Puzzle Progress

We've had more donations to our puzzle fundraiser and I wanted to give you guys a "sneak peek" at how the puzzle is shaping up.  We've had 26 puzzle pieces purchased.  Thank you to each one of you!  That is $260 toward our referral fee!
A special thank you to our newest "purchasers":  Joel, Kristi, Logan, Elijah, and Emily Foudy; Rossi Whitmer (x3); My secret sister (x2); and Patricia Stewart.

If we sell all of the pieces of this puzzle, we will raise our referral fee.  Pieces sell for just $10 each.  You can choose what name you want written on the back of the puzzle piece.  We are going to hang the puzzle in our baby's room and as he or she grows up, our child will know who helped to bring him home to our forever family.  So how do you purchase pieces of the puzzle?

1.  Click here.  This is our profile on Adopt Together.  Just click the "Donate Now" button.  Be sure write what names you want on the puzzle pieces.  There is space to do that in the comment section on that page.  This allows you to pay via credit card, debit card, or check and 100% of the money comes to us.  (It's tax deductible, too!)

2.  Email me at adoptionrocks4@gmail(dot)com  and I will reply with our mailing address.  You can then mail the money and names directly to us.

Thank you again for all of you who have given, prayed, and loved on us since we started this adoption process.  We love you all!!!

How can you miss someone you haven't met, yet?

"How can you miss someone so much that you haven't even met, yet?"  This is one of my favorite lines from the movie Facing the Giants.
I must admit to getting bogged down lately in the planning, and the fundraising, and the "what--if-ing" that is all a part of the adoption process.  I am overwhelmed at the amount of money we need to raise.  But do you know who isn't overwhelmed by it?  My Heavenly Father--you know the one who adopted me into HIS family--that Father...that Daddy who cares about orphans more than I do...which is a lot.  He reminded me tonight that it is time to be still and trust Him.  And when I did that, I literally felt an ache for our child.  I can't wait to hold him or her and kiss those sweet baby cheeks.  I can't wait to tell our child how much we have loved, begged God for, and prayed for him or her to grow up to love and serve our Jesus.  So how can you miss someone you haven't met yet?  I'll let my Heavenly Father explain it, because I can't...

Father to the fatherless, defender of widows—
    this is God, whose dwelling is holy.
⁶ God places the lonely in families;
    he sets the prisoners free and gives them joy.
But he makes the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.

Psalm 68:5-6

Puzzle Fundraiser

Most of you know by now that we have begun the process to adopt our second child.  We are so excited to be adopting from Taiwan again.  We are starting our fundraising early in the process because this adoption will be much more costly than our last adoption.  We feel God clearly leading us to adopt again, so we are stepping out in faith to obey him.  

I wanted to share our puzzle fundraiser and our progress with it.

YOU are the missing piece!  

Help us bring our baby home from Taiwan.  We need to raise funds for our adoption and we wanted something meaningful for our new baby’s room so that he or she would be able to see who helped to "love them home"

.  

We have purchased an Asian-themed puzzle.  For each $10 donation you make to our adoption fund, we will write your name or the name of your choosing (your mom, dad, child or grandchild’s name) on the back of the puzzle piece. 

Then when our baby is a little older, he or she will be able to look at the back of the puzzle and see all of the people who gave so they could become a member of our forever family. 

We will post pictures as the puzzle begins to come together.  

So, how do you buy a puzzle piece?  Email me at adoptionrocks4 at gmail dot com or private message me on facebook (Heather Bishop Shubert).  I will reply with our home address, where you can send a check and the name(s) you want written on the back of the puzzle piece(s).

You can follow our adoption and the progress of this fundraiser here or in our private facebook group.  If you look to the right, you will see thermometers.  Check those to see how our fundraisers are progressing.

We've had our first donation to our puzzle fundraiser.  Can you guess the picture, yet?

Thank you for your support of our adoption through prayer and through giving.  We appreciate you!

We are adopting again!

We have felt God tugging at our hearts to add to our little family.  We are excited to announce that we are adopting from Taiwan again.  We have been on a waiting list to adopt for quite some time and just recently received approval of our adoption application. 

Here's how you can help.

“Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.”—James 1:27

YOU are the missing piece!  

Help us bring our baby home from Taiwan.  We need to raise funds for our adoption and we wanted something meaningful for our new baby’s room so that he or she would be able to see who helped to "love them home"

.  

We have purchased an Asian-themed puzzle.  For each $10 donation you make to our adoption fund, we will write your name or the name of your choosing (your mom, dad, child or grandchild’s name) on the back of the puzzle piece. 

Then when our baby is a little older, he or she will be able to look at the back of the puzzle and see all of the people who gave so they could become a member of our forever family. 

We will post pictures as the puzzle begins to come together.  

So, how do you buy a puzzle piece?  Email me at adoptionrocks4 at gmail dot com.  I will reply with our home address, where you can send a check and the name(s) you want written on the back of the puzzle piece(s).

You can follow our adoption and the progress of this fundraiser here or in our private facebook group.

To the right you will see a fundraising thermometer.  As funds come in for this puzzle fundraiser, I will update the thermometer and you can see how things are progressing for us.

If you cannot give, please know that we understand.  Please follow our journey and pray for us!
Thank you so much!

A few pictures of Taiwan

The pictures are as follows:

1. Tea fields near The Home of God's Love

2. Brian with the largest carrots I have ever seen.

3. Me with "The Blue Bomb" that we and the Elswicks drove back and forth to the apartment

4. A family picture inside Taipei 101

5. Group picture at Taroki Gorge

These are just a few of the sights we saw. I wish I could share all of our pictures, but we took over a thousand! Taiwan is a beautiful country and so are the people there. It will always hold a special place in our hearts.

In Taiwan

While in Taiwan, we were given a tour of sights of from Ted Skiles. The food there was amazing as well. We visited a local market and a handicraft center. We had so much fun! We also helped with babies and, of course, spent quality time with Nathanael.

Traveling with Ted was a wonderful adventure. He is a wonderful man of God and was such a blessing to spend time with. We were able to hear stories of God's provision for the home. What an inspiration! We met wonderful people who took care of Nathanael: Bev Skiles, Showhwa, Katie, Judith, Jess, Ellen, and Grandma. We also met Jen Jen and Janet who travel down from Taipei every week to volunteer their time with the babies. We met children who loved Nathanael and who were a joy to get to know. In Taipei, we met the Edwards family. They became good friends! It is difficult to sum up our trip here. It was amazing, tiring, inspiring, beautiful, educational, emotional, life-changing...I could go on and on, but I hear my sweet Taiwanese boy waking up from his short nap.

Meeting Nathanael for the first time!

When we arrived at The Home of God's Love, we basically ran in the door to meet our son! These pictures capture the smiles that still haven't left our faces! We enjoyed meeting Ted and Bev Skiles, Showhwa, Jess, Ellen, Katie, Judith and Grandma upon arriving at the home. I do think that we were the most excited to meet Nathanael, though!

Taiwan!

So, I realize that I have greatly neglected my blogging!

We have been home over a month. Our time in Taiwan was amazing, life-changing, and simply beautiful. I wanted to share some pictures of our arrival in Taiwan. Arriving in Taiwan was surreal, We had traveled for 25 hours and were quite literally, exhausted. However, in waiting for such an emotional event as meeting our son for the first time, we were bursting with energy as well. While we were waiting for Ted Skiles at the airport, we were able to visit with the Elswicks, each couple greatly anticipating meeting a son.

Taiwan, Here We Come!

We are leaving in 2 days to go to Taiwan to bring home our son. We are so excited to meet all the wonderful people who have been caring for him during this time. It is hard to believe that after all the paperwork hassles, government red-tape, hours on hold, emails sent, calls made, and pictures received, we will meet him in person on Tuesday morning Taiwan time (Monday night U.S. time)!!! We are so happy, excited, and in awe of God's blessing in making us a family from opposite sides of the world. I'm reminded that we titled our blog "heart to heart". In just a few days, we will be able to hold Nathanael heart to heart and tell him how much we love him and have been praying for him.

"I prayed for this child and the Lord answered my prayer and gave him to me." I Samuel 1:27

Visa sent to Taiwan

Our visa documents were electronically sent to Taiwan at 3:00 p.m. today!!! Thank you for your prayers!

"I will sing to the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. May my meditation be pleasing to Him as I rejoice in the Lord." Psalm 104:33-34

So What's New?

1. Nathanael is doing well. He remains on medication, but the doctor doesn't feel he needs a follow up appointment.

2. He gained lots of weight in the hospital. In fact he gained so much weight that the ladies helping to care for him nicknamed him "sumo"! :0)

3. The National Visa Center has issued a search for our documents. Also, our congressman's office has sent our information to their contact to try and help get the approval sent to Taiwan.

Please continue to pray and trust God with us!

New Picture!

Nathanael continues to improve, but remains in the hospital. Please keep praying for him. We did get our February picture today though!

Meet Baby Shubert

We got the call this morning that we are matched with a baby. We are currently waiting to call back to find out if we are having a boy or a girl and to learn a little more. I had nothing to do while we were waiting so I decided to blog. Of course this means that we completed and sent in out homestudy last week. We are excited beyond words!