It has been a while since I have blogged. There has not been that much to tell. It seemed like our number on the wait list for a referral was barely creeping along. Our dossier has been in Ethiopia since May of 2012. I was actually starting to get a little discouraged. We have friends that had brought home their boys from Ghana and we were still waiting for a referral. All I have to say is God's timing is perfect.
God continues to pour out his blessings on our family. Back in April of this year I had been praying about a job situation. I felt like my place was at home with my girls and with our son that would be joining our family soon. After much prayer God opened a door and provided me with a job that allows me to be at home!
For months now we have been waiting for the 1st of the month, every month, for our news letter from West Sands Adoption Agency to let us know what number we are in line for a referral. On July 1st we received word that we were #19 on that list! We were ecstatic! We jumped 7 places in a month! On July 16th I got a call from our agency telling us that they had a referral for us of a child that would fit our family!!! She emailed me the referral with his picture and all of the other information about our son. Dwane was not home, so Mallory called him and told him to come home so we could open this email as a family. Waiting for Dwane to get home seemed like forever. Knowing that our son's picture was awaiting us in my inbox was almost too much! We opened the email to see the most beautiful brown-skinned baby I have ever laid my eyes on! He is around a year old and perfectly healthy. His name is Biya!
We accepted the referral and are now waiting for a preliminary hearing date. Our prayer is that we will be able to travel on our first trip by October. We would love to have him by Christmas! What a gift that would be!
I would like to share with you how perfect God's timing is. Mallory, our first born, pointed out that Biya was born around the time our dossier ended up in the hands of Ethiopian officials. He had Biya picked out for us from the beginning! How awesome is our God! Another example of God's timing is the financial provision He has provided so far. Our next payment for accepting our referral is a pretty hefty amount. We did not have all the money we needed for this payment. A dear friend had some money she had been praying about what God would have her do with it. She told me on the day we accepted the referral that she felt that God wanted her to give it to us! It has been amazing how God has provided so far! We are still trying to come up with fundraisers to raise the rest of the money needed for this adoption and I have no worries! My God is faithful and will provide all we need!
Please be in prayer for Biya's safety and that the courts will move quickly allowing him to be home with his forever family.
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. Psalm 107:1
Friday, July 19, 2013
Saturday, October 27, 2012
The Grand Total Is......
To keep everyone updated, our week on Give1Save1 ended as of yesterday. We ended up making $285.00 for our adoption fund! I am so thankful to Beth Cupit of Give1Save1-Africa for giving us the opportunity to be the feature family. Thank you to all my Facebook friends and family who shared our fundraiser on their pages MULTIPLE TIMES! I was amazed and overwhelmed at how many people that we do not even know that donated $1 to help us bring our baby home. We had people reading our blog as far away as the Philippines! Even though we did not make a whole ton of money, this opportunity got our story out there and let us share with the world what we KNOW GOD has put in our hearts to do. We cannot wait to see what God has in store for our family through this entire process. I do know that God has thus far been teaching me that I am not in control, He is! He knows how this whole thing is going to work out. God says in His word in Philippians 4:6-7 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. So He is well aware that there are going to be things that come up in our lives that we will want to worry about and he saying to us "Hey I got this!" All we have to do is trust him!!! Thank you again for your support!
Saturday, October 20, 2012
Give1Save1 Feature Family!!!
We are so excited to be the next feature family on the blog http://give1save1africa.blogspot.com/ starting October 22nd! What actually happens is an adoptive family fills out an application telling a little about your adoption story and a video (thanks to Hannah and Justin) to show on the blog. If you are chosen, at the start of the week the video will be on that blog for all to see along with a little about us, a link to our blog and an opportunity for people to donate to help bring our baby home! I am so thankful to get this opportunity! If you are one of my Facebook friends you will see lots of posts from me directing you to that page. The idea is to get as many people to view that page as possible and to donate. It gives everyone the opportunity to help if they feel led to do so. I will keep you up to date on the running total of what we raise. Please be in prayer for our family and what God is going to do through this process. When you see me post on Facebook please share the link on your wall so as many people as possible can see it. Thank you for your prayers and your support! We are so excited to bring our baby home. I should have an update of where we are on the list by November 1st and will pass the information along as well. Remember the first day of this wonderful opportunity will be Monday, October 22nd.
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Lights, Camera, Action!
Once again it has been a while since I have updated and I am sorry. Lots of different things have went on since I posted last. Back in August we had a movie night fundraiser with some dear friends (The McCosh's) who are adopting for Ghana. We had a great turnout of friends a family. We ended up making about $250 each. We are so grateful!
When we first started our adoption process a sweet young lady, who went to church with us up until she got married and went off to college, told me that she would love to help us in someway raise money to bring our sweet baby home. I contacted her back in August and we tossed around a few ideas and she and her husband wanted to do a photo shoot and interview our family about the adoption process! I was so excited about this because we wanted to apply to be a feature family for Give1Save1. So we traveled to Dayton Tennessee to meet up with the Kelley's for our debut on the big screen! For those of you who know me personally know that I cannot shut-up! I talk all the time. Well not so when someone is taping me. I was at a loss for words (I know that is HARD for you guys to believe but it is true!). Arleigh was a ham as usual. You will see this in the video. Hannah and Justin were so patient with us! I am so grateful they offered to do this for us. Here are a few of the pictures that they took for us.
We had so much fun playing on the playground with the girls.
Arleigh's favorite part was going to SnoBiz for snow cones!
I am not able to put the video on here yet because I got word on 10/05/12 we were picked for Give1Save1 and our video will be linked to their page! I am so excited! What this is, is a week long fundraiser where they will feature us on their blog and let everybody know our story, show our video and give people an opportunity to donate to us during that week! What a wonderful opportunity to be picked for this! Our week is going to be the week starting October 22nd! We are excited to see what God is going to do with this! Please continue to pray for us. We are #54 on the list! Hopefully it will not be much longer before we get to bring our baby home!
When we first started our adoption process a sweet young lady, who went to church with us up until she got married and went off to college, told me that she would love to help us in someway raise money to bring our sweet baby home. I contacted her back in August and we tossed around a few ideas and she and her husband wanted to do a photo shoot and interview our family about the adoption process! I was so excited about this because we wanted to apply to be a feature family for Give1Save1. So we traveled to Dayton Tennessee to meet up with the Kelley's for our debut on the big screen! For those of you who know me personally know that I cannot shut-up! I talk all the time. Well not so when someone is taping me. I was at a loss for words (I know that is HARD for you guys to believe but it is true!). Arleigh was a ham as usual. You will see this in the video. Hannah and Justin were so patient with us! I am so grateful they offered to do this for us. Here are a few of the pictures that they took for us.
I am not able to put the video on here yet because I got word on 10/05/12 we were picked for Give1Save1 and our video will be linked to their page! I am so excited! What this is, is a week long fundraiser where they will feature us on their blog and let everybody know our story, show our video and give people an opportunity to donate to us during that week! What a wonderful opportunity to be picked for this! Our week is going to be the week starting October 22nd! We are excited to see what God is going to do with this! Please continue to pray for us. We are #54 on the list! Hopefully it will not be much longer before we get to bring our baby home!
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Lots of catching up to do!
So many things have happened since I blogged last. Where to start?
I guess the first thing to share is the success of yard sale we had with the McCosh family (who are also adopting). There were so many donations from our church family and community that it was a little overwhelming. There were several of our friends that came out to help us set up early that Saturday morning. Our friend Larry had the prime spot for a yard sale. We had tons of shoppers. We ended up making $1,100.00 on the yard sale. God is good!
On June 1st we received from Children of All Nations that our paperwork was been sent to Wes Sands Adoption Agency (the one our agency partners with for Ethiopia). From there our dossier will be sent to the Secretary of State, Department of State & Ethiopian Embassies prior to being sent to Ethiopia! Which means we are way closer to bringing our baby home! Thank you Jesus!
On June 6th Dwane and I traveled to USCIS in Nashville to have our biometrics done, which is adoptionese for fingerprinting. The lady that did my fingerprints was awesome. She shared with me that people from her church were adopting children from several different places throughout the world. Shortly thereafter we received our approval from the USCIS that we were acceptable parents for a child from Ethiopia! We are so stinking excited. This has been such a journey so far.
God has blessed us so much during this process. He has called us as Christians to take care of the widows and orphans (James 1:27). That does not mean that adoption is for everyone, but I do urge you to pray about what God would have you to do. There are wonderful organizations where you can sponsor children for as little as $35.00 a month. Foster parenting is another way to demonstrate the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a child in need.
I have recently started selling jewelry on the side to help offset the cost of adoption. If you would like to do a party to help out that would be wonderful. My web address is www.initialoutfiters.net/11507.
So what is next? Well we are waiting on our referral to be sent with a picture of the child God has chosen for our family. To be able to accept this referral we have to send our agency $8,000.00. Right now we have $2,000.00 in the adoption account. Please pray for God's provision in this. We know HE is in control and we will give HIM the glory in every step of this journey! I promise to start blogging more! Time has just got away from me.
Things to pray for:
The child God has picked out for us (his health and safety)
The parents or relatives that have chosen to give this child a chance.
For the wait time to go by fast
That God will prepare our hearts to care for this child because we are aware there will be many bumps along the road but we know it will all be worth it!
I guess the first thing to share is the success of yard sale we had with the McCosh family (who are also adopting). There were so many donations from our church family and community that it was a little overwhelming. There were several of our friends that came out to help us set up early that Saturday morning. Our friend Larry had the prime spot for a yard sale. We had tons of shoppers. We ended up making $1,100.00 on the yard sale. God is good!
On June 1st we received from Children of All Nations that our paperwork was been sent to Wes Sands Adoption Agency (the one our agency partners with for Ethiopia). From there our dossier will be sent to the Secretary of State, Department of State & Ethiopian Embassies prior to being sent to Ethiopia! Which means we are way closer to bringing our baby home! Thank you Jesus!
On June 6th Dwane and I traveled to USCIS in Nashville to have our biometrics done, which is adoptionese for fingerprinting. The lady that did my fingerprints was awesome. She shared with me that people from her church were adopting children from several different places throughout the world. Shortly thereafter we received our approval from the USCIS that we were acceptable parents for a child from Ethiopia! We are so stinking excited. This has been such a journey so far.
God has blessed us so much during this process. He has called us as Christians to take care of the widows and orphans (James 1:27). That does not mean that adoption is for everyone, but I do urge you to pray about what God would have you to do. There are wonderful organizations where you can sponsor children for as little as $35.00 a month. Foster parenting is another way to demonstrate the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a child in need.
I have recently started selling jewelry on the side to help offset the cost of adoption. If you would like to do a party to help out that would be wonderful. My web address is www.initialoutfiters.net/11507.
So what is next? Well we are waiting on our referral to be sent with a picture of the child God has chosen for our family. To be able to accept this referral we have to send our agency $8,000.00. Right now we have $2,000.00 in the adoption account. Please pray for God's provision in this. We know HE is in control and we will give HIM the glory in every step of this journey! I promise to start blogging more! Time has just got away from me.
Things to pray for:
The child God has picked out for us (his health and safety)
The parents or relatives that have chosen to give this child a chance.
For the wait time to go by fast
That God will prepare our hearts to care for this child because we are aware there will be many bumps along the road but we know it will all be worth it!
Friday, March 9, 2012
Baby Steps
Well we are moving right along. We had our home study meeting in our home this past Monday. I cannot begin to express to you how stressed I was about this. I wanted everything to be absolutely perfect, and if you have kids in the home you know all to well that it never is. I picked up and cleaned for days! Mallory, my oldest daughter, really enjoyed poking fun at me over this. For instance, I was in the kitchen just straightening up the refrigerator and Mallory said, "Well the Ranch dressing bottle is not in the right place, I bet they are going to tell us we cannot adopt a child." She thinks she is sooo funny.
We had to keep our girls out of school for our home study agent to meet them. I asked for prayer about this at church on Sunday and if any of you know my youngest, Arleigh, you know why. LOL! She is so funny and very outgoing, but she has no filter. If she thinks it, she says it no matter what it is. For instance, Dwane took the girls to the dentist the other day and Arleigh was talking to the employees there about her new horse. She told them that we finally have something that passes gas more than her dad! Which is very hilarious if she is not your daughter :) (If you know us personally please do not tell Arleigh I told this on her. She is at the age that she is not very happy when we tell stories on her, but they are all too funny not to share).
Needless to say, the home study went great! We gave her a tour of our home and talked a while and Arleigh did not share any embarrassing stories! I would say this was success!
We are still wading through all the dossier paperwork and waiting for our home study to be finalized. Please pray for us in this process. We are now starting to see the end of the tunnel of all this paperwork!
The scripture I cling to when anxiety sets in is:
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard you hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6-7
We had to keep our girls out of school for our home study agent to meet them. I asked for prayer about this at church on Sunday and if any of you know my youngest, Arleigh, you know why. LOL! She is so funny and very outgoing, but she has no filter. If she thinks it, she says it no matter what it is. For instance, Dwane took the girls to the dentist the other day and Arleigh was talking to the employees there about her new horse. She told them that we finally have something that passes gas more than her dad! Which is very hilarious if she is not your daughter :) (If you know us personally please do not tell Arleigh I told this on her. She is at the age that she is not very happy when we tell stories on her, but they are all too funny not to share).
Needless to say, the home study went great! We gave her a tour of our home and talked a while and Arleigh did not share any embarrassing stories! I would say this was success!
We are still wading through all the dossier paperwork and waiting for our home study to be finalized. Please pray for us in this process. We are now starting to see the end of the tunnel of all this paperwork!
The scripture I cling to when anxiety sets in is:
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard you hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6-7
Friday, February 10, 2012
Moving Forward
You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:13
This has definitely been a time of seeking for our family. We desperately want to make the right decisions in regards to this adoption. As I stated in my last post we had talked to our agency about switching to Ethiopia. Claire, our representative, got back with us last week and our change has been approved! Thank you Jesus! They are in the process of reworking our contract because some fees have changed, but I know God will provide exactly what we need. He has so far so why would he stop now?
Other exciting news is we got our passports in the mail a couple of days ago. We look like the saddest people on the planet in our pictures. When we went to get the pictures made for the passports I even made the little girl at Walgreen's redo mine and that did not even help LOL! We look more like we are getting mugshots done instead of getting ready to leave the country to adopt a beautiful child from Africa. I am not really sure why they do not want you to show teeth or smile in these pictures. At least they are done and that means we are one step closer to getting our little one!
This has definitely been a time of seeking for our family. We desperately want to make the right decisions in regards to this adoption. As I stated in my last post we had talked to our agency about switching to Ethiopia. Claire, our representative, got back with us last week and our change has been approved! Thank you Jesus! They are in the process of reworking our contract because some fees have changed, but I know God will provide exactly what we need. He has so far so why would he stop now?
Other exciting news is we got our passports in the mail a couple of days ago. We look like the saddest people on the planet in our pictures. When we went to get the pictures made for the passports I even made the little girl at Walgreen's redo mine and that did not even help LOL! We look more like we are getting mugshots done instead of getting ready to leave the country to adopt a beautiful child from Africa. I am not really sure why they do not want you to show teeth or smile in these pictures. At least they are done and that means we are one step closer to getting our little one!
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