Has It Really Been This Long?

Yes, it has almost been a year since my last post. What a year it has been, lots of struggles, new joys and experiences, along with growth. I hope to post some of those in the coming weeks but for today I am just going to post some family photos we just got back from Living Reflection Photography

Silly Littles, hard to get them all to look at the camera!

Beautiful Daughters, Wow!!

And the Men...so thankful for these guys and look at their handsomeness!

All of us..still missing Tyler, Emily and Sawyer, but one day we will have a photo of all of us.

My Little Sawyer Crew

I just got to spend 4 precious days with my sweet, 4 month old grandson. He is getting so big and is so adorable. Laughing, cooing, talking, rolling, grabbing at stuff and giving the sweetest, little looks with his eyes.

So, look who has the cutest grandson ever!!! I am the proudest Amma ever...

Our Sweet, Feisty Little Girl

Adelia has been with us for 17 months now. It feels like yesterday but then at the same time she was always here. Funny, how love and time make it feel like a person belongs in your life.

God is so gracious and kind to give us this sweet and feisty girl. Adelia, or Addie as she is most often called, is so smart. She has learned English so quickly and loves to do school. She definitely has strong opinions about everything. She is a peace maker (well most of the time). She loves to worship God. She has a beautiful voice. She is strong. She is kind-hearted. She has the most amazing smile and sparkling eyes. She is a fighter, in the most positive ways, she stands up for what is right and she works hard at doing the things that are hard for her to do. I truly love this girl with all my heart.

I am so thankful to have her big hugs and sweet words. We have been "writing" notes in a journal to her foster parents. She has been grieving them something fierce. Yesterday she told me to write that she loved and missed them (which is typical) and she added that she has a new friend. I asked who was her friend and she said "mama, you are my new friend". Oh, I felt such love toward her and our God, for helping she and me to bond. I am attaching the video I finally completed of her adoption and days here with us these last months. The photo you see at the airport with me meeting her, for the first time she held onto me is monumental. From that moment forward, it has honestly been that way. I am so praising God for doing that and answering my prayers so abundantly in our relationship. I am not saying there hasn't been hard days. We have had some difficult ones for sure. I already worry about her teenage years ahead sometimes LOL. But she is My Daughter, through and through, and I give God all the glory.

Adelia Adoption Video

Support Our Adoption

We have two fundraisers we are running for our adoption.

 1. Unique Butterfly Jewelry This jewelry maker has graciously offered to sponsor us and support our adoption. Each sale of her Butterfly Jewelry will have 20% given back to our adoption. There are some absolutely beautiful pieces she has, which are very affordable. They would make great gifts too. If you go to her site and make a purchase please put a note "I want to support April's Adoption." She is selling some other items on her store but only the Butterfly jewelry gives us the financial support.

* I did ask about how she acquires the butterflies and she said they come from Butterfly Sanctuaries all over the word, living full lives. They were not hunted :)

 https://www.etsy.com/shop/Art4Justice

2. Fund The Nations T-Shirts

We have a personally designed, awesome t-shirt,  Voice For the Voiceless. 

We picked this verse from Proverbs 31:8-9."Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy."
It is a great unisex shirt.  We are asking for a $25 donation for each shirt, which includes shipping. We will have sizes from YXS to XXXL. They are softer tshirt material and not preshrunk. XXL and up, do cost another $2.  We will be running this order for only a couple of weeks. I will let you know when it gets closer to our closing date so we can get the order in.

 If you would like to order a shirt please go to Voice For the Voiceless for credit card orders. If you would like to pay by check, send me your email address in a Post and I will email you my address. Once the order is closed I should have shirts in less than 2 weeks.

Thank you so much for considering these two fundraisers. 

Also, please show your love and support by passing along this information to your friends.. Thank you!

April (and Jay and family)

New Photos and Adoption Update

We have recently received some new photos of our little guy !!

I am so happy to see him smiling and all his cuteness.

He is still on the smaller side, and not crawling or walking. But he seems like he has grown a lot and turning more into a toddler.  From our update questions we are told his heart is holding okay. However, we were told the same before we brought Isaiah home and he was not doing well when we adopted him. So I just think sometimes they don't know. We also found out today that our dossier in China has moved out of translation and into Review. There is 4 stages of dossier processing. The first is Translation, the second is Review, third is Match, and fourth is Approval. The first is generally the longest and it took about a month. So I am so hoping we have our approval in about 30-45 days, which means we can very likely travel in February or March like I had been hoping for.. I know it will all be in God's perfect timing. However, we are anxious to get him home.

We are also doing some fundraising. I am going to post a separate post about that next. Please consider buying a personally designed tshirt we are asking for donations for. Or purchase some beautiful, unique butterfly jewelry that a sweet etsy, adoptive mom is helping us raise funds with.

My Heart....

I had the blessing of visiting my new grandson, Sawyer a few weeks back. I missed my kiddos greatly, but little baby boy stole my heart. I got to love on him and help his Mommy and Daddy a little. 

Can you just imagine the sweet bliss I had for 5 days?

Look at this face...

I didn't get to see his first smiles (although he was so close) but here is the first captured by his Mommy!

I am already counting down the days when I get to see them all again...September is coming quickly.

Blessed Beyond Measure

Not sure why or how this happened, except for Jesus. I am blessed.. I pray I never forget that..

Makenna, Addie, Eliza, Lenea, Me, Ellie and Moriah

Jacob, Toby, Asher (front) Jay and Isaiah