Fully Funded!

"And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus." (Phil.4:19)

When we started this journey back in March, one of the obstacles in moving ahead was finances. We are, by no means, struggling to provide for our family but certainly didn't have an extra $32,000 laying around. That chunk of change seemed like good reason to keep pushing the idea of adopting out of my head. But God convicted us on a deeper level. Not only had he softened our hearts for his ministry of adoption but he vividly confirmed that he would provide in all things, even the finances needed to fund this adoption. We seriously had no idea how we were going to pay for it. My pride stood in the way of wanting to fundraise. The only other way was to deplete our savings and borrow the rest. Although debt is very unbiblical and not something we want to touch, I was able to rationalize the idea. The debt was for good reason, right? God forgives us if we're borrowing for a good cause! Um, not really. God spoke to us very clearly in March and helped us to understand that not only was going in to debt wrong but it was unnecessary. We knew, through prayer, that He was going to provide every dollar we needed. And he did! Of course he did.

Through generous donations, rainy day savings, Adoption Doughnut Day, t-shirt sales, Tales & Ales, Orphan Awareness event at Terra Bella, Saints tickets raffle, and lifestyle adjustments, we managed to raise $30,435! Because we received some unexpected Christmas gifts, we are able to apply the remaining $1,565 needed towards our adoption fund. To say we are overwhelmed would be the understatement of the year. All because of God's abundant grace, our adoption is fully funded at $32,000!

God also cleansed me of my pride in not wanting to accept help. God is a God who longs for us to depend on him. He created us to be in relationship, to be encouragers and providers to one another. We are his hands and feet on earth and by being prideful about accepting help, we would be denying our brothers and sisters in Christ (and God himself) the opportunity to be involved in this ministry! Your donations and all that you have shared with us come directly from the ultimate provider himself. He has worked through your hearts and hands to be a part of bringing Emily home. I praise Him for showing me truth in this, rather than allowing me to remain in my sinful pride. Who am I to decide how God should fund this adoption? Humility. It's a hard lesson to learn, yet a beautiful privilege to experience.

Thanks to so many of you who gladly donated and participated in our fundraisers. We hope the blessing is yours as you realize Christ used you for His glory! May I boldly ask for your continued prayers? We can't bring Mei Mei home without $32,000 but we certainly can't bring her home without your prayers either! Deep gratitude.

"If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!" (Matthew 7:11)

Merry Christmas, Mei Mei

Merry Christmas, baby girl. Wish you were home. We love you...

http://youtu.be/dy8RW6aHXWQ

Saints vs. Buccaneers Tickets Raffle

We have 2 tickets for the December 29th, Saints vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers game, in the Superdome. It's funny how we acquired these. These tickets were donated for the silent auction portion of our Orphan Awareness and Adoption Fundraiser. A lovely family purchased the tickets and then donated them back to us! Very tempting, as Seamus would love to bring Brady to his first Saints game. However, we've decided to raffle them off to help with our adoption expenses. We're almost fully funded, y'all!

Both Saints tickets are Terrace Level, Section 638, Row 17, Seats 1 and 2. We will begin selling the raffle tickets now and will draw the winning ticket at 7:00pm on Friday, Dec. 20th. We are selling the raffle tickets for $5 each or 5 chances for $20. The winner of our drawing wins both tickets, face valued at $164 (really worth more since our Saints are rocking it this season).

If you would like to purchase a chance to win, you can pay a few different ways. The easiest way is to click on the "donate" button on the right of my blog page and pay through your Paypal account or with a credit card (or you can pull up your own account on Paypal and send a donation to lauraloman@yahoo.com). If you are on a mobile device, you must click "view web version" at the bottom of this page, in order to see the "donate" button on the right. If you pay this route, please leave a note with your name and phone number. If you'd rather pay with a check or cash, feel free to drop that in our mailbox anytime before next Friday evening. Or, send me an email at lauraloman@yahoo.com with your name and phone number and I'll email you back with my address where you can mail the payment.

Once raffle tickets are purchased, we will not send you a ticket stub. We will write each raffle entry on a card and will draw from these cards on Friday. We will video the drawing and post on our Facebook page Friday night.

Only 8 days until the drawing... Purchase your chance to win and please help us spread the word! These tickets would make a great Christmas gift! Good luck and GEAUX SAINTS!!!

Random News and Scattered Thoughts

Prepared for a bunch of random thoughts and news? Good, because that's pretty much how my brain is working lately. Random and scattered.

We are currently on day 25 of our LOA wait. I'll briefly recap what this means. 25 days ago we received a PA (pre-approval) from China to adopt Emily. We are now waiting for our LOA (letter of approval) which makes the adoption very official. The LOA wait typically takes anywhere from 2-6 months. We did receive some fabulous news on Wednesday that our dossier (our 1 million page packet telling them who we are) is OOT (out of translation). This is really good news because it's the step within the LOA wait that takes the longest. Once your dossier is OOT, you can expect LOA in about another month. Let me reiterate what I've said in the past... the Lomans will be doing a spastic happy dance when LOA arrives. I'll brief you on future steps as we get there. For now, please pray that our LOA comes quickly. If it does, it's possible we could travel in March, rather than our anticipated April or May timeline! While we wait... more paperwork.

I've begun nesting, as I did with all my pregnancies. Emily's room is coming together and I've even created a baby registry at Target! A precious girlfriend has offered to have a baby shower for me with close friends, in February. It's feeling so real! Also, I've met a missionary who will be traveling back to China in January and she has offered to bring a package back to be delivered for Emily! What a blessing! I plan to include an LSU outfit (can you imagine the cuteness?), a monogrammed dress, medicine, a recordable book, a photo album, and maybe a soft lovie. I may pack myself in the box so I can get my hands on our baby girl!

We did hear some really sad news yesterday. There is a little girl at Harmony House (with Emily), who has been matched with a family and they are fighting their way through the system to get to their daughter, just like we are. The little girl's originating orphanage has requested that Harmony House send her back and they have haulted the adoption indefinitely. How can this happen? Remember, this is a communist country where the state controls everything... EVERYTHING (we can't even send Emily's caretakers money without it going through the government). We don't know why this happens but apparently it's not uncommon. My guess would be that it involves money, as most things do. While you're praying for a quick LOA, can you also pray for this family, the baby girl, and that this scenario does not play out in our adoption? The thought alone makes me sick to my stomach. I just can't imagine the pain this family is experiencing.

Things are progressing nicely. It's exciting to see movement in the process. With Christmas approaching, it's all bitter sweet. There's so much to be thankful for and so many blessings being poured upon us. But Emily is a part of our family now and for her to be so far away is hard. We have her stocking hung and presents waiting for her arrival. We know The Lord will protect her this season, just as he always has. But there's a hole in our hearts, even as we celebrate the most joyous holiday. We know this hole will be filled soon enough. And for that, we are grateful.