Another Day, Another Project Completed

Yesterday I received the documents for our commitment to our child that will be sent to his/her country.  Once they approve our documents, we will be officially committed to our child and we will be able to reveal who we are trying to adopt!  I can't wait to be able to share this with you all!

Late yesterday and today I worked to complete these papers.  Then I went to town and met up with Daryl so we could get these documents notarized.  Now I am copying these documents to be emailed to our coordinator who will forward them to "the country" for pre-approval.

I also got the application for the Reece's Rainbow Grants notarized and send those copies off too - I'll be sending in the originals tomorrow.

My next job is to get the original documents apostilled and then send them to "the country."

Yesterday and today were a whirlwind!  It started out with a little conversation early in the morning where we were looking at all the money we don't have that will be needed to complete our adoption, and the fact that our vehicles are at the end of their lives (all our running vehicles have over 230,000 miles on them!).  Daryl made a comment that "someone is going to have to step forward and do something" in order for us to complete this adoption and for us to have reliable transportation.

We ended up looking at a possible replacement car (a station wagon) for my truck as it has 260,000 miles on it and is showing many signs of wear and tear.  The car we went to look at was not worth purchasing.   But someone stepped forward and offered to purchase a newer car for us - a gift!  We were astounded.  Really?  God is truly amazing.  The car they offered to purchase for us was really nice - sleek, black, low miles.  A nicer car than we have even owned.  But reality set in.  This car would only carry 5 people, and that meant that we would need 3 cars to take everyone to church. However much is would improve our appearance, that car would just not meet our needs.  So we asked if they were willing to pay to have the transmission repaired or replace in our 12 passenger van (we rebuilt the engine last year and it only has 133,000 miles on it!).  They agreed to our proposal!

So today, I got the van jump-started and got it to the transmission shop.  We will hear tomorrow whether or not the transmission needs to be just repaired, rebuilt or replaced.  We stand amazed.  So thankful for the generous hearts that have followed God's leading to provide this for us.  So thankful that God would so quickly show that He is more than able to meet our needs.

These are some more photos I took while we were waiting at the Sheriff's Office for our finger printing.  A funny thing happened yesterday.  That car we went to look at?  The lady I talked to was so sweet and shared that they were selling car to help one of their sons go on a missions trip!  I shared about our adoption and she told me that they had adopted a 2 1/2 year old boy from Russia nearly 20 years ago, getting him the medical care he needed and a home to be loved in.  When we got there, her husband came out to show us the car. I thought the man looked familiar, but just couldn't place him.  I enjoyed talking with him.  As we were leaving, he shook Daryl's hand and congratulated us on our pending adoption, and said that his name was Bill, Bill Elfo.  Man was I shocked!  Bill Elfo is our county's Sheriff, the man whose photo was on the wall in the office where we sat waiting for our fingerprinting!  That was why he looked so familiar!  We talked a little about that too!  What a friendly man, nice as you'd ever meet!  I almost wanted to buy the car from him, but it needed too much interior work, and that is not our specialty!

Tomorrow I will get the last document for the last shipment of papers for our home study. I will also be working on signing up for Daryl and I to take CPR classes.  We will be having our medical physicals on Friday, and then we start working to prepare the house for the home safety visit.  We need to put child locks on some cupboards, tidy up the garage, create a first aid kit, clean up the back yard and storage shed areas,  purchase and install carbon monoxide (3) and smoke (1) detectors and acquire a fire extinguisher (we found out that ours was empty recently!).  Not a lot of work, but I also want to re-arrange the little girls room with having our adoptive child sleeping in there.  We still have Esther's crib up in there but she's no longer sleeping in it, so we'll use that when he/she comes home.

And for your viewing pleasure - here's a photo of the six sisters we already have (notice that Rebekah's lap is empty?)