Gotcha Day

In the adoption world, Gotcha Day is a huge deal. It is the day where everything is final. The courts grant the adoption and the family is officially added to.

My niece just celebrated her 10^th Gotcha Day. It is amazing to think that our family was blessed 10 years ago to have her. She has brought so much joy to this aunt. I can remember the first day that I got to meet her, it is a picture that is etched into my mind forever.  She is the reason why I had such a desire to work abroad with orphanages and in orphanages. I wanted to give back for her.

The first time I met her. 

I couldn’t help but think about my own gotcha day. I was in a church in Sandy Springs, GA and I felt the Lord move. It was a day that will live in my heart forever, the day that I was written into the Lambs book of life. It was the day where God said Gotcha!

Easter got me to thinking about that day. Easter is such a special holiday. It is on that the ultimate price was paid on the cross and death no longer meant defeat. It was God’s way of redeeming those who would allow him to live in their hearts and subsequently live for him. To me, it is a much bigger holiday than Christmas. It is a day that I am constantly reminded that I am worth even when others in my life tell me that I am not. It is the day where all that I am about now, came to be.

Lets see…. Update on the adoption…..

There has not been a ton of movement that is note worthy of writing home about. I actually hesitate to give pen this out. We received another referral this week and also received an audible no from the Lord. Both of us receiving that no before we even chatted with the pediatrician. After the last time this happened, we got a lot of emails and calls from people wanting to know why it is a no. Adoption is such a personal journey, and this part is not one that I can explain in great detail. We greatly trust that the Lord knows exactly who she is, and we trust that he has a purpose in this painful part of the journey. I am thankful to have some connections with others (through a random source) that I can now chat with about adopting and specially from China. I am so incredibly thankful for their willingness to speak with folks that they never met. To walk alongside and listen to people that is are essentially strangers to them.

Praise the Lord we have met our next goal! God made it very clear this was not going to happen through scholarships. Although we are applying like crazy we keep getting turned down. But on the flip side, God has been providing. People have been mailing us checks for the adoption. My mom along with a  couple of friends in FL hosted a couple of candle fundraising parties that provided us a couple of hundred dollars towards the next payment and Michael and I have been saving like crazy.

We currently know that if we get a referral in the next 30 days then we would travel in September. We are currently working towards our next payment (Which is small compared to what God has done) along with saving for our travel expenses. Although we have a goal we would like to exceed this knowing that there will be additional expenses that we are not thinking of and because we will be adopting a child that will more than likely need surgery when she gets home, we would like to have as much as we can for expenses in relation to that.

So that brings me to the next couple of months…..

·      T- Shirts: I am happy to announce that we are having t-shirts printed to raise money for the adoption. With a  little input from Michael, we have a gracious friend who came up with a  design that merges the two cultures, The South/China. The shirts will be 10.50 each and all profits go towards the adoption. They will be black logo on a gray shirt. Adult sizes run S-XL. Currently we are placing an order for an initial amount but we would love to order more.

·      Along with the adult shirts, kids shirts will be available by special order. Youth sizes are available Youth XS- Youth L. If you are interested in either, please email me at Chinadibbs@gmail.com and we can work out the details. Or feel free to send me a private message through facebook.

·      Yard sale- We are having a yard sale in May with 100% profit going towards the adoption. We need your stuff! If you have anything please let us know and we can take it off your hands. The last yard sale we had we made $980 which was enough to pay for immigration fees.

I just want to say thank you all for all of your prayer, ears, eyes and hearts in walking through this process. We have had a lot of people telling us we are on the wrong path, we should be doing something differently so on and so forth. But the calls that come just to see how we are or the emails that come in are an incredible encouragement.

Much Love,

Jennifer