Weepy days

I am so excited about our immigration approval that we are expecting to get within the week. I found out on Monday that our case number was number 35 and that we would be assigned an officer soon. I really want to call back today and check our status in line but I will exercise some self control. It has been a long process and knowing that our paperwork for our dossier is almost complete is exciting. Our fundraising has been great. We have raised right at $15,000. It has come in many diffent ways. When we added up the numbers and realized how much God had provided, I was surprised at the amount. I have just been paying the smaller bills and saving for the bigger payments that are on the horizon. We have always had exactly what we needed when payments were due. I have no doubt that God will continue to provide for Nick's adoption. I have had several weepy days the last few months. The weepy days are the days that I spend hours in my room, as my heart threatens to explode from my sadness of not having him home. I was blessed with a new picture of him two weeks ago, I was thrilled to "see" him again but sad to see how much he has grown and changed. His face is losing the little boy look. It is a reminder that he is growing up far to quickly in a place that is far from his mother. I received another surprise picture this morning. Yes, he is growing up....but the smile on his face as he knew that picture was for his mother was priceless. His entire face glowed! The trust that he has in me to complete the work to get him home, is what snaps me out of my weepy days. The waiting required at each step is painful at times. I just keep trusting and believing that the reward of having him home will erase the work, pain, frustration and heartache.... Sorta like child birth;) Keep praying that God will find favor with us and that He will rush the remaining steps to get Nick home to his waiting mother. I love each of you. Thanks for your continued prayers and support.

Ole McDermitt's Farm Party

Ole McDermitt's Farm was established to support our orphan habit. The farm is a fun place to visit in the fall. Everyone loves petting the animals, taking a hayride, trekking through the corn maze, and playing in the corn box. The only thing that could make it better is spending time at the farm with fourteen of your closest friends. It might even be possible to enjoy the farm with just your small group. How much is that experience worth to you? How about $10! To help us fund our adoption and get Nick home we are inviting you to use the link below to donate $10 or more to our adoption fund. We need to raise $3,000 dollars in the next three weeks to keep our adoption moving forward. For every $10 donation you make, you will receive one entry in our party drawing. Donations made using pAypal are not tax detuctable. Please use my email address to donate on line via paypal kaylamcdermitt@yahoo.com . If you would like to make a tax detuctable donation, mail a check payable to Living Hope to McDermitt's Adoption, 102 Baxter Road, Carrollton, Ga 30117. We will give away one party for every $1500 we raise this month. Www.olemcdermittsfarm.com. A farm party will consist of admission for up to fifteen guests, fifteen drinks, fifteen boxes/ bags of popcorn and one pumpkin ( up to $15) for the lucky winner. Thank you for helping us give a ten year old boy his heart's desire, a family of his own.

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:)