Yes...We are Alive

I'm so very sorry that it has taken me so long to post.  We are alive :O)


Mia is such a treasure and is thriving at home with our family.  We are all in love with her and fight over who gets to hold her when she wakes up in the morning.  Of course I pull the mommy card and win every time....I'm sneaky that way;O)

The past two months have brought many changes to our family.  My mom was here from the time we arrived home on the 11th of Jan, until Feb 7th.  It was nice to have her since she really got to bond with Mia and get to know her.  She wasn't here for Alea's homecoming and didn't meet her until four months after bringing her home. 

Warren started a new job in February.  The day before we left for Taiwan to pick up Mia, Warren was laid off of his job.  He's a carpenter and the job was coming to an end.  We were so thankful that he had work right up until the day before we left.  What a blessing that was.  We didn't have a job to come home to, but God already had that in the works also.

A longtime friend who we haven't really seen in years had heard that Warren might be needing a job.  He called out of the blue and asked, and low and behold we did!  Perfect timing and only God:O)  What a blessing you are to us Mike and Michelle!!  Warren began working in Aberdeen on the 520 bridge construction.  He leaves at 3pm and gets back home at 4am(thankful for the job, HATE the hours).  He does this six days a week.  Sunday's are our family day with a nap squeezed in there for Warren:O)  We are hoping that he can get on day shift in the next couple of months and are praying that those months pass quickly.

As you can imagine this has really affected our homeschooling style and life in general since Warren sleeps until noon.  We've had to try and find a new normal with our homeschool schedule, a new baby, and daddy's schedule.  Juggling these things, along with a pre-teen and a spunky pre-schooler have been ahem...challenging, to say the least.  We haven't found our "new normal" yet, but hope to in the next month or so.

Alea is doing well.  She's absolutely in love with her baby sister and takes her role as big sister very seriously.  She has begun more pre-school activities(as I find time) and loves learning her letter sounds and numbers.  We haven't seen any jealousy out of her towards her baby sister.  I think God just put Mia in her heart from the very beginning and she has enjoyed the change.  That is a huge answer to prayer for us!

Caleb and Ethan are doing well also.  The enjoyed the time off of school the first few weeks that I was home.  I couldn't even get together the brain power to think about lesson plans.  Then Warren started working and we had to change things up again.  We are planning on getting them in to Karate and they are thrilled about that.  This momma just needs to get her feet in gear and get it done:O)  Ethan will be 10 years old on Easter Sunday.  That means I'll have two in double digits and two in diapers, lol!!  Alea is only wearing pull-ups at night, but still...  Caleb will be a full blown 13 yr old teenager in May and I'm just hoping that the hormones balance out soon:O)

Mia is an absolute doll baby and is the easy part in all of this change.  Well mostly easy(she still won't sleep through the night).  But we are getting closer.  I predict that once she is no longer sick that she will settle in soon.  She is rolling from her tummy to her back but won't go in reverse.  Many times after putting her down, we are running back upstairs to roll her back to her tummy.  She is a tummy sleeper and will NOT sleep on her back.  You can imagine the issue she has with the car seat.  She's on her back, and when she gets tired we all hear about it while her tears flow.  She's such an easygoing little one and a delight to everyone who meets her.  Once she studies you for a minute then her face will light up in a big smile.  She has twinkly eyes:O)  No teeth yet, but they are coming.

Thank you all for your prayers and support during this crazy time in our lives.  I'm looking forward to sharing our happenings as our lives grow and change.  God has been so good to us and I'm so very thankful for His love and provision for our family.  We love to have visitors and if you're in the area, please give us a call.  We would like to introduce our newest treasure and to see someone other than each other now and then, haha!

Lots of Love,
Jenn

Day 3

Day three...

Today we packed up to visit with Mia's birth mother, but due to scheduling changes we will be going tomorrow. Instead, we finished taking care of paperwork and went to visit the monkey's that are only indigenous to Taiwan. They were lots of fun to watch and feed, until one grabbed Anna, Deana and Luke's daughter. We were ready to go home after that.

We are settling in more as a family and getting to know Mia better. This morning she finally pooped(TMI,haha). We were so happy for her, because up to that point she was really uncomfortable. One minute she was snug in the front pack, the next, we were both covered. After a quick run back up to our room and a scrub down we walked out smelling like baby powder. She may never wear that outfit again!

Tomorrow we meet her birth mother. Please pray for us. My heart just breaks thinking about her heart. Pray for her especially. After the meeting we will be going to a museum that tells all about the local tribes. I'm excited to get to know more about Mia's tribal history. Then we will go to the night market for the first time. I can't wait for that either!

Our days are full and nights are going fairly well So far. Mia only gets up once for a bottle and then drops right off to sleep again. I'm off to bed now. I can't keep my eyes open any longer.

Night!

Lots of love,
Jenn

1st full day...

Today was a mello day for us. We waited until Jason and Cindy got here with their new daughter. The first two families of three for three now have their forever children, yippee! Once they got back to the hotel we all decided to go and find Starbucks...priorities you know haha!!!

We had a great time walking around and getting to know our new daughters. I found out that Mia is very tickelsh on her neck and that we can get belly laughs from her when we kiss on her. She also let us know that we need to give her a little more play time to herself. She gets fussy if we try to hold her 24/7. Blame it on her being so cute. She's so yummy that I could just eat her up!

Tomorrow we meet her birth mom and I'm realy nervous about that. I want to take her birth mom home too. I can't imagine how hard it will be for her tomorrow. It will be a very full day. Please keep us in your prayers...

Lots of love,
Jenn

She's a dream...Come true...

We arrived in Taitung yesterday morning. After quickly dropping off our luggage we headed to the church to meet our precious girl. We were all nervous. You see, while we knew we loved her, we couldn't grasp fully that she was ours. We had studied her picture for four months, memorized ever little line, but still were wondering how we'd feel once we met her.

We went to bed and prayed together on Sunday night. Our prayer was that God would knit our hearts with hers and that she would know us. When we met her it was like breathing again after you've held your breath under water. It was fulfilling and refreshing and filled with indescribable joy. She was finally in our arms and our family finally felt whole again. Our beautiful missing link was finally there. The missing piece of the puzzle had finally been placed in.

She is our treasure! A gift from almighty God and we are forever thankful and grateful for His loving-kindness and tender mercies towards our family.

Thank you all for your prayers and love towards our family during this journey. I hope you'll stick around and watch our precious flower unfold.

Lots of love,
Jenn

Yippee!!!!

IT ALL CAME IN!

IT ALL CAME IN!!!

IT ALL CAME INNNNN!!!!!

WAHOOOO!!!!  WE'RE GOING TO TAIWAN TOMORROW MORNING!!!!

GOD IS SOOO GOOD!!!!  Can you tell I'm excited, haha!! 

Thank you all so very much for praying, encouraging and supporting our family.  Wow, $7000 in four days.  I'm so blown away by everyone's generosity and love.  Complete strangers donated to our family, and people who I haven't seen in years, or ever  for that matter.  I love how adoption connects people and shows the heart of God for His children.  Relationship is beautiful and I'm so thankful that all of you are a part of our lives and our journey.  I can't wait for Mia to look back and read these stories of love.  I ABSOLUTELY CANNOT wait to introduce you to our precious girl!

Keep checking back over the next week.  I plan on posting updates here and on facebook.  But now, I've gotta go.  I haven't packed a stitch of clothing and I leave in 14 hours....ahhhh, pray for me!

Lots of Love,
Jenn

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling...

$7000 needed as of Tuesday morning, after we received news on Monday night that we were going to travel.
-$ 2000 given by the end of the day on Tuesday
 $5000

 $5000  Needed as of Wednesday morning
-$1900  given by the end of the day Wednesday
 $3100

 $3100  Needed as of Thursday morning
-$          ...............................................
             (how much will it be today???)

And if that isn't amazing enough news, last night we also received our confirmed AIT(embassy appointments) for Mia's visa!!!  Finally...now we have to book hotels and confirm flights.  Lots to do today!

Seriously, can you believe it???!!!  In two days we are down more than half of what we need.  I forgot to mention it, but the $1500 left of our agency fees would count as a tax-deductible donation for someone if they wanted to use it.  A complete stranger(until yesterday) donated $500 for that tax deduction.  If you are interested in doing that, leave me a comment with your email or phone number or message me on facebook, and I'll contact you with the information.  All comments are private and will not be published with your private information.  It's a win-win situation:O)  You get a tax deduction, and Mia gets a mommy and daddy:O)  See how that works, lol!  I Love it!!    

God is so Amazing!!  So many people are saying that their faith is growing as they watch this journey to Mia.  I have to say, so is mine!!  It hasn't been easy, and mostly it has just been terrifying.  We KNOW that God told us to step out in faith, believing Him, and that He would provide every penny.  And Look How He's Doing It!!!  Through all of you!!!  What a blessing you are to us!!! 

God's heart is to place the orphan in a forever family.  And He likes to do it big.  He wants more people to be encouraged to trust Him and step out in faith to adopt.  I guess that's why this journey is so crazy and exciting.  He wants others to get excited as they watch Him pour out His lavish provision on His children.  He's a good daddy.  And kind.  I love knowing that He has been with my Mia this entire journey and has taken care of her.  And in the process He has taken care of me too.   

I'm so blessed and humbled to receive such a precious gift.  His heart is that a child is never orphaned, therefore He makes sure that there is a redemptive plan if they are.  He says that He is the Father to the Fatherless...Pray with me that others would step out in faith and trust God to adopt.  Our children truly are the greatest blessings of our lives.

Thank you all so very much for your prayers, encouragement and support.  We couldn't do this without you!!!

Lots of Love,
Jenn

Wow!!!

I wanted to share with all of you that a little over $2000 came in yesterday!!!!  Thank you all so much for your prayers and donations!!  We can't tell you how encouraged and excited we are to see how God is going to do this.  Please keep those prayers coming.  

We would be humbled and honored to have your participation in bringing our child home to our family.  We still have $5000 more to go and two days left to do it.  In order to pay for our plane tickets and the rest of our agency fees, it needs to be in by Friday morning.  There is a paypal link at the top of this page on the right hand side.  All donations will go directly into our adoption account and be used for the rest of our adoption expenses.

We also haven't received our finalized/confirmed embassy date.  We need that NOW in order to confirm our plane tickets.  Please pray with us.    

Thank you so very much for all that you have done.  This is happening so fast that my head is spinning.  Sweet friends helped me with paperwork and housework yesterday...thanks Toby,Lisa and Leah!  I was also able to pack up most of the Christmas Decorations last night(I didn't want to come home to that with a new baby and jet lag).  I was up at 4am with too much on my mind to sleep so I made another long list and then finally fell back asleep for another hour.  Life is crazy around here:O)

We're going to be running at top speed for the rest of this week.  Will you please pray for my two youngest.  They are going to be staying here while we fly to Taiwan.  My mom will be flying in on Tues evening to take care of them.  We had no idea that we would be leaving this quickly and so she wasn't able to get here before we leave.  Alea has never been away from me for more than two nights, and I'm a little worried about her.  Besides that, this mommy's heart is struggling with leaving my two little's.  Not so much that I don't want to go, but enough that it brings tears to my eyes as I think about my little Alea and the confusion of why mommy and daddy aren't coming home.  We already deal with abandonment issues because of her early life in the baby house in Kazakhstan.  Please pray for her little heart and for her big brother Ethan to be comforted while we are gone too.  He's my easy-going guy and usually takes things in stride, but being away from mommy is never easy:O)  I love my babies....all of them!!  I really need time to spend loving on them, and I don't even have enough time to get all I need to do, done.  Isn't that every parent's dilemma....? 

I seriously can't believe that I will be holding my precious girl in my arms by Monday afternoon!!!  My heart just about jumps out of my chest when I think about it, and my eyes fill up with tears.  I'm overcome by God's Goodness to our family.  To think, just six months ago adoption was just something on my heart, and then SNAP...God brought it to life!!!  

Thank you for following along with us on our journey.  Your prayers are our lifeline....

Lots of Love,

Warren, Jenn & kids