It is really happening!

It is official, we have tickets to CHINA!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We are down to the home stretch and our children will soon be home.

This is such a strange feeling as we have waited for so long, YET there are a million things to be done (OK a million is a tad of an exaggeration , but I do have a 5 page list of things to do and my hubby has a 2 page list.. that is about a million things when you leave in a week hahah!

Our kiddos are so excited that they are bounding off the walls! They are also afraid and having some anxiety about mom and dad leaving. If you could say some prayers for our 4 children at home, Aaron, Luke, Tommy and Paige, while we are away I would greatly appreciate it. We know that they will be loved in immensely while we are gone, but it is still a scary feeling to think your parents are going thousands of miles away and communication is minimal.... and that is if we can borrow a laptop and if we can get a vpn put on it and it works.

Paige is afraid and crying she is going to miss us, but then darn near jumps out of her skin when she looks at her sisters bed which was just set up yesterday next to hers.. :) she came in my room this morning and said "I expected to see Emma in her bed when I woke up".  Wishful thinking sweet pea but soon enough!  Paige has already claimed her and Emma's room as "Girls Only".. Paige is too too funny, she said tonight. " Momma soon there will be 3 ladies in the house.. ohhh watch out boys we are not so few now hahahh." It is definitely a boys and mans world in the Worrell House.. Sorry to tell Paige that it still will be too.. 5 boys to 3 girls when we get back home! She keeps going on and on saying she is going to have a "twin" sister. Both girls are 6 years old and both girls are about the same size.. So yup "we are twins." Love it.. Blond hair, black hair, blue eyes, dark brown eyes, Deaf , hearing.. those are not important to Paige.. being a sister is what it is all about! and Twins to boot! :)

Tommy is anxious and been having some bad dreams about mom and dad's trip so he is a little stressed, plus in pure Tommy fashion he thinks he needs to hold down the fort while we are gone. He has never had that "I am a kid mentality" Tommy is always trying to handle everything.  He is taking on the added weight of knowing Luke is afraid and Luke wont have as much fluent signing at home with mom and dad not here. I told Tommy that Pop Pop and Granma did such a great time last time that Dad and Mom had to make changes to match what they were doing as it worked better than what we did hahah :)  Tommy is very excited for his new sister and brother to come and has been working hard on getting his semi-football team Luke and Paige) ready so they can add two new members :)

Luke is so excited he is going to bust a gasket!  But at the same time he cries every time he looks at me or thinks about us leaving. He said "I know that good comes in the end.... but it is scary right now." Very smart comment from my young boy!  Luke has not really separated from us since he has been home.. not even to go to a friends house.... so he is more than nervous about 2 weeks of no one to stalk.  Note to self remind both pop pop and granma that they could become his new stalking targets and if he does they need to not make too many quick turn arounds as they will knock over their shadow if they do. :)

Aaron is off at College and busy starting his final semester of his junior year at Valley Forge Christian College! My digital media major is doing amazing! Aaron is praying hard for us on this journey and he is solidly grounded at college, but has mentioned it is sorta scary knowing your parents are so far away. I know he will cover us in prayer while we are away and that is always a blessing to know your child is praying for you and his siblings. We are hoping to be able to sneak Aaron home when we get home but not sure we can work that out for the first of Feb! The kiddos are all going to want to meet their new cool big super cool, super smart and super tall brother, Aaron.

PLEASE pray for our Elias and Emma. As exciting as this journey is for us, it must be beyond scary to them. We are not sure if Elias has been prepared for us to come or not, we are praying he has been but have no way of knowing until we meet him. If Elias is prepared he still wont fully understand what this crazy rapid change that is going to happen fully means.. Leaving his foster family, his friends, his Deaf school, his country, his language, his food, his culture, his everything behind has to be a huge shock and a huge overwhelming event for a young child to deal with. Pray for his ability to handle the changes that are about to bowl him over. We know for sure our Emma will have no clue what is about to happen to her and for a little girl 6 years old that has no language or education and no idea what is coming, to just be handed over to strangers that dont even look like anyone you have ever seen in your life and taken away from all you have known, good or bad, that has to be horrifying. Please pray with us as we have been praying for a long time, that God will prepare their hearts. That they will feel comforted and know that we are there to love them. Pray that we can handle whatever reaction they have and that we handle it with wisdom and grace. God give us all the courage and strength to go through the transitions that are yet to come.

Tom and I will travel to the northern most part of China and it is COLD there.  Harbin has an average January temp of 50 below.. ouch.. if you know me I am a summer beach girl and freeze my patoot off below 70 and that is not cold haha.

These are from the Harbin Ice Festival that will be going on while we are in Harbin. We are really going to be on a whirlwind shoot in and out of Harbin and doing a ton of adoption stuff so I am not sure how much of this we will get to see and it is beyond frigid there so not sure if we will brave this too much but we will surely check it out. From my understanding this is all outside of our hotel window pretty much.  I dont want to miss the opportunity to see something like this, but not sure what we can fit it in and how our little girl will be doing. We arrive late Sat night in Harbin and will meet our daughter on Monday so we are hoping maybe Sunday if we are not too Zombified from the full 24 hours or more of traveling to get there and the crazy huge time change, that we can fit in a little ice and snow festival time.

After we leave Emma's province we will fly to Guangzhou China to meet our son!

Totally different environment and atmosphere in just a few short days and Emma's province only gets above freezing 3 months out of the year so she is going to hit culture and weather shock before she even leaves her country.   We will meet our Elias and start the paperwork to get the passports and Visas's and medical appointments and what not.

Please pray for us during our journey and if you could continue the prayers after we get home we would appreciate it, for that is truly when the hard part of this journey starts. Becoming a family does not happen over night, learning how to be a family member is not a natural instinct to a child that has never had a family. Learning to trust people when your trust has been shattered by every living soul in your life, is not easy!!!!. Learning to not over eat (for never having experienced knowing that there will be food there when you are hungry) and that you dont need to hoard food is a process that takes time. Learning that your parents are not just another set of care takers in your life that will come and go and that they are actually your "parents" is NOT always easy to grasp and accept. For our children already at home learning that their new siblings are not a cool new pet or an exchange student that has come to visit and that they really are staying here is not always an easy thing to accept either.  Learning that the thing in the bathroom really is made to put your human waste in and that toilet paper goes in that thing too.. is not an easy concept to grasp.. learning that you dont need to suck pizza up off your plate like it is noodles on chopsticks.. not easy..

 On a lighter note:::: just watching your parents starve trying to use chopsticks and not doing so well actually getting much in their mouths can be a great way to get some laughter going...

I could go on and on but I am pretty sure you get my point by now.. We covet and need your prayers!!!!!!!Thank you for following us this far on our journey and all of your prayers, love and support. Put on your seat belt ladies and gentlemen and buckle up for the ride as we are about to kick this journey into high gear!!!!

                                            Here they are.. two children that are Orphans no more! 

                                                                           Our loves,

                                                                          Our babies,

                                                                  Elias and Emma Worrell!

            We say goodbye to the Worrell family of six for we soon become a loving family of 8!

Big News!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Boy oh Boy and Boy oh Girl Do I have a TON to post about!

                                  IT's a BOY AND a GIRL!!!

Yes folks your read correctly. We are soon leaving to bring home Elias and we will also bring home our precious Emma. We have known we were going back to China at some point for a daughter and Paige has prayed faithfully for 3 years for her sister Emma and we have found our precious Emma!!!!!!!!!!

Emma JUST turned 6 years old on December 27th 2012. She is Deaf and living in Northern China. She is a cutie pie! See for yourself!!!

We will leave in hopefully leave in about 10 days to bring our children home! We are trying hard to get through this last part of the wait and I know I posted before that I was fine with it but that was 3 weeks ago and I am done with waiting haha. Trying hard to hold it together as we know we will get approval any day now to head out and bring our two newest additions to our family home! Today is day 21 of our wait for travel approval..it is painstakingly long but we are praying our way through it!

Please pray for us as we embark on this journey. We are still short funds and awaiting results of a possible loan and a possible grant which we are in need of and need to get them quickly. Praying that they both come through. We have applied for all the grants we could, held every fundraiser we could, sold everything we could. Now we just have to trust and pray as it gets down to the wire to travel.

Please Pray for our children here as we leave them behind to go bring home their new brother and sister, it is not easy to stay home while your parents travel thousands of miles away to bring home new siblings 2 weeks later. Pray for our trip that we stay healthy (we both are not healthy right now) and that we have smooth flights. Please pray for a smooth meeting of Emma and then flight to Guangzhou and a smooth meeting of Elias... Pray for Tom and I as we head to Harbin China to brave the 35 -50 below temperatures there to get Emma and then head to 65 degrees in Guangzhou. Pray for a safe flight home.  Pray for the adjustment of our family as we go from a family of 6 to a family of 8.   We are beyond excited!!!!

                Our Handsome Elias is COMING HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

            Our Beautiful Emma is COMING HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our last family photo as a family of 6.. the next gathering we shall be a family of 8 and we cant wait!!!!!!

We are waiting for Travel approval

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS TO US!!

We are officially waiting for our TA (Travel approval for those of you not versed in adoption speak!). It is an amazing feeling. We have been matched with Elias since October of 2011 and the wait has been long, but at the same time the wait has been full of GOD!  As I mentioned before we first saw our precious Elias when he was just 6 years old, he turned 9 years old in September. It is hard to know that we have had no say in his life for 9 years and that we have not been able to protect him or love on him for 9 years. BUT one thing I have clearly learned from this crazy process we call adoption is that even though I have no control over things.. Guess what? God has everything in control.

I darn near made myself crazy during Luke's adoption trying to make everything happen my way and in my timing. I would like to say I did amazingly better this time around but I would be lying. I think I did much better this time around but not amazingly hahah. I know I made myself nuts worrying about Luke and his safety and his health and what was or was not happening with him. I have since learned that even though I have no control over those things our God is busy protecting our children and loving on them and softening their hearts and preparing a way. There are things that Luke experienced that no child should ever have to and he has wounds that run deep. YET Luke has the most remarkable out look, attitude and heart. I know this is of God for he has every right to be angry, bitter and running scared. I pray that Elias is being guarded, protected and his heart is being prepared for this crazy journey that is getting ready to uproot him from all he has known (be that good or bad) and send him on a crazy ride.

Tom and I are busy preparing for our son to come home and we are preparing our hearts and those of Elias's brothers and sisters for this journey. I cannot even begin to imagine the thoughts that whirl through a child as the adoption process begins. Some children are prepared the best the can be by their orphanage or foster family and some know nothing about what is going to take place. I cannot imagine what it feels like to be taken from all you have ever known and be put in the hands of strangers all within a few minutes time and told they are your family. It must be horrifying. I know most people think that the adopted child will fall at our  feet and praise us for "saving" them.. Just place yourself in the child's mind for just one and I mean one minute and you can see how this is NOT the reaction that we receive when we finally do meet our child. I would think fear is the residing initial feeling that most parents ( I do not say all, I say most) are greeted with.. understand all children handle fear differently, some lash out, some cry and some just retreat internally, some are just curious of what is going on and some are happy to see someone showing them love and gifts.. but trust me the fear is there... there are many ways fear can be manifested. I know for a fact that when Luke was brought to Tom and I we were excited as heck, but also scared out of our pants. We were literally handed our child by strangers in the lobby of a crowded hotel and the people that brought him left within seconds.. there he was.. no introduction, no stories of what he likes and does not like, what his routine is.. nothing.. we were scared out of our pants.. now imagine the child's perspective.. whoa it is mind blowing to me. Tom and I now look back at how amazing Luke handled this process and we know that we saw an inside glimpse into Luke's strength and courage and resilience and didn't even realize it at the time.

We excitedly prepare our house, hearts and yup even our very not happy school district for the changes that are soon coming. We cannot wait to meet our son and to finally get to know him. We know challenging times are ahead but we know that blessed times are also ahead.  Adoption is not easy, but it is beyond worth it. We are just a few short weeks away from having our son in our arms and just cannot cannot wait. The wait to travel is said to be the hardest as you know it is so right there, but you cant go just yet.. I personally am fine with the wait as it is giving me time to prepare my heart, my mind and pray, pray, pray... it is giving me time to prepare the hearts and minds of my children and to pray over them. We are bursting at the seems with excitement! Oh our sweet sweet Elias we are so soon going to be there. Last night I sent out one last care package with a letter letting him know we shall be there soon, with a jacket (he lives in southern China and it is Florida like weather there, so he will have some adjusting to do to get ready for New Jersey :), we sent some more photos of our family and we sent him a toy.  Praying these things give him some peace and allow his heart some time to prepare and say goodbyes that need to be said. We have told him we know that his life is about the rapidly change and we promise to love him through the changes and try our best to help him adjust to everything.  ( we know this is no easy journey for him, we dont think he yet knows this is not an easy journey...) Lord prepare our sons heart. We are leaving soon!!!!!

My name is Elias and I have a family and am coming home soon! I am soon to be an orphan no more!

Hang on Sweet boy.. we are coming Oh so soon!

We are barreling towards our Elias at what feels like warp speed. It has been since last year October that we were matched with this precious little face. We are expecting to travel in the beginning of January!

It has been 3 long years since these pictures of Elias.. these pictures are when our adoption agency had a camp in China and actually met this precious little one. Elias was 6 years old and we were in the process of adopting Luke. We thought he was adorable and he captured our hearts but we were adopting our precious Luke.... so we vowed to advocate for Elias and pray for him, pray that his family would find him quickly.  We kept track of him for awhile as he was bounced from agency to agency over time and then we heard no more of him. We were under the impression he had a family.  Then one day last year his little face showed up on an advocacy website I belong to. His name was different and he looked older but it was surely him and he still had no family to call his own. My heart was torn in two.  

 This is the face that we saw last year.. The face of an older boy looking so sad.. Where had the smile gone.. why had the smile gone... This sweet face sang out to me....again my heart broke. 

 Now 8 years old and still no family to call his own.... The fact that the bubbly smiling boy was no longer smiling made me nauseous............honestly  it broke me in two. It didn't take but a short time for my husband and I to realize that the family we have been praying for.. for two years to find this precious boy... was none other than our own.. We spent two years praying for ourselves.. Guess it is nice to know we unknowingly covered ourselves in prayer.  We contacted our agency and asked them to find him for us.. He was being bounced around still. They found him with another agency and requested that his file be transferred to them. We were not willing to try a new agency for our adoption. We love and trust our adoption agency and knew they had to be the ones to help us bring this boy, that they had met and loved so much, home.  Some agencies will transfer files and some will not. Some agencies (like mine) their focus is the children and helping the children find a family to call their own. We were very blessed that the agency that had his file said if we were truly willing to commit to him they would transfer his file for us. You bet we were willing. We had his letter of intent already written out (his LOI in the adoption world).  The transfer was made and we submitted our letter for him. It did not take long for China to give us the go ahead to start the process to make this little boy our son officially. We already knew he was our son in our hearts now we just needed the powers in China and the USA that be to know that too.  Soooo over a year ago we started the process to make him our own and here we still are. We swore he would be home before his 9th Birthday and when that day came on September 27, 2012 oh how I felt like I had failed this little one. He is now a big boy, a gorgeous 9 year old. BUT he did find out on his birthday that he does have a family to call all his own. That he has a momma, a daddy and 3 brothers and a sister that already love him.  We sent a care package through an amazing organization (well I say organization it is really two woman with hearts of Gold) named Lady Bugs N Love (if you are adopting I recommend them with everything in me.. I love them love them love them).. We sent Elias a birthday cake, a present and some treats to share with his friends. Since Elias is dormed in the school for the Deaf we were not sure he would get these things. Much to our surprise not to long after his birthday we received 10 emails from Angela with Lady Bugs N Love and she was forwarding me 86 pictures of our precious son and his Birthday party that we sent for him. This is the day Elias found out about us. 

 AHHHHH there is that smile that we have longed to see! Our son knows we are coming for him. He knows it wont be to long now and his life is going to have some HUGE changes. We are ready to see him, ready to love him, ready to get to know him. Ready to find out what he is like, his personality, his likes, his dislikes, what makes him laugh. His favorite things, whether he is an athlete or not. Is he left or right handed (although from the pics he is eating the cake with his right.). Does he like to draw? Is he quite? Is he loud? Is he calm, hyper, sweet, naughty, silly, serious.. and the list goes on and on.............................................I am ready Lord I am ready.  

Christmas.. whoa what a Fundraiser!

Ok Ladies and Gentlemen this is it! We have I-800 approval for Elias and that means we are down to about 5-7 weeks.. leaning towards 5 weeks until we have travel approval to head out of here. We are still short on our funds to bring home our son. So we are going to do a BIG Giveaway for our Pre-Christmas Fundraiser. 


‎"My friends, adoption is redemption. It's costly, exhausting, expensive, and outrageous. Buying back lives costs so much. When God set out to redeem us, it killed Him." ~ Derek Loux ~

 We will be celebrating the life and dreams of Elias with an

                I-pad mini-16 GB fundraiser

                  The I-PAD mini is the hottest selling Christmas item this year!

                  Fundraiser with a chance to win an I-pad Mini     

                Chances cost $10 each 3 chances for $20

               Think about this – what is your dream for:

Yourself? Your family? Your community? Your country? Your world?   Help Make Elias's Dream of a Family Come True!

Drawing Dec 16^th-pay by cash, check or pay-pal or chip in on my blog ( remember pay pal and chip in take a percentage.) 

Tawzgirl@comcast.net for pay-pal   ** must use the word donation when  paying with pay-pal**

I need your name, phone # and email address. I will contact the winner to get your mailing address. 

In the home stretch

Today we took a BIG step forward! We received our I-800 Provisional approval today! THIS IS BIG! We are now within weeks of travelling to China! It IS going to happen! It WILL be soon! So I am checking out airline tickets! Getting our Visa paperwork ready to get out of here! Applying for more grants! We are going to have to dust off the suitcases soon and start to really get ourselves thinking about this trip. We have been in the hurry and wait, hurry and wait mode that adoption puts you in. Now we are in the hurry and hurry some more mode that adoption puts you in at the end after what seemed like forever to get here. We are at 14 months waiting for our son so far. We are more than ready!

YAHOOOO on I-800 approval. Yahooo on me actually being brave enough to look up the price of tickets today.. and YAHOOO for just needing to give another YAHOOO for our big accomplishment today! We are getting close. We have 3 steps left.

Next step is NVC will send a notice that our approval has been forwarded to the US Consulate in Guangzhou, China this takes about 1 week

Then An Article 5 is issued - this takes 2 weeks

Final step is our TA is issued (Travel Approval) this is about 2-3 weeks after Article 5.

As you can see we have 5- 6 weeks and then we will be making plans to fly out of here to get our son.

We are coming soon Elias.. Coming soon!

Christmas Shopping for a Cause

• THE WORRELL FAMILY THIRTY ONE FUNDRAISER

• Where:  ONLINE!!!

• When: November 2nd through November 18th  We are in the process of adopting 9 year old Elias from Southern China. Elias is Profoundly Deaf , and one handsome little boy. We are more then anxious to bring him home to our family. This is a new picture of our handsome boy the day he found out he has a family (His 9th Birthday!) We are getting closer and closer to bringing him home, we are guessing for travel sometime between January - March at the latest!!!! As some of you know the cost of adoption is pretty darn expensive, but we cannot put a price tag on someones life. Every child deserves to know the love of a family. We scraped and saved and scrimped and fund-raised and applied for grants to bring Luke home and now we are again saving, scrimping, scrapping and praying and praying and praying for the funds to bring our precious son home to his family that cannot wait to welcome him with loving arms! From this fundraiser: 100% of the commission from all sales goes to the Worrell Family Adoption Fund to bring home precious Elias! Make sure you check out the November Customer Special when you are looking at your order. For every $35 in product a customer purchases, you are eligible to purchase a Medium Utility Tote (item 4121) for just $5. AND for every Medium Tote purchased, Thirty One will donate a Thermal Tote to Operation Homefront to assist military families in need. There is no limit on the number of customer specials. THE FALL LINE IS INCREDIBLE!!!!!!! Download a pdf of the Thirty-One fall catalog here: http://morekids4me.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/fall 2012 catalog.pdf When you are ready to enter your order, go to http://www.mythirtyone.com/AnneLittle/ Click on "My Events" and then choose the Worrell Family fundraiser. I WOULD LIKE TO HELP, BUT AM NOT SURE HOW!!!!!If you feel motivated and would like to help you too can host a Thirty One Catalog party and invite your friends to your house for an event. OR You can host an online event (Anne does all the set up work... you just need to spread the word.. the orders get shipped directly to the customer . it is easy peasy!) 100% of the Commission will go to bring Elias home and you will receive the amazing hostess gifts! SO even if you cannot afford to purchase something yourself you can host a catalog or online party and all proceeds will be donated to bring home Elias but you receive all the amazing hostess gifts (Trust me from my last fundraiser the hostess gifts are amazing!) If you have any questions, or need any help, email, message or call Anne Little 865-405-6979 morekids4me@gmail.com