Camp Video from this year

This is a video from the 1st week of camp this summer in Xi'an. Billy is in this video. I love seeing his smile.
As you watch this video, please remember to pray for all of the orphans in the world.
Thanks!
Debbie

*Please give it a minute to download.*

An Unexpected Call from China

Right now I'm on a high. I just wanted to share with you. I was helping the girls with their homework and Bill came out to me and said "I guess I missed a call from David. Listen carefully". Well we know 3 Davids. I had no idea which one he was talking about. Then I hear "Hello. It's Billy. I love You!".

The call came from David Bolt with Bring Me Hope. They are still in China, but now they are running a "ranch" for older orphans. And Billy is there! This completely shocked us. (For those you don't know or remember, Billy was the boy we were trying to adopt. He is 13 years old).

One of the purposes of the Ranch is to love on the older kids and to teach them English. I had just assumed they would have kids from around the area where they are at. It never occurred to me that Billy could even go.

Of course we have emailed David & Nicole who are there. We have a lot of questions: How long is Billy there, can we send him anything, does he know that we were trying to adopt him and now we can't etc. I hope we do not miss the next call. I do not know how good the internet is there where they are. Maybe we can even Skype with them.

God is Good! He is looking after Billy! He went to camp when we did not know if he would be able to go, and now he is at the Ranch. He is not in the orphanage. He is with David, who he bonded with last summer. God is so Good!

Please continue to pray for Billy! I truly believe he has been protected because of us asking for prayer over him.

We heard this summer that SIAS University (where the Bring Me Hope camp has been held the last 2 years) has offered to pay the tuition for any orphan who wishes to go to school there. This again was an answer to prayer. Billy "ages out" in July. When a child turns 14 in China, they have to leave the orphanage. Now, if Billy does not find a forever family, he could possibly have the opportunity to go to the university for FREE! Again, God Is Good!

Thank you for letting me share with you. Bill & I are just very excited right now. This was something very unexpected.

Thank you for your prayers!

New Photo

Today I woke up to 8 new photos of Billy. This is one of them. I love seeing him happy. I know that whenever he is with Sarah, that he is happy. This photo was taken on May 16th during the Bring Me Hope Night walk.

This is the first time I've seen or read an update about him and I did not cry all day. It's been hard for me to get to this point. I'm just happy knowing that he is doing well. I'm still praying every day that he does find a good loving, caring, Christian family.

A friend of mine is going to camp. And I've connected her with Sarah. They have been emailing. They might be at camp the same week, AND Billy might be able to be there too. I'm so excited. I can not wait to see what God has planned.

I'm not going to password any more post about him anymore, since we are not able to adopt him. I consider him a friend now, so no need to password protect.

Please keep him in your prayers. We really appreciate it.

Until next time.....

Bittersweet

I heard Billy's voice. What a precious sound! David with Bring Me Hope sent us an audio file of the phone call from the Night Walk. I was so thankful for this. We listened the other night. I hear Katie (in China) say "Oh wait, Billy is taking a picture". Then a few minutes later she yells out "Hey Billy, come say Hi to America!" Then she calls him again and said "Billy come say Hi to America, Maybe to Bill." Well that got me right there. Then I hear Katie tell him to say Hi and he says "Hi". Then she says "Tell them your name" and I hear "Tell them your name". Then laughing. Then she says "No, say My name is Billy" then I hear "My name is Billy". Then she tries to get him to say "Hasta La Vista Baby" and he laughs, and says in Chinese "I can't say that" and he runs away.

I also saw 2 photos on Katie's Facebook and Billy was in them. He had the biggest smile in both photos. It was good to see him happy.

The phone call was great! I loved hearing his voice. But it made me so sad. I still feel like he's part of our family. He will always be in one way or another. I just wish he could have come home to us. I'm still praying and searching for a family for him. Please help me. It's hard knowing he's there waiting.

And then I think of ALL the kids in China waiting. I wish we could bring more home. I wish we had the money & space needed to bring home a few of the older kids. My heart just aches for them right now. I want to do something. I want to help them. I just don't know exactly how right now.

So I pray. I hope. I dream. We'll see where God places me.

Until next time.....

Rambling....

Well, I found out that the dossier documents that need certification were delivered to Tallahassee on Friday. Since yesterday was a holiday, I'm going to assume that they will hopefully get them certified today and out in the mail. They only have 3 forms to certify, only 2 notary signatures. Should not be hard to do. Should not take them long. I'm getting really anxious now that we're so close to having the paperwork complete. I want it all done, and in China.

I'm also anxious with what God has planned for us. I'm ready to know who our son is. I'm ready to start planning for his arrival.

But at the same time, I'm still grieving. Grieving over Billy. I have my days where I think I'm doing okay. Then I see a photo of him. And I still want him here. Today I was on Facebook and whenever I see photos that tag Bring Me Hope, I look. And today I saw 2 photos with him in the background. He looks really good. He looks happy. And that makes me happy. But I'm also sad because I know how badly he wants/needs a family. This morning I'm sitting here trying to think if there is ANYONE that I know who would want to adopt him. I would love to know the family he goes to. I would love to have contact with him once he's here. I think once I know he's okay, and he has a family who will love him, then the grieving will start to ease up.

So if you are reading this, and would LOVE to adopt a 13 year old boy, PLEASE let me know. :-) Or if you know of someone who would like to adopt a 13 year old boy, contact me. We need to find him a good family.

It's almost summer here. 8 days of school left. The girls are doing the countdown. They are excited. We have a bunch planned. I know the summer will go by fast. I hope to enjoy every day with my girls.

Soon I hope to update on the dossier status.

Until next time......

Photos

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Where we're at

We are getting closer every day to becoming DTC (Dossier to China). Today we received our fingerprint appointment with USCIS. It is scheduled for May 2 at 9 AM. I can't believe it. One month to the day of mailing our application, we'll be fingerprinted. I have been anticipating a long wait for this. I'm just relieved to know that I filled out the application correctly, mailed it to the right people, and they received it. :-)

We are still in the waiting period for Billy's paperwork. We are waiting for the time limit to run out on his finding ad. That should be in about 6 weeks or so. We have contacted our agency and they know to start asking the CCAA for his file by the end of May. Right now, his file is scheduled to go to another adoption agency here in the states. We're praying that the CCAA will grant our request and allow us to accept his referral.

Billy knows we are trying to adopt him. Our friend Sarah has been keeping him updated on what we're doing. And she has been keeping us updated on what he's doing. She has been an amazing friend to have during this time. She has been able to visit him in the orphanage and now she is able to talk with him on the phone every Saturday. I'm so grateful and thankful for this.

So right now we are doing what we can. We're praying a lot too. Praying for Billy's safety, protection, health, emotions, heart etc. He's anxious and ready to get out of the orphanage.

Be sure to check out this blog for any adoption updates.

Until next time....

New Blog

Well I thought it was time to set up a blog for the adoption. I need to put a time line up so I can know how fast or how long the process is taking. I will update this blog with all of our adoption updates. I will password protect all post that have photos from China. Once we get approval from China, then I will take the password off. Feel free to email me for the password. It's the same password that I was using on My Princess Journals.

I hope you like the new blog. It's a work in progress. I'm not good at this and can't figure out some things. Hopefully it will start to look good soon.

Until next time......