Almost there!

First off I want to say that God is good and has definately answered our prayers during this ENTIRE process! Right down to deadlines, and paperwork (which is completely out of our control)! He is so good! So thank you all who have been praying for us faithfully during this busy time! And dont stop- we need your prayers more now then ever!! :)

The time has finally come... We got the approval we needed to travel to china to pick up our little girl! Even though we have been filling out paperwork and going through the legal process of adopting for over a year now we have been praying and preparing for longer than that to adopt. And now the time has come... In two weeks we will be heading over to china... It's a bit surreal... We've waited and waited and waited and now it's hurry up and get there!

Another concept that has hit me, as I frantically run around to get ready to travel, is that we have done all this prep and praying and buying girl stuff etc, and she has no clue what's about to happen. We are so prepared (and yet not!) and she has no part of her that is prepared for what will take place. She will be taken away from the people who have raised her for the past 18 months, taken from her home, her country, her food, everything she knows.  Yes we will love her and give her so much here in the US that we think is good.  However when it's different from all you have ever known it will not be viewed as good at the beginning (for her).

We are thankful at this opportunity to adopt and bring a life into our family who does not have one right now, but this is not going to be an easy process for anyone. We are praying daily for the transition for our boys and for her, and us, that it would be as smooth as possible.  We will be adopting Aynsli into our earthly family, similarly to the way God has adopted us into His eternal family- he new us before we were even born and chose us. Aynsli will have all the rights that a VDP does.  But she doesn't know yet, the love she's about to experience, the comforts of a family and home, and yet the hard transition.  

I will send out a prayer schedule soon for those of you would like to support us through prayer- which we most certainly need.  So if you would like me to email it to you please send me a message with your email- katevdp@hotmail.com.  And I will be updating this blog as much as I possibly can while we are there so make sure to check it! Thank you all for the love and support we already feel! We couldn't do this without the support of the body!

MATCHED!!

On December 16^th we got a call that changed our lives!  There was a sweet 15-month-old little girl needed us!  That night we looked at her precious pictures over and over.  We showed each of the boys her picture at separate times and each one said, “AW!! She’s so cute!!”  They love her so much already and they have been praying for her for a year now (we have prayed much longer for her!).   Walker (4.5 years old) has prayed for his “baby sister” every day for the past year.  His faith is amazing and encourages us everyday.  He has never given up praying for her health, safety, and that we would be able to go get her quickly everyday for the past year!  I love how God has used our children thought this whole process! True example of “faith like a child.” 

We spent a couple weeks talking to doctors regarding her medical condition and praying for her.  After much prayer, consultation and thinking about her day and night, we decided to write a letter of intent to adopt her!  Technically our letter of intent was sent to China on January 8, 2014.  I guess there are delays during the holidays everywhere!  In the meantime we had received an email detailing some of the next steps.  It mentioned that the average travel time to China (we travel to China for two weeks to pick her up) was approximately 6-9 months!?!? We were extremely devastated by this news, we were under the impression it would NOT be that long.  So needless to say this set us back a bit and we became discouraged. 

There are two main stages of waiting until you can travel to China to pick up your child.  The first stage is to wait for your letter of approval.  This typically takes about 1-4 months.  However, Chinese New Year is at the end of January and we have been informed how things shut down in the country for a couple weeks.  One night I was talking to Luke and mentioned, “ We need to just pray for supernatural speed to get our letter of approval.  The only way we are going to get this letter earlier than the Chinese New Year would be if God speeds things up!”  I had told several people, who are praying faithfully for us, about this specific prayer to speed up the letter of approval. 

On the evening of January 14, I received a phone call from our agency and the girl on the other end of the phone said she had some good news for us.  Great, I thought, but what could it be?  She said she received our letter of approval that day from China!!! WHAT?! Really, but its only been 6 days since our letter of intent went over there!! It was true.  I asked her if this is a normal occurrence; for someone to get it that quickly?  She informed me that this NEVER happens. AHH!!! I was ecstatic.

I went on to tell her why it happened so quickly- we prayed for this!  She approximates travel time from now- only 3 months! YAY! That’s what we were hoping for from day one- only a couple months until we could go get her!  God’s timing all along has been absolutely perfect- did we expect anything less?!

            The next step is waiting for our next set of paperwork to arrive before we can plan and schedule our travel.  We are hoping to bring all the boys with us because of how amazing would it be to us a family to have everyone there!  They would never forget their trip to rescue their sister.  However we have to see if finances will allow it and if other details can be worked out.

            We are asking for prayer that all the final details will work out, that we will get to travel by April to China, that our whole family can go, and she would stay healthy and safe.  Thank you for all the support we have had already.  We are so grateful for our friends and family and feel so blessed by those surrounding us!

            As I think about meeting this little girl, becoming her mom, bringing her into our family, and taking care of her medical needs, I get overwhelmed and sometimes fearful that I won’t know how to do it all.  There are so many unknowns, but then God reminds me that He is in control and He will equip us for every good work.  And that’s when I feel His arms around me and the peace and strength only He can give.  Its amazing…His love for us.  That’s all I need to do- show this little girl the love of Jesus. 

            In church this past Sunday we sang a song called, How Deep the Father’s Love for Us, and I could barely get the words out.  I just kept thinking about how much God, the father loves us, and how much I love all my children.   He loves us more than we can even imagine; more than we can love anyone here on earth, which is so incredibly hard to fathom.  It leaves me speechless.

How Deep the Father’s Love for Us

How deep the Father's love for us,
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure

How great the pain of searing loss,
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the chosen One,
Bring many sons to glory

Behold the Man upon a cross,
My sin upon His shoulders
Ashamed I hear my mocking voice,
Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection

Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom

We leave you with these precious pictures of our beautiful daughter, Aynsli Quinn (open to spelling suggestions- that part is not final yet :) )

                 

                                          

Little update!

Sorry for the lack of updates, but as many of you know it's a ton of paperwork and waiting!!  We did just recieve our approval from homeland security to adopt, which we waited 2 months for! Yay! 

The next step is to get all of our documents in place to send over for our dossier (official legal paperwork that goes to China). Hopefully all that will be ready in a few weeks, or at most a month! 

The puzzle is coming along! Thank you again so much to all those who have donated! We could not do it without each one of you that have helped! God is using so many people to bring our little girl home! 
We are having a garage sale June 27 and 28 and all the proceeds will benefit our adoption as well. If anyone has anything to donate or you just want to come help or shop, inbox me or email for more information, katevdp@hotmail.com. Thank you to all those who have donated already, we are starting to get pretty full! :)  We are truly blessed!

We know that God is in control of this whole process and have already seen Him work through every step! He is so good! We can't wait to meet the little girl that God has for us in China! 

I am adopted

Not trying to throw anyone off- I am not adopted in the way we typically think.  I was raised by my biological parents- sorry to scare you mom and dad! However, I am adopted into Gods family along with my fellow believers!

I am hoping to explain one of the reasons our family is choosing to adopt a child.  God is our father and adopted us into his family.  Our family adopting a child who doesn't have love, a father, a mother is a perfect example of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  All who are in Christ are adopted in Christ and when we adopt and love children that are not our biological children and treat them with the same love, blessing and inheritance, that is showing something of the heart of our father Father God and the heart of the gospel by welcoming them into the family- and through Jesus we have also inherited all the blessing! How awesome?!?! We all can't wait to go bring our child home and love on them, just as Christ has loved us!!

Quick update:
We have completed the home study!! AND...it was approved! YAY!! So another step to check off our list. Now we compile all the documents we need for our dossier, and send them to the state and Chinese consulate for certification and authetification, THEN to China!! So exciting and yet can be so drawn out, as lots of you know! Pray that everything would happen smoothly and quickly so we can get logged into China's system! Thank you al for your support and prayers already! We have seen God's hand at work through every stage. And the puzzle project is coming along and a huge success so far! THANK YOU SO MUCH to all who have sponsered a puzzle piece already, we are so blessed and so thankful for the overwhelming response!!! ox

Ephesians 1:3-14
Blessed be  the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing  in the heavenly places,  even as he  chose us in him  before the foundation of the world, that we should be  holy and blameless before him. In love  he predestined us  for  adoption as sons through Jesus Christ,  according to the purpose of his will,  to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in  the Beloved.  In him we have  redemption  through his blood,  the forgiveness of our trespasses,  according to the riches of his grace,  which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight  making known  to us the mystery of his will,  according to his purpose, which he  set forth in Christ  as a plan for  the fullness of time,  to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.  In him we have obtained  an inheritance,  having been predestined  according to the purpose of him who works all things according to  the counsel of his will,  so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be  to the praise of his glory.  In him you also, when you heard  the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him,  were sealed with the  promised Holy Spirit,  who is  the guarantee  of our  inheritance until  we acquire  possession of it,    to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:3-14 ESV)

Piece by piece...

Through this process of adoption we are trying to teach our children (and future child) about God's faithfulness, blessing and provision for our family.  One of our exciting ways to do this involves a puzzle.  We have had a puzzle made of this awesome design (thanks to Echoes of Mercy-Etsy):

Our hope for this puzzle is to get sponsors for each piece! We will put the sponsor's name/s on the back of each individual piece so that eventually we will be able to put it together and frame the puzzle for the new baby's room! It doesn't sound like much, but when we get 550 pieces that have an important names on the back- it will be a reminder of God's fathfulness to provide for this calling! This is such a special way that you can be a "piece" of helping us bring this precious child home.

If you are interested in sponsoring a piece($10) just use our PayPal donate button to the right and be sure to include the name or names you would like on the back of the puzzle peice. I will update with pictures once we start this project with the kids!

Thank you all so much for the overhwelming support in this adventure! We couldnt do it without each one of you- and we are excited to see all your names as a part of our journey!

Please don't hesitate to share on your facebook page or tell others about it!

Much love and God bless,
The VanDerPloog family

"Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow."  Isaiah 1:17

"Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies."  Psalm 36:5

A not so normal New Years...

Well I don't know about your plans for New Years Eve but in the past we have gotten together with friends, played games and had a great time! This year we didn't have any plans, which we were perfectly fine with; we had a relaxing night being together as a family.  What we also did, was fill out an application for international adoption.  Lucas and I have talked for the past few years about the desire to adopt, but never felt like the timing was right.  But this past fall we agreed that now was the time! it took a while however to research agencies and more about the whole process.  So in the comfort of our VanDerPloog home on New Years Eve, we filled out the application to adopt! We are so excited for this new chapter in our lives and thankful for God's provision for us already!

We have already had to jump a few hurdles but would like to announce that our family has been approved to adopt from China.  There are many factors that helped us arrive at this decision. God definately opened and closed several doors for this to happen!

We would appreciate your prayers as move forward with our homestudy, financially providing for this huge expense (God has proven so faithful), preparing the dossier, and ultimately matched with our precious child. Also if there are any families who have adopted or are currently in the process and you have resources/books that were helpful please pass this information along- it will be greatly appreciated. There is lots to be done!! And if anyone has further questions for us you can message me privately or email me: katevdp@hotmail.com. And we would be happy to answer them!

So i wanted to give an update on our doctoring at CHOP.  We went back in beginning of Decemeber and the blood work was ok, but definately not where we wanted it for Walker. Lincoln's looked positive, however we were waiting to check his titers, as he approached 1.

We just went for our check up last week at CHOP which went basically fine and we were just awaiting the blood results. I had the boys' wellness appointments with my pediatrician on wednesday morning and that same morning I was waiting for a call from our Dr. at CHOP with the results. I thought how cool if she calls while I'm in this office and I could tell our peditatician the latest! Well she called 2 hours after i left the office. ;) Anyway, the good -was Lincoln's blood work looked great, right where he should be for his age.  The bad news- Walker's did not look great.  He is making good immunoglobulins (IgG, IgA, etc.) however his titers from Hib, DPT, and pnuemoccocal looked horrible. He is basically not protective against any of those. 

So...back to the pediatrician the next morning to get more vaccinces! He was so brave! I asked him after the appointment if it hurt, he said, "yes!"  Then I asked him, "why didnt you cry then?,"  he replied, " because I'm NOT a baby!" He is too cute!
So now we will recheck his blood work 4 weeks after the booster vaccines, and decide on a plan for the future. He still remains on prophylactic antibiotics. We could end up playing this game for two more years until he is 5, and at that point he will have grown out of it, or it will remain an issue and we will put him on an antibody replacement therapy program which would include monthly infusions of the antibodies he doesn't produce.

So half of me wants to freak out when I hear this news! What!? He's not protective against Hib (not to mention that's what Brady died of), Pnuemococcal (so prevalent in society), and diphteria and tetanus?!
And the other half wants to say, we are doing everything we can do, God is in control and His plan is best.  So I am here staying strong and whenever my mind wants to go crazy I lift the situation up in prayer and surrender it to the only One who can take these problems and worries away.  And believe me I feel so much better when I give my cares to Jesus, the only true one who can take them away and give me an indescribable peace!