Our little meatball

The orphanage sent an update!

Sweet Eden weighed in this week at 9.9 lbs and is 20 inches long. She has
the cutest short arms and legs and is lovingly referred to as a little meat
ball! She really enjoys being swaddled and snuggled, and sometimes when
she's awake she likes to wiggle her arms and legs and grace us with her
adorable tiny little smile :) 
She definitely gets enough to eat, but she doesn't always take her bottles
easily and seems to have some gas/tummy issues, so you could be praying
about that! Also some of the older kids are sick with colds and flu here,
so please pray the illnesses all leave and that all the babies stay healthy.
Thank you!
God bless and Happy New Year!
Ted and Bev for all at The Home

Behind My Back

My husband admitted to doing something behind my back.  I couldn't believe he would keep this from me.  I thought our marriage was based on God, love, and honesty.  After three months he has finally admitted a secret to me.  He has been praying for a daughter, behind my back.  We have prayed every night and most mornings ever since we were dating.  I can't believe he prayed for a precious baby girl without telling me.  Alright all joking aside, I am so glad he did.  I was pleasantly surprised he shared this tidbit with me.  He has been showing all of our family and friends our beautiful baby girl's picture, with the biggest grin on his face. One of my favorite parts of this process has been seeing him become a Daddy. We are just so in love with Eden we can't wait to love on her in person.

In the mean time I have been sewing up a storm.  I made her bedskirt thanks to my mom, sister, and Heather for the fabric and help.  I also made her a little swaddling blanket.  I embroidered her name and polka dots.  Lastly we have put together Eden's care package.  Our families have given us a few goodies to send along with the few things we planned on sending.  Just knowing she will have a little bit of us with her warms my heart.

 

We are sending a few outfits (Grandma and the Aunties have already started spoiling her) with a matching zebra bow, puppy dog... she looks just like our hound dogs, a flannel swaddler, pictures, 

and a recordable book.

 The bed skirt has purple, blue, turquoise peonies. This is just the beginning of the nursery.   

This Christmas has been the best Christmas.  I am so thankful for God blessing us with our daughter.  

I have such a peace in my heart.  

The most beautiful girl on the other side of the world...

She's beautiful, and she's ours. Here's the story of today. It started out with an unsuccessful duck hunt. Lots of birds in the air, but no luck shooting any. After I ended the morning's hunt and picked up the decoys, I went back to the truck and noticed I had missed a call from an odd number. As I was driving down the road (looking for ducks), I called my voicemail and when I heard Ted's voice I froze. I had run through this so many times in my mind, and I wasn't sure how I would respond. I was with Ryan and Ben and I had to explain why my mouth dropped and I about drove off the road. After coming home to my beautiful wife, I told her that we needed to go into the bedroom and talk. I explained that I needed to call Taiwan and she was worried something was wrong. When I told her that Ted had called she started screaming and then walked into the hallway and opened the closet door thinking she was going to the bedroom. After calming down, we called Ted and heard the amazing news that they had a baby girl for us. She was born on November 9th at 11:44pm. She weighed 7 lbs and was 20 inches long. She is the most beautiful baby I have ever seen. After the phone call, we spend the ENTIRE day traveling around and making phone calls to family and friends telling them about OUR DAUGHTER! I can not tell you enough about how good God is. He knows what we need and when we need it. He has blessed us beyond measure in this whole process. Continue to pray for us as we go through the paperwork and more waiting. We can't wait to hold Eden Olivia Clements in our arms!

-Evan


My version of the day:
Evan came home all in his hunting cuteness.  He told me Taiwan called.  I lost it and bubbled over with joy.  We called Ted and he told us our daughter was at Home of God's Love.  She is being cared for and loved on by some amazing people.  Eden arrived at the orphanage when she was two weeks old.  The ladies said she is starting to smile and make silly expressions.  Her Chinese name was Wu Yu Jye.  She has lighter brown hair. She is a healthy baby girl.  We have counted fingers, toes, and nose: they are all where they belong.    Today has been the best possible day ever (It even snowed).  Sharing this Christmas blessing with all of our family and friends has been heartwarming.  We even were able to pray with Grandpa and Grandma, and our Preacher.   Our daughter will be coming home to a wonderful family and community.  My heart is so full of joy and love for her already. We have been praying for her for so long, we can't wait to pray with her and guide her little heart to the Lord.
-Izzie

Hope is the thing with feathers

Evan and I can't keep Christmas secrets from each other very well.  He pulled out a little box last night.  I asked him if I could open it early so I could wear it this week before Christmas.  He was surprise I knew it was jewelry, but seriously what else could be in a pretty little box? I opened it up and and he had found a little blue bird on a leafy twig.  It is daintily beautiful.  The necklace is perfect reminder for where we are at in the adoption process.  We are simply hopeful.  It reminded me of my favorite poem by Emily Dickinson: 

             

          Hope     

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

These verses have also kept my heart going.  

Numbers 3:19-25

I remember my affliction and my wandering,
   the bitterness and the gall.
²⁰ I well remember them,
   and my soul is downcast within me.
²¹ Yet this I call to mind
   and therefore I have hope:

 ²² Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,
   for his compassions never fail.
²³ They are new every morning;
   great is your faithfulness.
²⁴ I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion;
   therefore I will wait for him.”

 ²⁵ The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him,
   to the one who seeks him; 

Get your coffee fix and support our adoption!

We are now partnered with "Just Love Coffee Roasters" to bring you some great coffee and help bring us a little closer to our child. For every bag of coffee bought, we received a portion of the proceeds to go into our adoption account. They have a great selection of coffees and they are all fair trade coffee. You can get to our personal website through the link on the right ----->


We also still have t-shirts available. I am going to be making another order before too long. If you would like one please let us know. You can donate through the button on the right -------------------------------------------------------->

One Sweet Saturday

Joke of the day: A panda walked into a restaurant.  He ordered a plate of pancakes.  When he finished his meal,  he pulled out a 6 shooter.  He fired it into the ceiling.  Then, he turned around and walked out.  The panda did that for three days.  The restaurant owner caught him and asked him what he was doing?  The panda handed him a dictionary.  He looked up the word panda. The dictionary said, "Panda: eats shoots-and-leaves."  My dear husband shared that joke with me as we were making pot stickers.

Our Saturday was nice and relaxing.  We spent most of the day in the kitchen and then had friends, that have adopted from Taiwan, over.  We made potstickers, scones, peanut butter fudge, dark chocolate fudge, and squash soup.

 

We have discovered a really great potstickers recipe.  Even the Montees said that they tasted a lot like the ones in Taiwan. We snapped some pictures to help others with this Taiwanese cuisine.  Otherwise you can visit this linked website: Potstickers

Chop a whole lot of goodies.  This is the second longest part of the recipe.

Pinching the potstickers is the time consuming part but they turn out super cute.

Fry them up.  Add a steamy husband, and whala you have delicious potstickers.

Then we made dessert.  I decided to make maple pecan scones and fudge.

Yes, both are random but I was in a holiday mood.   

  

Then for lunch we made squash soup.  My husband is a wonder in the kitchen.  The soup turned out so well.

That was our day.  We can't wait to share times like this with our children.  Creating messy memories in the kitchen is going to be simply wonderful.  Don't get me wrong, I know it will be awhile before they can cook with us... but even the messy baby food is something I look forward to.  Until then, we will keep making holiday goodies and trying new Asian infused recipes.  

God is Good

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services has cordially congratulated us on our processing of Orphan Petition.  My question is, where do I send a thank you card?  We are just glad things are still running smoothly.

In other news the Taiwanese law that was passed seems to have not negatively effected the orphanage, Praise the Lord.  They had an inspection and were told they can continue as usual.  Prayers are requested for the orphanage though.  They have simply asked for prayers to continue in God's direction.

First Snow

As I told my students the other day "plug your ears if you don't want to hear me gush about my husband."  We were discussing favorite snow memories for journal writing.  I told my students my favorite memory was when "Mr. Evan" and I were dating and we both lived at Ozark.  On the day we had our first snow together I called him up and asked him to meet me half way between the dorms.  I had been teaching 4 year olds that day and a jingle bell in my pocket.  I handed him the jingle bell and he gave me a kiss in the falling snow.   Ever since he has been giving me jingle bells ever so often.  (All of my students ewwed after the story) He is one sweet man.

Giving Thanks

We Thank the Lord for being a loving and all powerful God.  We are also thankful for our family and friends.  They keep us going with their encouragement and prayers.  We are also thankful for the chance to minister to children through church, school, and recently the bus.  (Yep Evan has started bus driving.  We are trying to be creative with our fundraising and ministry so he is bus driving and I am tutoring.)

Thanksgiving this year was wonderful.  We were able to celebrate with both sides.  This is a picture of my family.  My mom and Dad are in the middle.  Starting from the top left and zigzaggin with spouses there is Evan and I, Kris, Nicole (Baby Isaac) Jake, Jess, Jeremy, Sharla, and Jo-Jo.  Annie my little sister was dutifully working, but I will post a picture of her really soon. The little ones in the front are Lilly, Xander, Alie, Sophie

Lately in Sunday School we have been teaching about Moses and the Israelites.  Their story has reminded me of God's amazing power.  Some days are harder than others waiting, but we know that God has a plan in store.  The Israelites journey to the promise land reminded me personally to keep a positive and trusting outlook on God's Timing.  We are continuing to seek God's wisdom through his word and praying that we can continue to trust in his timing.

Waiting on God

There have been a few sad twists and turns lately.  A bill passed in Taiwan that might make the adoption process more complicated.  Overall our prayer is that it does not hinder the ministry of Home of God's Love.  Also we pray for our process to be quick and easy despite the complications the bill might cause.
Recently I went to a women's conference with Kari and Jess.  The speakers and singers were wonderful.  The Duggers with their 19 kids were there as well.  I found it quite encouraging.  I thought if one family could have 19 (and counting) kids then surely the Lord will bless us one day as well, with at least a few.  The whole event was refreshing, but the most touching moment was talking to Aunt Debbie.  She reminded me of Isaiah's words in the Bible.  She had told me about a verse that mentions waiting on the Lord.  While we wait we are being braided together with the things we need to be stronger for what is to come.  These truths reminded me that we are waiting on God.  While he is braiding us together, preparing us to be parents we will continue to be faithful and hopeful.    

This verse fills my heart with hope

Orphan Sunday

November is Adoption month.  We will be discussing what it means to be adopted into God's family with the children at church.  We ordered a package from www.orphansunday.org and they sent us bags of rice and dried vegetables.  The children at church are going to learn a little more about how some orphans live.  We will also discuss how we are all orphans until we accept the Lord as our true Father.  This Sunday, we will share a meal eaten by orphans around the world.   Orphan Sunday is One Day, One Voice, One Purpose.  On this day I encourage you to pray for all of the 143 million orphans.  (Also pray that hopefully Adoption Month will be a blessed month for our family.)    

Family Pictures

Ryan took our pictures a couple weeks ago and here they are! We went down to the creek and all wore our Bless You and Keep You shirts. They turned out great but we can't wait to have a new addition in these picture soon!

God's Love

I just can't stop looking at the pictures and praying for the babies.  They will all be such a blessing to each family.  I just pray that they will each know God's love.

Babies Galore

Another Adoptive family shared a great site with me.  This site has the current babies at the orphanage.  Most of them are probably already placed with wonderful Christian families.  Our hope is that one of them is meant for our family.  Hopefully we will hear something in early November from the missionaries.  Until then we will keep praying for God to continue to prepare us for this amazing adventure of becoming parents.

Bless You and Keep You T-shirts!

We want to give you all an opportunity to be a part of our journey to expand our family. As you may know, adoption is an expensive process. We decided to raise funds for our adoption by selling t-shirts. We just received our t-shirts in the mail today! They turned out great and we could not be more excited. We are selling them for $20 and all proceeds go directly into our adoption fund. (Suggested Shipping charge is $5) Not only does this give our friends and family a chance to be a part of this process, but it gives us a chance to spread awareness about the importance of adoption. If you would like to order a t-shirt you can email us at evan@fcclamar.com, send us a message on facebook, call us at 417-214-2835, or talk to us in person. We have adult sizes (S-2XL). Thanks for all your support as we continue to go where God leads us!

We are also selling these adorable bunnies.  Evan and I will be sending one bunny to the orphange for our son or daughter.  We are selling the shirt and bunny as a combo for $25.  If you would like to purchase the bunny separately then it will $5. 

-Blessings

By the way this is what I came home to, Evan is going to be a great Dad:

Puppies!

We have basset hound puppies!  Jasper and Laura had their last litter.  Perfect timing too, the puppies are a fun distraction while we wait for our baby.  

THOGL Picnic

We are filled with hope and love right now.  We just met tons of amazing families.  The picnic for THOGL was great, you could just feel God's love.  Everyone is so passionate about adopting from Taiwan.  They all have such big hearts and were really encouraging to us.  Ted and Bev, the missionaries from THOGL, were the cutest grandparents.  I don't think they stopped smiling or talking for three hours straight. We can't wait to hear from them about our baby.  For now we are patiently waiting, but with light hearts.  We truly believe God's timing will be perfect.

Our Hearts are Eagerly Waiting

 

I just love that goofy red head.  He is going to make such a great dad.

We were out at Evan's parents today.  We thought we would begin snapping pictures of places we can't wait to share with our children, and moments we wish they were already here.  We are eagerly waiting for more details about the adoption of our son or daughter.

1 Kings

Yesterday morning I was reading in 1Kings about Elijah.  I read about the drought Elijah declared over the land.  First he was sent by God to go beyond the Jordan.  Elijah was fed by ravens.  He then met a woman who had nothing.  With her last bit of flour she fed Elijah.  God blessed her with an endless supply of flour and oil, until the drought was over.  After awhile her son died. Elijah called on the Lord and raised the boy back to life. In 1 Kings 17:24 "the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD from your mouth is the truth.”" My prayer is that we can bring new life to our future child.  Also that we can raise a son or daughter that knows the Lord and speaks His truth.

It is Official

We were just informed that we are on the waiting list to adopt from Taiwan.  Evan and I are full of joy, I don't think we are going to get a wink of sleep tonight. We don't have any other details yet, but I will post details as soon as we find out.  For now we will just enjoy this hopeful news, the rest is yet to come.

Hope

We have still not heard anything about the waiting list. I know that God has big plans, but sometimes it is hard to wait. Today I came across a blog that talked about the word "Hope" and it really resounded with me. I wanted to share with you what hope really means. Many times we use it to say that we "hope" something will happen. It's used in situations almost in a sense that it may or may not happen but that's not the truth. The truth is that hope is, "Desire accompanied by expectation of fulfillment." I don't just wish or halfway believe that God know's what He's doing in our family, but I know that He does. I have hope that God is going to bless us through this experience no matter how long it takes.

Finished Home Study

We passed our home study today.  That means they think we are fit to be parents.  This stage of the process was almost too easy.  Hopefully, the remainder of the process will be quick and easy too.  We have also officially told both sides of our families and a majority of our friends.  Everyone has been happy for us and supportive.  Thankfully, I was able to tell my Poppa before he passed away last week.  He was a wonderful man and meant so much to me throughout my life.  He thought adopting was a great idea and that we will make great parents.  One of the greatest reactions we have heard was from Grandma Dixie.  She just kept saying "I am going to be a great grandma!"

Our prayer: That the Lord will continue to bless and guide us through this adoption adventure.  May it continue to be quick and easy.

Taiwan Adoptions: Home of God's Love Video

Taiwan Adoptions: Home of God's Love Video

Only the Beginning

Evan and I have been praying about adding to our little family for a long time now.  The Lord has blessed us with many little ones.  I am talking about all of the baby bunnies, guinea pigs, kitten, ducks, and of course our hound dogs.  We have had oodles of animals within our three years of marriage.  
The Lord has been tugging our hearts in a different direction lately.  We have began the adventure of adoption.  We have applied to an orphanage in Taiwan called Home of God's Love.  Also we begin our home study this coming week.  In between gathering the proper paperwork we have also baby proofed the house.  Who knew outlet covers and smoke alarms could be so exciting.