I want to win

Everybody check out adoption bug. They have amazing t shirts celebrating adoption and orphans!! We used them as a fundraiser for our recent adoption and loved them. The shirts are great quality and if you are looking for a fundraiser for your adoption they make it easy and fun.
I would love to win the hoodie that says, "I will not leave you as orphans!". It's about the only thing I haven't ordered from there!!! Good luck to everyone!

Quick Update on Jace

First let me say thanks so much for all the prayers for Jace!! They definitely worked!!!
Jace had a very long day yesterday. He was in the cath lab from 815 until 130. They got lots of very good information on his heart. They also placed a stent in his pulmonary artery and ballooned another blood vessel. The dr was very pleased with all the results and the pressures within his heart. As I learn more about Jace's heart it becomes very clear that God definitely has a plan for him because with the way his heart is, it is a miracle he's alive!!!!
We then had the 6 hours of bed rest but Jace was such a good boy. I only had to remind him not to cross his legs and he even learned to use a urinal while lying in bed!! Ha
Jace faces another cath lab procedure and 1 maybe 2 open heart procedures over the next several months. We will keep you updated and appreciate the prayers sooooo much!!!!
God is good and will see Jace through all of this!! Going home today!! Jace can't wait to see his brothers and sisters!!!
Attached is a pic of Jace after he got off bed rest eating a yummy cookie that a dear friend brought him!!!
Thanks agin to everyone!!!!!!

Prayers for Jace and the doctors

Today we traveled to St Louis for 3 different doctors appointments. Jace is scheduled for a cardiac cath tomorrow am at 8 am to fully evaluate his heart. Today when they did his echo ( heart ultrasound) they said his heart valve is leaking pretty bad and may have to be fixed before they can do the original surgery we came to be evaluated for. When God led us to provide Jace a family we knew we would be facing some serious issues with him medically!!
We just have to trust God as he knows the plan for him!!
We ask for prayers tomorrow during Jace's procedure which will take 3-4 hours. Pray for Jace and the doctors as they care for him!!
Will try to update this tomorrow after his procedure. However he has 6 hours of bed rest after his procedure. May have to break out some WWF moves to keep a 5 year old boy in bed that long!!
Tonight we took him to Cheesecake Factory and Disney store. He got a Santa Mickey and was so excited!!! Pic attached
A big thanks to our son Justin for staying with the other 3 kids and my BFF Ryan, and Courtney and Emily for helping too!!! You're all amazing!!!!

Getting settled at Home

We've been home for a couple days. Darren and I are trying to recover from the jet lag. Wow I'm feeling old. Jace has been sleeping great at night. Actually had to wake him up at 745 this am. He loves his brothers and sisters. Jaxson is always telling me that he wants to play with Jace but his sisters keep hogging him. Am sure the newness will wear off and the fighting will eventually come. Yesterday Jace and Jaxson got haircuts. Super cute!!! Love my boys!!!
Will try to keep the blog updated especially as we begin all Jace's medical evaluations. Prayers will definitely be needed. He has some tough things ahead of him. Think I need to rename the blog " Jace's Amazing Race". Enjoy the pics. Our family at the airport and new haircuts!!!

2 Days til we are US Bound!!!

Yep!! 2 days til we head home but who's counting. Not like we can't wait to see all our kids, family, and friends!!! Or have ice in our drinks or brush our teeth with water from the faucet or maybe have a greasy hamburger!!!

We went to the US Consulate today to finalize our adoption!! Yea!!! Then we walked around in this really pretty park!! Guangzhou is very pretty even if it is home to 16 million people!! Jace got to eat popcorn at the park.

Tomorrow we are taking a van to Hong Kong and will spend the night. Then Thursday our flight leaves at 1130 am, arriving Chicago 12 pm the same day!! Guess it's kind of like being stuck in time for 12 hours!!

Have enjoyed our time but ready to be back!! Jace seems to be adjusting well. Pray for safe travels home for us. Also pray for 2 other special families who are heading to China to get their sweeties!! Vincent and Lucy Kate will soon be with their forever families!!! So happy for them!!

Even though the Race for Jace seems to be closing for us, it is really just beginning for Jace.
He has lots of changes and adjustments as he comes to America. Also he has many medical issues that need addressed which won't always be pleasant for him. Please pray for him and us to help him through this as he starts his own race with his forever family!!

Loving Guangzhou

Yesterday we left Jace's province (Shanxi) and flew to Guangzhou. Jace was very excited about his first flight! As he talked on his phone before take off. I love it here. It is warm.
80-85 degrees. And we have Starbucks in our hotel!!! Added bonus. Today we went for Jace's physical required by the consulate. Jace managed to sweet talk the lady dr out of a stuffed monkey she had on her desk. He also had to get a TB skin test which he didn't enjoy. Today we met some people from our agency. And Jace was so excited because Isaac from New Day is here with his family!! From the attached pics you can see where we ate dinner tonight. The French fries taste like fish!!! Yuk!!!!! At our hotel tonight they are having an adult Halloween party. Looks pretty crazy. Live eels and frogs in glass bowls!!
Tomorrow doing some site seeing.
Oh yea and have to say for Darren way to go Cardinals!!!

Day#2 with Jace

Quick update. So far so good. Jace seems very comfortable with us. Minds good. Likes to be held and eats alot. Think our grocery bill will go up! He loves taking a bath and washing his hair every night. He spends alot of time packing up his toys and occasionally left over food and hiding it. Guess he has never had his own stuff. He's a super sweet boy. Tells all the Chinese people on the elevator at our hotel we are his mama and baba. Pretty cute to see him carrying on a conversation in Chinese with people.
Enjoy the pics

Gotcha Day

This morning at 9 am we went to the government office to get Jace. We had to wait for Jace to arrive as he was eating breakfast. He took the overnight train from New Day in Beijing to Taiyuan, his home province. He instantly said mama, baba!! And started checking out all his toys we brought. He keeps asking, "For me??". He's so excited to have his own things!!
Attached are a few pictures from this am. Enjoy!!! We are so blessed to have him!!!

Touring Beijing

We made it safely to Beijing. Friday we spent the day with some VERY special people. Lots of fun. Today we went to Tiananmen Square then the Forbidden City!! Incredible! Then we went to the Great Wall. Even more amazing. We took a lift up, which for those of you who know Darren and his fear of heights he saw none of that. Eyes were closed and knuckles white!! Then we walked a good portion of the wall. Wow I am out of shape. We were supposed to take a toboggan down but the line was so long we walked the entire way down. Knew I would never get Darren on the lift again.
Tomorrow we take the train to Jace's province and will get him Monday am. That will be Sunday night your time. Can't wait!!!!
Will share a few pics from our adventure today. Lots of Jace pics to come soon!!

Leaving on a Jet Plane!!

Last Sunday Jace turned 5. That was officially his last birthday in China. We are so excited to finally be going to get him. I've been savings lots of birthday kisses for him.
We ask for prayers for safe travel. We also ask for prayers for our kids who will be at home and for the grandma's and grandpa's staying with them!! May be a long 2 weeks.
Below is our travel itinerary:

10/19 Leave for Beijing
10/20-23 Tour Beijing and meet some VERY special people
10/23 Take train to Taiyuan (Jace's province)
10/24 Jace's Gotcha Day
10/28 Fly to Guangzhou
11/1 Appt with US Consulate
11/2 Take van to Hong Kong
11/3 Fly home. YEAH!!!!

We will try to keep this updated during our trip. Thank you to everyone for your love and support!!

WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOO

So this week we got great news.  We received our LOA (letter of approval) from China which is the last piece of paper we needed from them.  It only took 48 days but who's counting!!!  We are very blessed because there are families who have been waiting 80-100 days for that 1 piece of paper.  The other amazing thing is that Jace's best friend Vincent (they have been together since they were babies),  well his family recieved their LOA they very same day we did.  That means chances are we will end up in China at the same time picking up our awesome boys!!!  Only God could have orchestrated that!!!  God continues to be faithful and show us how amazing he is through this process!!!
Now we are working toward getting travel approval from China.  This requires more paperwork with the INS and also the consulate in China.  Our agency is anticipating travel in 11-14 weeks.  Sooner would be great!  Jace will celebrate his 5th birthday October 9th and we would love to celebrate with him but anytime will be fine.  God is totally in control of this!
The next few weeks will fly by as Makenna, Madison and Jaxson start school. Makenna will be in 5th grade and Madison 3rd.   Yes Jaxson will be the big kindergartner!!  Hard to believe.  And Justin has moved to his own apartment and is trying to adjust to how quiet it is there compared to here!! 
So continue to pray for our family as we all are going through lots of changes and anticipate the arrival of Jace. We are so blessed that he is going to be apart of our family!!
The next post should be our itinerary for our trip to China!!!  Can't wait!!

Vincent and Jace hugging each other.  Reagan on the end was adopted 1 month ago!!
We're comng boys!!!!!!!

PS We plan to close our T shirt sales next week 8/5/11 so if anyone still wants to order a shirt you have a few days left.  And thanks so much to all of you who have ordered shirts!!  We have sold 63 t shirts and you all are part of helping us bring Jace home! 

Update on the race

Time to update you on our progress in the Race for Jace.  It has been a few months but we are getting closer to bringing our sweet boy home.  We finished all our paperwork for our dossier and it was mailed to China on 5/27.  We received an email from our agency stating it was delivered to the adoption office in Beijing 6/1 and it would be 3-8 weeks when we heard our paperwork was officially logged in.  On 6/7 just 6 days later we received another email stating our paperwork was officially logged in.  Awesome!!!  Now we are just waiting for our official letter of approval (LOA) which can take anywhere from 1-4 months.  We need lots of prayers for the 1 month!!  However I keep reminding myself we will go when it's God time to go!!  Jace's best friend at the orphanage (they have been together since infants) is being adopted too.  His mother was recently discouraged because it took so long for their paperwork to be logged in.  But now we are both about on the same time schedule and could end up in China at the same time.  Maybe God wants these 2 sweet boys to leave at the same time with their forever families. Can't wait to see how this all plays out!!
We also have to give a huge thank you to our amazing church!!!  Hopedale Baptist church is the best!!  They had a silent/pie auction for us and were beyond generous in helping us with our mission of bringing Jace home!!  Jace has no idea how much he is already loved.
In preparing for Jace my oldest son Justin has decided it is time to move out on his own. Good move on his part as I'm sure peace and quiet will be nonexsistent in our home!!  That is bittersweet for me seeing him head out into the world but know he is growing up!!  So this weekend we cleaned out his room and got bunk beds for Jace and Jaxson in their new room.  Can't wait!!
So we asked for continued prayers that our paperwork continues to move quickly!!  Also pray for Jace and that he continues to do well so we can get him home for his much needed surgery!!  Jace turns 5 in October and I would love to celebrate his 5th birthday with him!! What a party we would have!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for everyone's support and continued prayers

Somber Day For One Family Important One For Ours

Three years ago today the unspeakable happened for one family, the sudden and tagic death of a child.  That child was Maria Sue Chapman, the daughter of Steven Curtis and Mary Beth Chapman.  Something no parent or family should have to face. This father was saddened by the news back then but at the time it didn't radically change my life.  That would come roughly two and a half years later.  That is when the importance of that horrible tragedy touched our family.  It was while reading, Choosing to See, that God very clearly and emphatically touched my heart so deeply with the conviction that we were not done adopting after our third and latest Chinese child.  I thought I was so done.  God had other plans.

One life will literally be saved by this terrible tragedy.  Oh I'm sure many more than one, but one in a mighty way for our family.  I can't comprehend what the Chapman's have faced these last three years.  The book just touched the iceberg of their profound loss.  I feel guilty for my thankfulness today for our impending homecoming with Jace.  It is accompanied with mixed emotions and heartfelt prayers for the Chapmans.

T Shirt Fundraiser

We are excited to share with you our fundraiser.  We are selling t shirts to help us bring Jace home.  We have some shirts that are specific to Jace and then some shirts that are about adoption/orphans.  If you feel led to help us in this endeavor we would be honored and forever grateful for your support.
Our store can be found at www.adoptionbug.com/raceforjace or you can click the t shirt link on the side of our blog to get to it.
Happy shopping and know that you will be blessed for helping us!!!
Attached are a few of our shirts.

Update on where we are in the process

Well, it has been just a little over a month that we were preapproved by China to adopt sweet Jace.  So I  wish we were getting ready to board our plane to China but know this will all happen on God's timing.  Speaking of God's timing here is an example.  We were able to mail Jace a package with toys, clothes, a photo album and of course candy (that would be Darren and Jaxson's idea).  I mailed that on Jan 31st priority mail. The post office said that it would take 6-10 days but no guarantee.  We anxiously waited to hear he received it.  Time passed and I began to worry it had been lost or they took it in customs to eat the candy. Ha! Well he finally received it this week.  And God knew Jace really needed that this week as his best friend and roommate at the orphanage had left with his family from America who came to adopt him!! He had been sad and grieving over losing his best friend.  But the package had pictures of his forever family and that was just what he needed to remind him that he is loved and will soon be with his forever family.  The other truly amazing thing is that I had enclosed a magna doodle board and written on that, Jace we love you!!!!!
Attached is a picture showing that board and it made it all the way to China being thrown around and still said Jace we love you when he got it!!!!!!!!!  God is truly amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We continue to be blessed by this adoption.  God is totally in control and reminds me of that!
As far as our paperwork, our homestudy is complete except for the report of our highway patrol fingerprints.
Once we receive that we will forward papers to the immigration people here in the states and wait for their
approval.  They hold the last piece of paper we need to send all our paperwork to China.  So we pray that this process goes quickly and appreciate your prayers.
Also say a prayer for Jace as he will see the heart surgeon in March and they will decide if he should go ahead and have his 3rd surgery now in China or can wait til we bring him home.   I would prefer for him to have his surgery here but have to trust that God will help the dr's make the decision that is best for Jace. 

Thanks to all our friends and family for your support through this process.

How God Led us to Jace

Just to tell you a little about our family for those of you who don't know, we have a biological son Justin who is 22.  We also have 3 children we adopted from China.  Makenna is 10, Madison 7, and Jaxson 5.  I have such a passion for the children of China and would bring an entire orphanage home if I could.  However I assumed our family was complete because my husband was sure of that or so he thought!!!!!                                                                     For Christmas I got my husband a Kindle.  I told him to download the book "Choosing to See" by Mary Beth Chapman because it was on sale.  Never told him to read it, however I am so happy he did.  After he finished it he came to me and said, "We need to adopt again and look at the little boy on Love Without Boundaries Blog named Robert."  I had seen Robert/Jace and their plea for him a family but had not mentioned it because I thought I knew what his answer would be.  I had no idea God was preparing my husbands heart by reading that book and that hundreds of people had been praying for Robert/Jace to find his forever family. At first I thought my husband had gone crazy bringing this up.  Little did I know that he had been in contact with Love without Boundaries and researching Jace's condition. (Single ventricle)  But when I saw the tears in his eyes I knew this was all Gods plan.  We contacted our agency and immediately began the process to "lock Jace's file".  We know his condition is very serious but truly believe that no matter how long we get to have Jace, he is going to have a family that loves him unconditionally!!  We are so honored that God has chosen our family to answer his cry.  On January 25,2011 we received our preapproval from China to adopt Jace Yan Yin.  We are so happy and being blessed in so many ways by this.  This just shows that if we are obedient to God and his call for us in our lives amazing things can and will happen!!!! On February 1st (my birthday) New Day Foster Home where Jace lives posted on their blog the events of when they told Jace he had a forever family!!! Could not have asked for a better birthday present.  The joy in his face is so worth all the paperwork!!!!!

WOOOOHOOOO!!!!!!

STUDYING HIS FAMILY

So we ask you to pray for our family and Jace and that the paperwork goes quickly.
Follow our blog as we race to get Jace!!!!!!!!!