Small Update

Romans 8:28 "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those that love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

Today we received word from our family coordinator that not only were the psychology evals recevied, but apparently they were the ideal addendums that the IHNFA wants to see! So that is great news! We are still "under review" so PLEASE keep praying! We are really praying and believing to still have our official log-in number and be on the waiting list by the end of the year! Sounds like an awesome Christmas present to me!

We are taking our Christmas family photos soon and while it is hard to think of my precious boy not being in them for at least another year, I have found a way to incorporate the adoption in our pictures! I'm very excited about it. :)

Waiting for Positive Words

It's been almost two months since I've updated our adoption blog. Honestly, I was waiting...hoping...to have more to say. We received word a few weeks ago that we needed some addendums to our psychology reports. The first draft was turned down by the attorney in Honduras that is working with/for our agency. I received the approved addendums this week and mailed them to be apostilled. Hoping to receive them next week and send to our agency to be sent to Honduras.

There is some sort of strike going on in Honduras right now. I've read different articles that speculate who is on strike and what they are on strike for but its bits and pieces and confusing to me. I've also been told that there are several holidays between now and the end of the year.

It's all been very sad and discouraging to me. It almost seems silly to say but last year at Christmas time I had a tiny glimmer of hope that our son would be with us for Christmas of 2012. I knew that it was a long shot and at the time we were told it would be closer to Spring/Summer of 2013. Now, my only prayer is that we will get on the waiting list by the end of the year. I feel as though we were given false hopes as to how quickly this could happen. I'm not the most patient person and I've been dreaming of our son for so many years, so the thought of waiting another 2-3 years is hard.

There have been people talking about leaving the Honduras program and adopting from somewhere else and that scares me. I just keep relying on the Promise that God gave me. IT IS DONE. These prophetic words bring me comfort when nothing else can. I'm so thankful for the people who have posted scriptures, prayers, and encouraging words in the message boards because I needed to hear them! I'm not giving up. I'm not changing courses. It's hard to have people ask me how the adoption is coming and reply that nothing is happening right now, but I'm so thankful they aren't forgetting! A friend posted some encouraging words that she received from a book called Relentless Hope. It was so touching I had to order the book right away. I need more of those encouraging words right now.

I can see my son when I close my eyes, I can picture him with our family, I'm praying about names for him, dreaming of decorating his room, praying over him daily...I KNOW he is out there. I believe we were called to adopt from Honduras, but even if God calls us to somewhere else down the road, I know that he will bring my son HOME!

Until then, Lord give me Relentless Hope and show me how to find the treasures in the process and not just the end result. Please show me how to find something precious in what seems like a waste of time. Help me to remember that even when it looks like things are standing still, you are moving!

Any news is good news!

This morning I was praying for some news. Anything positive. Praying that we would continue to move forward in our process. Guess what...I got some news! Our family coordinator said that our attorney in Honduras said they are requesting additional photos from us. Honestly, I held my breath when I saw the email come through on my phone. The title indication additional things were needed for our dossier so I was preparing myself for something really hard, expensive, complicated. So when I saw that not only did we need photos, but that they could be EMAILED to them I was relieved!! So as soon as I got home I started working on it. I've already emailed everything to our family coordinator. We have no clue if they will ask for anything else or want something else changed, but I'm so thankful to have heard anything at all. It's heartbreaking hearing of other families that have waited 4 or 5 months to even find out if they were approved. Praying this means we will know SOON!!

Thank you for your prayers! We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our precious son. There have been changes again in Honduras and we are hearing/reading conflicting reports, but overall it seems to be pretty positive! It's hard when you start the process thinking that in 18 months you could have your child already home and in your arms...only to be 10 months into it and still waiting to even get on the long waiting list. It is in God's timing. He called us to this! But our journey does not come without it's hurdles and we appreciate all the love, support, and prayers. I'm trying not to focus on the fact that it could be a few years before he is home. I'm just taking each day at a time and thanking God for any news and progress we receive!!

Psalm 34:8 Oh taste and see that the Lord is GOOD: Blessed is the man that trusts in him!

Today I woke up feeling like I needed to hear something about our adoption. As I mentioned in the last post, the process for having our Dossier translated would take several weeks and then it could be a couple weeks more before going before the IHNFA. I sent our Family Coordinator an email to see if she could tell us if it had started to be translated or what was going on. Fully prepared to hear that it wasn't finished or maybe even still in line to be translated.

Johnna wrote me back this afternoon.

She said that she had to admit that she was surprised and impressed. She checked in with the agency's/our attorney in Honduras and she confirmed that not only had our dossier been translated, but it's already been presented before the IHNFA!! Isn't God good?!

Now we wait for requests for additions/changes or for approval/login#!! Praying for a first time approval.

We're so happy! A long road ahead, but we just got a few steps closer to our destination... our precious son!!

DTH

I was planning to update earlier this week but was waiting for some official news.

I believe that I mentioned after we sent out dossier to our agency, we received word of a few things we needed to add. Additional photos, a notarized & apostilled cover letter for IHNFA in English, and a missing bank page that needed to go with our dossier so it had to be notarized and apostilled as well. We had all of that taken care of, sent to Atlanta, and then back to us so we could over night it to our agency!

And each day since I've been anxiously awaiting the message I received today:

Dear Nathan & Jennifer,

Congratulations on making it through the paper chase stage of the adoption process! Your dossier has been officially mailed to Honduras. Please consider today your Dossier to Honduras (DTH) date. (There was more to the email but these are the important words!!)

PRAISE THE LORD! - As one fellow adoptive family put it...our paper pregnancy is complete!!

Where do we go from here?

Now we wait. It will take several weeks for our entire file to be translated. Then it goes before the IHNFA to be reveiwed. There they will look over our dossier and decide if they want anything updated or changed. If so, we will have to do whatever they ask of us before being approved. Even if nothing needs to be changed or added, this process also takes several weeks. Once we are approved, we will wait for our first official wait list number!! (I can't wait for that day!)

From other people who are in the Honduras program, I am reading that from the time their dossier was sent to Honduras until the time they received their first number on the waiting list, is around 4-5 months. When I read that, my heart sunk a little. I long for our little boy to be home. I've been looking at pictures of the orphanages there and even the tiny bits of stories I hear just breaks my heart. All I can do at this point is pray, trust, have faith, and pray some more. For the most part, our work is done for right now. It's all in God's hands! (Which is much better than in ours!)

I ask that you continue praying for us. Pray for our family as God prepares our hearts for the long wait we may have to endure from now until our son is home. Please pray that this process moves quickly and smoothly! Pray for our little boy that even beyond his understanding he will have HOPE and PEACE!

One step closer son!!! One step closer...

DTH date: July 19, 2012 - Tonight, we celebrate!! :)

Too Good to Be True...

The day our Family Coordinator wrote to tell me our Dossier arrived, we received another messages saying there were a couple of changes. One of which we had already heard about and done. Before doctor's letters were only written if an explanation was needed. (Example: We had one written to state that because Weston was only one we did not have any blood work done. How his doctor had seen him since birth, excellent health, not exposed to anything that would make them concerned, etc.) Now there is a standard letter that much be written for each family member by their doctor. The other two things were additional photo pages which will be simple and a document that we were once told we didn't need, now has to be notarized and apostilled. Really not difficult, just time consuming to send it off and get it back.

The good news is that they are going to send off our Dossier to be reviewed while we do these last minute things!

We did it!! I almost get hesitant about saying the paper chase is over...but we DID mail our dossier out to our agency yesterday!! Here is the dossier with our three copies of each document. The originals and two copies go to the agency and the third copy is for our records.

Yesterday didn't quite go as I had envisioned. I had thought we would make our copies, put everything together, drive to the post office as a family, take pictures, pray over the documents, and send it in together. Well... the copies took a lot longer than either of had thought they would. With all the staples and seals I had to do it carefully and there were so many pages! By the time I was done, it was 2 o'clock. I was thankful I had brought snacks for the kids but they hadn't eaten lunch and Weston was very tired and ready for his nap. I came home instead of going to the post office. Nathan came home early so I could rush it to the post office. The children were napping so only the two of us could pray over it and we did not take any pictures. (I'm glad I took the one of the stack!) I was a little sad that I had to mail it off myself. In life, things don't always go the way we think they will but at the end of the day...we mailed our dossier!! Along with all the money needed to go with it! That is what really matters.

I think both Nathan and I would agree that I did most of the work to get this all done. It was easier for me because I was at home during the day and could set up appointments, read over things, and really devote time to keeping us organized and progressing. I know that Nathan wants our son home. He loves him already and we dream of having him here and our family complete. However, it is nice to get a little recognition for 7 months worth of work! :) This is the sweet note I woke up to this morning!

So now we wait about a week or a little more due to the holiday. If everything we've sent is correct, they will mail it to Honduras! Then it will take several weeks to translate before going before INFHA. (government group responsible for adoptions in Honduras)

Please join our family in praying that our documents are all correct or that if changes need to be made it can be done quickly. Pray that our Dossier will arrive safely in Honduras and the process of translating and going before the INFHA will move faster than expected. Please pray that we would pass the first time so that we can move forward to be "officially waiting" and receive our first wait list number!

Dare I say it??

As far as I know....we have ALL the documents needed for our Dossier!!! I picked up the last thing we needed today!

If I were to overnight the documents that we need to be apostilled and paid for them to be sent back overnight, the earliest it could be here is next Wednesday. Nathan is actually going to be traveling for work in the same direction so it will be easier to save the money and have him have the documents apostilled. When he arrives home on Thursday, we will make the copies of everything. All documents have to have 3 copies. (That's a lot of trees!) The original dossier, along with two copies of the dossier, will be sent to our agency. The other copy is for our records. We also have to send several checks. Our middle payment to our agency, Dossier Service & Translation Fee, Post-Adoption Deposit, Consulate & Courier Fee, 1st part (of 2) International Program Fee. This totals to $8890.

I'm so excited! And nervous! Part of me wants to just load up the kids and drive there tonight so we can send it a couple of days earlier but financially it doesn't make sense when Nathan is getting paid to go up there next week. I know a couple days doesn't seem like much in light of the entire journey but every day without him home is hard. I'll admit that my stomach is in knots. The idea of placing this many months of hard work into the mail and praying it all arrives safely to Virginia and then to Honduras makes me nervous. All we can do is pray!! Part of me doesn't believe that we're actually going to send it in next week. Nerves and all...I can't wait for Nathan and I to lay our hands on the the 100% completed Dossier, pray over it, take our picture, and send it on it's way!!! :)


Hey Little Man! This is your sister Addison. She is proudly holding up the last document we needed for our file. She is so ready to meet you! She has been drawing you in family pictures, asking questions about you, and praying for you. I can't wait for you to meet her too!

Update!

Our I-171H form came in!!! Yay! Now we're really close to completing our dossier! We are waiting on a couple of updates to be turned into us. Because the process has taken longer than expected, we needed to update a few of our documents before sending it to Honduras. The things we lack are the updated deed for our home, which we should have today or tomorrow, and then the medical letters. Honduras has been through a reforming process with new leaders and an updated adoption process. It's been really hard for the families that submitted their dossiers last year and waited for months without ever making it to the waiting list. Thankfully things are moving forward again! It's been exciting to see people's numbers move up the list and I can't wait for it to be our turn! That being said, there are just a couple things that changed from what it used to be. One of which, is the standard letter each person has to have written on their behalf from their doctor.

What happens next? - Once we have all of our documents in hand, we will have these few notarized documents apostilled. The others have already been apostilled when Nathan drove them to Atlanta. Then we will make all the copies that are needed for our records and the agency. Then we submit it along with a few different checks. After final approval, our agency will send our Dossier to Honduras! Once in Honduras, it has be translated. That process alone takes a few weeks. I will keep you updated along the way. Praying that we can still get our Dossier to Honduras by the end of the month!!!

I'm so excited that there is a light at the end of the paper chase! I'm so excited that we're moving forward! We have no idea if our wait time will be short or long but at least we will finally be "waiting"! Thank you all for your continued support and prayers. Along the way it can be frustrating and we know our road until he comes home is probably much longer than the road behind us. We feel the Holy Spirit all over this adoption and continue to move forward with confidence! God already knew that our paperwork would take longer than we expected before he placed this in our hearts. We believe he is guiding this situation with his hand and it will come together in his timing. I was thinking today that I can't imagine how people do this without a relationship with our Savior. It's his peace, his promises, and the knowledge that he is leading us that keeps me going. I would be a frazzled mess without the Lord in this situation! (or in any aspect of life)

So close to finishing our Dossier!

I must admit I've been discouraged. It seems like we started slower in the paper chase than I wanted and faced several problems along the way. Things took longer than we were told they would and each step seemed to be a waiting game. It's hard to see others who are in this journey with us moving along faster even though they got started after us. However, I just keep thinking about God's perfect peace and his plan for our child and our family. I'll be honest and say there are times I worry and stress but even in those dark moments I never seem to allow it to go fully in that direction. The Holy Spirit is there each time speaking peace and reminding me of God's promises. We have had to redo some paperwork and forms this week because time has elapsed on some of the documents. Thankfully, they were all pretty easy to fix! I had thought surely our Dossier would be on it's way to Honduras by now but it isn't. Still, God is faithful!

We have our Dossier complete and it was pre-approved...minus one government document. Nathan will be taking our file to be apostilled this week. (basically a notary of a notary) Once our approved form arrives, we will have that apostilled and we should be ready to send it to our agency! I'm so ready to have this file out of our hands and in Honduras!!

One of the final steps necessary was a trip to USCIS office to have our electronic fingerprints done. Here Nathan and I are with our signed forms after having that done.



Please be in prayer with us that everything will go smoothly this month and we can get this Dossier sent to Honduras!

While I'm waiting

I promised myself that I wouldn't be on pins and needles waiting for things to happen throughout our adoption. I don't want the sadness of my longing for my son or the anxiety of things not happening the way we think they should to show in my emotions. This week I've been on edge a little and feeling discouraged because we've been waiting and waiting for our home study paperwork to be turned into us so we could proceed. The deadlines of a few documents needing to get to Honduras probably will not arrive on time now. I felt at peace a little while back when our family coordinator said that it would all be ok and to try and not stress because they have worked through much harder situations than a few documents expiring. Then another two plus weeks passed. I have had to stay in a constant state of prayer regarding this adoption to keep myself in check. Reciting scriptures in my head to remind myself this will happen in God's timing.

Today I picked up our home study paperwork!!! Now we are able to send off our I-600A form. (This form is sent to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. It's an application for Advanced processing of an Orphan petition.) There are a few things needed to go along with it, including $890. Thank you Jesus for providing!!

Days like today are a huge encouragement! The paperwork came in, the money is here, and God just continues to pave the way! There are several adoptive families reading my blog so I just want to encourage those that are reading my blog who are adopting or maybe for any of you reading who are waiting on the Lord for something... This song has been playing in my head this week...



As always, thank you for your continued support and prayers!!

To my Future Son,

Today your mommy is positively giddy! We moved forward another step towards bringing you home. Here is a picture of mommy holding up some important papers we needed....

Can you tell I'm excited? I wanted to take a picture for your baby book I'll be making for you. I'm making books for Addison and Weston and they will have pictures of me while they grew in my tummy in the beginning. So this is a picture of you growing in my heart. :) My love for you is getting stronger son. I just keep dreaming about the special moments we have to come. I pray for the day that all of our paperwork is sent to the country where you are and then accepted. I tear up each time I day dream of that glorious day when our agency calls and tells us they are sending us a referral and we see your face for the first time! I can't wait to hold you for the first time and finally tell you in person how much I love you! And the most special of all moments...the day when our dreams become a reality and you are home with us forever.

All my love,
Mom

Still Waiting...

Still waiting for our home study. Trying so hard not to worry. I'm reciting this scripture each day...many times a day...


Philippians 4:6 - Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

My requests are known to God. Our time is running out to get our Dossier to Honduras before some of our paperwork starts to elapse. I've been told, once again, that our home study will be in our hands this week. We NEED it to be here this week. Please send your prayers!!

Nathan asked me the other day if something tragic happened to him would I still try and continue with the adoption. Without hesitation, "Absolutely. As long as they would let me. I have a child waiting for me." To which he replied, "Our Child." That's right. Our child. He's waiting on his mommy and daddy to come and get him. We are so ready! Our hearts are longing for our son to be home with us. It's hard knowing that a piece of your heart is thousands of miles away. In times like this where the enemy could try and whisper that it isn't going to happen, I remind myself that of the prophetic word I received at church regarding our adoption. IT IS DONE. God has called us to this, he will prepare the way, tell the mountains to move and they will move, IT IS DONE.

Thank you for your prayers and support! It God's timing, our son will be home and in the meantime...what a wonderful opportunity to learn to seek God on a deeper level and to grow our faith!

ONE LESS

If you feel led to donate to our adoption, you can donate using the pay pal button on the side, or comment here with your email address and I will email you our mailing address. We are going to need a large sum of money for several things very soon! Putting it in God's hands because we know he will provide, but maybe one of the ways he will do this is through you! :) It doesn't have to be a lot, every single dollar gets us closer to our son!

Matthew 25:37-40
"Then the good people will answer, Lord, when did we see you hungry and give you food, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you alone and invite you in our house? When did we see you without clothes and give you something to wear? When did we see you sick or in prison and care for you?"

"Then the King will answer... I tell you the truth, anything you did for even the least of my people here on Earth, you also did for me."

I have read there are estimated to be 163 million orphans in the world...we cannot possibly save them all, but with your help, there will be ONE LESS! Will you consider helping to give one child a forever home?

Arms of Love

In the mornings I've been praying aloud on the way to take Addison to school. I pray over each member of the family. Every morning when I start to pray for our adopted son I get choked up. As tears fill my eyes I pray for him. I cut it a little short simply because I'm unsure how it will make the children feel and I don't want to be crying each morning when I arrive at Addison's school. So here is my prayer for you this morning son... "Lord I pray that you will wrap your arms of love around our son today. I pray that wherever he is you will make him feel loved. I pray a hedge of protection around him today. Please keep him safe. I ask that you will put someone in his life today to love on him and care for him. I pray that he will be fed today and not go hungry. Give him strength in whatever he may face today. Lord please help this adoption process to move quickly and smoothly. And Lord even though he has no idea we are coming yet, give him hope that he will have a forever family until that glorious day comes. Please continue to give me strength until he comes home. In your name I pray, Amen."

More Updates on the Dossier process

We finished our home study and the rough drafts were sent to our Family Coordinator. Some changes or additions needed to be made so she is still finishing that up. The home study part has taken longer than we expected so we are praying it is finalized soon! There are a few things needed for our dossier that had to wait until our home study was complete. We received our psychology reports and they were sent to our Family Coordinator and approved the first time so that is great! We turned in all of our reference letters and all of those were approved as well. The doctor's letter that Weston's doctor had to write to state that he believed he was in excellent health and not at risk so that is why we didn't do blood tests was approved. I know there were some other odds and ends done but those were the larger ones. Please be praying that the Home Study will be completed this week and that the other things will be finished up within the next few weeks! It is very important that everything be turned into Honduras soon because of how time sensitive everything is! **On a side note we have movement in Honduras! Families that turned in their dossiers many months ago were still waiting to be put in the list. They had some government leader changes, workers go on strikes, and reformation taking place the past several months. The new leaders seem to really have a heart for the orphans and getting the process moving along and the changes, although time consuming, will be better in the end. Some of the people with America World, our agency, have been receiving their numbers on the wait list for children. Praise God! We have been praying that would happen for them and so that by the time we get to that point things would be moving along. I can't wait to be in the waiting list and have this out of my hands!

Closer and Closer

We finished all of our home study visits! Nathan and I each met for our individual interviews and then we met as a family again. You're only required to have one visit in the home but with small children it was easier to have her come back to our house instead of hiring a sitter again.

I think it went really well! She is actually approving us for two children. TWO. But the request and at the top of the study and on our paperwork will only be for one. Still requesting a boy ages 18months to 4 years. Basically by being approved for two it shows that we are very capable and ready to adopt a child. That we could provide for two more if needed. In a rare case we could still be referred two children or if we heard of two specific children and prayed and felt like that was the direction for us to take it would make it a lot easier instead of having to redo some of the paperwork. We don't want to put God in a box. We believe we're only going to have three children but we've mentioned the idea of siblings or adopting again in the future. Like I said, we just want to be open to wherever the Holy Spirit leads us. I think the most exciting part of that is it gave me peace that we did really well on the home study! It will be another week probably before we have the paperwork and receive our report.

We go on Friday for hopefully our last visit with the psychologist. He is supposed to turn in all of our paperwork and reports. As long as he followed the requirements and everything is approved with our family coordinator we will be finished with that part of it.

Closer and Closer! Praying we will have everything together for our dossier and approved by mid April!! This blog has been pretty quiet so I pray people are reading this. Thank you to those of you who are following our journey and praying for us!

First Home Study Meeting

This afternoon we had our first of three home study Interviews. We decided to do the first one in our home. I cleaned and cleaned today. I knew there would be a lot of questions during each visit, but I thought the home visit would also included a lot about our actual house. She didn't walk through our home at all. She asked us questions about our house and where he would sleep but didn't actually walk through. Maybe she will do that on another visit. Either way my house is nice and clean. :)

This visit we talked a lot about our background. Growing up, our parents, siblings, school, where we lived, important events, our relationships with those in our family, how we feel about them, why do we want to adopt, why Internationally, why Honduras, how we raise our children, our marriage, etc...

We have two more visits. On Monday we have individual interviews. We will each go into the office to be questioned separately for about an hour. On Wednesday we will meet again as a couple and are going to do it at our house again.

This is so exciting!! I cleaned a lot because I wanted to make a good impression, but I didn't go over the top. I wasn't nervous at all. Just excited. Just very, very excited.

"Today was another step closer to you son! I can't wait to hold you in my arms forever!!"

Moving along!

Lots of the little things have been accomplished in the past month.

*We have our police clearance letters written.
*One of our reference letters has been turned in. (These are different than the ones written before in our home study.)
*Nathan and Weston got new, certified copies of their birth certificates so now we all have updated ones. (Not sure why but all copies have to be within a year old once they are in Honduras)
*Nathan and I had our first meeting with the psychologist. It was more involved than we expected and had to answer 370 True False Questions, IQ tests, and the interview. We will go back in a couple weeks for the second interview and hopefully receive the letter we need for our Dossier. (large file that gets sent to Honduras)
*We worked on and completed the bank letter we needed for the Dossier.
*I wrote our Child Request Letter and it was approved by our Family Coordinator.
*Made our colored copies of our passports.

That is all I can think of at the moment but I know there has been more. Lots of little things. We have to have a few things changed or adjusted whether it's a notary that needs to be changed because it expires too soon or something that wasn't completed properly. Weston's doctor has to write a letter now explaining why we didn't do blood work on him. (he's only 1)

Tomorrow is our home study meeting in the home! We're so excited!! Our home study has taken a bit longer to get off the ground than we expected first due to us and then because they were booked up with other families. We are praying that we can move forward in the last phase of the home study very quickly.

A few things we need to complete in the coming week...
*There are several photo pages with specific photos needed to be in our Dossier and I'm working on that.
*Gather the rest of our letters.
*Get a copy and notarize the deed to our home.
*The doctor's letter.
*Make a few corrections to other documents.
*Pay for a few post adoption visits and sign our agreements to have the post adoption evaluations done after our boy is home.

There are more things the will go in our Dossier, but some other things have to be completed first.

Thank you to those who are still praying for us! I'm ready to move past this part where things our not in our control. I feel I will be more at ease in the waiting phase...we'll see when it gets here. haha Just to know that I've done all I can do, except pray, will be a good feeling. I'm not as pressured as I was in the beginning because things are moving forward and coming along. We're praying that these next few weeks are very productive so that we finish everything on time and get it approved before our time runs out to send it to Honduras. Your prayer means a lot! Still a long road before we bring our son home, but each thing checked off the list is one more step closer!! :)

A beautiful poem that I had to share!

Someone that I've known for many years shared this picture with me. She actually designed it for the Agency we are doing our Home Study with here in town. The poem and precious picture brought tears to my eyes. She said she wanted to share it with me because she created it after reading my blog. I asked her permission to share this with you. :)

Praise Report

We did have to redo all of the questionnaires, autobiographies, and essay questions for our Home Study. Nathan and I each took a day and locked ourselves up in the bedroom to complete them.

We've officially submitted everything we needed to begin our home study! A big shout out to "the big guy upstairs"! We wrote our $1600 check for our home study. Our God is faithful to supply us with the funds to do what he has called us to!!

Up until this point we haven't done any fund raisers and had very few donations. (We are grateful for the couple we've had!) This next phase we will have to come up with a lot more money so we've begun to pray over some fundraising ideas and ways that we can come up with the extra money. It can be easy to look at a large sum and wonder how it will all come together, but we KNOW this adoption will come to pass!

If you feel led to donate money you can do so by clicking on the PayPal link on the side of this blog or by sending it to us in the mail. If you'd like to do it that way, email me for our mailing address at jennifergamble777@yahoo.com Thank you all for your continued love and support. Thank you for your prayers for us, our son, and this process.

Letter #2

Dear Son,

I'm going to save these letters for you in a book one day. I am making scrapbooks for your sister and brother that include my pregnancies and their first year. I've thought about how you might feel left out because you wont have one of those. I am going to make you one too. I will include each letter I write before we bring you home, pictures along the way, and whatever else the Lord lays on my heart.

I think about you every day. I've had dreams of you. I pray over you. My love for you is growing each day as we go through our adoption journey. Sometimes it gets hard trying to go through all the steps we have to take until you are ours, but I always think of how amazing it will feel that amazing day when our agency calls and we see your picture for the first time. I've dreamed of what I think you'll look like and even be wearing and I can't wait to see if I'm right. My heart aches to have you home with us.

Your daddy melts my heart when he talks about "his boys" or "our sons". He says he can't wait to take you to tractor auctions when you're older and he's been getting more excited about moving along in this process.

Addison asks about all the time. She told me yesterday, "Mommy it is taking waaaay too long to get my new brother!" She says she hopes you're old enough to play with her and talk to her like a big boy. She said it's ok if you don't know how to speak English because we can teach you. :) Addison is very excited to ride with you on an airplane! (We are all excited about that because when that happens it means we are bringing you home.)

As your brother gets older, your daddy and I keep wondering if you'll be older than him or younger. No matter what your age, you'll be perfect to us! I know that Weston doesn't really understand yet but we are sure he will love having a brother.

Sometimes it's hard for mommy knowing you're out there. I pray each day that you're being loved on. I pray that somehow God brings godly women into your life to take care of you until I can. I pray that this doesn't take too long before we get to bring you home. I can't wait to hear you laugh and see you smile. I'm excited to watch you experience new things and play with your brother and sister. I love you so much already son!

Dreaming of you until we meet,
Your mommy

Tiny Update

Not too much to report. Starting our adoption process right before all the holidays ended up making for a sloooow start. Now that Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years are all behind us, we are ready to hit the ground running!

*I mailed off mine and Nathan's finger print cards that we had done at the local sheriff's office. (interesting experience for me. haha)

*Scheduled our first meeting of three with a psychologist. It is scheduled for Feb 20th but they said they would call if something came up before then.

*My passport came in!! Nathan already had his from our honeymoon but I needed a new one with my married name.

*Finally got all labs and paperwork back from all 4 physicals. (The children also had to get physicals.)

Other than that, we don't have much to report. Nathan's computer crashed before Christmas which had all of our surveys, questionares, and autobiographies that we needed to be assigned our social worker for the homes study. It is still being worked on and we hope to have all the files recovered by the end of the week so we can turn them in. I'm also beginning to work through the list of building our Dossier file.

Thank you for your continued prayers!!