Love Will Make a Way

 

So we're jumping back into the process! I can hardly believe it! We've been thinking about this for months now and realized that delayed obedience is disobedience, OUCH!! Ok Lord, we get it, we get it! 

 Soooo.... we're doin' this thang!

As we began thinking about adopting again, there were a lot of things to consider. Through all the questions and "what ifs" that ran through my mind, the Lord continued to tell me that....

LOVE MAKES A WAY

He flooded my heart with verses to expound on this thought. Here are a few...

"I will make a way in the wilderness and the rivers in the desert." 

                                        - Isaiah 43:19

"For God so loved the world that He gave his only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

                                     - John 3:16

"Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left."

                                - Exodus 14:21-22

You might remember that our adoption journey first started with a friend who said "Do I know anyone willing to cross the ocean for this little one?". She was referring to a photo of a child in China who needed a home. 

My immediate thought was, "Isn't that exactly what God would do?" 

Hasn't He proven to us over and over again through His word that, yes, He would travel across the ocean for us? Didn't He actually SPLIT the sea in TWO for his people? Didn't He send His ONLY son to die for us? 

YES!

His wide, long, high and deep love (Eph 3:18) for us says "YES" and makes a way in the wilderness and rivers in the deserts.

Somewhere along the way in our adoption journey to bring Beau home, we had a drastic persepctive change. Instead of US adopting, GOD was providing a home for a child. Instead of US fundraising, GOD was relocating His resources to provide for a child. Our thoughts moved from us, us, us to instead watching GOD!

So while we are not far enough away from the last process to have forgotten just how hard it was. We move forward looking at the hurdles ahead of us, knowing that the battle belongs to the Lord (cue the Phil Wickam song)! So when the enemy wants me to worry about the fundraising, paperwork and emotional toll we're about to face, I'm choosing instead to remind myself that...

- God is the owner of ALL the world's resources and he can use them as he sees fit. 

(Ps 50:10)

- God is able to do more than I can even imagine. (Eph 3:20)

- We are hemmed in! He goes before and behind us. (Ps 139:5)

All of the craziness of the process is so, SO worth it and miniscule in light of the blessing God has given us in Beau. He is beyond worthy of all the paperwork, finger prints, and essay questions required. We love him with our whole hearts and simply can't fathom that God chose us to be his parents. We also struggle with the idea that there are still 140 MILLION orphans in the world today. Kids just like Beau who need a home. How could we not say yes again?!

There are many unique things about what it means to be a single mother in South Korea. These facts have broken our hearts are part of the reason we are so hitched to the SK wagon!  Soooo.... our mantra of sorts for this adoption is 'Love Makes a Way' and we are excited to see how God will make a way for another child to have a home. His love for us is our provision and our love for Him makes us step out into obedient faith. 

                                                 Order a Shirt Here! 

I'm hoping that these shirts will help serve as a visual reminder to my heart on hard days! How is the Lord using that phrase to speak to you?

Love you guys! Thank you somuch for your support on another adoption journey!

- Nat

 

107 Days

107 days

2587 hours 

155242 minutes 

9314553 seconds

This how long we've been a family of three!! This is how long, I've been able to hold, hug and kiss my son! This is how many days we've been on the frontlines of parenting. This is how many days Beau has had to know us as mama and dada.

I've been posting pictures pretty regularly on Facebook but recently realized that pictures don't REALLY tell you what's going on, do they? I mean you can assume things are going well since everyone looks happy in the pictures but what's really behind that still shot? 

So I thought I would take a minute to tell what life looks like over here!

As an enneagram 1, I crave perfection. You can imagine my dismay at the quick realization that things in this world are rarely perfect, contrary to what instagram would have us believe!  So as we stepped into this parenting journey, I had high hopes of what it would look like and how our days would be spent. No doubt, I assumed we'd be doing educational Pinterest activities. Ha! Oh the naivety!! However, I'm sure you saw this coming, things are NOT perfect and guess what---- it's more ok than OK, it's actually hilarious and makes life so much richer! So allow me explain some of the perfectly imperfect things that have been happening 'round here... Let's just start with today shall we Watson?!

 Beau has lately, quite literally, been eating us out of house and home. We completely blame this on our sweet social worker, who asked us recently, "So is he eating 3 meals a day or just kind of grazing throughout the day." We firmly believe that once those words were spoken into existence, they came to be (we LOVE you Heather). After confidently telling her has 3 great meals a day, he was suddenly starving every moment of the day! It's not uncommon for him to have eaten muffins, a banana, 2 apple sauce pouches, and 2 cheese sticks by 10:30 .....  in the AM people!!

Knowing my child is now eating like a ravenous lion cub, I have learned to start packing MULTIPLE snacks whenever we leave the house, which is of course rare these days. Less than an hour trip to grandma' s to drop off food? Better grab animal crackers, apple sauce and a banana (he also ate tater tots on that trip too). However today, this (very unfortunately) slipped my mind and I will live to regret that mistake for a while.

 Here's what happened...

To give my running legs a break, I decided to do a yoga video this morning ( AKA child's pose WITH a child literally on top of you, anyone else??). Afterwards, I was like "Hmmm, that didn't feel strenuous enough" (the 1-ness runs deep within this one). So  I decided a 3 mile walk would do the trick! I loaded up the boy, picked a route and started out. I blame Melanie Shankle's hilarious book, "On The Bright Side",  because I suddenly found it was 45 mins later and I was only hallway through the walk. We in fact still had 1.5 mile to go  to get back to the house. The child at this point had already had a banana on the walk, I did at least bring that (50 mom points)!! But it became very apparent that the banana wasn't enough and my child must be simply starving to death because he was screaming his head off saying... "nana...nana..nana". I told myself for approximately 10 minutes he would probably calm down before I started weighing my options. Welp, seeing as how I my  'Go Go Gadget legs' weren't working at the moment, the only choice I had was to call Blaine (AKA the call of shame). "Hey what's up" he said nonchalantly, as if he couldn't already tell I was stranded in the new development close to our house with a child who was NOT happy and getting terrible stares from passing strangers! "Hey...can you come get us?" Yes, friends, this great idea I had ended with my husband coming to pick us up! 

But WAIT, 

it gets even better because as I see my knight in shining armor coming to save us, I realize something. Something very important. He has brought the Juke. 

Now, what's important to note here is that we had many a fiasco trying to find a stroller that would indeed fit inside of the trunk of the Juke. I had even at one point bought a stroller that we realized wouldn't fit in either of our cars, genius move, I know. This stroller I currently had in my sunburned and sweaty hands .....was the very one friends. 

Yep, you guessed it, Blaine took the boy and I had to walk the empty stroller back by myself. On the way back,alone in my thoughts, I couldn't help but start to laugh and see the ridiculous, hilarity of the situation!! I  smiled to other passing walkers, wondering what they were thinking about my EMPTY stroller and tried to shield it's emptiness by putting the shade down! At that point I was listening Melanie Shankle was talking about how absurd life is sometimes and guess what friends,  LIFE IS ABSURD!! Especially in these strange times we find ourselves in today. When I got back home, Blaine and I both laughed at what just happened and it provided great levity to the rest of the day and obviously a blog post!

As you can see, our life isn't perfect, which my 1 heart is still dealing with BUT I wouldn't change it for anything.  It's been a 107 days of cleaning food up off the floor, and 2587 hours of wondering "how long until nap time?" BUT it's also been 155,242 minutes of snuggling with my boy and reading books and 9314553 seconds of smelling his "just out of the bath head". 

I'm learning to embrace the mess, the imperfectness of it all and be content with all the Lord has done for us.  Just remembering where we were a year ago today is so humbling. Just in the month of April 2019, the Lord provided $10,000 for our adoption that we desperately needed. Did you hear that?!  $10,000 IN ONE MONTH people. There is no limit to what the Lord can do. When we can learn to trust the Lord and choose to partake in the peace he offers us, we can laugh at the absurdity of life! We are still in awe that Beau is home and are truly loving all the highs and even the lows of parenting. It feels like he's always been here and we can't imagine our life without him! We also know that there are still children in need of a family! Do I know anyone who would be willing to cross the ocean to graft one of those children into your own family as the Lord has done for us? If you are interested in adoption you can visit our agency's website at www.dillonadopt.com 

Thanks for your continued support and sweet encouragement of our little family! We love you all and hope you are able to laugh at the absurdity of your own life in light of what God's done for you!  Here are some pictures of life lately!

XOXO,

          Nat

Brushing teeth  all day every day!

Fishing was good, spaghetti was better.

This is the book I made Beau!

A boy and his tortilla!

We love elephants!

No, really.

Just the Beginning

Happy Valentine's Day!!

As I'm sitting here eating goldfish with my Desitin smell-stained fingers, and it occured to me that I should celebrate our '4 weeks home' anniversary with a full on blog post since it is Valentine's Day ❤ and all! So here it is!!

On this day, ONE MONTH ago (Jan 14th) , we were in KOREA  anxiously preparing to take custody of our son the next day. On this day, our only plans were to go to "toy alley" and buy some familiar toys so that Beau might feel a little more at home when we took custody. While we were looking around Dongdaemun, we found the exact toy bus (below) that he was obssessed with during our visits with him, so of course we had to buy it! Besides the hassel of trying to pack the said bus into our jam packed suit cases, it was -THE- best $50 we've ever spent! It would provide the perfect distraction in the next few days when little bug was upset. 

THE bus AKA meltdown go to.

Blaine with C3PO and Yoda because....duh!!

The next morning we woke up nervous but also SO ready to go get our sweet boy! Custody was fast and furious and I found myself deeply distraught at the thought of never getting to see his foster family or his social worker again. In the rush of those 20 minutes, I was trying to tell them all "thank you" as many times as possible, yet it never seemed enough...always fell flat of explaining the deep love and gratitude I have for these people. I mean really, language barrier or not, how can you express to someone your thankfulness for the way they've loved your son for over a year, treated him like their own, and been his tireless advocate from across the world. 

Eating breakfast at the hotel.

We did more pool watching than eating really. 

After custody things in my mind turn into a blur!! The cab ride, long hours in the apartment and co-sleeping are all blurred together into a starting point for us as a family. We were SO happy, tired, nervous (we dont know what we're doing!) and also heartbroken for him and the loss he was experiencing. We also knew that to him, we looked weird, smelled weird, and talked weird! We knew that while we'd been preparing for and loving him from across the world for many months, he's only just met us!  In the past 4 weeks home, Beau is SUCH a different kids than he was those first few days in Korea! He's gone from the velcro baby, who hords food and who we weren't really sure could even walk, to Mr. Independent! 4 weeks later and he's running (not walking) all over the house, loves other kids, is fearless at the park (giving me a heart attack), and eating ALL the food. He's so much more comfortable with us and is really trusting us now! 

The BEST (and last) meal I had in Korea and will dream of the rest of my life! 💓

Family picture at Gyeongbokgung Palace, little bug was SO tired!

Just waiting for an open gate at DFW...for an HOUR!!

As the Korean courts have officially declared him a part of our family, we now begin the post- adoption process. We will have to go through the Texas courts to get his name changed, get his citizenship and we will also work with our social worker over the next year to ensure he's adjusting and attaching well. So as our adoption wraps up on one hand, it's also just beginning! The rest of our lives together with sweet bug are just beginning. It's funny to think that during our adoption process the fundraising and paperwork seemed SO never ending! I just wanted it to all be over and finalized! But now I realize that what was really waiting for me on this side of the process, was a beginning, a new normal and the start of something beautiful, not an ending at all. 

There have been several surreal moments since we've been home. On our first night home, we sat at the dinner table where Blaine and I SO many nights sat together and prayed for Beau. On this night though, Beau WAS WITH US 😭, and we both cried as we prayed and thanked the Lord that he had granted such amazing provision to bring this sweet boy home. At one particularly low point in our adoption journey, I felt led to make an altar in the backyard with rocks. I wrote down all the things I was thankful for and saw God do on our journey up until that point. At the top I put a blank rock to symbolize the next faithful thing the Lord would do. Each day when I left the house and came home I would see my mini altar and be filled with renewed hope. That same little altar has now been kicked over by someone's tiny shoes about a hundred times at this point and the irony of it all isn't lost on me. God has a sense of humor too y'all!

Our amazing welcome home party at the airport!

14 hours on a plane with a toddler = no joke folks!!

Before bed snuggles are my ⭐FAVORITE⭐ right now, anyone else? There's simply nothing better than the smell of a head full of baby hair after a bath. Each night as we rock, read a book and sing, I still can't believe he's in my arms. I think about the other women that I share motherhood with and I can't imagine how they must feel without him in their arms. I pray that they know he's deeply loved and cared for and thank the Lord for their sacrifices. Another scary thought crosses my mind too...we almost missed this. What if we wouldn't have stepped out on this crazy journey? What if the amount of money we needed stopped us from pursuing this little boy. What if I had given up because the wait was so long and so hard. The idea that our sweet boy didn't have a family eats at my heart every snuggle, hug and kiss and every worry I had during this process seems completely ridiculous in light of the fact that he needed a home, a family. I'm so thankful that the Lord was faithful to bring us through this journey, even when I was near sighted and didn't see the big picture. Children need families - the end. They need families who will love them, tuck them in at night, hold their hand while they run down stairs and keep them from grabbing the oven door (oh, does that only happen at my house?). No matter the cost, the anxiety, the distance, the insensitive comments or stares...children need families. And we are so glad we get to be that for our Beau. 

After nap snuggles until the frown is gone!

We are slowly but surely coming out of our cocoon 🦋 and hope to see everyone soon and have play dates galore! Thank you for supporting us on this adventure, it's just beginning so we hope you're along for the long haul!

 Love you all!      

                  xoxox

#heartandseoul

#bringinghomebeau

Psalm 103

Friends, it's been a while, yeah?! Let me update you guys on where we're at! 

Last time I told you guys that we were EP submitted against all odds! Since then we've been waiting for EP approval. This means we're waiting on the Korean government to approve us, say "yes" Beau can leave Korea.  We were due for approval about two weeks ago. MANY people in process with us were approved at end of Sept...but not us. We aren't really sure why we weren't approved with everyone else. Our agency is saying that this could be because this was such a large batch of submissions, it's taking them a while to work through. As you can imagine, that explanation did little to ease our anxious hearts. 

The past two weeks I have been checking my phone NONSTOP waiting to see if we got a call from our agency, or seeing if I missed a call. My thoughts are often wondering towards questions like; "Why aren't we approved when so many others are?", "Did someone loose our file?" , "How many more months will we have to wait to be approved?" 

Beau turned 18 months this past week and we actually got pictures the day after! I have to tell you he's absolutely adorable!! 😍😍 I love getting pictures of our little guy but it also makes my heart ache deeply to see him get older each month and not be there with him. This month we also got a developmental update on how he's doing and learned he has a foster brother the same age as him! How fun!! As I read his update this month, there was one thought I couldn't shake because 18 months was the age in which we expected to bring a child home when we first started this process 

ONE. YEAR. AGO.

Did you read that?! We started the adoption process ONE YEAR AGO this month.  WOW!! It's hard to believe we've been on this journey for a full year and yet it seems SO much longer than that. We've encountered so many trials, potential delays, and unmet expectations, that at times I've wanted to give up. BUT the Lord has been SO faithful throughout this journey to keep us on course despite  ALL the governments, paperwork and processes that we felt so threatened by. If there's one thing I've learned from this past year it's that...

-news fash- 

I'M NOT IN CONTROL!! 

 It's true, I'm not is control!! For a 1 (ennegram) that's a hard pill to swallow. You would think that a year into this adoption journey, I would have mastered this lesson already. But no, as we wait for EP approval, I still have to remind myself that..I'm not in control BUT God is! 

I recently read Ellisabeth Elliot's "Suffereing is Never for Nothing" and oh my goodness, go get that book right NOW! It's amazing y'all. She talks about how...

-  Suffering is a gift because it let's us get to know God in a way we otherwise couldn't. 

- We can offer our suffering to the Lord as a gift.

- The best way to get through suffering of any kind is with a heart of gratitude and rememberance.

I've been pondering these three points and wondering how they apply to my heart as I'm agonizing over EP approval. So I've decided that I'm going to wrap up my anxious heart with a bright pink bow and give it to the Lord as an offering. I'm going to give it back to him because he can make something of it. Ellisabeth Elliot also talks about how if we don't trust that the Lord is in control and is always on time, then we give our selves over to believing that we are just at the mercy of the chaos of chance. I'm also choosing to praise him in this wait by recounting all the amazing blessing that he's given us throughout this journey. Can I share a few of these with you?

Gosh, where to even start...

- He showed us we should move agencies very early on in the process which saved us much heart ache (that agency is currently in a lawsuit).

- He gave me 2 other friends currently adopting from Korea.

-Through our require phsycials, I found out I had latent TB and was able to be treated for it!

- He provided countless people to give towards our adoption fund and help make our fundraisers successful. 

- He lead a sweet family (who we didn't know) to offer to pay the remaining 10-15K of our adoption fees for us. Who does that?! God does that!!

- He matched us with a social worker, for our home study, who we already KNEW!

- He led us to a pshyologist, for our required evals, who was half the cost of the others we'd found. 

- He allowed us to meet deadlines within the process that were simply unthinkable (even when we sat on paperwork for 2 months)!

- He gave us the ability to send boxes for Beau to Korea through a friend who travels there often, saving us over $100 each time!

Psalm 103:1-3 says...

"Let all that I am praise the Lord;

    with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.

2 

Let all that I am praise the Lord;

    may I never forget the good things he does for me.

3 

He forgives all my sins

    and heals all my diseases."

   It's very counterintuitive to praise the Lord with your whole heart when you're suffering BUT I truly believe that it's within this posture of worship, where peace and contentment in the Lord is found! Please believe that I am still praying each day for "tomorrow" to be the day we're EP approved but I'm also relying on the Lord's sovereignty over the timing of this because I simply don't believe in chance. 

Would you join us in praying that tomorrow would be the day we're EP approved? That we would STILL travel the first time in Nov and bring Beau home in Dec (this is my BOLD prayer). That the Lord would continue to take care of Beau until we can bring him home. Lastly, please pray that we will continue to trust the Lord no matter what happens next! Is there a place of suffering in your life you could offer to the Lord as a gift? Also, go get that Ellisabeth Elliot book...seriously right now!!

Happy Sunday!!

EP, what?!

YAY!!!! We made EP submission, y'all!! I can't even begin to describe just how HUGE this is!

I'm sure you'd love to join in our excitement if only...you knew what 'EP' means right?! So, quickly, EP is basically "immigration permission". This is where the Korean government says that, "Yes" Beau is allowed to "immigrate" from Korea to the U.S.

The Korean government accepts EP submissions in rolling batches throughout the year but you really never know when they are going to happen. You can guess that one will occur about every 2-4 months but as of an exact date, it's everyone's guess.

So as of Friday (July 12th) our file was not translated yet and therefore we would not make the anticipated next EP submission batch (it was expected to be sometime soon because the last one had been in April but of course, no one really knew when). We got a call, a missed call in fact, on Tuesday this week from our agency rep who left a message saying she had an "update". A sinking feeling quickly began to grow in the pit of my stomach after I learned from a friend that the Korean government HAD done an EP submission that day! Since our file wasn't translated, we had surely missed this batch and our agency worker was calling to tell us the sad news, that we'd missed it and we'd have to wait another 2-4 months until the next batch came around... this was my assumption.

About an hour, month, or year later (ha, it felt like all of those things!) our agency called us back. I answered the phone crying, telling her my suspicions. She said "I think I can help with that. Actually you DID make EP submission! I dont know how but you did!" We were dumbfounded! HOW could this happen! Somehow our file WAS translated in time and we were able to be submitted for EP! ONLY the Lord could have done this!! We have been praying hard for this (with many faithful friends)  but also preparing our hearts for bad news too. Now comes the crazy part.... our agency friend then went on to tell us that she thinks at this point we'd be able to bring Beau home in 4-6 months!? 

WHAT?! How amazing is that? We've been praying that Beau would get to come home ASAP but with our previous timeline we expectated to be traveling in March. Now it looks like it's a very real possibility to go get him either in Nov, Dec, or Jan! WOW!! These were things that were just not a part of the equation, even F O U R days ago!

Sooo, whats next?! Well, now that we are "EP submitted", we have to wait to be EP approved. Right now our file is basically sitting in a stack with a whole bunch of other adoptive parent's files, waiting to be reviewed. During the review the ministry (Korean government) could ask for some new paperwork or not- we're praying for the NOT! If they do, it's not a big deal but of course we wouldn't be approved until we provided the wanted paperwork. Once we're EP approved (should take 3-4 months) then we will wait to be assigned a court date. Once we get a court date it's time to book flights! We think we'll have about a month's notice for the court date. That will be the first time we travel.

On the first travel, we attend court and get to meet Beau for the first time! I. CAN'T. EVEN. We are expecting this trip to be about a week.  Then we will go back to Korea in another month and take custody of Beau and go back to court and then come HOME! Finally!! Honestly, this part still seems like a dream and when it happens someone will need to pinch me to remind me it's reality!

We've been praying for an expediated process and we made EP submission VERY quickly compared to others in this process! As we are looking to bringing Beau home, we are realizing that we are going to need funds for travel a LOT faster than we had thought! As we were thinking of traveling in March, April or May....the thought of Nov is.... much sooner!!

So let's talk about fundraising for a minute! Through fundraising the Lord has graciously helped us raise $36,000.... did you see that?!

THIRTY-SIX THOUSANDS DOLLARS!!!

That's amazing friends! We are in awe of the way the Lord had lead so many people's hearts to us. The way you guys have put up with all our Facebook posts about fundraisers and the way you have continously supported us through this journey truly amazes us!

Once you are submitted for EP, you have 30 days to pay your court fees. We are lacking about $4,000 for this fee that is due now in 28 days.  We are also suspecting that traveling to Korea twice, will likely be around $10,000. So our fundraising effort continue!  Below are some things we currently have going on! Check it out and see if any of it peaks your interest!

Puzzle Piece Fundraiser:
 https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0d45ada92fa7f58-puzzle
You can sign up for a puzzle piece at the link above! For each piece you purchase we'll write your name on the back. Once all the pieces are sold we'll put the puzzle together and hang it in Beau's room in a double sided frame, showing all the names on the back. This will serve as a reminder of all the people who helped to bring Beau home. Below is a picture of the avaliable puzzle pieces you can purchase! Each puzzle piece is priced at the number you see below. Puzzle piece #34 is $34! We are so close to putting this puzzle together! Will you help us finish it?

FRI-YAY shirts: 
https://www.bonfire.com/baby-beau/
We are selling these cute "Fri-yay" shirts because who doesn't love Fridays!! There are men's, women's and kids shirts avaliable in lots of different colors! Click the link above to see all the different styles and colors avaliable! This fundraiser closes in    F I V E days, so get yours today before it's too late!

GOBENA coffee

Everyone needs coffee right? You have some at home and most likely at your work place. I may or may not have a Keurig in my classroom at school. So basically we all LOVE coffee! Would you consider replacing your normal brew (in one of the many place you keep coffee) with one of these bags?
We have partnered with Gobean Coffee to support our adoption funds for Beau and orphans abroad! Through this company you can order delicious and freshly roasted Guatemalan coffee for a steal of a deal- $12 a bag! This coffee isn't roasted until your order is placed, guaranteeing you the freshest roast possible! All the proceeds from each bag of coffee go to support Beau and other orphans abroad. Amazing coffee... at a great price... to support orphans?? Sounds like a win-win situation to me!

If you want to order a bag of coffee here: 
 https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdRDhX8QkM13iUmbQei1redHt7PWlzz1JyTMMMm_P2bJpqnwA/viewform?usp=sf_link 

5 Week Meal Planning Kit
This is a kit I created and use regularly! It comes with a weekly meal planning template and 5 week dinner menu! It also has breakfast, lunch and snack ideas as well as loads of dinner recipes. If you are interested in this meal plan you can comment on our Baby Scott Fundraising page on Facebook and I can email you the kit for a $20 donation!

GO FUND ME: https://www.gofundme.com/the-scott039s-adoption-fund
If you are simply wanting to make a donation to our adoption fund, you can do so here!

We are also feverishly applying for grants and looking for other fundraising opportunities to help us fill this 15k gap we are looking at. We are grately motivated knowing this is our LAST 15k out of the 50k we've had to raise AND that on the other side of this 15K is BEAU!! I SO wish I could post his picture on here for you to see! We got a super sweet picture of him this week from his foster mom, from his first birthday in his traditional clothes. In Korea, first birthdays are called 'the Tol' and are a BIG deal. Here's a pic I found off the internet of a little boy's traditional outfit (hanbok) for his Tol so you can see (this is NOT Beau 😊)!

Adorable right?! The picture from Beau's Tol is  SOO cute and I get lost looking at it. I'm so thankful they took this picture for us to have, what awesome foster parents!! Looking at this picture though also makes me extrememly sad that we missed this special event BUT I'm hopeful, now with our new timeline, that we may get to bring him home well before his second birthday!

If you have children, can you imagine them not being with you? How about being on the other side of the world from you? 14 hours away? Yeah....that's pretty motivating stuff, huh? When our day is starting, Beau's is just ending! All of that to say we have renewed fundraising spirits (ha! it really is a second job!) to finish raising this money to so we can bring our boy home!

If you feel lead to support us through any of the fundraisers above, we would forever be grateful! Likewise, if you have a fundraising opportunity you think we should know about or try, please send your ideas our way!! I was praying for some of the people who supported us the other day in the car and I had a really hard time remembering everyone by name because there's been SO many of you!! Thank you to everyone who has helped us get to this point! You are truly a blessing to us and we are praying that the Lord would bless you in return for your generosity!

Thank you for praying, supporting, encouraging and loving us! We are extremely thankful for each of our friends during this process! Thank you for truly being the hands and feet of Christ in walking with us through this journey to Beau!

Name Reveal

  On Saturday, June 29th we had our Name Reveal Party!! Sweet family and friends joined us to help us celebrate our sweet boy! 

There's something intimate about a name, isn't there? In the way your closest friends call you by a nickname, unlike a new found acquaintance. Thinking about how the Lord calls us by name though, draws out an even sweeter image. I think it's the feeling of being known that makes us so comforted and confident. Now that our boy has a name and is KNOWN to us, I feel even closer to him and praying for him by name has taken on a whole new light! We know though that the Lord has loved and known this boy since his creation, we're just the slow ones!

Before I share his name, I just want to stop and say, "THANK YOU" to everyone who came! If you've struggled with infertility at all, you know that it can leave you feeling greatly robbed of some of life's special moments. As we've walked this beautiful road of adoption, we've tried to be intentional about celebrating each milestone just as you would otherwise do! There's no denying that our road is different than others BUT it is no less special or beautiful. So since we weren't able to have a traditional 'gender reveal' party, it was important to me that we still celebrate, even if it was in a nontraditional way. So, thank you to our community of family and friends who joined us in this 'name reveal party' where we yes, revealed our son's name, but even more so rejoiced together at the great faithfulness of the Lord!

Sooo.... onto the show! This post is going to be short and sweet and filled with pictures instead of words! Enjoy!



Scroll through to see what sweet baby boy's name is...

Thank again everyone!! Thanks for contiuing to read these posts, encouraging us along this journey and praying us through this process!