Kicking off Anna's Senior Year in Drill Team and Band

Jailynn with the Mascot Panther

Anna plays the Flute in Marching Band

There she is in her drill team costume with her flute.

Anna is also Leut. of Blue Bells Drill Team. She hopes to be in Drill team in college.

David and Anna

Anna, Jailynn, and Jordyn

We are so proud of Anna in all that she does. She is a very busy girl taking college credits in high school, advanced classes, drill team, marching band, and robotics. She is a wonderful big sister and role model for her younger sisters. She will be very much missed when she takes her next step in life: college. I am not sure how I will hold up because I am already starting to grieve over the fact she will be leaving the nest.

Celebrating Jordyn"s 12th Birthday and four years together.

Sweet Jordyn

Jordyn loves school and she is a straight A student.

Jordyn requested to celebrate her 12th birthday with a shopping trip with Mom. Awe, melt my heart.

This girl's a fashionista in her new outfit!

Amanda,Jailynn, and Jordyn in a beauty pageant this summer.

A natural on the stage!

Jordyn shines in the spotlight!

Three beautiful sisters!

So Blessed to know you, Jordyn, as my daughter!

In aw of my beautiful daughter. Jordyn is beautiful inside and out.

Jailynn won our hearts too!

Jordyn loves her family, her sisters Amanda and Anna.

Jordyn loves her big sister Anna.

Jordyn has brought so much love and joy to our family. She is a beautiful young lady and the love of Jesus shines through her. She is such a wonderful daughter. We are blessed and honored to know her and be her family. We adopted Jordyn four years ago and because of her love for her friends she left behind we adopted Jailynn in 2009. Soon, we will have Jaidyn home to complete our family. Jordyn has blossomed into a beautiful, sweet, caring young lady. She has touched my heart and I am blessed to be her mother.Adopting an older child can be intimidating and has challenges, but the rewards outweigh all of it. I cannot imagine my life without sweet Jordyn. I thank God for the opportunity to know her and the privilege to be her mother.

Summer Days Gone By....

                                                      Noah's favorite thing to do.

                                                  He loves playing at the beach.

                                                Jordyn and Jailynn enjoyed the ocean.

                                           Can you tell how much he loves the water!

                                            Playing in the sand.

                                                        JonMarc rarely came out of the water.

                                   On the ferry together with Grandpa, sister Andrea, baby Jonah,
                                   Jailynn, Jordyn, and Noah.

                                      Noah had fun on the ferry with is Grandpa.

                                                 Jordyn and Jailynn.

                                        I loved spending time with my sweet girls.

                                         Amanda, beautiful as always.

                                     Three sisters looking out into the ocean.

                                     Amanda, Jonah, and Noah.

                                         More summer fun by the pool.

 

      

Noah 4th Bday! He loves his Dora cake!

Drama, Drama, Drama!

Finally, we have heard that our check is going to be sent to us with in the next 30 days. If we had it when we were supposed to have it we would have already traveled and brough Jaidyn home. So frustrating. But I should expect all this by now that no matter how hard I try to have it planned out things just arent going to go as planned. The news now is that we have to travel on Sept 15 because our TA will expire on Oct 6th and families cannot travel after Sept 15 because of the fall festival. The IRS siad we will get our check with in the next 30 days as of last week. We have to have the money in our hands on Sept 1st to travel on Sept 15th. So IN FAITH, I asked our agency to request our consulate appt and that we will travel Sept 15. I am just praying and believing that we will get a miracle and can bring her home in September because if we cannot travel on Sept 15, then we have to request a new travel approval which will set our travel back by 8-10 more weeks. I am hoping and praying that does not happen because that is not fair to Jaidyn and I am ready to bring her home and get all this behind us. I am tired of this and it has taken sooo long this time. So I took a big step of faith and I am believing that we will have the check inour hands by Sept 1st. There just has to be some sort of drama even when I try really hard to not have any drama!!! So we wait and see what happens.


Hoping, Praying, and Believing that we will bring Jaidyn Grace home in September!!!

Time is Ticking...Waiting on our Tax Credit for Jaidyn

Time is ticking by on our TA while we wait for our adoption tax credit from the IRS. This is the money we planned to use for our travel expenses to bring Jaidyn home. Our family really urgently needs prayer over our last adoption and our travel to bring Jaidyn home. We are still waiting on our adoption tax credit from the IRS. They have sent us another letter asking for our original adoption decree again.. We have sent this letter with our homestudy and a letter from our social worker at least three times! We just sent the letter and paperwork to them in June. Also We sent it with our original tax return. I dont understand how this can be lost three times? I don't understand why this is happening. This is our last adoption and we have our travel approval now. We have until October 15 to travel and not having this money is causing our travel to be delayed. All I know is that we need a miracle from God to finish this adoption. We stepped out in faith like Peter did when he stepped out of the boat to meet Jesus walking on the water. We could have stayed in the boat too and not adopted a third time. We knew it would be difficult and a financial strain. But we also knew that these three girls deserve to be together and have a family. They all have their own unique story and a bond of closeness that is evident when they are together. I saw that bond on our last trip to China when we adopted Jailynn and we visited Jaidyn at school. She was so happy to see Jordyn after they had been seperated for over 2 years. I just had a feeling in my heart that we would be back to get her. I knew that it was impossible and something only God could orchestrate. I did not even want to ever adopt again at that point because it is stressful and hard and emotional, ect... I also felt in my heart that they are supposed to grow up together. Sometimes when God calls us to do something and we look at the natural circumstances it seems impossible and beyond our ability. It looks overwhelming and like it could never happen. We only started with a small ope that someday we could adopt a little girl from China. We never imagined that we would truly do it because we already ad 4 children. But the dream never left our hearts and now we trying to bring home our third little girl from China. When we adopted Jordyn and found out about the other two girls it was impossible to adopt from the same orphanage again. That was in 2007 and then in 2008 the CCAA created the waiting child list of all the older or special needs children. Now, that was a God thing!!! We were able to adopt Jailynn because of that change in the system and now Jaidyn. I know that this was meant to be and that we were supposed to adopt all three girls. I believe that we will complete this last adoption in spite of the IRS. We are asking for prayer support for God to provide the travel funds that we need. Our IRS return is $12,000 which will cover most of our expenses. Our plan is that Tim will travel alone to bring her home to help cut the expenses down. We would appreciate all prayers on this issue. Here is an updated picture of Jaidyn that we just received. Here birthday was July 26 and we sent her a cake and care package so that she will know we are still adopting her.

Jordyn, Jaidyn, and Jailynn in 2009 when we adopted Jailynn



Thank you and Blessings,

Melanie

Fundraiser for Jaidyn

We are having a fundraiser to raise money to bring Jaidyn home. We will send out a samaritan card to anyone that donates to help Jaidyn. The samaritan card can be used for discounts for resturaunts, entertainment, movies, travel discounts, flowers, and grocieries. I just need an address to send the card. I will post pictures of the card. Also, we will have a drawing at the end of the fundraiser for a digital camera and printer.

We understand this is alot to ask and Any help or donation to bring Jaidyn home is appreciated beyond words. I hate to even have to do this when I thought we had this adoption all figured out and covered. However, that is not at all the case. Please keep our family in your prayers.

Update....We Have T.A.

Yes. It is true. We have T. A.!! We are happy and excited that we finally have our T. A. However, things are not going as planned. We are still waiting for our tax return from the IRS and that is our travel money! UGG! I am still in shock that we have our TA but we do not have our funds to bring our daughter home. We are in serious need of prayer that God will part the red sea and send us the check from the IRS. We are stuck and cannot move forward with out our tax return. I wish that things were different and that we were ready to travel tomorrow...but that is not how things have gone. This is out of our control and we did ot expect to have this road block. I believe that it is happening for a reason. I believe that this is happening so that we can witness a miracle when God shows up with His provision for us to bring Jaidyn home. We await for our miracle. I believe that it will be a miracle and that we did not get this far to fail. I also appreciate everyone's prayer that we will have our check inour hand to complete our adoption and bring Jaidyn home

Apology

Hello,
I have to write this apology to everyone that reads my blog for several reasons. One, we were not able to go through the process to adopt Xiao Lei and get approved to start the process. I had hoped and prayed that we could raise the money quick enough to send in our LOI (letter of intent). However, that was not the case and my heart was broken over it. I am not sure if he found a family and I stopped blogging because I could not write this and face the fact that we could not bring him home along with our daughter. I know that it would have been difficult in reality, but my heart was already involved. Then, when it could not happen, I just ignored everything to do with adoption including our adoption. I guess I had to grieve over the failed dream and that it was just not meant to be. I hope he found a family. The truth is that adding two children at once to our family was probably too much for us to begin with. At times, we still have struggles with our children getting along and sometimes it seems like we have not adjusted or bonded at all. We have in fact bonded and adjusted to our girls, Jordyn and Jailynn, but we still have some bad days at times. After having committed to him in my heart and then realize we could not commit to him on paper, after I sought support help to raise the money, was just really hard. I grieved hard. Now, the reality is that we are still adopting our third daughter from China and I cannot ignore that fact any longer. Secondly, I need to apologize for asking for support before we had our LOI. I am sorry. I did not intentionally mislead anyone. Please feel free to email me or message me if you need to talk more about this situation.
Next, I just want to give an update. We have our Article Five and are waiting for our Travel Approval. I do not feel prepared or ready but now I have to face the fact that we are adding another child to our family. On one hand I am excited, but on the other hand, I know what we are about to face. She is our third daughter from China so I should be prepared right? Well, actually, I am nervous and apprehensive. I know what all is involved with adopting an older child. I just hope that she will adjust to our family and things will go smoothly. I am also getting better emotionally and trying to become more prepared. I hope that everyone will forgive me and understand.

Christmas Pictures of Jaidyn Grace!!!

Here are a few pictures we receiveed from an update on Jaidyn Grace! We sent her the Christmas package with a decorated tree, santa stuffed toys, our pictures, a letter, and a fabulous cake!We sent her a carepackage from http://www.giftstochinawithlove.com/ which is a carepackage company that my friend started. They are very good and try very hard to get updates on your child. I am so thrilled to see her pictures.
Blessings,
Melanie