Jumping in faith!

do you want to take the leap of faith with us???

Well a couple of days ago I shared the offer that was made to us and people are stepping up to join us!!! They have jumped right in with us! So far we have used $1,134 dollars of the matching money!!! Only $4,866 dollars to go! Seems big, but not to our God! Believing in a mustard seed faith that this will all be matched! Let's think of some numbers:
49 people with $100
98 people with $50
196 people with $25
478 people with $10
Is this dream possible???? I BELIEVE it is! Will you stand with our family in this step of faith?

Holding on to our faith of a mustard seed....

Have you ever seen a mustard seed? The mustard seed is one of the smallest of all seeds.  The mustard seed is so small that you can hardly even see it. Some people wear a necklace that has one of these tiny mustard seeds inside of a piece of glass. They wear this necklace as a symbol of their faith in God. Do you know why the mustard seed is considered a symbol of faith?

One day, Jesus was talking to his disciples when one of them turned to him and said, "Lord, increase our  faith." Jesus answered and said, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you." Can you imagine what it would be like to have that kind of faith?

I heard a story about a man who read this verse in the Bible and decided to put it to the test. There was a large tree in his front yard, so he went out to that tree and said, "In the morning when I wake up from my sleep, I want you to be gone." That night the man went to bed. When he woke up the next morning, he went to front door, opened it, and looked out into his front yard. "Just as I thought!" the man said. "It's still there."

Well, first of all, the man didn't have mustard seed sized faith, did he? In fact, he didn't have any faith at all. When he told the tree to be moved, he never expected it to happen. In the second place, I think that the man misunderstood what Jesus was trying to teach his disciples.

Jesus was not suggesting that you and I go around trying to move trees just to prove that we have faith. What Jesus was trying to teach his disciples -- and what he wants you and me to learn -- is that it doesn't take a great faith to produce great results. Why? Because the results don't depend on us, they depend on God. If the results depended on the size of our faith, I have no doubt that we would probably go around bragging about our great faith.

What have we learned about faith today? This is what I hope we have learned: Don't ask for a great faith so that we can do great things -- ask for faith the size of a mustard seed so that we can see God do great things!
Dear Father, we ask for a mustard seed sized faith. Help us to believe and never doubt your mighty power. Amen.

Unexpected miracles....

Have you ever had an unexpected miracle??? Well let me share mine with you....as of last Friday, we had pretty much decided that we would not adopt from China again but we would try to adopt through the interstate adoption program. In this program, you would be adopting from the foster system of other states. This costs approximately half of what we were looking to need but, it is very difficult to get relatively healthy young children. This was not an easy decision as my heart is truly in China, but working 5 days a week to try and get all the money needed is also not healthy for my family. I decided we would pray about it and know that God would lead us to a child that was meant to join our family. A very few people knew about this plan.

Fast forward to yesterday, a close family/friend contacted me and had a proposition. They offered $6,000 to be used as matching money through the end of August. They  would like to remain anonymous. They said that after talking with me, they knew that we were meant to get our little sister from China and they wanted to do this to help. They decided to come forward and do this from now through the month of August since there could be no better birthday gift to me than to have this amazing gift! So, for every donation, it will be DOUBLED up to a total of $6,000!!! Can you imagine??? I know I cannot and right now I feel blessed beyond belief! Let's pray that we can get it fully matched!!!

So in order to get the news out and reach as many people as possible we will raffle a $100 visa gift card! You can earn an entry in the following ways:
1. Make a donation that will be matched 100% via the chip in for the matching funds on the right of this screen, or email me
    for an address to mail to.
2. Forward a letter with a link to this blog page to your family and friends and send it to me too at n2mec4god@cfl.rr.com
3. Share the link to this blog on your blog and comment below with a link to your blog.
4. Share on your facebook page with your family and friends and let me know below.

Every dollar will be doubled. I still cannot truly believe it. Miracles happen every day when we least expect it!!!

For I know the plan I have for you declared the Lord, plans to give you a hope and a future!!! Jeremiah 29:11
So thankful for my hope found in Jesus!!!

 

Loved this saying....

this is so very true!!!

3 years ago....the journey was complete!

When we traveled 3 years ago, we ended up having to stay 1 extra day in Guangzhou. This allowed us more shopping and play time before the long flight home on the 25! We flew for approximately 26 hours and barely slept a wink. We had bouts of screaming, and some fun times too! LOL! She never left mommy's lap or arms for over a few minutes the ENTIRE trip home!
When we arrived at the airport, I will never forget our friends and family being there to great us! It was so amazing. They had followed this journey with us and could not wait to meet the princess! We were exhausted but surrounded by love!

in the airport on the way home

could grandma be any happier???

visiting annie

visiting jackie

visiting maitte

Looking back....3 years ago the 22 and 23!

Hi! Well 3 years ago on these 2 days we really just spent time together...the only important thing we did was finalize our paperwork with the American Embassy! That was important. This is how you end up with the famous brown envelope that you hand over to immigration when you land in the USA. This will make our princess a citizen! WOOHOO!
Here are some pics from 7/22

so pensive looking!

can you tell she is mad?!? LOL!



already practicing for gymnastics!

On 7/23 we also attempted the famous red couch photos! Thank goodness we were only a group of 2 kids, they were hard enough to get the pictures taken! LOL!

2 princesses

happy mommas!

playtime fun!

playing with daddy on the bus!

Thinking.....

Hi friends and family! I am coming to you today with a note of apology. Looking into adoption can make you a little CRA|ZY, or maybe a lot crazy! You see, when we adopted our little one, I never thought we would even be looking into this again. Then she started asking for her sister, again and again. And you see when that happens, over and over, all you want is to make her dream come true. Well since that is not an easy task, you begin to look into ways to make that a reality. So we did the 50/50 raffle, then someone mentioned a BLINGO bingo so I thought ok, lets try that! LOL! Then someone mentioned a penny war so I threw that out there too.  You see I got caught up in making her dream a reality and I often speak before thinking, which is not always good. So I hope no one is mad or is crazy by me. That was never my intention. On a side note, it seems lots of people LOVE empanadas as much as I do! So that is a good thing. I will continue to sell them 2x a month and put that money away and if anyone wants to have a jewels by park lane party I would love to host that for you and we will earn 30% off of that. Other than those 2 things, you will not hear any more =-) I hope you understand, we are just trying to complete our family and 1 little princesses dream!

 

3 years ago.....physicals and visas!

Three years ago we spent this day getting visa photos taken and a medical exam so we could bring our princess home! We also took her swimming for the first time. Oh the lap of luxury we were leading! LOL! We really could not wait to go home!!! After almost 2 weeks and becoming a family, you are just ready for the real life together to begin!

hello!!!

check out the dr!

relaxing in the pool!

3 years ago...the visit to the Chen Family home!

Today we toured the Chen family home, the attention to detail was truly amazing! We also ran into Don, Bea and Joanna Mei for the first time. We were sitting talking on the floor in the lobby when we were informed that was not allowed! LOL! Now we know!

ready for her day

amazing details

still friends today!!!

silly times with daddy

is that me???

3 years ago....welcome to Guangzhou!

That is right...on this day we took our first flight, a much shorter one that the upcoming one, and landed in Guangzhou. This is the final stop in the adoption journey! We stayed at the White Swan hotel and everything on the island is geared toward adoptive families. The shops have LOTS of goodies, they speak decent English and they will fawn over your children! There is an American style restaurant and an Italian restaurant. All to make you miss home a little more! LOL!

sleepy girl after her first flight!

our room

our first trip to the mattel sponsored playroom

light show put on EVERY night on the river at 9pm!

even the boats get involved

the view from our window

3 years ago....The Xi'an City Wall

Today we visited the city wall which was really cool. People can rent bikes to ride the wall if they choose. It was pretty from up on the wall! In the evening we packed for our first plane ride as a family of 3! We were headed to Guangzhou were we would finalize the American side of things!

on the wall

is this my room?

across from our hotel

3 years ago on July 17

Today was a slow day in China....just a lot of hanging out and getting to know each other better!

good appetite

smiles for daddy!

lets go for a walk!