Name Change!

We are considering changing the spelling of her name to Ashley. We are trying to be sensitive to the fact that she will probably want an American name and spelling like her sisters SO we'll let you know.

Some of you have asked where we are at this point. Currently, we are getting ready to send our final contracts in to AWAA along with our first payment. We have contacted Lutheran Family Services to do our Home Study and hopefully that will begin in July. We're going slow and being very patient....well, most days :)

We're having a big Yard Sale and bake sale on July 7th to raise funds for our Home Study. We need a total of $1500 dollars. God has already laid it on the hearts of THREE families to donate stuff to help us out so we are very excited about this day. Please be in prayer for this important day, and that more families would send us their junk!

We've also been getting prayer cards in the mail written by church members. They are so sweet and many days provide the encouragement we need to move ahead. It's so humbling to see how this process will be used by God to draw people in worship to Him. I am so amazed to see how He provides for every need we have, in HIS time. Most days I feel very unworthy of this gift that He is giving to us. OK, it's getting emotional so I'll quit!

Em

Baby Girl

Baby Ashlei

Tonight was an emotional night at our house. Most days I do well thinking about you and keeping my emotions under control. When I think about how long it's going to take to get to you, I'm sometimes overwhelmed. I'm really praying that you aren;t even born yet, so that when we do come and take you home, you won;t have spent so much time in the orphanage. I was putting your older two sisters to bed and they wanted me to rub their backs and sing to them. Daddy was in the living room rocking Annalyse to sleep. I was so overwhelmed with the fact that someone else might be putting you to bed. At our house, we don;t let our babies cry themselves to sleep very often. One of daddy's favorite things to do is rock his girls to sleep. It breaks my heart to think you are crying yourself to sleep at night. We promise to never let you do that. Daddy and I talked about you a lot tonight and he can;t wait to let you fall asleep on him on the couch. We are praying that someone is taking good care of you while you wait for us. We know that God is watching over you and preparing your heart for us. Goodnight, baby girl.

God is Good!

We received an unexpected surprise in the mail today....my closest childhood friend sent us a gift for our adoption expenses. I was overwhelmed to tears! Let me just be honest folks and say we don;t have a pocket of money saved up for this adoption. We are taking a HUGE step of faith with this and trusting that God will provide. We know He will.

Thank you so much friend, you know who you are...I pray that God will give it back to you a hundred fold. Your gift will take us that much closer to our baby, and we will save the card to show her one day, when she can understand, that you love her and wanted to be a part of bringing her home. I love you!
Em

Her Name

How did we come up with it?

Ashlei .........Had to be an "A" name (Jay's insistence,not mine) We always talked about Ashley
so we changed the spelling to give it an "Asian" flare.

Mei (pronounced May) In Chinese, "Mei Mei" means "little sister" so we liked that. Also, the
English pronunciation is very southern (we are in South GA you know!)

Jay actually gave her this name last Christmas on our long car ride from AR to GA. He has pretty much named the other ones so I think he did pretty good.

We're offically "expecting!"

With great joy and excitement, Avery, Ally, and Annalyse announce the adoption of their little sister...


ASHLEI MEI!

For many of you , this will be the first time you've heard anything about this! So, here's our story....

For many years now we have been thinking/talking and praying about adopting a child from China. Over the course of the last 4 months we know that God is telling us, "it's time!" Let me say that we were thinking this would be something we would do in maybe 4-5 years, so this is defiantly in God's time line not ours. The Lord has confirmed this to us in so many ways, really too many to list here. We are excited, scared, and elated all in one! Here's how the process works:

We have been approved by our agency (American World Adoption). Next we will begin a homestudy process and gather many documents that China requires (birth certificates, marriage cert, passports, physicals, background checks, etc....). This process should take about 6 months to compete. Once we have everything together (our "dossier") it will be sent to Houston to be translated to Chinese and then sent to China.

Then, we wait for our "referral" or, ASHLEI MEI! We'll receive pictures and updated health information. We are requesting a girl,(very few boys available in China) 0-2 years old. This is the hardest part, waiting for the referral. It could take anywhere from 3-24 months~!

After we receive her referral, we'll travel to China for 10-14 days. Jay and I will go without the girls, and we'll get Ashlei about 48 hours after arriving in China. The remainder of the trip will be spent bonding, sightseeing, and getting the China end of our paperwork done. As soon as her feet hit US soil, she'll be an American citizen! Jay is really hoping to travel next summer because the Olympics are in China! We'll see!!!

Please keep us in your DAILY prayers as we begin this journey. This will prove to be the biggest faith journey our marriage has been through in the last 8 years! We are so humbled that God would choose our family to experience adoption as a way to build our family. He has adopted us as His children and we are in awe if His love for us and for Ashlei. Our desire is that HE get all the Glory and that this is not about us at all.

Now, GET READY FOR THE RIDE AS WE GO GET ASHELI MEI!!!

WE ARE APPROVED!

We got the call today at 2:20pm!!! Our application was approved and our JOURNEY HAS BEGUN!!!! We're waiting for the homestudy packet and more info on SN.!!!!
Thank you Jesus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Update

AWAA called this morning with a few ?'s about our app. 1.) what kind of surgery did Jay have for his car wreck in 1995. 2.) Our intrest in special needs.

Melissa said our file was going for review and should be processed/we should hear, in about 5-10 days. Hopefully sooner than later!