Bee-bim Bop!

In honor of 6 months of waiting for our referral, Raleigh and I decided to cook a traditional Korean meal, bee-bim bop. Bop is the Korean word for rice, and bee-bim means mixed-up. So...bee-bim bop means mixed up rice.

Basically you start by cooking rice, vegetables, meat and eggs. You put the rice in your bowl first, then the vegetables and meat. Then you top off your bowl with egg. Finally, you "bee-bim" or mix everything together!! It was fun to make and delicious to eat!

6 Months Waiting!

Today Raleigh and I are celebrating 6 months of offically waiting for our referral. If you are not familiar with the adoption process, our "official wait" started when our homestudy (paperwork) was approved.

Adoption timelines are unpredictable, but our agency has given us their "best guess" which is a 12 month wait from homestudy to referral. If this holds true, we are half way through the wait to referral. WooHoo!

We know that the timeline is totally in God's hands and we are just excited to follow Him on the journey!!!

Another thing that only God knows is how old our child will be at the time of referral. However, if all of the "best guesses" are exactly true, we would get a referral of a 5 month old baby at the end of July. If this happened to be true, our child will be born at the end of February. Wow!! That is so neat that our child's birth mother could be approximately 8 months pregnant right now.

I cannot imagine the emotions she must be experiencing as she makes such a hard decision about the future of her child. Raleigh and I will continue to pray for our child's birthmother and for our child.

Thanks to everyone who is sooo supportive of this journey!!! We are so thankful for your prayers!!

Continue to pray for Haiti

During high school, I traveled to Haiti 4 times. Each time I worked with YWAM in St. Marc. You can read the latest update from the director below. Please pray especially for the orphanages and for the children that have lost parents in the earthquake. Pray for wisdom for the Haitian government and the US government.

01/19/2010 06:33 AM Update from Terry Snow

Yesterday our YWAM’ers in PAP came upon people seeking help and a four month old child was discovered pinned under a building. Our rescue team from YWAM sprang into action. After some time the child was removed from the rubble and rushed to a make shift hospital with a large cut on her head. Once there everyone tried to find a responsible person. After asking where the baby’s mother was, the people with them said she is still under the building. The YWAMers rushed back to hear people saying that she was under the building, dead. Our YWAMers began to dig to find her. To everyone’s surprise they found her ALIVE! She was extremely dehydrated and will need hospital care but it seems she will recover!



YWAM St. Marc Gym has become a make shift recovery ward for the overflowing hospital. Yesterday a Doctor asked one of our YWAMers “What are they going to do with all these orphans.” He claimed that none of the children at our center had known living parents and the orphanage caretaker is not in the country. “Would YWAM take these children?” he asked. One of our volunteers spoke with one young boy that was actually thought to be dead! He had already been placed in the morgue in a closed room with the dead. After placed there and the door closed, morgue workers heard a knocking on the closed door and was shocked to see that this young boy was still alive!



Strategies are forming on how to best cope and minister during this situation. It is very intense and difficult, but let us all pray for the children of Haiti.



I want to thank everyone for your giving and your prayers. They have been a source of strength and encouragement along with the presence of God with us.



Taking the High Places!



Terry W. Snow

National Director

YWAM Haiti



The greatest need at the moment is money. If you would like to help you could send a contribution payable to YWAM Haiti “Relief: and mail to;



YWAM Haiti

PO Box 236

Akron, PA 17501



If you would like to send fund through the internet you may give through this link; https://www.ywam.org/secure/donations/donate.asp?project=10



For more information of what God has done in Haiti I would like to invite you to read my book, “Taking the High Places” http://www.ywampublishing.com/p-1054-international-adventures-seriesbrtaking-the-high-places.aspx

I-600A Approval Came Today!!!

Raleigh and I have been checking the mail with anticipation for weeks...hoping to see a letter from the Department of Homeland Security. Today, it finally arrived! Yippee! Our I-600A approval is also called I-171H and we are so happy to check this milestone off the list. Now every piece of paperwork is completed and approved in order for us to receive our referral. (There will be a new round of paperwork once we are matched with a child.)

The first sentence of the letter reads, "It has been determined that you are able to furnish proper care to an orphan..."

We are so blessed that God is allowing us to go on this journey!!

In your prayers for Haiti, please remember all of the orphanages and adoptive families that are affected.

2009 has been great and 2010 will be even better!

Happy New Year's Eve! Raleigh and I have enjoyed the holiday season and are looking forward to 2010. Today we have been watching movies and reflecting on 2009.

God has been so faithful in 2009 and has taught me so much this year.

One thing I have learned this year is that if you pray for God to break your heart for the things that break his, he will. Not only will he work in your spirit so that your priorities are aligned with his, he will also move you to action.

Also, God continues to show us that when he calls us to action, he will provide. Raleigh and I were on our adoption agency's waiting list in October 2008. However, we knew that we were about 15th on the list and our agency would only be allowed to submit about 7 home studies to Korea in 2009. We did not expect to "make" the 2009 quota, but in February 2009 we were informed that we did make the quota and would be able to begin the paperwork for our adoption. Raleigh and I were overjoyed. God provided the finances for the first step of our adoption through the first time homebuyer tax credit and our home study was approved July 30, 2009.

God has always been faithful, but it is so easy for me to quickly forget that God is in control. There are days when I try to work out all of the details in my mind and that is never a good place to be, because we are not in control. With our adoption, as with most adoptions, the timeline is not predictable. Our agency is currently predicting a 12-14 month wait from home study approval to referral. If this holds true, we could expect a referral between July and October of 2010. However, we are staying very flexible because we know that the timing could change at any time. Raleigh and I pray everyday for God to give us peace and wisdom as we plan for the upcoming year(s) and all that he has in store for us. We are so blessed to be following God through life, and especially on this journey to our first child.

God has also been teaching me that traditions are not holy, God is holy. I grew up in the south where traditions run deep. I was born in Tennessee and grew up in Brentwood, a suburb of Nashville. I went to college in Birmingham, AL and now live in a suburb of Atlanta, GA. If you have known me for any length of time, you know that traditions are really important to me. There is something comforting about traditions and some of my favorite family memories revolve around traditions. But, I have also learned that it is ok for traditions to change. Just as life circumstances change, so do traditions. If I am totally honest, I used to be fearful of change. (One time when I was in college my mom changed the type of laundry detergent she used and I thought that life was completely changing…yes, I know that was quite neurotic of me, but I'm just being honest.) God has brought me a long way from there. I am now much less fearful of change. I do still love traditions, but I am no longer bound by them. I hope Raleigh and I are able to teach our child that family traditions are really special, but you should never be a slave to them. When fulfilling a tradition becomes a chore, maybe it is time to think about a change.

God continues to teach me that marriage is about sacrificial love. Watching my parents love and serve each other in all seasons of life has taught me so much about how to love Raleigh unconditionally.

I could go on and on about all that God is teaching me, but I will save some for another time.

A Few Pictures from Christmas in Nashville

We had a fun time in Nashville celebrating with my family. We opened gifts and ate yummy food! Then my parents surprised us with a limo ride to Opryland to look at the lights. After Opryland we rode around town looking at lights! Thanks mom and dad for a perfect Christmas! Thanks for the pics Angie!

Merry Christmas!

Raleigh and I are really enjoying the holiday season! We had fun picking out our Christmas tree at Berry Patch Farms! Raleigh and my dad were in charge of the lights! The smell of gingerbread in the oven makes it feel like Christmas is just around the corner!

Twas the morning after Thanksgiving...

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and feel really blessed that we were able to share our home with family. We have so much to be thankful for in 2009.

Here are just a few of our countless blessings...
-Raleigh and I both have jobs.
-Raleigh and I are healthy.
-We love each other very much!
-Both sets of our parents love us so much and have taught us how to love others well.
-In February, we met the 2009 quota for our adoption agency and are in the process of adopting a treasure, our child, from South Korea.
-Our home was filled with laughter today.

Enjoy a few snapshots from the day...

Please join me in prayer for God to move mountains in the Canadian governmnent...

Just a few days ago, the government in Canada stopped issuing visas allowing little treasures to be adopted. Many families are at the end of the adoption process and now they are not allowed to bring their child home.

Please refer this post and this one from A Place Called Simplicity to read more.

As Christians, we have to speak up for the orphans that cannot speak up for themselves. God is much bigger than any government. Please pray today that God will move in the hearts of the Canadian government and that they will reverse their decision.

Quite a good read....hard, but true

http://kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/2009/11/we-have-had-one-of-those-really-great.html

Thanksgiving

This year Raleigh and I are blessed to be hosting Thanksgiving. My grandmother, Mamaw, loved Thanksgiving so much and always spent the month of November making sure Thanksgiving would be great!

Since my grandmother passed away, my mom and her five siblings have taken turns hosting Thanksgiving each year. It is always such a special time to gather with aunts, uncles, and cousins.

This year Raleigh and I decided we would like to have everyone gather in our home. (maybe by this time next year there will be a little one in our house and it might not be quite as easy to host...:)

My parents are coming a day or two early to help out. Mom and I are planning to do as much as possible Wednesday.

So far this is our menu:

Snacks while people arrive
hot pepper jelly with cream cheese
vegetable tray
spinach dip

Main Course
turkey
ham
dressing
pinto beans in the crock pot
deviled eggs
mashed potatoes
mac and cheese
rice casserole
broccoli casserole
salad
fruit salad
angel biscuits

Dessert
chocolate pies- Mamaw's signature dish...delicious
pumpkin pies
Texas sheet cake
sour cream pound cake

What foods are staples at your family's Thanksgiving meal?

November is National Adoption Month!

In honor of National Adoption Month, I thought I would post a few of my thoughts about our adoption.

Before Raleigh and I got married, we had all of the important conversations you have when you are dating someone seriously...do you want kids, how many years to you want to wait before having kids, how will we handle finances, do you want pets, how will we share household responsibilities, etc.

We always agreed that we wanted children. A little over a year ago, when Raleigh and I started talking about children, we had plans to have our first child biologically.

And then God totally rocked our world. Through a series of events including the stroke of our 26 year old friend Katherine and the death of sweet Maria Sue Chapman, God broke our hearts for the needs of the world and taught us so much about prayer and interceding on behalf of others. I can specifically remember sitting in our tiny little guest house in Atlanta have hours of conversations about what it means to pray without ceasing.

Through that journey of God grabbing our hearts for the needs around us and teaching us how to pray without ceasing in many different ways, God broke our hearts for the orphans around the world. I read the book The Lost Daughters of China by Karin Evans and God began to confirm that it was His plan for us to adopt our first child.

We knew that we wanted children. We knew that we had the love to give a child. We knew that it would not always be easy. We knew we wanted to raise a child to love God deeply.

God's lavish love to us and through us compelled us to adoption.

Adoption is not our 2nd choice. Adoption is our 1st choice.

I am so humbled that God is allowing us to join Him on His mission to love orphans.

Will we adopt again? Who knows! (Well, actually God knows:) Will we have biological children? Not sure.

But, in honor of National Adoption Month, know that adoption is not a last resort or a 2nd choice. Adoption is a beautiful picture of God setting the lonely in families just like He adopted us as His children and brought us into His family!

147 Million Orphans and an Adoption Fundraiser

I have been following the blog of Katie Davis for several months now. Katie Davis (Amazima Ministries.org) is a 20 year old girl who lives in Uganda, has custody of 14 little girls, sends 400 children to school, and now has a feeding program. I originally found her blog because she is from my hometown, Brentwood, TN. Within a year , Amazima (which means THE TRUTH) has grown from 150 to 400 children. If you spend some time reading Katie’s blog I know that you will be both encouraged and challenged.

147 Million Orphans has partnered with Katie and Amazima Ministries. Their goal is to help as many people as possible to see the 147 million orphans worldwide as their brothers and sisters in Christ.
147 Million Orphans has also decided to partner with adoptive families to help them raise money to bring home beautiful treasures!

Raleigh and I are excited to announce that we will be selling 147 Million Orphans shirts. The purchase of each adult shirt feeds a child in Africa for two weeks. Please consider purchasing a shirt for yourself and others on your Christmas list! Simply click on the right side of the blog on "Gresham Adoption Fundraiser" to see the shirts. When I wear my 147 Million Orphans shirt it is a great conversation starter!

Did you know there are 147 million children worldwide who have lost one or both parents?

Every 14 seconds an AIDS death leaves another child orphaned.

Approximately 88 million orphans live in Asia.

Approximately 45 million orphans live in Africa.

Approximately 14 million orphans live in Latin America & the Caribbean.

Approximately 1 million children live in public care in Central and Eastern Europe

More than 800,000 children pass through America’s foster care system each year.

I-600a Fingerprinting

Last Friday Raleigh and I received our notification to be fingerprinted by the USCIS office in Atlanta. This is part of our I-600a application. The I-600a is the Advance Processing of an Orphan Petition. It is one of the important pieces of paperwork that must be completed and approved in order for us to adopt internationally.

Our scheduled time is Monday, November 3rd at 10am. Say your prayers that our fingerprinting will go smoothly and that we will receive approval quickly. Although we know that we will not be matched with a child for many months, a quick approval means that once we do have a referral and we are working with the Atlanta USCIS again, hopefully they will process our paperwork quickly. Each local USCIS office seems to have different time lines for processing various types of paperwork, so hopefully the Atlanta office is fast and efficient!

WooHoo for fingerprints!!!

Orphan Sunday

Did you know that Sunday, November 8 is Orphan Sunday? Orphan Sunday is an opportunity for individuals and churches to speak up on behalf of the millions of orphans around the world. There are over 140 million little treasures without a forever family.

Visit this site if you want to learn more about Orphan Sunday!

God's heart is for adoption.

Just think, we are all born spiritual orphans until we know our one true Father. He so graciously adopts us as His children. While we are yet sinners, God chooses us and pursues us because He wants us to be part of his family. As God's adopted children, we receive the full rights of being a child of God.

God's heart is for adoption. His heart breaks for the millions of children without a family.

But, there is hope. We can all do our part to change the life of an orphan. If you do not know where to start, simply start by praying. Ask God to open your heart to the needs of the orphans and show you how you can be part of His story.

In view of the love God has lavished on us by adopting us as His children, let us go and Show Hope to the world. (www.showhope.org)

2 Posts in one day...Broccoli and Potato Soup

Tonight was my first attempt at Soup Sunday. Starting today I am attempting to make a new soup or crock-pot recipe each Sunday in October. This recipe for broccoli and potato soup was super easy and fun to make. It came out of the November 2009 issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray.

The best part? There were only 5 ingredients:
1 bunch broccoli
1 onion
1 large red potato (or 2 medium)
2 cups milk
shredded cheese for topping

Luckily, it made enough for leftovers tomorrow!

Pumpkin, Meal Planning, and Organization

I have been searching for pumpkin pie mix and pumpkin puree for several months, but apparently there was a pumpkin shortage this year. This weekend I finally found pumpkin puree at Publix and was able to make pumpkin cupcakes. As the cupcakes baked, they filled the kitchen with the delicious smell of fall.





I found a neat food blog that gave me an idea for meal planning for the rest of the month. I have tried meal planning a variety of ways. The most economical way I've tried is to spend the week clipping coupons and finding coupons online. Then plan all meals for the following week based on the coupons and grocery store sales. Even though this way saves the most money, it also takes the most time. For the remainder of October I have decided to try cooking certain "genres" of food on certain nights. Then since I have planned all my meals for the month, I can look for coupons and sales that match my needs.

So...for the remainder of October our menu looks like this:

Sundays (soup/crock-pot meals): broccoli and potato soup, spicy chili con chile, butternut squash soup

Tuesdays (Mexican night): bean and cheese quesadillas, sopes, tacos

Thursdays (Italian night): two tomato pesto pasta, cheese ravioli with pumpkin sage sauce, vegetable lasagna

Saturdays (sandwich day): brie and vegetable panini, inside out English muffin grilled cheese, roasted red pepper sandwich

On nights when I have not planned a meal, we will have leftovers or a meal from pantry staples. I will give this meal planning technique a try for the month of October and then decide if it works well for us.

Finally, I also decided to try something new to help make weekday lunches easier. Raleigh and I are both packing our lunches, but some nights we both get home late and get too lazy to pack our lunches for the next morning. I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner, but today I decided to pack lunch "snacks" such as pretzel sticks, almonds, and grapes into 5 baggies. Then I do not have to pack these items each night because they are ready for the entire week. The only thing we will have to pack daily is the "main course" which is usually a sandwich, a lean cuisine, or leftovers. Hopefully this new system will help with packing lunches!!



What do you do to make meal planning and lunch making easier?

Packed and Ready.....

We are packed and ready to go to Nashville for the weekend for the Together for Adoption conference. The conference is from 7:00pm-9:30pm Friday and 8:00am-5:00pm Saturday. I am glad that Raleigh and I decided to take the day off instead of trying to rush to Nashville after work because I don't think we would have been able to make it on time.

We also received an exciting piece of mail yesterday. We got a receipt for our
I-600a application from the office of Homeland Security. The I-600a is our petition to bring an orphan into the US. In 1-3 more weeks we should get another piece of mail. This time it will be our appointment day and time to be fingerprinted by the USCIS in Atlanta. WooHoo!!

Also, our agency emailed us this week that they are still predicting a 12 month wait from home study approval to referral. If this holds true, we are 2 months into our waiting and have 10 more to go until the first time we see the picture of our sweet, sweet baby.

Football Saturday

When we woke up this morning and turned on the tv it looked like this.



Ordinarily it wouldn't be that big of a deal, but we had already made plans for several friends to come over and watch football. Raleigh was on the phone much of the morning with Comcast, but they could not figure out what was causing the cable and internet to be down. A technician is scheduled to arrive between 2pm and 5pm, but we are not really holding our breath that the cable will be back on by the 3:30 Alabama game.

The house is clean. Snacks are ready. But...no cable = no football.

Well...Raleigh is determined so he has his laptop connected to his phone for internet service and is now trying to connect his laptop to the tv. We may be able to watch the game after all.

Home Study

We received a copy of our home study yesterday.:) Even though it has been complete since the end of July, it makes the process seem a little more real to actually see everything written out. Our home study is basically an 8 page document that talks about our lives from childhood until now. It describes how Raleigh and I were each disciplined as children and how we plan to discipline our child. It talks about everything from our families and our jobs to the types of special needs that we are open to considering.

WooHoo for having a copy of our home study in our possession.:)

Rain, Rain, Rain

It has been raining ALL weekend! The pictures do not really do it justice, but our street looks like a river.

A Big Dream...

Ok...I am going to be vulnerable on the blog today, so please just take it for what it's worth...

I know that God is totally in charge of our adoption, our family plan, and everything else for that matter.:) Once we started the adoption journey, I started having this idea that our child will one day disciple others and lead others to Christ. I know that this sounds crazy, but I even have this feeling that our child will one day lead other Koreans to Christ. Our child, who was once an orphan, could help spread the hope of Christ with others and share the love of our true Father.

How will this look? Exactly who will our child disciple? Will our child form relationships with Koreans living in South Korea or Koreans living in the United States? I have no idea how to answer any of these questions. But I do know that God is the author of this story and He is a BIG God!! Nothing is impossible with him. Things that may seem impossible to me and my small world-view, are totally possible with God.

WooHoo to a God who is bigger than our biggest dreams!!

"Not ONE of God's good promises failed, every one was fulfilled."
Joshua 21:45

We Cooked Our First Korean Meal!

Another adoptive family posted pictures and a recipe for Korean wontons. They looked so delicious and Raleigh and I wanted to give it a try. We went to H-Mart, a local Korean grocery store) and bought the wonton wrappers. Below are a few pictures of our first attempt at Korean cooking!

Thanks Mandy and Wes!

A few days ago when I came home from school, I noticed an Amazon box on our front porch. I knew we had not ordered anything recently so I was curious about the contents of the package. When I opened the box, I found three books from our wish list. Our sweet friends Mandy and Wes had purchased three adoption books for us.

I am so thankful for my sweet friends and family. We are blessed to be supported by so many! Thanks for the books Mandy and Wes!!

This and That....

First, I want to tell you a little story about God's faithfulness. I know that God has planned our adoption journey from beginning to end, but sometimes I still try to "figure it all out" myself.

So...this afternoon I was fretting about adoption expenses. Again, I know in my heart that God will provide (just as he always has in the past) but sometimes I try to make my own plan.

I was driving home wondering exactly how the financial aspect of the adoption will work out. Once I arrived home, I went to the mailbox to get the mail. Much to my surprise, there was a completely unexpected check from the doctor's office. We had previously over paid and they sent us a $25 refund. Isn't God amazing?

Regardless of the amount of the check, it was a such a tangible reminder of God's faithfulness. Should I need a "sign" from God to know that He is faithful? No, but God is so cool that He sends special blessings at just the right moment. According to Ephesians 3:20, God is able to do immeasurably more than we could ever ask or imagine. I know that He will provide for our adoption in every way, in ways that we could not even imagine!!

Psalm 138:8 The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your love, O Lord, endures forever-

On another note, Raleigh's parents are leaving for Taiwan tomorrow morning. They will be there until September 14th. They have an opportunity to work with an English speaking ministry there. Please pray for their safety during this trip. Also, pray for God to give them wisdom and clarity about the future. There is potential that the ministry in Taiwan will ask them to move there for a long-term position. I am praying that God will give them complete peace about their decision.

Interesting article in Time Magazine

If you are interested, here is a link to a Time Magazine article about Seoul.

The title is Seoul: World's Most Wired Megacity Gets More So.

First Sign of Fall!

Raleigh always says that I rush the seasons, but I must say that today felt like the beginning of Fall. I know we will have many more hot Atlanta summer days, but it was at least a sneak peak of the cooler weather that is to come. It was not as cool here as my parents said it was in Nashville, but it still made me think of what I call "football weather."

As I was outside on my patio, I noticed that one of the small maple trees in our back yard had a few leaves that have already turned a beautiful shade of red. To me, that is the first sign of fall!

Please Pray for Our Child's Birthmother

Our agency is currently stating that the wait time is approximately 12 months from your home study's approval date. Our home study was approved July 30 and our baby will probably be around 5 months old at the time of referral. If my math is correct, this means that there is a chance that our child's birthmother is pregnant.

Like I have mentioned before, adoption timelines change frequently and we know that God has already chosen the perfect child for our family. But if we do receive our referral in 12 months, then our baby is growing right now. This is hard to even imagine.

Please pray for the health of our child's birth mother, even if she isn't pregnant yet. Pray that she will make healthy choices for herself and her future baby. Pray that people will be placed in her life to tell her about Jesus. Pray that our child will be loved by caretakers once he or she is born. Pray that our baby will attach to one caretaker before he or she comes home.

Thank you for all your prayers!!

To My Husband

I just want to say a special thanks to Raleigh for being sooo supportive over the last two weeks during the start of a new school year. I mean he is always great, but he was especially fantastic when I needed it most! The week before school this year was the craziest I remember and I spent many hours at school. Although the first week of school was a big success, it was very exhausting as well.

Thanks Raleigh for making dinner, cleaning the kitchen after dinner, doing laundry, packing my lunch, bringing me coffee every morning, buying my classroom rug, setting up my classroom computers, stuffing folders for my students, bringing dinner to me and my teacher friends when we were all at school really late, listening to my endless stories about school, cheering me on, and loving me when I'm at my best and my not so best.

Thank you Raleigh!

We are Officially Waiting!!

We have exciting news in terms of our adoption timeline...we are officially waiting!! We received an email from our social worker and our home study was approved July 30, although we were not actually notified until several days later. I have been meaning to update the blog, but preparations for the beginning of a new school year have been demanding most of my time.

Our agency will not tell us what number we are on the waiting list, because many factors impact your waiting time, regardless of where you are on the list. Some factors that influence the wait time include age of the child, medical needs that families are open to or not open to, gender preference, etc.

We feel very blessed to be at this point!! We plan to fill out the I-600A this weekend.

Thank you to everyone who continues to pray for us and encourage us along the journey!

One Step Closer!

We received an email from our social worker today and our homestudy is complete and has been sent to our agency's corporate office for approval. WooHoo!

She also told us to begin completing the I-600A. This form is the Application for Advance Processing of Orphan petition. Once we complete the form, our agency will mail it to the USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services). Next, we will receive an invitation to be fingerprinted at the Atlanta USCIS office. Once the USCIS receives our paperwork, it usually takes 1-4 weeks to be invited for fingerprinting. These fingerprints will be electronically sent to the FBI for approval.

It may not be a big step...but we are one step closer!