Exciting Things Going On!!

I have to admit...the waiting process in adoption can be very challenging and stressful at times.  But we are SO grateful that God gives us many projects and things to do in the process of our waiting!!

Not only have we been doing the $50 Family Photo Fundraiser to help raise funds for our adoption (God has done some AWESOME things through that!!)...but we have written a children's book that we are self publishing on Amazon to also help us raise funds for our adoption.  We are SO EXCITED that the book is almost ready.  It will be ready to purchase in the next few weeks off of amazon.com just in time for November - Adoption Awareness Month and also CHRISTMAS!  It will make a GREAT Christmas present for any child or grand child you know! Better yet...it will be great for ANYONE who has a heart for adoption or for helping orphans!

We are just thrilled about this project and we pray that it is a blessing to many adoptive families...but we also pray that it inspires other people to step out and adopt, or maybe even help organizations with the mission to help orphans!!

It will be released really SOON...but I wanted to show you all a few sneak peeks of some of it!! As soon as it's ready to purchase...we will share with you all the link so you can purchase it if you'd like...and you can share the link with others...so they can purchase it as well!!! We cannot WAIT to see what God is going to do!! Here are a few samples. You can click on each photo to make it larger so you can see it better.  We sure love you all and are so grateful for your prayers, support and encouragement. They mean a TON to us!! We will keep you posted!! Here they are!!

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A Quick Update

Hey guys!! So sorry for the lack of posts.  This process just takes a little bit of time and we don't want to overwhelm everyone with updates unless we actually have info! :)  Anyway...so here it goes!!

HOME STUDY COMPLETE:
We finally have completed our home study...whoohoo!!...(took 6 months this time, 7 months last time around.)  We are waiting for our social worker to finish it up so we can begin compiling our Dossier - More paperwork! :) We did FINALLY get Mark's parents fingerprints straight.  Whew...it was a little touch and go there for a bit...but it got worked out! Praise God!! :)

BEING MATCHED:
We don't have any new info regarding being matched yet with our little boy. BUT...we did get a very encouraging email from Lifeline this week that I wanted to share with you all.  We anticipate that it will not be long before God shows us our precious little son!!  Here is the note we received:
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The Lifeline Team is having an amazing time in Chongqing and tomorrow will travel to our new orphanages in Fuling and WanZhou. We have seen several of the children whose files we have received and are preparing to match. We appreciate your patience as we continue to receive updates on children, have our questions answered about them and progress with the matching process.

On another encouraging note, we have received word that we will be receiving files from a few more of our partnership orphanages in the next few weeks. We are so excited to see files continue to come in. Please remember that matching will be a process occurring over several weeks, not just one matching event. We are confident that we will have referrals for our families, we are just unsure of the timeframes at this point. Your social worker will be contacting you in the next few weeks for an update on your family's status.

Give thank to the Lord, for He is good,

For His steadfast love endures forever;

to Him alone does great wonders,

His steadfast love endures forever.

Psalm 136:1&4

The Lifeline China Team

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This is VERY EXCITING NEWS and we look forward to being matched.  We know it is in God's hands and timing and we pray that HE direct the hands of the Lifeline Team to the child that He wants in our family!! We will definitely keep you all posted!!

FUNDRAISING:

Our fundraising has been going wonderful!! Thank you ALL SO MUCH for helping us with our $50 Family Photos, and our bracelet fundraiser...AND now to the Kids Kloset Consignment Sale!! We don't have the final amount yet of all that was donated there...but we should have that amount very soon!! We will keep you posted and be sure and let everyone know!! God is SO FAITHFUL and never ceases to amaze us in His hand of provision!! As you can see from our fundraising "thermometer" to the right...things are doing well!!! We love every time we get to raise that bar!!! It is just an immense faith builder!!! 

One thing we are SUPER EXCITED about is we have a Children's book coming out in October that we will be selling on Amazon.com as a fundraiser.  We wrote the story about 4 years ago...and our friend Stephanie Presley has just finished with 17 original illustrations that absolutely bring this book to LIFE!!! We are diligently working on the book daily now and hope to have it ready for everyone to purchase in early October!! 

We will be sure and post the link here so you can go directly there to purchase one if you'd like.  Its a wonderful gift for Christmas, or even for November - National Adoption Awareness Month!! We cannot WAIT to share it with you all!! It is SO exciting!!

ALL FOR NOW:

Thats it for now!! Hopefully we will have another good update in a couple of weeks.  We truly look forward to seeing the face of "our brother." (Thats what we all call him now, until we learn who he is and pray about what we will call him.)  We promise to keep you posted!!! Y'all...let us know if you have questions!! Thank you again for following our journey and for praying for us each step of the way!! This is indeed a blessing for us to be on this journey!! Have a great weekend!!

Mark & Buffi

Gratitude and Grace

We are SO excited to be sharing with you guys something SO AWESOME God has done!! We feel so blessed to have such amazing friends around us with such hearts for adoption and hearts to help these precious little ones find their forever families!


GRATITUDE:
We have dear friends who are the owners of Kids' Kloset Consignment sale in our area.  They have such amazing hearts to help connect families with children in need and they have decided to sponsor a family, beginning this fall, for each of their sales.  For the Fall 2012 sale...they are sponsoring OUR family and taking donations to help us raise some of the money needed for our adoption costs!! THIS IS AMAZING!!! We were in tears as Tiffany, one of the owners, contacted us to ask us.  God is truly amazing...and when people are obedient to follow His leading and His heart....GREAT things happen!!! They even set up a page on their website to let people know!! You can check it out here! If you live in our area...please support this wonderful organization.  We are so excited about what God is going to do!!! We cannot wait to keep you posted!!

GRACE:
As always....we need grace as we wait through this process.  There are so many highs and lows as we wait. There are a couple of things we ask you to pray for.

1.  We feel like in the next month to six weeks or so that we might find out who our little fellow is.  We are not 100% sure...but its what we are anticipating.  Please pray that we will sense God's leading and know for sure when He has placed before us our little boy!! As our pastor says...as long as we stay out of things ourselves...and let God do it...we won't get in the way!! That is our prayer...that our thoughts...desires...plans...etc...do not get in God's way!! We want to have open hearts and ears to sense what He is telling us and when!!! We need to hear CLEARLY the voice of our Shepherd!!! ;)

2.  Also...would you please pray for Mark's parents fingerprints to come back quickly? Mark and I have already received our suitability letters from the state...but his parents fingerprints were rejected because they were not clear enough for them to read.  SO....we had to get them printed again...and send them again.  Our wait to get our suitability letters back took 3 months....PLEASE pray that it does not take an additional 3 months for his parents to be approved now.  We need them to be clearly read...and quickly approved and back to us.  These delays are out of our hands...but GOD is there in the midst of it all and He can keep their paperwork moving forward!!! We really appreciate your prayers concerning this and we will keep you posted!!

That's it for now!! We were incredibly excited to share with you about Kids' Kloset!! We know God is going to do exceedingly and abundantly more than we could ever think or imagine!!! And all those families will have the opportunity to sow into the life of a precious little boy and help to bring him home!!! So AWESOME!!!
Night!!
Blessings,
Buffi

Home Study ALMOST Complete!!

So sorry for the lack of posting info on here. During this part of the process....its just a waiting game right now. I will tell you to please be praying for all of our CA/N (child abuse and neglect forms) to come back from Alabama, and Tennessee, and for all of our reference letters to come in. So far...that is all we are waiting for to get our home study paperwork finalized!!!

We did have our last home study on Monday, July 23rd with Karla in Birmingham. Karla was our social worker when we adopted Sadie!! She is SUCH a blessing!!! We are working on our I800A form now. The I800A is:

"the Application for Determination of Suitability to Adopt a Child from a Convention Country, the convention country being China is this case. USCIS will evaluate whether not we are suitable to adopt a child from China."  

It is just another form of paperwork we are required to fill out and get approval from. We are once again "hurrying up...to wait on it's approval." Which is the nature of adoption!! :) Thanks for keeping all our paperwork process in your prayers!! We want things to go as smooth as possible!!

HOWS FUNDRAISING? 
Well...We just cannot praise God enough for His faithfulness!! We are scheduled all the way through November doing family photos!! This is a HUGE blessing! God is providing through ways we would have never imagined!!! AND...we are meeting some amazing families in the process!!! What a BLESSING!!! You can see the slideshow to the right of our blog here. These are a few pictures of family pictures we have taken. Its been such fun!!!

You can also see where we are at in our fundraising process on the thermometer to the right. We are just totally FLOORED that God has provided that much money just since FEBRUARY!!! That is just under 6 months...AMAZING!!! We still have a way to go...but HE is able to meet above and beyond what we could ever think or imagine!! He is definitely up to something and we feel so blessed to be in the middle of what He is doing!!

We are also working diligently on our children's book. Stephanie Presley has sent us some samples of what she has done and it is SO AWESOME!!! We get so excited every time we talk to her!! Our goal is to be able to sell this children's book as a hard back gift book, or an ebook off of amazon.com. So keep your eyes and ears open for when it is ready!! Our goal is for it to be ready in October!!

GETTING MATCHED
We are still waiting to see the face of the precious little boy God has for our family. We truly feel he is in one of the orphanages that Lifeline has partnered with in South China. HOPEFULLY they will be matching from those places within the next month or so. I can guarantee that we will let you all know what we can as soon as possible!!! We are praying daily for him and for his transition and our transition!! We cannot wait to meet him!!

That is it for now. I just wanted to let you know where we are in the process!! As we get more news...we will keep you posted. Thank you all SO MUCH for your prayers, support and encouragement. It means the WORLD to us!!!
Blessings,
Mark & Buffi

Just Waiting....

It's been a month since I've updated with a post.  Its the nature of the adoption process...you hurry up, to wait!! :) We have had our third home study and are waiting to schedule our 4th and final one.  We look forward to getting our home study complete!!

I think while we are waiting, I am going to look toward our trip and start to plan a little for travel.  We need to get our three kiddos their passports.  (Our passports are still good.) And we are looking at ways to cut down the amount of stuff we take to China with us....AND looking at luggage for the trip.  Our luggage is on its last leg and we aren't sure it'll make that long trip again!!  After our last trip there...we definitely have a better idea of the type we need!! :) There are some really awesome colorful luggage that will be easy to spot in the airport too!!! (That was one thing last time that we realized...there is a TON of black, blue, and burgundy luggage when you travel. It's hard to spot your own!! LOL)

Anyway....other than continuing to do family photos to raise money...there isn't a lot that is going on in our process.  As soon as we get something happening...We'll be sure and post!!! Thank you all as always for the much needed prayers!!!
Mark & Buffi

Hague Compliance Training COMPLETE!!!

WHEW!!! I am thrilled to post that we have completed the TEN HOUR online course that is required by families adopting from Hague Compliant Countries. (For info on what the Hague Training is...click here!) While it was an incredibly long training and at times challenging to push through...it was FULL of very helpful and informative information.

Mark and I knew it would be difficult for us to actually make time in our schedule for 10 hours of online training.  So...we partnered with another family in the process of adopting from China.  Our very dear friends Frank & Tonya Bohlinger graciously invited our family to spend the weekend with them to do the training together!! Our kids were amazing as they played and did lots of swimming while us four parents diligently went through the training!! It was very helpful to have another family to do this with!! Frank and Tonya have a blog as well!! If you're interested in following their journey...you can check out their blog here! (Thanks Frank & Tonya!! We had a BLAST!!)

We still have a little more reading to complete and then we'll be able to go through with our third home study! We are looking forward to it!!

FUNDRAISING:
So...just wanted to keep you guys posted on how the fund raising is going.  First of all...let me just say...God NEVER ceases to amaze me!! He always proves Himself faithful and will go far above and beyond anything we could ever imagine!!

Since I've started doing the $50 Family Photos as a fund raiser...it has been a HUGE blessing of provision. (In the last three weeks God has provided around $600 just through taking family pictures!! Praise God!)  I have LOVED connecting with some precious families to do their family pictures and am FLOORED that I am scheduled to do family photos through the 3rd week of AUGUST!! YES...AUGUST!! WOW!! God is SO AMAZING!! I currently have around 25 families scheduled to do pics with!! I am having a blast.  A couple of families I've done have children they have adopted. Here are a couple of my favorite pix:

These precious kiddos are adopted from Guatemala! LOVE them!!! 

This adorable little fellow is from India!! He was a BLAST to capture!! FULL OF LIFE!

These are just a couple of samples of what I have had the privilege to do over these last few weeks!! God is providing for our adoption expenses in just a wonderful way! Thank you to all the families who have connected with us to do pictures! We feel honored and blessed to capture special moments for you!! Thank YOU for helping us raise funds to go and get our little fellow in China!! We can't WAIT to take our first pictures of him!!

Thats it for now! We'll keep you all posted as things change and as we get more news!! Thank you all for continued prayers as we move forward on this amazing journey!! Love and appreciate you all!!
Mark & Buffi

A Quick Update!!

Well....I have some GREAT news to share about our Yard Sale fundraiser that we had to help raise funds for our adoption costs!! God is SO FAITHFUL and NEVER ceases to amaze me.  We had so many people donate time and "stuff" for us to sell in our yard sale...and we had SO MANY FRIENDS come by and support us at our yard sale!!! It was SUCH a blessing to us and if you're reading this...THANK YOU so much!!

We were able to raise $1000 - yep...you heard that right - ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS at our yard sale last weekend.  That is amazing!! We have never made that much at a yard sale before.  But God is SO FAITHFUL and owns it all!! He brought in the people and provision and we are so grateful!! We sold about $930 worth of stuff and Sophie and Sadie made about $77 selling drinks and bracelets!! WAY TO GO GIRLS!!! Here are a few pics from the day!!

(Here are the girls working hard!!)

(Silas decided to jump in the picture here!!)

(Our Adoption Fundraiser poster helped people that were shopping know what all the proceeds were going to go toward!! It was a great way to communicate!!)

(This is just a small sample at the end of the day of what things looked like.  We had SO MUCH STUFF!)

 (Thanks again to EVERYONE who helped us!! It would not have been as much of a success without all of our friends and family. Thank you so much!!)

WHERE ARE WE IN THE PROCESS?
WELL....Mark and I are going to have to take a Friday night and a full Saturday and possibly a Sunday to get our classes completed for the home study.  There is a TON of material that needs to be covered and our nights are so full there is no way that we can get it completed.  So we've decided we're going to pick a weekend to get all of our educational requirements completed.  Once we do...we can schedule our next home study! Hopefully we can get that going very soon!!

NEW CHILDREN'S HOMES IN CHINA:
We are thrilled to know about the 8 new orphanages and children's homes that our adoption agency has connected with.  They said there are about 3000 children that will be available for adoption.  We just KNOW our son will be from one of these places.  We are thrilled about this.  If you would like to read about what our agency is doing in these areas...check out this link: Lifeline in China

Thats it for now!! Once we move forward some more...we will post the info!! We LOVE to share our journey with our family and friends!! If you have any questions...let us know!! Blessings!!
Mark & Buffi