Thursday, September 29, 2011

And Some Counting

She was on a roll tonight. Counting as she put away the yogurt. She is growing up so quick!

Grace Saying Her Blessing - So Stinkin Cute!

Too bad I can figure out how to trun it, guess next time I can't hold camera that way - duh!

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Prayer Quilt for Olivia - Need Your Help!

I know many of you have said you wanted to contribute to Olivia’s prayer quilt. If you have not already gotten your squares to me please do so by the end of this month, which is the end of this week. I know the days get away from us quickly. We are planning to meet with the quilter first part of October to plan out her quilt and pass along the squares so that we can have it back before Christmas. It would bless us tremendously for you to be a part of this! Instructions can be found below, simple though one 8x8 square of fabric and one prayer or blessing for her with a swatch of the fabric attached.

100 Blessings Quilt

Some of you may remember and even contributed towards the 100 blessings quilt we did for Grace. It now hangs in her room and is gorgeous! We did receive our 100 quilt squares and it made into a beautiful King Size quilt! I can’t wait to one day tell her the story behind it and show her all the prayers from each of you!

With that said, we would like to bless Olivia with one as well. While we are waiting to bring her home, we are working on this project and we would be honored to have your help with it.

To welcome and celebrate a new life, there is a tradition in the northern part of China to make a Bai Jia Bei, or "100 Good Wishes Quilt"….what we are calling a “100 Blessings Quilt”. It is a custom to invite family and friends to contribute a square patch of cloth. The patches are sewn together into a quilt that contains blessings from all the families and friends who contributed a piece of fabric. The quilt is then passed down from generation to generation.
If you would like to contribute to this project, we would love it! Here is what we would like you to do:

1. Choose ANY 100% cotton fabric that you like. It can be a design and color that you like or you think represents Olivia. It could be a bit of fabric that you've used to create something else wonderful for your family.
2. Cut one 8X8 square from the fabric for each child. Also, cut a scrap piece of that same fabric that you can attach to your blessing card for each child.
3. Include your "blessing note" and attach the scrap piece of fabric. Be as creative as you would like. It can be as simple as on a piece of paper, or you can make it like a scrap book card. On the card please write your blessing, prayer or word of encouragement you feel the Lord is leading you to speak to Olivia. We will place all your blessings in a scrapbook. One day when she is older we will share them with her.

Ideas for selecting fabric squares:
*Select a fabric that is meaningful to you.
*100% cotton fabric is best, as it washes and wears well.
*If there are several members in your family, please feel free to send more than 1 set of fabric per child. It would be so special to include blessings from all members of your family!! In China, these quilts were originally made from garments of family and friends, which would surround the child with blessings.

Ideas for blessings note:
Well... what would you pray for a child to have in his life? Keep in mind that they will read your note numerous times during their life.
Thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedules to help us create this very special keepsake. This is something that they will cherish for the rest of their lives.

Much Love,
Dawn and Guy Fisher
You can mail them to us at
1817 Park Grove Place
Concord, NC 28027

We would like to have all the quilt squares by September 30. This way we can get them to the quilter before the holiday rush with Christmas she is always busy.


Thank you so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday, September 24, 2011

A Lion and an Eagle - Part 3 of 3

So God began to reveal to me the identity of my girls, their kingdom purpose and I was overwhelmed.

Grace is my "Lion". So fitting really. When you think of a lion you think of strong willed, independent, decisive. A lion will equally destroy and save. They are brave in battle (Joel 3:16). They will destroy evil and are champions of light and life! This is my Grace for sure so in the natural I thought of yeah she is a lion alright. She even loves lions. Lion King, Lion King 1-1/2 two of her favorite movies and she is very taken by the baby lion who gets taken away by the Hunters, very concerned and worried. I have a shirt that has a lion on it and she went crazy for it, crying she wanted it. That night she literally slept with it. The next day I promised we would go find her a lion shirt. At her build-a-bear party...you guessed it, her pick a lion!

Olivia is my "Eagle". This was very fitting as well since she is at "The Eagles Wing" foster care home and the quote from their website is their hope is that children would rise on “eagles’ wings” high above the storms of life to reach the potential they were meant to. I am reminded of this scripture from Isaiah one of my favorites. An eagle sees things with an eye like no other. They fly into the storm not away from it. They are extraordinary nurtures and meticulously develop their young. Job 39:27 says they are responsive to the voice of God. They are messengers. Powerful bird, but tender to its young.

So I knew this but what did it really mean? I knew there was more significance then even this alone. Well I met with a good friend, who was our Executive Pastor at our church for several years and has now stepped out starting his own ministry and was updating him on the adoption over lunch last week. I told him I knew my girls were a Lion and Eagle in God's kingdom though wasn't sure exactly what that meant. Well this man of God has much wisdom and discernment and God spoke a powerful message to me that day through him.

He said Olivia was a hope bringer....let's stop there that was the first name God told me I would give Olivia (it is her middle name) before we even decided for sure we would adopt again or had chosen Olivia as our daughter! He told me she would be a hope bringer and I that would be part of her name! WOW! Then he said she will soar and see things with the eye of an eagle. (I about fell out of my chair I told him, part of her Chinese name was Gao which meant "to soar" and I knew I was to include that in her name. Hope-Gao) Crazy right! He said she will be able to see from a long ways off (from above, have the Father's perspective). She will see a far ways out, not so much what is near, becasue she is getting a different picture. Eagles have 20/10 eye sight, that is what fighter pilots have. This little girl Olivia Hope-Gao Fisher - her name means Anointed Hope Bringer who will Soar! I love that I get to call out her identity in Christ when I call her name!

So then he went on to say you have a prophet and an apostle. Two of the Five fold ministry in the church (the other 3 are teacher, Evangelist and pastor). Ladies we are founded on the apostels and prophets with Jesus being the cornerstoen.


Ephesians 4:8 Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity
captive, and gave gifts unto men.


Ephesians 4:11 And he gave some,apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists;
and some, pastors and teachers;


Folks I was BLOWN AWAY!

He said yes in the kingdom the lion represents the apostle. Paul was an apostle. The apostle is the first headship of the church given the right and authority to touch every member of the body of the 5-fold ministry. He is a man "anointed" to go and establish churches and ministry, as the Apostle Paul did. The apostle does many things but is a true missionary and does the work.

The Eagle is the sign of the prophet. A prophet brings a word from God and usually it was correction, and such, showing tremendous miracles. A prophet is an encourager.

Then it gets even better I am receiving some more quilt squares and blessings for Olivia as we approaching our deadline end of this month. One I got from someone who knew NOTHING about any of this was one simple scripture and it was this:

Jeremiah 1:5 Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a PROPHET to the nations.

Are you kidding me, I began to weep. Oh God, I am overwhelmed!


Thank you Craig Luper and Lori Davis for bending an ear, hearing God and speaking into the life and destiny of Olivia!

I am blown away, simply blown away. I dare you to ask God who your children are, you will be in awe as he begins to speak, after all why wouldn't he tell us. Don't you think he wants to, don't you think he is dying for us to ask. We are the perfect ones when they are at such a young age to help call them forth and speak into their destiny.

Now I think I will inquire of my boys, you knows maybe I have a pastor, an Evangelist and a teacher......how cool would that be. But whatever God shares, I know it will be perfect!

Friday, September 23, 2011

LID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So we got notice today we have our LID - LOG IN DATE! This means our dossier (all our paperwork) has officially been logged in to the CCCWA (China Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption). So glad this came so quick!

Now we wait on our LOA...Letter of Acceptance from China. This is taking about 6 weeks right now....come on come quick...speed up, move fast...we are ready to bring our little girl home. I think this is the last long wait we do the rest of the steps should move more quickly.

Come on LOA!

Another great day, last Friday DTC and this Friday LID....love it!

Thursday, September 22, 2011

God Finishes What He Starts - Part 2 of 3

So to pick up from yesterday, not only does God see but he promises to finish what he started in each of us. You see he doesn't just "see" us he "sees us" if you know what I mean.

Philippians 1:6
being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Nothing was going to keep God from carrying out this good work in Grace and Olivia - nothing! How their life began does not dictate where it is going! Can I get an Amen!

Now our God has plans for these little girls

Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.


I knew this, I mean I knew it deep within me. I held to the promises of who God was and I had a lot of peace and have carried it with me through this adoption as well because God is a big God and is capable of doing big things. If adoption taught me nothing else it taught me this.

I encourage any of you out there in the wait to hold on to this truth and to inquire of God. Ask him who your children are to him, and who they are in his kingdom. I believe he has much he wants to tell us about our children, so we are better equipped to help them walk it out. After all isn't that part of our call and our responsibility as parents.

Stay tuned tomorrow for how God answered this for me with our two little girls.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

The God Who Sees - Part I

I must say I love those moments when God takes our breath away. You know when you get this overwhelming revelation that you know is God because it is grounded in his Word, has a punch of pure truth, is encouraging to the depth of your spirit and you are find yourself hardly able to stand underneath the outpouring from your Abba, the one who can call "Daddy". Well God has been telling me about my girls and who they are in Him. For Grace this has been going on obviously a little longer but more revelation in here recently. I want to share with you and on the pages of this blog that tell much of their story. I think I am suppose to tell this in two or three parts so today I share Part I.

These precious little girls, once orphans, given up, walked away from, their own parents turned their back for whatever reason; I chose to say out of love for a better life, but still non the less they were abandoned. A thought to those of us who have have been called to adopt that causes the hair on the back of our neck to stand and our hearts to break. When we at times allow ourselves to go there and imagine our precious one left alone in that moment, life before they were home in the arms of their forever family. We don't want to think about it, but yet we can somehow not allow ourselves to ever forget.

The good news is that God never ever ever took his eyes off of them. Remember we serve the God who sees "El Roi". They were never alone, and I cling to the fact that maybe just maybe they know God better than I could ever know him, because in that moment he held them.

The name “the God who sees” (El Roi) was a name given to God by Hagar. An Egyptian slave, cast out by Sarah and Abraham into the desert, she epitomized rejection. She knew what it felt like just like our girls to be tossed to the side, left alone. But here is the good news my friends. God noticed her plight and came to her aid. In thanksgiving she reaches into her pagan background and ascribes a name to this God who saw her struggles. God accepts this name just as he accepted the rejected and dejected Hagar. Just as he accepts us and these precious little girls. Her story is woven into our story of faith – her name for God one of the brief glimpses we have of the nature of God. The one I cling to today. The one that allows me to get through each of the days as I wait to bring home our little one, Olivia, still a world away from us, but not out of sight of our God.

I pray this day if you are like me "waiting" to hold on to your child a world away that you rest in the truth that God sees them, he notices them and he will come to their aid.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Care Package To Go Out This Week!


We decided to mail Olivia another care package. We sent her one after we were first approved to be her parents back in June so it has been a few months. We wanted to send her a package with some Halloween stuff in it and tell her about this fun holiday here in America that she will get to be part of next year! We also talked to her about the Autumn Moon Festival they are celebrating now in China and that we will celebrate that next week.
We have decided to tie our packages around our holidays here because it gets pricey with the purchasing of items and mailing them on top of all the other adoption expenses. Otherwise I would send one every month!
I sure hope this blesses her! We love her so much already and can't wait to meet here. Here are the goodies we are sending.

Friday, September 16, 2011

We are DTC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a great way to close out our day. We just got an email and we are DTC. This means our dossier was sent to China! Finally the paperwork trail has come to an end and all our papers have been gathered, notarized, certified, authenticated, approved, translated and on their way to China!!!!

Now we wait again. It is the name of the game in the adoption process. You gather papers....you wait...you celebrate a milestone and then you do it all over again.

So now, we wait for our LID. This stands for Log-In-Date. This is the date we are officially Logged-in in China. The say 4-6 weeks for this, but I am going to be hopefully optimistic because it seems it has been taking more like 2 weeks lately and that is what I am claiming. I will keep you posted.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

A Night of Baseball

Christian was thrilled to get out on the field for his first game with the high school metro team. As a freshman on a team with kids from all 4 grades playing along side sophmores, juniors and seniors, he was thrilled to get some play time even if was outfield or short (he primarly plays third) but it made his night when they put him on the mound (the other position he loves to play). He did great! We were very proud. Dad said I could be distracting him with the flash so I put the camera up, but Christian later said no I wasn't so more pictures to come at future games.




Thursday, September 8, 2011

An Update on Olivia!

What a blessing today our documents out the door and then an update! Wahoo! Isn't she beautiful!!!!!!!!!!

We even got updated information on her and photos!


  • She is 3feet 5 inches tall and 39 lbs.

  • She is healthy and can sing, jump, run and do crafts.

  • Her speech is clear.

  • She is potty trained.

  • She knows red, yellow, green, blue

  • Her personality is outgoing

Isn't she adorable and check out those painted nails!


Peace of course! I can't wait to squeeze her.



Thank God The Paper Chase is Over!

I am taking a big sigh of relief today. All our documents were received back from Washington - all documents gathered, notarized, certified and authenticated and off to our adoption agency. Wahoo!

Hoping to say we are DTC by end of next week (meaning our documents have been translated and sent to China).

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Grace's First Day of Preschool Was a Hit!

Today was Grace's first day of preschool. She was so excited! I am not sure if she was more excited about going to a new school or the panda lunchbox. I had no idea what to expect. She loves going to the playhouse at the Y but she always goes with Lily. She knows her brothers go to school but not sure she understands they aren't all going to be at her new school together. And we did have open house last week and she had a great time so I just didn't' know. I had never left her other than the playhouse, Sunday school or with my mom or sister but this girl did GREAT!!!!! She walked right in her class, took her teachers hand and off she went. Not even sure she realized I wasn't behind her anymore when I turned and left. When I picked her up she said she had fun! I am so blessed this went so well. I can't wait to hear the teachers report because I didn't get to talk to her in the pick up line. I think I might even try the drop off line Friday since today went so well and not walk her in. She never ceases to amaze me! Enjoy some shots before we left for her big day!
Mom this bag is so heavy!
Oh yeah I'm going to school!
My personal favorite shot...the joy is in that face!

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Can You Believe Grace is Three?

This week Grace had her 3 year old photos made. We managed to get some decent photos of her but it was not easy. She is very head strong and after the first photo said "I'm Done". She was not at all into the photo session. Maybe next year she will be better. She is my princess none the less and I still see her as beautiful. Enjoy some of my favorite shots.
We did this in a black and white, cropped it and blew it up - it is gorgeous!






Grace's Open House for Preschool

I can not believe it but Grace will start preschool 3 mornings a week starting next Wednesday. We went last week to open house. She was so excited. All she knows is her brothers have been back at school a week now and now she was getting to go to school.
Sporting her back pack which right now was full of toys
She loved the little man out there that cautions drivers of the kids at play
First Kids Rocks! Logan attended her for 3 years and we couldn't imagine sending Grace any where else.


At first, Grace wouldn't even hold my hand walking in, she was a bit unsure and overwhelmed I believe not really understanding what all was going on. She insisted I carry her. Once in the classroom she hung a little close at first and we played some together showing her around the room. In no time at all she was playing on her own as I talked with the teachers and parents. She even let one of the teachers take her potty while I was talking. I think she is gonna be just fine. She loved the horses, a for sure hit.
The bucket of animals kept her entertained for a while as well.
Grace with her teacher Mrs. Sharon. Logan had Mrs. Sharon for 2 years and she is the main reason Grace will be at First Kids. I know Sharon will love Grace for me.

The boys are all settled in with school as well. They have officially been in school 7 days!

Document Scare But God Prevails!

So this week was crazy. We sent off our documents on August 26 to Raleigh for certification. I probably should have just drove there like I did with Grace and wait on them (and that would have closed the 24 day gap between Kelly and I some) but didn't think of it really. Just followed Kelly in the next course of action. With her a little ahead of me she helps keep me on task. Anyway, when our documents were not here after several days I started to worry. Yep the thing we all dread in the paperwork chase happened...our documents lost! Raleigh says they were picked up by UPS on August 30. UPS says never picked them up and there is not tracking information. Both working with me but both swearing it was the other one with the problem. By Thursday I was to tears over it all. After a lot of time on the phone with UPS and two supervisors trying to figure this thing out - nothing! In fact I was told by one of the supervisors I have never seen anything like this before and I have been her 12 years...I see it is showing tracked now but there is only a label and no package and our system did not generate this. Really????? So at this point I had the lady in Raleigh going to meet me early Friday morning and redo my papers. I was off to go meet a notary and re notarize documents and head to Raleigh. I was not allowing this process to stop for another day!

Folks I hit my face in prayer, literally on the ground and said God I know you can bring me those papers I am not sure I believe you will but I give you my mustard seed of faith to move this mountain. But God if this is not your hand but Satan at work, I will not cower in fear or despair but press in and on and move forward in re doing my documents. And finally Lord if this is pride in me that has to go because I hate to follow anyone I like to lead (yes I am confessing it right here...because if it is not in Jesus I don't' want it in me either) take it! I will follow with a humble heart right behind Kelly.

Friday morning I dropped Grace off to Kelly and I headed out to Raleigh. I decided before I turned out her neighborhood to call UPS one more time just in case something happened during the night...guess what? The supervisor had my documents in her hand!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I started to cry on the phone and said I am sorry I am overwhelmed, you are an answer to prayer. I did not have to drive to Raleigh, instead to the local UPS store and then this time went FEDX to Washington for authentication! Documents arrived Saturday and we hope to have back in hand next Thursday!

I sure will be glad when this part of the process is over...but God can do a work in us even through the horrid documentation nightmare of adoption.