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.

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!

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."