2 of 3 new videos of Sam!!!

1 of 3 new videos of Sam!

Hello Friends!

I haven't written yet on this blog, oh boy!  Well, we are going to have another little boy, and I am getting more excited everyday!  To think of Jack playing with Sam truly blesses my heart!  You know, I find it exciting to think about the roll that Sam will play in our family.  While it's easy to think of us as being needed by Sam, but God also knows that we need Sam!  So, what is it that he will bring to our family that is missing?  I don't know, but God knows.  And that is so cool!!  God will supply all of our needs!

I think the hardest part about this adoption for me is knowing that Sam lives with loving foster grandparents, and I know that his heart, and theirs, is going to break when he comes home.  I know this is necessary.  I know they can't adopt him.  I know that he, and they, will eventually be ok, but the thought of him grieving them, while necessary and "good", just breaks my heart.  Will he understand?  Will he know we are coming before we get there?  I was told that some kids are not told about their adoption before the day it happens!  Can you imagine?  That just seems cruel to me.  Some kids are taken back to the orphanage, where Sam doesn't even live, and left for up to two weeks before we get him.  Now, that just seems like twice as much trauma to me as just the "hand-off".  Ugh!!!!  So, I am going to try to send him a birthday cake, his birthday is next month, 12-9.  I'm hoping that will be a huge clue to him and his grandparents that he indeed has a family.  (Note:  his grandparents are not related to him biologically, they are much older, which is very common for foster families in China) And I want to send him some Christmas presents.  He will be 7 next month.  He is a big boy.  He can totally understand that change is coming.  To what extent, I don't know.  But, we'll try.  Also, we are awaiting an update on Sam.  All of the medical information and what was noted about his personality and likes, etc. is over 3 years old.  So, the pics I found were taken in July, but all the info is very old.  So, I can't wait to get that in my hand!!

The other kids are doing great.  Claire is ready to start extensive "schooling", and the evaluation process is long.  So, here we go!  She also has a big  behavioral science evaluation on 11-27-13.  Praying that it goes well and that she shows them all they need to see to truly know how best to reach her and teach her and meet her needs.  We are all madly in love with our beautiful, sweet, happy girl!

Well, gonna go do some more laundry, housework, and play with Claire.  Love to all!!
Leslie

Faith

I've said it before...adoption is not for the faint of heart. Each time, our adoption journey has been a journey of faith for us. If you know us then you are probably familiar with our financial situation. You wouldn't point to us as the family who could take on a very expensive adoption process. Yet, each time God provides exactly what is needed exactly when it is needed. This combination makes for an incredible testimony. Not a testimony of what the Fuller's have done, but of what God has done through the Fullers. We couldn't do this on our own, but God did it and continues to do it through us. To Him goes all the glory. Leslie shared this scripture with me last night and it hits the nail right on the head.

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. (1 Corinthians 1:27-29 NIV)

This is not about the Fullers. People tell us how neat we are for adopting etc...all the time. Truth is, we are just willing participants. We could do no part of this on our own. It's so humbling to be involved with something that is seen as our thing, and yet need help to get it done. But as I am learning, that just ensures that I take no credit for any part of the work that God is doing through our family. We are truly blessed to be a small part of the story that He is writing. Each time God sends us on an adoption adventure, He grows and stretches us. We tend to think, oh...third adoption, we got this down, but NO. God is continually teaching us something new, transforming us into the people that He wants us to be. One thing we knew for sure, is that once we said yes to God's call to bring Sam home, satan was going to attack. As Leslie so perfectly stated on her FB post this morning "Adoption brings the enemy full-force! Breaking generational strongholds, writing a new lineage, and giving life is against all that the enemy is here to accomplish." He won't go down without a fight. We thought we were ready.

Satan has battered us the past few weeks and continues to do so. I won't list all the ways he has been attacking, but if I did, it would almost be comical. Yet, God in all His splendor and foresight has provided for us yet again. He placed Leslie and I each in different Bible studies that have recently provided each of us with the scripture and encouragement to go to war with satan and to fight back against his attacks. I don't see any possible way to fix/solve the issues that we are currently facing. It's beyond what I/we can do on my/our own. I/we have to be willing to surrender these things to God and allow Him to write this story. He is so much better than I am at doing so. I would write it that we had plenty of money for every need and that we wanted for nothing to get this accomplished. BUT...It's not much of a story if we would have had plenty of money to provide for all of our needs ourselves. There would be nothing in that story to cause us to point back to God and give him the glory.

I have to admit that I had allowed satan to rob my joy in the midst of all these struggles. I was trying to encourage Leslie the other night and she pointed out that I too have been struggling and walking around moping. That really struck me. As the leader of my family, I need to lead by example and I wasn't doing a very good job. I was telling her all the right things but not living it myself. The last two days have been so much better. I'm still not sure how things are going to play out, but we are trying to have faith, rely on what we know from scripture, and trust in God as He has called us on this journey. My God is much bigger than all of these little "problems". God can do exceedingly and abundantly more than we could ever fathom to ask for.

We said from day 1 of our very first adoption, that this was so much bigger than us. That concept just continues to reveal itself through each adoption journey.

To God be the glory!!!

Number Six

Well...Where to start? We actually first saw Sam's photo back when God asked us to adopt for the second time. Leslie had shown me his photo and we just didn't think he was the one. Of course at that time, God led us to Claire. I'm sure most of you reading this know her story and know that she really need to get out of China as she was so neglected. Looking back, knowing that we are now going to bring home Sam as well, we can easily say that Claire needed to be the priority and her life literally depended on it. So now we flash back to a couple of months ago and Leslie comes across Sam's photo on a shared list. It really spoke to both of us and we were both kind of shocked and saddened that he hadn't been adopted yet. This started a series of conversations between the two of us. Mostly about money and logistics. Where would we put all of our kids? How could we afford it? That was not directed at the cost of the adoption itself. We have seen God provide that money twice before. The concerns were, we have one getting ready to need a car, and one getting ready to head to college, and activities for all and grocery money, and wedding money, and retirement money. All the life things that are to come that you can't get grants for or hold fund raisers for. We both felt that if God was asking us to adopt again, that He would also take care of that stuff. So here we are then. The million dollar question...Is God asking us to adopt again? We are definitely willing but that doesn't mean that we are called by God to adopt. If God isn't calling us, this was too big of a step to take and try to figure it out on our own. That is kind of where we left it...Is God calling us. Several weeks later, I felt God ask me to do a fast and He laid it on my heart as to what I was to fast from. He had several things that He wanted me to pray about during this fast one of which was Sam. I didn't tell anyone even Leslie. I heard pretty quickly that Sam was our son. Eventually, Leslie picked up on my fast and I shared with her some of the details. I think she was kind of shocked. She instantly wanted to know what I heard in regards to Sam. I told her "I think he is our son". God had not yet revealed this to Leslie and she was still feeling reluctant to take on a sixth child. Part of what she was dealing with was guilt and a desire to help ease our financial burden. I've told her for years that by God's design, I am the provider and her responsibility is to be home with the children. She made an attempt, yet again. Our history of her attempts to help provide is fairly comical. God always shuts them down shortly after they get started and this one met with the same fate as all of the others. Then a dear friend shared with her that God has blessed and equipped me to provide for our family and that she does not need to bear that burden. This was so enlightening and freeing to her. So with that behind us, she still wasn't fully on board with another adoption. She told me, "you heard God say he is ours, so I guess we need to do it". I said yes, I did hear that, but as part of the confirmation that I heard God correctly, I need you to hear from God and be on board with it. Several days later, she went to look for Sam's file again and it was gone from the shared list. It was at this point that God stared working on her. She felt a sadness come across her when she could no longer find his file. She started making some calls to see if there was any way to track it down. She called an adoption agency that our friends had used for their adoptions. What she found out was that one of three things happened. 1)Sam has been matched with a family 2)An agency had picked up his file or 3)His file had been returned to China (which means that he may not get another shot at adoption or at least he wouldn't anytime soon). This about the time that she called me to tell me what had been going on. I said to her "I know what I heard, but I need you to get praying about it and be on the same page". If I'm being honest, I was kind of frustrated that she had been dragging her feet and not praying about Sam, but I wasn't about to pressure her. She was so patient with me the first time around as I was the one dragging my feet. So, as she did then, I patiently waited for God to convince her as He had me. She then said a prayer and asked God, "If Sam is ours, please let them find his file and if he is not, then just shut the door on this opportunity". She made some calls to all our her incredible prayer warrior friends and her mother. Almost every single one said "He is yours! We've known it for a long time." This is when God started working on her. She asked "how come everyone around me knew but I did not?" I don't have an answer for that other than God's timing is perfect...never early...never late. Maybe a day or so later, we got the phone call. They found Sam's file. It had been picked up by another agency, so there is still hope. In order for China to pull the file back from that agency and send it to our new agency, we had to commit to taking him. Next step of faith...we have never seen his file. All we know about him is what we learned from other people on adoption blogs. So now what? FAITH! God said go, so we go! They sent us some paperwork. We printed it, signed it saying we would take him and sent it back. We now have the ball rolling and we both have an incredible peace about it. A peace that exceeds all understanding. Within a few days, we did receive his file and some new pictures. Leslie sent it off to a cardiologist and Children's Mercy and then had a couple of really good phone conversations with him. He concurred that if everything is as the paperwork states, there should be no problems or concerns. We will possibly need some maintenance surgeries, but there is no reason to expect that he couldn't live a "normal" life. God just keeps adding to our story! Stretching us and growing us along the way. So, that brings us to the title of the blog...And Sam makes six.