Blessings

I have two really fun blessings that have happened in this past week, and I wanted to share them with you!

Here is my swap box I sent!

First, yesterday I mailed off my first adoption swap box. Now you are probably thinking the same thing I was... what is a "swap box"? Well, I was on pinterest and that is where I first saw it. It took me to this link: http://www.adoptionmamablog.com/what-is-an-adoption-swap-box/  It is an adoptive mama of 2 kids and she has an awesome blog. She had decided to organize an adoption swap box for anyone that is waiting to adopt, or who has adopted. You sign-up, she matches you up with someone (can be anywhere around the US), and emails you their address and some information about them. From there you can email and contact them. So, the past few weeks the lady that I got matched up with and I have been emailing and getting to know each other. Then yesterday we mailed a box full of goodies and encouragement to each other. It's a great way to meet some other people who have/are adopting. It is also going to be fun getting a package in the mail from someone! :) A surprise gift of fun!

You should check out her blog if you want to find out more about it.



Second thing I want to share with you happened on Sunday. Sunday when we got home from church The Man handed me an envelope with our names typed on it. He didn't say a word, he just handed it to me. So I thought: this is either really good or really bad. I opened it and inside was a typed letter from an anonymous person. I want to share the letter with you and PRAY that this person, if they are reading, does not get offended at my openness. The letter said:

Paul and Andrea,
The mother of a good friend of mine passed away from cancer some time ago. From all the wonderful stories my friend has told me about her mom I know that she loved both family and especially children deeply. She would have delighted in knowing that your family is working to support the life of, and bring joy to, a child through adoption. So it is in her honor and through what God has blessed me with that I am able to enclose a donation to help towards reaching your goal of raising money to cover adoption costs.

May God Bless you on your journey,
A Fellow Believer in Christ


I couldn't believe it. The timing could not be more perfect and the encouragement could not have meant more. Thank you to whoever you may be for being the hands of Christ. Thank you for blessing our family with the donation and the encouragement.



Isn't God great?!?!


As we patiently wait for our dossier to get translated please continue to pray that all goes well and smoothly. The quicker things can get processed the sooner we can find out WHO our child is. :)

And.... We're on the Move again!

So to continue the story from this past week... We left off with not getting our documents authenticated because of some minor issues on Tuesday.

Wednesday I went BACK to the office with my friends and tried the process again. We were 100% successful getting them authenticated. BUT it wasn't without some tears and some frustration. There were some other minor things that had to be looked at and worked on before everything was a go. But, an hour later (and a HUGE thanks to my good friend who always knows how to step up and help when things get out of my control) we walked out of the office with the documents authenticated and ready to be sent.

That afternoon The Man sent our dossier in the mail. I hope they are almost at the lifeline offices and will be in our country rep's hands by early next week!


We're so excited!


Next steps:

The dossier will get translated and submitted to the country
We will get matched with an orphanage (where we will eventually get matched with our child)
It will probably take a few months for Haiti to process our dossier and approve us to adopt from their country.


So it is back to the waiting game. BUT, I feel a WHOLE lot better having our part done for now!

A step forward.... and a step back.....

Today was an exciting day! We had 2 tasks set before us as we left the house today:

1.) Get all our notarized documents authenticated so we can send in our dossier and get it sent to Haiti
2.) Get our Immigration fingerprints done


We got.... one of them done.... which isn't a great percentage...

The first stop was to get our dossier documents authenticated. Our dossier is a bunch of documents we had collect including: our bank saying we are in good standing, our employers saying we really work where we say we do, our sheriff saying we are in good standing in the community, letters to the Haitian government... It took awhile to get them all collected and notarized. Today all we had to do was walk in and get a gold stamp on all our documents saying they are legit. It was supposed to be easy, but of course... it was not! We had some things missing on some documents that needed to be there before we can get them authenticated. What was missing was so minor, so tiny, so annoyingly small that I think I about had a 3-year-old fit right there in the office. All it meant was we had to talk to a few people and have them change/add some minor things to our documents before we got them authenticated. It means making the drive there AGAIN... Just for something that I saw as super duper small... and silly.... BUT in the world of international adoptions.. you don't mess up a thing, because one little mistake can get your documents denied... and no one wants that. So,  I held back my frustration and tears and left the building sad. We were supposed to get it all done today, and they weren't going to.... BLAH! As we drove to the next stop  I started running through my head what we needed to do to get that all really done and back to them by tomorrow. So far, it's looking like I'm gonna get to return with everything ready tomorrow! Let's keep our prayers in that direction! :)

The second stop was actually to Legoland! We needed something fun to do with The Bash since he had yet another car trip this summer. We had a great time there building and playing.

The last stop was to get our fingerprints done (again). They were so friendly and helpful there it was actually not a bad trip. So for the 2nd time this process we got fingerprinted! We have accomplished that task! 





I know that 1 day is not going to really make or break this process. I know that this process is a LONG wait... but when things get delayed, even one day, my heart just sinks... Because I know one day can some times mean 4-5 days. I know that 4-5 days can mean months.... and months push us back years... and when you are ready for your child to come home NOW.... it is heartbreaking when even one day goes by.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers and keep thinking about us! We are HOPEFULLY going to have our dossier done and sent to Haiti within the month. I'll keep you posted.

You are all amazing for caring about our process. You are all amazing for praying for us and our child. We feel your love and support daily. Thanks again!

May the Lord bless your days!

It's a Small World

Yesterday I got to sit with a new friend who JUST brought their child home from Haiti! They are originally from Nebraska so you know they are good people! :) Her family literally lives 15 miles away from us! What a blessing for our family for multiple reasons: 1. I got to hear all about her first hand experience. It was nice to talk to her since she has JUST finished the adoption, and was JUST over in Haiti. 2. She will be able to answer questions and help me with many things throughout the process. 3. Our kids will be able to have a friend who comes from the same cultural background. What a great blessing for our children! and 4. It's just nice to have a new friend! 

So yesterday I got to meet my new friend's daughter from Haiti. The girl is the sweetest thing you ever did see and she and The Bash played together like old friends for hours! While they played we talked all about how we arrived at adoption, how we chose Haiti, the process of adoption, and her trips to Haiti. Our stories are so similar, yet SO different.  There are so many new experiences that my family and I are going through, and it's very nice to have someone who fully understands that near by.The Lord always provides for all our needs! Sometimes we need to have some encouragement and excitement put back into our lives. My new friend did that for me yesterday.

Right now in our process we are...

- waiting to get our date so we can go and get our electronic fingerprints done.

- finishing up with our dossier. These documents will be sent to Haiti and they will read those to determine if we can adopt from their country. (this will take 3-4 months once it is sent over to their country). Then once we are approved we will get matched with a child!

Our needs/ help: 
- Please keep praying for our child,  for Haiti, and for our family. We appreciate it, and feel your love in so many ways!
- If you want to donate you can
- Share this with others! As this process has been going, and as people read this it has encouraged some to maybe consider adoption themselves!

Three Angels

I wanted to share this facebook page with you! I have found one of the Haiti orphanages that we can adopt from on facebook (I'm 97.4% sure this is the right one... either way... it's cool.. :) )! I follow them and am amazed at the stories, the CUTE children, and their awesome program they have in Haiti. You can look through and follow them as well! I love looking through all the pictures of the kids and praying for each one! I hope that you will join me in that! To think one of those children may be the missing link to our family! How amazing!

Three Angels Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/ThreeAngelsHaiti

Three Angels Web Page: http://threeangelshaiti.org/ 


To update on our process:

We are finishing up with our immigration application (we have to get our fingerprints done again.. this time electronically... just to be sure they didn't miss anything).

We are also working on our dossier. This is our application to the Haitian government to see if we can adopt from their country. If/when they say yes they will then match us with a child!


Prayer requests:

We need prayers for the funds to come our way in whatever way possible

We need prayers for our child and the matching process

We need prayers for the process to go as quickly as possible! :)

Beloved

This past weekend I attended an event hosted by our adoption agency called "beloved." It was an awesome chance to go and eat chocolate, meet/ see others who are part of the lifeline community, and learn about other people's story. The awesome thing about Lifeline Children's Services is that they don't just do adoptions, but they actually serve children in multiple ways:

1.) They do international and domestic adoptions
2.) They do counseling for mothers who are in need
3.) They do a safe family program that helps mothers in need keep their children out of foster care by providing them with a safe family to watch their children as they get things in order.
4.) They have an (un)adopted program that assists those who are not adopted in learning life skills and helping them stay off the streets or turn to alternative life styles.

Isn't it all amazing! You can find out more about them at their site.http://lifelinechild.org/

 Each program keeps in mind God's love for His children!



As we adopt we feel the Fathers love on us! Even though you may not be adopting, every time you help those of us who are you are being God's hands and feet WITH us! We feel so blessed. Thanks again for all your love and support.

After leaving the event I felt refreshed. I felt like there WILL be an end to this process and we WILL get our child to be home with us one day! Hearing those stories and being a part of that event was amazing!

I know I haven't written lately, but we have had the wait game going on. We will SOOOOOOOON be on our way to our next step in the adoption as our home study gets its finishing touches this week!

PRAISE GOD!

Waiting...

How is the adoption going?

We're waiting. We're waiting for one thing.... So that we can get that sent somewhere..... So we can wait for them to send us something.... So that we can wait to get that done... .So that we can wait on the results.... So we can get started on our dossier (what we send to Haiti). So right now... we're waiting to wait! :) I dislike waiting in every way shape in form... Mainly because: 1. I'm not in control. 2. I like things done fast or faster! and 3. I feel time ticking away!

Last night my son (sitting on the toilet of course... some of the best conversations I have with The Bash are while he is seated on the toilet.... because he cannot run away!!)  asked me why we didn't have any babies in our house. At first I wasn't sure if he meant play dolls (ones like he sees every day when he is at daycare) or if he meant real ones, so I asked him what he meant. 

He said: "Ya know, mom, a baby that comes out of your belly.... Why don't you have a baby in your belly? Can you do that some time?" 

I said: "I would LOVE to have a baby in my belly, but for some reason it's not happening right now."

He said: "Why not?"
I said: "Just not my time right now. I actually don't know why I cannot!"

He said: "What about daddy? He can have a baby in his belly!"

I said: "No, boys don't get babies in their bellies."

He said: "Maybe when you get older you can have a baby in your belly. Like Aunt Alicia." (she is my older sister who had a baby recently)

I said: "Maybe! Right now though we are actually going to try and help a baby that is already born and give them a home. How does that sound?"

He said: "Where's a baby without a home?"

THE MAN said: "We are going to help a baby in Haiti"

He said: "Right now?!?"

I said: "I WISH! It will take a bit, but then they will come and live with us and be your brother or sister OK?"

He said: "Yes! I would like that..... I want a brother...."

I said: " I bet you do! But you may get a sister and that will be good too!"

He said: "OK.... but I really want a brother..."

I said: "I know babe, but you will be a good brother to a boy or a girl"

We smiled and hugged and had a moment there that I doubt I will soon forget. Then he told me that he was going to dream about me having babies come from my belly. I told him that would be an awesome dream, and to keep dreaming that because I do the same! :) I did ask him this morning what he dreamed about, and he told me that it was me having babies come out of my belly.... haha!

Maybe some day when I'm older..... maybe never.... either way we're going to add to our family and be able to give our son something we wanted to give to him for 3 years... a sibling! Praise God!

Keep praying for our family, our child that is going to be in our family, and for the process of adoption! We thank you for all your continued support and care! :)