A Blessing!!

This has been the week of Chinese New Year.  That means that on the adoption front, nothing much can happen for those of us who are adopting from China.  So, we decided instead of moping, we would celebrate!

We celebrated with Chinese food...some homemade (won ton soup) and some purchased.  I also made some really good spring rolls.  Proud of myself!  :)

But, during this week that we expected to hear no news, God had a surprise for us!  So, although most aspects of our adoption are at a standstill, we still got some great news :)

We have been approved for a $2000 matching grant from the James Fund and Lifesong for Orphans!!  This is a huge blessing as we are on the homestretch for bringing Hope home.  When you donate to Lifesong for Orphans, an awesome ministry, you can express a preference for your funds to go toward our adoption. Lifesong sends funds directly to our agency to help with our expenses.  For up to $2000 in donations, Lifesong will match the donations!  You can check out Lifesong here...

www.lifesongfororphans.org

For those of you who are reading this who have or are adopting, you know that adoption is expensive.  For those of you who are not aware of the cost of adoption...our agency estimates that our total expenses for this adoption will be around $30,000.  God has provided for us in wonderful ways along this journey and we are up to date on our payments to this point; however, some help during this home stretch would be very greatly appreciated!!

To donate, send a check to Lifesong for Orphans.  In the memo line of the check put "preference Johnson/#3341 adoption"  Per IRS guidelines, your donation is to Lifesong which retains full discretion and control over its us

Send your check to

Lifesong for Orphans
PO Box 40/202 N. Ford St.
Gridley, IL 61744

And always, we covet your prayers...especially as we are in the final days of waiting. 

Starting the home study...

Tomorrow (Thurs) we officially start our home study process with a visit from our amazing social worker.  Although this is our first visit from her in our home, we have not been sitting idly by.  We have been fingerprinted (including, this time, our 18 year old daughter), had our physicals, had our local background checks, harassed friends and family for letters of recommendation, and filled out about a million different pieces of paper that include everything from a checklist of special needs we would consider, a financial statement, and personal questions like "what does security mean to you and how do you achieve it?"

We have also started fundraising:  a garage sale and a storefront at Just Love Coffee.

We are also currently looking for a nickname for our daughter.  We did that for Yuly so that in the wait we could talk about her and pray for her in a more personal way.  Right now, Yuly has dubbed her nickname to be "China girl."  We have a friend whose parents are Chinese immigrants and we are hoping that she will be able to help us come up with something a little more affectionate.  However, having said that, Yuly drew our first new family photo with the initials "Ch G" above the new sister.  And since we know the age we are requesting, she is drawn in the correct order in the line of sisters.  So sweet.

But of course, our life isn't all about this adoption.  We have four girls who keep us pretty busy.  In May we:

• celebrated Yuly's 10th birthday, Audrey's 18th birthday and my mom's birthday.  
• attended Audrey's ballet recital and Yuly and Savanna's Irish dance recitals.  
• Riza and Yuly sang in a musical production at church.  
• Riza graduated from Celebration Kinderschool
• Audrey graduated from Chiles High School. 
• Yuly and I completed our first year of homeschool and celebrated by going to a homeschool convention in Orlando 
• Mother's Day was celebrated properly.  

May is a very busy time around our home!!  In fact, we were talking about our new addition and decided that one characteristic we will require is for her to not have a May birthday!