Amazing Love and an Update!!!

Easter season is so amazing and so emotional for me.  Even in thinking about how to write this post, I am still stumped for words because to be honest, I feel like there are no words to even encapsulate what Easter means to us as Christians, or to even truly grasp the reality of the emotions and the situations that Jesus felt and experienced during the last days of His life on Earth.  It is completely overwhelming for me to consider, and it brings me to tears every single time.  Yes, I have to admit, I have become "the crier," in church.  Not sure if there is actually a label for different types of people during praise and worship, but that is what I am.  I find myself often times getting caught up on the words I am singing and the reality of the lyrics that speak of Jesus' death and the price He paid for me, and before I know it, I'm like a leaky faucet.  Jesus Christ came to Earth to die for our sins, and loves us in spite of you fill in the blank here.  All sins. Gone. Forever. All you need to do is ask for His free gift of salvation.  How overwhelming is that!?!?!  Hence the reason for my water works.  Now I'm not writing this to sound like some super awesome better than you type Christian, because that is totally NOT the case.  I think that God's grace has been something that even since becoming a mom I have just been taken back by.  I know I'm not anywhere close to being the perfect Christian, wife, mom, etc., but I know that there is grace waiting for me at the foot of the cross, and that grace is sufficient for me.

On another note, I have some adoption news!  Man, that was not a smooth transition!  As you know, we submitted our I800A form several weeks ago to US Immigration, and part of the process is getting fingerprinted...again.  So, tomorrow the Mister and I are heading to Columbus to get our fingerprints taken and to get all of our documents authenticated by the Secretary of States' office that we have gathered, gotten notarized, and gotten certificates for from the county clerk of courts stating that our notaries who notarized them are in fact notaries.  Yes, it was a looong process...and to be honest, I am completely paranoid about having to let those sweet little pieces of paper out of my sight when we will have to send out our dossier to D.C.  Almost considering driving them there myself!  Now, we have been assigned a date for fingerprinting, which is in another week, but I'm working that day, so we are going to press our luck and walk in tomorrow.  Please send prayers our way that they will accept us tomorrow, and that the lady who is in charge at the office, (who I heard is always super grumpy,) is in a great mood tomorrow and doesn't give us any hassle about our changing dates!  Now if we are successful in the fingerprinting tomorrow, I'm told this won't speed up our I800A approval, so I'm hoping we can have this by mid-May, and still be able to send our dossier to China by the first part of June..ahem....which also happens to be the exact time in which China is expecting this document to arrive from us.  We also got an application out this week for a project we are hoping to be approved for to help us to raise funds to bring our little man home.  It is an awesome opportunity to serve others while helping our little guy as well, so please pray for our request to be approved for the project.  I will unveil more soon!  Also, please continue to pray for our sweet boy as well.  This mama is growing more and more anxious as the days pass!  I have never in my life wanted to wish away the summer like I do now!

It's Outta Here!!!!

Guess what was waiting for me after work on Monday??? If you guessed a notarized copy...ahem, four copies of our home study, you are CORRECT!!  I would've jumped up and down and yelled, but even in my exhausted and worn out state, I knew that that would've potentially woken sleeping children, and we all know what happens when that happens!  So I did a silent squeal and a mini celebration dance instead :)  Unfortunately as it relates to getting the home study in a Fed Ex envelope and out the door with our I 800 A application, the kiddos and I were leaving on a Spring Break 2014 road trip to Indiana Tuesday morning.  Naturally, the local Fed Ex store opens after the Mister leaves for work and closes before the Mister gets home from work, so he wouldn't be able to take it while we were away.  The only thing that kept me from delaying our trip is that we were actually missing a few items that needed to be attached to the home study that were sent to our agency instead.  So...off we went to Indiana to have fun with a few of my favs and their cute little kiddos....

Thursday, we got in the car to head home earlier than originally planned just to make it to the Fed Ex location before they closed....and then it hit me.  I NEVER HAD THE MISTER SIGN THE ACTUAL I 800 A APPLICATION!  That is what you call an adoption foul, folks!  So, that is why the littles and I just got that nice little packet in the mail today.

Ok, so this definitely wasn't the picture that I had envisioned posting to the blog to capture our moment of sending off the I 800 A, but you take what you can get around here!  Maybe we will have better luck with our sending off the dossier picture??  Here's hoping at least!

So now we wait, and hopefully that wait remains around the 40ish days or so that it is running now!  With the home study arriving, we are now at the point where we can start applying for grants.  I thought that this was going to be much easier than the paperwork we have completed so far, but let me tell you, they want to know more about our financials than I know ;)  

This is getting to be a really long post, so if you are still with me, I wanted to share how I was able to see a video in which I think our little man is in!  At first I was thinking that I was just hoping it would be him and so I was thinking it was him, but after watching it about a half a million times, I'm over 95% confident that it is him!  Such a wonderful blessing!  The only other video we have of him, he is crying for the majority of the time, so this is a welcomed surprise!  

Finally, we still have two, yes just TWO necklaces available in our second round of our Compelled Designs fundraiser!  It doesn't look like we will order any additional pieces, so this is a last chance, first come, first served opportunity!  Numbers 4 & 5 are the ones up for grabs.  Let me know if you would like one!

Please continue to pray for our little man, and for a quick turnaround with our I 800 A to be processed.  We are still hoping that we are on target to send our dossier to China by the first week or so of June!

Compelled Designs Fundraiser - Part 2......AND....

I am so excited about what came to see me in the mail today!  I truly wish I could answer with our finalized copy of our home study, but the answer today is the additional pieces for our fundraiser from Compelled Designs!  I was seriously like a kid in a candy shop opening them!  All of these beauties are posted below, and are $25 each, which includes $1 for shipping.  If you are local, they are $24.  They would make wonderful Mother's Day gifts, or birthday presents, or just because gifts...ok, you get the point!  There are only 7 that I'm posting, because I have had 3 of the 10 pieces sell before they even arrived in my hot little hands!  Yippee!  These were all of my China specific pieces, but the good news is, I still do have two pieces specific to Africa, so if you are an adoptive mama of a little from Africa, or know of someone who is, these are perfect for them!  As with the last ones, the verse references that are listed on the back side of the pieces are below the item number.  Let me know if you have any questions!  

In adoption news...well...we wait.  I am told that our home study is currently in the process of approval from our agency, and that we should be hearing news within the next few days, but I am growing very, very impatient.  Our home study has been completed now for nearly a month and a half, and it is literally beginning to drive me insane.  Every day that goes by that we don't receive that copy of our home study is one more day that our sweet little man has to live in an orphanage without us, and one more day that we have to endure without him.  

**I'm interrupting this post to let everyone know that as I was typing the above words, I received an email from my agency, saying that our final home study has been approved, and was instructing our social worker to send the final copy to us ASAP!!!***  Whooo hooo!!!  Praise the Lord!** 

I guess with the above being said, now we will wait for our sweet little mailman to bring us our home study, and then promptly grab kindly take that hot little envelope from his hands and run to Fed Ex as quickly as possible to send out the I 800 A!  Everything for our I 800 A is ready to go, so literally all we have to do is add the home study to that envelope and send it out!  

Please be praying first and foremost for our little man, for his safety and protection, and also for our home study to arrive as quickly as possible, and for the I 800 A processing to go quickly and smoothly.  The clock is ticking!!!!

Now without further adieu, the Compelled Design pieces!!!

3 Days!!!!

3 DAYS!  That was all it took to have ALL of the pieces in our jewelry fundraiser SOLD!  Yay!  We have such awesome family and friends!  A huge thank you to all of you who purchased from us!  There were a few people who wanted to purchase but didn't have the chance because everything went so quickly.  I am partnering with Compelled Designs again and throwing out an additional 10 pieces up for grabs!  They will be a different mix, including pieces specific to China and Africa!  The Chinese pieces will be identical to the piece I had specifically requested in the fundraiser that was my early Mother's Day present.

Here she is.....

Oh I loved it the moment I saw it!  The heart lies exactly over the area where our little man is from.  Be still by beating heart!  I love it!  I will post the new round of jewelry as soon as I have them in.  Eek! 

I wish I had super exciting news as far as our home study report being finalized, but unfortunately we wait.   Please be praying for it to be finalized within the next few weeks so we can send out our I 800 A.  The good news is that I was told by our agency that it has been taking 90 days to process the I 800 A, but I have recently been seeing that for most people this time has been reduced by nearly half!  Praying that this will be the case for us!  Hopefully we will have an update on this soon!!!

Compelled Designs Jewelry Fundraiser!!!!!

As I had mentioned in my previous post from earlier today, I won a drawing for a jewelry fundraising kit from Compelled Designs to raise money to bring our little man home!  I'm sooooo over the moon excited about this opportunity!  Each piece will be sold for $25, which includes $1 towards the cost of shipping, (unless you are local of course.)  They are beautiful pieces, and far exceeded my expectations!  As soon as I laid eyes on them, I was in love!  Each piece has a Bible verse reference on the back, so if you are interested in knowing which verse corresponds with a specific piece, let me know!  Best way to get in touch with me is via email at theschaadts@hotmail.com, or via Facebook message.  These are first come, first serve people, so don't wait!

Home Study Completed and a SURPRISE!

Happy 2014 everyone!  2013 of course closed out for us in a very exciting way, and now 2014 is off to a very exciting start as well!  We completed our home study last week, so now we wait for the actual home study report to be finalized...which *hopefully* will be by the end of this month.  As soon as that hot little thing is in our hands I will be jumping up and down for a few reasons.  First of all, that gives us the green light to send in our I 800 A approval, which is a document required by US immigration.  It is an application to adopt a child from a certain group of countries, which China is one of them.  I am currently working on filling out this application because it needs to go out seriously like the day after we get our home study report!  Our agency told us this week that immigration has been running about 90 days on processing these applications, which is making me a little bit very nervous!  Our dossier has to be to China by the first week of June, so if we got the I 800 A into immigration by the first part of March, we would only be sitting a month short of our deadline by the time we received it back from them in May.  Again, I'm really concerned that the home study report will not be finalized by the end of this month, so we will be pushed much, much closer to the first part of June than I care to admit!  Nevertheless, we are moving along and gathering all of the documents that we need for the dossier gathered and notarized, so we are good there!

Something else very exciting happened this past month as well!  One of our new found adoption family friends who are also in the area AND adopting a little guy from China, the Whitacre's....well, more specifically Jessi Whitacre, (you can find info about their adoption journey here,) posted about a contest from Compelled Designs, an awesome pottery jewelry company that specifically works with families and groups to raise funds for things like adoption and missions trips, on her Facebook page.  I figured, why not register for the contest as well? Well I'm glad I did because I WON!!!!!  Whooo hooo!  What does that mean?  It means that I was sent a great selection of awesome pottery jewelry to sell to raise funds to bring our little man home!  Yippee!  My little package arrived yesterday and I was super excited!  I mean, just look at these awesome pieces!  You know you want one...or two...

So how do you acquire one of these glorious gems you ask?  I will be creating a separate posting for them individually listed later, (either today or tomorrow,) with numbers for each.  Each piece is $25 each, which includes $1 for shipping.  If you are local, you can save yourself the $1 :)  What is super awesome about these necklaces is that they are beautiful, each has a Bible verse reference on the back, AND...ALL of the $24 goes straight towards our adoption!  Can you tell I am just a little excited about this?  Michael is begging you all to help him out and to buy these pieces, because honestly, I wouldn't mind keeping every last one of them for myself!  Obviously counterproductive!

Thank you all for your continued prayers and support!  We are so thankful and grateful that we have such wonderful friends and family to walk this journey with us!  Again, please continue to pray for our sweet little man, and for a quick turnaround of our home study report!

It's official!!! We are expecting!!

I told you I would have BIG news soon, didn't I???  We got our PA (Pre-Approval,) from China last week, so basically what that means is that China acknowledges that we are interested in our little man, and now the clock is ticking to get that all encompassing, mother of all documents, (AKA: Dossier,) to China within six months.  Six months may sound like a loooooong time people, but trust me, right now it feels like it's going to take me a good 4 1/2 months just to get all of my required documents together and notarized.  UGH!  I already hate the word notarized.  Makes me think of the movie, The Lion King, where they say the word Mufasa, and the hyenas shiver....yep, same concept for me and notarized :)  

Other news...we also started our home study tonight!  YAY!  Visit numero uno is under our belts!  It was actually really sweet.  The first thing our little lady asked our social worker was where our little man was (referring to him by the name given to him through our agency.)  Our social worker of course had no idea what she was talking about, but it was adorable!  I told her she had to wait a bit more before he can come home to be with her!  Since the holidays are quickly coming upon us, our remaining visits will be scheduled in January, which is fine by me. We were happy just to get started this month!  

So now that I have kept you all in suspense long enough, I'm guessing you would like to meet the newest member of the Schaadt family, right???  

Ahhhh the cuteness!!!!  That face gets me every.single.time.  I can't wait to love all over those precious little cheeks!!!!  We are over the moon thrilled that we are matched with this little one.  Definitely couldn't have asked for a better Christmas present this year...that's for sure!

Now that we are matched, I feel as though, and know from other families' experiences, that the wait now is torturous.  Please be praying for our sweet little man who is so far away from us, and also for our strength as well.  

Merry Christmas and many blessings this holiday season!!!