(in)courage!

Hi friends,

When our little school closed in August, and I was suddenly without a job and without that ministry, I wondered what God would have me do with my time, other than home schooling the boys.  I knew I would be busy with the adoption process and learning as much as possible about that, but I also knew that He would open up doors for ministry in ways that I had not considered before.

Last fall I joined an (in)courage group on Facebook and found myself in a group of mothers from many different walks of life, but who all love Jesus and who strive to follow him every day, through the struggles and joys of motherhood.  It was a lot of fun meeting these women, occasionally chatting through Face Time or Skype.  We would share concerns and pray for each other; share victories and praises, and encourage each other daily.  This group quickly became a blessing to me in this new season of my life.

We are all moms.  Some work full time; some are at home with children all day.  Some home school, others have children in public or Christian schools.  Some have biological children; others have added to their family through adoption; some have both.  But we all desire to follow Jesus through it all, and we all want to encourage others and to be encouraged!   We meet in a closed Facebook group, so all that is shared there is safe.

Recently I was asked to consider becoming a co-leader of this group with my friend, Erin Martin.  I knew this was one of those new doors God was opening, and applied to (in)courage to become a co-leader.  And here we are at the beginning of a new session!

  If you are on Facebook, and (in)courage sounds like a place for you, please send me a friend request and I will add you to the group.  Once you are in, please introduce yourself to the group, and I promise you will receive a huge welcome!  I look forward to meeting new friends and old.

LID!!

Yes, it has been quiet in here for 17 days!  But today we were finally informed of our Log-In Date (LID), meaning our dossier was officially logged in to the CCCWA (China Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption) on February 4, and is now going through translation.  So now we wait for several more weeks for final approval from China, but we are getting toward the goal.  We are closer every day to our sweet Caylie!

On another fun note, I made arrangements to have a birthday cake sent to Caylie and some friends at the orphanage.  Her birthday is coming up on the 14th (Valentine baby!) and we hope she enjoys some fun and celebration of her special day. And we are also hoping for new photos from this event!  Stay tuned . . .

Happy Birthday Taylor!

Happy Birthday to my handsome 20-year-old boy guy! We went to church, where Taylor did his sound tech job, then to P.F. Changs where we could practice our chop stick skills, and then home for the Super Bowl and three birthday cakes!  

Love you, Taylor!

Nothing

: : : crickets : : :

Yes, that's the sound around here.  Still waiting for our Log In Date from China . . .  

* * * We are DTC!!! * * *

It is a banner day at the Altman house!  After almost six months of doing home study, gathering documents from various states and agencies, waiting on government offices to do their jobs, calling said offices many times, calling our agency many, many times, notarizing, certifying, and authenticating many documents, waiting, waiting, and more waiting, our dossier is FINALLY on it's way to China!  We are officially DTC!!

I am so excited to finally have all of that stuff finished and on to the next step.  Now we will wait a couple of weeks for our LID (log-in date) from China, and after that will wait for our dossier to be translated and then approved.  (We had pre-approval waaay back in August, if you remember!)  Please be praying that these things happen without any problems or delays.

Thanks to all who have prayed for us during this long process, and for your many words of encouragement during the most frustrating times!

I have several blogs on the right side bar.  If you are interested in what we will be doing when we go to China in a few months, you should follow along with some other bloggers who are there NOW!  "Surpassing Greatness", "Everything Beautiful", and "There's No Place Like Home" are all in China right now, picking up their new sons and daughters.  You will have to scroll back a week or two to get to the beginning of their stories, but they are all so wonderful.  I can't wait till that is US sending stories and photos back home.  :)

Still waiting . . .

We've been experiencing setback after setback in our adoption process, and are very sad that our dossier is still not in China.  It should have been there more than a week ago.  (Well, when I count all the needless delays we've had, it should have been there like two months ago.)  But it isn't, and I'm sad and frustrated, especially when I see things going so quickly for others on this path.  But I know that frustration isn't from God.  I want and  need my heart to be where His heart is about this.  I need to rest in His sovereignty, and remember that He loves our little Caylie JiuChang more than we ever will, and that she will be in our arms on the day that He has orchestrated; not a day earlier or a day later.

Please pray with us that God would break through the walls of bureaucracy, red tape, workers' mistakes (and more mistakes), and that His angels would watch over every piece of our documentation until it is safely in the hands of the people in China!  Please pray that there would be no further unnecessary delays.  And please pray that our hearts and eyes would remain solely on Him.

We are so thankful that our Father has us on this journey.  He has spoken and blessed in so many ways.  He will see it to the end, and that will be a new beginning!

* THANK YOU *

Today we came home from church to find that our front doormat was covering something on the front step. I went to see what it was, and found an envelope containing a card and a VERY generous monetary gift for our adoption.  The card has a sweet message about our adoption, but was not signed.  Jim and I just stood there staring at it for a minute or two.  We were dumbfounded at the generosity and love of our anonymous friend(s).

To whomever left this mysterious envelope on our front step today:  THANK YOU.  We are humbled and blessed by your gift of love, which I can only assume came sacrificially and out of obedience to God.  You have blessed our family, you have blessed our daughter waiting in China, and you have blessed our Father's heart.  You have also been an example of the Body of Christ.  

Whoever you are, we bless and thank you.