Dossier, Birthdays, and Matching Grants

So...at this point in our journey, I get asked at least 2 or 3 times a day, "How is the adoption going?" I always wish I had easier answers.  I realize what most people are really asking is, "How much longer?"  Believe me, I yearn for an answer to that question more than anyone.
Unfortunately, I still don't have that answer.  However, let's celebrate the steps that are getting us closer to being there!  Our dossier has been completed!  A dossier is a legal paper representation of us, and our adoption to the Colombian government.  It was shipped to Colombia at the end of last week.  It is our hope that ICBF (Children's Services for Colombia) will have an available appointment this week to begin the process of reviewing.  Our in country representative will meet with them to start this process.  They then have up to 40 days to review our dossier.  They can then either approve or request more information from us.  (Our big prayers are a speedy review and approval without extra information).  After approval, we wait for an "Official Referral."  This will include full files on our sweet twins!  Clothing sizes, education, medical information, behavior analysis, birth family information, etc.  We will then (of course) accept the official referral.  At that time, ICBF will give us travel dates!  WooHoo!
Each one of these steps also is accompanied by fees.  Some fees go to the US government.  Some fees go to the Colombian government. Other fees go to our adoption agency.  Finally, we will also need to pay for our full travel costs.  Sounds overwhelming, right?!  However God has blessed our family immensly!  We are $2000 from being fully funded!  That is incredible!  We started this process with no idea how we would come up with $40000, but God had big plans to show how BIG and GREAT He is!

So now that you have a better idea of how the adoption is going, let me tell you about the other exciting part of our week.  Our incredible babies will turn 3 this week!  Now I'd be lying if I said the only emotion connected with that day is excitement.  This momma wants to be with them!  Like now!  So, will you bless us and our babies on their birthday?  Below are 2 birthday boards.  One for S and one for J.  For their birthday, will you sponsor a present?  You choose a square and make a donation of that amount (aka - square #3 is a $3 donation).  Your donation will be doubled by an awesome matching grant we have through Brittany's Hope!  So that sponsorship of square #3 actually gets us $6 closer to full funding!  In fact, all donations made from now until we are fully funded will be doubled!

 

Thank yall for following our journey, supporting our dreams, and praying big prayers with us!

Life as we know it...

Life as we know it looks a little different these days.  Tyler and I are both working full time...and then some.  Our schedules don't always align very well, but we work hard to include date night once a week.  Our free time is spent getting ready for the twins to come home in both the practical ways and the not so practical.
I have written 6 grant applications in the last month.  We are working on 10-15 more due in November and December.  We are praying that God will continue to provide for the financial part of our adoption as He has already been doing.  Fundraising is a pretty regular part of our lives.  We are still collecting change jars as well as putting all our change in one.  I empty ours once every few weeks.  It adds up quick!  We started collecting change a year ago and have raised over $1000 this way!  If you would like to join us in this, please let me know.
We also have a few new fundraising opportunities that I am excited to share with you!  We recently did a Noonday Collection trunk show with Melissa Davenport.  You can still order from this online and they will donate 10% directly to our adoption.  The really cool part of this is Melissa and her husband are growing their family through international adoption.  In addition, Noonday Collection is all products made by local artisans in various countries.  This often gives mothers a way to provide for their family so they can keep their children.  In Melissa's words, "It's a win-win-win!" You can order online at http://www.noondaycollection.com/pws/MelissaDavenport/eventstore33004/AMUS/default.aspx
We were also presented with the opportunity to participate in a cool fundraiser with The Ripple Effect.  They make and sell superhero capes/masks and princess dresses.  These are high quality, gorgeous products.  They will make great Christmas gifts for little boys and girls.  I'm thinking we will need a few of them in our house very soon :) You can go online at tinyurl.com/capesforacause tinyurl.com/dressforacause and select The Weaver Family as your cause.  They will make a donation to our growing family at the end of the month!
Finally, another adoptive family shared Amazon Affiliates with us.  I love this because you literally do what you normally do, and you get to help bring our babies home.  Use the following link http://amzn.to/2eOaYHC  Amazon will work exactly the same way.  You make your purchases and they make a donation!  How cool is that?!
We also still have a handful of Hope shirts and lots of puzzle pieces.  Let me know if you are interested in either.
Now if you've made it this far and don't feel completely overwhelmed, I'm impressed.  It seems like a lot but we are trying to cater to a variety of audiences.  We are about one-third of the way to our financial goal.  We are trusting that God will continue to provide for this crazy awesome journey He has led us on.
On the more practical end, the twins room is filling quickly.  Both our Lillebaby carriers have arrived.  I even got to practice with a friend's little girl the other day.  We are excited that these will make travel easier and aid in bonding with our children.  We have 3 eighteen gallon totes of clothing, portable highchair/booster seats, bumbos, potty seats, and a variety of other fun baby things!  Our next big priority will be car seats.  We have registered at Buy Buy Baby, Target, and Babies R Us (which was quite an adventure all in itself).

This part of the journey is quite interesting.  It is busy.  There is a lot of paperwork.  It can be discouraging some days.  But mostly there is hope.  Hope for a family that we have dreamed about building for so long.  Hope for the way God has connected us with our children already, despite the fact that we have not met them.  Hope for this broken world we live in, through new life and new beginnings.  God has already blessed us so much!  Thank you for walking this journey with us.  We love you!

Support system

Wow.  When we jumped in to this crazy adoption journey, I am not sure we had any idea just how far we were jumping.  Or what that would look like during the journey.  We have learned this is not a journey we have any desire to walk alone.
Here is a little glimpse into a few pieces of our support system.

They come in many different shapes and sizes.  They are family and friends.  They are customers who come into Hot Rods.  They are church family that we get to do life with.

I am incredibly thankful that God saw this moment.  He knew we would need people...we would need people to pray, people to encourage, people to support, people to give, people to listen, people to understand.  

He knew I would need someone to remind me to keep my health on track in the midst of stress.  He sent me a friend from a few years back who was also walking through her own adoption journey.

He knew we would need someone to come along side us and help guide our budget and finances.  He provided my boss, who has tons of knowledge about finances and lots of local resources.

He knew I would need people on the days when I felt like falling apart.  People to do life with in the joys and the pains.  So He sent my work family.  Both employees and customers.  They might not always understand the process but they will walk with me in it.

He knew Tyler would process very differently than I do.  Many days he needs his bio family more than I realize.  God has continued to strengthen their relationships.

He knew I would need people to pray big prayers, encourage on the hard days, and to celebrate with on the good days.  He sent my Point family...especially my amazing connection group.  They even send me things like this.

God knew that we would need each other.  He designed us so differently yet so intricately linked.  He has designed balance in our relationship and continually reminds us to lean on one another.  

God knew most importantly that we would need Him.  I can not imagine doing this crazy journey without God.  I am continually leaning on Him, trusting that He's got this.  In the moments when everything feels like its spiraling out of control, I have to trust that its all in His timing and His ways.

Thinking about adoption?  What is your support system? Who are you going to lean on?

Reading this? Thanks for being a part of our support system.  You may not realize it, but you are holding us up through this journey.    

Easter and this "God thing"

Wow.  Easter.  Easter means HOPE!  Jesus is alive!  Oh what joy!  That single phrase has completely changed my life.  It has given me hope and joy and it led me to adoption.  I so often struggle with the thought of how people walk through adoption without faith.  A dear friend who is adopting her own little girl said, "I am not sure people adopt otherwise.  Seems like a God thing to me."  The closer we get to our kids, the more truth I see in this "God thing."

Throughout the day today, I could not help but think that this may very well be the last Easter we spend as a family of two.  I mean that has always been the goal, but the reality is overwhelming in some moments.  For so long, adoption has been a vision, a dream, a passion but now it is becoming a reality.  

How incredible that in a year, we will get to share this incredible day with our children (hopefully...nothing about an adoption timeline is certain except uncertainty).  Jesus is no longer dead but he rose.  He lives.  And because He lives, I also get to live.  Not only that, but I get to share that with my children!

As a children's ministry director, I got to share this wonderful news with hundreds of children.  I was also a big supporter of the idea that parents are the best and most important teachers of everything, but most importantly of the Bible.  Now the idea of being given that responsibility is exciting and overwhelming.  How amazing that God has entrusted me with such a responsibility.  

What a beautiful "God thing" this adoption journey is...parenting...sharing God's love.  Today, being Easter makes me even more aware of that.  Hope changes everything.  Hope is changing everything.

Photo credit: Matthew Davidson Photography

www.matthewdavidsonphotography.com 

Adoption....and Beachbody?

A few months ago, a friend kept nudging me to get involved in Team Beachbody.  I had a list of excuses a mile long, starting with I was too busy and followed quickly by I can't afford it.  But God was using this friend in my life.  She wasn't pushy, but she stuck around until I was ready to take a leap.  At the end of August, I decided to give it a shot.  I ordered a challenge pack with a workout plan, meal plan, and nutrient dense Shakeology.  I was done hating my body.  I was done being stressed and depressed.  I needed a fresh start.  Beachbody has done that for me.  I have lots over 30 pounds and 15 inches.  My workout is my stress relief, and I don't know how I survived long days working on my feet before drinking Shakeology.
And now, some of you are sitting there thinking, "Isn't this an adoption blog?"  It certainly is.  Normally I wouldn't even mention Beachbody on here but last week these worlds collided.  We were going through some more requirements for Colombia.  One of those is based on the BMI scale...that's right there are height/weight requirements.  Because of Beachbody, I am healthier than I have been in a really long time.  I am so thankful God led me this way.  Now, Tyler will be jumping in with me.
Our house is becoming healthier one step at a time.  We are ready to be the best parents we can possibly be for the children God is leading us to.  Clean eating, engaging workouts, and being a part of a great team!  Our support system keeps growing.  Here is to a brand new 2016!

We are so excited to see the beautiful journey God is leading us on.  He is continuing to provide for this journey financially as well.  Remember those change jars we talked about a few months ago?   They have provided over $300!!!  God is so good!  We just ordered our first round of shirts as well.  We chose the design because we firmly believe in the HOPE of adoption and the HOPE of Christ.

We have ordered a variety of sizes ranging from Youth XS through Adult 3XL.  They will be $12 each or $15 if you need them to be shipped.  Let one of us know if you would like one.  After the first 50, we will do a more specialized order to make sure we have sizes for everyone who is interested.  Y'all are awesome.  Thanks for being a part of our village.

Celebrating with those on the journey

I know a lot of you are waiting to hear how our day went with our first homestudy meeting.  I will update everyone on that soon.  However, first we want to celebrate along with those who are on this adoption journey with us.  You see its a journey that so many do not understand.  Once you are in it or have been in it, you become part of this unspoken family.  You understand things no one else does.  You feel the pain of waiting.  That means you also get to celebrate some of the milestone moments.
Today dear friends of ours John & Rachel saw their daughter's face for the first time.  They will be adding a little girl from China to their family of 4 very soon.  We are so excited for them and hope you will join us in praying for them and their family as their journey continues.

Thankfulness: Our Journey and Our Village

It is the beginning of November, traditionally a season of thankfulness.  It seemed like a perfect time to talk about our journey and our village.  However, if you are new to our story let's get you caught up.
As a teenager I was exposed to adoption in my church and my youth group.  I was also exposed to the stories of children all over the world.  This started a spark inside me.  At that time I had no idea how it would grow.  However, it is clear now that this was all part of God's plan.  He started to build our village.
I met Tyler in 2011, just a few weeks after graduating college while we were both working at Sonic.  There was always a chemistry between us, but neither of us said anything.  I accepted a job in Ohio in early 2012 and soon moved.  When back in Tennessee on vacation almost a year later, Tyler revealed his feelings for me and soon after we began dating.  By this point I knew I was being called to adopt so we discussed this very early in our relationship.  God continued to write our story as we agreed that we would begin growing our family through adoption.  We got married in August 2014 and we are excited about the growth of our family.
We plan to adopt.  We are very interested in adopting from Ethiopia.  We also think we will probably pursue this through Bethany Christian Services.  So that is the beginning of our journey.
Now more about our village.  They say that it takes a village to raise a child.  Our children are on the other side of the world and I am already finding this to be true.  Starting with their birth family, then who is raising them now whether that be another family member or an orphanage.  I continually pray for this group.  They are beginning to shape who my children will be.  I am glad God has chosen them and thankful for all they continue to do.
Then there are the people who will be a part of the process.  The staff at the adoption agency.  The people in country who handle paperwork.  The person who will do our homestudy.  They are part of our village.  They are essential in bringing our children home.
Our family and friends...you make up a large part of our village.  You stand beside us and support us.  I'm sure I will call more than one of you in tears during various parts of our journey.  I also know you will share in our joys and be a part of our children's lives for years to come.
There is also another continually growing group of people who are part of our village.  These are the people in our lives who have adopted, are in the process of adopting, or desire to adopt in the future.  These people understand the journey on a different level.  All of our stories are unique but they all intertwine.  These are the ones we will turn to for the tips and tricks.  They are the a continual encouragement and a reminder that we are not alone.
And finally, there is you.  We are inviting you to be a part of our village.  This will look different for each person.  Some of you will pray for us (and our children and the rest of our village).  Some of you will support us financially.  Some of you will support us emotionally.  Some of you will support us in ways we didn't even know we would need or want.  Is God calling you to be a part of our village?  We would love to share more with you about God is doing in our lives.