Another Step Closer!!!

If you are here, more than likely you received our very late Christmas card in the mail or you saw my FB post...as not many people know this blog exists. I have to admit that I am not very good about blogging, but I am committed to at least share where we are in our adoption process so that those who are praying for us and/or have decided to donate in helping us bring our little girl home, can follow our journey.  Thank you so much for taking the time to look us up.  We are so excited about bringing home another little girl and hope that you will share in that excitement.

So here's our new news...Monday was MLK Day....no school, banks closed, no mail.  I was sad there would be no mail because we were waiting for our cable letter.  We need this to complete the next step towards bringing our little girl home.  Checked our email and...........we got an email from the NVC with a pdf of our cable letter....We could move to the next step!  So as is common routine with adoption...we hurried up and sent the letter to our agency so we could wait some more.  AHHHHH!   

Our next step is the Article 5 process, which allows our daughter to get a visa.  This step should take exactly 2 weeks from the time our documents are dropped off.  Drop-offs usually occur on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays.  I'm really hoping and praying our documents were dropped off yesterday, but our agency only gets notifications on Fridays,  and our social worker is out of the office for the rest of the week...so we will wait a few more days to find out.  

On August 24th our little girl celebrated her 6th birthday.  We were able to arrange to have a birthday cake sent to her and were blessed with some great pictures.  Thought I'd share some with you!

Isn't she the sweetest?!?!  This has been the longest wait and we are so ready to get her home.

We could really use your prayers on this last leg of our wait.  Would you please pray...

1. that we would get to travel at the beginning of March, as this would work the best for the care of our children at home while we are away.

2.  that our finances would all fall into place as we get closer to our last big payment.

3.  for our little girl's heart as she is faced with so many changes in her little life when we enter it. 

 

4. for our young one's at home...that they will be able to share mom and dad and know that this little one is not replacing them (a real fear for one of ours).

Finally, if you would like to help in bringing our little girl home, I have placed a "donate" button on the right side of our blog that links directly to our matching grant from Lifesong for Orphans. 

And last, but not least...today is our oldest daughter's 20th birthday!  How did that happen??   We love this girl to pieces and are so blessed by her!  We love you, Belle! You are beautiful on the inside AND the outside!

Getting Closer!

It's getting more and more real...we are getting closer to bringing our little girl home!  Today was our travel call with our agency.  It was scheduled for 1pm to 4pm.  I thought that surely it would not be that long.  What could they possibly talk about for three hours?!?!  BUT...it was and we received so much valuable information.   Not only did they walk us through the steps of what our trip would look like, but also what it might look like when we return home and the things we need to do when coming home.  I love being prepared and I feel more than prepared.  But I also know, from experience, that adoption can bring along all kinds of things that no one can ever prepare you for.

We received our I800 last Saturday and are now waiting for our cable letter....hoping it will come next week.  We are on the final stretch!  We also got word this week of our matching grant through Lifesong for Orphans.  Our church has partnered with Lifesong to provide an Adoption Matching Grant of $2000 to help bring our little girl home!

Christmas was so fun this year...having the big girls home from school for a month and our oldest home for a few days before he had to head back to prepare for his Bowl game....and then a trip to Miami for the Orange Bowl!   T-mac was playing in the Orange Bowl, and we were not going to miss it!  It took us 23 hours to drive down but was so worth it!  What an incredible experience to end the year on and they won!  So the year ended with fireworks...literally!  And the weather was incredible!  The little girls keep asking when we will get to go back...swimming in the ocean and a pool in the middle of winter will do that to you!

Fun times over the last month...