Friday, December 30, 2011

Her 2nd Christmas

It looks as if Hope had an absolutely wonderful Christmas!  I found photos of her on her foster home's website.  Here are a couple of them, but you can see more of Hope and all the children here in a scrapbook they posted.





Can you see the love?  We can.  Hope is so very loved right now.  Its a beautiful thing.  It scares me a little bit.  I know she is going to grieve so greatly the love she's had all these months and months when we take her away from all she's known.  Hope won't know anything, but love and security and we will be taking that all away to give her a new life in a foreign land with crazy brothers and a mommy and daddy who are...well, we're crazy too.  Lord, prepare her heart for us.  Prepare us for her.

She had a wonderful Christmas and thanks to many sponsors all of the children in her foster home did too, but they still need families.  Could one of them be yours?  Next Christmas there will be one less!

15 months & some rambling

Today our little girl is 15 months old.  When I first laid eyes on her she was only 6 months.  She's growing up so fast it hurts. The good Lord has worked long and hard in our lives since then and now here we are, 9 months later, anxiously waiting to bring her home to our family forever.  In some ways it seems like just yesterday when Hope came flooding into our lives and in other ways it seems like years. I have faith that God's timing is perfect, but its easy to get caught up in the "why's" when I start to dwell on all the 1st we're missing in her life.  I have to be very intentional about trusting Him on this one because I want her home and I want her home NOW, but I know there is a reason much greater than just the nonsense of bureaucratic red tape holding up the timing of things.

For instance, we know that God's hand carefully chose our adoption timeline to coincide with the conclusion of Sully's surgeries.  He knows that we emotionally and financially could not meet the needs of our family as a whole while having two children going through this process simultaneously, on top of a Lincoln's needs and attention...oh, and our marriage :)  It is also looking very promising that we will be traveling during the summer when I am off from work.  That is ALL God.  I have very little leave time available as a teacher and so when it comes to surgeries and babies and all that good stuff we work very hard to "plan" around the summer months.  If it works out to bring Hope home in June or early July, we can be certain that is a special blessing from God...no detail is too small or too big for him.

Today also marks day 51 of our wait for the USCIS (Homeland Security) to approve our family to adopt from China, in other words, approve us to bring an immigrant into the country.  This really should not take this long.  Its ridiculous.  Its one thing to wait on China for approvals, but its a whole different ball game waiting for your own government...especially when we've already been "checked out" by the FBI, our state government, our home study agency, six references and who knows who else.  Its frustrating, but necessary...I guess.  I've called a number of times and even though our paperwork has been in their hands since November 9th we still have not been assigned an officer.  This is your tax payer dollars at work friends.  Did I mention that this approval costs a ridiculous amount of money...to the tune of 800 dollars!?!?

So we wait some more.  If the averages prove correct, we are looking at another 10-14 day wait for our approval.  Once that comes there will be a fury of activity on our end and then some big, exciting news with letters like DTC, LID, LOI, PA that will all happen in a matter of a few short weeks.  I'll explain all about those things as they come around.  For now, say our prayer for our little 15 month old and for our 797.  We want our hands on both of those things...like YESTERDAY!!

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Missing You at Christmas

Its Christmas Eve and its wonderful to be home at the farm, spending time with family and relaxing, but there's a big piece missing this year.  Ever since I saw Hope back in April, she's taken a piece of my heart.    Now that we've been matched as Hope's family its a million times worse.  A part of our family is half way around the world and it hurts.  It hurts to know she's ours and we couldn't get on a plane and bring her home 3 months ago.  I just want her to know what my arms feel like.  I want her to know what its like to go to the farm to celebrate Christmas, to see Grandma J's Christmas lights, to meet Great Grandpa Roling tonight.  I want you home.



I found the most beautiful song "Merry Christmas" by Third Day that writes about waiting for your child from China over Christmas.  I HAD to make a slideshow of special photos with that song.  Get your kleenex ready...



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Another photo slideshow by Smilebox




This will be your last Christmas without us baby girl.  Merry Christmas, Hope!


We are about a month away from getting our paperwork to China, also known as Dossier to China.  This is a HUGE step in the right direction.  We are anticipating travel in summer of 2012 to bring Hope home forever.

Monday, December 5, 2011

Christmas for Hope!

A piece of my heart is in China this Christmas.  The only things that are keeping my heart full are knowing that Carl and I will have a blast with the boys this year and that God has Hope wrapped in his loving arms so tight that I can feel them from all the way around the world.  I've had the house decorated for Christmas for a *few* weeks now (gasp, I know...it was just after Halloween).


The thing is....we're 7000 miles away from Hope and I didn't want any problems with the mail getting hung up through customs and not make it to her in time for Christmas AND I just couldn't send off her gifts and the gifts for her foster home brothers and sisters and ayis (nanny's) without having a picture of them under our tree.  There.  That's my wonderful excuse reason for decorating early.  She's worth it.  Sooo worth it!!

One full box was stuffed full of clothes and toys for the foster home that we used a vacuum sealed bag to maximize space in the flat rate shipping box, two were filled with gifts for Hope and one was filled with gifts for her caregivers.  I hope that our gifts will be a blessing to all the children and the loving people caring for Hope while she waits for us.  We found out this week that they've already safely made their way to China so Hope's Christmas is all ready for her.  I can't wait to see if the foster home will have pictures of all the kids opening their gifts on their blog.  We'll just have to wait and see!

We had such a wonderful time shopping for Hope.  Oh, it was so fun to hit the "pink" aisles :)
We carefully wrapped Hope's special gifts and got her a special "H" stocking to match the "C", "B", "L" and "S" hanging in our living room.  But the most important gift I bought was this...

Hope's very first baby doll!

I looked high and low to find Hope her very first baby doll which wouldn't have been so tricky if I hadn't been adamant that it couldn't be just any old ordinary baby doll, it HAD to be an Asian beauty just like our girl.  When I found this FAO Schwartz doll, the only Asian doll in our Toys R Us, it brought me to tears.  Its perfect!

Lincoln thought it was pretty cool, too.  He's sure she'll love it and I am too.


My mom couldn't resist shopping for Hope and added a few special things.  Sandals, new socks, a cute little outfit and a special book "It's Time to Sleep, My Love" by Nancy Tillman with the coordinating panda bear.

And then are the gifts from mom, dad and the boys.  New clothes, books, a puzzle,her baby doll and new jammies...


and a completely impractical, but absolutely stunning Christmas dress.  This is actually the dress that I would love to have her wear when we go for our consulate appointment that makes our adoption of her official in China, if it still fits by then.


I also have an extra special idea for this dress....
Do you want in on a little secret?

Of course, you do.


This dress might just end up being what my little princess wears when we take photos for HER fundraiser cookbook :)  That's right!  We're toying around with doing a cookbook fundraiser for Hope as well.  If I can pull it off, it'll be a collection of holiday recipes and traditions (all holidays, not just Christmas) from all of YOU. I'm thinking a great title would be "Hope for the Holidays."  What do ya think?

Hope is going to need even more surgeries than Sully has and our out of pocket expenses per year have now more than doubled.  I know God will make a way, but we'd be foolish not to start thinking now about how we're going to take care of her medical expenses and the cost of travel involved.  Hope's first surgery is scheduled for August 2nd, 2012 if she's home by then and I pray she is!

So this is where YOU come in :)

If you would like to share a recipe or a holiday tradition that your family has (even just a few sentences or an idea of what your family does to celebrate any particular holiday), I would LOVE it if you would send them my way!  I'll be collecting recipes and traditions for a while, but what better time to send them my way now when you already have them out to make all your favorite holiday recipes :)

The funds we've raised with Sully's cookbook over the last 2 years have been an absolute blessing beyond words.  God has provided in miraculous ways and we have no reason to doubt that he'll take care of Hope, too.  God is so good!! And something tells me.."Hope for the Holidays," Hope's medical fundraiser cookbook will be pretty good, too :)

You can send your recipes and traditions to:  

bethnagel@ymail.com

Beth Nagel
413 W 8th St
Dell Rapids, SD  57022
 

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