Favor

It's been a little while since I last posted. Life has truly been busy with the holidays and this whirlwind of a process called adoption. Since my last post, some truly amazing things have happened! We were matched with a beautiful baby boy! He is currently 13 months old and we hope to travel and get him before he turns 18 months! Praise God! 

After becoming matched, we waited a whole 69 days to get the first leg of the US Immigration approvals out of the way. The week after Thanksgiving, we finally received our Parental Immigration approval and about two weeks ago we sent of the paperwork for Baby G's immigration approval. They tell us that this application, the I-800, takes precedence and should be approved in less than 30 days! While we wait for Baby G's approval, we are having to update our home study and get psych evaluations done. At any point in time of an international adoption, the country you adopt from can and will change their rules and regulations. We just happened to experience that. A tragic event happened with a child that was adopted from India to US parents and now India is tightening up and they want all parents to have psychological evaluations included in their home studies. So I spent most of the day today calling around and trying to find someone who does this specific eval and haven't had much luck... praying for the favor of God for tomorrow as I continue to call around. Hoping for someone that can do it fast and for a reasonable price! We don't want any delays in bringing our boy home! 

Praise REPORT! We have recently received two grants!! TWO! Those grants are nearing us very close to being fully funded with our adoption agency. Then we will only have to save up the travel costs! PRAISE GOD! WOOHOO! He truly has provided for us every single step of the way... and to think, we almost didn't go through with adoption because of the price tag associated with it. Nothing is too big for our God! 

Please pray for us always, that our approvals and grants come through quickly and for our son, that the workers in his orphanage will be healthy enough to take care of him properly as we wait to bring him home. Pray also for the preparation of his heart and ours! Gotcha day is coming for the Sanders in 2018!

Reservation in Your Name

We are truly blessed. I came home from India on Friday, September 15th. We celebrated Peco's birthday the next day, went to church on Sunday and back to work on Monday! This particular Monday I happened to be in an all day training for work. Great way to start your first day back to work in 2 weeks! Before my husband left work work, we both looked at each other and said, "Today is baby day". We had a feeling we might get the call. At this point, it had been 10 days since we were approved to receive a potential match. Any day now, we could see the little face of the child the Lord has chosen for us to love and raise. Every day that we wait, we know that the Lord is preparing the perfect child for us. Even though our anxiety is through the roof, but this day, we both had peace. We knew that this day, September 18th, was going to be baby day!

On my lunch break from training, I tried to call and check in with our agency, but my call went to voicemail. A little while later I received a text that said she would call me back soon and to keep my phone on me... Keep my phone on... Hmm... Does that mean we have a match?? No, I'm sure she just missed talking to me the past two weeks! ;) After what seemed like the longest wait for my phone to ring, it rang, but it wasn't the person I called. It was the founder of the adoption agency.... this was it! This was THE CALL! I answered the phone and the sweetest lady ever told me, "I've been praying for you and that God would lead me to the right child for your family. I believe I've found him!" Him? you found Him? It's a boy?! ahhh! My world stopped for a few minutes and then I had to get it back together to listen. She went on to tell us that he was meeting his milestones and had the sweetest little face. Told us where he was from, his special need and then she said "I hope it's ok, but I went ahead and reserved in him in your name!" You see normally, they call and say, do you want us to reserve the match for you to look at the child and their medicals and so forth. We are so thankful that God works through Pat and she felt so strongly that this was our little guy that she reserved him for us! 

The hard part is that I was at training, I had her send his medicals in one email and then his photo in another. I didn't want to look at his little face without my husband! And here I am in training and can't leave, and he is teaching school. I called several times but couldn't get through to my husband. As I was about to call the front office, he called me back! His school is very involved in our adoption and they knew we were expecting a call and he might have to take it. He said, "Did you get the call?", I'm sure I screamed YES! and told him all about our son.... "our son" - how surreal those words are! I told him that they sent a photo but I would wait until I got home, so we could see him for the first time together. He was so excited, from the phone call and medicals, our little guy seems perfect for us!

So here I was, sitting in anticipation of how quickly could I make it home from Daniel Island to Summerville without getting a speeding ticket! Finally, a few hours later, class was over and I jumped in the car. Traffic flowed well and then I got into the Summerville traffic. Just listening to praise and worship music, praising God for what he has done for us, praying and thanking him! Then I started to get annoyed with this huge dump truck that wouldn't turn. I mean, Helloooo! I have to get home to see my baby's face!!  I looked up and I realized why he hadn't moved. God needed me to read the writing on the back of the truck... 

[Jesus Did It!]

There is was, a reminder that "Jesus Did It!". And yes He sure did! 15 minutes later I got home and opened up my computer so that we could look at his little face. There he was, so precious, bundled up with these huge brown eyes. It was such a humbling moment. We shouldn't even be in the stage of getting a match, we should still be waiting to be approved to get one, and God pushed it through and now, ahead of schedule, we see our baby's face. He is a 10 month old baby boy. He is precious.

[After we saw his face for the first time!]

We shared the news with our family and a few close friends. We were advised to not tell many people because sometimes more information may show more health concerns and you may need to un-match. Well 2 days later received 5 videos and 2 more photos. There he was... crawling, sitting up, playing with toys, talking... We are so in love. We can't show his picture on social media but just know that he is the cutest thing you have EVER seen!! 

So now the most important question that everyone wants to know... When can you go and get him?? Well, we don't know. We are currently in the process of waiting on a fingerprint appointment for our i800a application. This application will approve us through US immigration to adopt internationally. Please pray for speed in this process. We are being told that it is taking on average 72 days to get through this part. We can't move forward without this, so pray that we get this much sooner! Pray for our little guy in the orphanage, we are blessed that he is in a christian orphanage, but pray for his health and well being. For his preparation to be a part of our family and for us as we go through this process to bring him home. We know that God's hand is on us and we are petitioning him for a breakthrough in the timeline of the i800a! He has already provided in the approval process and we know that he can do the same with this! 

CARA Approved!

Some of you know that I just took a two week trip to love on the people of India and learn about the culture there. It was a very sudden trip but it changed my life in more ways than I could even begin to write. First thing you should know is that we were registered with CARA the Friday before I left, which was 9/1. They told us that this particular point in the adoption would take on average 6 weeks but could take up to 10. You have to wait that long for CARA to approve your registration and then once you are approved, your agency can begin to look for your child and match you! I was looking forward to going India to learn more about the people but also to pass some of that time more quickly! 10 weeks is a long time to be in a holding pattern!

One thing is for sure, that the devil did not want me to talk about our adoption with anyone from India. For the first two days, I didn't share with anyone about it. The devil kept telling me, they don't want to hear about your adoption, they will probably hide their kids from you. They won't understand why a white faced American is going to adopt one of their orphans. On the third day, the first house that we came to, as I entered the home a child with special needs, Cerebral Palsy, touched and blessed my feet. At the second home, another special needs girl, touched and blessed only my feet. At the third home we went to, it was my time to share. I didn't want to talk about my adoption, but I did. And they listened so intently, they cried and they rejoiced as I told the story of how my husband and I came to adopt and why we chose their country to adopt from. They were excited for us! They tried to find me babies and I had to explain that wasn't how it worked. They told me that they would be praying for us and they were sure we would know about out baby soon! I was so energized and just humbled by God to know that they cared. They were so very grateful that I was adopting from their country. Truly, I was grateful to them, for sharing their lives with me and helping me learn about them so that we could incorporate their culture in our child's life as he grows up.

The next day, when I woke up I received a text from my husband.

Guys, do you understand what these texts mean?? This means, well first and foremost that, OUR GOD IS GREAT! He is so great, because he took a timeline for approval that was supposed to be about 2 months and approved us in ONE WEEK on 9/8! -Praise Break!- After I surrendered to God, told the people about our adoption and had India praying for us as well, he moved mountains and approved us in record timing! We were and still are in awe at how God is moving mightily in our adoption. His hand is most definitely upon us and we are very thankful for that! 

Stay tuned for the next big update... :)

Home Study - CHECK!

Woohoo!! We finally, after 8 months of waiting on our anniversary to come and go, have a FINALIZED HOME STUDY!!

So what does this mean, this means that now we can...

...apply for GRANTS!! 

...kick off our next fundraiser (Stay tuned!)

...our home study will be sent to US Immigration for immigration approval for us as parents.

...our home study will be uploaded to the CARA database so that we can be registered to start accepting matches!!

That's right, the US immigration side happens pretty much simultaneously with the India side. 

And yes, I know you all are really wanting to know, "So when do you get your kid?". Well, we are still a ways out, hoping for mid next year. BUT, we will hopefully know who our bab(ies) will be in the next two months!! Woohoo! It will take anywhere from 2-8 weeks to be registered on the database to receive matches. With a lot of prayer and God's guidance, we will know the sweet faces of our kids very soon!

What can you do? Pray! Pray for a speedy registration on the database. Be praying for our bab(ies) and the orphanage that they are at. Pray for a hedge of protection around all of the workers that are working on our behalf to help us bring our kids home - US and India side. Pray for us as we wait, for our discernment to be able to know which match is right for our family. Pray for our adoption agency, that they would be able to have God's discernment in which match would be best for our family. 

I promise to do a better job of keeping every one up to date on everything. Hopefully we will be moving at light speed, God willing!

Adoption is NOT a consolation prize

The title of this one is intriguing, isn't it? Well this post is just to get some things out there. We currently have a lot of our friends having babies after dealing with years of infertility. This has in turn prompted a fair amount of people to ensure us that they are praying for us to have "our own, biological baby" or that we are going to be "next". First off, we greatly appreciate that you are praying for us and that you want that for us. But we want you to understand, that right now... in this very season of our life... a biological baby is not what we want. We want and were nudged ever so gently, several times by God, to choose this path. The path of international adoption. This path is hard, it is uncertain, and it absolutely not for the faint of heart. We have to be ready, and to be prayed up at all times. We have to have a gigantic amount of faith in our God that he is moving mountains on our behalf to bring our baby home.

We know that there are people who adopt due to infertility but at this stage in our life.. we want you to know, that adoption was and is our PLAN A. We know that it may be easy for you to assume that we can't have children, but we believe that we can. We are simply choosing to adopt at this point in time. We want you to know that our adopted child, will be OUR child. There is no distinction thanks to an awesome thing called love. If you are a christian, you would recall that Jesus himself was adopted by his earthly father, Joseph. Joseph loved him as his own and cared for him just like a biological child. God calls us his own through Christ. He has adopted us into his kingdom and we are his heirs and co-heirs in Christ (Romans 8:17). We are called to do the same thing by caring for waiting children today - whether they be in our own country or another. We are sharing that love of Christ throughout the nation and the greatest part is being able to take a child out of a bad situation and turn their life around for good. We are truly mimicking the work of Christ. We are doing his work; we are being his hands and feet. 

We would just like to empower you to show love and get excited for people you know that are adopting. We in the adoption community need your support just as much as the family that is pregnant with a biological child. Although you may not see a pregnant belly, we have the finger cuts of all the paperwork we have had to gather to prove to the US and India that we will be good parents. We are praying constantly for our child and we don't even know who they are yet. We pray for their family and for their birth. For their orphanage and for their growing little minds. We pray for them every. single. day. And while we may not know who they are yet, our heavenly father does and we trust that he is choosing the perfect child and timing for our family.

Please know that we love you, but we want you to understand that sometimes it does hurt a little that you can't recognize this joyous occasion for us or that you think we are less than the person having their own child. Because I assure you, our child, even though they may look different from us, will be our child in every sense of the way possible. We hope that you can understand this and get on board with us for the roller-coaster of a lifetime in bringing our baby home.

For those of you that are already on the ride with us, we thank you. Thank you for loving us and supporting us. You have no idea how much it means. It takes a village to bring home a baby, and we are so thrilled you are a part of our tribe! :)

Update

Hey everyone! I know a lot of people have been asking what's the word on the street? Well, at the beginning of the year we applied for a grant for our home study. The home study costs roughly $2,000 and there is only one grant available for this. The other grants require you to submit a copy of your finalized home study with it. So we have been waiting several months to see if we got the grant or not... and guess what?! 

WE GOT THE GRANT!!! 
And it was for $2,000, the entire cost of the home study!! God is sooo good!!

While we waited we have been busy gathering tons of official documents for our home study and our dossier. I mean we had to get official birth certificates, marriage licenses, medical forms, complete hours of classes online, copies of our insurance, background checks at the local, state and FBI level, autobiographies for Peco and I that listed recollections from childhood, employment, education, and how we feel about adopting a child... The list goes on. About 30+ documents and most had to be certified and notarized. We finally mailed those off to our home study agency and our placement agency today! Woohoo! 

So what's next? Next, we will meet our social worker with the home study agency and she will come out and examine our home and interview us. We will probably have about 3-5 different visits from her over the next few months. She will interview us together and separately and together again. Once she is finished writing up everything, our agency will approve this and SC DSS has to approve it as well. This won't be finalized until after our anniversary on July 25th. So we are looking to finalize it at the end of July, which is perfect because there is a grant that gives up to $15,000 and the deadline is August 6th! 

So what can you do for us now? Pray that we get the grant and most importantly pray for our future child. Pray for a hedge of protection around them, that they are safe and that God fills them with a sense of peace that we are coming for them!

After our home study is complete, we will send off paperwork to be cleared through US immigration to adopt and at the same time send paperwork to India to be registered on their database to be matched with a child. We are hoping to be match with a child early Fall, but everything is unpredictable. We are at the mercy of the Indian government but ultimately we know that everything is in God's hands and will happen in his timing. :)

Thank you for following us and praying for us. We appreciate you more than you will ever know!

Blessed Beyond Measure

This past week we were once again reminded about the goodness of our God and how he will continue to provide for us throughout the adoption process.

In the last post, I told you guys how my husband's students raised $1,072 for our adoption... well we have some pretty awesome news to update you on.

Since the kids video of their generosity was posted on Facebook, we have had not ONE.. but TWO people dollar for dollar match their donations... So the kids didn't just raise $1,072 ... their donation was tripled to $3,216!! Praise God through whom all blessings flow. He is mighty and he is letting us know that he is in control and he's got this. :)

We are so blessed and thankful for the donations that have been bestowed upon us and we are so excited to see God move throughout the rest of our adoption process!

Valentine's Day Surprise

Less than a month after we decided to stop worrying so much about everything and stop attempting to control the timeline of our adoption process, the Lord truly blessed us in a beautiful and mighty way!

My husband’s 3^rd grade GATE class and the previous two years classes (now 4^th and 5^th grade GATE classes) secretly raised money over the course of a week and a half and presented it to him on Valentine’s Day!! Those amazing kids raised a grand total of $1,072!! They were so excited to be able to bless us with this and we are so incredibly grateful! Words can’t even begin to express how we feel – the Lord is working in our adoption and he is showing up BIG and in avenues that we never even imaged! The kids told us how some of them had lemonade stands in their neighborhoods and others made cards and pictures. We are so blessed!

Receiving the gift from the kids

This is just a portion of all three classes. :)

Collage of some of their cards 

One of the kids drew a "Baby Super Sanders"

Exceedingly and Abundantly

Whenever God gives you a word, it is SO exciting and empowering that you could just jump for the sky! It is so refreshing and you have such hope that you can't possibly be brought back down to reality ever... right? Well... not exactly. You see, when you get that initial hope, you can't just grab hold and think that it will take you through the entire process. You have to constantly renew your mind. Constantly repeat the promises to yourself that the Lord has told you. If you don't do these things...  that seed of doubt will be planted. If you aren't strong enough it will be watered and it will grow. Before you know it, you've just gotten yourself into a place that you never wanted to be. How could you be so doubtful of a situation that God clearly told you he had control over. Yes, you may not see the work that is going on in the background, the people whose hearts God is changing, tugging on and making a way for the promise he gave you. To truly have a God size dream... it can't be measured on our earthly terms. It's a dream that can only be achieved through the supernatural, through the Holy Spirit weaving in and out of people's lives, planting those seeds of hope. The hard, at least for me, is the waiting and having patience. As humans, it is so difficult to believe when you don't see. As Christians, this is what it is all about, believing in the unseen. That is what faith is all about, the substance of things that we hope for, the evidence of the things we cannot see. When we feel God has called us to do something we just want to jump in and do it now, on our terms... but that is what's so great about God. If we do it on our terms, so fast and hastily, it won't come out right. But if we wait on Him, put our faith and trust in Him, it will be far greater than our wildest dreams.

"Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us" Eph 3:20

Do you see that... he is ABLE to do EXCEEDINGLY ABUNDANTLY above ALL things that we ASK or even think! How great is our God? I was feeling a tad bit defeated Sunday morning when I went to church, the seed was creeping in, how will we really ever afford all of this? Then I was quickly reminded that God's got it. A lady from our church came over to me and said "I've already told your husband, but I wanted you to know too. You shouldn't be surprised by overflow". There it was, God showing up to clean up my little mess. To remind me that he's got this, and not only does he have this and is he going to fulfill his promise to us, but he is going to do it exceedingly and abundantly. We send up prayers of thanksgiving and are so grateful for all that he is doing in our lives and in the life of the little one who will become our son or daughter. We don't know if they are born yet, but we do know that God is orchestrating everything and that it will be a testimony to only Him who we can give the glory and thanks! :)

Puzzle Fundraiser

Puzzle Fundraiser!

Every person who donates to our adoption becomes a piece of our story; a piece of our puzzle. So here is how the fundraiser works:

• We have selected a 500 piece puzzle and each piece symbolizes someone who will help to bring our child home.
• Each piece is a minimum donation of $20.
• You may choose to be one piece of the puzzle or many. There is no limit.
• Your name will be written on the back of each puzzle piece that you represent. Make sure to add a note to your donation or send an email with the name(s) you would like written on the puzzle piece(s).

Once we have fully funded the puzzle, we will frame it between two pieces of glass and hang it in our child's room. By hanging it between two pieces of glass, we will be able to turn it over and tell the story and remember the names all of the people that supported us making it possible to bring our child home!

Below is a picture that we chose to have made for our puzzle. 

We will write your name on the back of the puzzle piece...

Once we have funded the entire puzzle, we will have raised $10,000! This is almost a third of the price of our adoption. So huge!! 

We would be so honored for you to support us and help us to bring our child home! To buy a puzzle piece you can send your donation to our paypal account here or you can make a tax deductible donation to our Pure Charity account here and click the "donate to this fundraiser" button.

Exciting News!

Family and Friends,

We are so glad that you are here because we have some very exciting news! Peco and I are starting the journey to adopt our first child! And as of a couple of days ago, we have officially been accepted in the India program through our adoption agency! 

**This is our current level of excitement**

We decided to start this blog to keep all of our family and friends informed along the way. The process itself will take anywhere from 18 to 24 months but we are excited!! I thought I would start this first post out with a few of the already frequently asked questions - just in case they were rolling through your mind as well.

One of the biggest questions asked is, "Why are you adopting and from another country?" The short and simply answer is - Because God told us to. The longer version is that we always knew, even early on when we were dating, that if we ever adopted we would adopt from another country. Peco had been on multiple mission trips and I had been to Nicaragua. Once you go to a third world country and you see the sweet faces of the orphans in those countries... well that image truly never leaves you. Our hearts went out to them and we knew that someday we would make an impact - even if it started with just one.   After we got married, having kids seemed to take a little longer than we had hoped and we began praying and asking God for guidance. We had a friend who was adopting a child from Korea and we felt encouraged to look into international adoption... but after seeing the price to adopt ($30-$40 thousand!!), we immediately were discouraged. We determined that we probably  wouldn't be able to afford it, thus pushing that thought out of our minds. After several months of prayer, one day changed the course of our entire future. I'd like to refer to this day as a "meeting orchestrated by God". Peco teaches 3rd grade and he always has a feast in his classroom for Thanksgiving and parents and family are encouraged to come and share in the festivities. I normally attend and help out as needed. On this particular feast, little did we know that one child in his class and his sweet family would encourage and set us on the path that God had intended for us all along. I knew that he was teaching a child who was internationally adopted but I simply had forgotten about it until the feast. I saw the little boy and then I saw his precious mom and grandparents .. and right behind them were his two sisters who were also adopted. At that point everything stopped, it was like the Holy Spirit had filled the entire room. My face lit up and I looked at Peco and mouthed the words "adoption". He smiled and nodded. I struck up a conversation with the grandmother and within our short time of talking she said the words that we needed to hear. She told us "Don't think you can't afford it, my daughter and her husband have adopted four times" and at once, a sense of peace filled me. I said Thank you Lord and couldn't wait for school to be over to tell Peco about my conversation. We have since broke bread with them at their house and they were able to educate and encourage us in our walk. I truly believe that without meeting this wonderful family, we wouldn't be where we are today. All of the reservations that we had pertaining to not being able to afford it had vanished. We were reminded of many sermons and words we had received from God in the past... if he calls you to do something - he provides a way. So while we may have the necessary income to care for a child in our home, we don't have the $35,000 to pay for the adoption outright. And we will need your help to invest in our family with your prayers and donations to bring our baby home... but we know that God will provide and all those who sow into our family - no matter how little or big - will be blessed ten fold back. :)

Another question that everyone is dieing to know is, "How did you decide to adopt from India?" Once again, the answer to this is - Because God told us to. This is another area that we were struggling in. We wanted to adopt from China, maybe because that's normally what you think of when you think of international adoption, but unfortunately we didn't qualify. We were bummed and thought that we would wait a few more years until we had been married long enough to qualify. God had a different plan though. I mean, he had gotten us this far already and we needed to give him a little more faith to let his vision unfold. We once again, began praying... and no answers came. Then one day as we were sitting on the couch we decided to pray again but this time we prayed boldly and specifically for God to tell us which country we were to adopt from. We asked that he give us a clear sign, not one that involved us trying to interpret it. Obviously we were no good at that. As soon as we were done praying, a commercial came on the TV. The very first words from the commercial, in big bold letters said "Go to India!".  We just looked at each other and laughed and said well - it looks like it's India. The next week, I told my boss about the adoption and India and the following day I received an email in my Outlook saying that our company was "going to India". My boss and I quickly came to the same realization that this was no coincidence either. Not only did God give us one sign... but he gave us two! We couldn't be disobedient any longer, so we did some digging and saw that we qualified for India and submitted our pre-application. We then told our parents and a couple close friends and on Christmas night we decided to submit the application to be accepted into the India program for our adoption agency. The adoption agency was closed for the week of Christmas and New Years so we had to wait longer to get our acceptance but there it was the following Wednesday! I'm going to go ahead and write that in the books for our first of many waiting periods for the whole adoption process... God is granting me patience, slowly. ;)

So there you have it, our two most asked questions and I'll update the blog as there are more and with any updates along our journey. The very first step to truly begin the process is to pull from savings and raise the rest of the initial $5,000 that is due to start the infamous paper chase and homestudy! Once we have the initial $5,000 and we fill out some initial agreements, we can start Phase 1. Phase 1 is the paper chase. This involves about 6 months of us running around like chickens with our heads cut off to get a vast array of documents, getting said documents notarized and eventually compiling a full package of papers - otherwise known as a "dossier". During this time we will also be completing our homestudy with a social worker. This will consist of more paperwork, an examination of our home and interviews with us together and separately regarding everything under the sun related to our parenting styles, the way we were raised, our marriage and so on.

To familiarize yourself with the blog, at the top is a link to our Adoption Timeline. This will update you on our big milestones in the process. If your are also adopting from India, this is a neat point of reference so you can see how long it took us. Although I'm sure each adoption varies in their waiting times. :)

There is another link at the top for Fundraising. This will keep you up to date on the most recent fundraiser that we are doing. Our first one will be a puzzle fundraiser and I will post another blog about that shortly. We greatly appreciate your help in sharing these posts and our blog with your friends/family and on your social media sites. :) You never know who will be able to lend a helping hand and every prayer and donation are greatly appreciated. 

If you are feeling led to donate, there are two options. The first option is that you can use the donate button located to the right of this page and your donation will go straight to our adoption PayPal account. The second option is to use the Pure Charity link that is right under the donation button. By donating through Pure Charity, the funds will be transferred straight to our Adoption Agency and are completely tax deductible. 

There you have it! :) If you have any questions along the way, please comment or send us an email and we will answer it as best as we can. Most importantly we ask that you add us to your prayers.That you pray specifically for the provision of the funds to start Phase 1 and for our future child. That God is placing a hedge of protection around them, that they are being placed in a good, christian orphanage and for the Holy Spirit to weave his peace throughout our entire process. We thank you all in advance for your prayers and your support!!