The Zoo Kids

The Zoo Kids
Finally Together

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

some unanswered questions....

I suppose because I wish as a family to be as transparent as possible, I hope to clear up some questions that may have been thought but not verbalized...because I would think them!

Remember when we shared our little secret and I told the story of Liam and how we have advocated for him for two years, loved him, prayed for him, prayed for his family...and then, a friend we only know through Facebook contacted us and said, "I am too old to adopt this little boy but if you are willing, I will pay for your adoption fees."....and that this had been our prayer all along,,,"Lord, provide the money and we will go."  And God has provided...all of our agency fees have been paid!  So this is the question I would ask...."If God has provided the money, why the need for fundraising or tshirt selling??"  This is why....the family that has provided for our adoption answered the call to adopt an older child a couple of months after committing to us. The momma of this family is a nurse and she is the family breadwinner.  They are not independently wealthy, just passionate about orphans! They are still committed, 100 percent but if we can ease their burden through fundraising, what a blessing that would be to them.  There are so many that are not called to adopt but are called to do something...this is a great something!  Through Mei, Zoe, and Eli's adoptions, so many joined our journey to bring them home and what a blessing it has been to see these children grow and flourish through the love of a family. We have been blessed by adoption and so many others have been blessed through providing for orphans in other ways.  I can't even begin to tell you the love that has been poured out on our family or describe the joy in my children's eyes when they get that desired gift on Christmas morning or get to experience a vacation in a beautiful home, or the financial burden lifted off of us when medical costs, schooling costs, testing and tutoring costs are lifted from our shoulders.  We have answered the call to adopt, nuture, raise, parent, and love this children and so many have come along beside us to help us answer that call.  The visual I see in my mind's eye is Tracey and I walking along hand in hand with our kids and an army of orphan loving friends and families lifting us up with the palm of their hands. 

The fundraising we are doing will cover our plane costs, hotel fees, orphanage donation, and in country expenses such as guide services and food costs.  We would love to take at least one child with us if our finances allow as it is a great help to the child being adopted.  Bailey being with us when we adopted Mei and Shelton and Bailey being with us for Zoe and Eli built bridges with our new kids that we could have never built.  Kids just connect with kids...especially kids coming out of orphanage settings where other kids are all they know.  We are hoping to have our t-shirts printed in the next week and we are only $200  ***update...only $100*** away from having them fully paid for.  Our prayer is that through our T-shirts and through a grant given to us from an amazing orphan loving church/non profit organization this past weekend, we will have most of the travel expenses covered.  What we don't raise, the family that has committed to us will provide...so Liam will come home either way!!  Thank you to all our friends that have joined in our journey so far!

****update****.....our paperwork will return to our agency from the consulate in Tuesday so our downer should head to China on Thirsday...exactly one month to the day ahead our our deadline!!

We hope to be DTC (dossier to china) by the end of this week or early next week and we are praying to have our LOA (letter of approval) by Christmas.  If things go as quickly as we hope, we could travel by late February or early March.

And for those that are wondering...how will you handle one more child??  We have no clue...but I do know that God's grace is sufficient and He, who has called us to Liam, will never fail us.  We feel so inadequate so often but God is so good to give us little reminders of his grace and mercy in spite of us.  I went to check on Shelton before bed a couple of  nights ago and she was in bed reading.  I said, "what are you reading?" and she answered, "my Bible, I am reading it start to finish."  I said, "really, do you have to do that for school?"  and she said, "no, I just never have and wanted to do it."...God's grace!


UPDATE.....I wanted to share our T-shirt design with you!   We are so thankful for our friends that came along beside us to help us get our t-shirts printed.   I am super excited to share our design with you!!  You will remember from my previous posts, specifically the one about Me's birthday that kids like Mei, like Liam, are considered unlucky in their culture.  The superstition is that as soon as a child with limb differences is born, someone in the family will surely die.  These children are quickly disposed of to "break the curse."  Every life does matter....I can't even begin to imagine our lives without the joy of Mei!  This was the inspiration behind our t-shirt design...The colors will be different...it will be gray with red rather than red with orange but the design will remain the same.  My brother, Bryan and his girlfriend, Jackie designed the perfect shirt!






Thank you friends for loving us and praying for us.  This is a journey we couldn't take without you!