We Were Submitted To Court

I have a serious obsession with my email.  There have been days that I check it every 10 minutes.  It has about worn me out.  I finally decided that I needed to give it to God and walk away!  So, that's just what I did today.

As I was loading the dishwasher Mat called and said that we have been submitted to court. :)  We really thought we had been submitted a week or so ago, but we found out that we were submitted on July 16th. At this point I am just so relieved to know that we have been submitted.  Now we just wait on a court date. There are 4 judges that hear adoption cases so it completely depends on which judge we get as to how fast we will travel.  Please pray for God's perfect timing and for peace and strength while we wait.

We will be on Give1Save1 through Saturday.  If you haven't had a chance yet go check out our video.  We have raised $34 so far through Give1Save1.  You can donate $1 through our Reece's Rainbow link.  Please continue to share and pray for our family!  Thanks!

Give1Save1

We are so excited to be featured on Give1Save1 this week.  Go over and check out our video.  Please share our story and continue to pray for us.  Thank you to everyone who has already donated!!

The Final Garage Sale

This weekend was the final, final, final garage sale.  By the last day of each garage sale Mat would declare that this was the LAST garage sale.  This was our 4th garage sale.  Adoption is expensive, folks.  We really had no intention of having another garage sale, but our friends and family were so generous.

Since we've been in McAlester we have made some incredible friends.  I remember Mat telling me that it looked like we would be moving here.  I was not happy!  We were part of an incredible Church.  We had wonderful friends (you know who you are)!!  I still miss them like crazy! But God!  I believe that God moved us to McAlester to intersect our lives with theirs.  Not only is adoption expensive, it is hard!  We have 3 other couples in our Sunday School department that are adopting children.  Our stories are all different yet I'm certain that God brought us together to support and encourage each other through this journey.  We have countless other friends that aren't adopting, but have come along side us and carried some of our load.  I can't count the hours they have prayed for us, helped unload pumpkins, set up for garage sales, and just listened when I needed to rant.  Words truly can't express how grateful I am for each of them!

One of these friends has become like extended family.  They suffered a great loss recently with the death of her grandfather. In their grief they thought of us.  They donated more than a trailer load of things from his house so that we could continue to raise money to bring Isaac home.  The word spread that we were having one more garage sale.  We came home more than once to find boxes of donations.  I still don't know where everything came from.

My favorite thing to do during a garage sale is to count the money.  I'm a little obsessed about it.  After we set up Thursday, Mat told me that he felt like we shouldn't count until the garage sale was completely over. WHAT?? He knows that this is what I do!!  Still, he felt like we were supposed to have faith and not count. So, we didn't count.

Since beginnings the process, some things have changed.  Instead of making 1 trip, we will go twice. Of course this adds extra expenses.   Mat was hoping to raise enough for our plane tickets, but I really didn't think we would.  Since we don't know exactly when we will travel we don't know how much our tickets will be.  We are hoping to get them for $3,500.  Well fast forward through two really hot days and it was finally time to count.  Between sales and 2 very generous donations we raised $3,485!!  Once again we were humbled by the generosity of old friends, new friends, family, and complete strangers.  We were reminded again to not limit God!  He has brought us this far and He will not leave us now.

We are much closer, but we aren't completely funded.  We have a couple fundraisers coming up.  We will be featured on Give1Save1 Asia starting this evening.  I'll post more about that tonight.

Thank you for your prayers and support!!

EP Approval

Isaac's EP was approved on June 24th.  I just realized that I didn't post here when he was submitted.  He was submitted on May 16th.  The next step will be our paperwork being submitted to court followed by a court date.  Please pray this comes quickly! :)

We're Still Here

I felt like we went MIA after the pumpkin patch, but really our computer just died.  My friends and family would tell you that patience is not one of my virtues, therefore, I didn't even try to post from my phone.  There is a lot happening in the Hutson household.  We are scrambling to finish getting ready for Isaac.  I have some work left to do in what will be the boys' room.  I just really like saying the boys :) 

Our social worker was here a couple weeks ago to do our homestudy update.  She and her husband have adopted multiple children so it is always fun to visit with her.  She had our update done crazy fast!!  That week was a whirlwind of paperwork.  We have been working on our 2nd acceptance packet (this is a new step due to the new adoption laws) and really thought we had plenty of time to get that done.  Well, we were wrong.  Mat called while I was getting ready for Brenda's visit and said that our social worker at Holt wanted to know if there was anyway we could have our 2nd acceptance packet to her on Friday.  This was Tuesday.  I wasn't sure whether I was going to cry or possibly throw up so I decided to take a break, text my support team, and water my roses.  God moved some mountains and our paperwork arrived in Oregon at 10:07am.  By 5:00 that evening our social worker had gone through it and it was prepped to go to Korea.

The next step in this crazy process is getting submitted for EP.  Isaac has to have an emigration permit to be able to leave Korea.  We hope to be submitted sometime this month!  There are still a few steps after that, but we are moving in the right direction.

In other news, Andrew will be graduating from Kindergarten next week.  I feel like I blinked twice and my son went from

                                                                           to....

I have got to remember not to blink!  I am so blessed to be this young man's mom.  I have so much more to say, but I'll leave that for next time.

P.S. I'm not sure who has been donating to Isaac's account on Reece's Rainbow, but THANK YOU!  I wish I could thank you in person!  Please know how much we appreciate your support!

And The Winner Is...

#1- Taste of Mcalester restaurant giftcard pack - Kelli B.
#2- $100 ThirtyOne shopping spree - Ann C.
#3- For the guys tool package - Pat W.
#4- $50 party pack for Snoman's Delite - Dave T
#5- Set of 2 rocking chairs - Jennifer W.
#6- $100 Walmart/Amazon giftcard - Don C.
Grand Prize- $500 - Dave T.

Thank you for donating, sharing, and most of all praying! 

Give Away Update

UPDATE:  We have made $650 leaving us $4,350 to raise to meet our goal.  Thank you to everyone who has donated and shared!! 

Our goal is to raise $5,000 to use towards our travel expenses.  We have made $485.  We have FIVE days left in our give away.  We need your help!!  Please donate and share about our give away, but most of all please pray for us!

You can donate by clicking on our Reese's Rainbow link on the side of the blog.  Please leave a comment with your email address so I can enter you for our give away.  Thank you for being part of Isaac's story!