To China or Bust!

Wow, what a week! On Monday, we were told that there was a group going to China next week and that we may not be able to travel in April. Today (Friday) I get a call at work (the library no less, where I can't scream and yell) that we have our travel invite and dates!!! Truly Amazing! I can picture God in Heaven laughing so hard at me!! How He's saying, "My timing not yours dearie!"

It has been a great week and what a way to end it! We are going to be leaving around the 7th of April and getting back by the 22nd. We are so excited and, after a visit from our good friends who have gone through this, are a bit overwhelmed. I'm sure we will be more than ready by the time we leave, but it will come almost too fast.

On top of everything - we received a phone call that my sister-in-law had her first baby today!! Alisa Nicole Dew was born at 7:51pm this evening! I'm an aunt again and couldn't be happier!

Off to get some much needed sleep...

It Will Bless Your Socks Off!

This comment was made by my dear friend Joe and it could not sum up the night better!! Last night we had a tip night at the Orange City Pizza Ranch held for us and it was nothing short of amazing! There were a ton of people (not coming just for us, but to eat) and all of those who helped were kept hopping all night. The manager was surprised at how busy the place was and our family was just feeling so blessed. A big "THANK YOU!" goes to all our friends who helped: Joe, Becky, Micah, Caleb, Aaron, Chloe, Jada, Brian, Brent, Jamie, Jill, Austin, Tristan, and Bethany! And of course the people of Pizza Ranch! (Hopefully I didn't forget anyone!) My boys even chipped and and worked - Zach was doing dishes on and off for three hours! (If only he would at home!) For St. Patrick's Day, we felt we had the luck of the Irish and a true blessing from God!

I went in to the evening with hope that it would go well, but not knowing who would show up. A friend had asked how I felt about the Tip Night being held for us and I wasn't sure how to answer. The first thought/feeling being "awkward" - it is a bit weird to have a "benefit" being held for you, but when you need help, how else does it happen?? Then I talked to another friend/co-worker who had a Tip Night done for them, and she said her feeling was humbling and I couldn't agree more!! It is/was a truly humbling experience! To see love poured out like that is just WOW! I prayed before last night that we would have fun, a good turn out, and (selfishly) that I could keep my emotions in check for the evening. God answered prayer (As Always!) in a big way. We had a blast, the turn out was fabulous and I held my tears till I got home - when we did, the flood gates opened and it has been stop and go with tears ever since!! :)

This has been a week of ups and downs with the "ups" taking over fast and furious! We started the week by hearing that a group is heading to China the beginning of April and we are not a part of it. Tim and I were bummed, but know that God's timing is everything. Later we got an email saying that the early April group is actually leaving next week!! That would possibly make for another group to go by the end of April - hopefully we can be in that one!! After getting that tidbit of info., I received a call from a matching grant we had applied for and we were accepted! We had been turned down for one, disqualified for another, and losing hope. We are now applying for one more and we will see if it goes through. After last night the matching grant is on it's way to being fulfilled!

Thank you again to all who made this week wonderful and for all the prayers being spoken on our behalf. To all of you who are waiting, I am praying for you and your families - it is such a hard wait, but be patient. In His time: God will bless your socks off!!

A Whole New "Us"

Wow, I knew it had been awhile, but didn't realize it had been so long from my last post! So much has happened and my gracious friend has changed the look of my blog for me to tell everyone about our news.

We've finally gotten our referral and though we didn't get twins like we had originally hoped, we are going to be blessed with the cutie you see on the header of the blog! This new year of 2010 has been a whirlwind of happenings with getting back from family in MI to finding 5 feet of snow on the ground, to getting a referral a few days after arriving home, then getting our Letter of Acceptance (LOA) before we got our pre-approval (we actually skipped a step!), and now we wait for our travel invitation to go to China and pick up our new little Lexi. Amongst all of that it, of course, is hockey season at our home, and that means tons of travel around the snowy, icy state of South Dakota! I don't know about the rest of the family but I am exhausted!!

Alexis Grace Erming (her Chinese name) will hopefully be joining our family in the next couple of months. She is 13 months as of the time I write this, is starting to walk along furniture (we are told) and has a few teeth. Alexis is from the Waiting Child list (special needs) and we are thrilled with all the comments of "really? Why?" because, though we see it and know about it, many of you don't see it. She has what they are calling Atrophy of the Left eye and it looks as if she is cross-eyed with a clouding starting over the iris. China says that she has no vision in the left eye, but is fine in the right - we shall see when we get her home! :)

The boys are as excited as we are about our adoption FINALLY coming to a close. I know we have not waited as long as some, but 2 1/2 years was long enough for us. We pray for all of you that are still waiting and know God will bless you in His perfect timing. I am normally not a patient person so this was soooo hard for me. I am really glad that for 5 months of the year we are so involved with hockey. The boys are on 2 different teams so we split our parenting duties and off we go in different directions for December through February. It really helped some of the time pass, but with the ever present questions of "Have you heard anything?", it was always a challenge to stay faithful to God's timing and not get super frustrated.

Now we are praising God for this wonderful opportunity to expand our family. Tim and I really feel blessed from A to Z! Alexis to Chris to Danie (even to Latte the cat)to Zach! It will be so much fun to have a girl in the house again.

Until we hear more...

Thanks for praying for us!! For those in the area - we are having a tip night at Pizza Ranch in Orange City March 17 to help raise money to get us to China.