Author: housefulofhoughs

After a restless night’s sleep from nervousness and excitement we boarded our flight this morning to DFW.

  (Love that the guy behind us smiled)

We are now waiting for our next flight to Beijing!  Can’t wait to get there!  We will post again soon.

Goodness! So much has happened in the past few days. We found out that our dossier had made it through the review process, and had been approved. A few days later our LOA was issued. LOA is an acronym that stands for letter of acceptance. This is a really big step in the adoption process, and is China officially saying YES to us adopting Evie! This also means that we will travel to China in the next 8-12 weeks!! Such exciting news!

 

The daunting part of this is the remaining funds that need to be raised in order to get us there. Our current fundraiser is our t-shirts that we had made. They are a cotton/poly blend, and are quite soft. They are a dark, heather gray.  We have sizes ranging from Small child through XXL adult. We are selling them for a $20 flat rate, which includes shipping. Please let us know if you would like to order one. Just email and let us know the size(s) and quantity needed to:   housefulofhoughs@gmail.com

We look forward to hearing from you, and sending a shirt your way! Thanks in advance for choosing to come alongside us, and helping to support our adoption!!

 

 

 

Names are so important. They are a part of us. They are how we are identified. How we are known. The meaning of names hold so much weight. Power almost. Influence.

We have always felt strongly that we wanted our girls to have good, strong meanings to their names. Gabriella means “God’s messenger or Devoted to God”, and her middle name Elizabeth means “Consecrated to God”. Elianna means “God has answered”, and her middle name Grace means “God’s favor”.

This would be no different. I mean, if God had put China on our hearts, softened us to adoption, then put a very specific little girl seared into our minds, surely her name would be great. Little did we know that it would be not only great, but also that it would be very evidently revealed to us.

You see, just as He had with each and every other part and piece, God was about to make Himself known in this too.

Just like God in His amazing ability took two separate people’s thoughts, ideas, hopes, and dreams, placed a stirring in our hearts, changed our minds and preconceptions, and brought us both to the place of being ready to accept His leading into this next chapter of His calling for us to adopt, He was about to lead us to the name He had for this child.

Jenni’s Vantage Point-

So if God was really calling us to do this thing. This wild and crazy thing. She was going to need a name. I started to get excited. The planner in me, the Mommy in me. I wanted to pick out a name for her. I was excited to choose a name for her. I had all sorts of names that I liked. So I started to search some of them up online. One by one I typed them in and looked up the meaning. Hmm…  Cute, but not really a strong meaning. Wow, that one is trendy, but doesn’t really carry much notability. This one is so beautiful, but do you really want that meaning to be what’s spoken over her? They were all falling flat. Until suddenly, a name came to me. Seemingly out of nowhere. Certainly not on my list. Not a name I had ever pondered or considered. Yet, there it was. In the forefront of my mind. So, I looked it up. The name was Evangeline. The meaning? “Messenger of God, or Bearer of good news” Wow! Talk about feeling overwhelmed. I literally read it, and thought, “Well, I guess that’s it. That is meant to be her name. Thanks, God” It just felt so plainly from Him. I don’t know why that surprised me. It really shouldn’t have. He had told me to go and get her. Why shouldn’t her name mean messenger of God and bearer of good news?

When Josh got home from work that evening, I told him “I have something so exciting to tell you!” His response surprised me. He asked me if I could wait to share it with him, because he had been praying and asking God for something very specific, and was needing Him to show up big. I said sure. I told him that I could wait, but how long did he need me to wait? He said “Give me 24 more hours” I begrudgingly agreed. I mean, I was so excited to share this news with him! I now knew our daughter’s name! But, I waited. Still not even sure what it was he was praying about and trusting God to show up for.

Josh’s Vantage Point:

It started with a whisper.  You know the one you have in your head, but you pass off as a fleeting thought.  But then it whispers again, and again.   Clearly I heard over and over the thought, that we must go to China and get our daughter.  I knew right away what God was calling us to do.  But just as many other men before me, I questioned and challenged God because my human mind needed that last confirmation.  So I challenged God, as any sane man would do when facing the omnipresent, all powerful, creator of the universe.  Kind of like Gideon when he asked God for a sign to show that He would rescue Israel.   Gideon asked for the fleece to be wet but the ground to be dry, so I asked that God reveal my daughter’s name.  That was what I needed to confirm that this was really God’s plan.  Then I prayed and listened.  Prayed and listened.  Then there was silence.

When Two Vantage Points Collide:

Anxiously after 24 hours, I asked Josh if I could please share with him my news. He agreed, but said he was still praying for something and waiting to hear back from God. I then began to share with him about how I felt like God had revealed what our daughter’s name would be.

Josh looked shocked, and asked me to repeat what I had just said. So I repeated that God had told me what our little girl’s name would be. At this point, Josh got teary eyed and said “that is the exact thing that I have been praying for, and asking God to give me a sign about”. Wow! Talk about both of us feeling completely caught off guard.  Josh was praying for a confirmation, and then God answered his challenge through me.

At this point we knew that there clearly was a little girl in China. A little girl that would become a part of our family. Meant to be named Evangeline. And that she was waiting for us.  Waiting for us to bring her home. But we had not found her yet. There started to be a clear and distinct feeling. That feeling that you get when you have been away from your kids, and you are missing them. We truly felt as though one of our daughters was away from us, but we didn’t know where she was, or who she was.  So our search began.

Hi friends and family. Sorry that we have been on a hiatus for a little bit.  Between fundraising, holidays, and just life in general, we have been super busy.  That being said, we are getting back on the blogging wagon and will be giving more updates moving forward.

On Christmas Day we received a very important notification that China had received our dossier, and had logged it into the system. Also known in the adoption world as LID (Logged in Dossier)  This is very exciting because it is the last step before we get what’s called LOA (Letter of Acceptance).  The steps following LOA move fairly quickly towards us learning what our travel date will be.  It is generally between 9 – 12 weeks from LOA to traveling to China.  We are excited, scared, nervous, excited, did I say excited??   🙂

We are wanting to get back to sharing the remaining pieces of our story with you throughout this month. We want to fill in some blanks, and also just share the steps that have led up to now.                                                                                                                              We also plan on being more diligent to give updates on the process leading up to travel.

We are so, so very grateful to all of you for your support, prayers, and donations. You all have been amazing!! When we say that we could not have done it without you, we mean that figuratively, and also literally.

The yard sale in November brought in $4,500!! Wow!! We were absolutely blown away by the donations of items beforehand, those who volunteered their time to help set up, those who worked the sale with us, those who came and shopped, and also the generosity of those who “overpaid” for their lemonade and yard sale items.  Thank you!!!

The Spaghetti Dinner (also in November) was also a big success.  We fed around 80 people that night, and had great live music from Sola Fide.  We brought in roughly $1,200 from that event.  Once again, amazing friends and family showed up big. Volunteering time, efforts, and funds.  You guys are awesome!!

The Apparent Project Jewelry Fundraiser also proved to be very successful.  That one is so awesome because it also benefited the people of Haiti.  Our family was able to keep $500, and we were able to send $500 back to the Artisans in Haiti as well.

A big thank you to Access Church for their donation during the Be Rich campaign! They blessed our family with a check for $1,000!!

We would also love to be able to list all of the individuals that have made other donations. There are so many of you, and I would hate to leave anyone out. Please know that we are so grateful for each of you!

So if you are sitting doing the math, you know that we have raised a tremendous amount of money so far.  You are right, we really have!  Those funds have been used to pay several fees that have come due.  Thank you!!

To be completely honest though, we still have a ways to go. There are still several fees left to pay, and travel expenses coming up as well.  If you have already donated, we thank you.  If you are still wanting to donate, we are so appreciative.

Here are some of our upcoming fees-

CCAI Third program fee  $3,100

Travel to China   $4,000

Travel within China  $5,600

Orphanage Donation  $5,500

 

Thank you for continued prayers for our family, for the process, for the funds, and for our sweet little girl in China who waits.

Alright, I’m going to give Jenni a short break and share these thoughts that God put on my heart.

This past weekend we began preparing a dresser for our newest daughter Evie Joy. The dresser is just one of the many things we are getting ready, but this dresser has special meaning. When my siblings and I were kids my parents used it for us. In middle school I decided to take this old dresser and clean it up. It took weeks to strip away the old paint and to get it back to bare wood. In the end it was a beautiful piece of furniture.

Now fast-forward 24 years to this weekend. Jenni and I started by sanding the entire dresser all the way back down to bare wood. The good news was that the hard work had been done in my youth, and now we just had to refine the piece. It took all weekend and we are still putting on the finish coats. The hard work has been worth it, and the dresser is looking great.

As I sanded the finish off of the dresser, I began to realize that I am a lot like this dresser. The layers of paint were much like the layers on my heart that had to be removed.  To be removed to move me to the place where God wanted me.  Recently He has been stripping the layers off my heart that I never thought He would. Just like the dresser He took away the layers to get down to the bare wood……my bare heart. I started off with “adoption is good, just not for us”. Then a layer was stripped away. “Maybe adoption could be for us”. Then a layer was stripped away. “Adoption is for us. Wait, oh my goodness, adoption is for us”. Then a layer was stripped away. “Adoption is for us, and we have to find her”. Now it’s “Adoption is for us and we just need to bring her home”.

Just like finishing the dresser will result in a beautiful piece of furniture for our little girl, God has refined our hearts to create a beautiful family for our new little girl. Removing the layers has not always been easy, but I can’t even imagine what our lives would be like if we weren’t on this adoption journey. Now we just can’t wait to bring her home!

 

Hi friends and family!  We wanted to let you know about our first fundraiser event.  We are working toward gathering the remaining funds needed to travel to China and bring Evie home!  We are hoping to collect a lot of items to put into the sale.  Please let us know if you have anything that you may be willing to donate.  We can set up a time for you to drop the items off here at the house, we can meet you somewhere, or we can even come pick the items up!  Thanks in advance for your willingness to help us!  Please share this with your friends and family!  We look forward to seeing you at the sale!! 

In our last blog post we talked about the draw we were feeling to China, and our uncertainty about what God was asking us to do. This is a little about the steps leading up to the connection between China, and adoption.

 

I was helping host a Women’s conference at Church. The “IF” conference. https://www.ifgathering.com We decided that one of our focuses for a ministry/mission project would be foster care and adoption. We had ladies representing all different aspects. We talked about the Foster Closet and all of the wonderful things they provide for families. http://www.fostercloset.org We had a social worker share about her experiences. We had a couple of foster and adoptive Mamas share their stories. All the while, I felt engaged and intrigued by their stories, but was still maintaining my wall of distance.

 

At the end of the conference, we were challenged to be a disciple, and to make a disciple. “Be one, make one” I felt a tug on my heartstrings. I tried to argue that I already was doing that. At home with my own two girls. I was discipling them. The sweet kiddos at school in my classroom. I was discipling them. But still… “Be one, and make one”. I kept hearing it. Feeling it. It became louder. “Be one, and make one”…  “GO, and be one and make one”. China? Was China back? What was in China? Make one out of who? “GO and be one, and GET HER and make one”. Wait! What? Get her? Get who? Was He really asking me to go and bring home a daughter from China? No. Just no. I can’t. I won’t. Not gonna happen. I literally felt that fight or flight feeling that you get when something terrifies you. Adoption was not something that I was open to. I had shut and locked that door a long time ago. But yet, I felt Him knocking on it. Asking me to please listen. I began to pray about it. Pray that He would show me. Pray that He would empower me. Pray that He would calm my heart and nerves. Pray for Him to make me brave. I tried to argue with Him. I remember telling Him “But, I’m comfortable. The girls are growing up and are so self sufficient these days” As clear as day, I felt Him say “I didn’t call you to be comfortable. I called you to do hard and messy things”

 

Wow. How do you even begin to argue with that? Still though, I was scared. I mean after all, I had known China for a while. But still, a child? Adoption? You guys, it was such a refining process. I finally invited Him into that closed off part of my heart and allowed Him to start doing His work. Cleaning out the cobwebs of selfishness and pride. Over time I started to soften my will to His. I began to pray that He would take my heart and make it not only brave enough, but also that I would be excited to do this hard thing He had set in front of me. My heart began to fall so in love with the idea of this child that I hadn’t even met, a child that lived across the world from me. It is such a strange feeling to miss someone that you’ve never even met. I promise you, it was all God.

 

I then began to pray that He would open up better opportunities for a home for our family. The house we were in had become such a burden for our family. It was no longer the right home for us, and we had totally outgrown it. I prayed that we would be able to get it on the market quickly, and that it will sell right away. I prayed that we would find a house that was just right for us and this new chapter. It was a whirlwind. We got our house on the market, and it sold right away. We found a new home that fit all of our needs and was just what we were looking for. He was meeting me every step of the way. Holding my hand. Reassuring me. I am here. I’ve got this. You can do this. I needed that reassurance.

 

I would love to say that I was brave enough to stand and boldly say “Here I am, send me!” with loud confidence.  Instead it ended up being a very quiet “Yes. I will go” that I whispered. The thing is, we serve a big God. He can work with our quiet “yes”. What He really cares about is our willing hearts, and I was willing.

One question that we have gotten a lot since telling people about our adoption journey is “Why China?” It’s a valid question. Actually, all of the questions we have gotten have been valid.  Did we want to try for another biological child?  What about domestic adoption?  What about kids in the foster care system that may come available for adoption?  Why would we seemingly “choose” to adopt from China?  To be completely honest, we wouldn’t.  Actually, my heart wasn’t even open to adoption.  Not even a little.  I mean, I thought it was great for other people.  I was a big fan of other families being willing to adopt. I wanted to pray for them, support them financially, bring them a meal….. But I most certainly did not want to adopt.  My heart was hardened to it.  I had told God “No”.  Well, you know what often happens when we tell God “No”.  That is the very thing that He then calls us to do.  I kind of picture us like a small child saying “NO!” and stamping our foot on the ground.  He just pats our heads and thinks “Oh, my child… You will see.  See things my way.  See how I will use this.  How I will use you.”  I feel like any time I have told God “no”, He has had other plans.

I tend to be a little hard headed.  You would think I would have learned.  Because of my emphatic “No”, I think He knew He had to approach it very cautiously.  Otherwise I would probably run.  He is such a patient, loving Father to me.  He really is.  It was China long before I ever knew it was a child.  He had to soften me a little at a time.  He put China on our hearts about 4 years ago.  China.  It was everywhere. Consuming our thoughts. China.  It was put on both of our hearts individually, but right around the same time.  We were both nervous to tell each other.  How do you even explain something like that to your spouse, when you yourself don’t even understand it yet?  When we finally did come together and talk, we were both surprised to hear that the other one was feeling the strong pull to China too.  What was this draw to China we were both feeling?  We explored several different possibilities. Josh as an engineer?  Maybe a short term trip to offer some services?  Possibly something more long term as an engineer?  Maybe a mission trip as a couple?  What if He was calling us as a family to go and be missionaries?  Everything that we looked into just kind of fell flat though.  It was evident that these were not what He had in mind.  But still China.

It was a strange feeling to feel so drawn to somewhere without any clear direction.  It weighed heavy on us.  We didn’t really share with many people about this strange connection to China.  We didn’t even understand it ourselves.  We continued to feel it, and continued to pray about it.  It kind of got put on a back burner. But it was still there, still simmering.  We were definitely still aware of it, but were unsure what He was asking us to do.  We kind of knew that it would come back up at some point. So we waited….

Hi everyone. Thanks for taking an interest in our family, and joining us in our adoption journey. Some of you already know us. For those that don’t, we wanted to make some introductions. We are the Hough family.

Josh and I started dating shortly after high school. We have been married for 15 years now. Josh attended the University of Florida where he received his degree in Civil Engineering. After graduating, we moved to Jacksonville, FL and have lived here for the past 11 years. We love it here. We love the city, the people, and our dear friends we have made here.

Josh is a Civil Engineer with the Haskell Company. Jenni is at home in anticipation of bringing home our sweet little girl from China in the next few months. Gabriella is 10 years old and in the 5th grade. Elianna is 8 years old and in the 3rd grade.

We love the Lord and are sold out to following Him. We believe that means abandoning ourselves to our plans, and following what He would have us do. That includes loving and serving Him, and loving and serving others. We truly believe He has called us to love above all else. Sure, there are other things He has called us to as well, but most of those fall into place when we are truly sold out to loving Him and loving others. We also believe that He has called us to love everyone. Everyone. Always. I think this is where a lot of Christians go wrong, but that is a conversation for a different day and a different blog post.   🙂

We have been called by Him specifically in this season of our lives to adopt.  A completely new way to be challenged to live out His love. So please, join us as we go on this new adventure He is calling us to. Thanks for being willing to come alongside us. We feel honored to have you here.