We accepted a referral!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It has truly been a Merry Christmas for our family! We are pleased to introduce you to our daughter, Victoria Rani. She is 3 years old and is in a foster home in Bangalore.

We did not expect to get a referral of a child until our paperwork had been processed here in the US, but we got "the call" on November 20th. :) When I heard Dean from Holt say her name, my heart just soared!

"Rani" in the Hindi version of the original Sanskrit means "Queen". In its Hebrew form it is derived from an expression meaning "She is singing." And every time we speak her name, Victoria, we will be speaking victory into her life. As broken and fragile as she is now, she will rise up with confidence in her Lord and strong in stature as a queen and will sing songs of victory in the "rain of the Spirit"!!!!

As a result of her life circumstances and malnourishment, Victoria has mild speech and motor skill delays. She is also very small. As of October 28th, she was only about 19#. But she is growing and already playing "catch-up" with her foster family. She has speech and language therapy once a week.

We are amazed at the gift God has given us for Christmas this year. He is soooooo good! She should be home for Christmas next year. We expect to travel to pick up our small package sometime this summer or fall.

We will be able to visit our missionary friends in Mysore, Tim and Karla Shamala. Again, God is so good and simply wants to bless His children. There are two orphanages we could have received a child from. One is in Pune which is far away from Mysore and the other is in Bangalore which is within reasonable driving distance from Mysore. We always believed God would make a way for us to visit with them and He has!

Please begin praying for Victoria and continue to pray for our family. Stay tuned for many more updates!

Fingerprinting's Done!

On December 9th we went to Michigan City to get our fingerprinting done for USCIS. Our appointment was for 8:00am and we had our google maps ready and left in plenty of time. Little to our knowledge the office had recently been moved from Hammond, IN to Michigan City and the "Dunes Plaza" address we googled was the "Dunes Plaza" resort homes along the lake. AAAHHHH!! Not the place we wanted to be!

Horrible thoughts of having to reapply and repay fees started invading my mind. Billy told me to call the number on the USCIS paperwork and I just laughed and said that would be like telephoning the Space Station! We drove around and found a place to stop and ask for directions. Yep, you guessed it, I (Melissa) ran in. The not-so-friendly guy told me to come back in 10 minutes when their offices opened and I firmly told him I HAD to be at this other place at 8:00. I think he noticed my desperation and proceeded to give me quite unclear directions to the "Dunes Plaza" shopping center. The Holy Spirit led us there and when I saw the big blue letters "Application Support Center" on the side of a building, I got all teary-eyed and gave all glory to God. We were in and out of there in about 15 minutes and then went across the street to IHOP and ate a whole day's worth of calories in one sitting.

Fortunately, when go to pick up our daugher in India, Holt will provide us with a knowledgeable driver to take us to the places we need to be. We won't return home without her simply because we couldn't find the place! Like my sister-in-law said, "Google maps may not work the same in India."

Thank you Lord for giving us direction when we need it!