DTH

We just received word that we are DTH, which means we are (drum roll please).......DOSSIER TO HAITI!!!!  We are overjoyed and so happy that we only had to fix one document and it went through authentication and translation smoothly!  That's it, I'm just going to enjoy this victory and not dwell on that little issue called money.  ;)

YAHWEH

It seems that adoption is dominating my thoughts lately and have felt the Lords gentle reminder that I need to focus on Him and Him alone.  After all, without Him nothing is possible.

I love His name Yahweh.  I am that I am.   So Powerful, so Almighty.  He was never created.  Always was and always will be.  He needs nothing or no one.  He IS.

As I was spending time with Him in His word tonight I came across this scripture, John 18:4-6.  This passage is about Jesus' arrest.  4. Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, "Who is it you want?" 5. "Jesus of Nazareth," they replied.  "I am He," Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.) 6. When Jesus said, "I am He," they drew back and fell to the 

ground.

Did you catch that?  When Jesus said "I am He"  the soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and Pharisees collapsed to the ground.  At the sound of His name.  The very ones who were about to arrest Him.  That power is in me!  His Holy Spirit resides in me and when Yahweh looks at me He sees His precious Son.  What grace and what love. There are tears spilling down my face as I type.  I am so underserving.  What a gift.    

 YAHWEH.  The power in His name is hard for my mind to comprehend yet He allows me to say it in a whisper, or to cry it out, or in those moments when I can't find the words, my soul speaks to His heart and He knows.  He calls me daughter and I call Him Yahweh.  I am that I am. 

Thank you Jesus.

 

New Fundraising Goal

We just wanted to make it official.  We are now raising funds for two little ones!!  The amount on the gauge includes the international fee for each child ($14000/per child) and the fee to pay once the children move through social services in Haiti.  As you can see, we need a lot of prayer!  Still waiting on those grant places!  Thanks for your support everyone!  Keep those prayers coming! :D

Excitement and Frustration

What was supposed to be an exciting phone conference with our adoption coordinator ended up being frustrating as well.

We had a call set up to happen at 11 am on Wednesday this week.  The purpose of this call was for our coordinator to get to know us a little better by asking us a series of questions.  She does this because she is the one that matches families with the children in the orphanage.  During the conversation I mentioned how one of our biggest fears was to get the pictures and profiles of a child and have to say no because of lack of funds.  She then proceeded to tell us that she would rather us be close to having all the money (for that blasted international fee that is) before she has this conversation.  The reason is because the referral will happen very, VERY quickly and she wants to be sure that we can move forward as soon as the referral is given to us. Getting these orphans out of Haiti is urgent!  Oh, and one more very important fact that we learned is that we will be getting two.  TWO!!!!

That is the exciting part, the part that brings us so much joy.  At the same time we are also saying, two.  TWO?!?!  How will we ever get the $28000 we need for them? By the way, if I haven't made this clear before I will say now that this is NOT an adoption agency fee, it's the fee required by the Haitian government.  Hence the frustration.  So what we learned is this.  We won't be matched until we have the money.  I could just scream with frustration over this.  It's like someone is holding our children for ransom.  You can have your kids as soon as you fork over the money.  We are so broken hearted over this.  We are so close yet $28000 away.  Our coordinator said that her sibling groups almost never move out of the orphanage.  They are waiting.  Being older children they understand why they are in an orphanage and hope that they find their forever family soon.

So pray.  We have a couple of grant apps out, one of which we've already been turned down for, for lack of funds.  Ugh.  Still waiting to hear from two others.  We are going to be a part of another fundraiser as soon as we can get a video of our story put together, which is required by the people in charge.  These grant places and fundraisers are a blessing but they are limited as well and do the best that they can to help.

There are two little souls that belong with us, but they can't get to us because of the money.  We need prayer warriors to stand with us and go before the Lord and pray these kids home.  Pray for our hearts as they are heavy tonight.

These are just a handful of the precious ones that live in the orphanage we are adopting from.  They are sitting on boxes of donated dry mild powder which will aid in combatting malnutrition.  Two of them could be ours.  

Remember, you can help by clicking on the donate button to the right or clicking on the puzzle fundraiser link provided to see if you want to help that way.  

Praises!

First of all I wanted to say thank you to those of you faithfully praying for us.  I am not exaggerating when I say that we have had such a peace about this adoption.  We don't have the entire international fee in place but we know without a doubt that God will make that happen.  God has blessed us and reminded us that He is taking care of things.  We had money from friends and family trickling in at a steady pace for about two weeks, it was so fun and exciting and humbling at the same time.  He is Good.  We have also been able to really enjoy this process, which is something I would not have been able to say truthfully several months ago.  

Today the Psychologist called, the actual doctor, how weird is that?  I usually have to go through at least two people to get answers from a  doctor.  Well anyway, that doesn't matter.  He called because he got the letters done!!!!  Nate and I are able to go tomorrow to pick them up AND I'm hoping that while we're out we can get the dossier docs county certified.  After that we send the dossier in to our agency, it goes through state certification then it's off the Haiti!  Keep praying that all the documents will be accepted.  

We are praising the Lord for having the $2350 to send in the dossier, it's an amount separate from the international fee we are trying to raise funds for so the amount on our fundraising gauge is strictly for that, which is so great.  

As for our family challenge, so far this month we have been able to save $390.  I don't think that we'll be able to save more than the last time we did this, which was $500.  I was hoping to save $600 but oh well I'm still happy to have something to show for all our hard work.  This money will not be going to the international fee, it will be used to pay for the state certification process and translation of the dossier.   We are still very thankful.

Now I am off to update the puzzle blog and add the eleven pieces we got last week!!  If you feel led to help us give an orphan a forever family please use the donate button or use the link to jump over to our puzzle blog and sponsor a piece or more for just $10 a piece!!  Thanks!

Prayer requests

Please join us in prayer for the following:


1. For that last dossier item to get here (psych eval letter)


2. For Haiti to accept the dossier and for us to not have to do something over, I think if I have to say the words "notary" or "county certified" again I'll just scream.


3. For the funds to keep rolling in.  We applied for adoption grants and are hoping and praying that they can help us out and raise a lot of what we need.


4. For those of you who read our blog, you are already aware of the international fee per child.  $14000.  We are only raising funds for one child because well, we don't know if we'll get two and we don't think it's wise to ask for money for two kids.  Chances are we will because siblings needing adoption and to stay together are in abundance in Haiti.  Pray for provision and for us as our trust in the Lord just loves to waiver from time to time. 


Thank you for walking with us and for all the love and support!

More Blessings

We have been blown away this week.  I already shared with you about the blessings we received Sunday and Monday but the rest of this week has been wonderful as well.  Today we received a $125 donation and someone sponsored a puzzle piece!!  We are so thrilled at what God is doing and the generosity of family and friends.  My tear ducts have been getting a major workout this week.  

Other than the pieces being sponsored and donations coming in, we really don't have big news yet.  We FINALLY got our psych evaluation completed and should be getting the letter, (THE LAST DOCUMENT FOR OUR DOSSIER!)  in about a week.  I went to my beloved notebook which contains all my keep-me-sane-to-do-lists to see what I still need to accomplish for this dossier and there wasn't one!!  Woohoo!  All I need to do is get the pile of papers county certified and send it off to our agency and let them take care of the rest.  We are praying to have it shipped off in three weeks.  I was hoping to have the dossier done by the beginning of March but the end of March ain't so bad.  :)  I am anxiously awaiting the day that I can type my celebratory post declaring that the dossier is on its way to Haiti!  So stay tuned........