Rejoice with Us! GOOD NEWS!

I received this email at 5:15pm on Friday:

CONGRATULATIONS, Douglas & Stacy,

 

Here’s the news you’ve long been waiting for—your dossier was sent to China today (12/12/2014)!  J

 

After months and months of mailing documents hither and yon, waiting on signatures, paying fee upon fee, we finally completed our paper chase.  Our agency translated it and as we speak it's being hand-carried to the CCCWA in China.  Within three to five days we should receive notification that our dossier was delivered, then three to five weeks after that we will have our official Log-In Date.  We are still hoping to travel in the spring.  

 

There are two babies who will not grow up in institutions, who will know the love of a family, who will have a Daddy and Mommy, brothers and sisters.  And that makes my heart exceedingly glad.

 

 

 

For all of you who helped us with our expenses and work thus far, we extend a huge

 

THANK YOU!!!

 

If you wanted to help, but have not done so you can give to a 501c3 AdoptTogether, Paypal me at my email, or simply mail a check.

 

 

 

 

Buster's Brew Christmas Coffee Fundraiser Update

We are blessed! 

Our friends at Buster's Brew are passionate about adoption. Last night they opened their shop as a venue for a Christmas Coffee Tasting and Silent Auction. 

 

We had several friends and local businesses generously donate sixteen items for our auction; all except one sold and $692 was collected from auction items.

• Dannenfelser Chiropractic
• Tracy Jean Hair Styling at Moriri Town Center
• Young Living Essential Oils, Christin Pivero
• Good Life Goodies
• Take & Bake Meals
• Magnolia Acres Farm
• PylesofPics, Etsy Shop

The immediate need we are fundraising for is our 2^nd Agency Fee- $2,350 and  CCCWA (China Log-in) Fee- $1,290 = $3640.  This amount is due before December 31.

In all last night we received nearly $900.00

in ticket sales, auction items sold, and tshirt sales.

To date we have $2670 toward our goal. REJOICE WITH US!!!

P.S. If you missed the opportunity to give last night, there is still time!

You can paypal me at snaudirsch at gmail dot com

Or give here to the 501(c)3 AdoptTogether

If you would like to order one of my AWESOME adoption tshirts they are $20.  You can paypal me and tell me your size.

Finally, If you like coffee or tea or sandwiches or a cool local place to have lunch you should make Buster's Brew in New Caney your new favorite!

Update... Well, It's About Time!

I've updated FaceBook, but many of you stay in touch through my blog which has been sorely neglected the past few months.  After we moved into our house, it seemed as though someone hit the fast forward button and time to write was lost in the shuffle. 

Life has been full in a very good way and we are finding all our new normals just in time to upheave them again!

Most of you know, last April we officially started our adoption journey.  We were matched with a sweet girl who is six months younger than Caleb.

 

ISN'T SHE A DOLLY!!!

 

 

Well, a month or two ago, we were contacted by our agency with the news that this little guy was available too, so we decided to expand our family by TWO!  We are very excited about this amazing opportunity for our family.  

HE IS SO PRECIOUS!!!

 

 

This guy is six months older than Caleb. 

 

 

At this point in our GREAT ADOPTION ADVENTURE  we are about done with our dossier, in fact we have sent all but one document to our agency for final review.  After our dossier is completed and goes to China, hopefully by the end of the year, we hope to be able to travel to get these babies by April or May 2015. 

 

We are very excited about this.  And THANKFUL that God would choose to use us in this way. 

 

By the end of the year, when we mail our dossier to China, we will have $3640 in fees due.  If you would like to join hands with us and give toward these specific fees we would be so grateful.  We have a 501c3 ministry who is partnering with us where you can give easily online. 

 

I'm trying to figure out how to put their snazzy button here, but until then, you can use this link:

 

 

AdoptTogether Link

 

 



So that's what's new with us! We'd love to hear what's new with you.  Let us know and keep in touch.  Have a beautiful and blessed Holiday Season! 

Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year!  We are so blessed to have such a wonderful group of family and friends!

Love y'all!

Finding Gratitude...

Almost Thanksgiving, tick tock, tick tock time passes by. How can it be that I've lived almost a year with out my mom. I remember.

She loved the Holidays... I mean really loved them. Today I was in a store with my girls that was decorated exceedingly early for Christmas. I became excited with my kids, we talked about decor and lights and meals. But tonight, in the quiet, I ache. I miss her. I talked to my mom nearly everyday. I told her about all the little mundane details that no one else cares about and they mattered to her. She delighted in each of the kids and the little things they had said and done each day. 

I would tell her about the two little lizards Natalie and I almost sat on in the chairs, in the cold early morning while stopping at our friend's for a break from our morning jog. They were all curled up together as chilled as could be. Thankfully I saw them before I sat down, I picked them up and incubated them in my hands, hot from jogging. They were so still we thought one of them was dead until it started squirming. Then it ran away. She would've cared about that story. 

And then how I was putting a roast and veggies in the crock pot and decided to call some friends on a whim and invite them over for dinner that night. She would've cared about that. 

And this, she would want to see this silliness

And how Caleb has had a burst of words lately and can say difficult names like "Lily" but still does the sign for "please" and can't say the word. Then later she'd call me and tell me about a commercial she had seen or a show she had watched that had just the solution for his speech issue. BECAUSE SHE CARED. 

I miss her with all of my heart. We will meet again someday and I know that now she is ALIVE!, more alive than she ever was on this planet. When we meet again I plan to just sit and hold her hand and be there with her, maybe much like the last few days I had with her. So precious was the gift of those days God arranged for us last year. 

So as we approach Thanksgiving, I'm grateful. I'm grateful for a mom who loved Jesus and taught me to do the same. I'm grateful for a mom who chose a spouse who became my dad. And I'm eternally grateful for our living hope, Who makes all things new, and gives me the knowledge that Mom and I will worship Him together in eternity. 

The Great (Around the USA) Adventure Has Come to an End

and now The Great SUBURBAN Adventure starts!

Oh ya'll... my dogs are barkin' and my heart is full!  Today was FILLED to the brim with fellowship, friends, fun, and WORK! 

We moved in to our new house, sort of...

When you're doing something with the Audirsches you KNOW it's going to be an adventure.  Well, due to unforeseen circumstances, we ended up without power in our new house until Monday.  So although the house was air-conditioned in the morning, the power was turned off about 10am.  We worked for the remainder of the hot, humid, Houston day without A/C or fans.

I have the most amazing friends in the world... seriously.  First off, none of them left when they found out there was no A/C!

Secondly, My kitchen is UNPACKED and ready to be used.  Amazingly, my friend Jen Johnson and her daughter Joy washed every dish that was wrapped in newspaper (and that was almost everything) and found a LOGICAL home for it in my cupboard or pantry. She was the brains in the kitchen and kept us going.

My friends Kristen Coovrey, Michelle, Mandy, and Meg Bosquez, unloaded box after box.

We had an ARMY of help!  Travis called his airsoft buddies last week and I'm proud to say
Greg and Adam Carman, David Salisbury and Jake Fontz, showed up to do the heavy lifting and lift they did!  Thanks Guys!

And Hannah asked her friend Olivia Salisbury who also came and was a BIG help!

Michael Rivera  and Jason Bosquez were the Tetris Packers Extraordinaire helping put everything on the trailer from the storage unit to go to the house. 

Ken, Claudia and Natalie Hope loaded their car up multiple times and even drove one of our vehicles for us loaded up with more stuff. 

My friend Kelly Sakal, loaned us her sixteen year old son, Bryce for the day. 

Tonight, we have a full on turkey dinner with all the trimmings prepared by my dear friend Anne Trapani,  And I have a bottle of yummy wine from my friend (whose identity I'll protect, see sistah, I gotcher back!)

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! to all of you who helped!

Earlier this week we moved our beloved RV from it's spot at the Rock'n E RV park in Cold Spring where we have stayed for the last five months to a storage facility less than one mile from our new house in Kingwood.

If you talked to us when we first arrived back in Houston we would have told you we were looking for a house very different from the one we ended up buying.  I keep telling people this house is like BATMAN! "It's not the hero we want, but it's the hero we need."  And it really is a beautiful house!

Trusting that God knows our needs better than we do, we know God has been with us each step of the way and although His direction for us may not be clear our hearts are turned toward Him desiring His glory in our lives, in our journey as individuals and as a family.

So as we bring to a close our epic 10,000 mile, sixteen month, 22 state, 'round the USA adventure which has included amazing sights of God's creation, fantastic experiences of natural and man-made wonders, and pain and joy and despair and hope we look to the author and finisher of our faith for the next chapter.

He is writing our story and we are so blessed to have you be part of it. 

In the next year, if the Lord wills, our family will expand by one Chinese daughter which really is the focus of the next few months.  Well, that and moving into a new house and getting nine kids back to homeschool and routine.

We are so blessed that you have come along for the ride and we hope that you will stay with us as we journey together into the coming year.

Mom's Birthday

This Lady was born to this Earth on this Day

Seventy one years ago.

I suspect she has a new birthday now, but I'm still kind of attached to this day.  After all, I celebrated it every year of my life until now.  So I think I'll still choose to celebrate this day for this wonderful woman who was with me, talking to me nearly every day for my entire life.  OK, there were some days when I bombed her calls, some days I didn't have answers to the questions she would ask and some days that were just too busy.  But mostly, we talked. 

I remember when my mom turned thirty seven, my brother, my friend Erika, and I made HAPPY BIRTHDAY signs on poster board and put them up on our front and back windows announcing my (single) mother was "37 TODAY!" I'm sure she really appreciated that.

I'm trying to remember other birthdays but mostly I just remember snapshots.  In recent years I know she enjoyed going out to dinner with friends.  She was usually in Washington in July because Arizona was just too hot for her this time of year. 

Happy Birthday Mom.  If you were here of course I would call you and I would have sent you flowers, probably a day or two late, but the bouquet would have included Star Lilies. 

 I love you. I miss you.

What do we know? NOTHING!

Mom's birthday is July 24th.  She would have turned 71.  It's been seven months since my Mom's graduation (as I've decided to call it) to Heaven.

The other morning a friend asked on her FB page "What do I do with a Gift of Faith?"  I immediately thought of my dear mother and shared my post from mom's Memorial service with her.  Reminded of my mom, I re-read some of the blog posts from last December.  I came upon this statement penned by yours truly just a few days before the storm hit.

"What's after Phoenix?" you ask.  We don't know. But we do know that the next several weeks will hold a beautiful celebration of Our Wonderful Savior's birth with my parents. God is good, all the time, even in the dark when we don't see the way."

Do you see that? "God is good, all the time, even in the dark when we don't see the way."

God knew what was coming when I so naively wrote those fateful words.  "we do know that...."

NOTHING! NOTHING! THAT'S WHAT WE KNOW! NOT A GOSH DARN THING!

James 4:13-15  Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”

Lesson learned... sort of. I'd be lying if I didn't tell you I feel a little mocked by my blog post.

It's been a little dark the past few months.  

But we are attempting to lean on The Lord day by day.  Trusting, listening, waiting, being content are all skills that have grown in each of us over the last several months.

It is not easy, or for the faint of heart. 

We made an offer, had inspections, and put money down on a house in Kingwood, TX.  We are supposed to close August 8.  It will be nice to have a little elbow room (and I do mean a little, especially in the back yard!) 

I've changed my prayers lately to less of "God please do this and God please do that" to "Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your Name, Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven..." It's a tentative place to be this not knowing and trying to trust in the dark.  But it's where we are. 

We are choosing gratefulness and joy day by day, rather moment by moment as we wait.