Exciting week!!! LID and Introducing....!!!!

What beautiful blessings the week of celebrating Jesus's birth!!!  The very spirit who showed us what adoption and serving others looks like!  The loving Christ who sacrificed his life for us, sinners.

As you know, last Friday our dossier was sent to China.  A mere four days later, China already has us logged into their computer system - official LID is 12/22/15!!!!  That is blessing number one!!!!

Blessing number two is that our puzzle fundraising is complete!!!!  

Our goal was Christmas and we did it!!!  You did it!!!  20% of our fundraising goal is complete!!!!  

Thank you for blessing us with your support!!!!

Now that the puzzle is complete, we are blessed to introduce you to our son, Xavier, who waits in China for us.  He is almost 5 years old!  I cannot wait to see a smile on his face, I have only ever seen pictures of him with this hopeless look on his face - it breaks my heart.  

Below is the first photo I ever saw of this precious child, 

soon after our adoption of Corban and Tegan. 

I fell in love and I advocated (along with many others) for the past three years to find him a family.  I have watched him grow through updated pictures, with a continued sulky look on his face.  My heart broke from him, again and again. When I learned that he resided in the same province as Esther, I felt God was talking to me.  Therefore, I challenged God (I still chuckle at this) to prove that this was His will for us and this precious boy.  Well, God answered over and over again.

As many of you know, Xavier, who rocks his Nevus, will fit well into our family, which already has three other Nevus owners who rock their birthmarks!  We can't wait to get him home (and Esther too) to show him the love of a family and put a smile on his face!

Thank you all for your continued partnership, encouragement, and prayers! We still have a lot of adoption expenses to incur and funds to raise.  If you would like to continue to partner with usby doing a small fundraiser of your own or by making a monthly contribution, we would be so very blessed by your efforts to help us close the funding gap!!!  We should travel in 4-5 months, which doesn't leave us a lot of time.

Tax-deductible contributions can be made at www.adopttogether.org/downey - please share with anyone you know who may be looking to make a year end contribution for tax deduction purposes.  

Thank you!

We are DTC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So excited to get to announce this major milestone!!!!  The pile of paperwork that we have been diligently working on, for China to review to see if we will be acceptable parents for Esther and Xavier, was sent sent to China by our agency today!!!!!  We are DTC - a.k.a. Dossier To China!!!!!!!

With that the fundraising continues because the expenses of the process will begin to pile rather quickly as we near the later part of this journey.  We are now on limited, approximately 4-5 months till we travel!!!   Therefore, if you feel you would like to come along side us and be a piece of this adoption journey, we would graciously accept any size contribution you feel you led to give ($5, $15, $50, $500), it all adds up and closes the gap between the high cost of the adoption process and our savings account!  Can't make a monetary contribution?  Perhaps you could help us out by spreading the word or doing your own little fundraiser!  If you are interested in that, please leave me a message here on the blog (with a way to contact you) or via Facebook!

Tax-deductible donations can be made at our fundraising site: www.AdoptTogether.org/downey

The puzzle is nearly complete - will you accept the CHALLENGE?

Tears flowed today, a family contacted us to utilize our gift wrapping adoption fundraiser services and blessed us with a nice donation - we are so very blessed to have such wonderful new and long time friends, and some we don't even know, partnering with us in this journey! - every amount, small and big, as well as, time spent helping us fund raise- it's all given from the heart and adds up to us bringing these precious children home!!!  For that we are thankful!

Soon, our adorable boy's picture will be revealed - over $4000 has been raised (have you seen the goal thermometer?)- only 51 pieces left to complete the puzzle and this puzzle fundraiser's goal!!!!

CHALLENGE - We really want to share this adorable blessing with all of you, by Christmas eve!  To do that we need 51 people to make a $20 donation or more (or 20 people to make a $50 or 10 people to make a $100), to our AdoptTogether.org/Downey tax deductible fundraising site to reach the puzzle completion goal.  Who's ready to see this child who has waited so long for a family to call his own?  I know I can't wait to share him!

Donations can be made online through AdoptTogether, or checks can be sent as well, if you have questions on either of these, please ask!

BONUS: If local, gift wrapping is another option, get gifts wrapped with your donation!!!!

Who's ready to partner with us for the challenge?

Deuteronomy 26:12-13"When you have finished paying all the tithe of your increase in the third year, the year of tithing, then you shall give it to the Levite, to the stranger, to the orphan and to the widow, that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied.