Monday, December 30, 2013

NEW YEARS GIVEAWAY: Love is Waiting

Thank you all SO MUCH for sharing your joys and struggles with us through this giveaway.  What a blessing that you are allowing our ministry to uplift you through this crazy roller coaster ride of adoption/fostering and, ultimately, parenting.  We are thankful for you!  Happy New Year!

This giveaway is closed.  Winner: Kim Nantz

2013 is drawing to a close which provides an excellent opportunity for reflection as well as contemplation.  As we each take the time to count our blessings individually, we would like to do the same as a team.

First, reflection: 2013 will always be an important year for the Joy in the Journey ministry as this was the year of it's birth.  When the team began earlier this year, we never dreamed that the Lord would grow it so quickly.  We started with the mission to encourage and connect adoptive and foster families and we believe that God has richly blessed His mission through this blog, our Facebook group, and (more recently) through other social media.  We are so thankful to be a part of this journey.  

Secondly, contemplation:  The truth is, the future of this ministry is completely in His hands.  We know that we will continue working around the clock to bring you information, encouragement, and connection through the blog, the retreat in February, and our social media sites.  But, past that, what God has planned is beyond the scope of our imagination and is His to reveal in His time.  We do know that our team of four is committed to this ministry and that it is no accident that each of us shares a passion for adoptive families.  We also know that whatever the future of this journey, we will approach it with JOY as followers of the One who provides that joy!

To show how much we appreciate all of you who are here to help us reflect on an amazing year for this new ministry, we are bringing you {another} giveaway!  This time, it's from an awesome ministry called Love is Waiting.  Here's their story:


Our adoption journey started in 2010, when we decided to adopt a baby boy from Ethiopia. We were buried in paperwork and had a few different fundraisers going, one of which was a t-shirt shop! 




 I designed a couple of t-shirts to sell to help with our expenses, but I didn't just want them to be "throw away" shirts. I didn't want people feeling obligated to buy them and then stuff them in the back of a drawer. I wanted people to buy the shirts because they LOVED them. I made sure the printing was perfect. I splurged on expensive t-shirt blanks. I thought long and hard about the designs… and it worked! people LOVED the shirts! They loved them so much that we even after our adoption was fully paid for, and our son had been home for TWO YEARS… people were still asking about the shirts! How amazing is that?! 



I decided that I had to reopen the store, but this time give funds to OTHER families who need help with adoption expenses. Now we feature a new family each week! We share their story on the blog and 20% of the sales from that week will go towards their adoption! 


I have loved partnering with families in this way and I hope that this little shop grows and grows!  And, we are currently taking new families!  If you'd like to be one of our sponsored families, contact me {Heather} at mrs.heatherhale@gmail.com.

Wouldn't you LOVE to score a Love is Waiting shirt for free??  Here's how you can be entered to win one:


{One entry for each separate comment for a total of up to four entries}
1. Comment on this blog post with one thing that has brought you Joy in 2013.
2. Comment on this blog post with one thing that you are looking forward to in 2014.
3. Comment on the corresponding FB post with one thing that has brought you Joy in 2013.
4. Comment on the corresponding FB post with one thing that you are looking forward to in 2014.

Entries will be accepted for 48 hours only, midnight 12/30/13 to midnight 1/1/14.
Winner will be announced the morning of 1/1/14.




Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Exciting Announcment and GIVEAWAY!

We are SO excited to announce that we have added a new Joy in the Journey team member!
Sarah Habuda is the newest member to our team.  Sarah is amazing and brings a super fun dynamic to our group.  Our ministry is growing so quickly and it became very clear to us that we needed to add a fourth member.  When we began to pray and think about who that fourth member could be and what we needed from them....Sarah was the first name to come to mind.  I know that you all will grow to love her as much as we do.  Please make her feel welcomed to the ministry!



MEET SARAH

My name is Sarah and I am so blessed to become the newest member of the Joy in the Journey team. I am a Jesus follower who is passionate about loving God and loving people. I have a huge heart for adoption, orphan care, and supporting and connecting with adoptive families.
My husband Matt and I have been married for 10.5 years. He makes me laugh, gets my weirdness, encourages my heart, helps me pursue my passions, and is an amazing father to our children.

We talked about adoption before we were ever married…in fact it was part of our conversations before we even started dating! We always knew adoption would be part of our family, and we are so humbled and thankful for the story God has authored for our family.
I have two of the cutest, sweetest, silliest, and most energetic toddlers in the world! Our sons were adopted from Taiwan, are 14 months apart, and are biological siblings. Levi is 2.5 and came home when he was 6 months old. Ethan is 15 months and just came home at the end of September when he was 13 months old.
We are in the middle of the transition period and life at our house is crazy, messy, and exhausting (anyone want to share some toddler sleeping tips?), but yet also full of sweet cuddles, laughter, and joy. We are so blessed and thankful. After teaching elementary school for 9 years, I am grateful to now be a stay-at-home momma to my boys! I am so thankful to my adoptive mommy friends who are helping me navigate motherhood and who encourage and support me, who pray for me, and who laugh and rejoice with me.
It is my prayer that the Joy in the Journey ministry…the blog, the retreat, the community….will help adoptive, foster, and interested mommas to connect with others who also passionately love the Lord and who are walking similar paths. Our desire is that this will be a safe place where we can be real, cultivate relationships, grow and learn, and where we can support, uplift, and encourage one another. It is my prayer that together we will pursue true Joy.
I truly hope that “Joy in the Journey” will not just be a name or catch phrase, but rather reflective of how we… mommas whose lives have been blessed by adoption and foster care…live each step of this life long adoption journey. Let’s walk it together!

In honor of our newest team member we are doing an amazing GIVEAWAY. Look below to find out more details!
She has done it again....Kate Clayton with The Adopt Shoppe has graciously offered to giveaway an amazing globe necklace in honor of Sarah.  Check this out...


Winner gets to choose one of these three necklaces!!  FYI...these went live on her ETSY site last night and she sold out in like 1 minute.  It is a HOT item!!
Here is how to enter:
Go to our FB page and "Like" the page (1 entry)
"Share" this blog on your FB page (1 entry)
Follow us on Twitter (1 entry)
#joyjourney1
Follow us on Pinterest (1 entry)
VERY IMPORTANT:  For ALL enteries please comment on our FB status where this blog is posted that you did the above things (that includes following Twitter and Pinterest).  If you don't comment you will not be entered!
Winner will be announced Friday, December 20 at 2:00pm.

Friday, December 13, 2013

Hope Deferred



Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.
Proverbs 13:12

My husband and I recently completed an inter-country adoption from the Democratic Republic of Congo. As with most long journey’s, we learned the true value of waiting on the Lord’s timing. His timing is perfect and He is good, always.

In January 2012, I made the first “official” call to our adoption agency to begin the process to adopt from the Congo . Some might say our journey to adopt our son began there. I would disagree. I believe our journey began my senior year of high school, when my parents adopted my little sister from Vietnam . I will never forget holding her in my arms and trying to comprehend how this perfect angel could be let go by her family. There were many things that I did not understand, but one thing that I knew for sure. I was changed. Forever. I fell in love. From that moment, I knew that I was called to adopt a child of my own.

In the years following, I married my high-school sweet heart. (I know, risky!!!) Within our first year of marriage we went on a mission trip to Nicaragua . Once again, our lives changed forever. We fell in love… again. Not knowing what else to do, over the next three years, my husband and I preceded to go back to that orphanage to visit, volunteer and love on the children a total of 7 more times. When Ryan graduated college we decided that we wanted needed to see and know more. We needed to see more of the world that was unknown to us. So we did. For five months, we traveled around the world, meeting and loving children that had been discarded. We went to Nicaragua , South Africa , and Cambodia . In each place, our mission was to see, understand, and help (any way we could) these children that had been abandoned and then rescued by amazing people, doing wonderful work. I’m sure it goes without saying, but each place we went, each baby/child I held, the passion within me grew stronger. There were so many children that I would have taken home…


After returning home, we quickly came to the decision to adopt a child of our own. At the time, we were only 23 which turned out to be a problem. Most countries have rules that adoptive parents be at least 25. If we found a country that would work with us, we couldn’t find an organization or agency that would work with us. Many wonderful people talked to us and gave us direction, but at the end of the day all the “leads” we took came up empty handed. After six months of trying (but years of dreaming), I was exhausted, crushed, and very disappointed.

My husband and I also wanted to experience a pregnancy and childbirth of a biological child, so we decided to put the adoption on hold and try to get pregnant. 10 months later, we welcomed our sweet, blessing Epsie Marie.




After having our daughter, I was in complete bliss, but my desire to adopt had not withered at all. Being the extremely patient, slow-moving woman that I am (insert sarcasm); I waited until my daughter was seven weeks old to discuss with my husband beginning the adoption again. Looking back now, I crack myself up. He was not quite ready then, but when Epsie was 6 months old we agreed that we were ready to move forward.

That brings us back to January 2012, the big day when I made the call to the agency. I went into the call with all the crazy, pent up passion of the last years of waiting. I remained cool and calm as the agency coordinator told me that we would need to wait… longer. She told me that they prefer to have 9 months between children when a family with has an infant at home. She told me that we would need to wait another 6 months before fully proceeding.

When I got off the phone, I had a peace that this was where God was leading us. But there it was again, the word that I was beginning to hate accept, wait.

When we decided to adopt through the Congo , we of course did a lot of research to what the process was. The Congo is an increasingly popular country to adopt from. In 2008, there were 8 completed adoptions from the Congo to the US . In 2012, there were 240. The process has grown quickly. Based on UNICEF statistics, there are over 4 million orphaned children in the Congo . The child mortality rates are staggering, 1 in 7 children dying before the age of five. Less than half of the population has a safe source for clean drinking water. Less than a third has access to adequate sanitation facilities.


Like many Americans, we knew very little about this central African country. We learned that DR Congo is the second largest country in Africa . The more we learned about the history of the Congo , the more broken hearted we became. Since the late 1800’s they have survived oppression; whether form foreign ruler’s or civil war it seems that group after group has come into the precious country and used her for all that they could take. Not caring what or whom the cost. Even in the last few decades they have lost millions of lives due to civil war. But somehow, through it all, the Congolese people have kept their strength, beauty and passion for life and family.

We knew that God had led us to the Congo to adopt so as soon as the agency gave us the go ahead, we moved forward. We began in April with signing the contract, May we got in touch with our home-study provider, June and July we did the paper chase, and by the end of July we were able to send our entire dossier to the agency. VICTORY!!! I had made it that far and survived! I was so excited! This was much farther than we had ever gotten before. So now what?

Wait. More.


Perhaps none of you can relate to my story. I am sure there are tons of women out there that are patient, respectful women that completely trust God’s timing and understand that through your perseverance you are acquiring a strength that will be worth it. I however, was not so lucky to be born with that beautiful trait. God has used my having to wait, to teach me things that honestly, I never desired to learn. Who needs patience? “God, it would actually work out better, if you would just give me what I want, when I want it. OK?” It is sad, but very true, that this had been my mentality for much of my life. No, I would’ve never said that at the time, but that is the place that much of my drive was coming from, it originated from a discontentment with God’s timing. It was harder for me when what I was asking for seemed like a great, Godly thing. I wasn’t asking for a new car or to win the lottery. I was asking to care for a child that needed a family. It seemed like something God would be in line with getting done quickly.

October 7, 2012 is a day that I will NEVER forget. While waiting with my husband for a flight home from Richmond , VA I decided to do my regular “morning email check” and to my surprise, I had an email titled, “Your Referral”. Many people dream about the day they will get the positive pregnancy test (including myself), but not as many people dream about the incoming “Referral” email, an email that introduces you to the next member/s of your family. I had dreamed about this moment and to my delightful surprise, my husband was there with me to open it!!!! October 7, 2012 was the day that I “met” my son… through an email.

Benjamin Mofia Kyalwe, I have been waiting for you.



Through the following year, we went through the roller coaster that all adoptive parents go through. The seemingly endless policy and timeline changes were exhausting. If I can tell someone one piece of advice when adopting from The Democratic Republic of Congo it would be to be FLEXIBLE. And I mean, very flexible. Because of the rapid growth of international adoptions, the country is constantly changing their policies and requirements. We were in the process for a year. During that year, we had many different timeline estimations: 6 months, 9 months, 12 months, 18 months, we truly never knew what to think. Honestly, if we had gotten our paperwork a month later our son would still be in the Congo right now. I once read a quote by Anthony Bourdain about the Congo , “ Congo is a place where everything is fine-until it isn’t.” In my opinion, that is a completely accurate description of adopting from the Congo as well. Things are fine, until they aren’t. I truly believe that the Congolese people LOVE their children and they want to do what is best for them; however, there are so many opposing opinions of what the best avenue is, the children end up becoming lost in legislation.

In June 2013, we received an unexpected call from our agency asking us if we could fly to the Congo to file some paperwork. This was our choice, but they believed that this could significantly reduce our adoption timeline. This took me about one second to decide After talking with my husband, we decided that it would be worth the trip if it meant that it could possibly speed up our process. In less than 3 weeks from that call we were on a plane. To the Congo . To meet our son.

This was the moment that I had waited for, for years, the moment that I would be holding a precious baby that needed a mom and it would be me. Me. I was chosen to protect a child that didn’t have anyone to protect him. I can’t begin to explain the gravity of this moment in my life. The moment I met him.

Meet Shepherd Ilo-Mofia Carter, the baby boy that has my heart.


To our surprise the trip was WELL WORTH it! After turning our paper work in to the US Embassy and having them interview our son’s birth mother, a 3-6 month process turned into a 3 day process. We actually received the notice that this step was done within an hour of having to say good bye to Shepherd. It was truly a gift from God.

I was finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. It was looking like we would be headed back to the Congo within weeks to bring our son home, FOREVER! But, of course, nothing goes exactly as planned. The 4 week wait, turned into a 12 week wait. I had 4 different flight dates. Those weeks were definitely some intense times between me and God. Broken heartedly, I continually chose to trust God as the finish line kept being moved back. I was so tired from this long, exhausting journey, but I was determined to not quit on the final lap. I wanted to finish strong, trusting that God was finishing a good work within me. And then, as if this journey had never caused me a bit of pain, I was back holding my son and all seemed right in my world, for the first time in years.

After 9 years of waiting, fighting, praying, crying, begging, trusting and hoping… my promise was redeemed.





I love the term heart sick because it is a perfect word for what a lengthy delay of a dream does to your soul. Have you ever had your hope deferred? As I look back I realize that I have spent a large portion of my life heartsick, waiting for him, my beautiful, precious son. Don’t get me wrong, I did not wait on my dream to be fulfilled to live life to the fullest, but more than I can count I stopped in the midst of my full life and mourned the piece that was yet to be.





For some of you, it is an adoption. For others, it is pregnancy. And others, a career or life dream. But many of us know what it feels like to have our “hope deferred”. It is a human experience that no one enjoys, but I want to encourage you. If you allow God to shape you during the times of wait, He will truly deliver the promise to turn your mourning into joy. And one day, you will realize that your journey of hope deferred has turned into the part of your life that has produced the most joy and life. Continue to run the race that God has set before you. Enjoy all the twists and turns, because when you look back, you don’t want to realize that you forgot to enjoy a large part of this journey called life.



Haley Carter is a stay at home mom of a 2 year-old daughter and 1 year-old son. She has been married to her husband, Ryan, for seven, very eventful years. She is blessed to be able to work one day a week outside of the home as a Cosmetologist. Her life goal is to not go to the grave with her music still in her. She truly strives to live and enjoy life to the fullest everyday. 

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Finding Joy in Life and Death




She stared at the blank piece of paper for maybe 3 seconds at most then started doing what she always does, draws exactly what was in her head.  It looked as if she was in a clueless daydream of art sitting on the back row of her daddy’s baptism class at church, but oh was I wrong.  She stared and drew and this process went back and forth until the class was over and she handed me the most amazing picture I have ever seen.  There was Jesus with his hands up and light shining around him and beside him it said John 11:25.  I knew exactly what she was saying because we had been memorizing that verse together “I am the resurrection and the life.” My heart was filled with joy because my little girl perfectly captured what life is. But at the same time my heart sank because of how she learned this lesson.
Life has so many brilliant moments. Like a wedding day with a bride and groom so desperately in love with each other. Or the painting of a room for the child that is soon to join your family.  The list could go on with moments that we easily can “rejoice with those who rejoice.”  But we all know in life that death is always lurking around the corner. And as quickly as that couple fell in love they are now losing a fight with cancer, or the room that was so neatly decorated for your child again lays vacant.  Death is always looking for someones' joy and is willing to take it away.          Then how do we find joy in death?
This is has not been an easy lesson for me and truthfully it is a lesson that I am still learning.  There are days that death gets the better of me and joy seems a lifetime ago. Then life shows up like sunshine coming through the clouds to deliver joy.  I am reminded of a moment this happened after my son Gavin had passed away. My husband wanted to see a concert for his birthday and it involved two bands that had helped him in his grieving.  The show was almost over and they began to sing a song titled “This is not the End.” It was one of those moments the death that surrounds us gets swallowed up by the truth of what Jesus had done for us.  This world is not the end and one day all things will be made new.  I can remember it felt like through this song God was telling us, it is okay I even have this under control.
The truth is there is no joy in death.  Death is the enemy and frankly it was never intended to be on this earth. But it is.  I would be lying to say that death alone brings joy.  But there is one thing about death that you can find joy in…. it has been defeated.  God in His great love and mercy came and conquered it for us and now we can honestly sing, “This is not the End.”  The joy to be found in death is that it is not final; it cannot and it does not win.
Honestly the journey that I am on I would not wish on my worst enemy. And if I could edit my own story I would probably erase the death that has changed our family temporarily.  But there is a lens I see the life in now that is seeping out into my other children and though my heart sinks sometimes I can say I take joy because of pictures from a 6 year old that remind me, Jesus is the “Resurrection and the Life” and because of that this truly is not the end.

Janna and Brennan


Israel and Lyndlee


Friday, December 6, 2013

SPOTLIGHT: Adopting From China



SPOTLIGHT: ADOPTING FROM CHINA


The Lyon Family
We are the Lyon Family.  I was chosen to be a mother through the gift and story of adoption.   Our journey was not easy, and if you would have told me fifteen years ago that this was the life God had planned for me, I would have been disappointed.  I would have been disappointed, because they were not my plans, and no one knew me better than me.  My countless pages of plans were bound tight, with the stretching of spine and the branding of black-ink to paper.  They became tangible and definitive.  But God, He is not finite; He is infinite.  My plans were confined and narrow, and His for my life were boundless, eternal and everlasting.   He knew those pages etched with ink would be the same pages I would cry over, and grieve over for years.  But, His love and His knowledge were inconceivable to me, constrained by the narrow lens of my human understanding. 

“My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
 all the days ordained for me were written in your book
 before one of them came to be.”
{Psalm 139:15-16}


When my eyes were finally opened my story would be replaced with the breadth of pages written with His hand, a story, spinning cosmic dust to sky.  Our journey to family would change me, grow me, destroy me, and ultimately transform me.  God knew that this was the one Journey that would teach me I could no longer hide my heart, because I would learn I could not be hidden from Him.  The lifelong construction to keep anything or anyone from entering my hearts’ chambers would have to be destroyed.  My protective framework would ultimately fail and NOTHING could barricade the plans He had for me.  His pursuit for me would erode brick and mortar to expose my heart to finally allow Him in. When He made His breakthrough I was forever changed and my bounded plans dissolved into debris settling on the beautiful country of China. 


When the debris and the decision to finally adopt after almost ten years of yearning and longing, God revealed our journey would begin with the preface of a daughter in China.  But again my well thought out plans for China would be pushed into later chapters.  There would be editing and re-writes on our Journey to family that began with China in 2004.   Because a God who has permission to author our story is a God who has permission to insert, delete, and even change our draft to include His redemptive Story.   So when our first Daughter Gracyn was Adopted from Taiwan in 2009 we were blessed beyond any human measure.  

She was the part of the story that would teach us what the unconditional love of family was.  Her name in itself was a teaching chapter.  When she was placed into my arms the veil was torn, ripped open and what I saw on the other side was the face of God and, a world full of hope and grace I had not known until that moment.  She was the building blocks of chapters that would follow, revealing a Loving Father I never knew.  Her life began a redemptive work within me and my well thought out chapters would never have included even the word redemption in them.  My finite understanding of redemption was shallow taught within the small context of the movie ‘The Shawshank Redemtion."  Although I knew somewhat what redemption meant it was not at work within me.  God knew that Gracyn would be the daughter who we would call our first, because we needed to be immersed in the language of God before we could speak and teach the language.  Gracyn would reveal to us an amazing God, and a loving Father so big, and so magnificent, that we were ready to free fall face first to follow His plans in the following chapters to China. 





There were mountains of paper work that began in December of 2004, and then more paper work, and changing paperwork, and editing and omitting, and Homestudy after Homestudy, and fingerprint after fingerprint, changing of agencies and siphoning of life savings to bring our second daughter home from China.  It was a painful process and it was a sure fire test of our faith and obedience.   But when I saw the face of our second daughter Jadyn God revealed to me a vision of her asleep in my arms.  I had no idea it would take twenty one months before she would ever find comfort in my embrace.  Gods plans for our family were far greater than we could ever have asked or imagined.




It was not until January 30th 2012 when we would finally meet our daughter Jadyn in China.

Jadyn 
Gotcha Day 

January 30th 2012




On January 25th 2012 our family of three set out on a journey to bring Jadyn home.  We landed in Beautiful Beijing.  and spent 4 days touring the beautiful country.  The jet lag each of us experienced was difficult, but by day four we adjusted to the new time.  We met up with other families within our travel group and toured with them.  There were nineteen other families in our travel group.  Our Agency was AMAZING!!! They took such good care of us and knew so much about the culture, the language, the food and shopping.  This was a once in a lifetime experience that I wouldn't change for anything.  Getting to know other families within our travel group was so comforting and exciting. Other families also brought their younger children as well.  These families will continue to be part of our lives forever as part of a journey none of us will ever forget. 





On the 28th of January we set out to fly to Jadyn's Province.  Jadyn's Province The Henan Province was the largest in the entire country.  This is where our large travel group was separated into smaller groups depending on which Province our children were in.  We still had a very large travel group of twelve families.  Gracyn was just three years old and I could not have imagined leaving her for three weeks to bring Jadyn home.  I think the fragility of our attachment would have made it more difficult when we returned home for everyone.  She did great climbing The Great Wall and shopping and meeting new friends.  






There was some downtime for attachment and bonding with Jadyn and the family.  The first night was really tough and you can read more about that on my previous blog So Far to Find You.  

Since Jadyn was in a Show Hope Sponsored Orphanage in China, I wanted to make sure that I got to see MBHOH (Maria's Big House of Hope.)  What an unbelievable experience to be able to see where my daughter spent some time when she was very little until she transferred to New Hope. The Director even knew who Jadyn was.  On the day we traveled to MBHOH David and the girls stayed back at the Hotel and did some touring. 





Blessed by a family who lost their daughter.  If not for Maria's death where would my Jadyn be today?  An amazing place loving on and caring for the sickest kiddos in the country.  I made a promise to myselft that day - that I was going to do anything I could to advocate for Orphans in China.    

We spent seven Days in Jadyn's Province and then we were off to our final part of our twenty-one day trip in China.  Our last few days we would spend in Guangzhou.  We had appointments for Visas and Passports. Jadyn had her medical exam as well which would be required before we would have our interview with the Chinese Consulate.  Guangzhou was hot and humid an filled with rich culture and people.  It reminded us a lot of home.  











Finally, after a very long Journey we headed for Hong Kong and spent the night.  We boarded the airplane for home the following day.  I could not wait to get Home.  I was exhausted, and ready for some Americanized food.  I wanted to be in my bed so bad I couldn't stand it.  There were lots of tears for all of us in those last few days.  The adjustment was difficult.  The sleeping all night even more difficult.  







In those three weeks, our family was forever changed.  We experienced a lot of sadness with the growth of family.  The transition was hard for different reasons for each of us.  To this day I wouldn't change it. What was the most difficult was when we arrived home we experienced illness and lack of sleep on top of jet lag.  It would prove to be devastating to an adoptive family and for the attachment of Jadyn.  Within 48 hours we had two children in The Children's Hospital for seven days from contracting Influenza B.  I have never prayed so hard, cried so hard or have ever felt as alone as I did sitting wide awake in a hospital.  It was devastating for Jadyn and her attachment with both David and I became even more challenging.  She would have to learn to trust us again. And one day she will.






Our experience of Adopting from China was amazing, challenging, heartbreaking, and beautiful.  I wouldn't change it despite the flu and the hospitalization.  Because, in those days in China, and after we arrived back home, it was just me and God.  It was a time when I had to trust all of Him, and that He was going to see us through. Thankful the final chapter of our family is still being written.  Thankful we have a Father that is working in and through the adoption of our children to teach us about being part of His redemptive story. Because of adoption of this little girl from China, I have grown deeper into my faith and my relationship with the one I love to call Daddy, and I am overflowing with thanksgiving that He would chose someone like me to be their mother.    


                    .....................................................................             
          
I’m a Ragamuffin Writer, A Lyoness Heart; Chosen as a Mother through the gift of Adoption. I’m a Wife, a Mother, a Nurse, a Blogger & Lover of Jesus. I love all things Adoption both the Bitter & the Sweet.  I am a Daughter of The King most High, who was Chosen, Adopted, Forgiven, & Redeemed, and because of His love for me ~ I am committed to defending the Fatherless.