bodner003

It's hard to explain how dramatic an impact this process has had on me and Seamus. It has only been a few months since God so beautifully burdened our hearts to pursue this adoption. I love to reflect on how he has changed us in such a short period of time. It's impossible to share all of our experiences up to now but here's a glimpse in to what God is doing in our lives. In 2007, my brother suffered a brain injury and shouldn't have lived. He was in the neuro-ICU on life support for weeks and a third of his brain was removed. Needless to say, this was a very difficult time for me and my family. Many miracles came from this tragedy. The most obvious is the fact that today he functions well (all things considered). But even bigger than this is the amount of grace that God poured on us through other people. God displayed HIS infinite compassion through the love and support, prayers, phone calls, cards, flowers, meals, finances, errands, babysitting, listening, and hugs...

These past few days have been filled with crazy surprises! It started with an amazing family offering to purchase our travel to China for me, Seamus, AND our son Brady. It's hard to imagine what was to follow... If we weren't overwhelmed enough, we received a cash donation the next day from another loved one, in the amount of $750! Wow! We were blown away... AGAIN. Then there was our garage sale this morning. We made $250 to benefit our adoption! I was hoping for $100 because I pretty much give everything away at these type of things. :-) Thanks to those of you who donated items! (We're probably going to do another one later this summer so feel free to save more junk) The garage sale was a blessing to me personally because I had several strangers share their hearts with me. I love when people open up because there's always an opportunity to share the love of Christ with them and the Lord uses these stories to humble me. One lady shared a story with me about an injury sh...

Seamus and I have been discussing which, if any, of our children to bring with us when we travel to China to pick up Emily Hope. It's a question that all international adoptive families are faced with. We have to spend 2 weeks in China and that is a very long time to be away from our little people. There has been a lot of contemplating and praying over this. The trip is completely safe for children and it would be great to not have to separate for that long but in the end, we decided we can't bring all 3 of our littles. The main reasons are the cost involved as well as the fact that we really need to focus on Emily while we're there and give her our attention as needed. After the back and forth, talking to families who have done it, and praying diligently, we decided that Brady (our eight year old son) should come with us. We feel like this would be an amazing experience for him on so many levels. We knew from the beginning that Brady's ...

Our adoption t-shirts arrived today! If you preordered a shirt, we will get it to you as soon as possible. I'll sort and organize over the next few days and should have everyone's shirt to them by next week sometime (or in the mail at least). If you haven't ordered one yet and would still like to, we have plenty of adult-sized shirts left. You can get all the information HERE . A little fundraising side note... my friend Jacelyn and I are having a garage sale this Saturday at her house (714 Aloha Court, Abita Springs). Lucky for me, I have a ton of junk to get out of our house! All of the stuff we sell from the Loman household will benefit our adoption expenses. If you have items you'd like to get rid of, we'd love to take them off your hands! I'd be happy to pick them up from you before Saturday. Thanks again for your support with all our fundraisers! It's been a fun ride with doughnuts and t-shirts. ;-) I can't wait to disclose our big event we have in...

It's Father's Day. Today is a reminder of how much I adore my dad. It's also a day to thank my sweet husband for his Godly rearing of our children. It is good to recognize our fathers. The Bible commands our men to protect, provide, and sacrifice for our families. You may have a loving father. You may not. Your father may be alive, or perhaps he has passed. Maybe your father lives with you, maybe he's 1,000 miles away. I hope that, like me, you can say that you adore your father and can name the many reasons why. But regardless of your situation, we can all give thanks and praise to our Heavenly Father. This Father is perfect. He is love. He is strong. He is faithful. He is the ultimate provider and protector. He never gives up on us, never abandons us, never forsakes us. He only speaks truth, he is just and merciful all at the same time, and his forgiveness is unending for those who call him "Father". He is the defender of the weak, father to the fatherless. ...

Dear Emily Hope, We are getting closer and closer to being united with you! Our home study process has been much shorter than expected. All of our initial paperwork and required coursework has been completed. Our social worker wrote an excellent report about our home study visits and interviews. All of this information has been sent to the Immigration office so they can give their approval on us being your parents. For now, we wait. In the meantime, we think about you often and we love you already. I imagine your sweet face, what you may look like. I dream about you and imagine your presence within our home. We pray for you daily. I long for the day I can hold you and call you mine. If you could read this right now, I would tell you all about your creator, His love, and your identity in Him. I would tell you that your current circumstances are just a temporary affliction, that you have a future filled with glorious riches as a child of the one true King. You have a family who is fi...

It's hard to believe the progress that's been made. Our home study report is complete. This report was sent off with our I800A application to USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services, AKA "Immigration") today. Now we wait for their approval of us to be adoptive parents. This first part of the process (home study and application to Immigration) typically takes about 4 months. We have somehow moved through in about 2 months! Can I get a "WOOP WOOP"?! Anyone and everyone with adoption experience says that no adoption goes without a kink along the way. We are certainly expecting that ours will be no different. For now, we are thankful that things are moving so smoothly. According to our agency, it takes about 2-3 months to receive approval from Immigration. While we are waiting for their approval, we begin compiling what's called our "dossier". This is a fancy term for the collection of documents required by the Chinese adoption officials. Ba...

With your help, we raised a whopping $590 (net profit) through t-shirt sales that were pre-ordered during May! Thank you for your involvement, whether you purchased a t-shirt, prayed for our fundraising efforts, or just spread the word. I can't wait to see so many of you sporting our tee! We placed our order today for all the shirts we presold. They should be ready this month and I will let you know as soon as they arrive! We decided to order some extras to have on hand, in case anyone missed out on the pre-sale. We have extras in Adult Small, Medium, Large, and XLarge. If you would like one of these, let me know at any time. Thanks again for your support through this fundraiser. We are one step closer to bringing our baby girl home and we certainly couldn't do this without your help! We have made some exciting progress in our adoption process and will be updating you on that this week. Check back to hear what's going on!