5 Good Reasons

We are so excited about the orders that have come in for these shirts! If you haven't ordered yet, here are 5 really good reasons to order: 

#1 Share in our adventure!! Y'all really can't understand the gravity of your support for our family. We know it takes a village, and to have countless people walk alongside us as we grow by one more... well it's just mind-blowing. 

#2 Proudly Proclaim that our God is Bigger! My mind is just blown when I think about this... like a slug trying to understand Einstein's Theory of Relativity. God is infinite in power, sovereign in dominion, self-sufficient, and all sufficient. He is so strong, and so mighty that nothing is impossible for him.  God is Eternal and Unchanging. That means: what God is, he was from eternity, and will be so for eternity. And he is creator of all things (just think about the kind of character He must have to create all the crazy things just in the ocean) His love has no ending... there is nothing I can do to change his mind to ever stop loving me!! Y'all God is Bigger.

#3 All seriousness aside, these shirts are darn cute! Shall I say more?!? I'm so excited to have one and see these on my kids!

#4 It all adds up! Every one of you is helping fund the crazy expense of adoption! It does not have to be large donations, every $5, $10, $20 adds up. We are so humbled by each and every donation and sale of a shirt! 

#5 God says to do this stuff! God's heart for orphans is clearly displayed throughout the Bible and he invites his people to be the hands and feet. Don't you know that it makes God smile when people get involved in caring for what matters to Him??  

>>ORDER SHIRTS HERE<<

God is Bigger

My beautiful friends!! Y’all are the best! We are so thankful for all the sweet messages we received, the prayers for our family, and the many of you that have donated towards our adoption. We’ve already reached 16% of our goal in less than two weeks!!

Our paper bun is officially in the oven! We have now been through the adoption process two times before, So we’re old pros at this thing, right? 

Along with a mound of paperwork, the home study process also requires you to do some odd things, we’ve had our septic tank inspected which included digging it up and lifting the lid, just to say we are in good shape. We’ve given blood work and urine samples for our medical exam, written an extensive autobiography that felt a lot like an invasive personal interrogation. And on Sunday we will have our first home study visit from our social worker. She will interview Cody and I, and the kids (I hope I get to be in there with the kids, I want to hear what they have to say!) We will have our last home study visit on June 5. And when that is complete we can file for our I-600a. Not unlike pregnancy and birth, adoption is a true labor of love, only this time it is in warp speed.

I’ve mentioned to a few of you that we’d be selling t-shirts again to help us link arms and bring home this baby! Well, I am so excited to share with you the design!

Below is a mock-up, but the shirts will be very close to what you see. The Adult and Youth shirts are Charcoal/Black and the toddlers will be on Black shirts. These are going to be super-soft tees and will fit true to size. I’m so excited to have one and see these on my kids!! I only wish we had one of these God is Bigger Tees on Jovie when we left the hospital with her after her heart surgery!

The shirts are available in Adult, Youth and Toddler sizes here.

Adult XS-2XL

Youth XS-XL

Toddler 2T-5/6

We created these shirts as a a way to represent this journey and as a reflection of what God is doing! The t-shirts are so important to us, it’s not only that you are providing a donation to our adoption, but you are sharing in our adventure, and we are all a team. THE GOD IS BIGGER TEAM! We have been so crazy blessed by each and every one of you that walked alongside our family over the years. And I am so astounded every time we see anyone wearing our rescued shirts from Ian and Jovie’s adoption. 

1. Buy a shirt. We will need to pre-sale these shirts so that we know what sizes to order. Once we have enough for the minimum we will go ahead and order our first batch. We hope that you will be a part of this first order and join us on this God-Sized adventure! We also hope you will wear your shirt, share it on FB and Instagram and help us spread the word!
2. Donate. Partner with us and play a part in funding the (crazy!) expense of adoption. We will have $45,000 in adoption fees. Cody and I have $25,000, but that leaves us vastly short, and we must raise the $20,000 in less than 90 days. As overwhelming as that is, we know if 1000 people gave $20 we will reach our goal. 

 You can be sure that God will take care of everything you need, his generosity exceeding even yours in the glory that pours from Jesus. Our God and Father abounds in glory that just pours out into eternity. Yes. Phil 4:19

xo, Kristen

BIG NEWS!!

Hi friends,

We are so excited to share with you all that WE’RE ADOPTING!! (again) 

As you know, Cody and I have such a heart for adoption. The Lord has placed it on our hearts three times before to grow our family…and now a fourth! God has been working on both of our hearts in a really neat way—first a thought, then the back and forth until we came to the conclusion together that God is definitely prompting us to adopt again. Last week, while we were still on the cusp of making that decision, I got a call from one of my dearest friends who told me about a program in Japan that her agency was working with. The program is very small and would almost always be closed to new applicants. BUT instead, the agency is in a position they have never experienced before, and they are SEEKING out families to hustle through the United States' paperwork and be ready to fly to Japan to adopt a baby in need of a family…quickly.

This is still a little unreal to me, and I am feeling more like I am walking around in a dream. Because of the way this program works, we will actually be bringing home A NEWBORN! I have never had a newborn, and I am going from excited to overwhelmed and back to excited. I have so many sweet thoughts throughout the day, and then of course a little panic sets in too! 

PROGRAM DETAILS 
Japanese adoption is very rare because there isn’t a government adoption program in place. As I have researched more, I have been so saddened that while there are children in orphanages in Japan, there is an exceedingly large percentage of abortions—HALF of all pregnancies in Japan end in an abortion. I saw this staggering statistic over and over again. 

In Japan, the birthrate for unmarried women is almost zero. In order for the child to be recognized as a Japanese national, the mother must be legally married to the child’s father; without this, the baby will become a stateless person. And, culturally, they think it is wrong or shameful to bring a child into the world without an arrangement of marriage. Our agency told us that an unwed mother would also never be able to find a husband. So, you can imagine the pressure from their families to resolve this and the shame that they feel. 

This program is in place to help the mothers while also taking action for these unborn children. They offer help to mothers, counseling and advising that there ARE other options while offering help every step of the way. Some mothers need housing, transportation to doctor appointments, and financial assistance. They are often under 20 years old and don’t have anyone supporting their decision. What brave women!

All this to say, when this fell into our laps, it was a lot to take in.

WHAT THE NEXT FEW MONTHS WILL LOOK LIKE
There are two rather LARGE obstacles keeping me up at night:

1. The timeline for this adoption is incredibly fast. We are # 4 on a waiting list, and that means that there is already a mother in Japan who is pregnant and has made the choice to give up her baby through international adoption with the help of this program. That’s a whirlwind…

2. The REAL obstacle for Cody and me is not knowing how we can come up with $45,000 for adoption fees in 2-4 months. We have money allocated for this adoption but we don’t have nearly enough. Not by a long shot! 

Some people might ask, why would you say “yes” to something you can’t financially cover? Our “yes” is scary. Our “yes” is really uncomfortable. Our “yes” really is keeping me up at night. BUT GOD IS BIGGER!!! And we would not be saying “YES!” without believing that this whole thing is from our Lord and Savior, and that this baby across the world God has already planned to knit into our family. 

We’ve already seen that GOD IS BIGGER…

I *thought* I never wanted to have children — GOD IS BIGGER
We adopted Mae in 10 months' time. She was supposed to have epilepsy and had a lot of seizures while she was in China, but has never had another seizure! —GOD IS BIGGER
We started our process for another adoption, and then Cody felt like we were called to bring home TWO at the same time —GOD IS BIGGER!
We raised $24,000 of the $43,000 need for our adoption fees for Ian and Jovie —GOD IS BIGGER
We brought home Jovie with a severe heart defect. It was a miracle that she was even alive, and we had open heart surgery 3 months after we came home from China… this was the hardest thing this mama has ever gone through, but GOD IS BIGGER!!
Ian was born with imperforated anus and the doctors didn’t know if he could ever have continence of stool. Y’all, this boy is completely in big boy underwear!! GOD IS BIGGER!!!

God is so much bigger than our limited view, expectations, and me-sized ideas. GOD IS BIGGER!!! 

HOW WE NEED YOUR HELP
Our goal with this adoption is to raise $20,000 by the end of July. Even as I type this, I am overwhelmed by all the zeros here, BUT if we have 1,000 people give $20 we can make our goal! We'd like to invite you to prayerfully consider how much you are able to contribute financially toward the cost of our adoption. And friends, we need your influence… would you share our page? 

We will be posting updates of our adoption story and fundraising on this blog. Check in again soon!

Battles and Blessings

We heard remarkable news yesterday: WE HAVE RAISED ALL OF OUR ADOPTION EXPENSES.

DONE! It is still sinking in. I honestly can not express to you the magnitude of this. It is a weight lifted that I didn't realize was quite so heavy.  I don't know how to begin to thank everyone, but my eyes are filled with tears and my heart wants to burst. We could not have done it without your help. Praise God, but on the heels of this I have come to realize I have so much to learn about God. God has been dealing with my heart.

So, this little revelation may have taken me an embarrassingly long time to reach, but—It is not about me. I think I know what I want and what I need. I was singing on Sunday and the words, "Here I am Lord" and it really hit me... my prayers around our adoption are all centered around me: "Please let our kids come home quickly." This is my heart's desire, but on Sunday I realized how much I am caught up on this, and then it hit me even harder that God is probably saying, "Kristen, this whole thing was my idea!!"

Oh yeah.
This was all God's plan after-all. He had to clue me in on it, and I am only a participant.

Okay, not rocket science, but this should change things, right? This does not change the longing that I have to know my children, but it most certainly does change the perspective. I am (we are) so small. To think and pray only in our little tiny worlds is really narcissistic, don't you think? I have been thinking very small. God's desire is to get these kids home, I do know that... but how much further does his plan reach? Wow, that is a thought.

There's also the matter of trusting. You see, I know that I am out of control... I know that there is NOTHING that I can do to make things speed up, but do I have even an inkling of how big my God is? I recently heard a quote, "There is not one inch of the universe that the Lord Jesus does not say, 'That is mine.'"

Just maybe God's plan is to not only give these two children a momma, but to also build this momma's character.

Okay, so it's not about me, and I have very little vision past my own selfishness. But there's more...

Patience. I'm realizing just because you have no choice in the matter does not give you patience. Patience according to wikipedia is the state of endurance under difficult circumstances, which can mean persevering in the face of delay or provocation without acting on annoyance/anger in a negative way; or exhibiting forbearance when under strain, especially when faced with longer-term difficulties.

Yep, I do not have patience. I am trying to handle my "delay" without it affecting me negatively, but I feel like this has been like taming King Kong. And it has been a little destructive, but I am trying to overcome it daily. God gave me a few people to aspire to: Noah waited 120 years and endured ridicule for his promise to come to pass. Abraham and Sarah waited 25 years for their child, all the time watching their bodies becoming increasingly older. Joseph waited 13 years in prison before his promise came to pass and he became a position of power in Egypt. So there is a promise to hold tightly, while battling King Kong, "Those that have faith and patience inherit the promises" Hebrews 6:12.

So today I feel honored to know that I am a player in the plan God has had in place... no matter how long the wait is. God just called us to obedience and we have done everything we can. And GOD is so much bigger than I give him credit. He is showing us a glimpse of this today through the generosity of so many people that HE IS IN THIS, with $29,140 raised!!!

Raffle

With the Raffle ending Thursday {for the coolest little bike ever} I had planned to blog today reminding everyone. What I did not expect was an email from Paypal letting us know they had a problem... we are in violation because they do not allow raffles.

Sooooo, we are rule breakers...but that's not going to stop us from trying our hardest to raise money and honor the incredibly generous company, Durable Toys, that has donated us this tricycle. We really would love to raise the rest of the money for Ian and Jovie with this last fundraiser. We are so close, y'all!!!

First, let me tell you why this is the coolest little bike ever... Kids go bananas for them because it has massive air tires that give the rider that BIG-truck feeling.  They are made in the USA and built to last.  One of the things people love about these trikes is that the seat adjusts up and down the whole length of the bar.  And these trikes meet a wide range of needs.  They've had calls about these from moms of children with special needs, such as missing limbs, autism, and Downs Syndrome.  Some say that the shape of the straight Valley Road and Speedway Express handlebars has helped their children ride.

A Valley Road Amish Tricycle

Others say that the hefty, weighted feel of a chunky, heavy-duty trike works just right for their kids.  Whatever the reason, they are thrilled that the trikes work well for many of these kids.  As the company founder said, "Everybody needs some wheels!"
Comes in color of your choice: 

1. Red 
   
2. Blue
3. Green
4. Pink 

So if you are interested in being a part of our fundraiser, and would like to purchase tickets we are making this as easy as we know how! 

Please just leave us a comment here, or on Facebook, or email me: kristenlekberg@gmail.com. 

Leave the amount of tickets you want to purchase, with your email address:

• 1 ticket for $5

• 3 tickets for $10

• 10 tickets for $25

  

  We will contact you with digital tickets, showing you which raffle numbers you have, and we will provide our address so you can mail us your check. 

Another Garage Sale

This morning came early! We had one last garage sale... This time we switched locations to my parent's house. I had expectations to make maybe $250 today.  I just wanted to make as much as we could but didn't want to have much of anything left over. None of our items were big... But somehow to my amazement we made $640 today.  Honestly, I don't see how.  We had a whole lot of $1 item sales and I think the Lord just multiplied our money (: 

So once again we worked hard, had fun together and we met a ton of terrific folks. My other goal was accomplished too... when we looked around at the end of the sale we hardly had anything at all left.  So tonight I am a little emotional in saying thank you Jesus for bringing the people into my life that donated all the items, my family that worked so hard for us, and bringing all the people down the driveway today.  I got the opportunity to talk about Ian and Jovie a lot today.  It was so good. 

A Raffle

 

Durable Toys makes the very best in quality toys... these are toys built the way our parent's had toys! Their tricycles are so durable that they can even be passed down to the next generation.  We are so grateful to durable toys in allowing us to have one of their amazing trikes to auction!!!

Please read more about this amazing trike here. 

Wouldn't this make an exceptional Birthday or Christmas Present?

Our goal is to reach $1500 with this raffle. We will pick a winner for this trike on August 1st.  So please help us by buying raffle tickets and you could be the lucky winner!

 Buy Tickets on our Raffle Page.

Our Garage Sale

 We are so fortunate to have had almost everything for our garage sale all donated to us to help us raise money for our adoption.  Our garage was so packed we had to be strategic about packing it so we could even close the door. It was almost overwhelming... and would have been if I hadn't had my mom helping me all last week to get ready.  It took us a few days to sort and price... and we also decided we'd add cupcakes and lemonade too.  We baked 100 cupcakes! On Friday, bright and early my mom was there and so were two amazing women in my life... my Aunt Julie and Mrs. Shirley. They drove from an hour away to get there at the break of dawn to work with me.  If you've done a garage sale you know it is hard work but being together with awesome ladies made it so fun.  We made memories and money!! (:  Friday we had a swarm of people come too...  

 

On Saturday my mom was there for me again and this time my sister came to help... and my dad too (he watched Mae for me). Oh, I guess it would be good to mention Cody was out of town.  I seriously could not have pulled this off by a long shot without all the help from everyone.  Just look at the lengths my sister went in the picture below.  A neighbor bought a piece of exercise equipment and my amazing sister walked it up the hill 10 house up from ours.  In a dress no less (:

  

So we did fantastic... we raised a little over $900 in 2 days.  And if we had not made a single penny I still would have done it.  I can not tell you how many incredible people we met... we shared our children's story with many and I was so blessed by the hearts of strangers.  My hope is that we have put a positive image of adoption in someone's mind and possibly planted a seed.  After all, it took a stranger at a store to speak to me. (:

• you can read our adoption story.

Last Chance

We will place our last order for the tees on March 15th. 

If you want to have one, please order now. We truly love these shirts; they feel great on. We've had several people who have ordered tell us that they are their new favorite shirt. So they are not only swell, but they also help bring home our little ones from China. Our first sales of tees alone have already raised over $1000 for our adoption. Ya'll, that is awesome!!!

So, we are asking for your help.

1) Buy a tee or multiple tees and wear them proudly. 

2) Please spread the word. This helps more than you think and means the world to us. Please share on your Facebook, Twitter and blogs *you can grab our button to put on the sidebar of your blog. And maybe you aren't real media savvy... there's always the old fashioned word of mouth. (Almost everyone that shared the first time, inspired others that had never met us to buy a tee to support us. Ya'll don't even know the impact that has had.)

3) Pray. Pray. Pray. We are still waiting to find our daughter. Please pray for our family as we search for her and for our hearts during this waiting time. Please pray for God's direction and wisdom. Every day we see the faces of little girls that could be ours; this whole process is so very emotional. Pray for our sweet Ian, for his protection, and strength for what is ahead for him. 

Order here.

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!

BIG NEWS...

we have a SON!!!

We are overjoyed to tell you about the little boy we are adopting. His name is Zhou Tian You (pronounced Joe Tian Yo). “Zhou is his last name, “Tian” means sky or heaven and “You” means to protect or bless.  He is from Pingdingshan in the Henan province, the same province that Mae is from, just two hours south of her orphanage.  

We have decided to name him Ian—dropping the “T” in Tian. He is a very handsome little guy, who seems to have a lot of spirit. He has big eyes, long eyelashes, and he has one deep dimple. His birthday is April 26, so he is 21 months old right now.  We are already so in love with him and long for him to be part of our family. 

Also, we have prayerfully decided to add TWO children to our family. This time it is our hearts’ desire, if it all comes together, to adopt another little girl as well. The timing and the circumstances are all in God’s hands. We will be going to China this year to return with either one or two new little ones to love and welcome into our family. We hope to travel sometime between August and October.

You have all encouraged and stood alongside us as we brought Mae home. You have prayed for us and have shown us so much love and support. We would love to ask that of you again as we undertake this new adoption process. The paperwork alone is nearly a full-time job! 

Before we adopted Mae we had a letterpress business that we loved, but it took a lot of our time. In addition to the letterpress shop, Cody worked a regular, full-time job during the day and Kristen was busy with her graphic design business. We spent our evenings and weekends at our shop printing long into the night. Once we started the adoption process, we realized that we would have to find some margin in our lives to raise our little girl. So, after many hard conversations, we decided to sell our beloved letterpress shop.  The proceeds of the sale went to help fund the adoption. We were also blessed with generous contributions from Kristen’s grandfather, who adored Mae.  

This time we are attempting to raise, from friends and family, a portion of the cost of the adoption. We will do this in three ways:

• We have designed two T-shirts, one for adults and one for children, that we will ask donations for. 
• We are also going to make some items to sell. (If you are “crafty” and are able to make items that you would be willing to contribute for us to sell, we would love that!) 
• We have a donate button on our blog for those not interested in a T-shirt or the other items we will offer.

We are asking you, if you are able, to support in one of these ways. 

Here are our tees:

Panda Tee
Toddler & Youth—$18
Women's — $22

Rescued Tee
Youth—$18
Men's & Women's — $22

We think they are very cool, by the way. Also, we’d love for you to spread the word. We want to see the message of the T-shirts catch on to raise awareness of the significance and the beauty of adoption. God’s Word tells us that we are adopted into his family. How amazing is that!

Above all, we ask you to please pray for all this adoption entails—the details of the paperwork, the specifics on the children, the timing of our trip to China, and, most importantly, for the children waiting for us. Even though we will be rescuing them from life in an orphanage, it is the life they have always known. Their world will soon be turned upside down. But we believe that love will win in the end, because we serve the God who calls us to love. 

Thank you so much for helping us be the arms of his love. It’s a privilege for us to answer God’s call.

Psalm 13:5 "I trust in your unfailing love. I will rejoice because you have rescued me."