Christy is Home!

I have been waiting to start blogging about our trip to bring Christy home until she was home as I was trying to protect my family - it's not a good idea to let the world know that your children (even adult children) are home without their parents.

She is totally a Daddy's Girl!

She is such a beauty!!!

To sum it all up, our gotcha trip was amazing.  Everything went quite smoothly.  We had some excitement (like lightening hitting very close to the hotel, and small explosion from a fuse box in the restaurant and 20 rugby players in their underwear in the hotel lobby as we left) and a few minor difficulties, but God carried us through and over all I feel so very, very spoiled by my Father.  Christy has been a little miracle.  She has adjusted to everything very quickly and we are watching her adjust to being loved on by her family and relaxing and gaining more use of her right side even!

Christy sure has a great personality!  This is her "I don't like this" look.
She never liked the stroller - we'll be working on that!

Over the next couple of weeks, I am going to go back and blog about each day and what happened and the difficulties we overcame and the blessings we had showered upon us.  I have TONS of photos and videos to share with you.

For now, I've put a few of my favorite from our trip here to whet your appetite for more!

I will be posting the details of the trip both here and on my adoption blog, A Seventh Sister.

Just Because He Can.....

That is a phrase that has stuck with me from the movie "Facing The Giants."  The man was overwhelmed by God's goodness in his life after going through some really despairing times.  And He not only met this man's needs, but He threw in some things that go above and beyond this man's expectations....and the man says "Just Because He Can"...that God has done something not because it was needed, but the overflowing cup kind of blessing because He can!

Well today God did something "just because He can."  We were "fully funded" through some amazing events way back in April. An amazing matching grant from strangers (now friends and our sister and brother in Christ!), and outpouring of generosity from people locally and around the world to help us reach the goal for that matching grant.

But then there were legal changes, and a missed flight that pushed our expected budget so that we were looking at a shortfall of possibly as much as $3,000, especially if we had to get our flights quickly.  Well, we did not have to get our flights quickly and we were able to book flights out 7 weeks from purchase time so we got really good deals on the flights.  Plus I found I could book our hotel stay through Hotel.com and saved money there even thought we booked a bigger room - plus we will get 15% off all our meals there!  So were were just a little short on paying for the flights and the rooms, but someone had promised to be back up funds for our remaining expenses, so that got covered.

As our trip loomed near, Daryl has been squirreling away a little money every week from his overtime - this is usually his "project money" but usually ends up going to car repairs.  But just this week he decided that we'd use that to cover our expenses for the trip.  There was "probably" enough...it would be tight and would not cover anything unforeseen, but it was definitely a good start.

I knew we had some bills that were unmet, and not sure if we had enough money.  We didn't really want to even ask for the funds even though we knew we could get what we needed just for the asking.  So I asked God.  I wrote in my prayer journal earlier this week. "God please provide what we need to cover these expenses, and I realize I'm asking for something miraculous"....

Then today God moved on our behalf and we were given more than enough money to cover our expenses - enough to cover the prescriptions we had to get for Christy that will not be covered  by our insurance (they were written in my name and we don't have time to change it now), and the cost of our extra bag on the way there and so much more!  We had many expenses preparing for this trip, like a new suitcase, clothes/shoes/accessories for Christy plus some unexpected medical bills at home that have built up but we were going to deal with it when we got home - not now...now we don't have to.

God tells us in the Bible not to worry about anything, not what we will eat or what we will drink or what we will wear.  He is our provider.  He doesn't necessarily provide ahead of time or more than we need, but He does provide.  And sometimes He provides so generously.  He has erased all my fears and worries in one fell swoop - He Is Faithful.

When God Calls, God Equips.  His Calling Is His Equipping.  Period.  We just have to follow His call and step out in faith.  He takes care of the details and stretches us in the process drawing us closer to Him and teaching us so much about His love and care for us as our LOVING HEAVENLY FATHER.

And no, I'm telling where this came from.  I would not have expected this.  There is no other explanation other than God working in mysterious ways.  Just stand next to me, amazed at what God can do.  And yeah, I'm barefoot again, socked blasted clean away....again.

15 months ago today.....

Daryl gave me permission to look at more children who were up for adoption from Bulgaria on Reece's Rainbow.  I had already sent him links to several children, but so far none of them had stood out to us.

15 months ago today, early in the morning I saw that there were a couple of new little girls listed, and one of them had short dark hair was in an outfit that was blue and white - she really looked like a little boy!  Well, I just had to see what she'd look like in a more feminine color. So I used PhotoShop and changed the blue to lavender and added a little flower to her hair:

There, now she looked like a little girl! Then I sent the photo to Daryl, and told him that I had edited the photo...he replied that I could begin to look seriously into adopting Priscilla.  I was surprised, and he said I could ask him later what had convinced him that this was the little girl we should pursue.  I found out a few weeks later, when we were almost ready send in the paperwork and money to be committed to her and put her file on hold for us, that Daryl had decided she was the one because I had Photo-Shopped her!  God does use mysterious ways indeed!

Soon after we made inquiries into the possibilities of adopting "Priscilla" we were sent some updated photos and some videos, which only confirmed that we wanted to adopt this sweet little girl who so needed a home and proper love and care.

15 months is a long time to wait.  I'm sure that there has never been a human mother who has been pregnant for 15 months....and I thought 9 months was along time to wait to meet my newest child each time God has blessed us!

It is especially a long time to wait as we have held her in our arms, fed her meals, held her tight and made her laugh....it has been nearly 6 months since I last held her, last watched her eyes light up in surprise and delight.

When we started this process were saw that the average time of adopting from Bulgaria was around 12 - 14 months, but that it could be quicker.  Here we are 4 weeks overdue and over 2 weeks to go.  

You'd think that as the day draws near that we will fly away to have her in our arms forever, it would get easier, but it doesn't.  You'd think with my busy life the days would go by quickly, but they don't.  sure some days go be fast, but every morning and every evening I have this feeling of emptiness.  In some ways I think it is getting harder.  But God is giving me grace, and every time I start to feel bummed, something comes my way and makes the moments easier to bear.

This week I was able to forward our court decree so that we can add Christy to our medical insurance.  Today I made her very first medical appointment!  She will be going down to Seattle to be seen by the specialists at the UW Adoption Medical Clinic.  They work with the UW specialists and Seattle Children's Hospital to help international orphans get the testing the medical help they need as soon as they come home.

Today I remembered that I had purchased fabric to make her a raggedy blanket and a wrap for carrying her, so now I am looking forward to getting those done this week and next!  I also re-worked my packing list so make things more organized and easy to find!  Every day I do something to further prepare - like tonight - another meal is going in the freezer for the kids to use when we are away.  Step by step, resting on God's perfect timing!

Oh Christy, your mama is coming.  

When Christy Comes Home

Since I have not completed our adoption and have not really been super close to a family who has adopted (you know, close enough to see what the parents deal with daily as far as attachment issues goes), I really have no idea what we have in store for us when Christy comes home.

 We plan to work carefully to develop healthy attachment for her, which will start with our time in Bulgaria when it is just her and us.  Once we get home, we plan to take things slowly - only Daryl and I will feed her and take care of her basic needs.  I plan to hold her a lot and make good use of slings/carriers.

 I have read a couple of books and many articles/blog posts about attachment, but I know there is so much more to learn!  Children with Down Syndrome have a different psycho/emotional makeup, so attachment disorders can look different than those of a typically developing child, but again, every child is different.

When we visited Christy in October, she seemed to enjoy being with us, cuddling and playing.  For this to be real bonding would be ignorant...she just loved the attention and was happy to get it from any source.  We don't even expect her to remember us when we come to pick her up (but we did leave some books with our family members photos in them, so she might remember us, but we can not expect that).

From what I've seen in other families who have adopted children with Down Syndrome (and no, I do not know of any families in real life, but I interact with lots of families through Facebook and follow several blogs), these children struggle with appropriate affection - they are just as content to get hugs and kisses from complete strangers as they are getting them from their adoptive parents/siblings.  This can be a very long term problem.

So we are going to be working very hard in the first 6 months (and beyond) to create healthy bonding with Christy.  I plan to treat her as I would a newborn - and that is what I have read over and over again - no matter how old the adopted child, you need to start as though they are a newborn.  Think about how you cared for a newborn and do the same thing...you keep them near you/in your arms most of the time, you feed them yourself with close physical proximity (if not still in your arms), you snuggle with them and kiss them and show them love constantly.  And you limit other people's interaction with your baby.  You stay at home and concentrate on getting to know this new life.  I have even read that it is a good idea to go back to bottle feeding, wrapping/swaddling and such.  I plan to try this too (I've packed several types of bottles to try as she has swallowing issues and has problems with aspiration too).  Christy was never swaddled, never held while given a bottle, never rocked to sleep, never held during the long nights.  But she needs that, even though she is 3 1/2 years old!  Developmentally she is about 8 - 9 months, so in many ways she is still a baby, and that will make this easier (as in it would be weird/difficult to bottle feed/swaddle a 10 year old, but many families have found this to be helpful even with older children).

This means that we won't be allowing anyone outside out immediate family to hold her or show her physical affection until we see that she is learning to bond with us, and then it will be a purposeful expansion of her "close enough for affection" relationships.  From here I see it progressing from just Daryl and I, so adding our children, and then to others who regularly see her.  I know this makes if hard for close family who have prayed for us to bring her home and have loved her already.  But if you do not regularly see her, then it will be a long time before we will allow Christy to interact with you in a friendly/affectionate way.  We do not want to be mean or to offend anyone, but we need to do this for Christy's sake and for her safety, or she will go through life allowing anyone who shows her attention/affection to do just that, and reciprocating this behavior, and I'm sure you can see where that leads.

Also, just for your information, not all children who are adopted deal with attachment issues, but most do.  When you are talking exclusively about children with Down Syndrome and attachment disorders, the percentage of those children with attachment issues is far lower, but it does happen. Children with DS have a different makeup, especially in the phsycological and sociological realm.  This can lessen the impact of living without a family during their early years.

I hosted a poll on the Reece's Rainbow Facebook group (there's a lot of families there who have already adopted children with DS so it's a great place to get  this kind of information!

Here's what I polled about:

"If you have adopted a child with Down Syndrome have you had to deal with attachment disorder?"
The options were:

Not at all

• 
• 
• +4

We have dealt with indiscriminate affection

• +2

It has taken a long time, but we are making good progress

• 
• +1

My child has RAD for sure

• +1

I have lost hope of ever developing healthy attachment in my chid

Our child has not bonded well with us at all

What you can't see here is that there were 10 who picked the first choice!  For some reason I can't get those poll answers to show up!  I guess you'll just have to take my word on it!  So children with DS can have attachment issues, but the majority are either minor or non-existent!  Plus, children who have DS and were never abandoned and have remained with their birth parents can have issues with indiscriminate affection - these children are just so much more affectionate most of the time - I have had hugs from complete strangers who have DS and were never adopted.  Their parents apologize, but I don't mind at all.  I think these kids/adults just have a better perception when it comes to others need for reassurance and affection!  There was a lot of discussion with that poll, and there seemed to be some agreement that their children from orphanages had fewer attachment problems than those who came out of a foster system - I found this very interesting!

One amazing woman I have met through the adoption groups is Amanda U.  She has adopted 20 children - 12 from foster care here in the US, and now 8 from Bulgaria, making a total of 21 children.  She is doing an amazing job with these children and they are blossoming in her care!  She had this to say:

" I adopted 6 children with Down Syndrome. 5 were from Bulgaria and 1 from US foster care. They were varying ages. NONE of them have RAD. There is some orphanage stuff with some of the kids at first, but that is called "smart enough to survive". . . if they didn't learn to get the attention of adults then they wouldn't have survived. Every one of them showed preference to us as their parents very quickly. Every one of them have attached. Every one of them knew that we were their "safe" people very quickly. Children with Down Syndrome are often outgoing and extra friendly. . . I think people tend to blame that on "attachment" when their children are adopted. My children are firmly attached. Anita is our only one that can be somewhat manipulative, but I think that is her personality and how orphanage life affected her. I think when kids come home, then you "cocoon". You work to get past any learned orphanage behaviors and try to remember what caused the behaviors. Try to put yourself in their shoes and think how you would act if you had lived through the same things they have. . . . Most of the time you realize you wouldn't do nearly as well as they do. Our little ones with DS are VERY resilient and such amazing kids"

Pray for us, pray for her, that this bonding process will to quickly and that she will develop healthy. appropriate bonding.  Pray for her health.  Pray for my preparations for the trip so I will have packed all the right things/be able to find what we need in country.  Pray for my other children as this bonding process will be hard on them - they will all want to shower attention on her from the second they meet her!

For further reading on this subject, please check out the following, especially if you are part of my life and will be a part of Christy's life (or a part of the life of any adoptive family!).

Upside Down, Attachment  From an Adoptive Mother

We have our travel dates!

We will be going to bring Christy home in the first part of May.

We will be gone for over two weeks once you count in travel time.

Pray for us as we continue to prepare for our trip!  I am working on putting together some gifts for Christy's care providers, and I am considering getting some ladies together to make some rag quilts for the children in her group home - email me if you are interested in helping with the quilts (purchasing flannel/donating money for flannel or sewing a quilt and shipping it to me if you aren't local, or even cutting the squares if you are local!).

I have booked our flights and we are pleased with the layovers and such.  I was also able to book our rooms for our time in Sofia.  Our agency will have to book the hotel near Christy's group home as hotel.com did not have any rooms available at the hotels they work with there.  Something about a holiday that day.

So I won't be posting much of anything for a while since we are basically now waiting to go, but have over 7 weeks of waiting!

I am working on a blanket for Christy, and have made a hat and a sweater, so when I complete that I might post photos - they are turning out so cute!

Blessings to all!

She is officially a Seventh Sister now!

In a courtroom in Bulgaria at 10:55 am their time, Preslava was pronounced to be our child!

She is now legally Christiana Preslava Einfeld

She is an orphan no more!

For the first time in her life, Priscilla has a family, parents, sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles and cousins!!!  She doesn't know it yet, but her life will changes forever soon!

We started the process 13 months ago, officially committed to her on Jan 28.  We hope to be taking her our of her group home by the end of March, or the first part of April!  Pray for speedy processing in getting her birth certificate, as that is what is needed before we can get travel dates!

We will be going to bring her home in the next month or so - I'll keep you posted on the progress of course!

Here's the announcement and her new name!

Surprise Blessings!

Photos taken 12/14!

We had something amazing happen last week!  While I was reading a blog from a family who was on their "meet ya" trip this week in Christy's country, I recognized Christy's city!  This family was able to bring their son to stay with them for 3 days instead of visits twice a day like we had!  Then she commented that now they have to find things to do.  I contacted her, as I had seen that she had the same translator/driver that we did (Yavor), to see if it would be possible to check in to see if the thickener I was able to have brought to Christy was working and how the supply was lasting.

Not only were they able to do that, but Yavor was allowed to visit Christy and take photos!  He said she was quite tired (probably just laying down for a nap).  He also found out that the thickener is working well, and that the supply I sent should last a long time.  The nurse also requested that we send her some orthotic hose to help with her legs as she is super flexible and they think it would help to limit her movement.  It would take yet another miracle, actually a series of miracles, but we might just be able to pull it off and get her some "hip huggers."  I will work to get the hip huggers to our adoption agency attorney over there through a family who is going over there for their first trip in early January, and then she'll need to give it to Yavor and he would have to be going to her city with another family and have time to go to Christy's group home in order for us to get them to her, but it is possible...Please pray that we will be able to do this for her.

Her email was so fun to read, I'll quote it here:

"Dear Ruth!

We were able to go to Christy's group home today twice. The first time we went and Yavor went in and the nurse wasn't there until 12:00. This was in the morning. Yavor got to see Christy, and the care giver told him that Christy was doing really well, but she didn't know about the thickener, or anything about the supply of it needed. She said he should ask the nurse. Yavor said Christy was doing really well, though, and the caregiver told him that she'd had a medical appointment the week before and that went great!

So we went and had Jerry's visa picture taken and then we went to the mall and had lunch and then came back to the group home after noon. I said to Yavor, "see if you can get some photos of Christy and tell them her American Mama would be soooo happy!"...so Yavor took my camera and went in to check with the nurse. On his way in he said.."Now you realize that I probably won't be able to take any pictures, but I"ll try anyway!"...and then when he came out he brought me these on my camera!

Oh Ruth! She's so beautiful! I'm so thankful that we got to encourage you in this way! I said to Yavor..."Bravo!" "Bravo!"..he was beaming that he got to do that!

So..the report from the nurse:

Christy is doing great. She's off of her heart medicine now and only on her brain medicine. She's growing and actually outgrowing all of her clothes! She doesn't need any more thickener at this time. It's working well, but she has enough for a long time to come she said. Also, she mentioned wanting some stretchy ortho type socks or tights that would help to keep her legs straighter. Not sure what that meant, but she thought you might know, and if you could send those, that would be great. When you come for picking up, you'll need to bring her bigger clothes, the nurse said!

Okay..love to you!! Praying this blesses your day greatly!

 Mary!!!

Um, yeah!  That totally blessed my socks off!  And she's a woman after my own heart with all those exclamation points!  LOVE IT!!!!!!

As far as our adoption stuff goes, we were able to get our fingerprints done last Thursday, and I will be mailing them in through an FBI Channeler.  This way we should get our background checks back in about 2 weeks instead of 6 - 8 weeks!  Then I will have to send them to Caring Hands (a service that hand delivers documents to the US Secretary of State in Washington DC to get apostilled) and we will have them send the apostilled background checks directly to our adoption agency!

I am still hoping to hear any day now that our second stage dossier has been submitted.  These fingerprints/background checks will not be needed until we are assigned a judge/court date (and they might not be needed at all, as it depends on which judge we get), so this is not slowing anything down.

So here are the steps we still have left to go through:

-Article 5 translated/authenticated and  added to complete dossier submitted to Big Wig (approx 12/18)

-Complete dossier goes through 1 month of passing through lots of hands (finish approx 1/20)

-Gets signature from big wig (approx 1/27)

-is taken to the courts. (approx 1/31)

-assigned to a judge (approx 2/14)

-assigned a court date (approx 2/20)

-court date/adoption granted (approx 3/1)

-adoption gets signed court decree from the judge (approx 3/10)

-new birth certificate is applied for (approx 3/11)

-travel dates given once new birth certificate is done (approx 3/18)

Then we get to go bring her home (end of March?)

We also were blessed to have one of our photos of our visits with Christy put in a video that was just released today!  Please share this video, and consider participating in the 2013 



And please read about the Winslow family and there visits with their precious children last week.  This is the family who worked with Yavor in order to get updates on Christy! They still stand in need of funds to complete their adoption, so please consider donating to their grant!

Thank you Mary Winslow!

Thank You Yavor!!

Thank You God!!!

Another Big Step Closer!

Today I received the letter that says our I800 application to immigrate Christy was approved!  So the US is willing to allow her to join our family and come to live in the US.  Yay!

On a side note, this week the family of a little girl that we recognized while we were visiting Christy are leaving to bring their little girl home. I have arranged it so that they are bringing "Thick It" to allow Christy's care takers to thicken the water they give her making it easier for them to give her water, and easier for Christy to take the water without choking!  They are also taking some toys that I sent.  Most of the toys are for all the children there (they all LOVED the toys we brought for Christy to play with and left most of them there).  But one we purchased just for Christy.  She has severe reflux (common in children with Down Sydrome), so they keep her in her highchair for 30 minutes after eating.  She is usually left alone during this time with nothing to do.  So we are sending her a toy that attaches to the tray (with a suction cup) so she'll have a toy to play with while she sits in her chair!  Isn't God amazing to orchestrate that a fellow Washington State family is adopting a little girl who lives in the same group home as our daughter???

This is Christy's room, her own highchair and play crib for sleeping in.

We still have many more steps yet for our adoption to take, while we wait.

Right now I am waiting for the documents that we sent to get appostilled to come back.  Evidently, the Washington Secretary of State has different policies from most of the other SOS's in the US, so I have to re-do both documents...actually it becomes 4 documents.  We had "bundled" our medical updates (Daryl and Mine) together, and we had done the same with our local police background checks.  They were rejected.

I have gotten her police background checks (they now require that the notary be done in the police office).  We are waiting for the medical updates to come back so we can do a cover sheet for each medical update form, and then we'll send both right back to be apostilled.

So here's what happens with our paperwork.

Now that our I-800 has been approved, it is sent to the National Visa Center.  It takes up to 7 days process the approval and forward it to the US Embassy in Christy's county.  This will trigger the setting up of a visa interview.

Christy loved to "taste test" things...like your clothes, your face...your arm.
She's such a lovely, unique little girl!

At this meeting the US Embassy representative will review our home study, dossier and the child's information and will approve the adoption to continue (Lord willing!).  Sometimes they have questions about something and require additional paperwork.  If they approve everything, they will issue the Article 5 the following day.  We get notification of this via email!

Once the Article 5 is received, it is translated and authenticated, which takes a little over a week.  Then this is submitted to the right big wig along with all the second stage dossier documents that we have sent in.  This will mean that our dossier is officially complete.

At this point, it goes through a series of steps that  take about a month to complete.  Basic paper chasing, too boring to list here.  Once it goes through all the right hands and receives the required signatures, the dossier is taken to the courts.

Once the dossier is sent to the courts, it is assigned to a judge.  This take 14 days, officially.  Once assigned to a judge, the judge has 7 days to assign the court date.  Some judges require additional information from the adopting family before court, others do not.

On the day of court, the adoptive family is represented by an attorney.  We are notified via email the day of court about the outcome.  The adoption is granted unless the judge of prosecutor asks for additional information, in which case, court will be postponed....

Once the adoption is granted, there is a 7 day wait period before the adoption is finalized, and after that it takes 3 - 5 days to obtain the signed court decree from the judge.

Once the court decree is obtained, the new birth certificate is applied for, which takes up to 5 business days.

We will be given travel dates for our "gotcha trip" after the birth certificate is obtained.

Then we get to go bring her home.  The second trip requires at least 12 days in country, so we will be away from home about 2 weeks.  There is quite the process that happens once we get her in our arms again...but that is for another blog post!

Please pray with us that we will sail through this process with no more snags, and that the political climate in Christy's country will remain stable so that many more orphans can come home and be with their forever families!

Praise God! Awesome Announcement, Plus Something Special!

Our Dossier was approved at the adoption committee meeting yesterday in Priscilla's country!  This is called the "verbal referral".  This is a HUGE step in my book.  There are a couple of other HUGE steps in the process, but this is the really the first HUGE step!  I am so excited I am shaking!  I really didn't not think our dossier would even see the light of day at that meeting!

PRAISE GOD!  The sooner each step happens, the soon this precious little girl will be released from an orphanage and begin a real life of learning and growing!

I was even looking at luggage yesterday when I was shopping for something to wear to Jeremy's wedding.  Marshall's had some very nice, discounted luggage.  I will have to go take another look again soon!

So, what's next?  Our dossier will need to get a signature from the Minister of Justice.  I was told that this will take 2 - 3 weeks.  That is called the "Written Referral."  When we get our Written Referral we will also get the dates when we can travel to meet her!  It looks from her like our trip will be either late October or early November.

We have had a little secret that we were waiting for a special time to share with all of you, and now is that moment - we intend to change her name!  Priscilla is not her real name.  Her real name I can not share online, but is sounds a lot like Priscilla.  But in her videos, the ladies working with her call her "Prissy."  While that sounds like a cute name, in our culture, being "prissy" in our culture is not exactly a good connotation, is it?  So last spring and early summer Daryl and I were working on coming up with a name that we liked that would have a nick name that would sound like her nick name.  We have chosen to keep her real name (yet to be announced after she is officially ours), as her middle name. So this is to announce to the world, that we have chosen a name for our new daughter.....

We will be calling her "Christy" for a nickname as it sounds so similar to "Prissy."  We have already begun to refer to her as Christy in our home and will even begin to do this with other as we share new of her, so that when she comes home (oh that sounds good), we will be used to calling her that and not "Priscilla."

"Christiana" means follower of Christ.  Her real (future) middle name (the one that is her first name now) means "Glory" or "the glory of."  So her two names can mean the glory of a follower of Christ, or the glory of following Christ.  I LOVE this!  Have you ever thought about the fact that if you are a follower of Christ, that your have been ADOPTED into the family of God?  Have you ever thought about how adoption is a wonderful physical example of our adoption into God's family?  I have thought on this a little in the past, but not really and truly dwelt on it until more recent months.

Now, as an adoptive parent, I see so much more.  I see more of God in adoption.  "Christy" is like a future believer who has not felt the call of God in her life.  She has done NOTHING to earn our love.  We love her because she is ours.  God has given us this love, as He is the author of Love.  We have loved her before she could even imagine loving us.  Do you see it?

A future believer often has no idea that God even exists, let alone loves him/her.  Christy has no idea that we even exist.  She has no idea that we love her...she may even have no idea what love it.  She has no idea that we have been working for months to bring her home.  We have been loving her and praying for her.  We have been working with so many people and entities in order to set everything up for the blessed day when she will finally know that we exist. So many people are praying for her too.  That day is rapidly coming, but she has no idea!  It's like that first time that a future believer stumbles across the message of salvation.  He/she has no idea that so much work was done to make that happen in their life.  But God had it planed for years/decades/centuries...really from the foundation of the earth.  We have been planning and working on bringing Christy to the point of "finding" us, yet she still has no idea.  Do you see it?

I now realize that God has truly loved me with an everlasting love - one that stretches back forever, and stretches on into eternity.  (I know, that is where earthly adoption shows that is is only a glimpse into our adoption by God, but that makes it so much better, as adoption is such a wonderful thing, and yet we can know that our adoption by God into His family is so much more glorious!).

So, very soon, we will plan that moment when Christy will first find out that we even exist.  That moment when her eyes will see us standing before her.  She will really have no idea what it all means, and that we are going to be her parents.  But she will know that we exist.  We will spend a couple of hours with her each day, in the morning and then again in the afternoon.  For five short days.  Then we will be seemingly gone from her life.  But not completely.  We plan to purchase a little book that we can use to record our voices reading this book to her in English.  Her caretaker will be able to help her to listen/read this book everyday while we are working to bring her home.  We will also be leaving a little photo album of our family and our home for her to look at each day too.  So she will continue to become familiar with our faces and get used to the images of her future home.  We can hope that she will grow in her familiarity of us and our home and maybe, just maybe, begin to love us in return. Do you see it? 

 Do you see that God gave us that?  He has given us His Holy Spirit so we can hear the voice of God.  He has given us His Holy Word so that we can get a glimpse of our eternal home.  Both before the moment of our salvation and after, He gave us His book that is a recording of His love for us and who our family is.  Do you see it?

There will come a day that Christy will be ours, 100% ours.  She will become a part of our family.  She will learn so many things.  She will be fed and she will grow.  It might take years for her to truly understand all that is being done and all that will be done to make her a part of our family, but she will know.  She will know that she is loved.  Do you see it?

If you don't see what I am sharing with you, and you are not a part of God's family, then maybe this is the moment that God has been preparing for you.  He has been loving your since the foundation of the earth.  He has been loving you and preparing for the moment when you become aware that He has been working to bring you into His family.  He even sent His son, Jesus Christ, to earth over 2000 years ago to take your sins upon Himself and to pay the penalty for every one of them, so that you can become His child.  But you need to do something.  You need to believe that Christ is the Son of God, that he lived a perfect, sinless life.  You need to believe that He took your sins upon Himself as He hung on the cross.  That He died in your place.  He paid the penalty for your sin.  You need to believe that He conquered death by rising from the dead on the third day so that you might have eternal life with Him.  All you need to do is believe, confess your sinfulness and ask God to save you.  He's been working and waiting.  He knew you would be in His family.  He chose you.  So ask Him today - ask Him to come into your life, to save you from your sins and to become Lord of your life.  No longer to live in your old ways, but to become a part of the family of God.  To live a new life.  To grow in your love for Him and to learn to live a life that pleases him.  A life that reflects the love of God to the world.  A life that brings glory to God.  

Do you see it now?

If you need to know more about how to become a child of God. please visit This Website or contact a pastor or believer that you know to find help to be adopted into God's family.

Our Dossier has been Submitted!

We received news early this morning that today in Priscilla's country (it's night time there now) our dossier was registered with the Minister of Justice's (MOJ) office!  This was the news we have been hoping to hear for a while now.

What's next?  Our dossier needs to be approved by the adoption committee.  They were supposed to have their first meeting after the month long holiday, but it was cancelled.  I have no idea when the next meeting will be and whether or not our dossier will even come to the top of the stack at that meeting.

Once the committee has approved our dossier, we will get "verbal referral" (and we start packing!) and then it is sent on to the MOJ and once she/he signs it we get our "written referral" and the allowed dates for travelling to meet her.  The travel dates are usually a 3 week time period that start about 1 - 2 weeks from the time of getting the notice.

When we travel we will be in her country Monday - Friday.  So we will leave the weekend before and return home the next weekend.

Please pray that the timing of this trip will work nicely with preparing for and experiencing the marriage of our son - a first for us!

There's so much to do - prepare for the wedding (purchase clothes for family and make and purchse gifts etc), get appropriate suitcases, make packing lists, attend a bridal shower and all the while continue to run our home, run my home business and homeschool our children!  But by God's grace, I will accomplish all that He has for me to do each day!

It's official - Nothing Left to do but WAIT!

We recieved our I800a approval a week ago, we got it notarized that same day and mailed out to be apostilled.  I arrived back in today's mail and it was back in the mail today on it's way to our adoption agent, who will forward it to join the rest of our dossier in Priscilla' country!

Right now, all the government in her country is on a month long holiday, so nothing is happening there as far as adoptions go.  But it looks like our dossier will be all ready (translated and verified) to be submitted the day they open up again!

Praying for God's perfect timing for our trip, as we are also going to be having our son get married on October 12, and it's looking more and more like our trip to meet Priscilla might be in very close proximity to that glorious event!

But I know that God has this thing all dialed for our best and His glory!

So there won't be much news until September, so enjoy these last weeks of summer (while we start school next week!).

Thank you so much for your prayers and support!