I dreamed about him last night. I dreamed that he was
sitting in my lap, and his foster mom was sitting next to me. We were holding hands
and praying over our son. She was a
Believer. She could speak English. We exchanged emails and phone numbers. It
was beautiful. What I would give to have that dream become our reality! #chinabound
#notsoonenough
#mysonhas3moms
#thankfulforthem
Love
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Monday, August 24, 2015
Fundraising Galore!
Since my last post, we have been so blessed to have more people come to us, wanting to be part of "Little Man's" homecoming story. We have received a few more donations, but we have also been approached by friends who want to WORK to help us out. God's many blessings continue to pile up as we get closer and closer to traveling to China to scoop him up.
Where Things Stand Currently
So right now we are still waiting for our official approval from China's Child Welfare system. We are on day 33 of that wait. I have seen them range from 36 days to 57 days in the last couple of weeks. So in reality, we could get that most wonderful news ANY DAY NOW!!! Once we have that, we go to work on securing our travel visas, booking our travel, and scheduling all the various appointments we will have while in China. Thank the Good Lord that our agency will handle most of that for us. We are still hoping for a late October travel date, but it's looking more likely that it will be November. And in light of starting this process just 5 1/2 short months ago, we are thrilled with November!
The Financials
Financially speaking, we are now only $6800 away from our need. This is totally doable, and we are not concerned in the least. Our God is SO Big, SO Strong, and SO Mighty... you finish it! :)
Like I said, we have had an outpouring of love and support for our adoption, some in the form of financial gifts. But we have also had people approaching us about opportunities to WORK for us. What do I mean? Well, we currently have 3 fundraising opportunities where a friend has called us and offered to use the gifts and talents with which God has blessed them to help us raise funds for our journey. Here are the details:
T-Shirts.
Keitha Johnson, of Corday Designs, is a friend from ours church. She has a small business where she makes crafty things for people - from monogrammed stuff, to crocheted items, to screen printed or vinyl ironed on T-shirts. She made some shirts for our family to wear to our Fundraiser at Manning's, and we got so many responses to them, that we have decided to offer you guys the chance to purchase one for yourself! Keitha will be donating the supplies and time to screen print the shirts for us. Shirts are selling for $10 each, and to order, click here and fill out the form. We will be taking orders and payments for the shirts through August 31. At that point I will order the shirts from a wholesaler, get them to Keitha for printing and send them to you! If you are family, your shirt will be green. If you are a friend, your shirt will be blue! Ours are yellow, his is red! It's going to be great!!!
Family Photo Mini Photo Shoot
This one is exciting too! My super fabulous friend, Tiffany Palomba, of Bella Vie Photography, has also offered her time and talents to our mission. Tiffany will be in Clayton on September 26th to host a day of mini photo sessions for all of you local to the Raleigh area - or even those of you not local if you're willing to travel. She will be donating 50% of all that she brings in that day. So cool, right? I know that many of you will want to have family portraits done this fall, so why not check that "To-Do" off your list and be part of this journey all at the same time! And let me tell you, you will not be disappointed! Tiffany is extremely talented and does a phenomenal job. Not only that, but you will be so blessed by her eternal positivity and super fun spirit! So join us! To make an appointment, call her at (704) 956-3373 or email her and she will hook you up with a time and let you know where to meet us. I am so super excited about this day. I now it's going to be great!!!
Get Fit with Simply Fit Mama
Who isn't looking for a good reason to get healthy and fit this fall? Well, now is your chance to help yourself meet those fitness goals and help us out at the same time! Brandy Forward is a great friend of mine. We have known each other for 9 years or so now, and even though she doesn't love local anymore, she continues to be one of my most cherished friends and prayer partners. Brandy called me last week and threw this idea out for us to consider. She is a Coach for Beachbody.com, and she is hosting a September Challenge Group in honor of our journey to China. The group will officially start 9/1/15 and ends 9/30/15, and all commissions that Brandy earns for the purchases form Beachbody for the Joyful Obedience Challenge Group will be donated to our fund. That's right - ALL - 100%!!! So check that out, accept the challenge, get fit, get healthy, and help us BRING HIM HOME!!!
These are the details of all that we have going on right now. I will update if more opportunities arise, but until then, keep praying for our little Chinaman, buy a T-shirt if you want to, smile for the camera, and get moving!!!
Love you all!
Where Things Stand Currently
So right now we are still waiting for our official approval from China's Child Welfare system. We are on day 33 of that wait. I have seen them range from 36 days to 57 days in the last couple of weeks. So in reality, we could get that most wonderful news ANY DAY NOW!!! Once we have that, we go to work on securing our travel visas, booking our travel, and scheduling all the various appointments we will have while in China. Thank the Good Lord that our agency will handle most of that for us. We are still hoping for a late October travel date, but it's looking more likely that it will be November. And in light of starting this process just 5 1/2 short months ago, we are thrilled with November!
The Financials
Financially speaking, we are now only $6800 away from our need. This is totally doable, and we are not concerned in the least. Our God is SO Big, SO Strong, and SO Mighty... you finish it! :)
Like I said, we have had an outpouring of love and support for our adoption, some in the form of financial gifts. But we have also had people approaching us about opportunities to WORK for us. What do I mean? Well, we currently have 3 fundraising opportunities where a friend has called us and offered to use the gifts and talents with which God has blessed them to help us raise funds for our journey. Here are the details:
T-Shirts.
Family Photo Mini Photo Shoot
Get Fit with Simply Fit Mama
These are the details of all that we have going on right now. I will update if more opportunities arise, but until then, keep praying for our little Chinaman, buy a T-shirt if you want to, smile for the camera, and get moving!!!
Love you all!
Sunday, August 23, 2015
Making Room for Little Man
Since the girls went back to school last week, I head back this week, I have been spending these last few days getting ready for our son. He now has a room!! Yay! Take a look:
The girls have moved across the hall. My uncle made AWESOME beds for them with drawers underneath. Each bed has 12 drawers - 6 on the outside, and then 6 more behind them. Without these beds, making this house work would be much harder! Another example of how God has moved the the hearts of so many, prompting them to use their gifts and talents to help bring our son home. Check them out:
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Just a Little Update
So I know, it's been a while. That's what happens in adoption I guess - hurry up, then wait for what seems like FOREVER! So in my last post, I told you that we were DTC - Dossier To China. The next bit of info we were waiting for was our LID - Log In Date. We received that on 7/23! Yay! So now, we are in the biggest "Wait" season of our lives it seems. We are waiting for China's child welfare system to give us the official approval to bring our little man home. Before they can do that, they have to translate our Dossier Documents into Mandarin and then they can review/approve all the information. That has been taking around 45 days, though I saw a couple last week that were more like 35! We are currently on day 19 of that wait, so we are getting there. Once we have that approval, our agency goes to work on setting up all the appointments we will need to attend while in China, and we go to work on more paperwork to process our traveling visas and Little Man's IMMIGRANT visa! So that's a question I've had a lot - when does he become a US Citizen? As soon as his sweet self enters into the US, he is an American Citizen. So cool, right?!?!? The trend is that once you get China's approval (RA) you travel 8-12 weeks later. So, that timeline is looking like early November, but late October is still not out of the realm of possibilities. We are stilling hoping to celebrate his 3rd birthday on 10/24 with him. Keep praying that with us! What a great day that would be!!!
I wanted to take a moment also and publicly thank Jennifer and Howard Manning of Manning's Restaurant.
They were so good to us Sunday. For those of you who don't know, Jennifer came to me a few months back asking if she and Howard could host a fundraiser for us at their restaurant. It blew me away that they were offering such a service! So we started planning the event, picked a day, and then she told me that 25% of all sales that entire day would come to us to help bring our guy home. Again, blown away! Usually these spirit night type events get you around 10% at the most, so WOW! So, this past Sunday, August 9th, they hosted a fundraising event for us, where we were given $1140 to go towards our expenses. Incredible!!! We are so very thankful for their support and friendship. Check out their website/menu here and go visit them! Tell them that The Nixons sent you!
More fundraising opportunities have come our way. Tiffany Palomba of Bella Vie Photography is a very special friend of ours. She, too, came to me wanting to use her gift to help us out. So, on September 26th, she will come to Clayton and do a day of mini sessions for us! Who doesn't want fall pictures???? You can book one session for just your family, or schedule the whole clan and book as many blocks as you need! So stay tuned for more information on that, spread the word, and join us! Tiffany is donating a percentage of all that she brings in that day to our adoption fund. She does incredible work - you will not be disappointed!!!
Also.... Jodie and I had T-shirts made for our family. They turned out so good! Our friend, Keitha, from church did the printing on them and we were thrilled! Here is a picture of the design:
I will put together an official ordering system once I figure out the best way to do it. The shirts will be $10 each, no matter the size. Because I don't have extra money sitting around, we will take orders and payment before actually purchasing the shirts and materials. If you want to pay by credit card, we will use our Go Fund me account for that. I hope that's ok. ;)
We are getting down to the wire and are so excited! As of yesterday, we are about $8,300 away from our need. Most of our funds will be payable throughout September and early October. As I was tracking our expenses over the weekend, we were able to see that our adoption expenses are coming in at the higher end of our agency's estimation range, depending on the cost of our flights and travel. Some people would not want to share these numbers, but I have to! I have no idea how this has all come together except that God has provided. So I have to share these numbers. I have to give Glory to Him! Again, depending on the cost of our flights, our entire start to finish adoption journey expenses will come in just under $40,000. Remember, we started this journey in March. Remember that most families have around 18 months to work out financing their adoption story. If we travel in November, our story will have only lasted 8 months! And believe me! We didn't just have this kind of money sitting around! In fact, on top of the adoption, we have had a few unexpected "Just Life" expenses to pay this year too! To date, we have received about $11,200 of tangible financial gifts from friends and family. Currently, we have paid or have saved and are ready to pay a total of $31,700. That means that $20,500 has just fallen from the sky - down from THE FATHER OF LIGHTS! To GOD be all the glory in this story! I am so excited to share these numbers with you, as one of the biggest deterrents in adoption is the expense of it all. But our story is living proof that God will provide, God will equip, and God will be faithful! He is good - ALL the time! So please, of you are feeling that tug in your heart to be a Forever Family to a little one somewhere in the world, take that leap!
Thank you all for all of your prayers and support! We have truly felt them, and are very appreciative. We are in the short rows now, but keep lifting us, and especially him, up in prayer!
Love you all!
I wanted to take a moment also and publicly thank Jennifer and Howard Manning of Manning's Restaurant.
More fundraising opportunities have come our way. Tiffany Palomba of Bella Vie Photography is a very special friend of ours. She, too, came to me wanting to use her gift to help us out. So, on September 26th, she will come to Clayton and do a day of mini sessions for us! Who doesn't want fall pictures???? You can book one session for just your family, or schedule the whole clan and book as many blocks as you need! So stay tuned for more information on that, spread the word, and join us! Tiffany is donating a percentage of all that she brings in that day to our adoption fund. She does incredible work - you will not be disappointed!!!
Also.... Jodie and I had T-shirts made for our family. They turned out so good! Our friend, Keitha, from church did the printing on them and we were thrilled! Here is a picture of the design:
Of course we had to make one for Little Man too, so here is his:
We wore our shirts to the fundraising event at Manning's on Sunday, and got lots of "I'd buy one if you'd sell them!" So, what wasn't intended to be a fundraiser may turn into one! This is what yours will look like, though the writing may be white. Friends will have blue, family will have green.
I will put together an official ordering system once I figure out the best way to do it. The shirts will be $10 each, no matter the size. Because I don't have extra money sitting around, we will take orders and payment before actually purchasing the shirts and materials. If you want to pay by credit card, we will use our Go Fund me account for that. I hope that's ok. ;)
We are getting down to the wire and are so excited! As of yesterday, we are about $8,300 away from our need. Most of our funds will be payable throughout September and early October. As I was tracking our expenses over the weekend, we were able to see that our adoption expenses are coming in at the higher end of our agency's estimation range, depending on the cost of our flights and travel. Some people would not want to share these numbers, but I have to! I have no idea how this has all come together except that God has provided. So I have to share these numbers. I have to give Glory to Him! Again, depending on the cost of our flights, our entire start to finish adoption journey expenses will come in just under $40,000. Remember, we started this journey in March. Remember that most families have around 18 months to work out financing their adoption story. If we travel in November, our story will have only lasted 8 months! And believe me! We didn't just have this kind of money sitting around! In fact, on top of the adoption, we have had a few unexpected "Just Life" expenses to pay this year too! To date, we have received about $11,200 of tangible financial gifts from friends and family. Currently, we have paid or have saved and are ready to pay a total of $31,700. That means that $20,500 has just fallen from the sky - down from THE FATHER OF LIGHTS! To GOD be all the glory in this story! I am so excited to share these numbers with you, as one of the biggest deterrents in adoption is the expense of it all. But our story is living proof that God will provide, God will equip, and God will be faithful! He is good - ALL the time! So please, of you are feeling that tug in your heart to be a Forever Family to a little one somewhere in the world, take that leap!
Thank you all for all of your prayers and support! We have truly felt them, and are very appreciative. We are in the short rows now, but keep lifting us, and especially him, up in prayer!
Love you all!
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