FIND ME!!

If you've been following Our Red Thread from last December, you  may remember seeing the post HERE showing the video we saw where we first virtually met our "Little Miss So Sad."

David Peters states on his website(globalstory2film)s that he has a passion to take people on a journey to see and hear the soft spoken cry of a hurting world so they will consider being part of the global story - 2. Last December while in China working,  Dave diverted from his very busy schedule to film a short clip of an orphaned little girl,  helping her cry for a family be heard! You see, The MASTER WEAVER was working on Lucy's tapestry at the particular time as well as our tapestry!! Unbeknownst to them at the time,  Dave (and his friend Michael Rottina) were part of the weaving process!!  They were helping to weave the thread from a province in Central China to a little town on the north east coast of the United States!

And as this beautiful tapestry continues to be woven and made into God's great design for our lives and Lucy Kim's some of  it is going to be documented on film!
 FIND ME is a film about the back story of Chinese adoption ,what happens before “Gotcha Day.”  It’s about the foster families and orphanage workers who care for Chinese orphans and the bonds they form with them.  The film follows three families, one who meets their daughter for the first time (this would be us ;0), another who returns to China to locate their child’s finding place, and a third who reconnects with their daughter’s caregivers.

The campaign for this film began on July 19th.  You can see the 3 min. trailer by clicking HERE.  If you have facebook and would like to get updates about Find Me, click Facebook Page for Find Me and "like" it so that you'll automatically get updates.
We are so incredibly grateful for all of you who have been following, praying and helping financially.  Know that each one of you has added to the beautiful design in this unfinished tapestry!
What a blessing that you too will be able to see Lucy meeting us for the first time on Gotcha Day!!  To God be the Glory and Praise, great things He has done!

Sending a Package of Love

Oh what a great God we serve!  Like only God can, He brought a very special lady (whom I've never met before and knew nothing about) into our life via an e-mail!  Yet again He has "woven the thread" and connected us with a dear Godly woman who will be hand delivering our "package of love" to Lucy Kim in just a few weeks!  Let me back track about 7 weeks .......

On May 28th, 2013 an interesting e-mail came to my inbox!  Here's an excerpt from it:

Hi Shaanxi friends- I'm writing to you because of your connection to the Shaanxi Province in China.(note this is the province that Lucy Kim is currently living in)  

Our adoption agency, AWAA has launched several ACT Mission trips for this summer/fall for the sole purpose of caring for orphans, and I've been called to lead the Shaanxi trip.  "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you!" (John 14:18).  We can't forget the orphans who are still waiting. So, we will COME to them!

That was her beginning lines of the e-mail, she went on to explain about the trip, invite others to join her, etc.  I contacted her via e-mail explained that Lucy Kim was in a certain orphanage, that we will be adopting and bringing her home in a few months and would she consider hand delivering a package to her as she will be there before us?  She replied that she too had a daughter adopted from the very same orphanage several years ago and that YES indeed they would be making a trip to this orphanage and also that she would be more than happy to make the special delivery to Lucy girl!  

Oh what a beautiful gift this is to us!  I'm told that sending care packages can be tricky as not only is it VERY EXPENSIVE and sometimes the packages never arrive to the intended child for a variety of reasons.  While we are sending Lucy a few little (lightweight ;0)  "fun things", I really, really, really want her to get a sneek peek at her family!!  I want her to have seen pictures of us and be a little familiar with all the different faces BEFORE "Mama and Baba"(mandarin name for Daddy) arrive to pick her up.  God in HIS loving and divine way has provided an avenue for that to happen.  Thank you TONI for being God's "messenger of love!"  I love and appreciate you for doing this.

Lucy may or may not be able to bring the things I send to her back home (praying she can bring the photo album and doll).  I thought some of my loyal blog readers might like to see what I sent to Lucy, so I took a picture for you :)   Lower left of the picture is a small ladybug backpack in which I put wrapped candy (hoping she can share w/ other children), a small stuffed hello kitty, our family photo book (thanks S.M.!!!), and a VERY SPECIAL hand made with love dolly that was named "Kimmy" made by Lucy's oldest sister - Linsey!  (Linsey I love you for doing this and yes I gave her a kiss before enclosing her in the package!), a copy of our "Letter of Acceptance" (so that Toni can show that we indeed have permission from the gov't to adopt this little one).

Will you join us in praying for Toni and her team as they head to China the end of July to love on orphans!!

Letter of Acceptance Has Arrived!!!

Friends rejoice with us --- after THREE LONG MONTHS of waiting we have received the "Letter of Acceptance" from China (L.O.A.)!! This is a big deal and brings us one GIANT step closer to bringing Lucy Kim home.   I thought some of you visual learners might find this graphic informative and interesting.  The goal is step #15 (we just completed step #9 and are now waiting for step #10).  The question we are being asked is WHEN?  When do you think you'll travel to China?  This is still uncertain and you can see, it depends on how quickly steps # 10 through #14 happen but we're hoping and praying to travel sometime in September.  

Lucy's Bedroom Reveal

LOVE this specially made puzzle!!!
(Thanks K.W. and B.E.)
Orders can be taken for ANY name and ANY design

Since today marks 69 days of waiting to hear from China and I'm desperately trying to stay optimistic I decided it's time for a "FUN" post :)  I thought some of you may like to take a peak at Lucy's bedroom reveal!  But to appreciate it you need to see a little of what it looked like before the make-over!  While I think just about all seven of my children slept in this bedroom at one time or another, it was obviously made to be a boys room.  These pictures were hastily taken  before stripping down the wallpaper and pulling up the carpet.

  Without further ado..... BEFORE making it "girly"

jerseys and balls!

dormer area

The entire make-over cost a few hundred dollars - we were blessed to get a remnant piece of carpet at a local store that would fit her room for only a $1.00 sq/ft. and a fellow adoptive parent had it installed for nearly nothing, plus the cost of  a couple of gallons of paint!  We were also blessed to have Kurt and some of his friends help us strip the wallpaper and pull up the carpet and two other talented friends helped with the painting!!  Add some flower "stick ups" and a few goodies found at 2nd hand shops and this is the cheery bedroom Lucy will come home to!  Thank YOU so much to those of you that helped with this project!  I just LOVE, LOVE her room!

Found this picture and knew it belonged in Lucy's Room!

This says it all, doesn't it!

My Sadie girl napping in her "Aunt" Lucy's bed :)

Panda photo from bk. "The You We Adore"

Dormer area - my friend HAND PAINTED the"grass"

Ladybugs and Chinese Adoptions -- some of you understand :)

Special made bedding made just for Lucy and her room by a
sweet and talented friend!  (Thanks LK!)

special outlet covers add such a cute touch

Another cover

Flowers always brighten a room - just the right
POP of color on her yellow walls!

Now we wait for a very special little girl to come home to see her lovely bedroom!!

Praying through the Process.....

We submitted our Dossier file to China (this is a big file that holds lots and lots of info on Merle and I and our family- birth cert, marriage license, our physical clearances, our police clearances, etc etc etc).  on March 27th, 2013.
This file would arrive in China at their adoption center, it would be logged in to their system(also known in the adoption world as the beloved "L.I.D. - log in date) , translated, and then China  will officially send us our Letter Of Acceptance aka Letter Seeking Confirmation. April 25th , was the day that we were OOT (out of translation) which basically meant our dossier (big pile of Zimmerman family documents) was done being translated...and the wait continues for our LOA (Letter of Acceptance aka Letter Seeking Confirmation). The official wait for our LOA started on 4/10/13 when received our Log In Date from China saying that they had received our Dossier and that it was starting to be translated. The LOA wait, we were told, can be anywhere from 30-90 days.  Although I know a few that were shorter then the 30 days and know of several that already exceed the 100 day mark!  Today, June 7th is day #58 of our official wait.  From what I understand there isn't a "first in/first out" method nor a chronological order method....I guess they spin a wheel and see "who's up?" (insert silly grin)
 This specific letter is the official piece of paper that China sends to our agency and then they send to us and we must sign it and check the box that says: Yes, we want to adopt our Lucy! Then we send it back and we start our immigration paperwork to work on leaving this country to bring our girl home!

Remember several months ago the post I wrote about   FAITH?  Well friends, I'm trying very hard to have faith that God's timing is best.  This faith growing is H.A.R.D. stuff.  Some days I think I do relatively well (shoot let's be honest some minutes I might do well) and other times -- ummm.....not so good!  But He is giving us strength for the journey.

Before I ask for prayer I'd like you to THANK GOD with us for all that He has already done in bringing Lucy Kim into her/our family.  Thank Him for

- His direct guidance and direction to our girl

- Support of so very many friends, family and others who we don't even know who have blessed Lucy and this adoption

- His  loving and generous provision of her "ransom" costs

- HIS timeline for this entire process

- His daily grace

Here are some specific requests that we're praying about and invite you to intercede with us to  to our Heavenly Father:

- Lucy's health and well being

- God's preparing Lucy in a supernatural way for her family and that the bond will already be there the day we meet

- God's preparation in our hearts to also be supernaturally bonded

- Grace and patience as we continue to w.a.i.t.

- That our dossier will be picked up and processed

- That visas and travel arrangements can be made quickly and without any red tape

- God given wisdom as we are already looking into the medical care that she will need for her physical disabilities 

Thank you so very much for being a part of this adoption journey and for your support!  Your prayers, love and support mean more than you can know!  Drop us a comment and let us know you're praying!

Rejoice with those who rejoice!!

- Romans 12:15a

  

Precious friends and family, please rejoice with us -- Lucy Kim's puzzle has been fully sponsored and is 100% completed!!!  God has been so faithful and gracious to provide through Y-O-U.   Please accept our deep and heartfelt thanks for you generous and loving support in helping to get Lucy out of the orphanage and home to her family!

The last puzzle update reported that we were at 98%,  and we have been asked:

"What happens if you get money to sponsor puzzle pieces that exceed the 750?"

If you have done the math you will have noted that 750 pieces at $25 per sponsored piece doesn't  = the cost of  Lucy's adoption expenses. That is why we decided to make Lucy's puzzle a "picture puzzle" so that we could add on if we were so blessed with more than the 750 pieces being sponsored.  Her completed puzzle (as shown) will have the names of ALL her sponsors (through June 8th)  listed on the back!  So if you have sent in money to Lifesong for Orphans with "preference Zimmerman/3457" or if you sent in through Paypal -- the account for Lucy WILL get the donation!  All donations received up until and including JUNE 8th will have their name lovingly included on Lucy's puzzle picture.  At this point we hope to send it "to production" to have it made and framed!
  Thank you for your supportive part in orphan care!  You have helped to change the future of a sweet little girl that will now have a family to call her very own.


For those of you who generously donated in loving memory of Jason Milholin, we know without a shadow of a doubt that he would be so pleased to know that his "lucky little girl" has been helped home in loving memory of his life.  Thank you for remembering his life with your donation for Lucy!



And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19

 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.  Romans 8:28

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.  Hebrews 11:1

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,  Ephesians 3:20

Learning More (part 2 of 2) Q&A post

Q: How long do you guesstimate you will be in China?
A:  Approximately 2 - 2 1/2 weeks

Q:  When does Lucy get to stay with you?
A:  The day that we meet our girl in person for the very first time, she stays with us (F-O-R-E-V-E-R!!!)  It's truly a "Gotcha Day!!"(a day that God predestined since the beginning of time)

Q:  If you don't know Chinese and Lucy doesn't know English, how will you communicate?
A:  The best we can!  Because she's only three years old, and unable to read or understand a google translator, we plan to use charades, some very, very basic Chinese words that we're learning, and picture flip cards.  We have been told repeatedly that at her age she will pick up English and most likely speak it fluently within six to nine months of being in the United States?!?!  Did I mention that we also have a very intelligent and verbal 2 1/2 year old grand daughter that we're pretty sure will be one of her BEST teachers.  Watching, observing and listening to Sadie as well as her older brothers will surely be one of the most fun ways for Lucy to learn English and "the way things run"on the 'ole ranch.

Q:Will you be traveling with a group of other adoptive families?
A:  No, not with other adoptive families from our agency.

Q: Are you planning on video taping Lucy's "Gotcha Day?"
A:  That's a "lead in question" for sure :)  If you've perused around this blog you've seen a page called "meet lucy" also here.  The videographer of that clip is planning on following Lucy's story and capturing our first meeting and introductions to Lucy on film.
**An upcoming blog post will be dedicated to a lot more explanation and exciting news of this very special film in the making