adding up is so humbling. We are forever grateful to those donating change and extra money they are setting aside for our boy. We could not do this alone and we are increasingly aware how much we need and appreciate your emotional and financial support. We are both working extra hours at our jobs (which we are extremely grateful for) but the extra pennies and dollars that people are donating are so appreciated.

In other exciting news, we FINALLY have our homestudy complete...

Aaron was able to pick up the finalized, notarized copy this week. We had been waiting on this homestudy for so many reasons-to apply for grants, and to apply for something called an I-800a. This is an application to the USCIS (customs and immigration services) that is basically alerting them we are adopting. With this homestudy and forms we had to fill out for the I-800a, we had to send a $900 check, so again we are so grateful that we had the money you all had donated in our adoption savings account to help cover this.

The I-800a we were able to send off this week is one of the LAST STEPS to our dossier. We have to have the official government approval in order to have our dossier submitted to the secretary of the United States and Chinese Embassy. This I-800a approval takes several weeks to get back, for some people it takes 4 weeks for some it takes 8 weeks, so we are praying for patience and for God to have his hand in speedy USCIS approval. Every week is bringing some progress. We are so thankful for this.

For now, while we wait on the USCIS approval of our I-800a, we are applying for grants and planning a few fundraisers. The first is planned for March 14 and it will be a silent auction of sorts, so if you know of a business willing to donate any goods to go towards our auction, please please think of us. I am getting together a form letter to take to different organizations. Every $5 gift card or donation of goods or services is helpful. We are still working on a way to try to get these donations as a tax deductible write off-as of now we have a site that we are applying through to have cash donations tax deductible, but do not have a way to have goods and services written off-so if you know of anyone with expertise in this area, please contact me, we would love any help possible. We are also planning a garage sale for the spring, so stash away those things you are thinking of donating-we would be happy to come pick them up if needed. Every little thing helps!!

Thank you so very much for the love, and as always-please pray for our boy, pray for his safety and for him to be taken care of physically and emotionally by someone in his orphanage. Please pray for him to come home to us soon and for the process to move as quickly as possible.

--Aaron and Sarah

Finding Ad

I mentioned before that the Chinese government requires a "finding ad" is posted in a newspaper before a child is put up for adoption. From my understanding, this is to comply with Hague Convention rules that every effort was made to find the child's biological parents. This ad is often the only baby picture an adoptive family will have of their child.

When we heard about the finding ad, we knew that we wanted to have this for Z. Any history we can have for him, we want to make sure we get. So, we contacted the man who has all of the newspapers and gave him the information he needed to ensure he sent us the correct child's ad. And--this weekend we got our Z's ad...and I just stared at it. I am so happy to have a baby picture of our boy, but so sad for him that he is in this situation. Adoption is more of a mixed set of emotions than I was expecting. We are so excited that we are on this road, but we have been told many times through this journey "adoption begins with loss."  It is so true. For any child to be available for adoption, they first experience the loss of biological parents for any number of reasons-none of which are the fault of the child.

So, while we are excited and happy to have this little bit of information, it is tempered with a sense of wishing we had somehow been there to cuddle that sweet little baby when he was tiny and alone. We see the baby we didn't hold, but see the hints of the toddler we will soon kiss, cuddle, and give every ounce of love we can.

So please continue to pray for our little guy on the other side of the world. We are getting through the process as quickly as we can, but there are always many hurdles. Pray for speedy paperwork, pray for our visa applications to be approved quickly and for our dossier packet be authenticated and be on it's way to China this month. Pray for our sanity as this process is difficult, but we know it will be so worth it.

Celebrating every step...

I can't decide if this is a big step or a little step...but, our news today is this!!

Aaron was able to take some of our dossier documents to the Secretary of State today to have them certified! We have a few more documents that have to go through the Secretary of State that we are still trying to get our hands on (ahem....finalized homestudy) but we are getting there.

As far as our finalized homestudy goes, keep praying. I know our agency has sent it back to the homestudy agency here in Boise. I talked to our homestudy case worker today and she is getting the final pieces put into the document and then it has to be signed off by her supervisor. We are trying not to get too anxious or frustrated...but it is HARD.

The reason behind our push to get this homestudy finalized is EVERYTHING else we do hinges on having that paperwork in our hands. We can't apply for visas until we have the homestudy. We can't apply for grants until we have the homestudy. We can't submit our completed dossier to the correct government agencies without our homestudy. *Sigh* But again, I am reminded that we are not in control of all of this and we never have been in control. In the grand scheme of things, this is still going much more smoothly than we had expected and we are thrilled that we are even as far along in the process as we are.

So, in the coming week we could use prayers for calm, prayers for our boy to get his package soon and to know we are coming for him as soon as we possibly can, prayers for our homestudy to be finalized and in our hot little hands so we can continue moving forward, and prayers for an update on our sweet little man soon. This process of gazing at our boys sweet face every day and wishing he was already safe in our arms is surely strengthening us in ways we cannot even imagine.

We are still waiting on our boy's finding ad (see previous post). We should have it within the next week and half.

So for now, we continue to thank you for your comfort and ask you to continue to pray.

-Aaron and Sarah

Getting closer!

Our homestudy FINALLY went to our adoption agency on Monday after an unexpected 2 week delay. Yayyyy! We are so excited to be one more step in the process. Our agency has up to a week to make any changes that are needed in wording/format and then they send it back to the homestudy agency here in Boise to be finalized. After this point we can start the process of authenticating our dossier (which is a fancy word for sending it to a lot of government agencies for various stamps and seals).

We are also getting really REALLY anxious for an update. Our agency requests one every 3 months from the orphanage, which means January is the month they request next for us. I am so ready for a new picture of our boy and am crossing my fingers for a possible video! We cannot ask them for specific details (like a video) but I know some people in the process have received this welcome surprise. We are also hopeful for an updated weight and height, but again, we will be happy for any information we can get! And, just a note, although our agency REQUESTS an update this month, it may take a month or two for the orphanage to respond to this request. So although we are aware of the fact that it can take a bit to get an update, we are praying for it to come very soon!

Obviously, many adopted children have little to no history prior to adoption to look back on when they are older. Our boy is no exception to this. But--the internet is an amazing place and through another adoptive mom I learned about a site where you can request (for a small fee) your child's "finding ad."  This is the ad the orphanage is required to post in a local (Chinese) paper at some point in the child's early life. Some orphanages place this ad right away, some post it after a few years. *side note--We have already become VERY aware through this process that the Chinese government does not operate like the US government, and we are trying to roll with it since we have no control over it. But I digress. Back to the finding ad--I have been in contact with one of the companies that has copies of Chinese newspapers dating back to 1999...and he found our boy's ad! We should receive it within about 14 days and he let me know it does have a small black and white picture in the ad of Z when he was much younger. We are so excited to have this little piece of our boy's history.

We are so excited things are moving forward again and so thankful for all of the prayers for this. Please continue, as always, to remember our boy Z. We are acutely aware that he is in a less than ideal place-although it seems they are taking good physical care of him, it is an orphanage, not a family. We continue to pray daily that he is being loved by someone and communicated with in a loving way. We pray for this process to go as quickly as possible, all the while realizing we are not in control of any of it.

Thank you as always for your kind words that make every day easier. We are so blessed by all of you.
Aaron and Sarah

2015 is HERE!!!

We are so excited 2015 is here! As long as everything goes smoothly, this is the year we are bringing Z home!

This is a little picture Abby and Titus drew for us the other day. It is a map of China with a heart near his province. I love how Z is already a part of our everyday thoughts. I just can't wait until he is a part of our lives-running around, playing, and learning what it is to be a family.
 

 

We have had another generous donation to our adoption account, and I think I say this every post-but we are so overwhelmingly grateful. We are so thankful for the monetary support, for the kind words and messages, and for the prayers for us and for our boy. I wake up through the night at least once every night and find myself thinking about what time it is in China, what he is doing, and praying someone is holding him and loving on him. We are so thankful you all are loving him and praying for him too. What an amazing gift we have in our family and friends.