It's August

Hello August!  We've been anxiously waiting for you!  We thought that you would bring with your our LOA (Letter of Approval).  But, it seems like maybe you forgot.  You left it behind.  You passed it on to September?  If it is possible, can you get it back?  We're glad you're here, but we'd be even gladder if you had our LOA in your hand.

Sigh.  It looks like at the rate things are moving in China, our LOA will probably not come in August, like we previously thought.  China changed the way they do their database, which means there are tons of kinks in it and LOAs are coming very slowly because of that.

I know in my heart that God is sovereign over our wait and that he is with our son.... and overall, most days, I'm okay with that. Okay to trust him.  But some days (some moments), I just ache to be with my boy.  It happens a lot when I'm spending sweet time with Daniel. It just hits me that my other son is living life without a family right now (and has been his whole life)... and I want to run to him and it hurts deep in my gut to not be able to do that.

We'll share updates when we get them, but we're in the thick of waiting, friends.  This (not the paperwork, not the fundraising) is the hardest part in the adoption process, in my opinion.  The waiting and waiting and waiting... while your child is without you.

Speaking of fundraising, though, it's time for a little update.  Thanks so much to everyone who donated during our Give1Save1 week!  Every dollar helps and we are so grateful.  In addition to that, in our mailbox the other day was a sweet card from a friend along with a very generous check!  It was an amazing thing to get that in the mail.  Praise God!!  So our total raised comes to just over $25k!  Wow!  We are so close to our goal, friends.  We are humbled and excited by that!   Once we do get our LOA, we want to be ready to roll with the next set of fees.

Pray for our son, as you think of him!  Pray for God to be near to him during this time.  Pray for China's database kinks to get smoothed out (there are lots of families waiting just like we are right now).  Pray for us to be patient and trust God that His timing is perfect all the time.

And, because it's fun to share pictures and give you a glimpse of our family (and because when I look at these, I am beyond grateful for these 3 blessings, but I also picture our other son. He belongs in pictures with his brother and sisters. He belongs there, y'all!), I thought I would share these first day of school pictures. This school year holds some exciting times (and the best field trip ever) for these kiddos.