We Have a Court Date!

Life has been crazy around here preparing for our little guy, school starting back, and trying to get us all in a routine. We have had some great things happen in these past few months!

For starters, we found out in the middle of July that we would be able to Skype with our little man in August and September. We were so excited that we would be able to finally 'meet' him even if it was from the other side of a computer screen. I would get to meet my sweet little boy. I was pumped! Now, I'm not going to say that the excitement wasn't mixed with some nervousness as well. What would we do for the hour or so with a six year old little boy sitting on the other side of a screen in an office? Would we be funny enough to hold his attention or remember to ask him questions that would help keep him interested? Would he even want to sit there and look at us while we talked with him? Who are these weird people he was talking to anyways? I wanted to high-five him, hug him (if he would let me), sit with him, smell his little boy smell,  and just be with him when we first met. With all of that going through my brain I decided that yes it may be slightly awkward getting to know each other through a computer screen, but how awesome is it that we would be able to communicate with our little man? I am so thankful we had the opportunity to 'visit' with him and the technology in order to do so on the other side of the world.

We 'met' for the first time on August 6th and a second time on August 25th. Normally we would Skype once per month but we had to move July's date to the beginning of August. It was the sweetest thing to put a voice and behaviors to the pictures we had been receiving since the beginning of the year.  He is the sweetest little man, and I cannot wait to see him again next week on Skype!

His social worker asked us what his English name would be, and we told her we wanted to name him Andrew. She then wrote it down for him and he proudly picked it up and showed it to us. He is the sweetest. 

We also found out on Friday, September 12th that we have a court date in Taiwan for the beginning of October!!

In a little over two weeks we will be able to finally meet our sweet little man! We are so excited! We will arrive in Taiwan, meet him the very next day, and then Ken and I will go to court the day after that. Hopefully we will be able to visit with him more after the court date, but we will see.

Originally, we were told we would not travel to Taiwan for court but would hear the results of the decree. Then we were told that the judge might want us to Skype for the court hearing. Then we found out the judge wanted us in the courtroom. Taiwan has changed various things recently and some judges are ok with the parents not being there for court while others want the adoptive parents in the courtroom. Honestly, I am excited to be able to be there in the courtroom. We were in the courtroom for Luke so it would feel weird not doing the same for Andrew.

So after the court date we will have to travel home and will wait a few months until we can go back to bring him home. Hopefully in December. I wish we could stay until all of the paperwork in between court and bringing him home is completed, but unfortunately we will have to leave our sweet little man for a short while until we can come back. I'm sure my heart will be so sad when we have to get on that plane but I cannot wait until we all step off the plane for the last time.

Will you pray for our little man as he continues to wait and for the transition that is ahead for him as he leaves all that he knows? Will you also pray for the trip to Taiwan and our court date? We are so excited about all the Lord has in store and we are so thankful for you following along with us on our journey to our little man.

Adoption Pancake Breakfast and Yard Sale

It's hard to believe a week has flown by since the event and my posting about it has been lacking! Our gratitude is definitely not lacking though!!  We received overwhelmingly generous support and gifts that the yard sale and pancake breakfast alone raised enough to cover a round trip ticket to Taiwan! We are excited to announce that we raised almost $2,300! We are so very thankful to everyone who came out, bought treasures, and ate pancakes with us!! It was such a fun event and something we have never done before. We had yard sale items coming out of everywhere both outside and inside. I was inside helping run the pancake breakfast most of the time but was able to snap a few pictures on my phone from the event.

The Lord is so faithful and provided above what we imagined financially and also through sweet friends who helped us set up and take down the event! With the help of a really special lady, Mrs. Shirl, the yard sale went very smoothly. She went above and beyond to help us with everything! We are so thankful for her, our church family, and friends that came out to help the day of the sale. We would not have been able to do it without their help!

We also found out more exciting news this week!!

We have been waiting on dates to meet our new little guy on Skype. Well, we found out this past Tuesday that our first of three Skype visits will be the first week of August!! We are so excited to be able to 'meet' and talk with him on Skype. I am so, so excited to see his sweet little face 'live' that I can hardly stand it!!

We are still waiting on a court date and will hopefully find out about that within the next few months. 

Will you please pray for our little man as he waits and the transition he will be going through? Thank you so much for following along with us on our journey to Taiwan. We cannot wait to see what The Lord has in store. 

Beautiful Mess

The Yard Sale and Pancake Breakfast fundraiser is THIS WEEKEND!!! 

We have been blown away by the generosity of so many people donating items to be sold at the sale. I am so very thankful for all of the donations and especially for sweet friends helping get the word out! We have even had many people donate whom we had never met before and it has been so encouraging to see their love for children in hard places. I have also made connections with other adoptive mommas who have have kiddos from other asian countries. I love how the Lord works in all aspects of adoption. It is so amazing to step back and see all that he is doing!

For the past few weeks we have been cleaning, tagging, and boxing items. My house and garage are bursting at the seams with this beautiful mess. Im not gonna lie, if someone came and took pictures of the inside of our house, you would think we were prime candidates for one of the hoarders shows. Every morning when I wake up, I walk out of my room and almost freak out because a). My brain doesn't function in the morning and b). I seem to forget every single morning that during this preparation stage my house is a hot mess. I am so thankful for that hot mess and cannot wait to see how the Lord uses a garage sale and pancake breakfast to help bring our sweet little guy home! 

ALSO! We found out yesterday that Lifesong has allowed us to go through them so that our supporters will be able to write checks tax-deductible! This is a huge blessing! So if any of you out there would love to help give financially, you will be able to do so tax deductible.  We are in the process to raise money for the rest of our agency fee ($2,500) and our round-trip plane tickets to Taiwan ($8,000 estimate) and are praying that the Yard Sale and Pancake breakfast will help put a good dent in these costs. 

If you would like to give, here are some guidelines we received on how to do so:

• Checks should be payable to “Lifesong for Orphans. In the memo, note Lovett #4703 to assure it goes to the correct account. Please mail to Lifesong for Orphans, PO Box 40, Gridley, IL 61744. Lifesong has been blessed with a partner that underwrites all U.S. administrative and fund-raising costs (TMG Foundation and other partners). That means 100% of your donation will go directly to the adoption. 

• To pay online go to www.lifesongfororphans.org/give/donate. Select “Give to an Adoptive Family.” Complete the online form and fill in “Family Account Number” (#4703) and “Family Name” (Lovett) fields. Note PayPal charges an administrative fee (about 2.9%). Your donation will be decreased by the amount of this fee.

• NOTE: In following IRS guidelines, your donation is to the named non-profit organization. This organization retains full discretion over its use, but intends to honor the donor’s suggested use. “Individual donations $250 or more and yearly donations totaling $250 or more will receive a tax-deductible receipt. Receipts for donations under $250 will gladly be sent upon request. Lifesong is a 501(c)3 tax exempt organization. 

Come One, Come All!

Well friends, we are planning an adoption fundraiser that is quickly approaching! We are planning to have a large joint yard sale and pancake breakfast July 12th and we would LOVE for you to join with us in the effort to bring our sweet little guy home from Taiwan! 

There are so MANY ways you can help! 

For those of you who live close by, we would LOVE to come by and pick up any items that you were cleaning out of your house and wanted to get rid of. Let us be your 'junk' pick-up! Always remember one man's trash is another man's treasure!  If you have anything you would like to get rid of, please feel free to message me at lovettadoption (at) Gmail (dot) com or through Facebook and the blog!

Also, for those who live close by, I would love to invite you to join us for the pancake breakfast. I would love to see you there!

For those of you that live far away (and close by), we would love for you to join with us in praying for our little guy who is waiting in Taiwan. Please pray for him and the transition he will be making, that the Lord would continue to meet the needs of our sweet little guy, and that he would be comforted during the waiting stage. Would you also join with us in praying for the fundraiser and for our family as we await the arrival of our new little guy?

We are so thankful for how the Lord has worked throughout this adoption and cannot wait for what He has in store! Thank you for following along with us on this journey. 

Waiting on a Court Date

Welcome to the blog where the updates are few and far between. Not really how I envisioned blogging about our second sweet little guy to go down. I could list out all of my excuses of how the business of life so easily creeps in and why the blogging took a back seat. But that is not for right now.

I am so glad to be updating you with all of the exciting things that have been going on over the past few months since my last post.

In March, we received the packet of paperwork we needed from Taiwan so we could gather other documents and send them to TECO (Taipei Economic and Cultural Office) in Atlanta. The TECO office is where you send all of you important adoption documents, they approve them,  put their stamp of approval on each document, and send them back so they can be sent directly to Taiwan.

But, before all of those documents could be sent to TECO, most of them needed to be notarized, then taken down to the county clerk office where they could authenticate the notary (make sure the notary is legit), and finally to the Secretary of State's office at the state capital where the documents were apostilled (approved by the state). At the end of it all, each original document had two documents stapled on top. One from the County Clerk and one from the Secretary of State.

The important documents were basically what other countries would call the dossier. We sent the following to the TECO office on April 8th: Adoption contract, power of attorney, affidavit, different agreements, our home study, marriage certificate, medical forms, background checks, employment letter, financial form, and a copy of our I-171A which is our international adoption approval.

We received all of the documents back from TECO around April 15th, signed a few things, and sent them to Taiwan the next day.

All of these fine details are mostly for me to remember and to help others interested in Taiwan adoptions know what and how we did all of the paperwork. I feel like I just wrote a long detailed to do list. But!

All you need to know now is that...

We are currently waiting for the above documents to be translated. When they are translated,

We will be waiting for a COURT DATE!

It feels so close!!

The waiting stage is always the longest and hardest part of the whole journey. But I am so thankful when I receive unexpected little updates in my inbox. In the adoption world, at least for me, adoption updates about your child are almost like going in for an ultrasound. Hopefully that helps with the excitement about opening an email and finding "The Update." That concept is new for me and is completely different from our first adoption where we didn't know anything about our little guy until after we traveled. Both ways are fun and always an adventure. We love hearing about how he is doing and so thankful he is doing well, as far as we can tell, from the pictures and documents.

Y'all. I wish I could show you all of his sweet pictures we have received over these months. He is absolutely adorable! He has the sweetest smile. Luke loves to hear all about his little brother and how he is doing when we get the updates here and there. Luke will be such a sweet older brother.

Enjoy some pictures from the day we mailed our paperwork to TECO!

Standing in front of the capital. Took my little guy all around town, to the County Clerk office, and then to the Secretary of State's office at the capital. He was such a trooper and little helper!! He loved touring the capital and seeing all of the cool rooms. 

Luke had to have his picture with his good friend Abe. 

There is also a statue of Abraham Lincoln at our favorite park we visit in our town 

and he loves to pay him a visit.  

Luke: "Mom, please take a picture of me playing the guitar at the Capital!" I love this kid!

Ended the day back in our town at the Fed Ex office. 

Such a good feeling to mail that package off!

We are Adopting!

Well, hello there blog world. It’s been a long time. When I started this blog at the beginning of our son’s adoption I had planned to keep it up. For me to remember all the events going on and to give you an inside scoop of our lives. As I opened up my blog last night I realized it has been almost two years, yes two years, since I last posted. Maybe one day when I have time I will catch up on that two year black hole. But for now, for those of you who are still out there, I wanted to let you know about something exciting about to go down at the Lovett house.  

We are adopting again!

I know some of you might have questions and have been wondering about this because of different posts on Facebook/Instagram/Twitter about the little boy we hosted last summer. So because of that I will write a little about what happened last year. Everyone likes a little transparency so here I go and hopefully I can keep it quick and to the point. In January (2013), we found out about an eight year old little boy from the Ukraine who needed a family and could be hosted for six weeks over the summer. We were excited and a little nervous about this opportunity but jumped on board.  We started our home study back in February and completed it in early March of last year to start the process to be paper ready for him. We also started our I-600A (paperwork to be approved to adopt internationally) in the spring of 2013.

Then in the summer, we were able to host him. Hosting is a great avenue for orphans to visit another country for a few weeks and experience life out of the orphanage and love from a family. To be honest we had not been very familiar with hosting till last year. I had heard a little bit about it at the adoption conferences I went to but didn’t know anyone who had ever hosted. We are glad we were able to experience hosting and give this little guy a fun summer and an opportunity to be out of the orphanage. After the summer hosting, we sent in another petition asking about him and found out he was no longer on the adoption registry. We are not really sure what exactly happened, but what we do know is that we sent in a petition checking on his status in January, found out he was on the registry for adoption, and then sometime in between was taken off. We then decided, sadly, we could no longer move forward.  That was a strange and sad time. But we are so thankful for the couple who hosted him December of 2012 was able to host him again this past Christmas. So even though he is not able to be adopted, he still has the opportunity to get out of the orphanage life for a little bit each year.

So after that door was closed, in the fall we asked our agency about a little six-year-old boy on the waiting child list for Taiwan. We have a heart for older kiddos who need a mommy and daddy and our hearts were pulled toward this little guy. After months of intense questioning from the orphanage, paper work, and emails…

We found out on December 20, 2013 that we are matched with him!! Being matched means that after Taiwan has looked extensively over our file and life, they have decided we are a good fit for this little boy. 

Matched!

We are going to be parents again. We are going to be his parents.

I would have posted this news earlier last year but I wasn't sure how it would all work out and life has been crazy since December. But I am so excited and wanted to share this great news with you!

I ask that you please pray for us as we get ready to bring this little guy home and please pray for him as he is waiting in the orphanage.  

Right now we are waiting on some paperwork from Taiwan in which we will fill out and send back for court. We are also waiting on an updated I-600A because we switched countries from Ukraine to Taiwan.

I will be posting often from here on out so you will be able to follow us on this journey.

We are excited to begin this adoption journey and so thankful for sweet friends to share it with. 

MDiv Graduation Weekend

Wow. I cannot believe this day had finally come! We moved up here to go to seminary in the fall of 2008 and had no clue really about the area and what we would do for jobs. Thankfully the Lord provided jobs and a great place to live next to friends we knew from our hometown. Shout out to Kevin and Laura Webb! Our first Fall in Louisville they had what they called a 'windstorm' which knocked out power for about 300,000 people for a few weeks. The windstorm was a result of high winds left over from a hurricane from down in the Gulf. As crazy as it was, I found it kind of amusing that we left Mobile, AL, where hurricanes occur pretty regularly, to up here where hurricanes are never heard of. It was almost like it followed us up here. Then, in January, we had what they called a 'ice storm' that knocked out power for a few weeks again to about 300,000 people as well. Both times the locals told us something like that never happens up here and thankfully both times we were not part of the 300,000. Ken was out of school for a week or so both times so we had a crazy start to our new beginning.

We have grown so much here during our time here at the seminary. The Lord has shown us so much about himself and all the ways that he provides for his children. I am also so thankful for all of our friends that the Lord has placed in our path. They are so dear to us and have been such an encouragement to us during our time here.

We also love the local scene and all of the amazing restaurants. We love the atmosphere of the town and all of the fun things to do here. This place has amazing parks, great attractions and great shopping! The shopping is great because if you can't find something at one store, you just go to the other location. This comes from a chick who grew up in a small town in Alabama. So to me, this is wonderful! I have grown to love this place more than any other place I have lived.

I am so thankful we are going to stay on for Ken to complete his Ph.D. So stay tuned for graduation part II, Ph.D. style. :)

Enjoy all of our pictures from the graduation weekend! All of our family was able to come to help us celebrate and we were so thankful for that! My sister-in-law's brother also graduated on this weekend so her family was able to come up as well. We had such a fun time with everyone here!

At the President's house the day before graduation. Pardon my dress. I think I was still excited about Jamaica.

Matthew, Emily and Aaron (Emily's brother).

Sweet cousins!

We went to the Waterfront park to play before we ate supper. Everyone had so much fun!

Luke's cousin Greyson. This kid is always cracking me up! He is hilarious. 

Luke as Superman!

 Aunt Mary having the time of her life. ;) 

Round up the kids, Ken.

Sunset on the river at the restaurant!

I love this town!

Before graduation.

It was so hot this day that the programs had more than one use!

Kens family...minus Adeline. Not sure where she was for this picture.

Reach for it...

Congrats babe!  I am so proud of you!!

Thankful for the tent the seminary provided to escape the heat. 

Whoo hoo!

Luke is so proud of his Daddy!

I think he is making fun of us!?

My family

Ken's family. So sad we did not get a picture with Ken's sister and family! I think everyone was recovering from the heat under the tent.

So excited we have at least one picture with Ken and his sister and parents! Next graduation we will include everyone!! :) 

My sweet niece Adeline.

Emily and her mom. 

Sistas

Threw my man a little graduation party after the ceremony.