A New Number - 60

It has been a few months since our number changed, and the news we were hearing about the adoption process in Honduras was not positive.  Over the past few weeks, we have been hearing more encouraging reports.  Alicia would be encouraged by the various blogs and tidbits of news that we heard, and I found myself growing more and more cynical.  I told her that I would not get excited until our number moved - well...the excitement level has risen as our position in line has move a bit.  We are thankful for the journey that the Lord has us on, and for many that are on this journey with us.  Thank you for your prayers and support.

Time flying by

Wow, the week has come and gone and I have done a really bad job keeping up with this blog of thankful thoughts.  Not that I haven't had time to reflect but time to journal.  Andy was able to get away this week to work on his doctoral paper and so things around here were a bit more busy and crazy.  This brings me to

#14 I am thankful to have my husband to walk this journey of life with me.  He is such a wonderful husband and father.  He loves me and our girls and is committed to being a part of our daughters lives and he has a wonderful relationship with them!

Andy returned home on Thursday evening and had a wonderful time of retreat away and got a lot of work done.  Finishing chapter 5 ( he only has 6 chapters total and he has his thoughts pulled together for the most part with chapter 6 so now he will just have to write it).  This brings me to thankful #15 & #16.

#15 Thankful for people willing to share their 2nd home so that Andy can get away, refresh and work on his paper.

#16 Thankful that Andy is on track for getting his paper finished before the end of the year.  This process really wasn't as bad as I thought it might be.

Well, Friday brought us to Ariana's first day of official high school swim practice and the start of many hours at the pool, a place that she loves.  Both girls will be on totally different schedules until Feb/March so we will really be savoring every moment we have as a family.

This brings me to #17 I am thankful that both Ariana & Alexa enjoy spending time with us and thankful for the time that we have together!

#13

Thankful for my daughters coaches and teachers that desire to see my girls grow in learning and their ability to swim.  It brings us joy to watch them to continue to grow!

#12

I am thankful for the beautiful day today & the chance to enjoy some of it with good friends!

Thankful #10 & 11

#10
I am thankful for those that come up to me and ask "How is the adoption going" and then apologize asking if I mind them asking.  I love it, even though it may seem difficult for me to share at times, I know that it continues to be on others hearts and minds.  I pray that as we come to mind, you lift up a prayer for our daughter and our journey.

#11
I am thankful that even when I am not feeling great, I know that there are many others in the world that are doing much worse than I am.  I am thankful for the strength I have and the ability I have every day to get out of bed to face the day, especially knowing that above all God is on His throne and that is what I need to remember everyday.  Thank you God for the gift of life and the ability to worship you openly!
 

Friday-Thankful #9

I am thankful for 2 wonderful girls that God has blessed us with.  It is so much fun to see how God is working in their lives.  We are so proud of both of them.  Looking forward to being able to bring another little girl into our home to love and care for.

Thursday -Thankful #8

I am thankful for those that care for children in orphanages.  The care might not be what we would hope for yet these people are there doing their best with what they have.  My prayer goes out today for the one who is caring for our daughter!

Wednesday-Thankful #7

Thankful that I am able to help friends out with their little ones!

Tuesday-Thankful #6

I am thankful that God is in control of it all, no matter the outcome!

Monday-Thankful #5

Upon getting our mail today easily became my thankful moment of the day...we received our extension from Immigration for our adoption.  We have until June 2014.  Praying that our adoption will be complete by then.  The thought in the back of my head...will it really be complete?  Only God knows.  Is our daughter even born yet?  They have also approved our age extension to go from 0-4 years.  Praying for some news soon.  they are supposed to be meeting sometime this month.

Sunday-Thankful #4

Tonight (Sunday) we gathered at our church to stuff boxes for Operation Christmas Child.  We probably had around 80 people, young and old, stuffing boxes.  We stuffed over 550 boxes.  What a blessing it was to see so many gathered together to send things to children around the world that have so little.  I was amazed as I went to select a stuffed animal or doll on the top of my box it was as if ..."it was the one I knew I was to send".  I am thankful for God's people, my church family, to have their hearts softened to the needs of others around the world.  What a GOD THING that we were even able to do this on Orphan Sunday (we were supposed to do it this past Wed).  Had we done it then, we would have only had teens and youth leaders stuffing.  Thank you God for being in control of all things!  What a blessing it was to my.  I hope those of you that were there were blessed as well.

Thankful #3

I am thankful for a warm house, electricity and all my needs being met?  With the hurricane that came through and took out our power for a few days and now this cold, it makes me extra thankful that it is all back on!  With all of this it makes me think of our little one as well and sending up an extra prayer for her that her needs are being met as well.  I know I can't dwell on this too much knowing that there may be many needs that she has that can't be met.  Lord, care for our little one through others around her!  Please let her feel your love.

Being Thankful #1 & 2

As we are coming into a season where it is good to be reminded that we are to give thanks for all things I am challenging myself to post somethings that I am thankful for each day until Thanksgiving.  I may even be able to have some guest's that want to share what they are thankful for! I am starting a day late (it is so hard to believe that it is November 2nd already) so I am going to post #1 & #2 both today even though I thought of yesterday but didn't get a chance to post it!

Nov. 1 

Giving Thanks #1 Thankful that I live in a country that I am able to openly praise my Lord.  As I prepared for Sunday's worship time last night, I was so thankful for the chance to gather with others to praise my savior!

Nov. 2

Giving Thanks #2  Thankful that I have a wonderful husband that loves me for who I am and is such a Godly example to me!

Not For A Moment

Well, I have really  been challenged this week on a number things.

1. Ultimately....GOD....You are in control.  This week we finally saw an end to the strike in Honduras.  In our human mind we cannot grasp how things like this can happen.  Sorry, let me step back and let some of you that might not have heard.  Their children's program in Honduras had been on strike since Oct. 2.  As of Oct. 19, the strike ended.  What this strike did to the orphans...I can't even allow my heart to go there.  That my daughter could have been greatly affected by this just overwhelms me!!  My heart just aches to think too much on this!
 A song that really has brought me comfort on this is by Meredith Andrews.  check out the YouTube video for the words to this song.  Hopefully it will touch your heart as much as it has touched mine.  The reminder that God is Constant, God is Good, God is Sovereign...Not for a moment will God forsake me or my daughter!!

http://youtu.be/wkix3Tg8L5E


When they say that adoption is not for the faint of heart, they aren't kidding!

2.  Challenged by the fact that I haven't been as faithful in keeping this blog updated like I originally want to be.  I think that it is a matter of avoidance.  Not that I don't want to but I think that the reality is that the longer the time goes by that we have nothing to update, what to I say.  And if I do start thinking about it too much it can get discouraging.  But thanks to a friend mentioning (thanks Kim) that she checks our blog for updates  (there have been many others that have mentioned this but it hit home yesterday).  Almost every I check blogs that I follow (adoption related and non adoption) and look forward to seeing if there is anything new.  Obviously there are those of you that are doing that to ours.  The challenge is that i do want to document our thoughts about our journey to encourage others as well as for our daughter so that she can see our hearts during our time of wait!  I am going to try to be better!

3.  Challenged by God's word.  I try to follow Proverbs 31 ministry email devotions every morning.  This morning the scripture that was shared was

"As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:9 (NIV)

Does anyone else see a theme....God is there and at work...in me... Growing me.  Yesterday I was able to be able to spend some time with a friend who  just had twins a week ago.  What a blessing to be able to do that.  With a little one in tow, this would not have been an easy thing to do.  I have had some health challenges that I have had to face over the last month.  Again with a little one in tow, could have handled it but would have been much more challenging.  My prayer...Andy's & my prayer from the beginning is that God would be seen through our journey.  If I knew that we would face the challenges that we have (nothing compared to some journey's) would I have had the same prayer?   ABSOLUTELY!   I have found myself clinging to God for His strength!  LORD, carry us through this journey!  Join us with our little one soon and wrap your loving arms around her helping her to know that she is loved!

Another Week gone by

Well, it is another Friday.  Another week of silence has gone by.  Will we get an update?  We hope there is some good news.  The founder of our agency returned from Honduras at the beginning of this week.  It sounded like it was a good meeting, but what does that really mean?  The committee was supposed to meet 2 weeks ago, then last week and then we have heard sometime the last week of September. 

Since then there have been some things that have made more the process make more sense.  I read a post from another adoptive mom on why the wait is so long.  A point she made was (if you have gone through the paperchase, you understand, if not it is a long time of gathering "your life" in paperform-birth cert., marriage lisence, financial documents etc).  The adoptive world says this could take you 4-6 months.  We did it in 3-4 (ok, so crazy momma set in) we were very focused on getting it together as quick as we could b/c I knew this was the only time I could control things. Now, think about all these children that in essence need to have the same paperwork pulled together for them...ok, probably not the same financial paperwork since they won't have that, but some of these children don't have even the equivalent of a birth cert or # assigned to them.  That all has to be checked into to see if there is anyone available to care for them in their home country.  Wow, alot of work for a very few number of people available to do this job.  Please join me in prayer today praying for these people, what an overwhelming task that they have!!

God has also been laying it heavy on my heart to pray for orphan children.  Andy and I have also recently seen the softening of our girls hearts to orphans.  When I say that, let me step back and say that for quite some time it has been there but through certain situations recently we have truly seen God softening their hearts even more.  So AWESOME to see God at work.  Praying for some good news soon!!!  Thanks for following our journey with us!

check out this blog

I have been wanting to write this for a while and just haven't made myself sit down to do it.  Part of it being avoidance in realizing that we still don't have an adoption update to give and part of it being making the time.  I wanted to share with you all about a blog i came across while following a facebook group.  it has been awesome to see the fingerprints of God on our adoption journey, usually when i need them most...funny how God works that way:)!

I was directed to this families company for t-shirts.  in wanting to find out more about them I clicked on their blog to find out their adoption journey.  Wow, it humbled me.  Just when I was thinking "poor us, why are we having to wait so long when all we want to do is welcome into our hearts, arms and lives a little girl who needs a home and a family, i read their journey. http://www.teeswithapurpose.com/blog - wow, what a journey.  As is says in Jer. 29:11 "for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.  Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will hear you."  I know that our journey was laid out from before the beginning of time.  That God has led us down the path we are on at this moment in time.

The other thing that seems to be helping to get me through this journey is finding out that we shouldn't even have a number in line.  How crazy does that seem since our paperwork has now been in country for 13 months?  well, that is what we have been told.  we were accepted back in June by "slipping through the cracks".  Do I believe that statement?  No way, I believe that God pushed us through those cracks.  For those of you that are reading this and don't have your number yet, I don't mean it to sound like God didn't push yours as well.  what I do mean is that we are where we are because our daughter will be ready at the same time our paperwork will be ready.  For whatever reason, she is not ready to come home, either she is not born yet, she hasn't been abandoned yet or her paperwork has not cleared or even many other reasons.  Please be in prayer for our daughter as well as the many other families and their children as we continue to wait on word for our children to be ready  . Please also be praying for the  workers as they try to do all the work they have to do down there in caring for the children and doing all the work that goes into the paperwork to prepare children for families.

Moving On Up - Number 64

We were contacted by our agency today and told that we have been given a new number.  We have moved up to number 64.  One step closer!

Thought You'd Be Here

In August, I worked on the music library on our computers to make sure everything was up to date, etc., and in the process I deleted the "playlists" on my computer, so now and then I will go through an album and choose some of my favorite songs to create a "playlist" on my computer. This afternoon, I was listening to Wes King's "A Room Full of Stories" from the mid-90's. There was a song on the album that brought tears to my eyes for the first time. The title is "Thought You'd Be Here", and the line that really got me was "I never knew that silence could make me so deaf. I never knew that I could miss someone I never met..." The adoption process has been and will be much longer that we were originally told, and longer than we anticipated, yet throughout the process we have been reminded that God is at work. God's timing is perfect and we continue to trust him. I found a youtube video of the Wes King song, with a brief introduction from Wes King about the song.

updates

well, we are still waiting. This week there is to be a conversation with our lawyer and our agency to see how things are going and why we haven't heard of things recently. Even as I type this I hope that this week we hear of a new number (others are starting to hear new numbers). We are hoping that since we didn't hear numbers in August that we actually did have numbers but that they were holding them since our new paperwork had to be translated. So we may move 3, 7 or 10 or not move at all yet. In this time while we wait, we have had to redo our fingerprints and tomorrow we update our home study for USCIS and we are planning on extending our age request. During this quiet time I have tried to keep myself busy. Freezing corn today, home study tomorrow and preparing to celebrate 2 birthday's this weekend. Yes, 2 birthday's in our family in 2 days. One is a big 13...we wont mention the other :)! God we know your plans are perfect, please give us the strength to wait upon you in this time. "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me." 2 Corinthians 12:9 (NIV)

Still Waiting

Well, It has been almost a month since we last updated our blog. Things have been happening just not what we were hoping for. We had to get more paperwork finalized, which meant waiting on people to complete their part and then taking the documents out to Harrisburg (we are getting quite used to this trip-and I am sure we are not done with that drive yet). We also had to pull together pictures of our extended family and label these which Ariana went and labeled all of them for me. That was a big help. We had to get our fingerprints redone and of course we received our paperwork with our scheduled appointment which of course was for while we were on vacation. We were able to do a walk in appointment and they accepted us. It seems like we just made it because we heard from others trying to do the same thing a few days later that they were turned away. Another year of Swim team finished for the summer so the projects began. The major project was to update the playhouse so that it would be ready for our little one. We finally finished today. I will try to get pictures up by tomorrow, and other projects are beginning or completing as well, including a quilt that I will be sending for a fundraiser for Honduras to missionaries that will be raising money through an auction. We enjoyed a wonderful vacation at the Jersey shore again this year and now we are preparing for our eldest to begin the journey of being a high school-er!!! How time flies. We have now been on the adoption journey for...look to the right...drum roll....over 1 1/2 years with up to possibly another 1 1/2 years. We are now also finding ourselves preparing to update our home study and request for an extension from USCIS and re-working the budget to be prepared to stay for 4-6 weeks for our second trip. Rumors have come that the committee met in the beginning of August but with all of the paperwork that we had to send , that may be what is holding up hearing our new number. We have had the blessing of hearing of some getting new numbers :) We are so thankful for that. I have also been blessed by following the journeys of others that are working their way to completion of their adoptions. What a blessing this is at the same time it just makes my heart ache for news of our little one. I know our time will come and until this time we continue to pray that God would be bringing people into her life to care for her until we can!

A New Number

Yesterday, we learned that we have a new number. We have moved up two positions to number 72. Although it is good to know that there is movement, we were disappointed that in one months time, we only moved up to 72. We were really hoping to move into the 60's. It is difficult to leave the process in the hands of others. This process has been a real eye-opener for me to realize how much I want to be in control. This process has forced me on numerous occasions to hand over control to others - agencies, government, lawyers, etc. I struggle with handing over the control...ultimately, this has challenged me to reflect on my relationship with God. I know that I cannot save myself, and that my condition before God as a rebellious sinner is only dealt with through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ (John 3:16; John 14:6, Acts 4:12), yet in the day to day walk of life, I am constantly struggling with God for control. Why do I have to be so stubborn and thick-headed? Lord, help me to learn this lesson of the Christian walk so that I can glorify you in my life daily!

Waiting

Well, there still is no news. We are just hoping that we hear soon from our social worker that we have gotten a new number soon. It is hard to believe that it has been 1 yr & 5 months since we officially started this journey.It has been a while since we have written. We were hoping to be able to update that we got a new number. We have heard some updates though in the time. We have heard that yes, we will need to make 2 trips. The first being no more than 1 week and the second trip being anywhere from 1-2 weeks or 15-20 days (we still don't know if this is business days or just days). We have been told that the reason for the two different timelines is that it depends on the case. We are trying to look at this as a blessing that we will have that special time to spend with our daughter without normal everyday interruptions. The down side is that we were hoping to take our other girls with us on this second trip. Now it just will be a little more working through the logistics to figure out what we will do so that they can still go on one of the trips, let alone longer time scenario, 4 weeks is a long time to be away from our daughters here. We are totally trusting in God for all of this. We also are looking at the reality that things are definitely not moving as quickly as we were hoping. My prayer especially is that we don't get discouraged in this wait and know that our daughter is not "ready" yet. The other biggy...the cost. It obviously will cost quite a bit more than we were figuring. Thus the wait is a little easier in knowing that we have more time to save to go get our daughter. Praying that we are able to update with a new number! Thanks again for reading and praying!

We Have a Number

We just received word from our agency that we have received a waitlist number. We are in line and holding the number "74". We know that the wait will still be a number of months, probably 12 to 18 months, but it is good to have a number. Our yard sale went well last week. We raised $200 form the yard sale, and because God has graciously given us enough at this point to complete our adoption, we are planning to pass the money from our yard sale on to another family adopting from Honduras. Thank you for your prayers.

Yard Sale This Weekend & prayers

Well, we are preparing for our second adoption yard sale.  This time around the money we raise will be given to another family who is in the process of adopting as well.  We have been so blessed by others generosity in our journey that we are so excited to be able to help out friends that are also on this same journey. So if you are in the area this Saturday and want to stop in and check out we will have our yard sale from 8-1pm.  Great things will be here.  Furniture, electronics, cross stitch frames children's items, household items & baked goods.  The list goes on.

As we are preparing for this day I also want to ask people to be praying specifically on this Saturday with this possible opportunity that we have about sharing about our journey and maybe a seed can be planted.  I recently heard the new Casting Crowns song "So Far to Find You"  what an awesome song in tying together adopting and the picture we see in the Bible of God reaching down and adopting us as His sons and daughters.


What an amazing song!

Have a wonderful day!

Happy & Heavy Heart

Well, we received some really good news.  It looks like we have been approved by IHNFA.  Our paperwork now gets presented to the next group to get assigned a number-The General Secretary of Honduras.  We have been told this could take 1-2 weeks (but as we are seeing this could always take more time).  With knowing this, this is where the heavy heart comes in.  We probably wont receive our referral until next summer if we are lucky.  This really was what we have fully been expecting as I have been following my bloggy friends on this same journey, numbers are quite high.  I fully expect that our number will be somewhere in the 70's.  If it is lower then we will totally be thrilled.  I did hear through another blog the assignment committee did meet last week so we wait to see if referrals were accepted and if the numbers move.

As I was telling Andy what I found out while on the phone with our social worker, I could tell tears were welling up with happiness that we were approved and yet tears of sorrow to know that we have  a much longer wait than we originally hoped for.  My arms do ache to hold this little one, whom ever she is.  What made it even more difficult to watch though was to see our older daughter as I shared with her that our wait was probably much longer you could see the tears well up.  She was so disappointed.  I know she is looking at it that that means less time that she will be around to watch her grow up as she looks at the fact that she starts high school this next year. Yet, one of the first AWANA verses we helped the girls learn comes to mind..."we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose". Romans 8:28

Please know that as you may hear me say..."I know that it is all in God's timing.  It has been our prayer from the beginning that it would be all about Him".  I don't say this as a pat comment.  This is truly what gets me through this journey.  I do trust in God for this whole journey and pray that He continues to give us peace and patience through this journey so that He can be glorified through all of this

"...For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.  Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.  I will be found by you," declares the Lord...  Jeremiah 29:11-14a

As you read this we beg of you to continue to pray for our little one, her birth mother (I can't even imagine what pain she had or will have to go through to give her up-a little window of this reality came to me through reading  the book "Daddy Come Get Me"-I highly recommend this read), the assignment committee as they have to make to selections of what children to refer to which family, as well as the transition our daughter will go through as she will join our family and that our number would be a lower number than we expect and the time goes quick to get our referral.

One last note, if you are in the area we will be having a yard sale  fundraiser this coming Saturday-June 9 to raise funds for our adoption as well as to help others out on their journey to adopt!  If you would like to donate items  or baked good or drinks to sell please let us know.

papers are starting to move again

"I have kind of good news" is what our SW said this morning as I spoke to her.  We heard from our lawyer
and found out that our paperwork that we sent down and was received 1 month ago tomorrow has been translated, their version of the notary completed and their version of the apostille done and should be on the way to IHNFA sometime this week.  OK, so I am hoping by next week.  You may say isn't that being a bit pessimistic -yes I   would say I am but I am trying to guard my heart.  In going over the original time line, it still could be 1-2 months before we are approved and given a wait list number.  So in my mind I am hoping to have a number by the end of August. That means the reality that I have been preparing my heart for is more like reality.  I have been praying that we would have her home by next spring. 
Now, of course, there has been silence pretty much from what it seems from all that I have been in contact with through blogs and email groups.  No one has received numbers as far as anyone knows since somewhere around the end of March or beginning of April.  In continued conversation with our agency, there is a great possibility that IHNFA is swamped with people finally getting all their updates down to them and they are trying to play catch up.  Is that our hopeful thinking...I hope not.

Well, that "kind of good news" that was spoken of earlier this morning really is good news.  As I read over the earlier part of this blog to make sure it made sense I realized that it sounded kind of "down".  Please don't interpret it that way.  We are thrilled to know that our updated paperwork is on its way to IHNFA.  Not quite as thrilling as the first batch was and yet it is.  It is one step closer to hearing who God has already ordained to be part of this family even before we were a family-from the beginning of time.  As I think on this it reminds me a chapter from Psalms I memorized when I was young Psalm 139.  ...:16 "your eyes saw my unformed body.  All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."  God, it amazes me to know from the beginning of time you destined our family to be who were are.  I praise you and thank you for this journey of life.

I look forward to seeing our daughters beautiful face, her little body and being able to hug and snuggle this little miracle from God like I have my other 2 daughters.  I love you little one and praying that we will get to see you soon!!!

No news yet!

Well, it has been over 3 weeks since our lawyer received our paperwork in Honduras.  We have not heard if it has gone to IHNFA or not yet.  We are hoping that it is there and maybe even have been accepted and maybe even have received a number but in reality it may still be at the lawyers.  This is when I have to keep coming back to it all being in God's timing.  It has been my prayer from the beginning that the focus would be on Him not about what we have done, as any of you that have gone through this journey you know that the journey of adoption is not an easy journey.   It is a time that God is using  to draw me closer to Him.
  Don't get me wrong, there are times that I get frustrated and discouraged and even times that I wonder..."are we really adopting?",  "God is this something that you want us to do?", "will we ever get a number?" "will we ever receive a referral?".  And then God does give me peace, to trust in Him.

"For I know the plans I have for you", declares the Lord.  "They are  to plans prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart. "  Jer.29:11-13

Even though we haven't heard anything, I have to trust in the fact that God does have a plan bigger than I can even imagine.

Recently I read the book The Yellow Sock:An Adoption story by Angela  Hunt.  This couples journey was a very different journey than ours and yet it was a an encouraging book and easy read.  A quote from the book "The Lord knows what he is doing.  He has promised to be with you in every difficulty, and he will not allow you to suffer beyond the limits of your endurance." really hit home.  Even though we aren't really "suffering" through this time, God must know that we can endure for a much longer time and I trust in the fact that the payoff in the end of this endurance is going to be a beautiful thing in seeing our family grow.  Looking forward to seeing our little girl and holding her in our arms!

Dump Day 2012

As you all know that have been following this blog or know us.  God has truly placed the country of Honduras on our hearts.  As we took the steps of adopting from Honduras, we knew of some of the great needs through this beautiful country and yet didn't really know the depths.  I  believe that even going there we will  never ever really know the depths of the needs.
Alexa said this morning (She had to finish reading her book for school so was up quite late-which is quite a feat for her, not the staying up late :) but the reading for a long time).  Her words  "last night as I was reading my stomach was really hungry but I figured it was too late to come down for a snack."  Not really what you might say a weird comment because how many of us will stay up late and be "hungry" (but not really) and think well I could just go downstairs and get a snack.  We have NO IDEA what true hunger really is.  This really hit me this morning as I think upon Dump Day tomorrow.  You may ask, what is Dump day?  There is this ministry in Honduras that goes to the Dump (outside of Tegucigalpa) every Wednesday to provide meals to the people there, but things don't just stop there.
http://treymorgan.net/how-to-give-on-dump-day-and-dump-day-give-aways/.  You have to check it out. What a ministry that there is there.  There was also another blog that shared about this 2 year old little boy that lives at the Dump with his mom and he had parasites but they had not been able to take him to the doctor.  Through this ministry they were able to take him to the doctor and get him the medicine that was needed. This ministry helped to save this little boy from dying.  If you go to this blog you can check out Trey's Honduras blog entries and be prepared to have your eyes opened.  The fields are ripe for harvest!

Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, then comes the harvest?

Look, i tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.

John 4:35

Not only do they feed these people with food every Wednesday they feed them with spiritual nourishment. You will find information there as to how you can help.  You can also join me tomorrow in fasting during breakfast and lunch to pray for these people of Honduras.  On the adoption front we still haven't received news that we have been approved.  Just praying that it is that we just haven't heard and we already have a number.  We continue to pray for our little one that she is cared for and that there is just something special that draws the attention of one special person that can love on her for us for the mean time until we can hold her in our arms.  Yes, my arms are starting to truly ache for her!!

Happy News

Your shipment has been delivered.

This  is what was in my inbox from FedEx last night.  It arrived yesterday afternoon to our Lawyer. Mind you this was 2 days before the estimated time of delivery!  I was rejoicing.   Then I talked to our agency & we found out that there had been a strike but it is not the kind that directly affects us, just the workers...doesn't this affect us as well in an indirect way!?!  So it doesn't hold up our paperwork yet it affects the lives of the children in Honduras-potentially our daughter.  

Again it causes me to step back and pray for these little ones (and not so little ones).  That God would soften the hearts of these workers that care for these children.  That they would see the needs and do their best to meet these needs.

What comes next you may ask?  Our paperwork needs to be translated into Spanish (this may take a day or weeks), we have no idea how long this may take.  For our entire dossier this did take weeks (but it was over 100 pages).  We only have 3 letters of references and our medical results (does this need to be  translated, not sure).  Then we wait to see if they have all we need.  Our hope is that we will find out that we have then been put on the wait list.  Hoping for a low number but fully expecting it to be in the 60 range.  Please be in prayer with us that we will find out soon and yet continue to rest in God's perfect timing.  We now also need to be looking at what needs to be done with USCIS for an extension and probably new fingerprinting but that we can wait on for a little while.

What can you do.  We have found out about some new information about the adoption tax credit.

In 2013 the tax credit will be a maximum  of $6,000 for parents adopting children with special needs. There  will be no adoption tax credit available for all other adoptive parents beginning in tax year 2013.

Would you consider following this link to sign the petition: http://www.change.org/petitions/make-adoption-costs-fully-refundable-in-the-2012-2013-tax-years
 

On Strike Again?

To say that this process has been like riding on a roller coaster would be an understatement.  Last Friday, we handed that updated documentation to our agency to send to Honduras, and Lord willing completing our dossier.  The paperwork was sent off on Friday, and we have been able to track its progress to get to Honduras.  Right now, it is in Miami. (hopefully, not taking a vacation on the beach, though that sounds real nice right about now!)  We expect our paperwork to arrive in Honduras in the next 2-3 days, but now we are not sure what will happen to it.  We have heard that the union workers of IHNFA are on strike again.  How this will effect us, we are not totally sure, and we have not heard anything official from our agency yet, so we will patiently wait to see what happens next.  Please continue to pray for the children of Honduras that need to be loved and cared for.  Pray for the many workers (both private and government) in Honduras seeking to care for the children.  Pray for the families that are seeking to open their homes and families to provide love for a child in need.  Thank you for your prayers as we wait on the Lord.

Dossier Completed?

Alicia and I traveled to Harrisburg today in order to have our medical reports apostilled.  It was two weeks ago that Alicia, Alexa and a friend, Diane had made the same trip to have other documents apostilled, then the next day I went with Alicia and Alexa to New York to the Honduran Consulate to have some documents finalized.  We thought we were all done, and confidently walked into the offices of Living Hope and handed our paperwork over thinking everything was completed.  A little later that day, we found out that we needed more medical work done for Ariana and Alexa, and then Alicia figured it was wise for us to get our medical reports updated.  Incredibly, by God's grace, all four of us were able to get appointments with our respective doctors before Easter.  We were all picked, proded, and inspected by medical personnel and lab technicians.  Our reports all came in this week, so we ran to the bank yesterday to get everything notarized.  Today, our trip to Harrisburg was finished off by a stop to Living Hope to drop off our paperwork.  Everything looks good, and we received the official word from Living Hope that our paperwork is on its way to Honduras, and we were given a FedEx tracking number so we can follow our paperwork's travels.  We hope that the next thing we hear from Honduras is that we have been approved and we receive our wait list number.  It is good to see things moving forward again.

The Wait Continues

Well, Monday came and we had all blood results except Andy's so we hoped that we would be able to make the trip today (Tuesday) and enjoy the girls last day of Easter break going out to Harrisburg & wrapping a trip to Messiah College to watch Rachael play a Lacrosse game.  Needless to say again, our plans are not the Lords.  Do you see a theme yet in this journey?  Even with a call to to our Doctor's office this afternoon we still wait. 
They haven't received it yet?  NOPE! 
What is the hold up, we have no idea!  It looks like the trip will probably not happen until Friday now.

Andy is able to give the devotional at Bethany Christian Services to their staff tomorrow.  Any guess what the topic of his devotional will be...Habakkuk 1 "How Long, O Lord".  This will also be the topic of his message this coming Sunday
vs. 1"How long, O Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen?  ....
vs 5 "Look at the nations and watch-and be utterly amazed.
 For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe even if you were told."

I know God is going to use this journey to do amazing things, He is already doing great things and I feel so much closer to Him in this journey.  I pray that as we wait God is bringing people into the life of our little one to love her, care for her, and meet her needs.  That she is getting her needs met, and that He is preparing her heart to become a part of a family that loves her so much already!!

How long, O Lord...we wait upon you for your perfect time!

Hit The Brakes!

We just received a call from our agency saying that we also needed to have the medical laboratory reports for Ariana and Alexa as well.  The problem is - our pediatrician completed a report for each of the girls and no lab work was done last year.  Now, it looks like we will have to get lab work done, then this paperwork will have to run through the notarization hurdles.  Just when we thought things were moving again, we had to step on the brakes.

New York, New York

Yesterday, Alicia and her entourage traveled to Harrisburg to get our paperwork apostilled, which seems to be a governmental notarization of the notary that notarized our paperwork - or something like that.  Today, we (Alicia, Alexa and myself) made the journey to New York City and back again.  We had to take our paperwork to the Honduran Consulate in New York to have them look it over and give us a letter saying that they have reviewed the paperwork, and made sure that the notarization of the notary has been notarized correctly.  Since we were heading up to New York, we were able to take some of the paperwork from our agency with us.  So not only were we able to complete our paperwork, we were able to help the other eight families from Living Hope Adoption Agency with their dossiers in Honduras.  The people at the Honduran Consulate were great, and helped us get done everything that we needed, and we were leaving New York city an hour and a half after arriving.  Our journey home took us through Fort Washington to drop off all of the paperwork at Living Hope.  We were told that our paperwork should be in the mail later today, so now we wait once again. 

Here are pictures from the journey today:

Alicia receiving the finalized paperwork!!!

Off to Harrisburg

Well, we finally found out what Honduras wants with our medical records.  Official lab results.  I think the receptionist at the doctors office thought I was a little crazy-ok, so adoption seems to do that sometimes.  When I called and asked her what I needed to do to get these she said they would make the copies and I could pick them up in the afternoon!!!!  Can you see me  jumping up and down!?!  I told her she made my day and her response..."I am glad I could make someones day".

Well, this finds me heading out to Harrisburg 1 week later than I hoped, with our new character references and our lab results to be Apostilled (getting our official seal). A good friend who has walked this journey before so knows where she is going is going with me as well as Alexa (after finding herself with a concussion from being hit in the head by a locker last week-so she is on total brain rest!  She is going crazy doing nothing.  As she said..."this isn't what God made our brains to do"). 

Once again God is making it clear that there is nothing I can do to move this along, it is all in His timing.  As our paper work will be hopefully traveling down to Honduras by next week, it will be the Easter Holiday (which everyone in Honduras will probably be on vacation so it will be sitting again).  Our prayer from the beginning has been that He would make himself evident in all of this and that we would see that it has been nothing that we have done but all through Him!  We know that God has His hand of protection on our little one and He is preparing her to have her world rocked and be joined to this family who is going to smother her with so much love to make up for this lost time that we have had with her!

The journey continues  :) !

More Paperwork

Well, we have heard from our agency and there are a few items that we need to take care of before our dossier will be approved.  There is one document that our agency is taking care of for all nine families that they represent in the process.  Each family needs to have their character references rewritten in letter form, notarized and apostilled by the state of PA.  The third item we need to take care of is related to our medical forms, but we are still trying to get clarification on what is actually needed on this one.  All of this to say, things are moving forward.  Our hope is to have all of this paperwork completed by the end of next week, so that we will be on our way to final approval, and moving toward receiving our referral for a child.  Thank you for your prayers!

"Wait"

A friend gave me the following poem - thought I would share it with you! 

Desperately, helplessly, longingly I cried;
Quietly, patiently, lovingly God replied.
I pled and I wept for a clue to my fate.
And the Master so gently said, "Child you must wait."
"Wait, you say wait," my indignant reply.
"Lord I need answer...I need to know why!"
Is your hand shortened, or have you not heard?
By faith I have asked and am claiming your word.
My future and all to which I can relate, 
Hangs in the balance and YOU tell me to WAIT?
 I need a "YES"...a go-ahead sign,
Or even a "NO" to which I can resign.
And Lord, you promised that if we believe
We need but to ask and we shall receive.
And Lord, I've been asking! And this is my cry;
I'm weary of asking! I need a reply!
Then quietly, softly I learned of my fate.
As the Master replied once again, "You must wait."
So I slumped in my chair, defeated and taunt
And grumbled to God, "So I;m waiting...for what?"
He seemed then to kneel and His eyes wept with mine,
And He tenderly said, "I could give you a sign."
I could shake the heavens and darken the sun.
I could raise the dead, cause the mountains to run.
All you seek I could give, and pleased you would be.
You would have what you want, but you wouldn't know Me.
You'd not know the depth of my love for each saint;
You'd not know the power that I give to the faint;
You'd not learn to see through clouds of despair;
You'd not learn to trust just by knowing I'm there;
You'd not know the joy of resting in Me,
When darkness and silence were all you could see.
You would never experience that fulness of love
As the peace of My Spirit descends like a dove
You would know that I give and save for a start,
But you'd not know the depth of the beat of my heart.
The glow of My comfort, late in the night,
The faith that I give when you walk without sight.
The depth that''s beyond getting just what you asked
Of an infinite God, who makes what you have LAST.
You never would know, should you pain quickly flee
What it means that "My grace is sufficient for thee."
Yes, your dreams for that loved one overnight would come true,
But, oh the loss if I lost what I'm doing in you!
So be silent, My child and in time you will see
That the greatest of gifts is to get to know Me.
And though oft My answers may seem terribly late...
My most precious answer of all is still...WAIT!


- I do not know the author, but I am thankful for the reminder that God is infinitely wise and all things take place according to His perfect timing, and according to His will.
 

Sooner rather than Later???

We began this journey of adoption on February 3, 2011, and with the way that the process has been going as of late, we began to believe that the adoption would not be completed before the end of 2012.  We had resolved in our minds that the adoption was still going to take a long time...and it still might.  BUT on Monday evening,  we had a conference call with Living Hope Adoption agency and the families that are in their Honduras program.  The news that they shared was very positive.  The new director of IHNFA has been restructuring the organization and the "assignment committee" has been meeting multiple times per week to get caught up.  They have 45 children that have been approved through their system for adoption and they have been reviewing all of the dossiers that have already been submitted.  As the conversation, we found out that all of the dossiers that Living Hope had sent down have been reviewed...when we heard this news, we had to stop and before we could ask for clarification, someone else asked for confirmation that all of the dossiers had been reviewed...and this is true.  So our dossier has been reviewed and we may have some more documentation to complete before we are finally approved, but that approval does not seem so far off now.  After we are approved, we wait until we are matched with a child.  We would receive our referral, and the process begins to finalize the adoption.  Everyone is being careful not to give a timeline, but the impression we received was that the adoption could be finalized sooner rather than later.  We know that the timing of all of this is in the Lord's hands, and so whether it is sooner or later, we will wait patiently on His perfect timing!

Good News!

We just found out some good news!  Living Hope has been listed on the US Embassy's site that they are now reinstated.  This is not really new news for us (we already knew this from our agency) but it is now official for all to see.  We also saw news through a newspaper that the director of IHNFA is requesting that the committee that meets, would meet on a regular basis.  What wonderful news.  It continues to amaze me (even though it shouldn't by now) that when I seem to be at a low point(which was yesterday), God continues to show me when I need it "remember I (God) am in control of it all"!  In my head I had thoughts running through...is this ever going to happen...will it be this year, next or 3 years from now that we can finally hold our little one...did God just want to see if we were willing.  God, I do trust in you for all of this journey and am thankful for this time of growth in my life and know that I am becoming a stronger person in you".  I look forward to the day that we can hold our little one, I put my whole trust in you! 

On The Road Again

A few weeks ago, I posted that our situation felt like we were stuck in traffic and no one was moving.  We had no idea of how much longer it would be until the traffic started moving again.  Then, we learned that at the beginning of this year, a new director of IHNFA was appointed, so we thought that the traffic would start to move again.  We heard rumors that things were beginning to happen, but then we were pulled over to the side of the road.  The US Embassy in Tegucigalpa posted that two agencies were no longer certified to complete adoptions in Honduras.  Living Hope was one of those agencies.  All the sudden, we found our selves on the side of the road wondering if and when we could start moving again.  Our agency quickly began to work with IHNFA to resolve the issues, and we were told that everything would work out.  So we sat on the side of the road with nothing to do, but pray and wait.  We heard bits and pieces of news, and our agency reassured us that eventually things would be worked out.  Some counseled us to leave our agency and hire a new agency.  Some told us that they didn't think Honduras would ever change their position.  At the same time another couple sitting along the side of the road with us reminded us that we serve a faithful God and we should patiently trust our agency through this trial.  So we sat and prayed and waited.  Yesterday, we received word that our agency has received the renewed certification from Honduras, so we are now back on the road again.  We have not started moving yet, but we have heard rumors that others on the road ahead of us have received their referrals.  That means that the traffic way up the road has begun to move, so Lord willing it will not be long before we see progress on our journey.  Thank you for your prayers!

Please Pray!

A little update.  Samuel, the founder of our agency has been in Honduras for this week with various meetings.  I just saw on another families blog that the assignment committee is supposed to meet on Friday and I know Samuel has a meeting on Friday. 

Through communication with a few other families that have dossiers in country we ask that you join us in prayer this Friday as this could be a very important meeting for some families.  We pray that the meetings would happen, that they would be productive and children would be matched to families.  It has been along wait for many families-some even longer than ours.

Please also pray for all these children's lives that this will affect since it will bea very difficult time for them.  As we all will rejoice at the matching of children to families and uniting they will be going through a time of mourning as they leave the only life that they have ever known.  As excited as I am about this to happen, my heart breaks to know the pain that they will go through until they understand what is happening. 

Daddy's Love note

Daddy's love note

What a special Daddy you have!

This is a just a note to remind our little one of how much she is already loved by us all.  Including the animals that wanted to make their mark.  (Knocking over the rose so that the card would get wet.)
The joys of having animals!

Little one, we anxiously wait to hear the news...
"You have been accepted and here is your little one."
Praying that day comes soon and that God is preparing your heart for the upheaval of your little life!
Knowing that God has given you to us and he has given us to you!

Joyful News

Ok, so did the title make anyone else's heart skip a beat?!?  I wanted you to be able to experience the joy I had this morning as a read a fellow bloggers page.  They are on the "list"!!!  Why you might ask is that joyful news?...things are moving.  Even though I would have loved to be able to say that the joyful news was that our dossier has been finally accepted and we have our referral, this is the next best thing.  We have been waiting to hear something new since Oct. 17 since our dossier was translated at IHNFA.   Things are finally moving!

We did hear as well last Friday that our agency is in the process of Certification.  Things look like they are getting cleared up with our agency as well.  PTL!!

I do ask for specific prayer for our founder of our agency as well as at least one other who are down in Honduras this week meeting with people there.  Our prayer is that while he is there things will be all cleared up and things can continue moving for us as well.

We go from having a heavy heart  2 weeks ago to  rejoicing and praising God!

Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Ps. 95:1

Breathing a Little Easier

Well, for a week that started out a bit rough it is ending a little easier.  We are breathing a bit easier as well -except for during the vigorous walks I took this week!  We received news that our agency being barred is a temporary thing.  With the change of leaders in IHNFA, Living Hope had to get new documentation saying that they are a legit agency.  We received word that that paperwork is now in Honduras and was personally handed over by our attorney.  As difficult as it was for a brief time, I look at it as God using this time to draw me (us) closer to Him. We hope that all of this will be able to be finalized so that when IHNFA is ready to start approving dossiers we will be in that pile and hopefully receiving our referral as well (that still may be quite a ways off though). 

I was encouraged on Wednesday night on GMC ( I had dvr'ed it from Tuesday night) the show "The song that changed my life". The song that they were featuring was from Steven Curtis Chapman's "When Love Takes You In" and the family was sharing that they had started their journey to adopt from China.  Four years later they received their referral of a 14 month old little girl.  The statement that really hit me was what the wife said, "She wasn't even born for most of the time we were waiting". I continue to trust that God led us to Honduras with such a passion that he has a goal for us to bring home our little girl and trust in His perfect timing.

I continue to thank God for the love He has given our family for you little one.  We continue to pray that God is bring people in to care for you and show you love as well as prepare you for the day we meet.