Giving thanks!

Okay, are you all ready for some awesome news?!?  WE HAVE THE $2500 FOR OUR FIRST AGENCY FEE!!!!  We have been beyond blessed to receive an EXTREMELY generous donation and we are praising God for his goodness!  Just when you feel like you are going it alone, God taps you on the shoulder and says, "I'm here.  I've always been here.  I'm going to take care of my children." 

Here is the story.  A friend of mine and her husband had been setting some money aside to give and they picked us to be blessed by this amazing gift.  They had lost count of how much was there, but had decided they wanted to help us bring our son home.  They had read my post about needing $2500 for our first fee so they counted it up and guess how much it was?  It was exactly $2500!!!  Does anybody else have goosebumps?  When she told me about wanting to give us this gift, I was instantly in tears.  I was overwhelmed by their generosity and by the way God works in and through us all for his purpose. 

We have been so moved by the generosity that keeps pouring in through donations and through those participating in our fundraisers.  We can now pay our first agency fee and then we will have $600 to apply to the next fee on the list.  You guys are all becoming a part of this incredible story of God ransoming one of his beloved children and we are so thankful!

With Thanksgiving only days away, I had to share this amazing story with you all.  I hope you all will be incredibly blessed.  I want to leave you with some lyrics to a song that touched my heart today:

"Oh Father, You have given
Much more than I deserve
And I have felt Your hand of blessing
On me at every turn

How could I doubt Your goodness
Your wisdom, Your grace.

Hallelujah!"

~Carly

Encouraged :)

Since I wrote a post about being discouraged, I thought I'd write one about being encouraged.  That is definitely what I've been ever since I wrote my last post.  I have had so many people who have reached out to help by praying for us, suggesting different fundraisers, and giving me encouraging words.  A beautiful friend of mine lifted my spirits by suggesting I read Hebrews 11.  Hebrews 11:1 says ""Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."  The rest of the chapter speaks of so many followers of Christ who had faith in things they had yet to see.  Not necessarily faith that they would get what they asked for, but faith that the God who created them and loved them would lead them where they were supposed to go and bring them through it.  That no matter what happened here on this earth, they had faith in their eternal home.  

It is so easy to get lost in the craziness of life.  The ups and downs, and occasionally, the even middle ground.  What we seem to forget so easily is that God is walking each step of each day with us.  He is there when everything seems to be falling apart.  He is there when we feel the happiest.  He is there when nothing seems to be happening at all.  He is there.  

I am so encouraged by these truths.  My God is faithful.  He loves me.  He loves my family.  He loves Asher.  He even loves my kids (including Asher!) more than I do.  It's hard and wonderful to know that.  It's hard because I love them so much, it doesn't feel like it's possible someone could love them more.  It's wonderful because I love them so much, but He loves them MORE!  

I have been working SO hard to do everything I can to bring my son home, but the fact is, I can't do anything apart from God's will.  If He wants Asher here, He will provide.  Yes, I need to put forth the effort, but it is all His doing and for His glory.

There will be many more ups and downs in this process, I know, but how awesome is it to be reminded that God is in control and He is faithful?!  How awesome is it to be surrounded by family and friends who are quick to come around me to encourage me and remind me of that?!  Love you all!

~Carly

Discouraged

I am struggling today.  It's been a rough couple days actually.  Several great things have happened in the midst of it though.  We have our homestudy under way.  Our social worker will be making her first visit to our home on November 27th.  We got news that Asher is back with his foster family after his cataract surgery and seems to be doing well.  We got Asher's bed put together.  I go into his room often and stare at his bed and think about what it will be like to tuck him in at night and watch him sleep peacefully.  It's also hard to look at his bed because doubts still creep in.  What if we will never get to tuck him in?  What if I will never see his sweet face in person?  What if he will never call me mommy?  I am trying with all my heart to cast my cares on the Lord, but I find that I have to do it repeatedly and often.

We are still being blessed by a few generous donations and we will never be able to tell you all how thankful we are.  I received another email from our agency today reminding me, as if I somehow forgot, that $2500 is now due and we can't move forward until it's paid.  I don't know if I've explained in detail what this means.  If we don't pay this first fee now, we don't get to move forward in putting our dossier together.  The dossier is the stack of papers that need to be acquired, filled out, notarized/apostilled, and sent to China.  China gives us a deadline of when those need to be submitted, which is 6 months after they have given pre-approval.  Our pre-approval came on October 29th, so that puts us in April for having them returned.  It usually takes roughly 4-5 months (if everything goes smoothly) to complete your dossier.  What happens if we don't have our dossier to China in that time frame?  Well, we are told that they might grant us one 90 day extension, but if we don't have our dossier submitted on time, China closes our file and we lose Asher.  That's just it.  We don't become his parents and he is again put back on the waiting list.  We can't reapply to adopt him, it's over.  It's hard for me to even type those words because I don't want to admit that it could happen, but it could.  We could still lose our little boy.

I know God is in control and I still have faith that He will provide if this is His will, but I'm human and I'm scared.  I want to bring my little boy home.  Right now, after other fees have been paid, we have $400 to put toward the $2500.  Every time I sell a crochet item, the money goes in the fund.  Every time I babysit, the money goes in the fund.  Any time we have extra, it goes in the fund.  We aren't even buying our kids Christmas presents this year because we've talked to them and we've all decided that we already have more than we need and we need to be putting our money toward bringing Asher home.  We are tapped out.

This leaves us at the mercy of those willing to help bring Asher home.  We have a puzzle fundraiser where we are asking people to sponsor a piece for $25 by using the PayPal Donate button on this blog and it's ongoing.  We have an Usborne Books fundraiser that is going on until November 30th: https://w3493.myubam.com/ .  We have a 31 fundraiser going on until November 29th: https://www.mythirtyone.com/shop/eventhome.aspx?eventId=E3967700&from=MYEVENTS .

Would you consider helping us bring our son home?  We would be forever grateful.

God bless,
Carly

Waiting and fundraising

We are so thankful and excited to be moving forward in our journey to Asher!  Thanks to the generous donations of so many wonderful people, we were able to make the first half of our payment to our homestudy agency today!  We will now be assigned a social worker who will get to know us and visit our home.  This is a big deal, because without their approval, we don't move forward.

Our next steps right now will be more waiting and intense fundraising.  We still have a $2500 fee that we need to pay our adoption agency.  They gave us a 90 day deadline, which would be January 13th.  They will grant one 90 day extension, but our urgency lies in the fact that we must have our completed dossier logged into the system in China within 6 months of our pre-approval, which was October 29th.  It typically takes 4-5 months to complete the dossier and we can't begin it until we pay our agency fee....it's all an exhausting, vicious circle.

We have been SO incredibly blessed by the generosity we have received so far.  We can't wait to tell Asher how loved he was before we ever brought him home!  I have also been fortunate enough to earn extra money through my crochet business and doing some babysitting.  Every extra penny we have is making its way into the Asher fund, but we are still coming up short for our agency fee.

We will have our puzzle fundraiser going on until every piece is sponsored, and we have also started two other fundraisers.  Until November 30th, you can visit this link https://www.facebook.com/events/217723795071474 to purchase books through Usborne Books, and your purchase will help us raise funds.  Until November 29th, you can visit this link https://www.facebook.com/events/217723795071474 to purchase items through 31, and your purchase will help us raise funds.  We thought these two fundraisers were great with the upcoming holiday season, for those looking to buy Christmas gifts.

As always, please continue to pray for us as we move forward in this journey God has called us to.  We would appreciate specific prayer that our homestudy/social worker visits would go well and the Lord's will would be done.  Thank you and love you all!

~Carly

Puzzle Fundraiser

Sponsor a piece and help us put our puzzle together!

We have put this puzzle fundraiser together to help us raise the funds for the first half of our adoption process.  Each piece can be sponsored for $25 and we will put your name or family name on the back of a piece.  Once the puzzle is complete, we will have raised $8400 to pay our agency fees, homestudy fee, fingerprinting, dossier, passports, and visas!  We will be gluing and placing the puzzle between two pieces of glass with a frame, and hanging it on the wall by Asher's bed.  What a beautiful way to see how God worked in the hearts of so many generous people willing to help us bring our son home!

To donate, you can either click the Paypal Donate button at the top of our blog, or you can email me at carlyduvall1628@hotmail.com for our address to mail us a check.

Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts for partnering with us to bring Asher home.

God bless!

~Carly