VISAS!!!

Getting Closer!!! 

Passports with Visas! We are coming Sadie!!!!

LOA!!!!

We received our Letter of Acceptance (LOA) from China on May 9! Basically, this is an official document where we check a little box confirming that we "accept" this child that we have prayed for, dreamed about and that God has CHOSEN to be placed in our family. Please pray as we enter into the final stages of this long journey. Pray that the Holy Spirit is preparing Sadie for the changes that are coming. Pray that Harlan and Ellie Grace would be comforted by the great Comfortor to know that they are so loved through this crazy stressful time. Pray that Perry and I would lean on and draw closer to Jesus as we prepare to GO. Pray that the last needed funds are raised and that when the Lord says GO that we are ready to go get our girl. 

I won't lie, I'm so anxious. I don't know all of the answers. I'm not really sure what this is going to look like. BUT, I know the One who does know it all. And He promises that He will never leave us or forsake us. He is faithful and because of that TRUTH, I can walk where I cannot see. 

Thank you for following our journey and for all of your prayers and support.

 Together, we ARE Bringing Sadie Home!

We need YOU!

Both Hands Project May 3rd!!!
Click on the link and check out this super cool project that is happening May 3rd. Let us know if you would like to help out.  We need warm bodies, donations of food, drinks, paint, wood etc.  This is a fundraiser where you have the opportunity of sponsoring our workers for the day.  If you would like to donate, this info can also be found in the link.  Our prayer is that these sweet ladies are blessed beyond measure that day.  We would love to have your help as we use Both Hands...one for the widow, one for the orphan.  James 1:27

Newest pic of our Sadie Bug.  We can't wait to be able to kiss those sweet cheeks!

 

If you take a peek at our tracker over on the left, you will see that we still have about $17,000.00 to be fully funded.  Once we receive our LOA (Letter of Acceptance) we are approximately 10-12 weeks away!!!!  We are praising God for what He has already provided ($19,000.00!!!!!!!) and we are already praising Him for how He will provide for the remainder!  Every cent truly counts.  Thank you in advance for partnering with us for being faithful and "looking after the orphan in their distress".  

And so I write...

Writing has always been therapeutic for me.  A lot of what I write, no one ever sees.  It's just a way that my introverted, strong-willed, independent self can get my thoughts out without having to make myself vulnerable.  I have debated back and forth with God about whether or not I wanted to open myself up about this subject.  He says that I should, I say that I'm afraid.  But, as a family we are really trying to seek the Lord with everything that we have and to follow hard after Him.  If I am going to truly be a doer and not merely a hearer (or in my case a teacher) of the Word, I HAVE to obey even when it's hard and when it doesn't feel good because if I've learned ANYTHING in the last year and 4 months, it's that THIS IS NOT ABOUT ME. 

What I'm about to write might come as a shock to those of you who know me in real life because I don't show this side of me to ANYONE and I'm stalling so here goes...

When Harlan was 23 months old, we were blessed with another baby boy, named Barrett.  He was born on October 19, 2003.  We were the typical overjoyed, exhausted parents of a newborn and a toddler.  We were rocking along in our comfortable, complacent little lives.  Attending church on Sundays and Wednesdays, living in our nice little cookie-cutter neighborhood, Perry working a 9-5 nice paying job with great benefits, and I was working in my dream job with an awesome boss where I could pretty much dictate my schedule.  Comfortable. Easy. Complacent. Members of the Cult of the Next Thing.  Perfect little suburban family.  Then, on April 8, 2004, our world fell completely apart.  Our sweet Barrett made his journey to Heaven.  It was like a really, really bad dream that I just wanted to wake up from and go back to comfortable.  I wanted to go back to our Egypt where everything was familiar.  Where I didn't have to trust. Where I didn't feel so vulnerable and needy.  I had never ever been to this place before.  You see, I lived a wonderful life growing up.  My parents supplied all of our needs and most of our wants.  They did everything in their power to make our dreams for our lives come true.  They were the best cheerleaders and encouragers.  I just never had to really face any adversity and had always prided myself on being strong and independent and able to conquer anything.  And NOW God was asking me to do THIS!  How in the world was I supposed to put on a strong face when my world had just been snatched out from under me?  The answer: It wasn't about me.  It was about pointing people to Christ who was the ONLY source of strength that had ever been in me.  It was at this time that I had to finally give up control to Him, because I had nothing left in me.  Even though we had just suffered such great loss, it still wasn't about us.  It was all about Almighty God, who created each and every one of us to come to this earth, to carry out His purpose.  Barrett had a BIG purpose, and it wasn't about us.  It was about Christ.

Harlan and Barrett

Sweet Barrett

It has now been 10 years.  I anticipate and dread this date every single year.  It has taken me 10 years to open up to a few friends.  The one thing that I absolutely can't stand is pity.  Please, Please, Please don't feel sorry for us.  Our family walking through the death of a child has strengthened our marriage, has allowed us to loosen our grip on our children (those of you who know me are probably questioning this one :)), has taught us to cling to God and His promises, and most importantly, has given us an urgency to share Christ with people.  It has changed us, refined us, chiseled out those materialistic, selfish, comfortable and complacent places in our hearts and replaced that with more of Christ.  Now, we are FAR from being perfect or for all of those places to be perfectly filled with Christ, but this little journey has caused our family to look at life and death just a little bit differently. 

I love what Paul says while in prison in Philippians 1, starting verse 9:





And this is my prayer; that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of the righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ - to the glory and praise of God. 

Now, I want you to know brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually, served to advance the gospel.  As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ.  And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear.

 

 

Now skip down to verse 18:

 

Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and God's provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance.  I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body whether by life or by death.  For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.  If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me.

 

 

And then on down to verse 27:

 

 

WHATEVER HAPPENS, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. 

 

 

You see, Paul used his horrible circumstance to serve and to share Christ.  He realized that his imprisonment wasn't about him.  His pain wasn't about him.  It was all about Christ and pointing people to Him.  This is why I share.  This is why I have allowed this to be published this year.  If this helps just one person who is struggling with life to look toward the only One who can give you whatever it is you're seeking, then it's worth it to let you see the weak, shaky, vulnerable side of me that I don't like to share. 

 

This day will pass and it will come again next year if Jesus doesn't return before then.  I pray that as we anticipate it's arrival next year that we will continue to sing,

 

Set a fire down in my soul

that I can't contain

that I can't control

I want more of you God!

I want more of you God!

 

No more comfortable and complacent!  Through pain and a hard road we can honestly say, "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." Let Him show you His love today.  Let him cover you with his perfect peace.  He's waiting...



 

Getting Closer

We have had an exciting couple of weeks on the Adoption Journey!  We got news just NINE days after our Dossier was logged in that it was OUT OF TRANSLATION!!!  What?  Yeah, really.  This is getting SO REAL!  It seemed like just a few weeks ago I was trying to tell myself, "Just stay calm, Jennifer.  You still have a LOOOONG way to go."  Well, we are, as my daddy would've said, in the short rows now.  If everything continues to progress, we could be in China in 3-5 months!  Whew! 

We know that if God wants to bring Sadie home sooner than we thought, He WILL provide for our every need.  One avenue, we believe He will use will be through our Both Hands project that we are getting kicked off in the next week or so.  Both Hands is a fundraising project through Lifesong for Orphans.  It puts hands and feet to James 1:27 which says, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."  As we were praying about who we would serve through this project, the Lord revealed two precious ladies to me.
 Here they are:

Are they not the cutest?

 





We will be gathering a team and doing yard work, minor repairs, painting, etc for these sweet ladies.  I can't wait to get started!  This is going to be such a blessing for those of us who have the honor of helping them.  I just can't say enough about how happy we are to have gotten approved for this project  Want to help???  You can!  A lot of you will probably be getting a letter in the mail about this soon.  If you want to be sure to be added to our list, let me know by emailing me at aucritterdoc@gmail.com and leave me your address.  We would LOVE to have you on our team as we go be Jesus' hands and feet to these sweet ladies.

 

Along those same lines, we are starting a new T-shirt Campaign that we are super excited about.  We have had several people request that we offer more T-shirts, so here they are!

These will be available on MONDAY so stay tuned.  I'll post a link on Facebook when we have everything set up and you can come back here to place your order! 

 

I can't end this post without bragging a little about my grazing that I planted back in the Winter.  It came up!! It really came up.  And we've had cows grazing it!  Y'all, I killed an air plant once.  Seriously, all that it required was AIR and a mist of water like once a month and I KILLED IT.  That's why I'm so excited to have actually planted something and it grew.  (watered by God, of course, not me)  Anyway, here's a pic because I KNOW that you're just dying to see it...

 

check out those straight rows

(I'm glad that you can't see the back side of this pasture...not so straight)

 

As always, God continues to make His mercies new every single morning.  We are so thankful to GET to live this life that we have been given.  We are continually amazed and humbled by your support and generosity as we travel along this adoption journey.  We are nearing the end and we still have a ways to go ($21,000.00 to be exact).  That number is really scary if I allow myself to look at it as one big chunk..  But, when I look at it as puzzle pieces and how God is fitting each piece together, it gives me a peace and assurance that  He has brought us this far and He's not going to abandon us now.  He places the lonely in families.  HE has placed this desire in our hearts.  He loves Sadie a whole lot more than we ever could (and that's a WHOLE BUNCH). 

 

If you would like to support our adoption and help us BRING SADIE HOME, there are several ways to do this:

 

1. Pray!

2. Donate through PayPal (top left of blog)

3. Tax Deductible Donation through AdoptTogether (top right of blog)

4. Give through YouCaring

5. Help with Both Hands project (email me and let me know you want to help!)

6. Buy a really cool T-shirt!! (See above)



 

Thank you for hanging with me this long!  I'm going out to enjoy some Alabama sunshine with the fam :)

We are officially "logged in" in China!  What this means is that our Dossier is in China and it is being translated!  We are one step closer to Bringing Sadie Home!  The next step is waiting on our LOA (Letter Of Approval) which could take 2-3 months.  We're getting closer!  We can't wait to see the amazing things that God's going to do over the next few months to bring this journey to completion and begin a new journey within our home and our community!  Exciting, scary days ahead but we KNOW that the ONE Sovereign God knows all and will bring this to completion.  All Glory and Honor to Him!

DTC!!!!

We are officially DTC (Dossier to China) today!!! What this means is that all of our paperwork that we've been working on since August is on it's way to China. More importantly, it means that we are ONE STEP CLOSER TO BRINGING SADIE HOME!!! 

We are so in awe of how The Lord has given us peace, comfort, provision and grace during this journey. We will be needing A LOT more of all of that in the coming months as we await China's final approval and all that is involved in traveling to get our girl. 

In the meantime, can we ask you to pray? Specifically, pray that the Lord will continue to quiet our spirits and that we will rest in His Sovereignty. He knows. Our job is to trust. Also, pray for sweet Sadie. Pray that the Lord would protect her heart and keep it functioning at full capacity until we can get her home. Pray that she will feel the love that only the Lord can give. Pray that He would prepare her heart for the huge changes that are on the horizon for her. 

Thank you all for partnering with us on this beautifully messy journey as we trust moment by moment in the One "who is able to do immeasurably more than we all ask or imagine according to his power that is at work within us..." (Ephesians 3:20

Only through Grace,

Jennifer