Images of the Matching Room

I know it's difficult to understand how China Adoptions work. I, myself, just didn't get it when we signed up. We just wanted a daughter! I am so much more educated now than then and I know I have many family and friends that still don't quite understand how it all works. So I found a couple things to help out.
The first link is to Rumor Queen and tells how matching is done. http://chinaadopttalk.com/2006/12/07/how-the-matching-room-works/
Next I've found a blog of a family that was actually allowed to visit the CCAA and see the matching room and take pictures. http://familyoffour.homestead.com/June05CCAA.html
Both are very informative and may help one understand the process a little better. It's important to know that they don't just randomly match you up. They love these children and the best intrests of the child come first. They look at many things and take much into consideration when finding a forever family for their orphans. God Bless them for that.
-JMS

Adoption Rocks

Unanswered Prayers

And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the LORD your God: Deuteronomy 28:2
Just a quick look back at the last few days.... God has been so good to us. Something you wouldn't normally thank God for is 'unanswered prayers' but I thank Him for exactly that this week! It's entirely awesome to see things sorta come full circle and know that things couldn't be this good now if things were the way you prayed for them to be long ago. I don't know if that makes sense to you, but it's making perfect sense to me at this time in my life.
I'm just so thankful and appreciative to God, from whom all blessings flow. He's been really good to my family this week and has released a lot of burdens. How can I do anything less than trust Him completely as our family waits upon Him to unite us with a daughter/sister/granddaughter/niece/aunt(yes, she will come into the family being an aunt!). As excruciating as the wait is, God has blessed me with many wonderful things to keep me content until we meet our Jia. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to You forever. Psalm 30:12
Now I look forward to many exciting things coming up with my youth group at church (Group 180). We will be attending Acquire the Fire for our 3rd year in a row at the end of February, participating in the 30 Hour Famine for the first time at the end of April and going to World Changers in Hannibal Mo. for the first time in July. Besides all these fun activities, I look forward to watching God work in our group this summer and reveal Himself to these kids and seeing lives changed. Keep us in your prayers.
My bank account is empty, but my heart is overflowing! Until next time... JMS

New Friends

Earlier this week, a guy walks into the optometrist office where I am the optician to order new glasses. I knew him when I was in high school and had seen him at church camp last summer when we visited Jacen on family night. Since he was a cabin leader at church camp, I figured he must go to church.... so I asked him where. Anyway I found out his wife is the youth leader at their church and has had a hard time making friends since moving to our town. So I told him it sounded like she and I should get together and share some ideas and get to know one another.
Fast forward a couple of days and his wife calls me and asks if we can go out to supper.
We meet and hit it off immediately. She made the comment that it was like getting ready for a blind date... all nervous and stuff. So we finish eating and the restaurant was freezing, but we weren't ready to call it a night. Having just met, we weren't real sure what was appropriate or what the others were comfortable with. We were all 4 asking, " What would you like to do? Do you want to come to our house? Are you ready to call it a night? ETC..." It truly was like a first date kind of thing. We had to get home because Jadeth was babysitting the younger boys, so we decided they would come to our house. We needed to go get the boys food to take home, so our new friends went to the store and got ice cream to bring over. We ended up having the greatest evening and enjoyed eachother and the conversation immensley.
I just wanted to write about this, because I think it's so awesome how God gets things done and brings lives together. So, Tim and Marcia - here's to a long friendship. We're so thankful God has brought us together with new Christian friends. JMS

Quite a Week!

This has been a heck of a week! The weather has fluctuated between 20's (brrr) and mid 50's! My boys are so confused! Yesterday I drove out of town to get the picture of the awewome sunset and it was such a beautiful day, but today it's cold and snowing/raining. YUCK!
Some of the week has been really hard. I had some dental work done last week and it's still very sore. Jadeth had to have a tooth pulled and will need a bridge this summer. So we're adding up some major dental expenses. The mix between warm weather and slushy rain has made everything a muddy mess. The inside of my car, all our shoes, in and around our front door... all of it is a muddy mess! It's frustrating as I don't like things dirty! So between not feeling well, bad news at the dentist, the mud, the adoption wait... all of it has taken it's toll.
BUT! We do have dental insurance and they while they pay only 50% on crowns and such, it's better than nothing! The mud will soon pass and eventually give way to a gorgeous spring here in the Midwest. For now it can serve as a reminder of how dirty and messy our lives can be and how desperately we're in need of Jesus to 'clean us up'.
Some other good news is that our Adoption Agency has gotten a new list of Waiting Children and will possibly be getting smaller lists more randomly than just 3-4 big lists each year! We've requested to view a file from the last 2 lists, but were not selected. Our agency does a 'random draw' from all the requests. Anyway, maybe we'll find our daughter this way. Keep us in your prayers!
I have so much to be thankful for including an awesome husband who has taken over while I've not felt well, happy & healthy kids, a great job including wonderful co-workers and a warm home. That last one you may take for granted, but we do have friends who are the house parents for a new Childrens Home in our area. Until the home is filled with children, the board of directors has ordered them to keep the heat at 61 degrees. BRRR... This irritates me because they do have children of their own and I bet the board members have their thermostats higher than that. Anyway... those are some of the many things I'm thankful for today. HEAT. JMS

Wordless Wednesday

And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory." Isaiah 6:3

Where to Start...

I wanted to start this blog for many reasons. #1 being I wanted to document our wait for our daughter in China. I wanted a place to share what's going on in our lives so that one day, when we have a referral, I can look at the date our daughter was born and say "Oh! I remember what we were doing that day". I wanted a place to write about how we feel while we wait for this precious addition to our family. I wanted a place for our family and friends to get updates now and eventually when we're in China.
I've never blogged before, and I'm already frustrated because I can't figure out how to add wallpaper to my background and make my blog 'pretty'. But I happen to know a LOT of techno smart teenagers who can help me down the road! Evidently I have many months ahead of me to get this figured out as China referrals are barely trickling in right now.
So settle in, stay awhile, get to know our family and follow our....'journey to Jia'!