Christmas Miracle

Our Christmas Miracle has happened!!!
We reached half way for our adoption finances. Thank you to everyone who helped this happen!!

Below is our Christmas Letter we hope you all will enjoy hearing all the Lord has done.

Merry Christmas 2012!!

The Lang Family

We decided because of our exciting circumstances to save money and not send out Christmas cards but to just send out a letter. I almost did not get this done but after this week’s events I just had to share all God has been doing. It has been a challenging but amazing year.

January- We spent time in much prayer as my brother was in a serious motorcycle accident while on duty. I look back amazed at how God spared his life and how quickly he healed and is walking and back to work. God also laid on Sarah’s heart to serve on a short term missions trip to Honduras in the fall.

February- We celebrated many birthdays this month and enjoyed homeschooling, art club, scrap booking and AWANA.

March- Sarah and I went to a Voice of the Martyrs conference and heard some incredible speakers. We took a field trip and went to see sheep being sheared. Pierson is learning to play the guitar and Sarah celebrated her 10^th Birthday! She got her ears pierced.

April- We celebrated the incredible gift of salvation through our Lord, Jesus Christ.

The Lord has been bringing many new friends into our lives and we have been celebrating more birthdays. Someone even turned 80 this year!

May- After struggling with female medical issues for most of my life and having them become more severe in the past few months. I finally decided to have major surgery after the Lord led me to a doctor that could do the surgery a less invasive way. I am so thankful this surgery went well and I feel so much better!

June- We celebrated 20 wonderful years of Marriage! We ventured to a Homeschooling Conference where Sarah got to meet on of her favorite authors and we took a trip to the Franklin Institute.

July- Was full of sadness as we said goodbye to my Aunt who had been battling cancer. She is dearly missed. Soon after God rocked our world by calling us to take a huge step of faith (especially financially) and obey his call to adopt again. We excitingly saw the video of our 5 year old son to be on July 19^th. We all knew the moment we saw him that he was the match for our family. So for all the boys we now have Peter whose name means rock, Pierson whose name means son of Peter, and Cargan whose name means little rock or little Peter. We can not wait to bring Cargan home!

August- Our letter to ask to adopt our son was sent on his 6^th birthday and we are preapproved to adopt him. The paperwork continues to flurry. We started our home study and honestly don’t know if we had a summer at all as we had been buried in paperwork.

September- We began our new homeschooling year as Peter also went back to teach library.  We are excited as my Aunt married a sweet man. We also celebrated the adoption of two precious children into a wonderful family from our church.

October- Pierson celebrated his 8^th Birthday!  The kids had a yard sale in the freezing cold to raise money for our adoption and friends joined us at a Chinese dinner fundraiser. On the missions front, two families we know sold everything they owned and went to serve the Lord on the other side of the world. I was also privileged to share in Sarah’s first mission’s trip to Honduras. It was an incredible trip that taught us so much about the power of prayer. We were also thankful for answered prayer in keeping our family safe during Hurricane Sandy.

November- We spent most of the month passing around sickness and also celebrating Thanksgiving. We had so much to be thankful for. A dear friend had a coffee fundraiser for our adoption and many joined to help us.

December- We excitingly sent our Dossier (packet of original documents) to CHINA!! (Approximately 6 more months to go). We gathered with friends. The kids worked hard to get ahead at school so they could have some time off.  I then shared how we were half way with our paperwork, half way with our puzzle and praying for a Christmas miracle to get half way there financially. God answered that prayer in 1 week.  People gave when they heard, one person sold a very valuable item, others gathered together and had a bake sale and then others gave some more until that Christmas Miracle was met!!!! You can follow our adoption journey at our blog: www.provinceoflove.blogspot.com

God is so amazing! How he can care so much for a little boy on the other side of the world and choose to bless us with this precious life. But there is something so much more amazing and that is He loved us so much that He sent His son Jesus Christ for us. He offers this gift of eternal life through His son to each of us. We can belong forever to His heavenly family if we choose to have a person relationship with the Risen Savior. Our prayer is that each one of you will accept this incredible gift this Christmas.

                                  Merry Christmas and May the Lord Bless Your New Year!

CHRISTmas Miracle!!

God is Amazing!!! An incredible group of woman had a bake sale to raise money to help bring Cargan home. They raised $750!!! Wow!! We also received a gift for $40 which brings us to only $79 from being half way there!!!  We are so blown away by the love and support of all those who have helped. One of Pierson’s friends helped at the bake sale. He was so precious asking people to help his friend bring his brother home from China. We are continually amazed at how God is working in so many lives to help bring our precious son home. THANK YOU and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Almost Half Way There!

God is Amazing!

On Monday I shared how we are half way there on our paperwork, half way there on our puzzle and asked for prayer for a Christmas miracle to be half way there financially (needing over 3,500.) It is only Friday and we only need $869 to get to the half way mark!! Wow!!!  We are so humbled and thankful for the people who have given so generously, selling things and sacrificing to help our precious son come home. Thank you!!! We are Praising the Lord and asking you all to keep praying!!!

Love Came Down

A picture of adoption at Christmas

There are many times when I have thought of Joseph, Jesus’ chosen earthly father. While the fulfillment of prophesy came through his family line, Jesus was not his flesh.

Yet Joseph was given the incredible gift to be his earthly father and love him as his own. After divorcing, my mother remarried when I was 2 years old. My step father raised me and taught me what it meant to love a child that was not his own. There are many times when discussing children and adoption that the question of “how do you love another persons child” comes up. Well, love comes down. Just as Christ came and poured his love down on us, God pours down a deep love in your heart that is so full for the child he has chosen. You feel like you have been given the most incredible gift by becoming that child’s parent. It is a love that is strengthened during the longing to hold each other. The waiting causes such a deep ache that pulls you heart strings so tight that they are knitted together before you have ever met. A love that grows so deep that you desire to find a way to pay the ransom to bring them home. Home, where they can learn about the love of Christ and what it means to love Him. Experiencing adoption again through the greatest gift of being adopted into the heavenly family, given eternal love, a love poured down.

Half Way There

Half Way!!

Take a LOOK!!!   Many of you have been helping build Cargan’s Puzzle. Over the last few days some of you have given so generously. Thank you! We have crossed over the half way make on the puzzle!!! We have 380 pieces sponsored. There are so many precious messages and names on the puzzle that will be a forever reminder to Cargan of all the people that helped bring him home. If you are new to the puzzle there are still 370 pieces available to be sponsored. Each piece is a $10 donation and we write one word on each piece. If you want to sponsor a piece in someone’s honor as a gift we can email you a picture of your pieces. Thank you for all who have helped build a little bit of family history for our son as he has none so far. We pray he will know how much he is loved by so many when he looks at this puzzle and he will learn about God’s mighty hand in putting together each piece of his life!

It has been an exciting month. We are half way with our paper work, we are now half way with our puzzle and we are praying for a Christmas miracle to be half way there financially($3,584). If 370 people give $10 we can finish the puzzle and reach our half way mark financially too!! We hope you will come join us on this incredible journey! (Donations can be made at the right in the grey box by clicking on the ChipIn button which will take you to paypal)

Another Encouragement

After going to bed very late last night, I realized I forgot to write about one more thing that God did to encourage us. The Ryland’s family who are adopting (blog on the left side) had posted a video on face book. This video was so encouraging but what was amazing was that as I watched it I realized I knew the parents in it!  This was a family from my church where I grew up that had adopted at that time two boys without arms. This family now in the video has adopted 9 precious children. This family also led the way for others in that church to adopt children with special needs.  As I sat and watched this video, God whispered to me, “See I was planting seeds in your heart for my children way back then”.  This was a huge encouragement reminding me that this is His plan and He will provide to the end. I hope you will go watch the video “I like adoption” at http://ilikegiving.com/

The Power of Prayer Part 6

Hooray!!!! Our Dossier (paperwork) is on its way to China!!! Please pray all these original papers will make it safely there.

Well I thought my Power of Prayer series was concluded not that power of prayer ends but I thought I would be blogging on other topics but as I looked back over the last week there was so much that happened after specifically asking a dear group of woman to pray that I had to share. It had been a hard discouraging week and I asked my Jewels Sisters to pray that the seed of discouragement would not take hold in our home. Not 24 hrs after that request I received an email from a sweet friend offering to organize a 5K fundraiser run/walk. Wow. This offer of help was such a precious gift to us.  We then got our email that our Dossier was sent to China!  We were so excited. This is a huge step in the process we are now half way there. We have about 6 more months until travel. Today as I was reading the Bible verses I John 3:18  “let us not love with words or tongue but with action and in truth” my children found a surprise donation that had been hidden and they brought it to me. I began to cry because here was another reminder that God was with us.  I have been spending time reading scripture about adoption and reading around those passages and it has been amazing how God is teaching me about how we are orphans, spiritually and how He has chosen us to be a part of His family. In John 14:18 He says “I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you.”  When Christ died for our sins and rose again and went to Heaven He did not leave us He gave us the Holy Spirit to live with in us. So as we celebrate this Christmas and think of Jesus in that manger, don’t forget about the gift of salvation that was offered to each of us and if we accept that incredible gift we are truly never alone or orphaned. We belong forever to God’s family. As people are praying and I keep reading God’s truths that seed of discouragement has blown away and I will keep reading to keep it afar. Thank you for praying!!!

American Girl Doll Winner!!!!!

THANK YOU to everyone who helped support our adoption!!

The kids were excited to pick a name today for the American Girl Doll Giveaway.
Sarah put a blindfold on.

We had a special visitor. Batman came to hold the basket.

We mixed up all the names......

Sarah reached in......

and the winner is...

Congratulations Melissa Zeck you have won an American Girl Doll!!!

THANK YOU!!!!

American Girl Doll Giveaway

We hope you will share this opportunity to help our family with friends and family.

 After you have entered you can earn a BONUS ENTRY when you share on facebook.

You will need to put a copy of your post in the comments in the blog or email the post to me at lang4@hometownu.com to qualify.  

For Sale

We just wanted to let people know we updated our 4 sale page on our blog at www.provinceoflove.blogspot.com . We have American Girl items (new), furniture, games and more!! Just click on the tab below Cargans picture to check out all the things we have for sale. We will be adding more soon so stop back again to take a look.

The Power of Prayer Part 5

Annie’s Amazing Story

Sometimes we just can’t understand what is happening in our lives but then God gives a glimpse and we are blown away by the incredible God we serve. I have never met Annie face to face but hope to someday (maybe on our way to China). God led me to this compassionate woman who advocates for children waiting to be adopted, especially special needs and older children. She was the one God used in so many ways to bring the pieces together in finding our son. I will forever be grateful to the Lord for connecting us. She is a dear sister in Christ. When I met Annie they had just begun the process of adopting their 2^nd little girl from China. (Her picture is down the middle on the left on my blog) but her husband lost his job which put the entire process on hold. There are no words to describe this awful feeling knowing your child is waiting on the other side of the world and you can’t continue to go get them. We prayed and prayed and prayed as so many others were for this family and for her husband to get a job. Months went by and then just recently he got a job!! His job is in another state and they will have to move. Adoption papers began flying full steam ahead.  Annie’s family will be moving away from her extended family and the only home their kids have known which will be a difficult transition but they have been blessed to be moving closer to her hubbies’ extended family but that is not the best of it. Annie just got new pictures of her sweet girl in China and in the picture is a little 2 year old who is very attached to her daughter and her daughter watches over this sweet little one. The two of them are very close. The little two year old has a forever family and guess what? Out off all the places in the US this little girl will be living close to Annie and her family. Yes, God is so AMAZING! These two girls on the other side of the world will be living within a few hours of each other. Our incredible God knows exactly what we need before we even know. He cares for the details of our lives, details of two precious little girls that He loves so dearly on the other side of the world waiting in China. (Read the story and see pictures at Annie’s blog http://cornbreadandchopsticks.blogspot.com/)

The Power of Prayer Part 4

What do Compassion and Coffee have in common?

This past Sunday our pastor spoke about Compassion. He described compassion as love in dynamic action on the behalf of another. It is something that you are so passionate about that it keeps you up at night.  I sat and cried (as I do most times in church) but I wanted to jump out of my seat and say “Yes!” Finally, someone understood. I had been up that night before as I am most nights praying and crying out to the Lord on behalf of all those beautiful waiting faces, precious children waiting for a family. I pray and pray for these children and pray for my son as he waits. I pray others will have compassion and take action to change the world one at a time. So what does compassion have to do with coffee? A dear sweet Sister in Christ had compassion and took action and organized a coffee fundraiser. Over 20 people joined us stepping out and selling coffee and over 200 bags were sold. $650 dollars was raised!!!  Thank You Melissa!!!! Thank you friends and family who helped!!! Thank you Twin valley Coffee!! This has pushed us over our $10,000 mark on our way to the $30,000 we need in the next 5 months. We are blown away that others would care to help but that is compassion- love in dynamic action on the behalf of another ( a family in need – a precious little 6 year old boy longing to get home.) Please continue to pray for us so much needs to happen in such a short time but prayer is powerful!

PS Hold onto your seats for part 5 it blew me away!

The Power of Prayer Part 3

One Step Closer!

We have been praying and praying for our paperwork to keep moving. We had to submit an application to CIS (Citizenship and Immigration Services) with Homeland Security at the end of September. This process can take 60-90 days!!  We prayed and prayed and we got our appointment notice quickly to go for fingerprinting in Philly but not until Oct 22^nd.  I was heart broken. If you are an adoptive mama you know the one thing you don’t want to do is sit on paperwork for a moment longer than necessary and this was 4 weeks away! The crazy mama in me started coming out and I had heard that you can walk in. So I began planning an impromptu trip and emailed around to find out if this was possible. Well I quickly found out that it was not permitted at our location and I was crushed! How could I sit and wait for a month. That morning I talked with a dear sister in Christ who has adopted and she prayed over me and soothed my broken heart that day. There is such power in prayer. I had such a peace and can’t wait to see how God is going to use those 4 weeks for His perfect timing.

Peter and I went on October 22^nd. Our appointment was at 9 am in Philly. The GPS took us a crazy way and was eating up all our extra time we had budgeted. Three miles away we saw a sign for road closed ahead and the construction was starting yesterday!! I kept driving and praying! I had no idea where we were. Another sign road closed 500 feet ahead. It is now 8:50. I kept driving and praying and there over in the left side of the road in the trees was a Road Closed Sign. I’m telling you God blew that sign out of the way and we kept driving and made it there at 8:58! God is amazing. We then entered the empty lobby (I still wonder if we could have did a walked in). We were taken promptly and completed our fingerprints. Peter always has trouble printing and the woman said we may have to come back again if they don’t go through. What would they do differently I don’t know but we started praying.

We were told it would be at least 30 days until the approval would come. 17 days later we got the approval!!! We are onto the next step. We quickly scanned the approval to our agency and she quickly sent off our papers to be authenticated. Originally I was going to do the authentication where I would take our papers to Harrisburg and then to New York City to the Chinese Consulate but our terrific agency has the ability in their state to do all the authentications there. We chose to have them do it and the other night I was laying in bed thanking the Lord. Right now after Sandy I would be trying to get to New York City to do our paper work. God knew and provided another way. He is so amazing! We just got an email today that our papers are at the Consulate in Houston and it will be about 1 week. Then our papers will be ready to travel to CHINA!!!!! This is huge. We then have an approximate time of 6 months until travel!!!!  We are on our knees praying as so much more has to come together in the next 5 months.  Thank you to all who have been praying for us your prayers mean such a great deal because the Power of Prayer is Incredible!

The Power of Prayer Part 2

Honduras Missions Trip

I definitely experienced the power of prayer on this trip. Many of you were praying very specifically for Sarah and I not to have any travel sickness. THANK YOU for ALL your PRAYERS!! God is amazing!!! We did not have any travel sickness. (Sarah had a day of sickness at the beginning and end but not from traveling.) As a Mama I was concerned when she got sick at the beginning of our trip and at the end but each time our team gathered together and prayed over anyone who was sick and the Lord worked in mighty ways.



Sarah sleeping on the plane. No travel sickness!!

                                               

We also had a huge blessing of being invited to a child dedication service, 2 weddings and 12 baptisms all in the same day. Talk about an incredible day full of the power of prayer. Our brothers and sisters at this church all pray at the same time and this was new to me. I am a person who has some trouble focusing so it took a little bit of time to get use to and I don’t know Spanish but what I can tell you is that I was experiencing hearts pouring out loving prayers over these children, couples and believers being baptized. It was incredible to be in the presence of the Lord. The pastors here are trying to teach the value of loving your children and wife (who are not normally looked at with much value). It was an honor to be at these events where God has been working teaching them the precious value of children and spouses and where 12 people proclaimed their faith in Jesus Christ through baptism. This is a huge step for the people many are looked down upon in their villages due to their faith but God has been working in many lives and answering many prayers. Another praise was the good weather we experienced. It was such a beautiful day, in a gorgeous gorge down the side of the mountain where the people were baptized in the freezing water.





Many children were dedicated.



One of the couples getting married.
They are not very expresive here but you could see how much he loved her!





One of the 12 baptisms!



We were also blessed with beautiful weather all week, last year it rained every day but this year it was clear almost everyday, which was a huge answer to prayer for traveling the dirt roads. The rain apparently was back at home where our families weathered Sandy. We were so thankful the Lord answered our prayers and protected our families and homes while we were in Honduras.



One of the beautiful views!



We are so thankful for all the support and items that were given for the Christmas parties. Last count we had packed over 600 bags in 3 days for children and adults. We were able to give a pair of socks to each child. It was such a blessing to be there and watch their faces as they had their dinner and received their gifts. A message encouraging the power of prayer was also shared.



Handing our gift bags and apples.

 

At our last church one of the men asked to pray for us, as he did they all prayed. It was a prayer full of thanks to the Lord but I wanted so much to tell all of them what a huge blessing they were to all of us. It was an honor to be there side by side with brothers and sisters in Christ sharing the blessings the Lord has given.

One of my sweetest moments was when we were able to hand out clothing at one of the churches. The joy overflowed from the people. I put a coat on a little boy and he jumped up and down. A Mothers eyes were so full of thanksgiving when she was receiving clothing for her children. There were so many special moments we shared with the people but also with my own daughter.

This Mama’s heart was overflowing watching her daughter serve our Lord so full of joy and loving every minute. She was such a trooper even when she was sick she still wanted to help. What an answer to her Mama’s prayers and to have the privilege to be a part of her first calling overseas, one day I won’t be able to go with her when she goes but I will be so thankful that I could share in the beginning of her incredible journey. Prayer is so powerful and I can’t wait to see all God will do next!

The Power of Prayer Part 1

So much has happened in the last few weeks that I will slowly be sharing all God has been doing. At the beginning of October we had put in a request to get updated pictures and information on Cargan. It was suppose to come in 5-7 days but several things happened to delay the process. We began praying that we would hear something before Sarah and I left on our Honduras trip on the 27th. God answered our prayer, 32 hours before we were suppose to leave we got pictures and an update. We have found out the he likes the color blue. He likes to play games and would like cars and trains. He is growing and is closer to his big brother Pierson’s height than we thought. He is going to school and can read and write in Chinese. He lives with 4 other children in his area at the orphanage, one boy and three girls. We are excited and getting a little package ready for Christmas for him and the other children with him. We are so thankful for this answer to prayer and the new info and pictures.

He still has that beautiful smile and sparkle in his eyes. Thank you Lord for answered prayers!!

 

Last call for Coffee

We are gathering all the coffee orders for the Twin Valley COFFEE fundraiser. Thank you to everyone who has been helping sell!! If you are still interested in buying coffee just let Melissa or I know by the end of the week. We are excited to see all God is doing.

There has been so much that has happend in the last two weeks that hopefully I will be able to think clearly enough to start posting all the wonderful things God has been doing real soon.

Updates

Just a few quick updates there will be more hopefully soon.

PUZZLE Sponsorships are still coming in!! We are only 65 pieces away from hitting the half way mark to put the puzzle together.

Don't forget all COFFEE orders are due in one week on November 14th. Thank you to everyone who has been helping sell and who has purchased.

We got an update from the orphanage on Oct. 26th right before Sarah and I left for Honduras. New pictures will be coming soon.

Sarah and I went on a missions trip to Honduras this past week. It was amazing seeing God working around the world. More to come.

We are still recovering from the trip and will write more once we are back on our feet.

A Sweet Stranger

Today I received a letter in the mail from a sweet stranger I met at our garage sale. Garage sale, in October?? Yes! This past very cold Friday and Sat morning we had a garage sale. My precious daughter, who loves to dream up ideas, talked her crazy mama into having a garage sale. It’s not like I didn’t have anything to do we were just in the middle of our Chinese dinner fundraiser that weekend and starting our new coffee fundraiser. So we had a garage sale. Sarah and Pierson had cupcakes and coco for Cargan to sell. It was too sweet.

What does this all have to do with a letter in the mail? Well this sweet woman came to our yard sale and was so excited to see we were adopting. She mentioned that she wished she had her checkbook because she wanted to make a donation in memory of her daughter. She asked for our address and left. Today we received a precious check from that woman.
 God is amazing!!!!!!! It is so humbling to watch as he brings complete strangers in our lives that have given so generously from their hearts. It is exciting to watch who He calls to help bring our precious boy home.

There are a few things we still would love to sell!! Click the for sale tab under our family picture to see all we have for sale. Let me know if you are interested because we are cleaning out!

Coffee for Cargan Fundraiser

HELP COFFEE!!

Ok all you COFFEE LOVERS I need your help!!  A dear friend, Melissa is graciously organizing a Coffee for Cargan Fundraiser through Twin Valley COFFEE. It is a family owned business where they freshly roast all types of coffee. I have heard it is GOOD! We are looking for 100 people to sell 10 bags of coffee. If you sell 20 bags I will donate a FREE bag of coffee to you as a thank you! Orders will be taken until November 14th and deliveries will be the first week of December in time for the holidays. Start making that gift list. :)   If you would like to help sell coffee or buy coffee please let me know and I can get the appropriate information to you. We are really praying we can sell 1,000 bags which would raise $3,000! We can’t do this alone please think COFFEE and all those you know who love it! Please pass this on to anyone you know who would want to help bring Cargan home.

THANK YOU!!!!

Daphne and family

pirate67@hometownu.com 

please put coffee in the subject

.

Twin Valley COFFEE offers the following flavors either whole bean or ground:

Nicaragua Diego $10

*Costa Rica $10

Brazil $10

Ethiopia Yergacheffe $11

Peru Fair Trade Organic $10

Kenya AA $12

Breakfast Blend $10

*Jamaican Me Crazy $10

*Scottish Grogg $10

*Maple Walnut $10

*Pumpkin Spice $10

*- available in decaf
-bags of coffee are 12oz.

If you would like to order please email me your order at pirate67@hometownu.com (please put in the subject: coffee order) Checks can be made out to Twin Valley COFFEE

Thank You

Thank you to everyone who came out to the Chinese Dinner Fundraiser. We enjoyed seeing everyone and enjoyed a good meal. We had 36 adults and 10 children attend. It was a real blessing to us to have you all come and help us in this long journey. Thank you! We really appreciate all your support!!!

Praise and Prayer

Praise!

Praise for all the support that has been given to bring Cargan home. We are almost 1/3 of the way there! Thank you to everyone who has given special gifts, participated in fundraisers and sponsored puzzle pieces! We are so humbled and thankful!

Praise: We have gotten our notice to go for our appointment in two weeks to get our fingerprinting done with Homeland Security.

Once we get the approval from this we scan and send it to our agency in AL. and they then get all the many signatures (takes 3 weeks) on all the papers and it will then be sent to China! We will then begin the last long 6 month wait until travel.

Prayer:

Please pray as I will be sending our packet of all the original documents we have been collecting for several weeks. Pray it will arrive safely to our agency in Alabama.

Please also continue to pray for Cargan as he should have learned now that he has a family. Pray for God to be preparing his heart. Please also pray for us to receive updated information and photos as we have recently put in a request for this.

Thank you to all of you for all your prayers and support. It is greatly appreciated!!

Puzzle Update

             Here is how the puzzle is looking!!!!

225 Pieces Sponsored!!!!

only 525 more to go

It has been so exciting to see God work!

Some people have asked a few questions about the puzzle and I wanted to take time to clarify. Yes, this is an actual physical puzzle not a virtual puzzle.This will be an ongoing fundraiser until all the pieces are sponsored. I was asked about Paypal and they do take a small percentage for the convenience of sponsoring online. If you want the full amount to go towards the adoption, than the sponsorship can be made directly to us. We are writing on the back of each sponsored piece names and beautiful messages and Bible verses that each sponsor has requested. It will be such a treasure for Cargan to see how many people have been involved in bringing him home. Thank you to all those who have sponsored Cargan’s Puzzle we really appreciate it!

 Keep spreading the word.

PS> For all those Coffee lovers out there, keep an eye out there is a Coffee for Cargan fundraiser in the works. More details will be coming soon, so think of all those people you know who love coffee!!

Save the Date Oct 12 and 13th

GREAT WALL CHINESE BUFFET

ADOPTION FUNDRAISER

Help bring him home!

 

FRIDAY AND SATURDAY

October 12^th, 2012 & October 13^th, 2012

                           5pm-9 pm

Have a great Chinese dinner and raise money for our adoption fund at:

The Great Wall Chinese Buffet located in the Weis Market shopping center in Kutztown

For each person eating in your party, The Great Wall will donate

$1.00  for adults and $.50 for children to help bring their little boy home from China.

               PLEASE BRING A SLIP ALONG WITH YOU.

                       You can email me if you need one.

31 Bag Funraiser

Thank you to everyone who ordered to help with the 31 bag fundraiser. It ended up being a big show and a gracious fundraiser. I think we earned over $250 for our adoption fund!!  Thank you, Nicole for graciously donating the proceeds to help bring Cargan home!
 Thank you!!! 
God Bless,
Daphne

Check our fundraiser page here on our blog there will be new things coming soon. We will be posting items for sale to raise money for the adoption and save the date, October 12 and 13th we will be having a Chinese Dinner Fundraiser.

 

Unconditional Love

Last night I shared my testimony at our ladies group and I figured I would cry at a certain point because God has really walked with me through some difficult times. But when I began sharing about my “Dad” (step-dad) I began to get choked up.  I just didn’t expect it at that point in the testimony. I knew I would cry but I didn’t expect talking about him to start the welling up inside. On the way home I was thinking about it and I realized I miss my Dad not ever getting to see our kids but then it came to me, my Dad was the one who taught me unconditional love for a child not born to him and now I  can pass that on to my boys! God is Amazing! And you know what is even more AMAZING is 
God’s unconditional love for YOU!

Precious Puzzle Pieces

Cargan’s Puzzle has been such a special project to watch as the Lord has led a variety of people to sponsor puzzle pieces (180!!!). The names and messages being written on the puzzle will be treasured memories for us and such a significant documentation for Cargan to see the number of people who cared to help bring him home. This week I saw God working as each piece, whether one or many was given with so much love. I can’t wait to see how He will bring others to join one piece at a time.

31 Bag Fundraiser

Saturday, we had our 31 bag fundraiser open house and took a look at some nice bags. Thank you to all who came. It was such a nice time of fellowship. Some people got a head start on their holiday shopping!! If you would still like something you can order online by clicking on the 31 button at the right. All orders must be submitted by Sept 27^th. Thank you for your support.

Incredible Gift

THANK YOU,
Evan, Bethany, Morgan and Grant!!
There are times when there are no words to express the gratitude you feel when you have received and incredible gift. These precious children had a birthday party and instead of gifts they took up a collection to donate towards our adoption fund and purchased several puzzle pieces. I was brought to tears when I learned about this gift. We are so thankful!!! It has been amazing to see how God is working to bring our son home one piece at a time.

These precious Pirates are fighting to bring one more home to hear about Jesus!
THANK YOU!!!

31 Bag Adoption Fundraiser

            Adoption Fundraiser 

                       To help bring our son Cargan home from China.

    A friend Nicole has graciously offered to do a 31 bag fundraiser and donate all proceeds towards our adoption. If you would like one of these great bags you can click on the thirty-one button on the right side and it will take you to her site to order. If you are close to Nicole or I, you can turn in your orders to one of us and then the shipping will be a little less than having it sent directly to you. All orders must be turned in by Sept 28^th. If you are in my area on Sept 15^th from 1-3pm, I will have some snacks and bags to look at and would love to have you stop by my house. These bags make great gifts and are also very helpful for organizing.
                   Thank you for your support!!

Prayer!

Last night we received word from China answering our question which asked if Cargan knows he is being adopted. We found out that he does not know yet. We have been praying about sending him a package but didn’t know what to write to him because we didn’t know what he knew. Please pray for us as we prepare this package, that the Lord will give us the words to say to him as this will most likely be how he finds out he has a family. Please pray along with us that the Lord will be preparing his heart for this huge change but most of all that his heart will be open to learning about Jesus. God has created this precious boy for our family and we pray he will come to know his wonderful creator.

Please also take a look at the new page I have called Precious Children. You can click on it right under our picture above. These precious children need our prayers. Charlie is one of many boys. Annie shares more at her blog http://www.cornbreadandchopsticks.blogspot.com/

100 Pieces!!

We are excited to say that we received another check in the mail today for puzzle pieces. So we have officially reached 100 pieces!!! Only 650 more to go! Thank you so much to those of you who have been sharing about bringing Cargan home with friends and family it is making a difference in the life of a precious little boy!

90 Puzzle Pieces

Praise the Lord!!! We have finished the first part of our adoption process. We received our final completed copy of our home study today in the mail!!! (Finished in 6 weeks!! They say it can take 2-4 months. The Lord led us to a great agency!)

That means we can move to the next step which is our I800A immigration form and a check for $890. Yesterday when I added up the puzzle pieces we were at 90!!! That is $900 and that covers our I800A form fee. God is so AMAZING!!!

Thank you so much for all your prayers and support and for coming around us in the journey to bring Cargan home. Please keep praying for paper work to keep moving. The standard time to have the I800A approved is 2-3 months. Please pray for God's perfect timing and provisions as we have more forms and fees due at the end of this step and pray for us as we wait and wait. Our hearts ache to hold our son and we look forward to God's perfect plan for when we will all be united.

Humble ramblings:

It is amazing how when we wait and listen, God will put the pieces together in his time. But I think this is the lesson I have to keep learning. I need to put the business aside (Satin is so good at keeping me busy) and I have to be still and listen to His voice. How many blessing have I missed because I didn’t listen or I listened but just ignored His voice?  I got a devotional from “A Holy Experience” (link is on the left side) and it was titled “When you’ve been waiting for an answer and …life seems silent. Wow, I feel that captured my heart when waiting for God to show us about adopting. The 8 year old boy asks his mother in this article: “Do you think God’s calling our name too — and we’re just not listening?” It was a very heart stirring article which made me stop and think. Reminding me that each day that He created I have to be still and listen to what He is calling me to do.

Unexpected gifts part 3

Unexpected gifts, again and again and again part 3:

God is Amazing! Yesterday he blessed us with more sponsored pieces. Thank You!! We now have 56 pieces sponsored and only 694 more to go. He then blessed us with a precious offer to do a “31” bag fundraiser and give all the proceeds towards our adoption. If that wasn’t enough, He then sent a dear sister in Christ who offered to be in charge of fundraising for me. This is huge as this is so not my gift. Thank you!  Today he then put on another sweet sister’s heart to spread the word to her friends about our puzzle project. It is amazing to watch the body of Christ work together in ways you never would think of, His Plan is always so much better than we can imagine.

unexpected gifts part 2

An unexpected gift part 2:

Earlier this week I was having a day when I was really struggling. My cup was feeling so empty. I was not ready for the drop of heavenly water God would put in my cup that day.  I had made a call from a flier I had gotten almost a year ago to get some information about Chinese classes. ( My thought was that we would try to learn a little more than our few sentences we can say before Cargan comes home.) Well I spoke with this wonderful woman who gives Chinese classes. I explained how we were adopting and wanted to maybe learn some more Chinese. She was very kind and gave me all the info. It seemed like a good fit but we probably will wait right now since we are saving to adopt. The Lord led me to this precious woman for another reason. A few hours later I received such a beautiful email from this same woman, a complete stranger offering her understanding in this hard journey and praying God would bless us. She even said that if we did not do the class she would love to help us with the transition when Cargan comes home and help us with translating. (We need help with translating we are trying to get a package ready to send to Cargan.) This was such and unexpected gift from God, only HE knew what we needed. He knew what my heart needed. To have a complete stranger offer to help us brought tears to my eyes. The power of listening to HIS voice. What an Amazing God!

An unexpected gift part 1

I know adoption is a hard long road but I didn’t realize that this adoption would be such a hard journey, especially spiritually. I have been on this road before and it was hard but this adoption is so different, much harder on the soul. You see our first adoption God led us to a miraculous place where it is their ministry to place God’s children in Christian homes and the cost is a small fraction to what we are doing now. We had most of what we needed and God provided the last bit in that adoption. This adoption seems like such a huge mountain and I keep clinging to the fact that nothing is impossible with God even when my faith right now is as small as a mustard seed.  I just keep clinging to God knowing that this was His plan and He will provide. I can’t rely in what I think should happen but humble myself and completely let go and let God work. When will I learn this?? Hopefully one day I will get this a little sooner each time. I even had to let go the desire to adopt. I have spent the last school year mourning that desire and letting it go and trusting that God’s plan was best. After I was done letting go and seeking God’s guidance in how to be advocating for His children He began to miraculously put the pieces quickly together and gave us an unexpected gift: our son in China.

 So here we are walking in faith on this adoption road not knowing how this will happen but trusting it will. It has been a humbling experience because usually I get to enjoy being blessed watching God work by helping others. I love listening to Him and seeing Him work. But this time, He is calling me to be still and Know that He IS God and asking me to let others hear HIS voice. I pray that people will not see us but the precious 6 year old boy God created waiting patiently in China for God to bring him HOME so he can learn about HIM. We can’t do this alone.

Emails

I hope you are getting the blog updates by email. I noticed that the entire new post is in the email. Don't forget to click at the bottom of the email on Province of Love in small print to check out the blog. I am slowly adding things of interest in the sidebars that will not come in the email. I hope you are enjoying watching God work. We had some more bumps with our medical forms today but God was so good. He caught them before they got to China! Please pray as we have another big stack of papers to work through and more fees to pay. We then have lots of waiting on different forms to be approved here and more fees. This is a long process. Several have asked when we will go to get Cargan. They tell us 12-15 months for the entire process. I think we are 2 months in, maybe more, so hopefully by next summer or sooner Lord willing we will be traveling to get our sweet boy. This is a hard long emotional journey and we appreciate all your prayers and support.

More Puzzle Pieces

     We are happy to say we have another 11 pieces and a message for that set. It is exciting to see these special names and words for Cargan. They will have such a special meaning to him someday. He will not have a lot of information about his past history, but he will have a HISstory of how God brought him home. We pray more will join us in this journey as we can not do this alone.

                                          16 pieces!!! Only 734 more to go.

First Puzzle Pieces

Hooray!

We have our first 5 pieces! THANK YOU!!!

We are starting to document this wonderful journey so Cargan will see all those who helped him come home!!!

Testing the email updates

I am testing to see if the updated posts are being emailed. Our puzzle project was posted today.

Cargan's Puzzle

We are currently in the process of adopting our son from China. As you may or may not know, this is a very costly venture. We are so grateful for how God has already provided for us, and we are so excited to see Him working to bring in the needed funds! This PUZZLE is an opportunity for you to join with us in this ministry of adoption. We will be putting together a puzzle for Cargan, and we would like to give you the opportunity to sponsor parts of that puzzle, whether it is one piece or several pieces. As each piece is sponsored we will assemble the puzzle and keep you updated via blog. If you choose to participate, your name or message will be written on the back of the piece(s) that you sponsor. This way, when Cargan is home, he will have a beautiful record of how many people helped bring him home and more importantly of God’s perfect plan for his life!

Sponsorships are $10 per piece of puzzle.

You can sponsor a piece of Cargan’s Puzzle through the Chip In button on the right hand side which will lead you to pay by paypal or credit card. If you wish to pay by check it can be mailed directly to us at our home. Please let us know by email or mail what name or message you would like written on your piece(s). They are small so we can only put one word per piece.

We are excited to watch the puzzle form and see all the friends and family join to celebrate our journey to bring Cargan home!!!