Celebrate Adoption! and more!

First of all, let me just say, GOD. IS. AMAZING.  And second, let me say once again, a giant THANK YOU to all the wonderful people who helped us make Celebrate Adoption! a success!!  If you contributed auction items, helped set/clean up, served dinner, or shared your heart, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!  It really was such an amazing night, and it happened almost exactly the way I imagined it would.

There were a lot more auction items than this!  Most were sold, but I still have a few things left.  I'll post them on here soon, if anyone wants to buy them!

The food was fantastic!  Friends of ours were wonderful enough to prepare it all, except the cookies.  Those were baked by my aunts, sister-in-law, and friends.  For dinner we had chicken adobo, fried rice, green beans with sesame seeds, and fruit salad.  And bread, "from America," as my son described it. :)

 Mia sang "When Love Takes You In" by Steven Curtis Chapman.

 Robin shared about their adoption of their daughter from Russia.

 Debbie shared her story of growing up in foster care and being adopted.  Then she sang "Your Grace Still Amazes Me" by Philips, Craig, and Dean.

 Tom and Teresa talked about their adoption of a boy from Haiti that is still in progess.  They showed a video of Haiti and the children in the orphanage they are adopting from.

 Gianna shared her passion for adoption and challenged everyone to consider giving a child a home.  After that we showed a video that I made.  Sorry, I am not going to post it here.  But trust me, it was good! :)

Then Jason shared his story of being adopted.  Even though no one talked to each other beforehand about what they were going to say, the theme of the night was clearly that God has a plan for each of our lives, and that He allows circumstances to make us into the people He wants us to be.  He puts orphans into the perfect family for them, to accomplish His purpose for their lives.  It was really beautiful the way everyone's story shared a common theme, without any advanced planning.  Finally, Debbie came back and sang "Orphans of God" by Avalon, while many friends and family gathered to pray for us.  I don't have any pictures of that, because Gianna, my photographer, was the first one out of her seat to pray for us! :)  It was a wonderfully special moment.
Then everyone who won their auction item paid up, and other people simply gave.  I still have to figure out how much I spent on food and such, but we definitely raised over $2500!

And most importantly, at least one other family has already decided to adopt!!

So, in a nut shell, the Gospel was preached, God was glorified, adoption was celebrated, and we are one step closer to bringing our little guy home!

Now, the more part of the post!  So, when Tom was talking about their adoption, he spoke about how their little boy fits perfectly into their family.  I started to freak out, and wonder if James was going to fit perfectly in our family, if he was really meant to be our son.  Fast forward to last night.  I'd been waiting for the foster family that is taking care of James to update their quarterly newsletter. (Since we are not yet officially matched, information is hard to come by!  And once we are matched, we still are not allowed contact with the foster parents; everything must go through the adoption board.)  They talk about all the different things they do on their island, one of them being their foster home.  Specifically, James.  He is currently the only foster child in the home.  Anyway, when I checked last night, there it was!  I got to the Baby Home section, and read that James is healthy, he loves books and coloring, cars and big trucks.  But his favorite thing of all: baseball!!  If you know anything about our family, you know that Aedan is obsessed with baseball!  Just like his daddy :)  They said that James likes to watch baseball on tv, that he copies the pitcher and batter, which is exactly what Aedan used to do.  He has his own small glove, can catch and throw, and is learning to bat.  I was so excited, I woke Jason up to tell him!  And I told Aedan first thing this morning.  He was equally excited at the idea of having another baseball playmate.  I am so thankful to the Lord for reassuring me, when I hadn't really even asked Him to!  And I'm thankful that we bought James his own Pirates shirt when we bought the other two theirs!!  And now I know what kind of bedding to buy him, too!  We already have baseball curtains in the boys' room, so it will fit nicely!

Now we just need our I800 to be approved so we can get our official match.  It should be about 3 months after that when we got our travel approval.  Please pray with us for speed and favor with the two governments!!