WELCOMING A CHILD...

"And anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf is welcoming me." -Matthew 18:5

We have EXCITING NEWS and are a few more baby steps closer to bringing home our sweet son from China.

On June 9, 2014 we received a REFERRAL from Lifeline – our adoption agency. The Agency’s goal is to find families for children and we received a referral...WE'RE MATCHED. Josh got the call and was excited to make the announcement to the family. Monday afternoon when he was on his way home from work he called the family at home and announced that the agency called to say that God has provided a handsome little boy. OUR SON is amazing! Of course mommy was in tears and Jeremiah put on his BIG SMILE. Karah leaned over to Jennah immediately and said, “Jennah! We have our new baby brother!” What an amazing feeling... For all of you mother’s out there it felt much like a positive pregnancy test and still does today. We are so blessed to be on this journey and cannot wait to share more exciting news about our son very soon. Our LETTER OF INTENT was submitted on June 13, 2014. Unfortunately we can’t share too much information until we have an official Pre-Approval from China, but OUR SON is wonderful and the Hahn family is on Cloud Nine. Pictures and more details coming soon!

On Thursday, June 26th we traveled to the Department of Homeland Security office in Missouri to do BIOMETRICS (fingerprinting) and are now in the FBI Database.

The Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will then approve our eligibility to adopt from China. Please pray that our application is processed appropriately and in God’s Time.

WHAT’S NEXT – THE WAIT!! Waiting for Pre-Approval from China and I-800A Immigration Approval. Then our DTC (Dossier to China) will be authenticated and sent to China.  We will announce the DTC DAY as soon as we know! You can follow our adoption timeline on the right of our webpage blog.

HOW CAN YOU HELP? We will be collecting items for our son’s orphanage soon So stay Posted! 

We ask that you continue to pray for us

*For our son - keep him safe and healthy

*For our family - that we are patient and at peace during the WAIT

*That all required paperwork will be processed correctly and in God's time

 

Adoption: A Father’s Perspective!

Wownesia.com 2011 (www.bing.com)

       As my morning started I received a text from my wife asking me to write our next blog entry.  Her text stated that many people have asked if I would write regarding my perspective.  Once I received the text I began to hyperventilate, brain-storm and then decided I must mow the lawn to take my mind away from the task at hand.  For the next hour between the sneezing, blowing snot rockets due to allergies from the grass and pondering while mowing I decided that I could do this.  So here it goes. 

     First I must ask you this question.  What is the one” thing” that everyone seeks in life? Some have it, some yearn for it, some long for it, some take a long time to find it, some find it early and some have it but don’t realize it.  Most would argue that this “thing” can be the cause and the answer to many of today’s problems.  I am going out on a limb by saying that even the Ten Commandments can be summed with this one word. Have you figured it out yet………………..LOVE.  Love is the answer and really when you think about it things happen in life due to the lack or the abundance of LOVE. 

     You may be wondering how this has anything to do with adoption.  The decision to adopt has everything to do with love.  As I see it our child will have known love from day one.  Many ask how could a mother do that to a child, but I would ask how this is not the ultimate sacrifice of love.  Just as GOD so LOVED us that he gave his one and only begotten son to die for our sins, these mother’s pay the ultimate sacrifice by giving up their children to help provide a better life for them.  Love guided this mother to sacrifice her own need to love, so her child would be provided for since she is unable to.  Next, the love of the Orphanage care givers is immense to try their best to provide the daily needs for these children with little supplies.  Lastly you mix in the Love of the adoptive parents.  Amazing the love of each step in this child’s life is not forgotten nor is it ever lost.  Granted this love for that child may not be realized while he/she is young but at some point they will.  My goal through adoption is to continue this love for one little boy.  

Photo by James Goll (www.bing.com)

     Over the last hours while pondering this blog post many thoughts, questions, answers and prayers have been running throughout my mind.  The one thought that sticks with me is how LOVED I have been.  To fathom the Love my heavenly father has given me through giving up his son for my sins.  My heavenly father adopted me before my conception and has continued this love to this day.  He provided me with loving earthly parents that have shaped my life over the years.  While both of my parents are important to me I would like to focus briefly on my earthly father.  My heavenly father has provided me with a loving nurturing earthly father that has provided me with a great skill set and respect for life that I can only hope to pass on to my children.  My goal in life is to pass this on to all my children.  While the orphanage has and continues to provide for our child, I feel a strong calling to continue providing more to him.  As any father knows the love you have for your children is just as strong/intense as a mother’s love.   

     Often a father’s love is shown in a different manner than a mother’s love but it is just as equally important in a child’s life.  I am reminded of a common country song that I grew up listening to called “Daddy’s Hands” by Holly Dunn.  As this song says Daddy’s hands were there when I was crying, like steel when I had done wrong, and there was always love in daddy’s hands.  This adoption is an opportunity for me to pass my heavenly father’s love on to another child in need.  As they say “FAITH, HOPE and LOVE” are important in life but the greatest of these is “LOVE.”

Prayers

If you would like to share in our journey please PRAY for our family!

 

It Takes a CROWD to Raise a Family!

It truly does take a CROWD to raise a family. We all know it, although we may not admit it or take the time to thank people that we appreciate most. As parents we are not the only one's that shape our children into the individuals they will become. I have thought for many years that our children’s “world” would not be possible without the grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles, cousins, teachers, bus drivers,  moms/dads of friends, principals, pastors, neighbors, and many more. Precious one’s who have made an impact and helped to shape our children’s character we cannot say thank you enough. As we prepare for our son we hope and pray that he will be accepted, nurtured, and loved just the same.

A child’s world is made up of moments and sometimes I admit, I forget to live in the moment and do the things I enjoy most. Over the next year our moments together as a family will be even more important as we prepare our children for a "new brother." His arrival will be different than a normal hospital delivery experience, but one of diversity and new cultural experiences. Parenting is not easy—as you all know—but it is definitely worth even the rough moments! Our son will bring to us new opportunities and open our eyes giving us a whole new look on the everyday “world” we live. Here is how our world has changed since we began the process…

We applied to the adoption agency in November 2013 then started our home study in February 2014. Once our home study is completed we will be applying for immigration and complete our dossier (an application to China requesting to adopt) to be sent. Anyone that knows about adoption they know it is a hurry up and wait process! But we also know that this process is “In God’s Time” so we encourage each other daily to BE PATIENT. I often think that God puts challenges in our lives to make us stronger. Like making me wait—as I like to control the situation—and yet I seem to be calm and collected knowing that IT IS NOT UNDER MY CONTROL. Our kids continue to be busy and stay distracted with playing, reading, and now summer time camps/activities so it is not much different than being pregnant for 40 weeks and making the children wait to meet the baby. 

God has a hand on our adoption journey and we can feel it. We have every confidence that he will take care of our every need and provide for our family. As we wait eagerly for our adoption to be complete we continue to pray and we trust that God knows what is best for us.

Our children are anxious as well and have begun a special project to benefit our adoption and help offset the in-country expenses associated with bringing our son home. All three of our kids love to use their hands and have awesome dexterity – from the words of a dental hygienist – we put their skills to the test. Below you will find some Hahn crafted items that help us express love to others.

Angel of God,

my guardian dear,

to whom God’s love commits me here,

even this day,

be at my side

to light and guard,

to rule and guide.

Amen

-Unknown Author

For a suggested $5 donation you will receive a guardian angel* made by Daddy and our middle child *available in various colors

We shall neither fail nor falter; we shall not weaken or tire...give us the tools and we will finish the job" 

-Winston Churchill

 

For a suggested $10 donation you will receive a survival bracelet* handmade by one of our three children *available in various colors and sizes

To order please contact Daddy at plusonehahn@gmail.com

THANK YOU for being our number one cheerleaders through prayers and encouragement.

Blessings to You!

WE'RE EXPECTING

We are expecting in 2015 to bring our son home from the beautiful, history rich country of China. 

Growing our family from 5 to 6 is fun, exciting, and invites a whole new set of experiences for us. If you know our family you are probably thinking why? If you don’t know our family…read on and we will share with you our journey as parents.

Why? We have been blessed with three children over the last 12 years and they create so much joy in our lives. After our third child and third C-section we were told it would be too risky to carry a fourth child, so mommy elected to have surgery to prevent pregnancy. Call it divine intervention, miracle, or just bad luck that mommy was one of 5 out of 1000 to become pregnant after surgery. Unfortunately we were not able to carry the pregnancy to term and since then we have felt a void in our hearts. We will meet our child in heaven again someday! Through adoption we can fill this earthly void.

We believe our children also crave for another sibling. How do we know? Our son wants someone to share his space, clothes, and toys. Our daughters want someone little to nurture and take care of. **Flashback – Our son was three and during the ultrasound of his first sister he said unprompted, “it will be a girl, then a girl, then a boy.”** Wow! That was awesome to hear…

Last summer while attending a Christian event the topic of adoption came about and as parents we began to talk about the possibilities. Our connection to the adoption agency we chose came from a friend of a friend who also attended the Christian event. We went to an information session hosted by our church in October 2013 and after much prayer we felt 100% sure that this was our next step to add a new little one to the family. Thus begins our adoption journey!

Over the next few months we made the decision to adopt our son from China. As we have progressed through the adoption process and things have fallen into place IN GOD’S TIME. We completed a home-study in which we learned a lot about adoption, parenting, and our marriage. We are anticipating this stage to be complete very soon.

We hope to bring home our son within the next 12 months. FOLLOW our blog to stay up to date during this EXCITING ADVENTURE!

Until next time…

In Happy Moments

PRAISE GOD

In the Difficult Moments

SEEK GOD

In the Quiet Moments

TRUST GOD

In Every Moment

THANK GOD

-Unknown Author