My favorite book says were all adopted

Me & the girls are home from church today because McKinley woke up sick. So I thought
it would be a good day for me to share some thoughts that I have been having. WARNING:
I may get a little "preachy" but that doesn't happen very often so I think you all can handle it:)

Over the past 8 months I've thought a lot about Orphans & why God cares for them so much. His care and love for them are mentioned throughout the bible.

Psalm 8:3 " Defend the cause of the weak & fatherless;maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed'
John 14:18" I will not leave you as Orphans; I will come to you"

At one time we were all Orphans- alone, unloved, hopeless & scared. If you know Christ as your savior then you were adopted. Just as our family has chosen to go through the adoption process, God has "chosen" to adopt us. Eph 1:4-6 says " He has chosen us in Him, before the foundation of the world, to be Holy and blameless in his sight. in love. He predestined us to be adopted through Jesus Christ.

SO God's adoption process was through Jesus Christ.

I read a story a few months ago ( because all I do now is read blogs & books on Adoption:)about a family who was adopting a teenager from China. when they went to China to get her, she refused to be adopted.. Now to us that seems crazy, because we can see the situation form a different view point. we know that this child would have a much better life and would be loved & cared for. she would have a hope & a future. But, to her she was getting taken away from the only life she had ever known. It broke my heart to think about this family who had spent the last year of their life waiting for this very moment, to then have to go back home without their child. Her life would be changed drastically if only she would "allow" them to adopt her.

It made me realize that is how so many of us are. God wants to adopt us, He's chosen us, He's calling us & yet so many say NO. They choose to stay in their life that is hopeless, with no chance for a future. But God who sees the whole picture, so desperately wants them to just accept his free gift. all they have to do is "allow" him to adopt them into His kingdom. Then they will no longer be an Orphan- unloved, hopeless, unprotected. they will "belong" to someone, they will have a hope and a future.
I think this is why God wants us to care for the Orphans. Adoption is a very real picture of what He has done for us!  There are so many ways we can help Orphans. We can give to oranizations like Show Hope, that povide grants for those adopting. we can sponsor an orphan from places like,, Pearl River outreach.org or 147millionorphans.com, Newday fosterhome.blogspot.com
we could pray daily for all the 147 million orphans in our world, we all know that prayer works!
OR you could bring home one of these children and make them apart of your family.

I'm closing with a quote from David Platt " Orphans are easier to ignore before you know their names.theyare easier to ignore before you see their faces. It's easier to pretend they're not real before you hold them in your arms, but once you do, EVERYTHING changes"

To me there is no truer quote! (Is truer a word? well if its not i just made it one:)
if you are still reading this LONG post, thank you for hanging in there and allowing me to share my thoughts.

Happy Sunday!
Melissa

Meet my nephew, CASON

My sister & her family have been at Disney for the last 6 days. So i met her yesterday & got my 2 yr
old nephew, Cason and brought him home to stay with us for a few days. It has been fun & crazy
at our house these last 24 hours:) We are all LOVING having him here since we only get to see him
a couple of times a year. Here are a few pictures from the last 24 hours:

He actually found a "boy toy" at our house, I think he has carried those around all morning!

He LOVES to play with McKinley's hair..that is how he falls asleep at night.

He's been loving on Morgan too!Morgan made him Micket Mouse pancakes this morning:)

aren't those lips just yummy!!! I sure do love this little man!

and finally at the end of the day, he was pooped!!! It has been a while since i've chased after
a 2yr old all day long..and I am definitely feeling my age today:) but I would'nt trade these two days
for anything. The rest of his family is coming over tomorrow to stay for a few days, I am hoping that we will get some new pictures of Madison while their here:)

Thanks Amanda & Brent for sharing your "little man" with me!


Happy Tuesday!
Melissa

UPDATE...

We just got the approval to send Madison a package, so I ordered her a small gift from a company
called Gifts to China with love on Saturday. As a part of this package, We got to write her a letter(
which they will translate for us) send a picture of our family,and they will call the Orphanage for us.
They also ask the Orphanage to take a picture of her when her gift comes (which they don't always do, but
we are praying we get pictures soon).Anyway, I gave Sherri (the lady who started this company) my cell &
she just sent me a txt saying she had an update on my daughter..... MY DAUGHTER..Y'all I can't even tell
you the emotions that started running through me:). Below is what I got:

HEIGHT : 1 METER

WEIGHT: 体重15KG，

FEET LENGTH脚长16CM厘米，

SHE LOVE READING BOOKS.
SHE LOVES TOYS AND STICKER PAPER.爱好看书，玩玩具，贴纸

It's not a lot BUT its more than I had 15 minutes ago and I am Thrilled. If this is correct,

then Madison has gained 5pounds since October, which is amazing! We have also asked our

agency for an update & sent them a lot of questions that we would like to know, there is no guarantee

that we will get this update or any updated pictures but I am believing by faith that we WILL get updated

pictures.

Thanks for all your prayers!

Melissa

WE GOT IT....

After a long, 91days of patiently waiting ( most of the time:) we got the call tonight that our LOA arrived at our agency & they have already sent it fedx to us!!! WooHoo!

Our next step is to sign the form & sent it along with another packet of paperwork to USCIS . Once the officer there approves it, we will send our DS-230 ( more paperwork) to our agency & they will wire it to China.

I have asked for my one & only update on Madison. They just changed their policies & we now have to pay $60 for an update and additional $40 if we want a updated picture....HELLO, Yes I want a picture . The only picture we have of her was taken in Oct, 2011 so I am sure that she has changed. Will you please join me in prayer that we get this update( they said we may or may not get a response from the orphanage ) and of course we will not be refunded:) Also, we applied for a grant from the Show Hope foundation back in April so we are praying we get accepted for the grant. Thank you all for your prayers!

Keep checking back, hopefully I will have pictures soon of our sweet little girl.

Blessings,
Melissa

WARNING...Picture overload!!!

My AMAZING friend, Yanira took some pictures of the girls for me at the beach on Tuesday night.
I loved them all, but I have picked a few...OK more than a few to post tonight.

I can't wait till little Madison is in the pictures too!

ADOPTION UPDATE: next week will be 12 weeks we have been waiting our China to
approve us to adopt Madison . Our agency said if we do not get it next week then they will
call & check on the status. as soon as we get that LOA we can send her a package letting her
know that we are adopting her and I will then ask for my update on her.eeek! I can't wait!


Melissa

The NO news Adoption blues....

Well I just thought I would let you all know that I have absolutely NO news on our adoption :(
Oh how I wish I had some exciting news to share, any news to share! We are now on week 9 of our wait on our LSC approval from China. I asked our agency if they would call China to see where our paperwork is but they said if we haven't heard anything by 12 weeks they would call. The longer we wait on this approval the longer it will be before we can get our travel approval. We were hoping to travel in August but it's looking more like September:(

I think of Madison everyday & wonder what/ how she's doing. Is she being well cared for? Is she close to the Nannies that work in her orphanage ? I have so many questions and want an update on her SO bad! I am planning on asking for my one & only update at the end of May. I think that takes about a week to get, and hopefully we will find out what she likes to eat, her favorite toy & her sizes. Oh, and an updated picture or two
would be fabulous! now onto other news..

We took a little overnight trip to the beach on Friday, we had a great time just relaxing and playing at the beach. Here are a few pics from the weekend. Enjoy!

Happy Saturday!

Melissa

HE"S ALIVE

As we celebrate the Easter Holiday this year I wanted to do something different with the girls.
We always do the resurrection eggs each year & will do them again this year, but last night we made resurrection rolls !

All you need is : butter, crescent rolls, cinnamon & sugar and marshmallows.

I gave them both a crescent roll triangle..this represents the tomb then each dipped their marshmallow
into the melted butter & rolled in cinnamon sugar mixture. The marshmallow represents the body of Christ
& the butter and cinnamon represents the oils and spices the body was anointed with upon his burial .
then wrap the marshmallow up in the crescent (make sure there are no open spaces or the marshmallows with ooze out :)

cook until brown on top, and the "tomb" will be empty inside! It was a neat little way for my girls to see the Easter story and it was also a yummy little dessert :) 

Happy Easter!

Melissa