The Home Stretch!

Okay, so I admit, I am terrible at this blogging thing! It has been forever since my last post. But pretty much it has just been a lot of waiting. I can finally say we are in the home stretch! We are now waiting for travel approval (well, the wait will officially begin once our paperwork is dropped off at the CCCWA in a couple of days). I really cannot believe we are at this point. The last year and a half have been incredibly emotional, but I would not trade ANY of it. God has revealed Himself in so many ways and His presence in my life has never been felt more! I am grateful that He has called us to this journey.
In the beginning, I had major anxiety about traveling that far since I am pretty much a home-body, but God has made me soooooo ready that I don't care how I get there, I just want to get our little girl!!!
What is really exciting is that my mom and the kids will be traveling with us! This was a last minute decision that the Lord made the way for. We are estimated to travel early March, but we are praying for late February. We are all so excited. I don't know if my mom is more excited about going or not having to keep my kids for two weeks;) We are thrilled to death that she wants to come along:) If it wasn't for her we would not even attempt to take the kiddos. What a blessing it will be for Sarah Grace and Jacob to get to experience the culture their sister came from and see what life is like on the other side of the world. All of our lives will be forever changed, and for this, I am grateful.
I have made so many special friends through this process and got to experience the tears and the smiles with them. It has been so much fun to watch some of them bring their daughters home! We will have a really big play group very soon when we all have our babies home with us.

The above picture is Hannah at 15 months. She is now almost 18 months and we are waiting on an update from her orphange. I will keep y'all posted;)!

Blessings,
Kim

The Moment We Have Been Waiting For!!!!

We are proud to introduce Hannah Marie Miller!!

We got the exciting news Sept 9th late in the afternoon. We will travel to China in 4-6 months. We are so ready to do this!! She is such a doll and we cannot wait to hold her in our arms and bring her HOME! She is 13 months old and will be around 18 months when we go to get her. The kids are super excited. Jacob continues to ask "Are you going to get my baby sister tomorrow?" Sarah Grace is excited to 'carry her around':) I am in awe of God's grace and faithfulness. He has brought me a loooong way as I know many of you have witnessed this. What a blessing this whole experience has been. Our lives have been forever changed!!!

Kick off to the School Year

I cannot believe that my first born is in first grade!! After much anticipation and quite a few tears over the summer, the first day of school has arrived. Just in time, I might add. Don't get me wrong I absolutely love being with my children, however, I was OVER trying to 'entertain' them every hour of every day. Anyway, cool story.....All summer Sarah Grace had been praying to get this specific teacher. We will call her Ms. B. She only wanted her because she was right next door to her K5 teacher. I told her that was great to pray for her but, the Lord may have another teacher picked out especially for her. So, the list comes out and she did not get Ms. B. Here come the tears:( She was a bit disappointed. The good news was that her best friend Emma was going to be in her class (an answer to my prayer)! She was nervous and not happy about going back to school. There were some tears that first morning, but when I picked her up she told me that she had the best day ever! Yay! Praise God! A couple of days ago her teacher emails me and tells me she adopted from China in 2005! WOW!! It brought tears to my eyes. I got to explain to SG that God always knows better than us and THIS was the reason that Ms. Westray was her teacher. Anyway this was a huge deal to me. Most likely SG will still be in her class when we travel, I HOPE! Ms. Westray will understand everything our family is going through and nurture SG accordingly. God is so good!!!!!
On another note, she started soccer this week. Although, it was 100 degrees she had a blast. I hope this sticks because I believe she has the ability. I look forward to going to her practices and games.
To say it has been a busy two weeks is a understatement! But I love it!

One more thing...Most of you know that my brother's house caught fire last week. The insurance company called it a total loss. This has been very sad and overwhelming, but we have all seen the hand of God at work through so many people. Please pray for them during this difficult time and pray that as they rebuild there home that Christ would be their foundation.

First Day of School

Fun with my buddy while sister is at school:)

If I build it she will come;)

I promised a happier post and a happy post is what I bring:) We are LOGGED IN! Yippee!! Our log in date was August 3rd. Now we wait on pins and needles to finally find out who the child is that God has chosen to be part of our family. This could take weeks or months. To kick of the waiting Stephen gave me the go ahead to start on the girls' room. Thurday we bought furniture, Friday night I painted (by myself, I might add....well the kids helped a bit), and Saturday the furniture was delievered. Boy was that fast! I must say, God is really in the details. I had been really discouraged and at just the right time He brought us our LID (log in date). It is like He was tapping me on the shoulder reminding me that He is still here and in complete control. And I am thankful to have started the room, because it makes be feel more sane to keep my hands busy. God is good!

A work in progress....

Can't wait for the finished product:)

Waiting, waiting.......

I wish I had some exciting news today, but we are still waiting for a LID (log in date). Once we are logged in, being matched is the next step. The wait is becoming unbearable, to the point of tears:(. It is like waiting to find out what you are having when you are pregnant, but the difference is that you know that you will find out at 20 wks. My experience with adoption so far is that timelines don't really mean SQUAT! No on knows for sure when things are really going to happen. Our super sweet social worker, Karla, has been wonderful, but even she cannot predict the future. You have to keep really low expectations throughout the entire process of adoption. If they say two weeks it really means four. Kind of like remodeling a house;) When the contractor says it will be ready in 6 wks, you might as well double that timeline, right?!!! Thank goodness for my special group of friends who are going through the same things. (Rushton and I may just have a pity party while we wait:) )Without them I would go crazy!! There will be such overwhelming joy when we find out who our daughter is, however, I know the wait will only get worse. Once we get matched it will be another 4-6 months until we can go get her. Praise the Lord for my other two children who keep me super busy! Jacob is so cute. He asks almost everyday, "when we going to get my baby sister?" Sorry to be so depressing!
My next post will be happier, I promise!

The kids letting a Chinese lantern go for their baby sister!

Jacob is praying for our China baby before we let it go:) So sweet!

Fun Weekend!

Well, this has been a great weekend! Friday, Sarah Grace and I went to the airport to welcome home our friends, Stacie and Nathan and there precious new daughter, Karlye, from China. It was an awesome experience. She was the first of the "Red Thread Moms" to bring her daughter home (RTMs is group of moms that the Lord brought together, who are all adopting daughters from China). The RTMs have been such a blessing. We meet almost weekly and share this beautiful yet sometimes challenging journey of adoption together.
Then Saturday it was on to the lake with our sweet friends, the Stuarts. We had a great time and it wore the kids out!

These kids LOVE to fish!

Jacob, Sarah Grace and Payne. This was right before I dropped my camera and BROKE it!:(

Good times!

Tired baby!

Last two pics taken with Stephen's Iphone. Not too sure when I will be getting a new camera:( Hope my next post will be me telling you that we have been logged in:)



I am officially a blogger!

Hello blogging world! Most of you know that I am starting this to share our adoption story. I mostly wanted to start it to keep family and friends updated and for ya'll to be able to track us while in China:)
.....I hope I have set this thing up right:/
A quick update for those who may not know....we are in the process of adopting a little girl from China. We have requested as young as possible which is typically around 1 yr old, give or take a few months. We hope to be logged in to China's system in the next couple of weeks and hopefully know who our daughter is at the end of this month. Exciting!!!
Anyway, it is official, all of the paperwork we have been working on for over a year has finally been sent to China, PTL!!! In adoption lingo we are DTC (Dossier to China). I will do my best to educate everyone, as I am still learning myself. The Lord has been faithful and I cannot wait to continue to share what He is doing in our lives.
I will post of my other two sweetie pies soon and I will work on making my page look pretty:)