T SHIRT FUNDRAISER

By popular demand, we have decided to re-open our Tshirt orders!!

We pray it will be a huge success because who doesn't like a new T-shirt? 

Especially a Super Soft one like this one! 

AND especially when the purchase of this shirt is 

helping to unite a sweet little boy with his family!

But the cool thing is that this is so much more than an adoption T-shirt.

This is one that you can apply to any area of our lives.
It's about LOVE.

"This is real love--not that we loved God, 
but that He loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins." 1 John 4:10

Let that be what fuels you. Let LOVE be your guide.

YOU KNOW YOU WANT ONE!!!

Adult Sizes: XS-4XL

Click to Enlarge

 Our shirts come in 3 different styles with lots of color choices!!

Prices:
Super soft ADULT T's: $20 each  
 (add $2 for 2XL/3XL).

Super soft KIDS T's are $18 each
Super soft WOMEN'S TANKS are $24 each

Click to Enlarge

Special Thanks to our stellar brother in law, JD, who created the design.

Check out his work at www.jdreeves.com

Kids Sizes:  M(10/12), L(14/16)
Click to Enlarge

Women's Tank Sizes: S, M, L, XL, 2XL(+$2)
Click to Enlarge

You can order as many as you want and shipping is one flat rate of $5 per order.

(Or if you are local to the Williamson/Maury County area, you can choose free pick up)

To place a Tshirt Order, please click on the Tshirt order form tab at the top of the page or
click here.

If you would rather make a donation in lieu of purchasing a Tshirt,
please read HERE! to find out how your generosity will
have an impact on Qi Long for years to come!

Happy Birthday!

We always try to live our life being joyful in the present. No matter the situation, our family verse is “Be joyful always, pray continually and give thanks in all circumstances.” 1 Thes. 5:16-18. But for today, let me just say that we are ready for next year. Normally birthdays are fun and exciting times. We love birthdays around here. We love cake, we love doing special things for the birthday boy or girl and we love celebrating together the good things that God has done for us. But this year, birthdays, especially these two, are so much more difficult than what is on the surface.

Justin’s 30th birthday is Friday. We have prayed so hard that we will be able to send in our Dossier on his birthday. We were worried that we were going to be sitting around just waiting for his birthday to come around so that we could officially meet all of the requirements to adopt from China. But we haven’t been sitting around. We have been working day and literally all night, praying, applying for grants and doing what we need to do to push this paperwork along. Unfortunately, our Dossier won’t be ready to send Friday. And that makes us very sad. A day that we anticipated would allow us to rejoice, is actually breaking our hearts. But as we have learned so well in the past, if your heart is never broken, joy wouldn’t taste as sweet. There is so much to be thankful for. Most importantly, we know that Qi Long is well cared for. He is surrounded by friends and caregivers that, it seems like, genuinely care for him. The orphanage director has gone out of her way to serve our family by communicating with us. That is a priceless blessing that we are beyond grateful to know, as so many people don’t have that privilege. 

When we began this journey, we put everything about this process at the feet of Jesus and asked him to lead and guide us. While a man plans his way, the Lord determines his steps. We know the direction we want to go and we know the things we need to do, and the rest is up to Him.

Qi Long’s birthday was on March 15. He turned 6 years old. You know how hard it is to watch your kids grow up? It’s really hard when you are watching him grow up and you haven’t been there for any of his birthdays. When you realize that he has had 6 birthdays now, without a mom and a dad to love on him and tell him how special he is and do something special JUST for him, it is a brand new level of sadness.

But once again, there is still room to rejoice. Hallelujah that the story doesn’t end there. There is such good news. Just like Jesus didn’t leave us in our lostness, God has not left Qi Long in his lonliness. God’s promise to Qi Long is being fulfilled even as I type this message. “I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you,” Jn. 14:18. This verse is a beautiful promise that many claim for the orphans of the world, who desperately need forever families. But in reality, it is a promise to every believer, who sometimes looks up at the sky wondering if Jesus is ever really going to come back. He promised, friends. And even though we may not see what’s going on behind the scenes, much like Qi Long can’t see how hard we are working to bring him home, Christ is working on our behalf to bring us home; to redeem us. To bind up our broken hearts, to give us freedom, to bestow on us a crown of beauty instead of ashes and a garment of praise instead of despair, to plant us as oaks of righteousness for the display of HIS splendor! (Is. 61) By God’s grace, this will be the last birthday that Qi Long will spend without a family. And only by His grace. And when it is time, when all of the details that we don’t know about come together and fall into place, in His perfect timing, He will come back for us and he will bring us all home. Amen!

Happy Birthday Justin and Qi Long! Lord willing, next year, we will all celebrate together! And oh what a celebration it will be!  

Looks like he enjoyed his cake!

We were allowed to send him a birthday cake and he was able to have a birthday party with his friends. We also sent him a video of our family singing to him and he was able to watch that on his birthday while he was at the doctor. We pray for God to prepare his precious little heart to be with us, and our hearts too.

Fingerprints

We had our fingerprint appointment today! Because we live overseas, we had to travel to the closest US consulate to do this. Our closest consulate is normally a 3 hour bus ride and a 4 hour train ride away. Well, this time we were able to ride in a van, instead of a bus, and shaved 1/2 an hour off of that leg. AND the train station just opened up a second fast train that leaves in the afternoon making that train ride only 3 hours and 18 minutes! (Normally, the only non stop train leaves early in the morning and we can never make it.) Yay! We love it when things work out in our favor.

It just so happens that the consulate is in one of our favorite cities here, and also the city that Qi Long lives in. While we didn't get to see him, there is just something nice about knowing that he is near....you know, just in case. (I may or may not have tried to shamefully weasel our way in by posting fun pictures of us in the city so that the orphanage director would see we were there and maybe invite us over. She "liked" our pictures, but no invitation. She likes her rules. lol)

It rained almost the whole time we were there, but it was a great trip. We got our fingerprints done, although the machine did NOT like my fingers. After about 4 or 5 tries and it beeping it's angry beep, it finally gave us the happy beep and accepted my little prints. :) We were also able to go ahead and get our documents notarized that will go in our Dossier. Once they travel to America to be authenticated and then back to China. We were a little shocked to find out that getting 6 documents notarized at the Consulate cost us $300 USD! We didn't have to pay for the fingerprints, which normally cost $380 per adult, and we were excited about being an expat actually working in our favor for once. But then that savings was slashed in half by the notary. BUT it could have been worse.

After all of the paperwork matters, we took Little S to see his pediatrician and gave him two big ol shots. He took them like a champ! The nurse called both Justin and I in to hold him down, but he didn't even whimper. The sweet little nurse just kept saying "Amazing!" haha.

Of course, no trip to the big city would be complete without a trip to Papa Johns and it was delicious. This time we had the privilege of meeting up with a family that attends our home church, who happened to be here finalizing their adoption that week. It was so amazing to watch our paths cross and get to spend some time together. Big S totally hit it off with their boys and they had so much fun together. The adults were pretty awesome too, and of course their new princess stole the show!

I realized when all this was over, that I should totally be taking pictures of this process! You know we always take a picture every step of the way of pregnancy. Adoption should be no different! Our little guy deserves pictures of his family preparing for his arrival too! I will do a better job of that from now on! (Even if it is only a picture of me sitting in front of the computer at 1 am with blood shot eyes as I type up yet another paragraph answering "What makes you want to adopt" for our grant applications! :/ )

One more check off the list, one more step closer to Qi Long being in our arms! It's worth every last bit of craziness to get there!