FINALLY HOME

We have been home a week today with our precious baby. Wow this week has flown by. Maybe because of the tiredness that has come from readjusting back to US time.  I've been worn down. I can say that I've had a clean house considering I have to keep moving to keep my eyes open. ha ha  Reece has done fantastic!!! He is a totally different child than he was 3 weeks ago. When we first got him he was in such shock the poor baby couldn't even function and now he runs all over my house digging in anything he can get his hands on! I know he still has a long way to go. There are times he may wake up crying and upset and there are times he wakes up smiling from ear to ear. There are times he lets me hold him and love on him and there are times he's all boy and he has better things he'd rather be digging in rater than letting mama hug on him.  He's learning it's safe here and with that safety, his personality shines! He is so precious. He has a smile that will melt your heart!  Our girls have been loving him being here.  Maegan has had a little trouble at times as she realizes her brother messes up her room or she has to share HIS toys with him. She's use to being the baby. However she is still doing wonderfully. This is a huge change for everyone but everything seems to be going smoothly for now. I couldn't have asked for a better week. We even went grocery shopping. As much as I didn't want to, I was out of food. My kids had no more milk, breakfast nor lunch they could dig up so I loaded them all up and off we went. They did great! Same on chaos like normal! HA!!! Reece does not talk. Not even in Chinese. He grunts and points to get his point across but i'm not sure if he CAN talk or if he's choosing not to talk. He has appointments next week with pediatrician and also with eye doctor. Please pray for him as I'm sure he's fixing to zone out on them. He does that when he's overwhelmed. He zones completely out. We have also realized very early on he does not know how to suck a bottle, sippy cup, nothing. I know we will be in need of a great OT for him. Pray that God leads us to where we need to be and who will be the best help for him. Thank you all for your prayers and your support as our new journey with 5 kiddos begin! It's going to be a great summer!!! :)

FUN TIMES IN CHINA!

Ok, so I've been really busy the past couple of days having to pack up to come to Guangzhou for our last week in country so I haven't had to chance to really update you guys. SOOOO first let me talk about our sweet little man. He does NOT like to be in a seat belt .. found that out on the whole air ride to GZ. Yes we had the screaming kid almost all  the way there. He does not like high chairs, strollers or anything that would strap him in. NOt that he's scared.. he gets mad. I've learned when he gets mad there is not bargaining with him. Can't tempt him with candy, juice, toys nothing.. he's very stubborn. Kind of like he's stubborn with the whole i'm drinking only from a spoon deal. :)  I don't mind it though. I know he will have to learn to drink from a cup but for now i'm fine spoon feeding him...... because he lets me do it. :)  He's still very quiet. He  has come such a long long way in the last week. He's starting to be that little kid that grabs everything off shelves.. dig in all the drawers but usually only when we have him inside with us. But TODAY he had to go for his medical. He zoned out on the way there like he normally does. He just shuts down. But after being there a while and seeing the other kids he came to life. He was walking up to everyone he saw with food!!! Then i'm apologizing ten million times to families I don't even know. And yes he had his own snacks.. he just wanted theirs too. He doesn't know when to stop shoving food in his mouth so that's interesting a times when he gets choked and you have to catch it all in the restaurant at dinner. lol  He's a precious precious boy. We've seen that he's had NO structure what so ever and that will probably be our most challenging thing to deal with especially since he does have a stubborn side. He will learn. ;) I love him already so much that I just can't imagine us without him! He's going potty pretty good today! I have to tell him what sounds like NOW NOW to go but he's doing great. He does go in his pull up at times and we just dismiss it and keep on going. Not stressing over it at all. No melt downs today so far which is awesome. He did not cry when he had his blood drawn today which was surprising to me. But sweet boy is making great progress! He's a little trooper!

As far as adventures in China... new stuff that I've tried since the last time I updated the food.... congee ..... it's like watered down mushy rice. That's the only way I know how to describe it. Reece loves eating it and it stinks really but not horrible taste.
Pork biscuit.. it's like a steamed roll with meat inside.. actually pretty tasty
ok ready for this one?? I had to try it.. where else would I try??? The sign read PORK EAR... yeap I decided to try it... lol  While it's not something I'd eat at home.. it was not nasty. It was seasoned heavy but it was very fatty tasting and like cartilage so a little hard to chew . But over all, it wasn't bad. Would I eat it again? NAAAA  not for me. ;)
Today , we eat mcdonalds and starbucks!! Can I get a AMEN!! yes!!!!

SO our airplane ride... we left our hotel and boarded our plane. As soon as I buckled Reece in he was mad.. bucking like a little bull because he didn't want to be strapped in. Yeap that was fun. He cried almost the whole time. He DID be quiet long enough to eat his dinner they gave him. I know the people on the plane were glad he was eating. I then made MENTAL NOTE TO SELF:  bring the sleeping meds out of suitcase on the airplane!!! We leave at night this go around so hopefully that will help him. We arrive in GZ and we all had to pack into a bus with the little things hanging from ceiling to hang on to. I could see before I ever got on it was PACKED FULL! Oh that was fun. If Wes had a butt, it probably would've been sticking out the door....LOL Hanging on to those straps with a kid in hand.. yeah it was great on top of it feeling like it was 100 degrees!!! Was so glad to get off that thing. We met our new guide, Grace... we had to wait on our bus. It was kinda late. It was very humid especially so late at night. I mean sweat pouring and for those of you who know me.. i'm usually cold so when I say it's hot, it is very hot. We got on the bus which had air. YAY!! We're on the interstate and all of a sudden our bus driver starts slowing down (our guide was not with us) he slowly pulls off the side of the road. At that moment my heart fell to my feet. It scared me. We are in the middle of China in the middle of a night with a Chinese bus driver who speaks not one word of English. OH LAWD!! However we had a flat tire. So guy gets out... we hear him KICKING the tires.. we started laughing because honestly, what's that going to do.. make your rounds kicking all the tires.. lol Yes it was funny. He put up this little bitty make shift caution thing behind the bus.. don't think anyone would have seen it for real. He's been talking on his phone...he comes on bus and say the only English words.. Flat tire. So the guys get out to see if they can help. We look out the window and they're all lined up staring at the flat tire. bwah ha ha ha.. just like men!!  Wes said he had this little bitty thing that we was trying to use as a jack on that big ole bus but the guy didn't know how to change it.. but we never saw a spare tire either. WE all  did get a good laugh out of it all. After over an hour stranded, his buddy brought another bus so we made it safe and sound to our hotel! Fun times fun times! GZ is different from our first province. It's like a large city with really big buildings. We went from a very poor area to what seems like a more well off area. Or so it seems. People don't stare AS hard here at us but yeah they still stare. I mean we've had people turn around and walk backwards to stare us down. We are def. the outsiders here. But we care not. We have our baby so they can stare all they want.

Oh and one more story for you so you can laugh along with us. Wes and I laughed so hard. You guys know I don't have boys so this is a first for us. hee hee So I took Reece to potty .. a little while later, wes was like.. Heather I think he peed down his pants. I looked and was like.. what? I just put a clean pull up on him. So I go to take his pants off to inspect and yall I had his little thingy trapped outside his pull up. bwah ha ha ha ha ha.. Wes busted out laughing and I did too as Reece looked at us like we were crazy. Wes was like.. uh Heather you gotta make sure it's in the pull up. lol I don't think I"ve laughed so hard since we've been here. I'm sure that's one of many many things retarded I"ll do with our boy. But it was funny as all get out!! HA!!!
Love you guys!! Keep praying for us and for Reece's transition. He's doing great!

Long Day

We've had a couple of great days with  Reece. His little personality is shining more and more with us. He's still very quiet and seems to shut down when we are outside of of our hotel room. I know that he's just way more comfortable in our room without all the confusion and lots of people around. Today we went to the zoo. While it was a great treat, Reece really didn't care to see the animals too much. He hit his shut down mode on us. The only thing that really got his attention was the seals and some of the fish. Oh and the big gorilla sitting right in front of the glass. Besides that he really didn't care. We did see a few grins out of him just walking around with him and he looking at all the trees. We were also able to get some smiles just from talking to him and playing a little. Once we got to the little play area, he didn't want to play. Still in the shut down mode. So we sat as he watched the others play. Bless his heart. We came back to hotel, he played for a good while in here and then I layed him down for a nap. Thankfully this baby lays down to sleep with   no issues what so ever. But when he woke up, he was in complete melt down mode. He cried and cried for almost two hours. 80 percent of it was no tears.. he just kept going. So I just let him cry it out. Held him, rocked him, waited. He finally perked up when he got his bath. I know this whole adjustment is so hard on him and i'm sure it's very frustrating considering he can't understand a word we are saying. Please pray for peace and comfort for his heart. He's hurting and confused. We leave out today for GZ for our final week. Will update you as soon as we can. Love you all!

Behind Closed Doors

Reece has been very very quiet since we got him yesterday. He slept all night long with me in the bed. I actually had to wake him up this morning to get him ready to go to the civil affairs office to finalize the adoption! So exciting !  We went and ate breakfast. He was really enjoying himself. He actually grunted at me a couple of times pointing. He then .... oh my goodness.. he's trying to talk to Wes as I'm typing!! SWEET BABY!!!! That's the first time I've heard him try!  (huge smiles) Ok breakfast.. he did well. We then went back to our room to get our stuff for civil affairs...Reece for the first time started crying. As soon as we walked in the room. It was so pitiful. He was not throwing a fit. He was grieving. All I could do was hold him on the bed to try to comfort him. I think at that moment he knew he was stuck with us. Bless his heart. He's  not loud or he doesn't scream when he cries.. you could tell it was a genuine upset cry. My heart broke but at the same time I knew he had been bottling it all up since yesterday and this would be good for him. It only lasted 10 minutes. We headed to do our legal stuff and once again Reece was very quiet and to himself. It's as if we went backwards a bit. Then this afternoon, I claimed he was going to take a nap.. that hasn't happened. Instead we talked to my parents on Skype.. the little booger started feeding himself some cheesy sticks after I said he won't really do it. Kids always have a way of making you look like a liar. lol He then proceed to drink juice from his sippy cup  which he had not done at all!  After Mom and Dad got off, Wes headed to get lunch and Reece and I played. No one see's this side of him but us. Everyone around us see his distress and very quiet self but when he settles in we start seeing his beautiful personality starting to shine as he is starting to trust us a little more. We see the smiles, the giggles, the playfulness inside. I know with more time he will show others his real side but for now I'm so humbled and thankful that he IS showing them to us. Even if it is behind the closed door of our hotel room. I'm perfectly content with that!

God's Gifts

God has once again given us a precious child. Reece is so precious and beautiful. My heart is so full for him to be OURS!  Meeting him to me was a lot like me laying my eyes on my kids for the first time when they were born. You already love them while you wait.. then that moment comes.. the day your eyes meet. OHHHHHH my heart. I was immediately taken by him just like with all my girls. I held it together better than with my girls though. ha ha  I did cry yes, but I was trying not to scare him . He was very quiet and just looked around. He stayed quiet most of the day. He was in complete shock. He didn't know how to act, what to do or anything. Very still. It was sad for me to know that he was that distressed. But he has been a true treasure. We gets smiles out of him with bubbles. He loves the bath. He came to life a little bit at dinner.. banging on the table..making a mess... you know the normal kid thing. He was quiet once again when we came back to the hotel.

God has truly opened our eyes to how beautiful adoption really is. I mean he already had  but now... wow!!! There were screaming babies all in that room, but you could see the beams shining off every single parent as they were holding their child. It was truly a beautiful moment. Time seemed to have stood still for a moment when Reece walked in that room. My eyes locked on him and I melted. God showed his love and mercy full force. Words can't quite say the feeling.

We are blessed to now have 5 beautiful children. Wow!!

WE ARE HERE!

We finally made it in! Whoooo HOOOO! Man, that was a long long long way to go. First flight out of b'ham to Atlanta. Most of you know I've never been on a plane. As  soon as the thing starts backing up.. I'm looking forward and the dizzy starts in. OH NO! I feel my stomach turning. The last thing I really want to do is barf on this little plane. NO idea what to expect, panic sinks in a bit... not only am I nauseated at the point, i'm scared. I had to sit there squeezing poor Wes' hand while I tried not to make noise while I cried like a baby. I knew there was a reason I didn't fly. Once we got in the air, I was fine.. then we had to descend.. here comes the dizzy again. Needless to say, by time it was time to board for the big plane, I was nervous. HOWEVER, I only had a couple dizzy moments and I just looked out the window. All was good!!  :)

Stuff we've experienced so far:  for some reason they served us dinner at breakfast time on the plane, then served breakfast for dinner.. though it was strange... then again this morning on the way to China from Korea, they serve us dinner again and it's like 8:30 in the morning. ODD

Listening to the sweet girls on the Korean Air flights talk in English was fun. We'd have to ask them a few times what they were asking and then just going with part of what we understood.  They WERE very friendly to everyone. Very well put together. Korean has a great thing going.

Coffee shop in Korea airport had the best white mocha coffee I've ever had!

The traffic is horrific!! Imagine if you will... 3 lanes of traffic.. very busy and I mean VERY busy... now you have your 3 lanes but people decide to make up 2 more lanes on their own. Yes! You can probably stick your tongue out the window and touch them, they are that close. If that's not bad enough, they are weaving in and out of each other and cutting each other off! I thought for sure we were gonna get hit. Our van driver was a little nutty with the driving and people just honking like crazy.

When people have weddings, they tie red ribbons to the mirrors on their cars, the groom and bride have big pink bow and on front a big flower wreath. We saw that on the way in. Very cool.

In the hotel, to turn on the lights, you have to put your room key in a slot in box on wall... the guy kinda looked at us weird when we asked. (guess we should know that)

The knobs in the bathroom.. you push down to turn on not up like in US.

Wes and I both ate some type of fish (we think) maybe salmon in a salad thing this morning with our breakfast.. I mean dinner ?  Couldn't identify but it wasn't bad. We chose not to question it.

TIME TO GO MEET REECE

We are finally at that moment!! We have 3 1/2 hours before we leave to meet Reece! I'm so stinking excited but also a little on the nervous side. Please continue to pray for us. Will post our pictures as soon as we can this evening. I seem to be posting more on facebook than on our blog. It's easier for me I guess. :)  Love you all.. will update as soon as I can.

WE LEAVE TOMORROW!

Oh yes my friends! Tomorrow is the day. We have waited.. not always as patiently as we should...none the less, we've waited for this day to arrive. I woke up this morning to Wes' alarm as usual and was just so overwhelmed with emotions for what tomorrow is. I cried all morning. I'm an emotional wreck and all i can think is I better get myself together before I go get Reece!!  Wes even popped his eyes open and looked at me, "ONE MORE DAY"  with a smile on his face. Then of course my tears came back, along with tears from Wes. It's so hard to explain the excitement of it all into the right words. We know in our hearts we are fixing to change Reece's life forever. Teach him that he IS loved, he DOES matter, he DOES belong to a family, and OUR GOD LOVES HIM MORE THAN HE CAN EVEN WRAP HIS MIND AROUND. Our lives have changed in huge ways over this past year and I know bringing Reece in will change even more. So ready for God has planned for us!

I wanted to take a minute to say THANK YOU!!! To all of you who have prayed for us, came to our events, let me harass the mess out of facebook with our adoption, who gave to our cause without batting an eye, for the words of encouragement, the smiles, the people who allowed us to share with them how God moves, for the ones who let me talk their ears off about Reece cause I'm so stinkin excited,  thank you from the bottom of our hearts! Each and everyone of you have played such a special part in our lives and we are forever changed and forever grateful for you!!!

Continue praying for us these next couple weeks. Got cha day is coming really soon! Pray for Reece for his change. Also please pray for our kiddos at home. they have to wait even longer to meet their brother they've prayed so hard for!

WE'RE GOING TO CHINA!!

Since my last update we have received our Travel Approval AND our Consulate appointment for Reece. Oh yes we are headed to China my friend!! There were some hiccups in the road from TA to CA but God worked them out and we received our consulate appointment yesterday!! Oh glory day!!!  We leave on Thursday! Yeap you read it right! THURSDAY! I'm not believing it's here already. It's hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that we are REALLY going to get our son! IN CHINA!!! It's been 11 months since I stepped foot into our agency to give them our application. I was so nervous that day! We've come so far. God has proven his goodness over and over again. He has completely changed my life in this whole process. I wouldn't change this experience for the world!  My emotions have been wild, I've had melt downs , I've worked till I'm just plain tired but I keep looking at what is at the end of this small chapter. Reece. In 9 days our lives will open up to a new chapter. May 27th, is our got cha day. The day we meet our Reece face to face. The day we've longed for. We fully expect melt down mode from him considering he's only 2 years old and no he's not going to understand right now. In all the confusion, I'm sure it will be one of the most precious moments of our lives. I  think back to the times I have birth to our 4 kiddos now, they came screaming too! It took time to comfort them, to hold them and love them and teach them, it's ok. I'm sure Reece will take quite a bit  more time for that but that's how  view it . Baby steps.Another happy moment for me is coming... we will still be in China June5th. However, it's a special day. It's Reece's birthday!! He will have his mama and daddy in time for his 3rd birthday. Can I say that there will be some partying going on in China on June 5th!! I'm sure I can locate a cake of some sort at the local Chinese Walmart, right? I have prayed so many times to be with Reece for his 3rd birthday. I was so heart broke during Thanksgiving and Christmas not having him here with us.  I'm thrilled!! Yea I know Reece has no clue what his birthday is but WE do!! I'll try my best to keep this blog updated as much as possible while we are in gone. If I can't, we have family here holding down our fort till we return and they can post for us if we can't. Please continue to pray for us and for Reece. He is about to face HUGE change. He's going to need lots of peace and comfort outside of Wes and I  that we know only God can provide.

SO CLOSE

We are currently waiting for our Travel Approval! OH my goodness!! I simply can't wait! It's all so exciting! We are just to the point of we are READY TO GO!!  We are so close!! Will update you as soon as we hear!  Please continue to be in prayer for our familyand for Reece. Lot's of change heading our way! Thank you all!!

EYES OPEN

I'm sorry it's been almost a month since I last posted. Life has been so hectic lately and my mind has been so consumed that I have a hard time trying to get anything done really. Here is where we stand on our adoption process. We are now waiting on what they call ARTICLE 5. This approval will take 2 weeks. So from April 29th on, we will be waiting for our TRAVEL APPROVAL! Yes I said it and you read it right! We are there! We have finally arrived to that point in our process where everything is  moving fast, we are trying to keep up, we are still fundraising and we know that two weeks is fixing to fly by like never before. I can not explain correctly the emotions that hit me every single day at this point. It's like I'm a loony bird who cries constantly. I'm an emotional wreck. God is showing me things that I would have never known had Wes and I not said YES to adoption. My eyes have been opened to his goodness, his grace, his abundant love. I've learned more in this past 10 months than I ever dreamed of. When God puts a plan in action for your life and you  decide.. you know what God, I'm on board. I don't know how it's going to happen but I trust you...... GOD MOVES. In this past month I've been stressed to the point of tears. I had that moment where we realize that we still had a lot of money to raise and our travel was moving up on us really fast. I was reminded from a great friend that God does have this. I needed her that day to lift me up and God knew it. He used her to remind me that God didn't call us to adoption and then abandon ship with us. As my mom stated, God didn't bring us this far to leave us standing in the road. They are both right. I know that. I  let the devil sneak in for a few moments on me but so thankful God put the right words towards me when I needed them.  I've spent more time praying and reading scripture and praying and reading scripture. Not long after that break down, we did have a fundraiser we raised $1000 from that day and not only that... our youth from church had been raising money for orphans and the money went to the families in our church that are adopting. My husband came home from church on a Wednesday night with $500 toward our adoption. God has humbled me, my mind, my actions, my words more in this past 10 months than I ever thought possible.  I still can't get past the fact that my God chose us. He seemed to think we were the perfect family for Reece. Even though we are not perfect. Things changed when I finally said.. God I'm yours. Use me, use my family. Forget what HEATHER wants to do..change me. Guess what... he did! My heart has changed 100% for adoption. I was always for it, don't get me wrong. I was in the group of "oh that's such a great thing to do" but never let God really open my heart to what these families go through, never knew the background to the kids until we are in it. My heart breaks daily for the orphans of the world. It has become a burden . My heart just aches and I cry so much knowing what is happening in these precious children's lives. Did you know that a child in China, if not adopted by age 14, they are kicked out.. on the streets. Can you imagine??? That's just one of many many heart breaking facts. These kids are abused, neglected, not fed properly, don't have the correct medical attention, don't know love in the way we do.. .and yet we sit comfortably in our homes everyday. Yes we  all struggle sometimes but you still manage to run get you a Starbucks when you think you need one, you still manage to run to Hobby Lobby and buy something cause there is a sale going on.  I say that cause I'm that person too.  I am guilty like everyone else. Wow at the opening of my eyes. If we are to love like Jesus, that also includes the orphans. If nothing else, pray for them. Jesus loves them just like he loves us. He's not limited to WHO he loves and we shouldn't be either.  God actually has a huge love for orphans and widows. They need to be taken care of and we need to be the hands and feet.  Wes and I still have a need of $8500 which is honestly our travel. We are so close!! If anyone would like to help in anyway, we would be so thankful.There is a donate button at the top of our page. If nothing else, we can really use your prayers right now. We need them, we are begging for them. Also pray for Reece. I've been praying so hard that God prepares his heart for the change that is fixing to take place. Praying for peace, praying for protection. Thank you all so much who have helped us. Our $30,000 has really turned into $34,000 . People have stepped up and have shown their hearts in so many ways and we are so so humbled by that.  We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for being a part in our son's lives. The generosity of you guys have been overwhelming. I truly feel blessed to know such wonderful people! Even strangers that I don't know.. have stepped up to the plate. What an amazing thing to experience. God is good!

GOD IS MIGHTY

I've been  waiting and I've been dreaming really of my turn to say those three letters that we've been waiting for. Those three letters that let us know we are so close to our baby that in a blink it will be here. I've been stalking my own emails.. I've been checking my phone as if it's going to grow wings and leave the room, I've bee praying. I keep opening my bible and God keeps re-opening my eyes, building my faith  and continually changing me. This week has been the week of really knowing it's probably fixing to be here.. praying and telling God " I know you have this"  , "I know it's all in your timing and I'm trusting you",  "Lord God I know you are mighty and I know you have this figured out .. help me be patient", "Lord please protect Reece until we can get there". " Lord this patient thing is really hard! "  All these things.. I'm sure God was smiling and giggling at me knowing he knew today was our day.  So i stepped out today for a bit. Got home, did my ritual email stalking and decided to check my phone.. 2 missed calls from our agency.  I gasped when I realized what the number was. Oh joy!! Checked my voicemail and there was that voice we've come to love. Our SW telling me to call. She had a "question". I immediately thought back to the last time she pulled that one on me and it was good news. So of course my fingers couldn't dial  fast enough. Wouldn't you know it, she had JUST stepped out for  lunch. My response literally was NOOOOOOOO! I have to wait a hour?? OH man! Yes the sweet girl on the phone laughed at me. ha ha  She probably thought  was nuts!   So naturally I call Wes at work. Told him the story so he could wait that hour out with me in suspense. I was so anxious i was really about to burst into tears and I didn't even know yet!! Longest lunch break of my life! And really i didn't wait an hour but it seemed like forever! Phone rings again.. ohhh it's her!! And just as I was hoping for we get LOA!  Oh my goodness!!! Pure joy, excitement, the realization that we are going to get our son in 2-3 short months!  The realization that God has taken the time to help me build my faith,to teach me what I needed, to increase my walk with him, to know that he really does have this. To remind me to seek him first and always. Wow... God works in mighty ways and he's still working. I'm sure my faith will continue when it gets travel time. I've never been on a plane so  I'm sure i'll be praying as if I know its my last day on earth. ha ha But for today, God has truly blessed us and we are so thankful. Couldn't wait to share! 

Waiting...

Ok so I'm realizing very early in this wait for LOA that this is going to be TUFF! Wow!!  When i say that adoption is a roller coaster, i think that's a understatement. We are  so excited and anxious! My sweet friend Jennifer and her husband are adopting a little girl from Haiti and she got wonderful news about her baby girl this week and yeap she made me cry on the phone. So thankful God is letting us go through this journey together even though our Children are from different places. She too is starting to feel that roller coaster  I've been talking about. OOOHH man the emotions are wild!  You would never think that until your in the middle of it. 
 So I  made a video and posted for everyone to see I'll add the link on here. Yes i know there are some typos and yes i know it's not fantastic but i don't know what i'm doing and it took me HOURS to do it so typos will stay in place. ha ha  I want to thank you all once again for your ongoing support. I know that I've been posting like crazy on my facebook wall and some people must really be tired of it by now but for me it's worth it. This is my baby so I'm going to do what it takes.
 I did want to fill you in on a race that we have coming April 6, in Hueytown for all you that like close to us if you want to participate. I know there are a lot of runners out there. We are working on getting a site up and I'll post that link as soon as it's up. We will also include a craft fair in the same day so we have booths available if crafting is your thing.  Again, i will update as soon as i get all the info.
Hope everyone has a great weekend. Hopefully I'll get some crafts done for shows and get something accomplished in Reece's room. Courtney and Hannah are off to youth camp this weekend so I think Wes and I will sneak in a date which is VERY rare for us!  You know with 4 children it's tough to get dates with your man. ha ha  Love you all!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=picGX2udrc0

LID

Oh glory day!! Our sweet social worker called me yesterday afternoon and said we have a LOG IN DATE!! WoW!!!! It took just 8 short days!!! It got done before the Chinese New Year and I gotta say ... YIIIPPPPEEEEE!!! Excitement doesn't quite  describe my emotions.  It has now hit me  that I better get my butt in gear. I mean I thought I was already in gear and the reality of it being on us before we know it has hit and i feel overwhelmed slightly at thinking of everything that needs to be done before we travel. Now our SW told us it can take 90 days for our LOA which is our letter of approval from china however I've also heard it may go a lot quicker than that considering we are already matched. Someone commented that 55 was the average and a sweet lady that is about to travel said hers took 25 days!  25!!! Did you hear me?  We were LID on 2-6 which  means we are already 13 days into the wait!  From LOA we travel within 3 months! I could seriously burst into tears i'm so excited. I just keep fighting them back. lol  We are moving full force with our fund raisers. Once again we are hitting every single craft show that is available for us to hit. We DON'T have all our funds yet so that kind of adds to our stress. We've been amazed at the out pouring of our friends and our church members at what they have been willing to do for us. Even our family. My parents have give from the get go, and still continue to support us however they can. Wes' mom gave us a good bit of support too!  Wes' brother and wife gave us mattresses for his bed which was a huge blessing that we didn't have to buy those. My sister has tried to sell every thing I've made to all her co-workers and they've been wonderful. We are so blessed to have these people here for us. We can't wait to share that one moment in the airport with our family when they too can meet Reece face to face. Oh man, I'm going to be crying the whole time! If you feel like you'd want to donate for our adoption we have a link you can go to. It's tax deductible for you so that's a plus. Many many thanks to those who have been supporting us all along. We love you and we couldn't do this without you and without your prayers. God has been so awesome in this adventure of ours (he always is) and is teaching me so many things. Still teaching and humbling me in  many many ways. Glad to be on this road and glad I get to share it with others! Can't wait to give you the LOA news!!!! Looking forward to it!

http://adopttogether.org/williamsadopt/

DTC BABY!!!

We were DTC on 01/29!! Oh yess!!!! I was doing the happy dance. Such exciting news!  What that means is all of our paper work... our home study, immigration.. everything that has been approved from our consulate is now been sent to the China consulate for approval. Our next big waiting process is our LOA  which is a huge deal because we know we travel within a couple months of LOA. Which is acceptance from China. Big deal! The anxiety has set in.. "realness" is here and I find myself fighting back tears  a lot. But good tears. I just can't wait to hold my sweet boy. Even if he's screaming his head off.. I know in my heart, it's changing his life for the better!  I'm so excited for that moment. This is been a crazy ride so far and I know the ride is bound to get crazier.. We haven't even traveled yet. I just keep remembering that God has plans. He knows what's before us. He has it under control. I have complete faith and trust in how he's going to direct our paths. Please remember to keep praying for us and for Reece. We love you all and are so thankful for those of you who are praying and for those of you who have helped us financially. You guys are awesome! Every single dollar is one more we didn't have. We thank you for that! Our site is still up for we have a long ways to go still. It's tax deductible  also so you should get a receipt through the adopt together site.  Love you all.. will update you when it's time!


http://adopttogether.org/williamsadopt/

While we wait for everything to be authenticated for China we just wanted to update you on our fund raising goals. We do in fact have a long way to go. In fact we need just under $20,000. That's still a lot BUT we also know how mighty our God is and we believe that he will make it happen. He's made it happen thus far. We've worked very hard but every time, God has blessed our efforts. We've been amazed . What we have going now is our new challenge. We are asking that 300 people give $25 toward our adoption. It's a lot really if you look at the big picture. That's a huge chunk of change all together but broke down, it's not so big person to person. $25 wouldn't even feed our family of  6 at McDonalds! Would you please consider helping us in this way?  Even if you don't have $25, the donation site takes as little as $1. You can be totally anonymous too. We don't have to know who you are. God knows and we know he will bless you for it. Everything that you donate is tax deductible too.  This is our son, we just want to get him home and we do need help from a lot of people. I don't mind asking and I don't mind doing fund raisers. Adoption takes on a whole new meaning when it's YOU. When it's YOUR child you're fighting for. When it's YOUR baby that you know needs medical attention. It's all different. We love him  so much already we just want him  in our arms! Adoption is not by any means cheap... it's really not but you have to understand why I guess. I agree they could probably drop some prices on things.. but everything that is put into it.. it really is a LOT of work and then having to send things back and forth to China, having things authenticated, doing finger prints, back ground checks and so forth, passports, visas.. consulate fees.. travel fees, medical fees,  it really adds up quick!   I want to thank EVERYONE that has helped us thus far. There has been total strangers who have donated to us and we are so very grateful. We are grateful for everyone who has donated and who has come to our craft show after craft show just to buy  because of what we are doing. Their heart is so big, they just keep giving. I cherish them. God is teaching me many things about people.  I'm seeing peoples hearts for who they are .  I thank God for my lessons I'm learning every step of this process.  It's defiantly worth the journey.
So again I'm asking would you please consider helping us with our challenge if you can. Please pray for us. Pray for our family, pray for God's protection on Reece. We will continue to update you every step of the way.  We love you all so much! Here is the site to go to for donations.   /http://adopttogether.org/williamsadopt/  Adopt together is a wonderful non profit  organization who is committed to helping families raise money for adoption. I've spoke with them and they really have a heart for what they are doing. They are there to help us every step of the way and we are so grateful to be a part of what they do. Check them out on their site.
 THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING!

LEAPING FOR JOY!!

What an amazing last few days! Had a wonderful wonderful message a church that I really needed to hear. Church was PACKED OUT. Guess I wasn't the only one who needed that message.  Went into this week with a whole new outlook.

We have a new donation site available for those of you who can help us financially. The good news is, it's TAX DEDUCTABLE!  Here's the link     http://adopttogether.org/williamsadopt/ . Please don't ever think you can't make a difference. Even if it's $5, then that's $5 we didn't have.  We SO appreciate your help. More than you can ever imagine!!

On to me leaping for some joy. My sweet Maegan went and checked the mailbox today and what did I see in her hand? HOME LAND SECURITY... OH YEAHHHHHHH... GOT OUR IMMIGRATION!! I'm thrilled to the bone. One step closer to our sweet boy! Now to get our papers ready to send to China!! WHOO HOOOO!!  We are so excited! The next excitement you'll probably hear from me will be DTC! That would be Dossier to China. That's a huge step in getting our baby. That will be in a few short weeks and I can't wait for my turn to claim it!!

As always I'm going to ask you to please continue to pray for us. We have a LONG road financially. Please also pray for Reece. Praying for him tonight for warmth and a loving hand from his nanny at the orphanage. Praying God gives him peace and prepares his little heart for the change that's coming in his life.
Will talk to you all in a few short weeks!