We have an LOA and lots more AWESOMENESS!!

Ever been at a loss for words as how gloriously God works?  The last 2 days I have been. The last 99 days have been days of peace, stress, complete frustration and joy.  When we accepted our little girl 99 days ago and began our LOA (letter of acceptance) wait, I never thought it would take 98 days, but it did.  Thank you God that our LOA has been issued and we have been accepted to parent Ivy!!  We are over the moon excited and relieved!  After that many days it has been hard not to wonder if something was wrong with our dossier, if something was missing, etc.  God's timing is perfect and I had to fight to remember that day after day.  One of the coolest parts of it coming on day 98 was that it was Hallie's 5th birthday!  Last year Hallie wanted her sister to come to her birthday party...she could not understand that it was not time yet.  We told Hallie that when she turned 5 it would be time to go get Ivy very soon.  Yep, God's pretty cool! 

The last 2 weeks have been especially amazing.  On May 28 we got news that we have been granted a matching grant through Lifesong for Orphans and our church, North Way Christian Community.  We were thrilled!  How this works is friends and family can give a tax-deductible donation in our name to Lifesong for Orphans, North Way then matches dollar for dollar what is given.  The cap on what can be donated total is $3500.00 and that $3500.00 turns into $7000.000.  Amazing huh?  It doesn't end there!  This was also the week of the yard sale.  We want to thank everyone who donated stuff, their time, prayers, and support of this sale.  It blew our socks off and all the work was worth it!  We made just shy of $2000.00!  God blessed the day more than we even thought possible.  The day of the sale (and the day before) the weather was iffy.  I was constantly filling tables and covering everything with plastic for that pop up shower.  I was so relieved when we woke up and it has not rained Friday night.  As Jason and I were emptying the garage about 7:30 am, it started to sprinkle.  Jay looked across the street and above the trees was a gorgeous RAINBOW.  At the same time my 2 sisters and bro were walking down the driveway.  I said, hey look at the rainbow and it was gone.  Not kidding, it was there less then a min!  I had a moment of peace where I knew everything was gonna be alright!  God never breaks his promises!  We ended the day exhausted, excited, and so, so, so blessed! 

The blessings continued!  We got news today that we have been awarded a $5000.00 grant!  In AWE does not even put lightly how I was feeling.  I have no words still.  If you had told me 15 months ago that God would supply every cent for our adoption from money we didn't even know was there, I would have doubted how that was going to happen.  But it has!  We walked in obedience fully knowing that we could not come up with this amount of money on our own and never have we not had the cash when a fee was due.  With the Lifesong Grant, the yard sale, and the grant from today we are on our way to being fully funded!!!  With our God, money is not an option! 

The end of the summer can't come fast enough, we can't wait to travel to bring Ivy home and start the beginning of the real adventure with Princess Ivy! 

As I was driving today just after hearing about the grant, this song came on K-Love.  It was so fitting to how I was feeling!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzfPHnoT0-0

 

 

 

Thanking God for abundant blessings!!

 

Jason, Dawn, and the kids

 

P.S. If God so stirs in your heart to donate to our matching Grant though Lifesong for Orphans, checks can be mailed to:

 

Lifesong for Orphans

PO Box 40/ 202 N. Ford St

Gridley, IL 61744

 

Please put "Henricks #3656 Adoption" in the memo of your check.  Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!



 

 



Introducing Ivy Ming!!!

Ivy Ming

 

 

As you can see sooooo much has been happening!  God has been working in ways we never imagined!  Our dossier was to country on Feb. 1st and we were logged in with China Feb. 6th.  It took 2 weeks for us to complete our waiting child paperwork and have our medical openness conference call.  For those of you that prayed us throught that call, THANK YOU, that was so not easy.  This call was done on Feb. 20th.  We were told by our agency to expect a match within 6-12 months, then they said based on our openness to expect a match sometime in the next 6 months.  God brought us a match in TWO WEEKS!!  We were shocked and in complete awe!  I have been saying for months that God would do the impossible if we got a match in the first month and traveled in the summer and that is what is happening.  The rest of the process...we are now in our wait for LOA (letter of acceptance).  This is our official acceptance from China of our baby.  This could come any day or as long as 60 days.  We then submit more immigration paperwork to USCIS and wait a few weeks for what is called an article 5.  This is sent to the US Consulate in Guangzhou, who then submits it to CCCWA (China) who then issues us a travel approval.  We will leave to get her a few weeks after our travel approval.  It could be late June or as long as September.  We are praying as soon as possible!!!

 

Now onto Ivy, isn't she adorable???  All 5 of us are completely in LOVE!!  Ivy is 13 months old now, her birthday is Feb. 5, 2012 (she was born 4 days after God told us to adopt!)  She will be around 18 months when we go get her.  It is so good for Dawson, Jayden, and Hallie to have a face to this baby we have been talking about and praying for about a year.  We are so in awe of God's provision!  Please pray for her health and safety in the months to come until we are able to get her and bring her HOME!

 

 

Now to him who is able to do

 immeasurably more than all we can

ask or imagine, according to

his power that is at work within us.

Ephesians 3:20

 

 

Thank you for your prayers for her and us as we continue this awesome journey!

 

Love,

Jason, Dawn, Dawson, Jayden, and Hallie



 





Hallie's Sweet Heart

Brace yourself for some Hallie cuteness!!  Today Hallie and I were laying on the bed snuggling when out of the blue she says "When I growed up, I want to be a Mommy".  I told her that is awesome, that I wanted to be a Mommy when I was a little girl and I love being her Mommy.  She got quiet for a few seconds then says, very somber, "Some little kids do not have a Mommy and I will be their Mommy".  I was floored by her heart and compassion.  I said, "You mean adopting just like what we are doing with Baby China, because Baby China does not have a Mommy to take care of her and I will be her Mommy".  She looks at me and says, "Yes".  And that was it. So simple, yet so profound.  She gets it!  At the age of four, she gets it!  What God can do in the heart of a small child is amazing, no matter how young, God plants dreams!

"Learn to do what is right!

Seek justice, encourage the oppressed, defend the cause of the fatherless,

 plead the case of the widow and the orphan"

Isaiah 1:17

 

 

I thank God for moments when I feel him kiss the air around us! 

 

 

Blessings,

Dawn

 

It has been far, far too long since I have posted an update.  This post is not necessarily an update on China Baby but more about a great experience only God could orchestrate.  Sometime around October 2012 there was an insert on our notes at church for a organization called PRISM.  It stands for Pittsburgh Region International Student Ministries.  The organization is a program for international students and visiting scholars attending colleges in Pittsburgh.  One of their ministries is looking for families that are willing to host students in their homes for the holidays.  Most of these students have not experienced our holiday traditions in America.  Jason and I thought what a great way to bless someone and get to know people from another culture.  Haha, only God could work out what happened.  We ended up getting placed with 3 students from CHINA who spent Thanksgiving with us in our home.  It never even crossed our minds that we could get students from China.  God used them to stretch us.  This family of mine is going to be a American-Chinese family very soon and we learned so much more in those few hours about our new daughters culture than we ever would have reading books or searching the internet.  We had a blast!  It was hilarious to us that they had never had turkey, apple pie, lemonade, or stuffing.  We had so much fun sharing our culture with them and hearing about all they were experiencing while living here for this short time.  I love how God works our needs before we even realize we have a need.  One of the girls lives near Beijing and offered to meet us when we are there and show us the hidden gems of the city.  How fun!  And so random that only God could put this together.  The evening ended with us feeling unbelievably blessed possibly more than we blessed them.  We pray they left our house feeling loved, accepted, and seeing Christ in us.  Here is a picture of them playing with the kids.

Then at Christmas they came with us to the North Way's Oakland campus for Christmas Eve service.  PRISM does not usually facilitate families with students for Christmas but we fell so much in love with them that we invited them to church then went for chinese dinner after.  I write this because Easter is coming quickly!  The organization matches families for Thanksgiving and Easter.  If you have room at your table and in your heart, consider opening your home to the amazing people in our area.  They are so far away from their families and just may need a little bit of love shown to them.  You just may end up being blessed as much as we are by getting to know some of these students.  The website is www.prismpgh.org, call them, you will be glad you did!!

Love,
Dawn and the crew

Hallie made sure today was eventful!

So today was our second interview for our home study.  DeNese, Jason, and I were chatting away about China Baby attaching to us and everything that goes into bringing her home, when Hallie comes in the room picking her nose.  Hallie says "Somethin in it." She put a Dove Promise chocolate foil wrapper in her nose!!!!  Of all the times to put something in her nose, she does it while the adoption specialist is here.  Really??  Never a dull moment.  We did end up at ENT to have the foil extracted from her nostril because she would not blow it out.  I can laugh about it now and she still thinks it is funny :)  At least DeNese has a funny home study story to tell other adoptive parents!! 

Good night, it has been a long day!!

Dawn and the Crew

Things are Movin Along

We have been having lots of friends and family asking lately what is happening with our adoption so I thought it was time for an update.  I wish I was better at posting on a regular basis....but...well I am just not.  In the last 3 months we have completed the part time job of home study paperwork, the kids ended a great school year, and both my brothers got married.  It has been a busy 3 months! When our sweet social worker told us the home study process took 2-4 months, I thought she was crazy!!  I thought, no way will it take that long just to do paperwork.  She was not kidding!  I will say that the paper chase is not always fun, but China Baby (what we have been calling her!) is so worth it.  I am happy to say that tomorrow is our first home study visit!!  Things are moving along nicely.  We are excited and a little bit nervous about the home study.  Just praying the kids will be on their best behavior for their parts of the interviews!!  The home study should be completed by the end of July, then we have another round of paperwork, 8-12 weeks wait time for immigration and the completion of our dossier.  Our file then gets sent to China and we prayerfully wait for a match!  The China team is saying about a 6-12 month wait, we are of course praying for as quick as possible. So that's the process as far as we know.  We are excited, nervous, and can't wait to go to China to get our baby!  Thanks for reading and caring!

Blessings,
Jason, Dawn, Dawson, Jayden, and Hallie

Once upon a time there was a little girl and God placed in her a desire to adopt a beautiful baby girl from China.  She grew and met a handsome man.  This man loved her very much and asked her to be his bride. They had three beautiful, sweet, spunky children. Who were their joy!!

In May 2010, they were blessed with another beautiful child but sadness struck their family and God called their sweet boy Reese home to be with Him.  They were heartbroken but God was bigger than all the heartbreak.  Through their healing, God had begun to stir in them His desire for them to adopt.  On February 1, 2012, God showed this woman His will for them and she knew it was time to follow in His desire for their family.  And so the adventure begins....