FINAL POST - A Christmas To Remember!

I can hardly believe how time has flown by over these past few months. The final days of waiting for Prince to arrive seemed to be over in a flash as we processed last minute paperwork, finished up our "required studies" for the adoption and prepared our family and home to add a new child. I look back now and am amazed at all that God pulled together in such a short amount of time. After a "dead" adoption (for almost 2 years), we received word to rush all our processing last December. Last year at this time, I spent every evening wading through the paperwork pile and trying frantically to get a social worker to do our homestudy during the midst of the holidays. And now we see why....

On the afternoon of September, 1st our sweet Prince finally arrived home. I will never forget the moment we landed on U.S. soil and the huge smile came across Prince's face. Of course, as the mom, the tears streamed down mine. Over 2 1/2 years, there had been many tears before - holidays missed - watching his life through a handful of pictures...these tears were finally good.

There were more stories of difficulties and triumph that happened during our week's stay in Africa than I could begin to recount here (they fill the pages of my journal, however), but the outcome is that my little boy is home and we are now working hard to mesh as a family. Unfortunately, less than 2 months after Prince's arrival in the States, Liberia is now dealing with a major election conflict and appears to be on the brink of civil war again....

2 months later. Just a mere 60 days and the Lord chose to spare our little boy from living through that again...we are grateful for His timing.

The last 3 months have been filled with more awe and excitement than I could have anticipated, but realistically, they have not been without their trials as well. When Prince got here, he chose to take an "American name" so he is now referred to, almost exclusively, as Asher. It's interesting how willing and excited he was to make this change. With his age, we didn't know if he'd want it, but he embraced it fully and now when people call him Prince, he politely says, "Prince is my mission name (mission was what the kids called the orphanage setting), Asher is my American name."

We pray fervently as the kids get to know eachother. The toughest transistion has been for our 6 year old so we are keeping a close watch on that and praying for the Lord to soften hearts where necessary.

In the meantime, I sit in awe as I remember that every Christmas season for years, it never failed that I would eventually have the moment where I would breakdown and cry as I realized that it was another Christmas without our Prince home.

Instead, this year, I sit with tears in my eyes coming off of a weekend where we picked out the Christmas tree, decorated the house and laughed over hot cocoa.

And so this will be - a Christmas to remember...

Update!

I can't believe how long it's been since I wrote on here...the irony is; many times that happens because there is no new news to report - that is NOT the case this time! The fact is, life has been moving at a pace that is almost unreal over these past few months! Let me see if I can recap a bit.

We held the yard sale for Prince in mid-June and were completely blown away by all of the donations (of items) that we received from friends and family. After just a one-day sale (because the second day was a total washout) God had brought in approximately $1500! That is the most we've ever made in any yardsale so we were thrilled!

Since the yardsale, I have been working to get a few major events done at my office and to prepare for what will be a 6 week "maternity leave" when Prince does arrive. On top of that, we have had many summer activities with the kids and we are now beginning to rearrange and prepare the house to fit one more person in it!

It is such an exciting time though it's also a nerve wracking one. It has been 2 1/2 years since we've seen Prince and we know full well that it won't be a perfectly smooth transition for anyone involved. We have done a LOT of praying, a LOT of soul searching and certainly know that we have quite a bit ahead of us.

As of right now, we are anticipating picking Prince up from Charlotte, NC sometime in September. Initially we were going to travel to Africa to get him, but God opened the door for him to be escorted to the U.S. and we decided to go with that option (as it might allow him to get home sooner).

And so, now we just wait. As much of adoption has taught us...waiting is the norm. However, it is definitely a different feeling now as we can finally see the light at the end of this tunnel. God has been good...God has been faithful and hopefully we will all be together at last!

Excitement!!!

Well, I finally just sat and added up the totals from all of the checks, donations and raffles that were given as a result of the dinner held up at Lanzis and I am excited to say that so far we have received $1407.00 because of that fundraiser!! God is so good!!

To top it off, we are up to our elbows in yard sale items (Donn's once clean garage is no longer) and we are getting geared up for the big sale on June 11th! It's such a blessing to watch how the Lord is choosing to unfold this journey!

Our Prince Will Come Benefit Dinner!!

I think my sister said it best:

"It was a beautiful night, by a beautiful lake, that raised money to bring a beautiful boy home...and it was all given by a beautiful God."

So far, we have raised approximately $800 because of our amazing friends and family! We are so blessed!! Last night was a true reminder of how good our God is and how amazing this journey is! We're getting closer to you Prince!! :)

Our big day!!

Today's our big day buddy!! I so wish you could be here to see all the people who are coming together to get you home! There are so many people who already love you SO much and are excited to meet you!

Tonight, as we're having dinner, we will be thinking of you. I will be wishing that you were by my side, but I will also be grateful that I get to be part of such an amazing journey with God. You have already changed our lives forever and we can't wait until we're finally together again.

Mommy loves you little buddy! Thanks for being in my life.

Amazing Day!!!

We were completely blown away today to get home to find a letter from Show Hope (the Steven Curtis Chapman Foundation) letting us know that we'd been given an adoption grant for $6,000!! I literally lost my breath when I read the letter!

Steven Curtis Champman's Foundation blessed us with a grant when we adopted our daughter, Elle, so it was obvious that when we were looking for funding with Prince, we would turn to them again. However, to be honest with you; we didn't really expect to get it. Over these past few months we have written countless applications for adoption grants and we've been denied for all of them. We had all but given up hope since in our hearts we thought that it was not too likely that an agency that had already given us money would do it a second time.

But that's just how God likes to do things. He gets you to a point where you are forced to be looking to Him and then He blows your mind!

We couldn't be happier right now as we are finally seeing forward movement and God's answers to prayer!! We're one step closer to you little Prince! Praise God!

Click On Picture To View Invitation