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!