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

A Snails Pace

It does seem like things are going at a snails pace sometimes during this adoption process. I want to be sure and keep you all updated on the status of where we are.  Here is a little bit of info.

Fingerprints Completed:We got our fingerprints completed this week and we will have our 2nd home study next week. Hoping it goes well.  We look forward to it as usual.

Fundraisers:
We are doing well on our fundraising.  Thank you ALL for the help and prayers!! They mean so much.  We added a little goal thermometer to the right of our blog so you can see where we are in our fundraising.  We'll do our best to keep it up.

We have a new fundraiser that we are doing other than the bracelets.  We are doing $50 Family Photos.  We'll take the pictures and get them to you through a thumb drive/disc or through an online photo sharing program.  We definitely aren't professional photographers...but we think we can get you some good family pictures.  Here are some we took this week.

What a SWEET family to work with!!! They are our first ones to participate in our family photo fundraiser.  If you live in our general vicinity and would like to participate in this fundraiser...leave a comment or email us and we'll connect with you to get it scheduled.  We know that God will provide.  He is faithful. We hope that this will be a blessing to you guys that participate as well.

That's all our news for now!!! As soon as we get more info regarding our adoption process...we will let you know!! Thank you all so much for your prayers and support!! We feel SO BLESSED to have such amazing friends and family!!!
Blessings,
Mark & Buffi

A Quick Prayer Request....

Hey guys...just wanted to ask you to pray for something for us.  We just got a bill for $650 where we had our blood work for the physicals required for the adoption.  We were told prior to this appointment that this would be covered.  It isn't our doctors office...Its the lab and our insurance. Please be in prayer that this will be taken care of and covered.  I have been on the phone on and off all day trying to get it worked out.  I'm expecting to see God move on our behalf and make sure this gets covered and taken care of by our insurance.  Thank you all greatly for covering us concerning this!!
Mark & Buffi

What's Going On?!?!

In the adoption process...there is a commonly used phrase that is used to describe the process.  That is where we currently are.  We "Hurry up...and Wait."  The home study is FULL of a gazillion pieces of paperwork to fill out and LOTS of assignments to work on to complete.  We have been quickly getting as much done as possible...then we wait.  So there isn't a ton to share right now.  But there are a few things I want to let you know and some really awesome little 'kisses from heaven' we have received.  I'll start this time with those sweet blessings and end with some of our process this time!!

NUMBERS MEAN SOMETHING?!?!

For those of you following our blog...you remember last post I told about the most awesome surprise we received...that we still had $1800 left over in our account from our last adoption over 5 years ago!! We were SO FLOORED and just extremely blessed!! Well...after I posted that....I got the coolest note from a dear friend.  This is what she said:

"Buffi - I read your blog and was blown away by the 1800 dollars you didn't know you had! That brought to my mind the Lord's habit of giving us so much more blessings (100 fold!) than our pain when we surrender it to Him!!! Thought you might enjoy this: Because every letter of the alphabet has a numerical value, every word also has a numerical value. For example, the word Torah (Tav-Vav-Reish-Hei) has the numerical value 611 (400+6+200+5). There is an entire discipline of the Jewish known as Gematria that is devoted to finding hidden meanings in the numerical values of words.

For example, the number 18 is very significant, because it is the numerical value of the word Chai, meaning life or living. Donations to Jewish charities are routinely made in denominations of 18 for that reason."

Isn't that the COOLEST thing?!?! We were so blessed by reading that special note from our friend!! We couldn't help but share that special meaning behind the $1800!!

The Precious Heart of a Child:

Y'all....our bracelet sales are doing amazing!!! So far through bracelet sales and donations...(including our special $1800 gift) we have been able to raise $4900 so far!!! WOW!!!! Isn't that awesome!! If you'd like to know more about our bracelets or to purchase some....click here for more info!

Some special friends of ours from Georgia, The Masons, wanted to purchase some for their family...and they also took 10 of them to sell for us!! (What a blessing!!! By the way, the Mason family adopted Eden in China when we adopted Sadie. Sadie and Eden are both from the same home town in China!! They are also adopting again and if you'd like to follow their journey as they get ready to travel again, click here!)

Anyway....we got the sweetest note from them last week!! Eden had taken $5 of her own money and bought a bracelet to give to her 9 year old neighbor!!! Isn't that the most precious thing?!?! Her very life was changed by adoption and now she is reaching out of her heart to help change the life of another!!! So PRECIOUS!! I just HAD to share that!! Be sure and stop by their blog to visit!!

WHAT ARE WE DOING?!?!

Well...we are getting ready in a couple of weeks to do our individual interviews with our home study.  That will be on April 23rd.  In the meantime...we are working on getting our fingerprints completed, our criminal back ground checks and all our required classes and reading.  

In case you are interested....here is our required reading (Other than The Connected Child) and our required classes.

1. We have to read all of this regarding China: 
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1089.html  and all of this back ground and history on China - http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/18902.htm

2.  We are required to take "The International Adoption Clinic Seminar" http://adoption.childrensal.org/ - This is to help prepare families to travel internationally and to bring home an internationally adopted child.  We did this class last time and it was VERY HELPFUL!!!

3.  We are also required to go through an 8 hour Intercountry Adoption Training Class. https://www.hagueadoption.org/home/ - This was not a requirement last time...so this will be new to us.  We look forward to doing it!! We just need prayer to find the time to sit down and go through it!!! 

Mark and I may need to take a "crash weekend" to finish all our required materials so we can complete our home study!! As SOON as we get all this complete and our home study complete...we will begin our trek toward our info being China bound!!

Orphanage Partnership:

We are VERY excited that Lifeline - Our Adoption Agency - has partnered with three orphanages in China!! They will send our International Adoption Clinic doctors and medical professionals to all three orphanages to do check ups on all the precious children there who need forever families...and they will be getting files and pictures ready for these little ones to begin to help them find their families!! Lifeline will go there sometime this summer.  Our home study should be ready by then...so we may find our little boy at one of these places!!! If you'd like to read about Lifeline going into these orphanages and where they are...check out this link - click here! This is a very exciting thing and we look forward to what the next few months hold!! Stay tuned!!

That's it for now!!! Keep praying for us as we continue to raise funds for our adoption costs. (We still have about $35k to go!!! - GOD CAN DO IT!!!)  We are having a yard sale the weekend of April 28th!! Praying for LOTS of people to buy LOTS of things!! :) Every single cent makes a difference!!! We are definitely counting our pennies!!! 

Your prayers and support mean SO MUCH to us!!! Thank you!!! We will do all we can to keep everyone updated!! Much love to you all!!!

Blessings,

Mark & Buffi

AMAZING SURPRISES!!!

It has been a while since my last post.  I did this purposefully because I was waiting on some news to share with everyone!!! We have just been blown away by God's faithfulness!!

The paperwork process takes quite a while to complete before there is even any news about our new little boy God is bringing to our family.  We pray for him daily and cannot WAIT until God shows us who he is.  Undoubtedly he is a very precious boy!! :) Until then....our goal in our postings is three fold.

1.  To keep our family and friends updated on the process so you can all be praying for specific needs.

2.  To give God glory for each and every thing HE does through this process...no matter how little or big. There is power in the word of our testimony and we ALWAYS want to be faithful to share all He does for us!!

3.  To document this process so those that may be considering adoption will see all that it entails. We want to encourage others to step out and know...it's not too overwhelming to step out and do.

With that said....here are our latest most exciting updates!!! There are two extra special things we are SO EXCITED to share!!

HOME STUDY #1 - Complete
We completed our first home study last week.  We enjoyed visiting with our social worker and sharing the answers to the questions that is on our hearts!! She also checked out our home to make sure it was a good environment to bring in another child!! She also interviewed Sophie and Mark's parents. Not a bad visit at all!! We have 3 more visits to go!

MEDICALS COMPLETE:
We got our medical check ups complete! Went well.  Our tests came out good, Praise God!! (Aside from Mark REALLY needs to get his eyes checked out! LOL!) Jack and Peggy got their medicals done as well!! We'll have those back soon!!  Thank you all for praying!!

GOD'S PROVISION:
He STILL never ceases to amaze us in this process of provision.  Thank you again to you ALL who have purchased bracelets from us and who have donated to our adoption fund. Since my last post....we have had $1100 more been given towards our adoption expenses.  We are BLOWN AWAY!! Thank you all dearly for your hearts to help change the life of this precious little boy!!

OUR SURPRISE PROVISION: 
ANOTHER amazing thing...that I was waiting to tell you is news that we got from our social worker that just really overwhelmed us and once again helped us see this 2nd adoption has been in God's plan the whole time!! When we had our home study with our social worker...She told us that we still had money left in our account at Lifeline from when we adopted Sadie FIVE YEARS AGO!!! We still have $1800 - EIGHTEEN HUNDRED DOLLARS!!!! left in our account from when our adoption was complete last time.  WOW!!! That money was left over from the grant we received from Shaohannah's Hope (Stephen Curtis Chapmans adoption grant foundation).  Y'all...do you just know how unbelievable this is!?!? That money has been sitting there for five years...just waiting on us. We praise God with all that is in us for this.  Just a testimony of HIS faithfulness.  When HE gives the vision to do something...He has the plan for the provision!! We thank you ALL from the bottom of our hearts for being used by HIM for His master plan in our lives and in the life of our new little boy!! Isn't this so exciting!!!

A SNEAK PEEK:
Thank you all SO MUCH for praying for our friend Stephanie Presley as she works on the artwork for our children's book we will be selling this fall to help us raise funds! She sent us her first piece for the book and we are SO EXCITED!!! She has done an amazing job with it. What a special artist she is!!  Its not 100% complete yet as she will be tweaking this a bit....but we were SO EXCITED to show you all.  Let us know what you think!!

Stephanie is a HUGE blessing!! She is donating all her time and energy into this artwork for this book!! We think she is doing an AMAZING JOB!!! We are praying and believing this process will be a blessing for her too!! If you get a chance...drop by her Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/stephanie.presley1 and leave her a note of encouragement! (You don't have to be friends with her to leave her a message!! Just send her a private message!!)  I know she would be SO BLESSED to hear from you!! It would mean SO MUCH to their family to know so many people are praying for them!! As I stated before...They live in the United Kingdom ~ Wales as missionaries.  We are so blessed to call them friends!!

We are continuing to pray for her as she continues to pray through the artwork and complete it for the book!! We know God will use every stroke she makes to make this artwork amazing!! It will be truly inspired by HIM!! We are very excited about this and couldn't wait to share it with you!!

ONE MORE THANKS!
We will keep you all posted as we get more info and as more things happen.  We are just thrilled to be on this journey and that we are able to share it with each one of you.  If you have ANY QUESTIONS...please let us know.  We LOVE to share about our process and would love to talk to any of you!! Love you all dearly!! Thank you again for your prayers and support.  You will NEVER KNOW how much it means to us!! We love you all dearly!! Have a wonderful week!
Blessings,
Mark & Buffi

Paperwork and Progress!!!

This week we have been diligently working through paperwork and getting everything checked off of our check lists so we can complete our home study.  Here is what we've done in the last week:

1.  We have completed our physicals at the doc (should get tests results back today).  Mark's parents have to complete this as well.  PRAYER NEED: Pray that all our physicals would come back good and there would be no hold up or delay with them...and that our insurance will cover the tests that are required on these physicals.  Some of them like the TB test and the HIV tests aren't usually covered through routine visits.  But...we're believing they will be!!

2.  We have filled out our CA/N reports (child abuse and neglect forms) for each state we've lived in since we were 18 years old. Mark's parents had to do this as well.  Between the 4 of us there are 5 states that we had to send CA/N forms to.  We were told it could take anywhere from 6 weeks to 4 months to get these back..YIKES!! PRAYER NEED: Please pray that these would NOT take very long to get back.  We are believing that it will only take the minimum of 6 weeks!! We'll keep you posted!!

3. We have our first home study visit this coming Tuesday.  Honestly...doing the home study visits were our favorite thing to do last time.  We really look forward to this portion of it.

4.  We've noticed this last week that as we are going through this process that it is causing Sadie to think a lot about her being adopted and exactly what all that means.  While we have been very open with her about it...she is just beginning to really understand it.  PRAYER NEED: Pray that God gives us wisdom to help her with her questions that she has regarding it....and that He helps her process it in her 7 year old mind.  We have begun to read the book "The Connected Child" - it is required reading for the adoption process.  (For all you adoptive parents out there...this is a wonderful book!! I totally recommend it!!) This is wonderful timing for us to read this because it is helping us help Sadie through this process!! Thanks for your continued prayers as we walk her through this discovery process.

5.  We have a PRAISE report!!! Yes...stepping out in adoption is definitely a step of faith...especially financially.  But we just had to give God glory for his provision over the last week. We currently have $2600 due this week for the beginning of our home study.  God's timing is so perfect!! Just this week, we received a $500 check in the mail from a family in Birmingham, we counted up all our change and had over $60 worth of change, AND through our bracelet sales so far...we have raised over $350 toward our costs! (Thank you to ALL of you for helping with our bracelet fund raiser!! We still have more and would love to sell more!!) With that said...God has helped us raise over $900 in a week to go toward our $2600!!! That is HUGE!!!   THANK YOU ALL for praying and for your support!!! PRAYER NEED: Please continue to pray for God's provision each step of the way!! We KNOW HE will provide!! He owns it all anyway!!

This has already gotten longer than I planned!! I just wanted to give you all an update for this week!! Please let us know if you have any questions. Thank you all again for your prayers of love and support! They mean SO MUCH to us!! Love you guys!! We'll keep you posted on whats going on!! Blessings!
Mark & Buffi