Because China

Well is was a week of high highs and low lows.  We found out Friday that we reached our goal of $4000 for our matching grant through Life Song for Orphans!! We are so grateful for all those who gave and are blown away by your generosity.  We thought later that day we would get our Travel Approval, but heard from our agency that no Travel Approvals were given out that day.  They went on to tell us that we would not hear anything until next Wednesday at the earliest, due to a national holiday in China.  To say that we were crushed would be an understatement.  Funny thing is that all the songs on the radio that day seemed to focus on God's faithfulness.  That night we had planned to go out to celebrate our TA, but the dinner ended up being the 2 of us enjoying our own pity party thrown by us and for us.

The next morning, I (Blair) decided that we just needed to plan like we were still going to China in 2 weeks.  I figured that in the very small chance that we did get approval. we couldn't afford to lose a Saturday of prep work.  We ran a few errands and came home to get some things done.  My phone rang and it was a Colorado number, but not our agency's number.  I thought it must be another telemarketing call and was ready to give it to the poor person on the other end of the line.  The voice on the other line identified herself as the lady from our agency's travel department.  The next few words will stick with me for the rest of my life.  "Blair, this isn't an April Fool's joke.  We just got your Travel Approval from our reps in China!"  I think I must have told her to SHUT UP and then went on to threaten her if this was in fact an April Fool's joke.  She assured me that it wasn't and then went on to explain that we still won't have our Consulate's Appointment (the final step) until Wednesday at the earliest.  She said there are 5 families they are trying to get in on the April 17 Gotcha Day.

So, while we still don't know the exact travel dates, we do trust that God's timing is perfect.  Tonight we got to enjoy dinner with another couple that leaves this week to get their 2 little boys.  It was a perfect ending to an amazing weekend.

Just a couple things we would love for you to pray with us...

• We get a Consulate Appointment that allows us to travel ASAP
• God would prepare our hearts to welcome Lleyton into our family
• God would prepare Lleyton's heart for all the transitions he will encounter
• Our family would get better from the respiratory "crud" that we so graciously keep passing around. 

Introducing...

First we would like to say thank you for the generous support we received toward our matching grant this week.  You can see below the progress toward this grant, or can click HERE if you are interested in contributing.  It is our prayer to be finished this week with this fundraiser.

Speaking of fundraisers, we also wanted to share about a wonderful fundraiser provided to us by virtual strangers.  I (Disa) received an email from a Noonday ambassador, Erin Cox who explained that someone wanted to host a Noonday show for an adoptive family.  She asked if we'd be interested in basically just showing up to the Noonday show and that part of the profits would be donated to help with our adoption.  Noonday's mission is "a socially responsible business that uses fashion to create meaningful opportunities around the world."  We knew Erin was a member of Fellowship Church but hadn't even met her and had no connection to Leah Roberts the complete stranger hosting the show.  It was an opportunity we couldn't pass up.  The night of the show was so much fun getting to share our adoption story with strangers and watching as they generously purchased jewelry that in turn helped in our adoption.  Erin was also great enough to come to Farragut Primary (where I am a teacher) and my co-workers were able to shop and support the adoption.  Erin then let me know that she was going to donate her commission along with the percentage raised from the show itself.  This event along with Erin's generous contribution raised $824!  A simple email, complete strangers and of course God provided for such an amazing opportunity.  If anyone is interested in learning more about Noonday or hosting a show I highly recommend contacting Erin Cox (she's on Facebook) to get more information!

And now as promised our big reveal of the week.  We would like to introduce for the first time with his soon to be American name, Lleyton Cai Benefield!  Check back next week as we should have a little more information about when we might travel!!!

Let the countdown begin

This week was filled with a lot of fantastic news.  We received an update on "Cai" which included new pictures.

We also received our immigration approval and now just wait for a consulate appointment and travel approval.  It still appears that we will bring him home in just over a month!


This is so exciting as the time is quickly approaching.  That also means the last fees are due before we travel.  On that note, we have had some very generous donations toward our matching grant.  We are over 1/4 of the way funded!  We are praying that the rest of the grant will be matched by the end of this month.  You can see the dollar amounts still available on the graphic below and can contribute by clicking HERE or on the link on the left if you feel God leading.

Our next blog we promise to share our son's new name as we will turn it in officially tomorrow morning.  We will also share about how complete strangers have played a part in our adoption story and more about how we have seen God continue to move.  We ask for continued prayers as we do our best to prepare our boys for their new brother and prayers for Cai as his world is about to be turned upside down.

Thank you so much for all the love and support shown in this new adoption journey!

Our Final Addition

We announced about a month ago that we were adopting one more time.  We've shared bits and pieces of this decision but haven't put the story out in one place.  Here is a brief outline of how this new adventure came to be.

While we were in China adopting Cavin and Caffrey it was hard to not to be affected by the hundreds of orphans we met while visiting the boys' orphanages.  One particular little girl was hard to forget and we had heard that there was a possibility of reusing our dossier within a year of returning.  All though we felt that our family was complete, we couldn't forget this little girl.  A few months after coming home Blair inquired about this girl and learned she was being adopted.  We again thought is was the end of our adoption journey.  However during a quiet time Blair was studying Gideon and felt God saying we needed to "throw out our fleece."  I (Disa) decided this meant to at least turn our application back into our agency.

We had about 6 months left to reuse paperwork and prayed that if this was God leading the match would be in that timeframe and if it wasn't then the door wouldn't open.  We heard nothing over the next 5 1/2 months.  Then with 2 weeks to go we received the file of Cai.  We didn't receive much info and so asked our agency to see if we could get a little more info before we made a decision.  They informed us that we probably would not hear back from the orphanage so we should prepare to make a decision based on the little info we had been given.  24 hours later we were sent 2 videos and it was the confirmation we needed to say yes.

Since September we have been working to complete all paperwork to bring our new son home.  The timeline on the left of our blog shows our steps along the way.  We have just a few steps left and then we should be able to bring him home in early May.  We will update our blog as we go if you'd like to follow this newest adventure.

In the meantime we are trying to raise the last of the fees associated with this adoption.  We have our orphanage fee and travel costs left to fund.  Since learning in September about this adoption we have lived off one income to help fund the adoption fees as they've come.  We've recently been offered a matching grant which will hopefully fund these last 2 major expenses.  We are including the link in the sidebar (Give to matching grant) if you're interested in learning more about the grant or would like to contribute.  The link will take you to numbered squares $1-$150.  Simply choose an amount you'd like to give and click on the square.  It will then direct you to our matching grant story where you can enter the amount chosen by clicking the red DONATE button.  Every dollar given will be matched for up to $4000!  We are so blessed by all the positive support we have received since announcing the adoption.  We look forward to introducing our new son soon!


Here is a recent picture of our son.  His Chinese name is Cai and we will keep that as his middle name.  He is 3 years old and will be our youngest by about 3 months.  This means we will go from virtual twins to virtual triplets.  His brothers are very excited to bring him home soon.  Stay tuned as we will announce his new American name in the next few weeks!

This is real life

We have officially been home for 6 months!  Many people ask what life is like now with 3 boys and our best response is that it feels “normal.”  We are so thankful that our transition home has been so smooth and so far the boys are blossoming and doing so well.  Here are few highlights and firsts that we have experienced over the past 6 months. 

October saw many simple firsts.  Disa was home from work and Gibson returned to pre school so Cavin and Caffrey had a lot of attention.  They took trips to the grocery store and did a lot of playing.  Cavin also was introduced to solid food and had a lot of food firsts.  Caffrey also enjoyed a lot of food firsts as well.  Both boys loved their first visit to the park where Caffrey was the adventurous one and Cavin explored cautiously.  The month ended with the whole family attending the Fall Remix Retreat, which was their first ministry event and first real public outing.  As children of a High School pastor this seemed like a natural time to introduce them to the ministry.  Halloween happened to occur while on the retreat so they had their first opportunity to dress in costumes and receive candy!

  

November began our life out as a family of 5.  We introduced the boys to church and restaurants and just did “normal” life together.  Disa was still home with the boys so a lot of life was spent playing and exploring at home.  Blair had the opportunity to take the boys on their first zoo experience.  They also experienced helping in the kitchen to prepare some of our family’s traditional Thanksgiving food. 

December was mommy’s last month home with the boys.  They were invited to a Birthday party which included their first experience with inflatables.  Caffrey being the more adventurous one enjoyed this while Cavin preferred the bubble machine more than the inflatables.  This month included making of gingerbread houses and attempting our first Christmas photo.  Family visited near the holidays and the boys loved the visitors, presents, and Christmas decorations.  Trips at night were very entertaining as they included lots of excited oohs and ahhs at the bright lights.  Both boys quickly figured out the opening of presents and loved spending Christmas day playing in their new pjs.  After the holiday we took our first family trip to visit Blair’s grandparents in Florida.  A highlight from the trip was the golf cart rides with great-grandpa.

January, Disa went back to work and the boys started preschool!  Our morning routine became a little more chaotic as Gibson now had to leave for school early with mommy. Daddy had to get Cavin and Caffrey ready and to school on his own.  This made for some tired evenings but it seemed like everyone was in a good rythym after a few weeks.  Our biggest first came near the end of the month when we got our first big snow.  The boys would have had snow in China but we are pretty sure they never got to play in it. 

February had one first, Valentine’s Day.  It didn’t seem to make much impact on the boys other than they got a little extra candy.  Again we attempted to take a picture of the day, but we still struggle to get all 3 boys to smile at once.  We also celebrated Chinese New Year with the traditional red envelope gift.  Gibson understands getting money but Caffrey said, "Daddy's money."  Cavin seemed more excited about the envelope.

March started off with a party.  Cavin turned 3!  He enjoyed his cupcake and having us sing to him.  In the middle of the month we all traveled on our first mission trip to the Bahamas.  This is the 3^rd trip for Gibson so he was an excellent tour guide for Cavin and Caffrey.  We took 20 high school students and 3 leaders to serve at Camp Bahamas.  The boys did much better on the short flight and were very flexible on the trip.  They got to experience their first time at the ocean but mommy and daddy were so busy supervising that they didn’t get any pictures of the momentous occasion.  Another first came as the boys experienced their first Easter.  They loved egg decorating, but again we struggled to get all boys smiling/posing for the holiday photo.  The month ended with another celebration as Caffrey turned 3.  He loved having a whole day dedicated to him and he spent most of the day saying, “My Birthday!” 

Again we can’t express enough how thankful we are that these past 6 months have gone so well.  We thank all of you who have prayed for us and continue to pray for our transition.  We truly can see how God has been a part of this journey all along!  He is to be given all the glory for this journey!

We are alive!

We imagined a lot of things that might present challenges to us as we entered back into the US and began our life as a family of 5 but we never could have prepared for what we experienced these past 2 weeks.  Jet lag got us the first 3 days, all though we were prepared for that.  But day 4 we were hit with illness after illness.  Blair began battling a kidney stone and infection that landed him in the ER. All boys had the nasty cough and cold crud.  Then Disa and Blair both got upper respiratory infections.  Gibson battled a fever and a nasty stomach bug that has bothered him on and off for a week.  We are now ending with pink eye.  One of those alone with our jet lag would have been a challenge (probably not pink eye) but all of them hitting at the same time just about did us in.  However we are so thankful to the many people who prayed for healing, brought us meals, stayed with our sleeping boys while we were in the ER, brought medicine and groceries and the list goes on and on!  We had planned to blog a few days after returning but are just now having enough energy to do so.

Friday afternoon we began to feel like we were on the mend and so we did get to do some "normal" family activities.  We went to the grocery store and got haircuts.  Then today we took advantage of the beautiful weather and walked to the park.  Many have asked how the boys are adjusting but with so much of our energy focused on our health it just hasn't left us much time to process that.  Considering the 2 weeks they've just endured we feel they are doing pretty well.  They are enjoying American food, playing toys and are back to a regular sleep schedule!

Here are a few pics from the last few days as we finally got to enjoy regular things!

Chillin in the car!

Shopping with Mama

Happy eater!

Happy eater!

Park fun!

Oops!

Cheese!

Hi!!!!

How we roll!!

We've come a long way since our first bath in China!

Final China Update

I can't belied that we are actually typing this, but its our FINAL update while in China!!!!  The last few days have been filled with appointments, sightseeing, and down time at the hotel.  We discovered a park near our hotel and have visited it a couple times.  We also ventured out into the city in taxis and actually made it where we wanted to go and back to the hotel!  We found Shamian Island and loved the feel of Savanah Georgia that it had.  We will probably go back again Friday morning.  Today was our US Consulate appointment and all went well.  Now we just wait to receive the boys' visas and we are free to leave with them!  We leave for Hong Kong Sat am and stay there over night and catch our plane to the US Sunday morning.  Its hard to see all the other families leaving already, but we are just thankful that we got to come in Sept so a few extra days doesn't seem all that bad!  The boys continue to get to know us and we are getting to see more of their personalities come through.  We can't wait to be back home and feel like we can start living every day life as a family of 5.  Here are the last few pics we have from this week.  We would ask for your prayers as we prep for the 15 hour flight from Hong Kong to Chicago.  We aren't sure what to expect from them, but prayers for rest and few diaper changes would be much appreciated!!! Also, please pray for the jet lag for all of us.  We know it will take several weeks to get completely back on schedule, but quicker would be great too!  We will post once we get back home and keep everyone updated on their progress.  Thanks again for all your support!!

Caffrey's hat choice!

Cavin's hat choice!

Fish Watching

Gibson's hat choice!

US Consulate Day