Happy Birthday Sweet Boy

To our sweet boy,

Today is your fourth birthday.  We sent you a cake, so prayerfully you will get it around your birthday.  We do not know if you ever celebrated your birthday or understand the fun of being a new age.  We do not even know if someone left a note so you know your true birthday, or if someone chose this day because it was a good guess.  We know that God knows when you were created and when you were born and He celebrated you. 

Although I am happy that you are reaching a new milestone, it makes me so sad that we have missed four years of your life now.  I wish it wasn't that way, but all we can do now is look to the future and plan to always make your birthdays special, as well as each day we are blessed enough to get to spend with you.  

I also think about another mom somewhere in China.  Does she get sad every year around now missing you and wondering how you are doing?  Does she wonder if you are still in China, or if you have been adopted somewhere?  Does she think about the situation around your birth and the six months that she got to spend with you?  I wish that I could at least put some of her worries to rest and let her know that you are going to be part of a family.  Maybe someday we will be able to make this happen with God's help.

Someday we will get to tell you how on your fourth birthday we were already making plans for you and praying for you and we already loved you as a part of our family.  Someday we can tell you that when you turned four, we were finishing up our dossier paperwork and praying that things would go speedily and that we could go and get you in record time.  We can tell you that we thought about you when you turned four in China at midnight, and again around 7 am when we thought you might be waking up, and again when you would be eating lunch and then we celebrated you on the date of your birth in America.  Someday we can talk to you and help you to celebrate the joy of your birthday, as well as help you deal with any sadness of this day that makes you think about all of the questions you have about the parents that you knew the day that you were born.  We know you won't get to celebrate with the family who has been with you since birth like your sisters do and I'm so sorry that you have already had loss and sadness in your little life. 

Know though, sweet boy, that we are celebrating you!  We are thankful to God for you!  We are so grateful that you were brought into this earth four years ago today and we pray that God gives you a peace and a joy today in knowing that you are loved and wanted.  Happy Birthday!!

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.   I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.   Psalm 139:13-14

March Fundraiser

Happy Halfway Through March!  We are still promoting our T-shirt fundraiser to celebrate Jenn's 40th birthday month.  We have had friends, family and friends of friends and family help us out in this way, and we have already made a little over $100!  Thank you so much to everyone who has purchased a shirt, and if you haven't, please feel free to take a look at what is being sold on the site.  You do have to order through our link:

www.adoptionbug.com/ryanfamilyroundup

So, in adoption news, we received our PA, so we were approved to send our little one care packages!  We probably would have waited to send him a package, but his fourth birthday is next week, so we wanted to send him a package and add-on a cake for him.  From what we hear, most children in orphanages do not celebrate their birthday, so we wanted to be able to show him a picture of the earliest birthday that we could and when you send a cake the orphanage is required to send back pictures so that they show that they are using the money that was sent for the cake that you ordered.  We didn't know if we would be able to get his package sent to him this month, but the lady in China who sends the packages got back to us right away and sent out the package a day later!  Mind you, this also included her translating our 500 word letter! 

So, I looked at a variety of blogs to see what people send their child in a package.  We used a package service that our agency recommended which saves us on shipping and she purchases the items in China.  So, we were able to send a letter to him and we also included a letter for the people who take care of him, we added on a six photo book of each of us, him and our family, we added on a reading book for him because he might as well get used to looking at books if he's going to be in this family, we included a camera and film for the workers, and then we added on the birthday cake for him. 

I can't even imagine what he will be thinking when he gets these items.  I've been praying so much that God would help him to be excited and not nervous, and that people around him will explain things to him and help him to understand the huge change that will be coming up in his life.  I don't know if he has seen other children get packages or what the caretakers tell the children about adoption.  I love finding ways to help children understand things, and it is very difficult that I can't even help with the process to explain to our own son what is going to happen to him and to help prepare him for the biggest change of his little life.  It's teaching me such reliance on God, because I have to trust that God is preparing him and bringing people to him that will help him until we can get there and love on him and help his transition.

We are almost done with our dossier paperwork and we had our last homestudy visit, so prayerfully we are planning to get everything mailed in during April.  We also have some fun fundraisers coming up in the coming months including an amazing virtual 5K that our great friend is setting up for us.  We are also beginning to apply for grants, although most of them need a completed home study for us to be eligible.  I can't even express how excited we all are!  We have started studying Mandarin and I even bought him his first hawaiian shirt last week and his very first homeschool book today! 

Thank you so much to everyone for prayers and support!!

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.  Hebrews 11:1 (Although I would encourage everyone to read all of Hebrews 11)