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.

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!

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!

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!

Homestudy visit

We finally had our homestudy visit about a week ago. It was scheduled for a Sunday, but then our SW got sick, so she rescheduled for Monday evening at 6:00. Well, that afternoon, Bill was scheduled to do a visitation with a local hog farmer. He spent the afternoon assisting this gentleman with his pigs, dead and alive. He called me about 5:35 saying he would be home in a few minutes and would take a quick shower because "he really stunk." Having not spent time in "hog country" I had no idea just how bad until he entered the house. Even the boys were overwhelmed with the horrid stench and hollered, "Dad, what'd you do?!" So we proceeded to open the doors, spray air freshner, set Bill's shoes outside and throw his clothes in the washer.

Thankfully, our SW got caught up in traffic up in South Bend and arrived about 30 minutes late. So we were in the clear - you know, clear air!! We enjoyed our visit with her and as I took her around the home I simply showed her the door to the laundry room and proceeded on up the stairs for fear of what might be behind that door!

4-5 washes later (I lost track), and a day on the clothesline, Bill's clothes are back to normal and we are grateful to all the families who help provide our ham and bacon that's oh, so good!

However, Mary from Holt called us on Friday, March 21 and said we are officially on the waiting list! Yeah!

We are awaiting some official documents from our SW and our dossier will be on its way to Holt!

We now begin the paperwork for USCIS - United States Citizen and Immigration Services. What all that entails, I'm not so sure. I haven't read the 11 or so pages of instructions and now's not the time because Logan has been on the X-Box long enough for today!

Did you hide the eggs?

We had a comical thing happen after church on Easter Sunday. Let me begin by telling you how tired Billy and I both were. We have a sunrise service at our church at 7:00am, so it's an earlier morning than usual for all of us.

After lunch Billy told the boys they could search for their Easter eggs. They began to search all over the house. After quite some time, we both wondered why they had not discovered any yet and the boys began commenting on how well the bunny had hidden their eggs. I finally asked Billy, "Did you hide the eggs?" thinking he had hid them while the boys had been up in their room earlier. He replied with a "No, didn't you hide them last night?" No eggs had even been hidden yet! We discretely and casually hid some around the house as the boys continued to look and suddenly they began to find them, much to their relief.

As parents, we love our children and want them to be able to find their treasures. It was our responsibility to make sure the treasure was there to find and it was their job to keep on searching until they found it, not losing heart or giving up. They trust that the treasure is truly there for them to find. How much God is the same way with His children. "If you seek Him, He will be found." "Seek first His kingdom..."

We need to be seeking Him and all He has for us and be confident that we'll find Him and all the great treasure of His kingdom He has for us. I can just see God up there cheering us on to keep looking. He's hidden all the eggs and the next one could be right where we're about to look! He's excited for what we're about to discover and experience! I pray you find an egg today!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day from the Irish in our home! Will has a dark green sweatshirt that he got from his Aunt Cathy when he was a baby that says "I'm so cute, I must be Irish". It fits him now and he's wearing it today, of course. I looked at it and thought, "Oh, with the little clover and calligraphy writing it almost looks girlish", but he wanted to wear it anyway. Maybe someday our little Indian daughter can wear it and won't that be funny! How Irish, she won't look!

And our Will is growing up. He went to a waterpark hotel in Indy with a friend from school for the night. I'm confident he'll do great, have fun and will behave himself, but a mom can't help getting butterflies over it. I kept thinking of more things to tell him or remind him to do or not to do, but didn't tell him most of them or I would simply overwhelm him. He knows all that stuff anyway - that's what we've taught him the past 6 years. I see now that you just do your best in raising them and they'll be fine and ready for the next step in life. I'm just thankful he is able to go and that he got invited. What fun he will have!

And when I asked Logan what he wanted to do tonight, he picked......drum roll........McDonalds and rent another Star Wars movie. How unoriginal, but hey, it's his pick tonight. :)