Thursday, December 17, 2015

One Year ago...

Exactly one year ago today( December 17, 2015), Ben and I filled out the Request to International Adoption Application and mailed it off to the Gladney Agency with our $300 application fee!  At that time, we were under the impression that the adoption process would be a long one and the wait could be 18-24 months long!  We were trusting that God would bring us step-by-step to the child He had planned for us.  Now, one year later we are excited to be anticipating our little girl, Lucee, coming home with us within 13-14 months of that initial application!!!  Praise God and may He continue to bless this adoption process!! 

Just a side note.... our three biological kids came 1-3 weeks early, so it's just fitting that Lucee would be coming "early" as well ;)  





Monday, December 14, 2015

December 14, 2015 Update

Some people have been asking about updates on Lucee... Not much is going on right now on our side of things. Other than trying to get things ready for her to come home! Woo Hoo!!!  
However, in China, the paperwork is getting to where it needs to be and people are double checking that everything is where it is supposed to be, so that when we get there with Lucee, there won't be any paper/document hiccups. :)  

We have been given the estimate of about 2 more weeks until CCCWA (China Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption) will issue our Travel Approval date.   We are estimating that the travel date will be toward the latter part of January 2016.  We will definitely announce on here and blast it on Facebook when we get that Travel Approval date!!!  

Until then, we will just continue to prepare our house and hearts for our sweet daughter to come home! 

In regards to our fundraising, we are less than $3,000 away from the financial goal on Adopt Together!!  Praise God for all of His provisions thus far!  
If you would like to contribute to this, please go to 
to make a tax-deductible donation to help with travel and adoption expenses.  

Stay tuned for the Travel Date coming soon....  Yippee, SUPER exciting, it's just around the corner!!!

Friday, October 30, 2015

Our Sweet Lucee

 Introducing to you...
 Our Daughter, Lucee!
She has stolen our heart and she doesn't even know it. 
"Soon, little one, soon. You will know how much you are loved."   
        With Love,Your family! 

Thursday, October 8, 2015

Update on Lucee!!!

I know it's been a while since we have given an adoption update. We have kind of been sitting in limbo waiting to hear back from China as they have all of our paperwork and are reviewing it.
Today we got to hear from the physical therapist that is part of our adoption agency and we got some REALLY exciting and encouraging news. First of all she couldn't stop talking about how amazing and sweet Lucee is. Her excitement right off the bat was very exciting for us. We hadn't even gotten into any questions and she was already bragging on her. Then she got in to answering a bunch of the questions we had asked before the group went over to China to see the kids.
-Lucee is very active and even jumps around a lot. This was encouraging for us as we know that she has issues with with her legs with the muscles and tendons due to her cerebral palsy. The physical therapist did state that she is not in any kind of brace for her legs right now (this is normal in orphanages) and that the longer she goes without, the harder it will be on her legs. She does have good range of motion in her feet and legs right now, so that is encouraging. The fact that she is jumping is very exciting for us.
-With her strabismus (cross eyes), the therapist did note that Lucee is not tracking well out of her right eye. We expected this but is just a reminder that vision therapy and surgery on her eyes is in her future when she gets here. Her head is tilted to the left and they believe this is to compensate for her right eye. The therapist stated that because her head is tilted to the left that the muscles in her neck are tight and will need to be worked on when she is here.
-She does not speak any English except for "hi". She speaks Mandarin pretty well, so this will most likely be our greatest challenge when we are united. The amazing thing is that we met some new friends recently who are from China and fluently speak Mandarin. They have offered to teach us and to be a help when we don't understand Lucee. Meeting these new friends is such an amazing blessing at the right time.
-Lucee is learning lots of new things and is able to match the right colors together. Her favorite colors are green and red.
-Lucee is a very personal little girl and loves interacting with others. The therapist stated that they gave the kids fruit snacks and Lucee was offering some of her snacks to the workers before she ate any herself. Over and over the therapist continued to talk about her sweet, loving personality.
-She loves music and sings all of the time.
-Lucee is not on any medications
-She sleeps well but is a lite sleeper and likes the room completely dark. This is perfect because Lilee sleeps in the dark whereas our boys sleep with a night light on.
-A big one is that she is potty trained!!!!! She goes potty all by herself as well. That means we can't get rid of the big changing table in our house and we no longer have a need for any diapers!!!! Brandee was VERY excited about this news.
-She is 101cm tall which puts her at 39 1/2 inches. She weighs 31.4 pounds. Lilee on the other hand is 38 1/2 inches tall and weighs about 33 pounds. Both girls wear 3T clothing. We are going to basically have twin girls!!
-The nanny's and anyone that is around her states that she is an absolute joy to be around.
-Some of the most exciting news but also gut wrenching (because we have to continue to wait) is that she has been talking about wanting a "mama and baba". She has seen other kids get adopted and leave and she is desiring that as well. Obviously, this just melted our hearts and made us want to get on a plane right away and go get her. It's exciting that God is answering our prayer for her to desire to be part of a family. It's crazy to be in the spot we are in because she has no clue that there is a family pursuing her. Because we are waiting on China's final approval, they cannot tell her about us yet. We feel like we are looking through a one way mirror where we know who she is and are looking into her world, but she can't see that we are right there on the other side of the mirror smiling and ready to love on her. Once we get final approval for her they will begin telling her about us and showing her pictures.

This was a very exciting day for us as we received all of this great information about our daughter. Please pray that the process would hurry along so we can actually get over there and bring her home. Thank you all for the amazing love and support we have been receiving!! It has meant so much to us. Can't wait to tell you all more soon!

Sunday, September 13, 2015

While We Are Waiting...

We have been pre-approved to get Lucee (spelling we will probably change her name to in keeping with her momma and sister's spelling), which is a big deal!!  This means we are the only family that has her file in the world and no one can get her unless our paperwork doesn't get approved in China before Jan 23rd.  (It should be approved by October!!)  Once it's approved, we will be given a time to travel over to bring her home!!  This could be as early as December, but could be later like Feb or March.  Financially, we are preparing for Dec, but emotionally, we are trying to prepare for the latter. 

While we are waiting, we are focusing our efforts on fundraising.  We are planning several fundraisers...
-  Bake Sales at APEX Community Church (Sept. 12-13 & Oct 24-25)

-  Beer Tasting at The Trolley Stop in Dayton (Nov 4 @ 6:45pm)

- The Orphan Love Run/Walk 5K (Nov 14 @ 9am) The Start line is at APEX Community Church

-To Give Tax-Deductible Donations you can give at Adopt Together .

Also, some exciting news that's happening right now is that the Superkids (a team that our agency sends to China 2 times a year to physically see the kids in the orphanages, take pictures and be advocates for) just left yesterday (Sept 12) for their second trip this year to China.  They will visit about 10 orphanages while there, and they are bringing a little package of items for Lucee!  If she is not ill on the day that they visit her, they will get to take updated photos, videos, and ask her nannies the questions that we have given them.  We are so thankful for this team and all of the work that the volunteers do to help these waiting children.

That's all for now!  If you have any questions about the process or anything, please feel free to let us know!  All Glory be to God!!!




A word from Ben

While running a 6-mile punishment for the Biggest Loser Challenge at work, I was finishing up my last mile and God began to minister to my heart about little Lucy.  I have been struggling with wanting a little girl who was going to fit right into our family's active life style.  Little Lucy has muscle issues and moderate retardation.  So that didn't fit into what I (emphasized!) wanted.  I wanted it to be easy or maybe not easy, but definitely not as hard as Lucy was presenting with.  I had lost focus that this was the Lord's inspiration for us to adopt and not us.  What was it that he wanted in this adoption and not I.  This needed to be Your will be done, not Mine. 
As a dad, I have always wanted the best for my kids and having a kid with moderate disabilities, especially mentally, was a challenge for me.  I selfishly was limiting in my mind maybe what God wanted to do through this adoption.  This selfish perspective was possibly limiting God's will for our family.  With this narrow-minded perspective we could be missing out on an amazing blessing the Lord has for our family as a whole and each individual member of our family.   Right before the run, Brandee and I talked about Lucy's personality and how she liked singing, playing with others and how she liked to eat... all signs of life!  We talked about how getting a toddler or infant, you don't know their personality yet and how a child that seems more "normal" could turn out to have many social issues.  So with this foundation of the story I'm on my run... I'm finishing the last mile and put on one of my most favorite songs to help me dig in. It's "Tear Down the Walls" by Hillsong United. 
Tear Down the walls
Tear down the walls,
see the world, is there something we have missed
turn from ourselves, look beyond
there is so much more than this
And I don't need to see it to believe it
cause I can't shake this fire deep inside my heart
Look to the skies hope arise
see His majesty revealed
more than this life there is love
there is hope and this is real
This life is yours and hope is rising as your glory floods our hearts
let love tear down these walls that
all creation would come back to you
it's all for you
Your name is glorious glorious
your love is changing us, calling us to worship in spirit and in trust
as all creation returns to you
For all your sons and daughters who are walking in the darkness
you are calling us to lead them back to you
we will see your spirit rising as the lost come out of hiding
every heart will see this hope we have in you

So here I am running along and the Holy Spirit just starts ministering to my heart with the lyrics of this song.  I begin to see my selfishness and begin to see what I'm missing overall:
1) One day when the Lord returns (if not sooner) she will be able to walk and run "normal" and have corrected eyes and "normal" mental capacity.  Jesus will usher those of us in Him into a new life with a new body, heart, and mind.  How short minded I have been to forget this.  We ALL have imperfections and the only cure is Jesus.  It (this life) has been and will always be about coming back to Jesus who all things were created by and for.  My main idea as a parent, husband, friend, coworker, and believer in Christ should be first and foremost to "lead them back to you". The lyrics "let love tear down these walls (of ignorance and selfishness) that all creation would come back to you, it's all for you" and "turn from ourselves, look beyond there is so much more to this" really brought this adoption into a right and true perspective.
2) No matter the mental delays our love can carry us through and Brandee's background of early childhood education could help this precious little girl to grow leaps and bounds.  She's worked with kids who have developmental delays so who better to help Lucy grow than her mama.
3) Why are we adopting? For ourselves and what WE want or answering the calling that God has laid on our hearts? Is this for our overall plan in life or His? Loves doesn't see ailments.  Just as God loved us "while we were still yet sinners" and gunked up with our junk and imperfections, should I be looking at my kids and ones He's entrusted to me with the same eyes.  This life will never have perfection.  How soon we forget that the "perfect" family life and circumstances does not and will not exist in this life.  Our only hope is in Jesus.  "look to the skies, hope arise, see His majesty revealed.  More than this life there is love, there is hope, and this is real"

Our love for Lucy will fill us with joy and compassion as with any of our kids, to see beyond whatever physical, mental, or emotional ailment they may have.  Did we get to choose Noah not to get Lymphomatoid Papulosis?  No, and it didn't make us love him any less.  If Lucy was "perfect" now or have very mild disabilities and then develop into moderate disabilities later, would it change our love or care for her?  By NO means.
Thank you God for helping me to see the error of my ways and your prompting to pursue this precious little girl.  If we hadn't had an A/C appointment, where I had to turn down overtime, I wouldn't have been at home to go on this long run and have my eyes opened.  The appointment ended up being unnecessary as the installer found out that the air distributor was internally insulated.  No charge to us for the appointment, but that whole event ensured I was at home and therefore able to go on this run.
Now where do we go? Well with a new perspective, we are pressing forward for Lucy and whether we get her or not is in God's hands, but like Paul in the bible, we have a new way to see.

A closer look at the 2 weeks...

We'll try our best to put what happened during these 2 weeks into words... Before we do, you need to know that when you adopt internationally from China, you have to go through a checklist (our agency's was almost 9 pages long!) stating what special needs you were willing to consider, might consider or would not consider.  This was a difficult and strange task that we did after sitting down with our pediatrician way back in February.  It felt weird going through and marking a box, since we don't get to do that with a biological child.  However, it had to be done and we completed it as truthfully as we could.  We were definitely leaning towards the mild side of the special needs spectrum.

So when we looked at Lucy's file, we saw 2 things that weren't mentioned in the blog... 1) it said, "Hepatitis B positive" and  2) "Moderate retardation".   However, after we talked with the agency, we were able to get past those two things, since they said Hepatitis B positive just meant that she had her Hep B vaccine, she doesn't have Heb B. The physical therapist who had travelled over and spent time with Lucy just a couple months prior to our getting her file said that although Lucy scored low for the IQ testing, she thought Lucy was able to do more cognitively than what the file suggested due to external circumstances (she can't see well out of her crossed eye, she's been in an orphanage her whole life, she had to travel for 2 hours to the testing site, to take a test with strangers, etc.) She also went on about her personality and how she likes books and singing.

After the phone call with the physical therapist, we felt better, but we didn't feel the confirmation to say Yes or No yet. The main thing standing in the way for both Ben and I was that she had more moderate special needs than what we were anticipating.  However, I kept being reminded that we are all broken.  That if one of our biological children were crippled or injured in a life altering way, we would still love and care for them.  Although I felt Ben leaning towards us passing on her, I didn't have that peace yet, but didn't feel confident in pursuing her either, so my prayer to God was, "Lord please speak to Ben and change his heart if we are to pursue her."

A few days after this, Ben went for a run, I was upstairs going through the boys' clothes when he comes up after running 6 miles, all sweaty, and he said, "I think we need to pray and really think more about Lucy."  I start crying(happy tears), thinking "wow could she really be our daughter?" He's looking at me like I'm a little crazy and I tell him that I needed God to speak to him and this felt a little bit like a confirmation.
 
So, we decided that we'd take the next step which is to send her file to Cincinnati Children's International Specialist to have a Dr. who is used to seeing files of kids from China and other countries and who could give us more medical insight.

A few days later,  we heard back from the Dr. in Cincy.  Ben was at work, so we had a phone conference together.  He got called out towards the end, but we both were able to hear the main part of the call... The Dr. had a much less exciting prognosis based off the file, pictures, and videos we sent her.  She said Lucy has Cerebral Palsy and is cognitively delayed to the point that her IQ suggests she'll never be able to live independently.  She'll probably not be able to get a HS diploma and will need assistance making financial and personal decisions.  However, she did say that she was surprised by the video of her singing and that with an IQ as low as she tested, she shouldn't be able to remember and sing along as well as she did.  The Strabismus (cross eye) wasn't even mentioned because the other 2 disabilities were more severe to talk about.   When he got home from work, we both had a sense of, "Well, that was more than we were expecting."  As we began talking about our fears and thoughts, we tried to do a lot of resting in God and trusting in Him to provide the answer.

Over the next couple days, we continued praying and seeking God's wisdom. On June 9, 2015, we both had complete peace that we should pursue Lucy, trusting that if we are not right for her or she is not going to do well with us, then God would not allow it to happen and will provide her with the family she needs.  One of the verses that I read in Habukkuk 1:3-5, Habukkuk asks God why He allows wrong and makes him look at injustice.  God replies... "look at the nations and watch-and be utterly amazed for I am going to do something amazing in your days that you would not believe even if you were told."  We look forward to seeing how God uses all of this for His glory!!  It's amazing to think that ten years ago I graduated with a special education minor thinking I'd use it in the school setting.  Now I will get to use that degree for my daughter.  How beautiful it is in all the ways God is showing us that long ago, He knew we would adopt from China.  On paper, Lucy isn't someone that the agency would've matched us with (she's older than we had requested and her disabilities are more severe than what we were desiring). However, we know that she is who we are to pursue and we are thankful that God's plan is better than ours!!