Mi Esperanza (My Hope)

The past few days brought only a little progress on the adoption.  Here is the update - our paperwork is in New Hampshire at the NVC.  It will be processed and sent electronically to the US Embassy in Honduras where it will be reviewed and we will be given a date for our exit interview.  After my last post, a number of you reached out to us with a simple note of encouragement, a link to an encouraging song, or a phone call through Facebook.  We even received a great note from a woman who gave up her child for adoption many years ago and thanked us for making the sacrifice for the children.  All of this has been a great encouragement to us and a reminder that our hope is found in our Lord Jesus Christ and in the fact that He is the creator and governor over all things and our lives are securely in His hands.  Thank you for your prayers and support.

Please pray for the processing of our paperwork.  We were able to follow the UPS tracking number, and saw that the package was over 11 pounds.  I know that we have generated a lot of paperwork over the past 6 and a half years, but I realized that the package was filled with files of people seeking visas to enter the US.  I can only imagine the piles of requests that need to be sorted daily.  Pray that our case is addressed in a timely manner, and thank the Lord for each person that has the responsibility of reviewing each request.

They have not officially entered the rainy season in Honduras yet, but we have had strong storms the past four days.  Mostly, the rain has come in the evening, but yesterday, the storm rolled through in the afternoon and the kids went out and played in the rain, and were soaked to the bone.

Today, for a change of pace, we asked Carlos to take us into Tegucigalpa, which worked out well since he needed to take his mother in for therapy.  We had Carlos drop us off at Mi Esperanza, a ministry that we had visited on our trip last July (click here to check out the post from our last trip).  This time instead of learning about the ministry and shopping, Alicia went for a beauty treatment.  She had her hair done, a manicure, a pedicure, and some time in a message chair.  Not only was this a great time for Alicia, it was a great opportunity for the students to practice some of the beauty skills that they have been learning.

After Mi Esperanza, we went to City Mall for a late lunch and to let the kids ride some rides and play some games in their amusement park, while we had the opportunity to get to know a young couple Mississippi that are here to complete an adoption of a 2 year old boy.  It is great to share the joys and struggles of others on the same journey.  The kids loved the play area, so I had to tell them that I only put so much money on the card and when the money ran out, we were done...let's just say they didn't think I put enough money on the card. 

After we returned to the apartment, Ashton and Alia sat down on their own and began to read some of the books that I have been reading at night.  When we were here in July, they didn't want us to read any books to them.  On this trip, I began reading some simple books in Spanish to the kids before bed, trying to embellish a bit as I did with our older two children.  Tonight was the first time that they both sat down and took time to read on their own.   Even trying on Mommy's glasses for the effect.

Well, that's enough for tonight.  Hopefully, we'll have more progress to post tomorrow night.