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.