See you on the other side…

This is it.  This will be my last blog post until we are home from China!  Can you believe it?!

We are waiting on our Travel Approval (TA) right now (it’s crazy to be saying this…just a short time ago I thought TA was forever away…).  For security purposes (and also because I doubt we will have time to update more than 1 social media site), we set up a secret group on Facebook that we will use to update everyone on our travel dates and to share pictures and our experience while we are in China.  If you would like to be part of the group, just click on the “f” Facebook link on the right hand side of this blog (on the Home page) to get connected with me on Facebook, let me know you’d like to be included and I’ll add you to the group. 🙂

I have about a thousand thoughts in my mind right now.  I wish I had the time to sit down and write them all out. 🙂

I’ll just share 2 of my 1,000 thoughts. 😉  I was going through my journal from late September 2013.  It was around this time that God really started laying the burden on my heart that we needed to do more with all we’ve been given.  I was reading Isaiah 58 at the time and one of the verses I wrote down was this (verse 10):

“…spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness…”

Our Pastor also gave a sermon on Romans 12:9-21 (Love in Action) that will stick with me for the rest of my life.  One thing he said that summed up the passage was “love is generous in ways that are both costly and visible.”

I didn’t know what God was trying to tell me at the time, but I could feel Him digging deeper and deeper into my heart.  I knew that we were called to love more, and to put that love into action.  I never would have imagined that one year later, we would be getting on a plane to China to bring our daughter home.  Wow.  I’m speechless.

Thought number 2 is also a request.  I know so many of you are praying for Josie.  Thank you!  And please continue!  I can’t even begin to imagine all her little heart has been through in just 2 short years.  Once again, her world is going to change…but this time, the change will be even more dramatic.  She will be taken from all she knows by people that don’t look like her, sound like her or even smell like her.  We tell our boys to be prepared that Josie isn’t going to want to be with us the way we want to be with her.  She will be heartbroken.  So please, please pray for her heart in this transition.

I could go on for days 😉 but I’ve got to start working on our list of to-do’s now.  Thank you for being on this journey with us!  Next time I write a post, it will include pictures of us with our little girl.  Eeeek!!! 🙂

Josie Turns 2

Today our little girl turns 2. 🙂  We sent her a Birthday cake through a wonderful woman (Helen) that our agency works with in China.  I got up early this morning to see if Helen had received pictures from the Birthday party yet.  She did and they were in my inbox.  When I see new pictures of Josie, I feel like my heart might just burst…I love her sweet face!!!

There are so many things I love about these pictures!  I love that they dressed her up (even though it was probably 90 degrees with no air conditioning).  I love her perfect little teeth and the sparkle in her eyes.  🙂  I love seeing who we think must be her foster Mom.

Even though I’m filled with joy over these pictures, I’m struggling not to cry.

I’m really sad that we can’t celebrate Josie’s birthday with her.  I love the fact that James has been singing “Happy Birthday” to her for days now, but wow, it’s hard not being able to sing to her in person.

Also, my heart is heavy for the woman who gave birth to Josie.  We don’t know anything about Josie’s birth mom.  Josie was abandoned at 4 months old.  From what we’ve read in her file, it seems she was left at a hospital.  She was left with a note that gave her birth date.  These 2 little shreds of evidence make me feel that her birth mom loved her deeply, as any mom would love their child.  I can’t fathom what it would be like to feel unable to care for your child and to feel that the best option is to leave them in someone else’s care. Unimaginable.

It’s crazy to me when I think about the fact that Josie’s birth mom and I were pregnant at the exact same time.  James was due on September 8, 2012, but he decided to come early.  We were carrying these children, on opposite sides of the earth, who will now grow up as “twins” in our family.  Wow.

I love Josie’s birth mom.  I love that she chose life for her baby.  Oh how I wish we could tell her how much we love her little girl and that we will take care of her and will never leave her.  I pray for her birth mom often.  I pray that she knows Jesus and is able to experience the peace He gives that surpasses all understanding.  I pray that one day we will all be together in heaven.  I pray that she has that hope to carry her through difficult days, as I imagine today would be.

As you can tell, I have lots of mixed emotions today…not to mention the fact that today was Jacob’s first day of Kindergarten!  Too much for a (paper) pregnant mom’s heart! 😉

I am so looking forward to getting Josie in our arms, in our home and to the many celebrations we will have with her!  We are so close!!

LOA!

Last week was probably the most significant in our adoption journey – we received our Letter of Acceptance (LOA) from China.  This means that the CCCWA (China Center for Children’s Welfare and Adoption) has given us their approval to adopt Josie. {insert cheering here} 🙂

It seemed like a long wait (74 days to be exact, from the day we were logged in to China’s database until the day our LOA arrived at our agency), but it finally arrived and now we only have a few steps left before we are able to get on that plane and go get our girl!

When the FedEx truck arrived with our very important document, Jacob, James and I ran out to meet the delivery woman.  As we were running out the door, Jacob said “do you think Josie might be in there?”….melt my heart.  How I wish it was that easy. 🙂

That afternoon, we stopped by our work to get Jay’s signature on the LOA…Jay signed it while sitting in the car….and we headed off to the FedEx store to overnight it back to our agency, along with all of the paperwork that was needed to start the next step.

It was a very emotional experience to see that piece of paper that came all the way from China and to sign our names saying that YES we want Josie to be our daughter!  She will no longer be identified as a “foundling”, as the document states.  She has been chosen, she is our daughter, and she will be forever.  That makes my heart skip a beat.  🙂

So what is the next step?  We submitted our I800 to the USCIS last week (which is a “petition to classify convention adoptee as an immediate relative”).  This step is basically to finalize Josie’s immigration.  We should have this approval in the next couple of weeks.  (Does it seem that we are always waiting on some type of approval?  Because we are!) 🙂

We will be submitting our visa applications this week and then there are only a couple of steps left before we go to China!

Right now it looks like we will be in China in October – that’s not that far away!  Can you believe it?!  I can hardly stand the excitement!  We are getting so close, Josie!!

 

Waiting

We seem to be in a season of waiting right now.  Does anyone else agree with me that waiting is not fun?

We experienced one of the longest waits of our lives last Thursday.  For about 18 hours, we waited to find out if Jay’s Dad would make it through a major, unexpected heart procedure alive.  For the past 10 days, we’ve been waiting to see what each day will bring for him.  We are thanking God for the healing that He is bringing, but there is still a long road ahead for recovery.

The day before Jay’s Dad’s emergency surgery, on July 23rd, we found out that our jobs will be moving to Charlotte, NC at some point next year.  (Jay and I work for the same company) We are waiting to hear more about what our options will be – will we receive a severance package if we decide not to relocate? What and when will it be?  If we decide to move, when exactly would that need to be?  We have a million questions and not many answers at this point.

When we first heard the news about our jobs, we said, let’s just wait until Josie is home and we are settled before making any decisions about moving.  Let’s put it out of our minds for now.  Right.  That’s not exactly working.  I’m having a really hard time not thinking about it…a lot.  We have no idea what to do…to stay or to go.  We have a long list of reasons why it would be good to go, but a short list of huge reasons to stay (our family and friends, obviously).

We are still waiting on LOA (our official approval from China to adopt Josie).  It’s day 65 and honestly, I really didn’t expect that we would still be waiting.  Everything up to this point has gone so quickly.  I guess I should have known it wouldn’t all be so quick, but I definitely had my hopes up.

It’s not very often that I feel discouraged or lose my joy, but lately it feels like I’m getting there. Tonight I got out my Bible and my journal that has all of the verses I’ve written down since we started our adoption journey.  So many of them speak to my heart and to this period of waiting and uncertainty we are in.

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”  Romans 15:13

All I want, is to be in the center of God’s will for our lives.  That is where I find the greatest joy and peace.

He has proven Himself to be faithful time and time again.  We’ve seen Him provide and guide in amazing ways throughout our adoption process.  Why should I doubt that He will continue to do that – not just in our adoption process but in the rest of our lives?

My anxious heart wants answers and wants to know what the next year holds.  My God tells me to “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” Psalm 27:14.  So that is what we will do, we will wait to hear from Him, wait to see His hand guide and trust that His plans are always best.  To us it feels like everything is up in the air, thank goodness God knows exactly what He’s doing with our lives. 🙂

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”  Romans 8:28

Paying it Forward

We are so excited to share with you the family that we are paying your generosity forward to.  Meet Hal and Martha Swift.

We had 2 full days of adoption training for our home-study back in March – that’s where we met the Swifts (along with a lot of other wonderful adoptive parents!).

Hal and Martha began their adoption journey in January of this year and they just recently had their USCIS fingerprint appointment, which means they are now waiting for approval from the US to adopt a child from China.  This is a big step!  Once that is complete, they will be able to send their dossier (about a million documents) to China and wait for China’s approval (that’s where we are right now…waiting, waiting, waiting).

The Swifts moved to Wisconsin from South Dakota about a year ago.  Martha told me that taking the leap of faith to move to Wisconsin was one of the things that led them to take another leap of faith and adopt.  They had seen God bless them for following his lead to WI and were confident that He would do the same with this calling.  🙂  They have 2 boys, ages 10 and 7.  They haven’t seen the face of their little girl yet, but I’m sure they will know who she is soon! 🙂

One of the things I loved when I met Martha (other than her obvious love for Jesus and orphans) was that she has a plan.  She is organized!  🙂  When we talked at the training, she had lots of fundraising ideas and after our training, she sent me an email sharing all of the ideas with me.  They’ve done rummage sales, restaurant fundraisers (where the restaurant donates a portion of their proceeds for a particular day), a t-shirt fundraiser, they’ve even had a booth at a local farmers market with coffee and donuts.  They are on a mission and they are seeing God work through His people, just as we have.  They are confident that He will provide and He has.

As I mentioned in my last post, the 2nd t-shirt sale was above and beyond anything we had planned or hoped for.  We are giving the money from that sale to the Swifts.  The check to their placement agency (Holt International) is in the mail as we speak! 🙂

I love the fact that everyone who gave to us, has made it possible to give to Hal and Martha.  Your support has provided financially to 2 adoptive families!  Not only that, but the encouragement that brings to us as adoptive parents is invaluable!

If you would like to follow the Swifts journey to their little girl, you can do that here on Facebook.  You can also check out their Pure Charity fundraising account here or watch their youtube video here to learn more about them.

We know you will love them as much as we do!

Believe me, we have many adoptive family friends that we love and wish we could support in the same way.  We asked God to make it clear to us what we should do about “paying it forward”….when Jay and I “sat down” (we don’t actually ever sit down) to talk about it, we both had exactly the same answer…the Swift family.  The other cool thing that confirmed this decision was that after I wrote the last blog post, our friend, Patti (who we also met at our training classes and who has become a mentor to us because her family has been through the adoption process multiple times) texted me and said “any chance that money will go to the Swift family?”.  I answered through tears and said yes, that is exactly who it will be going to!  Praise God for clear direction once again!

We are so excited for the day when we can have a little reunion with the families from our adoption training and have the newest members of our families with us! 🙂

Thank you again for your support!  We love you all!!

Fundraising Update!

47 days…  

From the first donation we received on June 2…that’s how long it took to not only get to our $10,000 fundraising goal, but surpass it.  We still can’t believe it.  It seems impossible.

Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”  Matthew 19:26

I truly believe that if it were just Jay and I, on our own, trying to raise these funds, this would be a completely different story.  I believe this is all due to the power of God, working through His people to make something like this happen – something that seems impossible, possible.  God has had His hand on this story from the beginning – He is the one that planted the seed of adoption in our hearts, He had Josie chosen for us long before we saw her face, and He provided the funds, through all of you.

We are humbled, grateful and just blown away by the generosity of our family and friends. As I mentioned in my last blog post, these are memories that we will cherish forever!

From our fantastic fundraising event, organized by our amazing friend, Anna….

To our unbelievable t-shirt sales.

To our now completed puzzle piece fundraiser.

We can’t wait for the day when we can show Josie the back of her puzzle and tell her about all of the people that helped bring her home.  🙂  (I’ll share pictures of the puzzle once we have it all put together – we are enlisting my Mom for help with this task!)

In case you missed the beginning of our fundraising efforts, our goal was $10,000 to help bridge the gap between the $30,000 we had saved and are planning to save by the time we travel to the $40,000 estimated total cost of the adoption.  Of course, this is all based on an estimate for travel – it could be more but we are, of course, hoping for less. This doesn’t mean we can let up on our cost savings plan for this year, we still have lots of saving to do over the upcoming months, but we feel it is now doable because you’ve helped us bridge the gap. What a wonderful feeling!! 🙂

Because you’ve all given more than we anticipated – we are planning to pay it forward and we can’t wait.  🙂

The 2nd t-shirt sale was above and beyond anything we planned on (even the 1st was way more than we thought was possible!), so we are going to give all of our proceeds from the 2nd sale to another family that is adopting from China.  We will reveal who this is and how much once we have our final proceeds calculated.  This is so exciting to be able to be in a position to do this.  I love that every one that has helped us is really helping 2 families!

We have other thoughts about how to pay it forward that we will be praying about and will share when we know what that is going to look like.

Thank you again for being part of this story that is so much bigger than us!  Thank you for helping to bring Josie home!!

“I thank my God every time I remember you.” Philippians 1:3 

Grace Like (Pouring) Rain

Have you ever gotten completely drenched by pouring rain?

Jay and I took the boys for a walk in the wagon a few weeks back and half way through our walk, it started to rain.  At first, it was a light rain, so we started to walk a little faster but then it started pouring.  We ran as fast as we could and got absolutely soaked.  We all laughed as we ran home (the boys were squealing) and then stood in the garage and watched it rain cats and dogs as we recalled what had just happened and the boys asked to do it again.  🙂  It’s a memory that will stick with us.

Just like that memory will remain with us, so will the memories of the past weeks, as we have been absolutely drenched in love and grace.

It has all been pretty overwhelming.  I feel like I am constantly saying “wow, did that really just happen?”…multiple times a day…let me give you a few examples:

• An email from adopt together comes in to my inbox that says “New Gift Received!”…I share it with Jay and we say “how cool that this person donated to our adoption fund!”
• A co-worker takes the money they were given for a Starbucks run and gives it to us for the “Josie fund”
• Someone sends me an email and says they are interested in adoption and would like to get together to talk about it (my favorite topic!)
• A friend who has already given a ton of her time and money gives even more
• A 10 year old boy with autism plays the cello at our fundraising event and donates all of his tips to our adoption fund
• My cousin makes beautiful hats and a scarf to use for our auction at the fundraiser
• A friend paints us a very meaningful work of art that will be treasured for years to come
• A card with encouraging words and a check comes in the mail 
• Consultants offer to host a party (Thirty One / Jamberry Nails) and give the proceeds to our adoption fund
• A friend orders 7 t-shirts
• Children make bracelets to sell and donate their proceeds to Josie’s adoption fund
• Someone decides that we should have a “Made to Love T-Shirt Day” at work and gets someone else on the case to make it happen
• A friend tells us that her children pray for Josie every night before bed
• Jay comes home from Bible study and says there were 40 men praying for Josie and our adoption process
• My Mom sews curtains for the kids “new” rooms and gets Josie’s wardrobe started
• A friend sends a gift for Josie in the mail
• Friends drive 30+ minutes to get to our fundraising event

The list could go on and on.  Every day for weeks these things have been happening.

Did you know that we are naming Josie, Josephine Grace?  And that Josephine means “God will add”?  God will add Grace…man, has He ever.  He has poured out His grace on us through all of you.

What does the word “grace” mean to me?  I would say grace is the love and mercy given to us by God because He is a loving father…it is not given to us because of anything we have done to earn it, it is a generous gift that is free and unexpected.

We are just a normal family, doing our best to live out God’s purpose for our lives.  We have done nothing extraordinary to earn or deserve all of this grace, but that’s what makes grace so amazing (and why “Amazing Grace” is my favorite song!).

The experience from the past few weeks gives us great encouragement as we look to the coming months.  The journey will be filled with joy but it will definitely be difficult.  Even now, as we struggle to get everything done in a day and parent 2 children, I wonder how we will do it with 1 more (I thought the same when I was pregnant with James).  There are lots of changes ahead.  Lots of unknowns.  We know that Josie will have a lot to grieve for as we take her away from all she has known.  That’s where I know that God will provide the grace that we will need to get through the tough things that are coming.

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”            2 Corinthians 12:9

We don’t have to worry, He has proven that His grace is sufficient.  It is more than sufficient, it is overwhelmingly amazing!

Thank you again for every bit of the love and support you have shown us…thank you for being God’s hands and feet here on earth!  We love you all!!!

After our walk/run in the rain.  Happily soaked. 🙂

p.s. An update on our fundraising is coming soon…and it’s great news! 🙂

So Close!

We are in the final stretch with our fundraising!  We are SO close to our goal (only about $1,500 to go!), thanks to the help of all of you!

When we started our t-shirt fundraiser, I was really hoping that we would have orders for 25 shirts…it was our first official fundraiser, and it was humbling and nerve-wracking to get started, but we were banking on the verses from Ephesians 3:20-21 that talk about how God is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine and boy did He ever do more than we imagined!!  We placed our order for 161 shirts!  Our t-shirt fundraiser brought us a profit of almost $1,500!!  Amazing!

To top it off, an email went out last week at our work declaring August 8th, “Made to Love T-shirt Day”…which means that we will be placing another order for t-shirts this week! We’ve already gotten orders from about 35 people at work since this announcement and we are opening it up for the next 3 days to see if anyone else would like to place an order. The shirts are $23 shipped, or $20 if I can deliver it to you.  Please e-mail me by Wednesday, the 9th, if you’d like to order a shirt (jengarity@gmail.com).  

 

We launched our puzzle piece fundraiser at the fundraising event last Sunday (which I still need to write about…it was the best day!).  We have been really excited to announce the puzzle fundraiser!  In fact, Jay already sent an email to all of his/our co-workers and the puzzle is already almost completely full!  Let me tell you about it, if you haven’t heard already…this is a picture of the puzzle we designed for Josie’s room.

It was graciously donated to us by Venus Puzzle.  We are asking for a $5 sponsor for each piece.  The puzzle is 1,000 pieces.  We are writing the name of the sponsor on the back of each piece and the puzzle will be framed in 2 – sided glass so that we can always look at the back of the puzzle to remember who helped bring Josie home.  🙂  We already have sponsors for 780 pieces, which means we only have 220 pieces left to fill!  We’ve been busy writing names on the backs of the pieces this week….

When someone donates $20, we write their name on the back of 4 pieces, or $50 is 10 pieces…you get the idea. 🙂 We are taking most of the donations in through our Adopt Together account.  If you donate on this site, it will be tax deductible.  For those who donated before we started this fundraiser, your names are on the puzzle too! 🙂

Once those 220 puzzle pieces ($1,100) are full, we will be done fundraising!!  I can’t believe we are so close already!

Fundraising is not easy – it’s hard to ask people for their money, but I am so glad that we needed to do this because we have been absolutely blown away by the love and support we’ve been shown.  What a blessing this has been!  One day we will be able to tell Josie how everyone worked together to bring her home…how she was so loved by so many, when she was still half-way around the world.  What a homecoming story we have to tell our little girl!

Thank you all again for your support!  We praise God for you on a daily basis!

This Sunday!

I can’t believe that our fundraising event is this Sunday!!

I am constantly refreshing the 10 day weather forecast and the forecast is constantly changing! 🙂 After all the rain we’ve had, I think we are due a beautiful, sunny day!

I still can’t get over the fact that our friend, Anna, has organized such an amazing event! When she mentioned the idea to me, quite a while back, I never imagined it would grow into something so big!  She has gone all out on planning this!

This is Anna – she’s got spreadsheets, she’s got notepads, she’s got all the details covered!

The event will be in a parking lot on the corner of Wisconsin and 11th Street in downtown Racine.  It is about a block away from Gateway and across the street from the EUM church.  If you need an address to put in your GPS, use 309 11th Street in Racine.

We will be there from 9 AM – 3 PM, so stop by whenever you have a chance!

The Perfectly Frank Hot Dog vendor will be there selling hot dogs, brats, chips and drinks from 11 AM – 1 PM.

Sweet Tooth by Katrina will be there all day with some fabulous treats for everyone to sample!

Some of my favorite vendors will be there selling their products: Thirty-One Gifts, Tastefully Simple, Norwex, Scentsy, Mary Kay, Tupperware…along with many more that are new to me…I can’t wait to see what they have to offer!  The vendors are generously giving their time for this event and some of their profits to our adoption fund. 🙂

Jay and I will be manning our 2 booths – we will have our Made to Love t-shirts for sale and we are launching our puzzle piece fundraiser that day, which I’m very excited about!  More to come on that later… 🙂

There will also be raffles for some fantastic prizes!  We have a certificate for the popular painting classes by Laura Covelli, a certificate for a spa pedicure from my favorite stylist, Kayla, at Headlines, a hand-knit creation from my talented cousin, Sarah, and some other fun surprises!

Today we received a big gift from our company (Sealed Air).  They are donating a one year family membership to the Y, worth $780, to use for a silent auction AND a Joe Theismann signed football, which is worth at least $150! 🙂 WOW!  Thank you, Jean Letsch for making this happen!  (I’m sorry for crying all over your shoulder when you told me!)

Now here is a warning – if you stop by on Sunday, I may cry.  I can’t help it.  I’m seriously overwhelmed by everyone’s generosity and support.  The lengths that you are all going to to bring Josie home are more than I ever anticipated.

We were scared when we said “yes” to God’s call for us to adopt, like really scared…but He has shown us in HUGE ways, on a daily basis, that He’s got this all under control, there is no need to worry.  He’s carried us this far, He will continue during the rest of our preparations, during our crazy long trip to China, when the day comes that we finally get to hold Josie and when we bring her home.  HE is faithful.  Praise God from whom all blessings flow!!

See you on Sunday!!! 🙂

What a Week

Wow, it’s been a week.  Here is a recap the last 5 days…

T-Shirt Fundraiser

We started the week with our t-shirt fundraiser and we are blown away by the support! We’ve sold 84 shirts already!  84 shirts adds $991.40 to our adoption fund!  That’s awesome!!  Way more than we ever imagined!  I can’t wait to see everyone in their matching t-shirts! 🙂

We will continue to take orders through Monday and then place the order with Fund the Nations on Tuesday.  I plan to send invoices this weekend to those who are not paying with cash or a check.

New Blog Design / Adopt Together Account Donation

Have you noticed the new design on our blog?  It was done by a new friend of mine, Jenn, from Jenn Jordan Designs.  We were looking for help to get a button on our blog (Under “Support Us” on the sidebar) that would link our friends and family that are looking for a way to help to our Adopt Together account, and she had the answer, along with a few other fun additions to make our blog look and work better.

We were recently approved for an Adopt Together account.  It is an account that allows family and friends to make tax deductible donations to our adoption fund.  The really cool thing is that it is possible that we could receive matching donations in this account from the Adopt Together organization.

Jenn was working on the blog design on Tuesday afternoon and not even an hour after she was done, we received an email saying that our first donation had come in to our Adopt Together account…for $500!!!  We hadn’t even announced the new blog design or the Adopt Together account and here was a donation for $500 from a very good friend. Wow, blown away once again.

Josie Update!

Also on Tuesday, just a few days after being LID, we received an update on Josie.  We were shocked because we were not expecting the update to arrive so quickly!  I was hoping it would come by the end of this week.  The update was SO great…I was already emotional about the Adopt Together gift and the t-shirt sales and seeing her pictures put me over the edge. 🙂

Ahhh!  Isn’t she sweet?!  We can not wait to see that smile in person!!

We also received answers to some of our questions.  We got her height, weight and foot measurements.  It turns out that she and James are twins.  They are basically the same size, which helps to know so we can start getting some clothes for this girl! 🙂

The best part of the update was reading that she looks at and plays with the book of pictures we sent of our family…and that she is familiar with our faces.  That is such a gift to know that she knows our faces!

We asked what makes her sad or mad and they said if a friend grabs her toys – haha – who wouldn’t be mad or sad about that?! 😉

It is normal practice for them to shave the children’s heads.  We asked if they could please not do that anymore so that her hair can start growing out.  I see lots of bows and headbands in her future! 🙂

And then came Thursday…

My Mom had her hip replaced.  She’s been struggling for a long time now with bad arthritis in her hip.  She was misdiagnosed for at least a year before finding the real cause of her pain.  I’m happy to report that the surgery is now behind her and she can recover and hopefully walk much better than she has in a long time.  Would you please pray with us for a quick, smooth recovery?

My Tante Gerda and Ome Adrie flew back to Holland on the same day as the surgery.  As my Dad was waiting for my Mom to come out of surgery, Jay, Jacob, James and I were driving my Aunt and Uncle to O’Hare.  I wrote a very emotional post just a couple of days ago, which you can read here.  I won’t repeat it all again, I’ll just say that it was very hard to say “good-bye”.  I’m so thankful that even though we are not able to spend much time together here on earth, we will one day spend an eternity together in heaven.

Are you exhausted just reading all of this?  Because I feel like I could sleep for a week right now. 🙂  Crying (mostly tears of joy!) really wears a girl out. 🙂

I just want to end by saying again that we have been completely amazed at the outpouring of love and support for Josie and our family.  It’s funny, I was so nervous about starting the fundraiser on Monday.  Why did I even question?  God always over-delivers!

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”
Ephesians 3:20-21