Rescued

I'm going to try my best to write why we felt like "rescued" needed to be our mantra, why we decided to get our shirts with this one word. Most of you would immediately think it was because we are rescuing our sweet boy from a life of growing up in an orphanage and without a family.  We are grateful for this and can't wait to get him in our arms... but for Ian, he will not look at us and feel grateful; he will feel like we kidnapped him.  He will be ripped from everything he knows in one day—his nannies, his bed, his friends, his routine, what he eats... all of a sudden, strange looking people will have him and will be speaking gibberish to him.  He may try his hardest to tell us what he wants, in words that have always worked for him before, but we will not understand him.  These children will experience great loss with their gain.  Please, please be in prayer with us for their hearts and for healing. 

We normally don't write about the hard parts.  We want this blog to be a place we can share our triumphs in our journey... and the beautiful gift of our children.  The truth is that it is the hard parts that have taught me the most.  Every day is a hard day, truthfully.  If you see me, I will have a smile on my face, but I am in anguish too.  Our son is growing up every day, getting older. More time is passing that I do not know him—and this time will remain unknown.  Every day I wake up and know he is going to bed; I know the time of day and the weather there.  We have a few pictures of his sweet face and very few details.  I am dying to know him.

I did the same thing with Mae, and it tore my heart out.  But we've been on the other side of it now.  We have witnessed the unbelievable story of how God had a perfect child for us that does not share our DNA and was born half-way around the planet. How can I not praise God for letting me be this child's mother.  Here's where I realize that our heavenly Father feels this way about me, about you.  Did you know that the Bible says that  he adopted you as his own children? 

So I painfully wait for the day that I can hold my son.  We will travel great distances to get him.  And no matter how much he cries and struggles, we will be there with him.  GOD has done it for me.  God rescued me.

Galatians 4:4-6
But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, "Abba, Father."

John 1:12 - 

But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. 

Psalm 13:5 -

I trust in your unfailing love.  I will rejoice because you have rescued me. 

Our first shirts

We got our first order of shirts in... so those of you that ordered, be on the look out!!! Can I just say that I am so excited.  I hope everyone loves their shirts as much as I do.  My excitement may be a little more than yours... but these are some CUTE tees!

 Mae and Elijah modeling theirs, kids and pandas are just cute, right?!! (Mae is in a 3T and Eli in a 2T)

 Mae absolutely loves hers. Doesn't that smile melt you?

My mom and me showing off the women's rescued tees.

 Here's me to show you the size... I ordered an XL in this one and I normally wear a Large in fitted shirts.

 The panda tees are more like regular shirts.  My mom and I have on Mediums. 

And my first delivery was to my friend Theresa and her mom today!!

And no men were around to photograph (: 

I can not tell you how amazed I am by all of the people that have ordered, made purchases or donations.  I am brought to tears; you have no idea what a life changing experience this is for Cody and me.  We have an awesome group of friends and family that love us. I keep thinking we are  just so very blessed to be able to bring Ian home to know and grow up with all of your love.  

Okay, so we are just at the very beginning and this was just our first minimum order.  We must order at least 24 shirts of the same style to place an order.  We were excited to order this first batch to get photographs of the actual shirts and be able to know exactly what they looked like.  Now, we are working towards being able to place our second order.  So if you want a shirt let us know!! We hope we can get enough to place our next order in the next couple of weeks... or sooner!

Happy Valentine's Day

 It's amazing how kids can get so excited about every little thing.  I wish I saw everything the way Mae does sometimes.  She got a Valentine from her Nonna and Boppy and another one from her Nanny.  Something as simple as card and stickers had her completely overjoyed.  Thank you Nonna and Nanny for making our girl so very happy!!!

Mae had her very first school party today and I got to go and be a part of it.  Mae was so happy to see me there.  I was so glad to be able to meet the little friends she comes home talking about and their  parents. 

She had her Valentine box ready but really had no idea what for... 

These are some of her very first friends!! I love her school and I love that she loves it. 

My darlin got a lot of candy and goodies from her classmates and each one has been a treasure.  I was blown away by everything.  Her teachers made everything so special and put so much work into the little party.  But I also left there thankful I was not a teacher and appreciating them even more! You would not believe how loud a tiny room of three year olds on cookies and candies can get.  I needed a nap!
Mae got Valentines from her Mommy and Daddy too.  And a trip to TCBY to get her favorite... chocolate icecream with gummy bears. (:

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

One small celebration today was that we got our Homestudy completed and our I800a sent off!  Just one small milestone... For those of you that don't understand, the homestudy is when a social worker comes and makes many long visits and asks you everything there is to know about you.  (: This time around we had the same social worker, so we only had to have three visits.  It also feels like a counseling session. We do love our social worker. 

Your homestudy is basically a term paper, written by a once before stranger about you. Your history, your marriage, your family, how you parent, and how you resolve conflict are just to name a few topics.  It is completely strange to read about yourself in the words of someone else.  

Our I800a is requesting permission to adopt two international children. We will have to get fingerprinted and in 60-90 days we should have approval.  This is the last piece of paper work we need  to send our dossier to China.

We are coming for you IAN!!

Happy Chinese New Year!!

Yesterday was the Chinese New Year; it's the year of the snake. We love celebrating the Chinese holidays with our daughter.  Mae gets very excited about them.  She has a book we read at night about the Chinese New Year celebrations that we've been reading for a few weeks now... and we decorated the house with a very cool paper dragon and lantern.

Xīn Nián Kuài Lè -- That's how you say "Happy New Year" in Mandarin.

We had the awesome privilege to be invited to a Chinese New Year party by some friends of ours.  When my friend Wen first invited us I really didn't know what to expect... but I pictured 3-4 families getting together, not 30 families. (:  It was so FUN!  We were the only ones not Chinese... except for maybe two husbands.  

 My friend Wen is in the lovely yellow top.  We made some very neat paper lanterns... see the green and red in the picture?  It is the Chinese character for Spring 春 since we are celebrating the spring festival. I took mine home and now I have a template to make more next year.

We ate rice cakes, they gave Mae red envelopes filled with money and we watched the children sing Happy New Year songs.  All the little children and most of the adults were dressed in their beautiful Chinese Silk outfits.  Soooo many beautiful little outfits. (We didn't have Mae in hers at first but we ran home and got it... that's why it is still creased from being folded.  oh well, there's just not too many opportunities to get to wear it and we weren't going to miss one!)

 Mae played on the playground with all the children and had a great time until it was time to eat... My girl's favorite thing.  And EAT she did!!

 Let me just tell you, the food was out of this world.  There were many dishes there that you just can not order at a restaurant.  We had a great day and hope we will be invited back next year... and Ian will be able to be with us too!

 Our little family.

And our sweet friends.