Packing or Procrastinating?

Well, I packed Savannah Faith's suitcase.  That's the fun one!  Mine...that is another story.  Maybe I will get to it tomorrow.  After all, I have six more days until my plane leaves.  Plenty of time.


The last days have been filled with making arrangements for the three girls I am leaving behind,

making meals and freezing them

(okay, maybe Michaela has been doing more of that than me),

getting caught up on all my accounting work for my job,

and picking out a paint color for the little girls' room. 


Did I mention Phil is going to paint the bedroom while I am gone.

I am sure he will have plenty of time.

He will just be holding down the fort,

keeping up with the three little girls,

working full-time,

doing the laundry and

making sure the girl's make it to their speech therapy appointments. 

Did I mention he is my HERO!  I love that man!!



The most exciting thing I have been working on the past week is learning more about photography. 

For my birthday, Phil, my sisters and mom went in together and purchased a new camera for me.

It is amazing!

I am determined to get it off Auto!  



I want to perfect a few new techniques to "take" with me to China!

If you are looking for a great tutor,

check out Nancy at Ordinary Miracles & The Crazy Nine

http://nancyvnjourney.blogspot.com/p/photography-101.html -

She's not only a fellow adoptive mom and homeschooler,

but also a very gifted photographer and teacher.



So when I should be packing...



I just might be coercing my girls to be my "subjects"

and my dog to pose...

I am learning about f-stops and bokeh...

However my girls might be starting to lose their patience...

I can't wait to take photos of Savannah Faith.  Can't you just see her with a little dress on and a bow in her hair.  You're almost home sweet one.

Snow Day!

The long awaited snow day of 2013 finally arrived! 

Sadly, Sarah Mei and AnnaGrace were with Phil in Hardeeville, but Isabelle and Lily Rose enjoyed every minute of it!

They made snow angels...

and tried sledding. 

And when the sleds did not go fast enough, Torie obliged and hooked up our 30 year old Paint mare to the sled and coaxed the horse to be the engine.  The little girls REALLY loved that!

(Just a footnote...don't EVER ride a horse without a helmet.  In the excitement of the snow, we all forgot.)



While the girls, the horses and the dog played in the snow, our cats stayed dry on the front porch.

This was Lily Rose's first snowfall since joining our family.  Her eyes absolutely sparkled when she saw the flakes.  The wonder of it all!

Seeing "first's" through my girls' eyes is always a little bittersweet.  It  makes me heartsick for the 540,000 waiting orphans in China. 


A fellow "heart mom" just told me about Lainey with Holt.  She is a single ventricle "heart" baby like our girls.  You can read more about her at this link http://www.holtinternational.org/cgi/photolisting/display12.cgi?ID=Lainey&Index_re=0 . 

Here's an updated photo of her:

 

 

She needs a chance at life, at having a mom and dad to tuck her into bed at night, and a chance to see her first snow.  E-mail me (elainechorton@yahoo.com) if you want more information on little Lainey or call Holt International directly.

 

 

 

Only 12 days until we board the plane to meet Savannah Faith.  Here's the latest picture we received of her.  She's standing up on her own now!  She looks quite proud of herself.

 

 

 

 



To Ask or Not to Ask....

That is always one of the hardest questions for us when adopting another child.  Do we let me people know that we need help financially to bring home our daughter, or do we just wait on the Lord in Hudson Taylor fashion, make our requests known only to Him and see how He provides.

We have done it both ways.  Sometimes asking for help: Sometimes staying silent.  Last time we were blessed to be awarded a matching grant which gave us a great platform to petition our friends for assistance.  We were blessed with over $16,000 with gifts.  That went a long way to bringing home Lily Rose.

This adoption we chose not "to ask."  But I confess that we're just two short weeks away from traveling, and we are still $10,000 short of our adoption funds.  Don't get me wrong.  We are not panicking.  We know the Lord owns the cattle on a thousand hills and $10,000 is nothing to Him.  But we have decided to place the need out there in case someone wants to help us.  What a blessing that would be!

I must stop here and say three families stepped forward earlier in this adoption process, and without knowing we were in need donated a total of $7,000 towards our adoption.  I can not tell you what an encouragement and blessing that was to us.  After selling scrap gold, selling household goods on
E-Bay and Craigslist, selling a vehicle, and refinancing our home we had nothing left to liquidate.  Their gifts allowed us to keep moving forward for Savannah Faith when we were not sure what was going to happen next.

And with this sweet facing waiting on us...

 

 

we wanted to keep moving forward!

Now, next week CWTS (China Women Travel Service) needs their money wired to them to book our travel in-country and we need the money to carry with us to pay for Savannah Faith's visa fees, passport fees, and other in-country fees by March 1st - our departure date.

So here I am, "asking".  If you have ever considered supporting adoption but were not sure how to go about doing it, this is your chance.  You can make tax-deductible donations to our adoption fund by writing a check to SouthLake Church and mailing it to 13820 Hagers Ferry Rd, Huntersville, NC 28078.  Just put "Horton Adoption" in the memo line.

If you would like to give a gift instead, to benefit our adoption, you can purchase coffee at this link https://justlovecoffee.com/about/beneficiary/hortonadoption/ and $5.00 a bag will go towards our adoption. 

Or take a look at the necklaces below.  E-mail me to purchase your favorite one for $24.00.  We will receive $12.00 a necklace to benefit our adoption.  (If you live locally in the Charlotte area I'll deliver it to you.  If you live out of the area, I will mail it for an extra $5.00 postage added.)

 

 

 

 

Asking for help is always uncomfortable.  I like helping others SO much better than I like asking for help.  But here it is.  Our plea for our daughter.  She needs to come home.  To have open-heart surgery.  To find love and hope.  We would love to have you be a part of "Team Savannah".

 

 

Counting Down to "One More"

I'm back from the moon (read Michaela's previous post if you don't understand this) and preparing to fly to China on March 1st!

We took a step of faith and purchased plane tickets several weeks ago anticipating our TA (Travel Approval).  Yes, I've been a bit anxious watching our paperwork progress since that time.

By purchasing our tickets early, we saved a considerable amount of money.  The risk: we might have to reschedule them, if we have a slowdown in our paper process, and lose a lot of money.  So far, so good.  Please pray with us that the Chinese New Year will not slow things down too much!

Our pre-Article 5 was issued today (hoping for the actual Article 5 by Friday) then our paperwork will make its way back to the CCCWA to await our approval for travel (TA) and then we will be assigned a Consulate Appointment at which time we can "book our flights."  Oops, I already did that:)

While waiting we sent a photo album and an outfit to Savannah Faith and a bag of candy for the ayis (nannies).  It was such fun to get updated photos of her this week when she received the package.

 

In this one she is either kissing or trying to eat the photo album we sent her.  Her picture is on the cover of the album.  She was probably excited to see that!

 

Here I think she's trying to decide if the bag of candy is for her?  That would be a "negative" Savannah Faith but nice try:)

Look at those girl's cheeks!  She is going to fit into this family nicely!

 

 

Michaela, AnnaGrace and I will be heading out on this trip to China while Phil and Torie corral the three little girls at home.  This will be AnnaGrace's first trip back to China since being adopted in 2001. 

 

We are planning 6 days of travel before we pick up Savannah Faith, so AnnaGrace can visit the province where she was born and her orphanage.  I expect it to be an emotional and life-changing experience!

 

So much to catch-up on the blog...but here is one of my favorite photos from the holidays.

 

 

 



This is a "pile of our girls" and our good friend, Brenda Scott, at Christmas time.  Brenda was the first person, besides immediate family, that AnnaGrace allowed to hold her when she first came home from China.  Brenda has been on this crazy ride with our family ever since!