Well, kind of anyway. I talked with Mary at Holt today and after getting many questions answered I thought I would inquire as to where we are on the waiting list. We are #7 overall, but #1 that's not an NRI couple. NRI means "Non-resident Indian". In other words, there is some preference given to NRI couples. India desires to place as many children as they can with families in India and then they try to place them with Indian families outside of India. So sometimes the wait can be longer for families who are not of Indian descent.
We will be mailing our I-800a paperwork to the US Government this week. It will take 90-120 days to process. I thought we couldn't get a referral of a child until this was approved, but Mary told me today that we could get one at any time! Yeah!!!
We are so excited that "the call" could really come at any time, but also have a great financial need. We still need close to $5000.00 by the time we get a referral. We are applying for a grant, so pray for favor for us ~ and literally for a financial miracle. God's hand has been upon this entire process and we continue to trust in Him and know He's working out every part of this process. Maybe soon this blog will get much more active!
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Monday, October 27, 2008
"Every decision shouldn't be a good decision, but a God decision." - Tommy Tenney
We recently received the final copy of our home study in the mail! Two copies were mailed to Holt and a few more remain here as we do paperwork for USCIS and apply for a grant as well. All was going well until I punched in some income numbers for our grant and realized there may be a mistake on our income in the home study!!! AAAHHHHH! Will this ever end??? Hopefully I will be able to talk to Holt today and our social worker as well. I know it's just another "bump in the road".
We KNOW God is faithful. A couple weeks ago, I made the difficult decision not to apply for a temporary 5th grade teaching position. Everything had been lining up perfect for it. I was becoming eager to teach the class and was excited for what we thought was God's financial provision. However, we knew this would greatly affect our boys and the church - and possibly not in a positive way. The night that we made the decision, I had a dream I was driving through a neighborhood and I saw a massive pile of scrap metal - just sitting there waiting to be hauled off. I got so excited and began loading up the van with as much as I could..... I woke up that morning in awe of God's message to me that He will provide - like He told me from the start of this process - in ways I don't expect.
A few days later, I was in the church office and Billy handed me an envelope. It had cash in it and on the outside was the name of one of our parishioners and "scrap metal". This man had taken in some scrap and wanted to give the money towards our adoption. My spirit just rejoiced!
The following weekend, Billy and I were blessed to be able to attend a minister's conference with Tommy Tenney and, amongst many other amazing words from God, our decision was again confirmed through the story of Ruth and Naomi. He said, "Every decision shouldn't be a good decision, but a God decision."
God is good! Prayerfully I'll soon be able to post that we have sent our paperwork to USCIS.
We KNOW God is faithful. A couple weeks ago, I made the difficult decision not to apply for a temporary 5th grade teaching position. Everything had been lining up perfect for it. I was becoming eager to teach the class and was excited for what we thought was God's financial provision. However, we knew this would greatly affect our boys and the church - and possibly not in a positive way. The night that we made the decision, I had a dream I was driving through a neighborhood and I saw a massive pile of scrap metal - just sitting there waiting to be hauled off. I got so excited and began loading up the van with as much as I could..... I woke up that morning in awe of God's message to me that He will provide - like He told me from the start of this process - in ways I don't expect.
A few days later, I was in the church office and Billy handed me an envelope. It had cash in it and on the outside was the name of one of our parishioners and "scrap metal". This man had taken in some scrap and wanted to give the money towards our adoption. My spirit just rejoiced!
The following weekend, Billy and I were blessed to be able to attend a minister's conference with Tommy Tenney and, amongst many other amazing words from God, our decision was again confirmed through the story of Ruth and Naomi. He said, "Every decision shouldn't be a good decision, but a God decision."
God is good! Prayerfully I'll soon be able to post that we have sent our paperwork to USCIS.
Monday, September 8, 2008
We are taking a child into our laps forever
I have always said that if we were to adopt, God would simply have to drop a child onto my lap. Recently, on Holt's online forum I came across the following:
The verb to adopt in Hindi is Gawdlayna and to say "I am adopting a child" literally translates as "I am taking a child into my lap forever".
And in the Devanagari script: देवनागरी
How beautiful - and very powerful to me! Spiritually, God has truly dropped a child into our hearts. It's just taking a lot of work to physically get her to our laps - forever!
The verb to adopt in Hindi is Gawdlayna and to say "I am adopting a child" literally translates as "I am taking a child into my lap forever".
And in the Devanagari script: देवनागरी
How beautiful - and very powerful to me! Spiritually, God has truly dropped a child into our hearts. It's just taking a lot of work to physically get her to our laps - forever!
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Dossier's (finally) out of my hands!
Our dossier was officially received by Holt. Hallelujah! I'll have to say I was a bit shaky and emotional as I put it all into the Fed Ex envelope and let some stranger drive off with it. But it's now much safer at Holt than sitting in our home.
Monday, August 4, 2008
Just an update
Just a quick or not-so-quick update on our progress. I recently talked with Holt and got a list of questions answered. Let me add that they have been WONDERFUL! in guiding us through this process. We are blessed to be partnering with them. They said there are currently 23 families in the India program and we are #15! So, we've made some small advancements. We were officially put on the waiting list in March when they received a draft of our homestudy. Well, then the Hague Treaty (agreement between various countries on international adoption standards) which was implemented in April added more paperwork which put a halt to submitting the final draft of our homestudy as well as our dossier. Fortunately, that has not affected our spot on "the list". There are many other factors that go into matching children with families such as age, health and if the adopting couple has NRI (non-resident Indian) status, so our standing of 15th place doesn't really tell us a whole lot - just that we're further along than we were before. :)
I told Holt that I had our dossier completed, but that I was waiting to send it because the guidebook says to mail the finalized homestudy with it, but they said I could just mail it anyway. YEAH! I can finally get it out of my hands!! Tomorrow's the big day!
Our homestudy should soon be finally complete as well. One of the new requirements that was implemented is that we have to complete child abuse clearances for each state we've lived in since age 18. That's 10 states between the 2 of us!
Our fundraising continues as well. We have made $1,000.00 doing rummage sales this summer. If I added up the hours put into it, I would suspect I've made maybe $2.00/hour, and I've wondered at times if it's been worth it. But God has provided and has worked in other creative ways through our rummage sales. Will and Logan have enjoyed counting back change and talking with customers, too.
And while I'm on the subject of those two booger boys, they have both learned to swim this summer! It was been so much fun to hang out with them at the pool and I'm so proud of them. Will heads off to 1st grade on Friday and Logan begins preschool in another 2 weeks. They both start soccer this week. This will be Logan's first official sport. He has his first practice this evening. It should be quite entertaining. Say a prayer for the opposing teams he'll be playing. I don't think they have any idea what they're up against!
I told Holt that I had our dossier completed, but that I was waiting to send it because the guidebook says to mail the finalized homestudy with it, but they said I could just mail it anyway. YEAH! I can finally get it out of my hands!! Tomorrow's the big day!
Our homestudy should soon be finally complete as well. One of the new requirements that was implemented is that we have to complete child abuse clearances for each state we've lived in since age 18. That's 10 states between the 2 of us!
Our fundraising continues as well. We have made $1,000.00 doing rummage sales this summer. If I added up the hours put into it, I would suspect I've made maybe $2.00/hour, and I've wondered at times if it's been worth it. But God has provided and has worked in other creative ways through our rummage sales. Will and Logan have enjoyed counting back change and talking with customers, too.
And while I'm on the subject of those two booger boys, they have both learned to swim this summer! It was been so much fun to hang out with them at the pool and I'm so proud of them. Will heads off to 1st grade on Friday and Logan begins preschool in another 2 weeks. They both start soccer this week. This will be Logan's first official sport. He has his first practice this evening. It should be quite entertaining. Say a prayer for the opposing teams he'll be playing. I don't think they have any idea what they're up against!
Friday, June 20, 2008
A Promise in the Sky
We have been working hard doing a couple rummage sales to raise funds for our adoption - one last weekend and one this weekend. (One more to come in July.) Last Friday it rained early in the morning - not a good way to start the day when you're doing a yard sale! It stopped about 7:30am and we began setting up our sale. Some stuff was wet, my back was wet from the dripping off the carport and I was sliding around in my flip flops....and people were arriving. I was beginning to give in to frustration.
Billy commented that there was a rainbow in the sky. I figured he was kidding or was just trying to paint one for me. He then told me that there really was. So I looked where he said and sure enough, there was a faint rainbow there - all colors present. It would have been easy to miss. I didn't take too much time to think about it at the time and went on back to the task at hand, but thanked God for His promise - whatever it was for that day.
A lady arrived and commented that it was going to be a horrible day - weatherwise. After that rainbow, I just couldn't agree and proceeded to tell her that it was going to be a wonderful, beautiful day. Sure enough, the day was beautiful. The radar on the TV kept showing rain coming our way and people said all day that it was coming. Well, it may have rained elsewhere, but it held off over Gregory Farm Village until almost 3:00 - and we made good money! And a big "thank you" to everyone who has donated their stuff to us. You are helping bring our little girl home and we are so grateful!
I know God has promised to provide for our daughter, but there was so much more wrapped up in that rainbow - it's written all over in His Word. Someone needs to publish a Bible where all the promises are printed in the colors of the rainbow. So whatever you are in need of today, there is a promise from God for you. Start with Jeremiah 29:11....
As for me, He has promised rest for the weary and I shall surely sleep good tonight!
Billy commented that there was a rainbow in the sky. I figured he was kidding or was just trying to paint one for me. He then told me that there really was. So I looked where he said and sure enough, there was a faint rainbow there - all colors present. It would have been easy to miss. I didn't take too much time to think about it at the time and went on back to the task at hand, but thanked God for His promise - whatever it was for that day.
A lady arrived and commented that it was going to be a horrible day - weatherwise. After that rainbow, I just couldn't agree and proceeded to tell her that it was going to be a wonderful, beautiful day. Sure enough, the day was beautiful. The radar on the TV kept showing rain coming our way and people said all day that it was coming. Well, it may have rained elsewhere, but it held off over Gregory Farm Village until almost 3:00 - and we made good money! And a big "thank you" to everyone who has donated their stuff to us. You are helping bring our little girl home and we are so grateful!
I know God has promised to provide for our daughter, but there was so much more wrapped up in that rainbow - it's written all over in His Word. Someone needs to publish a Bible where all the promises are printed in the colors of the rainbow. So whatever you are in need of today, there is a promise from God for you. Start with Jeremiah 29:11....
As for me, He has promised rest for the weary and I shall surely sleep good tonight!
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Slow and Steady Wins the Race
I'm truly praying that "slow and steady" wins this race! Due to the implementation of the Hague Treaty (an agreement between various countries on adoption standards - very much a positive thing for international adoption which helps protect children and parents), we are having to revise our homestudy as well as complete additional paperwork before filing our I800A with USCIS. What's all that mean? I could use some extra prayer! We have also been collecting donations for a couple rummage sales to help raise funds for our adoption. So I have been sorting and labeling and sorting and labeling and sorting and .... well, you know!
God is continuing to provide for us, just not in the ways we might have expected. Some missionary friends sent a very unexpected gift and a friend recently gave us an antique radio which is worth up to $400.00. I'm amazed how creative God can be in His provision.
I am currently reading the book "20 Things Adoptive Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew". It is quite insightful and will be helpful to us in the future as we raise our little princess. I highly recommend it. But as I read it, God keeps reminding me how He is simply the answer to the many issues our daughter may face - from grieving loss to finding her identity to feeling secure and unconditionally loved. We serve such a great God!
Today was Logan's last day of preschool for this year and Will has just over a week of Kindergarten left. I'm looking forward to some lazy days of summer for them. I guess we'll have to play, play and then play some more.
This is just a brief update. I'll try to post more in the future - ha! Thank you for your prayers!
God is continuing to provide for us, just not in the ways we might have expected. Some missionary friends sent a very unexpected gift and a friend recently gave us an antique radio which is worth up to $400.00. I'm amazed how creative God can be in His provision.
I am currently reading the book "20 Things Adoptive Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew". It is quite insightful and will be helpful to us in the future as we raise our little princess. I highly recommend it. But as I read it, God keeps reminding me how He is simply the answer to the many issues our daughter may face - from grieving loss to finding her identity to feeling secure and unconditionally loved. We serve such a great God!
Today was Logan's last day of preschool for this year and Will has just over a week of Kindergarten left. I'm looking forward to some lazy days of summer for them. I guess we'll have to play, play and then play some more.
This is just a brief update. I'll try to post more in the future - ha! Thank you for your prayers!
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