USCIS Approval & Both Hands Fundraising

We received in the mail our approval from USCIS for our I-600A!! Everything is moving forward step by step... now, we wait... In the waiting we will continue to seek God's face on what he will have of us and continue to pray for our birth mom and our child. Our little one could be close to being born or even already be here!

(Image from Google)

We are moving forward with fundraising and have our link to our Both Hands Fundraising Page if you want to stay updated:

https://bothhands.org/project/tyler-281

We are currently in search of a widow to serve. If anyone has a lead on a person, please let us know!

Thank you for all of your support!

Both Hands Kick Off & One Step Closer

We went to Louisville on Wednesday and had our fingerprints and photos taken for USCIS immigration and customs. This is one step closer to approval. This usually means that everything is good with our home study! We also met a sweet family from Louisville that adopted a little girl, Sara, from South Korea and they are now adopting her biological brother, Sam.

Today we had our kick-off meeting for our Both Hands project. We know that it is a busy time a year for everyone and we are so grateful for the people that did come out. We are still looking to recruit more team members and are trying to find a widow. We know that God is going to provide through this project for us to bring our little one home!

For more information on Both Hands and how it works, here is the introductory video!

BOTH HANDS FOUNDER INTRODUCTION

Both Hands Project - APRIL 22, 2017

Friends & Family,

We are excited to announce that we are taking on a Both Hands project SATURDAY, APRIL 22, 2017.

We discovered this different kind of adoption fundraiser that has made us believe that we can raise the funds to help cover the rest of our adoption expenses.

If you can sweep, rake, clean windows, paint a wall, stuff envelopes, make phone calls, arrange food, or simply pray… then we need you! With your help, we have a chance, not only to raise the funds necessary to bring our child home, but to also serve a widow, just like it talks about in James 1:27…

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

Here’s how it works…Our family finds a widow in need of help around her home. We assemble a team of friends to complete a Both Hands Project. Then the team (including us) sends out letters to family and friends asking them to sponsor us for one day, as we work on the widow’s home.  100% of the funds received will go toward our adoption expenses (it’s just like asking someone to sponsor you for a 5K race or golf scramble). Anything that we raise that goes above and beyond what we NEED will go towards funding another family’s adoption. We will meet multiple needs at one time, give ourselves away to the service of a widow, and possibly show the world what a beautiful and realistic miracle adoption is.

Here is a link to a video that should give you a good idea of what a Both Hands Project is all about.

Here is our request... Would you consider being on our team?  You may be jumping up and down saying “pick me, pick me” or you might have several questions.

 

INFO MEETING:

When: Sunday, December 4, 2016  - 3:00-4:30pm

Where: Our House (let me know if you need our address)

We will serve chili after the meeting for you and your families!

 

Can you make it? Feel free to RSVP at shellyrtyler@gmail.com or send me a private message!

 

Thanks so much for all of your support,

Shelly, John Mark, Grayson & Paxton Tyler

 

     

"My Baby Sister Lives Right Here."

The other day, Grayson painted this beautiful picture. I looked over at him as he was intently painting. 
"Grayson, what are you painting?"
"Mom, this is South Korea. My baby sister lives right here," he said as he pointed to the map he made.
He talks about her like she is here, a part of our family, and he said she loves rice and bananas. Our hearts smile because this is exactly how we want our children to view our adoption process. We don't know who she is, where she lives, or anything about her journey yet... we don't even know exactly that our child is a "her", but we do know that we love this child and are excited to expand our family through adoption.

Even though we have been involved in this process for many years in our hearts and over a year technically in the midst of the papers, we know we have a much longer time to wait. But, in that waiting, we are expectant to find out even more what God has for our family, who Grayson and Paxton are growing to be, what we have to work on as a married couple, and the joys that can be found in the periods of waiting and refinement.

So, where are we in the adoption process? 

Our home study is now complete and approved by both agencies here in Kentucky and in Michigan. We are now filling out immigration paperwork and will go through some more approvals for that. We cannot expect a referral from the agency until at least Spring 2017. But, in the mean time, we hope to continue to plan, read, grow, and work as a family to make sure we are ready for our child who is being knit together specifically to be a part of this.

We ask for your continued prayers and support in the waiting and for all of the things that God is orchestrating in the background that are fulfilling His divine providence in this situation.

More details to come!

Moving Forward

In the midst of all of our life adventures, changes, and happenings, we are blessed to announce that our home study is in its final stages! We are very excited to complete this part of the process. Completion of the home study allows us to move forward with the networking agency we are working with and begin to consider the next steps. We know it will still be a while before our little one is in our arms, but we are moving closer to the possibility.

Korean adoption continues to be an overall complex process to comprehend from our end and we are learning more each and every day.

NEXT STEPS: 

-Submitting our home study to our networking agency in Michigan

-Applying for immigration

-If all goes well, October marks the start of the possibility of a referral

UPDATES: 

-Fundraising continues- Once our home study is complete, we will be sending everything in for a "Both Hands Project" - We hope to complete this project this fall. Go to www.bothhands.com for more info. We need at least 10 people to commit to helping us work on the home of a widow in need of assistance within our community. Overall, it will be a very rewarding project and we would love your help! 

Expectations

We are believing God for his providence to pull through. There are so many unknown factors as we work through the various stages of adopting a little one. It would be easy to expect so many things (good or bad), but truly we have to just rely on Him. He has called us to take a beautiful child into our family and love them all the days of our life. We are not expecting anything but to see God show up. Our social worker posted this photo below on Facebook and my heart leaped with a resounding "amen." We are expectant. Please continue to pray for us during this time. 

The Paper Trail Begins

The paper trail begins... We are excited because we now only have 2 more pieces of paper to complete before we are finished with part one of our paper trail to get to our baby. Grayson even got fingerprinted at the Sherriff's office yesterday and had a great time. We had our first in person interview last week and are feeling excited by all of the information (and also slightly overwhelmed). More than ever I feel like we will be prepared for this transition in our life because of how much people are sowing into us. I cherish the moments that John Mark and I can grow as parents and learn how we can influence this little girl to become a beautiful woman of God who is confident in who she is as an individual and a child of God. 

More news... We have officially moved our boys into the same room together and made a room for our newest addition. The adoption gala was a huge success and now we are planning our spring garage sale. It's so amazing all that God is doing and all that He is going to do. It's really happening!! He is faithful every time. Keep praying for our little one and her biological mother. This is supernatural. 

Adoption "Share the Love" Gala

We had a wonderful time yesterday evening at our Adoption Gala for Valentine's Day. We had tremendous support from all of our friends and family! It was a lot of work to get everything organized but definitely worth it. We were able to raise $5,000 to bring home our little one. We are getting closer and closer each day. Thank you to everyone who participated! 

No Hands But Ours- Beautiful Post Regarding Adoption

https://www.facebook.com/NoHandsButOurs/posts/954053221342796

Adoption Application Complete!

As of 1/7/16 we are officially a part of All Blessings International. Our OFFICIAL application is currently being processed. This is all becoming very real and very exciting! After speaking with our social worker, we are going to be spending the summer preparing our home (moving the boys in one room together), preparing our finances (various fundraisers), and preparing our hearts (lots of prayers). 

John Mark and I dedicated the beginning of the year to praying for this process. One of the things that really struck our hearts is that God is already setting this in motion. Even though we have to wait, there is much more going on in the background that we don't know about. We are burdened to pray heavily for the mother of our child. If we do the math, it is possible that she could even already be pregnant or come to learn that she is pregnant any time soon. We are praying that she chooses life and chooses international adoption out of love for her child. We are praying that she finds peace in the Lord and has family around her that can support her during this difficulty time and not condemn her. We are praying that she makes healthy, life-giving decisions overall.

God's providence is a beautiful thing. We cannot wait to see how it comes to fruition. We know he is going to take care of our baby because He cares for her. We know he is going to give us the means to take care of Her because we care about what He cares about. 

Looking forward to an exciting yet challenging 2016.