Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Molly's Medical Special needs..

You've seen me make reference to her medical special needs before on here. What are they you may ask? First let me say that I have come to learn there are two schools of thoughts on this whole deal. To disclose or not to disclose. Molly doesn't have much privacy and we have mostly been an open book through out this whole deal. For a while we wanted to keep her personal stuff private. And we have.. but as we've been praying about it and reflecting on the situation we've come to understand a few things. First of all, we wouldn't have said yes to Molly if it weren't for other families who had divulged information, opened their hearts, and telephones, for lengthy conversations with me, some all the way across the country, to help me better understand Molly's situation. I am so thankful for them and their willingness to be open about what they had gone through! Second of all, your going to find out anyway, eventually. Molly will need surgery at some point when she gets here and we'll want to share with you & ask you to pray for us. We didn't share right away because it took us a while to come to understand how we were going to handle this and to fully start to  process what our life will now look like with this amazing blessing in our life. So without further adu...
                               Molly has unrepaired Spinabifida and a club foot....
If born in the USA Molly would have been born via c section and would have been operated on right away. This precious angel is now 2 and has been like this for too long... The mass that Molly has is really, really low down on her back near her bottom, honestly we don't know for sure what it is but we have sought the prayers and advice of all sorts of medical professionals. Including but not limited to a Neurosurgeon, a Peds ER Dr. at MUSC, our Pediatrician, OT's, PT's, friends with children who have this and so much more. We did everything on our end to research all we could about the care that Molly would need and what her sweet little life will look like with this condition. Once home she'll need a sedated MRI at MUSC to determine exactly what we are dealing with, from there I am sure surgery will be scheduled to remove it. Our prayer is that it is the type of Spinabifia that is a fatty mass, I do not suspect her spinal cord is in the pouch. A big concern with Spinabifida is paralysis. We don't think Molly is paralyzed.... If you've watched her video you can see her moving her legs, like crazy! She isn't walking unassisted but is trying! Honestly we feel like she isn't walking because of her club foot and because she is most likely developmentally delayed. Most children with Inter country adoption are.. It's going to be a hard year, we are prepared, we have done all we can and will continue to, to prepare for her. Our prayer is at the end of the 1st year our precious Molly will have had her mass removed, her club foot repaired ( this will likely involve casting and or surgery) and that she will be happy, healthy and well adjusted in her forever family. Yes we know it will be hard.. If you've been around for a while you know Hartley totally threw our family for a curve ball. She was really really hard.. Severe colic, reflux, it was not fun. That was really hard because I didn't expect her to be hard. We are expecting sweet Molly to be slightly challenging with her adjusting, and her special medical needs, but hoping it will be a little easier because we are preparing ourselves for it.. The bottom line and the peace that the Lord finally gave us is that she is our daughter & the Lord will equip us in any way that we need! Please continue to pray for Molly, for the process to continue at a swift pace, for her precious foster momma, for our family & for the fundraising. Mollys theme song is God is able, we are proclaiming that moving forward with Molly!
 EDIT* What we know about Spinabifida is that the lower down on the spine the better, hers is as low as it could go! 20% of people walk around with Spinabifida and you'd never know it. Also we created a new video bc we are going to be featured on a blog the week of May 5th called Give $1 Save 1 and I needed a new shorter video more geared directly towards Molly*

New pictures and video coming!! ( & Special needs info coming soon )

Ya'll the precious orphanage lady sent her sincere apologies that we had gotten video/pictures that we already had. She said she couldn't get to her Foster home for 2 weeks but that she would go and get us new pictures and videos. She said she was really sorry. How precious is that? I am so blessed today to know that Molly seems to be taken care of by folks who really care about her. Thank you Lord! So... you've heard us mention Molly is Special Needs. Our sweet little one does have some medical special needs, there are two schools of thoughts on whether or not to disclose them or not. After much prayer and consideration we have decided to disclose and will try to release a new video tonight and post about exactly what Molly has going on. I'll do my best to get it up tonight but have been doing 10 hours of Hauge training and 9 hours of Crossings training to complete our Homestudy, this week! Thank you for praying for us and for donating. Would you please continue to share our blog and donate just $10 to help us bring her home? Our current challenge is Give $10 change a life. We are trying to raise $10K in  60 days to help bring Molly home. Although a big goal all we really need is 16 $10 donations a day or some larger ones to make fewer people who have to donate. We are believing God is able to do immeasurably more then we could ask or imagine, would you join us?

Monday, April 29, 2013

The update!

We got an update from our agency on Sunday afternoon. The 9 questions we had answered warmed my heart so! The best one was when I ask if she had a lovey or a blankie that she was fond of, they answered that no she was very fond of her foster mother and needs her to hug her a lot. This is wonderful news for a child who has been through all that Molly has. Although she will grieve heavily for her once she is in our arms, the thought already makes me want to cry for the both of them, I know that she is capable of forming relationships and is being loved and cared for by this precious women. For that I am very very thankful! We also ask questions like did she have anything with her when she was found and the answer was no, just her sweet little self. In addition we ask what her name means and what they call her? They call her "ZhenZhen". Some of her sweet story I am going to keep private out of respect for her life but I will share what we can, hence the above. We requested new pictures and what we got were picturea shot from the day that the orginal video was made for our agency. I'm sure they had no way of knowing we had already seen that, so we wrote back requesting new pictures and a video, hopefully that will come at some point! We are very thankful for what we did get though!! You'll see it looks similar to the screen shots I took a few days before..



Saturday, April 27, 2013

Day 12!

Only 48 more days to go to meet our goal! I don't have firm numbers this am but we should be right about $7800 from the $10k goal! We raised $2k in the first 9 days! Thank you friends and thank you Lord! Woud you share her video today and donate if you haven't? Here are a few screen shots from her videos, she's pretty sad in them & we're hoping for a new picture or two and a video this week!!



Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Why we fundraise and the next steps!

I have to be honest and say a 60 day challenge is cracking up to be a lot! If we were to ever do something like this again I think I'll stick to 30 days! But here we are day 9 trucking along, God's showing up, friends are sharing and donating and for that I am very thankful! Very! While chatting with a friend today about how uncomfortable I am personally messaging friends and asking them to donate, posting, re posting and posting about the challenge some more she said one sentence that stuck with me and I hope will you also..

                         "We are fighting for one who can not fight for herself!"

Our sweet Molly can not at two years old fight for herself. She just like our other children here depend on us even while she is in China for what she needs. Yes her immediate needs are being met in China but her long term needs, to be in a family and come to know the love of Jesus Christ, to be fed, to be held, to be loved, to grow up in the greatest country on earth, to have siblings and a wonderful family and so much more! Molly needs us and the best way we can serve her right now is to work as hard as we can to get her as fast as we can!! The Bible commands us all to care for orphans, like we've said before not everyone is called to adopt but all are called by God, to care for orphans. Prayer, fostering, adopting, donating to families who are adopting, buying Christmas presents for Foster kiddos, and so much more, everyone can help somewhere! It's been so exciting to see so many of our friends and family rising to the call to care for the orphans, may it be to help us bring Molly home or to serve in other ways!

 We learned some really exciting news about Molly a couple of days ago. Are you ready for it? Molly is not in an orphanage!!! Molly is with a foster family!!! This is really wonderful news for my momma heart!! I don't know much more than that but it's just wonderful news for many many reasons and we are tickled!

 OK the next steps are that our home study is finished by Mid May and heads to Columbia SC with a check for $225.00. As soon as that goes we have a third agency payment due of $2800.00 and our 1800A immigration paperwork goes to the US Government with a check of $890.00.  Once all of that starts to process we will begin to prepare our Dossier to China, you'll see me refer to DTC and that is what that means. Our Dossier is 13 super important documents that goes to the Chinese Government. We hope to be DTC by early to mid August and from then friends the bottom line is that the estimated travel for folks who are already matched is 4-6 months! We could have Molly as soon as November but also as late as January. We are now praying she'll be here by Christmas, can you imagine??

 Thank you for your support, your prayers and your donations. This is been a crazy God ordained journey and we are so thankful y'all are along for the ride!


Monday, April 22, 2013

I'm so excited!!!

Our sweet Molly will get a little treat in the mail tomorrow, April 23rd China time. Molly will lay eyes on her mommy, daddy, two brothers and sister for the FIRST time!! Our sweet angel will see her family for this first time!! We were able to send her 6 pictures through Lifeline's care package program and also ask 10 questions, in addition we reqested 3-5 new pictures and a 1-3 minute video. We should hear back with the pictures and video in 3-5 days from when it is delievered! Will you pray for precious Molly that although at 2 she won't understand, but that her little heart will be filled with such love when she sees us tomorrow!!! My heart is so full these days with you all donating to help bring her home, buying soaps, neckalaces and so much more! We are so thankful that you all are a part of her story and praise God for the ordained path he has laid before us!  Each night I thank God for the 16 who stepped up and pray the next 16 in! We're working hard sweet girl!! We're coming! Your not an orphan anymore! Thank you Jesus!!

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Great fundraising day! ( ticker update again!)

Today was the first time I had a table at an event to make money for Molly's adoption. With it being at a church and with lot's of people I knew there, and being the kids preschool, and a church we love and serve at, and where the kids play Upward soccer, I had hoped it would go well! We had sweet little cards that my friend Anne made and our friends at Postnet printed, soaps from Goat's milk stuff, clay jewrly from Compelled Designs and bags from my sister AnnaBelle! I had a fancy card reader and was ready to go! I'd hand everyone a card with a picture of sweet Molly on it and start my speal. This is where all those years of working baby fairs helped me! Put something in their hand, talk fast and hope for the best! Thankfully once they saw sweet Molly's face many of them wanted to bring her home as bad as we do! We did great today and I would love to work more craft fairs if you all have events at your churches or schools that you want to share! The day was also super successful becasue we met our goal again for our Give $10 change a life! To date we've had 16 donors each 5 days which as raised a total of $800.00 so far! We are on our way! Thank you all! Here is our table from today, simple and sweet and my scary Tiger who had a wonderful time at the Spring Fling!  Update! We just hit $5000.00 in our adoption fundraising!! Woohoo!


Day 5

Friends God has been so faithful to bring us 16 donations a day so far for the challenge. If you missed the video, we have just started the Give $10 change a life Challenge. We are asking 1000 of our friends and family, and their friends and family, to give just $10 to help us raise $10,000.00 in 60 days to bring Molly home! As you know adoption is costly and we don't have enough... Although some are against fundraising.. for many folks it is crucial to responding to the call that God has called them to. The neat thing about fundraising is that is allows other to come alongside of the adoptive family and help, to be a part of Orphan care. The truth is that not everyone is not called to adopt but everyone is called by God to support orphans and widows. This looks differently for everyone, some will adopt, some will foster, some will support those who do, through prayer, donations and more! By becoming part of the solution and doing our part we can lower the number of 147 million orphans one at a time. One adoption, one fundraiser, one foster home.. And it's super exciting to support to an adoption, even just in small ways, and then see that sweet baby come home! I can tell you first hand to know that you helped just a little and see that precious child is amazing! We are so thankful for all of you and your help! What a joyful homecoming it will be when Molly is home and an orphan no more!
When you reap your harvest in your field and have forgotten a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for the widow, in order that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. (Deuteronomy 24:19, NASB)

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Feels so good! ( ticker update! )

It feels so good today to be able to freely talk about Molly and share with you all her picture! Thank you for your excitment, love, prayers and donations today! Tomorrow is day 3 of the challenge and we are praying in another 16 folks who can give $10 to bring Molly home! As soon as our homestudy is finished which is mid May we have another agency fee of $2800 and an 1800A Paperwork fee to the Homeland security for $890.00! Thank you all! Please keep sharing our blog link with her video That really is the best way to make it easy for folks to donate. So thankful for ya'll!!!


Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Meet Molly!

What an emotional couple of weeks we have had and really almost a month of crazy emotions... Being in the special focus group through Lifeline we could match at any time and didn't have to be LID ( Logged in) to look at precious children. We would occaonsailly look at the list and inquire or not about certain kiddos. These kiddos go fast.. Early one Saturday am I was up early and taking a nose around. It was about 6:30am and I saw her sweet face for the first time. As you know, she is precious so it was easy to be drawn to her! I have to say I didn't know for sure she was ours but I had a sneaky suspicion. We were the first to see her so we locked her file, when you lock a file it means you have two weeks to research her file and go from there. Over the next two weeks we turned her file upside down, specialist, OT's, PT's, my ped, my friend a peds ER Dr and so many more. At first we said no, then yes, then no, then yes, back and forth, just begging and begging for clarity and peace about what to do. We sent questions to her orphanage and then more questions after that.. We prayed and begged some more..  The biggest question for us was can we be the best parents to Molly and to our other children we already have at home? Could we make her wait another 10 months at least for a family when someone else could get to her quicker and so many more questions.. As we prayed and begged I started to feel some peace, I kept her picture on my phone and would look at it often. Playing out scenarios in my head of having two possibly very very needy little girls... My boys, my husband, oh the questions! Finally at a women's retreat for Good Shepherd one Saturday God gave me the total peace I had been begging for! During worship I was standing in a corner of the room and I was just overcome with emotion. I knew then that she was ours. God would equip us for all that she and our other children will need!!! Leaving Camp that day I still needed to talk with Tommy and see where he was in the process. We drove over to Seacoast that night and in church he leaned over to me and said "yes"! As soon as we got home and put the little ones down I submitted the email for LOI, letter of intent as soon as I could. Silly me thought LOI was just a letter, um, no, it's a booklet.. As soon as I received the info needed I went to work. Because we were pretty early in the process there was a lot to be done, medicals and gathering of more paperwork before we could submit. I think that took a week and half and once we finally submitted LOI I was so relieved! A week after LOI the CCC*A came back with some question for us. My heart sank and thus began the longest wait of my life.. For almost 7 days we had people all over praying for us and for Molly, there were many times where the devil totally wrecked me to the point of thinking it wasn't going to happen.. Thankfully today we got the call from Emily our social worker saying that they had said YES!!!! We were overjoyed with the news and were ready to move forward right away! I had made this video announcing her and our next fundraiser and had everything ready to go! Oh, one more cool thing about saying YES! I knew Molly's birthday was right around that Saturday but didn't know exactly when. The day after we said yes I went back through her file and would you believe her birthday was on the day we said yes, the actual day that God spoke so clearly to me, she was turning 2!!! Many folks may be wondering wow, how are you going to do all of this? How do you have time now, with three busy little people at home, a husband who has work/school/tutoring...  I heard a sermon by Matt Redmen's wife a couple of weeks ago and she talked about hearing the calling, the tug. For her it was the A21 human trafficking and the work she was to do there.. She thought how Lord? I have 5 babies at home, 5 babies!?! I felt the same way also. How Lord?? We don't have $31,000.00, I am sooo busy already, Hartley has and does still consume more of me then I thought possible!! Sometimes girlfriend likes me to hold her hand while she eats!?! How will I do this? Children adopted from institutions have issues, and sometimes Lot's of them! Molly has health issues, she has a club foot, she'll be delayed? How? Friends, I just have to say that God is faithful!!  He has and is and will continue to equip of emotionally, physically, mentally and finically. Sweet Molly's redemption story already is turning hearts for the Gospel! A mother who chose life for her, who then abandoned her, chose life again! Then Molly in an orphanage, no family, is now One less! 147 million orphans minus one... God is faithful, not only will her story be amazing but what others are witnessing through this process and the work God is doing in our life's is equally amazing. Someone once told me, You don't fix them, they fix you.. Oh come Lord, let your will be done!!! You mights say, what do the kiddos think? They are over the moon! They have been talking and praying about Molly for a while now! Of course they want her here now and so do WE! We are trusting though in God's perfect timing for her and much like being pregnant and knowing that things will change for them all I am soaking up as much one on one time, especially with Hartley as I can.. What do we need to do now? Keep fundraising and pray!!! This process will keep trucking along but we need funds to do that. Everything we have been doing has been great! The garage sales, soaps, 300/100 challenge and more! All of those thing are great but honestly friends we need to make some big money.. Our goal is $10,000.00 over the next 60 days. We need 1000 friends to just give $10!  That's it.  I don't have 1000 facebook friends, but together we all know probably 1000 who could spare $10. Would you please please help us by sharing her story and helping us reach our goal? God is able friends and we are overjoyed to share with you our new daughter Molly!!

Friday, April 12, 2013

1st homestudy and 2nd garage sale

1st homestudy visit, 2nd garage sale and 3rd batch of soaps, totally 150 soaps sold so far $450 in soaps! Wow! Just quickly bc it's super late. The homestudy was great, our lady is super nice! We'll be finished much quicker with this process then we thought which is excellent! Having our 2nd yard sale tomorrow and it is HUGE! Hoping for a great crowd like last time! God is so faithful! It's been a stressful adoption week on some other levels, I can't talk about it and honestly really don't want to anymore but please pray for us. God is able...

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Just waiting...

Just waiting.. So much of this process is just waiting.. We are still waiting on news back from the Oprhanage, still waiting on PA, although thats only been a few days so that doesn't seem too long. Just wating. We are preparing for our first home study visit this week on Thursday am, thats super exciting! We are also preparing for our 2nd Garage sale on Saturday the 13th! Already this one has been a huge success so far! We had some really nice items to sell before hand on craigslist and God has been faithful to bring full price buyers for those things! Already we have made almost what we did on the whole sale last time! Thank you Lord! And thank you to those who have donated! Our shed is full, almost to the roof with items. The Lawnmower or 4 wheeler can't even fit in there! Yay! During our waiting our other three little treasures have been keeping us busy. Soccer, piano, compression fractures (Thomas) birthday parties and more! Hopefully this week we'll have PA and can share our sweetie with you all! Eek!!!