Home Study Updated!!!!!!!!!!!

J came to the house today to update our home study, she is so sweet and we know her so well after our last adoption, I wasn't a bit nervous about the visit. We have an appointment with her next Thursday to read over it and make sure no changes are needed and then she will forward it to USCIS and we will begin the wait for INS approval. The only documents I still need for the home study is the doctors letters and we go back tomorrow to get the results, so I am thinking we should have those letters by the time we meet with her next week. After INS approval we will begin working on our dossier.
She was very excited when she got here because she said she had gotten a call from the facilitator saying they have a baby girl referral in the baby home. That is a baby boy & baby girl brought in within a month. I think that is wonderful news and hope that referrals continue to come in. Wouldn't it just be the absolute best present if we got a referral by Christmas? Anything's possible!
Praising the Lord things went well today!

OUCH!!

Daniel and I went today to the doctor for our physical and blood tests, Daniel kept telling me the whole time he wasn't going (he hates needles) but of course he did go.
We have to go back on Wednesday for them to check the site where they tested us for tuberculosis and then they will start working on the letters we need showing we don't have any diseases. I think it will probably be one day next week before we get to go back and pick up the letters. J comes tomorrow to do our home study visit and my house is no where near as clean as I want it but I am fine with that. J did all of our home study and post placement visits with Chloe so she already knows what the house looks like. Please pray tomorrow's visit goes well and that the doctor's don't take forever getting those letters back to us.
Since we have already been fingerprinted, once J sends USCIS our updated approved home study we will then wait on our INS approval (I171H).
Things are certainly moving. I am amazed at the peace that I have with all of this.
I was so anxious with every step when adopting Chloe and it hasn't been that way this time. I am sure it will be much harder when we actually get a referral and a picture of our baby boy. WOW!

Praising Our Lord & Savior Tonight.........

I just got an email from my friend K. I had mentioned her in an earlier post about her and her son M and that they needed your prayers in order for M to come home from Guatemala. PRAISE THE LORD FROM WHOM ALL BLESSINGS FLOW! They are out of PGN, when I read that email I just cried. Thank you so much for your prayers, M is coming home, M is coming home!

Oh Boy! What A Week!!!!!!

Lots of new paths being taken this week at our house. Kaitlyn started middle school this week and thankfully her 1st week was a good one. She even got her locker opened after about the 2nd day. Brent started college this week too. He really likes his classes and again I am thankful because all his classes start at 8 am and anyone that knows Brent knows he hates to get up in the morning. I haven't even had to wake him up, yeah! And then there is the princessa. Chloe's school doesn't start back until the day after Labor Day so she has been going to work with her daddy. I have been calling her daddy's executive assistant.

We also got an email from J on thursday saying she would like to come to our house on tuesday to update our homestudy. What! Our homestudy, boy that sure was quick.
She just got home from her honeymoon and I really wasn't expecting to get that call for a couple of months. So here I am thinking my house is never going to get clean by tuesday and I got to get working on more documents. The best part is she said we are 4th on the list for a boy. I am so excited! Daniel isn't too thrilled about the Dr.'s appointment we are going to Monday though. He hates needles so he says he's not having all those blood tests done, But he sure is, even if I have to tie him down. Things are started to move and I am grateful that the Lord has his hand on it.
I want him to lead, guide, and direct this entire process. I know that is the only way that it will happen. Please keep us in your prayers!!!!!!!

How can something so right.....Feel so wrong?

Why is the journey to bring these precious babies home so difficult? What good can possibly come out of these children still being in 3rd world countries amongst so much poverty when they have loving families here waiting on them? I have asked myself these questions over and over a thousand times over. I don't know. I only know that God is and always has been in control. He has a plan for our lives and it is not for us to know the answers, just to know that HE IS GOD. That one was really hard for me while waiting on Chloe, I thought what was best was for her to be home where we could love her, nurture her, raise her in a Christian home, teach her of God's love. But yet for 14 1/2 mos. God chose to keep her in Guatemala. I must admit that the overwhelming heartache was so consuming at times that I felt that I would drown.
I would even remind Him that He said He would give us the desire of our heart, but yet my baby was still in Guatemala. I wasn't remembering that He gives us the desires of our heart when what we want is His will. He wants our all. He wants us to be 100% dependant on Him and trust Him without any strings attached. He wants us to know and believe that "He will make a way when there seems to be no way."
Now I must ask all that is reading this blog to please pray for some of my friends.
Other sisters in Christ that need a miracle from our Heavenly Father.
D, whose children will celebrate their birthdays tomorrow still in Guatemala. She started their adoption process when they were 7 & 5 and tomorrow R will be 10 and J will be 8, yes you read it right, D has been trying to get her children home for over 3 years now and for now God has chosen to keep them there for just a bit longer.
I tear up everytime I think about this dear friend of mine. Even though her heart is breaking the closer tomorrow draws near, she chooses to continue to praise our Lord & Savior. She has chosen to "Be Still because she knows that He is God". I admire her and know that I am a better person today because of her friendship in my life.
W, is another friend that needs God to perform a miracle and bring her son home.
Accepting his referral at birth he is already over 2 years old. She too continues to trust our Lord to bring her son home. Often times weary and oh so tired of the constant battle, she feeds on God's word and His promises and she finds peace.
K, whose son M is still in Guatemala and he is already over 3 years old. He has some health problems that need attention to but needs to be here in the USA to get the treatment he needs. My prayer is peace for K, my prayer for her is that she feels the very presence of the Lord wrapping his arms around her and comforting her broken heart.
Lastly there is my friend E and her daughter A. I met her when we were both going through the adoption of our daughters and we laugh now because at times we actually worried that we were adopting the same baby girls. Our stories were so similar that we didn't think there could possibly be 2 different situations, but there were and praise the Lord we brought our daughters home within a couple of weeks of each other.
Soon after bringing this beautiful baby girl home they realized she was going to need surgery because of hip dysplasia (sp?) thus, beginning the never ending surgeries, body casts, and braces that A has had to endure in her short little life.
Please pray for both of them. That they too feel God's presence and that He comforts them in only a way that He can. Please pray that if it is His will that He heals her so that she can run and jump and get into all the mischief other 2 year olds do.
Thank you so much for lifting these up in prayer!!!!!!!!!!!

Faith

On my way to work this morning I heard the words to a song that touched me in such a way that I have been hearing it in my head all morning. The song went something like this "If I touch the hem of His garment I will be made whole, if I press through this madness love will fill my soul", all I can say is WOW! What Faith!
Isn't that how we should be? Our Guatemalan adoption was so extremely difficult. The road was so very long and there were so many times even I wondered if Chloe would ever come home. I never quite understood why God was allowing all these other babies to come home and not her. Every Sunday morning and Sunday night I would go to the altar and lay her at His feet and I would tell Him that I was giving her to Him, but was I really? If I had, would I have been getting on the computer every Monday morning checking emails and forums and all the other stuff I did to try and find out ways to get her home. No, I would not have. No, I was not completely trusting Him. I was trying to take matters into my own hands, and she wasn't coming home either. It wasn't until I was completely broken and I became totally and completely submissive to Him, did I see things happen with our case. He sent us an angel that paved the way for this precious child to come home to us. Even though I was so unworthy, because of His mercy and His grace He choose to bring her home.
His timing was not our timing, His timing was perfect. All those times I didn't undertand, He knew all along.......He knew all along.
I am trusting Him now, I know it is the only way. I am trusting Him completely that He is going to provide the means to bring our child home, I know that He has already handpicked our child. I have given our Vietnam process completely over to him, from the finances to the homecoming, I know He is going to provide. It's what He expects of us, isn't it? Just by touching the hem of His garment, I will be made whole!!!!
Praise The Lord!

Just Being Still.....

In Psalms 46:10 it says, "Be still, and know that I am God", I am so comforted by this piece of scripture. I am reminded of it every single time I wonder if our child could already be born, our if our birth mother is still carrying His creation. I am reminded every single time my selfish flesh wants to get anxious with the paper chase, I am reminded every single time I want to check my email to see if our agency has emailed. "Be still, and know that I am God", praise the Lord we can be still and know that He is God. A God that loves us so much, that we don't have to worry about anything. A God that is control of all areas of our life, a God that knows all things, A God that already knows who our child is and when we are to become a family. A God that expects us to be still.... because He is GOD.

Little Bit Of This & A Little Bit of That

I went back to work this week and missed Chloe terribly. She has missed me too. Daniel was putting her in her carseat last night when we were leaving for dinner, she said "wait a minute dad, I need to give my mommy a kiss". She gave me a kiss and said "I missed you so so much mommy." Oh why couldn't I be rich and stay home with the "nina"?
We went to dinner last night with Lara & Jimmy some friends of ours that are adopting from Vietnam, two babies. We tried out a Vietnamese restuarant and it was pretty good. Then we went to babies r us so she could purchase some stuff for Jay & Sara. We are hoping and praying that they get to travel by September.
I had mentioned in one of my previous post that I was going to have to come up with a more creative way to come up with money for adoption other than a yard sale. Well, we decided to sell some of Daniel's last year's textbooks. Praise the Lord, he has already sold $90.00 worth of textbooks and got an email today from someone that wants to purchase the rest of them, that will be $160.00. Putting that with the $96.00 we made on our yardsale, we will have raised $346.00, our home study is going to cost $800.00, so we have almost half of it. PRAISE THE LORD!!!!!!!
We also have a name for our son, if it is indeed a boy. Daniel & Brent hated the name I had picked out which was "Micah", so I told them they could name him. They did come up with a name that I love and so do the girls. I am not going to post the name until we actually get a referral. I will just say it is indeed a very different name that sounds great...........