Making progress

It seems like it has taken years to get all our paperwork completed. It has taken us five months to complete the home study and all the dossier documents. We completed our fingerprints for immigration approval yesterday. We are waiting to get our immigration approval which is our last piece of paper. Once we receive the approval, we will overnight it to our adoption agency. The agency will send it to the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C. Once it returns to the agency with Chinese seals, our file will be on its way to China. I cannot even express the joy and excitement that I feel thinking about our paperwork arriving in China. It has been a long road. The home study we had hoped to complete in a month took almost four months to complete. Why the long wait? I honestly have no idea. We could never catch a break. It took six weeks to get an appointment for our physicals. We encountered obstacles at every turn. There were days that I just sat in the floor and cried. Every delay meant more time passing before we could see Nick again. It breaks my heart to think about him just waiting on us to come to China and bring him home. We continue to pray that God will hand walk our file through the upcoming steps of the adoption process. The time frame for the next few steps varies greatly. No one really understands why it takes some families one month for dossier translation and other families three months. I have heard the average wait to get your letter of approval is sixty days... The shortest time frame I have heard is five days and the longest well over a hundred. It is our prayer that our long wait at the beginning of the process will be followed by an expedited time frame at the end. Please pray that God would find favor with us and allow Nick's adoption to progress at record speed. I really miss his sweet smile.

Adoption Puzzle Fundraiser

It seems like just yesterday that I was plotting and planning on a way to pay our $2900 agency fees. Nick loved putting puzzles together while visiting us. It seemed like an awesome idea to have a puzzle made from one of Nick's pictures and for a $10 donation put a person's name on the back of a puzzle piece. The math was easy, 300 times $10 would easily cover our agency fees. Once the puzzle was completed, we would have it framed between two pieces of glass. I have been amazed at how God has used the puzzle to raise more money that I ever imagined. We have currently sold 122 pieces and raised over $7000. I would love to sell the remaining 174 pieces for $10 each. My goal was to have a fundraiser that was not out of anyone's financial reach. If you are still wondering how I raised over $7000 selling 122 puzzle pieces at $10, some folks purchased more than one piece and then told me to put their name on one or two and resale the other pieces. It has really worked out great! If you would like to be a part of Nick's adoption puzzle donate using the link below or if you would like to make a tax detuctable donation mail a check payable to Living Hope to McDermitts, 102 Baxter Road, Carrollton, Ga 30117. The agency fees were just step one in the fundraising process, the estimated cost to finish funding Nick's adoption is about 22k.

Fundraising update

Phase one of our fundraising is behind us! Due to the generosity of family, friends, and strangers we quickly breezed through phase one and raised $8500. We are currently chipping away at phase two. We have raised $1500 of the $8000 needed to fund phase two. We are working hard. We invested about one hundred and fifty hours in our yard sale. We have about six weeks before we need to pay the phase two bills. As soon as we complete phase two, we will begin fundraising for phase three. The estimate for phase three is $16,000. Phase three is needed just before we travel to China to bring Nick home. We are praying that will be in November. Today's balance to complete Nick's adoption is about $23,000. I know all things are possible for him who believes. Please continue to pray for God's provision. I have no clue as to how we can raise the remaining funds. The exciting part of the fundraising is being in a position to watch God work. We will have round two of the yard sale this weekend, we still have about 195 puzzle pieces to sell, and we are working on some adoption grants. Those are all the tricks that I have up my sleeve:) This is the third time that we have stepped out in obedience and adopted internationally. God has always provided the funds in some way. The first adoption was completely paid for about two years after it was completed and the second about three years after it was completed. It is our prayer that this adoption will be funded before we board the plane to China. We are praying for a funding miracle but are willing to take on a long term payment plan if that is what it takes to get Nick home. If God has blessed you with more than your daily bread, please pray fully consider sharing a portion of that to help us bring our son home. Tax deductable donations can be made to Living Hope Adoption agency. Please write Kenny and Kayla McDermitt on the memo line and mail to: Living Hope Adoption Agency Attn: Tanya Pokorney 449 Pennsylvania Ave. Fort Washington, PA 19034

Yard sale update

So excited to report that we made $848 in sales and $490 in cash donations. We have the funds needed to submit our paperwork to immigration. We hope to submit those this week. We were blessed to have the yard sale in building that we could lock and leave until this weekend. We plan to continue with a second weekend of the yard sale this week.

Yard sale

Today, I will continue to work on the yard sale. This will be day three of sorting and pricing. The yard sale is tomorrow, June 1st. My goal is $800. Praying that we will make that goal. I could not do this without lots of help! Thanks to those who have donated your stuff, those who have helped organize the stuff, those who have been praying for its success, and to my children. There is no way that I could pull this off without the help of the McDermitt children. I know that they all see the Facebook posts of other families enjoying the beach, cruises, swimming pools, awesome graduation gifts, senior trips and other fun summer activities that are simply out of our financial reach. I see the huge sacrifices that they make so that we can continue to open our homes and hearts to the least of these. It is such a blessing that they are content with a trip to the marathon for ice cream and that they enjoy the treasure hunt of digging through boxes of donated yard sale items:) Our little family secret is I have let the each bring a treasure or two home:)

Nick's Adoption Puzzle Update

Nick loved putting puzzles together when he visited our home in March. We took our favorite picture of Nick and had it made into a 300 piece puzzle. Our goal was to sell each puzzle piece for $10 and make $3000 to cover about half of phase one fundraising. We wanted a fundraising option that was not out of anyone's price range. We sold ninety pieces and had a total of $6570. We were amazed by the love of God's people. One family donated $2,000 for a piece of Nick's puzzle. This family adopted several years ago and saw God raise the funds that they needed to bring their children home. They wanted to pay it forward and helped us with our adoption. Other puzzle pieces have sold for $10 to $1,000 dollars. Our goal was $10 for each of the 300 pieces. We are now in phase two of adoption fundraising. We need about $8000 to finance phase two. We think we have six to eight weeks before our next payment is due. We are waiting to receive our home study and then get our acceptance letter from immigration. The immigration approval will be the final part of our dossier. The dossier is the paperwork that we send to China. We have already sold a few pieces this week. We have 201 puzzle pieces left to claim. For a $10 donation per puzzle piece, we will write your name on a piece of Nick's adoption puzzle. Once the puzzle is complete, we will frame it between two pieces of glass. Nick will get to see the names of the people who helped bring him home to his family in America. If we can sell each one for just $10 each, we will have about a fourth of our next payment. To claim a piece of the puzzle you can donate via paypal. If you want your donation to be tax detuctable, you need to make your check payable to Living Hope and mail it to McDermitts, 102 Baxter Road, Carrollton, Ga. Make sure to tell us the name/s that you would like on each puzzle piece.

Merry Month of May

I never intended for so much much time to pass between posts. May has been a super busy month here on the farm. I have been juggling many balls and keeping them all in the air has been a challenge. We finally, I hope, answered all the questions and filled out all the forms needed for our home-study. It is currently sitting on someone's desk at the adoption agency waiting on final approval. Please pray that it will be in our hands by the end of the week. As some of you know, I agreed to take on the fancy title of New Horizons for Children Regional Coordinator for China. Kenny teases me about my full time volunteer position on a regular basis. I had no idea about the time commitment that went along with my fancy title. I feel like I lost an entire week in the month of May. The week of the hosting deadline is a blur. I talked to people from New York to California. At one point that week, I was communicating by text, phone conversation, email, and Facebook chatting with six people at one time. My family went on autopilot for a few days. Kenny was also out of town on business that entire week. The dishes and laundry piled up and a few of those days I never made it out of my pajamas. It was one of the best weeks of my life. I made some new friends who share my passion for the least of these. I show God operate in a variety of ways. One of my favorite stories from the week involved an orphan boy named Peter. A grandmother saw his picture and thought he looked like her grandson. Peter is one of our last chance kids due to his age. The grandmother wanted him to have a chance to experience the love of a family. She made a nice donation to help with his hosting fees and and started advocating for a family. In just a few hours, the entire amount needed for his hosting fees had been donated online to NHFC. Peter will be experiencing the love of a family this summer just thirty minutes from my home. The highlight of the week was that we found a host family for every one of the children available for the summer program. If you have not visited the photo listing, that fact might not like seem like such a big deal. If you did visit the photo listing, thank you for praying for the cutie pie with no arms, the children with Down's syndrome, the deaf/mute children, the girl with burn scars covering her face, arms, and legs, the boy with ms who will be wheelchair bound by his mid teens years (and whose life expectancy is mid twenties at best), the kids with various developmental delays, and the healthy older boys and girls. God provided a host family for everyone of them. I went on the interview trip to China, I met each one of them, I prayed and prayed for them by name. There is no way for me to convey to you the feelings that overwhelmed me then and now as I reflect on God's love for the least of these. Our family also experienced some personal adoption issues. I met a set of precious twins while in China. We tried everything possible to be allowed to adopt them at the same time as Nick. Our efforts were fruitless as they were adopted by another family. I am thrilled that they were adopted but heart broken that they will not be living here on the farm. A second adoption issue crept up with an older boy that I loved. His adoptive family ran into some major family emergencies and there was no way for them to complete his adoption before he aged out in November. Kenny and I contacted the adoption agency and offered to adopt him. We were nervous that we would not be able to complete the process before his birthday in November. A good friend of mine who was a head of us in the adoption process stepped forward and her family is adopting him. Our family celebrated a milestone event with our two oldest sons this month. Kevin and Ty graduated from high school this past week. We completed Kevin's adoption from Latvia three and a half years ago. It has taken lots of blood, sweat, tears and prayers for him to accomplish this goal. He has only been speaking English for four years. I am still amazed that Kevin was able to accomplish this goal in such a short period of time. We had several nights of senior projects and studying the last few weeks. Ty's hard work paid off and he graduated Valedictorian of his class. Several days were spent drafting his speech. The biggest blessing of the month as been the addition of a little person to our daily routine. We agreed to help out a family experiencing some family issues and took on the care of a precious little boy. He was injured in an accident and needed to spend time with a family who could attend to his medical needs. His outgoing personality has been the highlight of our days. He has helped us to laugh and not take life quite so serious. He adores the older McDermitt children and the variety of animals who live on the farm. He is a bit bossy and will not let you forget that he is around. He loudly lets you know when an animal is in sight, that he is hungry, that he is thirsty, that he is hot or cold, that he needs to use the rest room, and most importantly that he is done. Snuggling on the couch with a book or plastic dinosaur in hand, has provided many hours of entertainment for all of us. My children have been more than amazing during this entire adventure. The past month has stretched me to a level of exhaustion that I have never known while at the same time moving my relationship with the Lord to a level I never could have imagined. He has been my rock and my refuge in the storm. He has sustained me and energized me. He has loved me and carried me. He has chastised me and blessed me. It has been a roller coaster ride and I am thankful for his constant companionship. This week, I am back in the fundraising mode. We have a yard sale planned for Saturday, adoption puzzle pieces available, a sweet friend hosting an online Avon party, grant writing, and several other things in the works. The thing that keeps me moving is the sweet little voice that I hear coming from a cell phone in China each week that says, "Mother, I love you and I "mess" you too".