Filing for Court

Yippie!  Our agency director just emailed us and said they would be able to file for a court date next week!  I think we will get a date in late December.  I will update as soon as we have a date.

Things Are Moving

Lots of families within our agency received court dates yesterday.  Many are scheduled for December 12.  We pray that soon, very soon, we will hear of our court date.  Our agency director is checking with the other director, who is in Ethiopia, to see when Nathan was abandoned.  There is a two month wait time between when they found him until when they can apply for a court date.  We can’t be too far away as his medicals were all done on September 19.  He must have been found before then.  I will update when I know more.  Please pray for patience on my end!  I am so anxious to have him in my arms!

What God Did Yesterday - You Gotta Read This!

I’m so glad we have no money - it’s so cool to watch God provide!

I had to share this with you.  God is so amazing!  On Oct. 6, the day after we got matched with our son in Ethiopia, we had to mail in a big chunk of the fees for the adoption.  We didn’t have all of the money.  I struggled with the concept of tithing on the money that had been given for our adoption.  It seemed to me it would be like tithing on a tithe.  It seemed it was all going to pure and faultless religion, caring for the orphan.  Mark disagreed and decided we would tithe on everything God gave us and we did.  When I woke up that morning, I kept thinking, “Cast your …… upon the water….” but I couldn’t remember the whole verse.  I looked it up and it was Ecclesiastes 11:1 “Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again.”  I felt like God was saying…be adventurous, I will provide, you can’t outgive God.

Yesterday, a lady at Community Bible Study who I have seen but don’t know, came up to me and said, “I put an envelope on your seat.  I wrote a little note on it.”  So, I said thank you and went to my seat and read it:

“In April, our family went to Florida for Spring Break.  It was my first time there and I thoroughly enjoyed shelling early in the mornings.  One morning, I came across this floating in the water and was so surprised.  It must have been there for a while so you can see the barnacles (and smell the smell!)  I would like you to have it toward your adoption.  We have an adopted son from the Ukraine - he will be 17 in December so your adoption holds a special place in my heart.  If there is anything else I can do, please let me know.”

God literally brought “bread” back to us upon the water!!!

Isn’t God amazing?!!!

Check Out This Link

This is a video of the area where many children who are at the Hope Adoption Agency Orphanage come from.  Many people ask us why we are adopting.  The answer is really because God said so.  However, check out this video.  So many children in need.

http://www.smh.com.au/interactive/2008/world/ethiopia/index.html

I-171H Came Today!!!

We are now completely approved by USCIS to bring Nathan home!  U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services “determined that we are able to furnish proper care for orphans” and we have our I-171H in hand!  Please pray for a court date.  We are still waiting due to some changes in required documentation for abandoned and relinquished children.

Oct. 5 - Referral!!!!

We are excited to announce that early this afternoon we accepted the referral of a baby boy who will be 7 weeks old tomorrow!  The director says his papers are ready to be filed, so as soon as we get our paperwork and referral money to her, we will be waiting for a court date!  His name is a form of Ebenezer.  Ebenezer is Hebrew from the Bible in 1 Samuel meaning “stone of help”.  Samuel put up an Ebenezer stone to be a reminder of all that God had done up until then.  A website I went to noted that in today’s day and age, our prayer journals are like Ebenezer stones - as we look back in them, they remind us of all that God has done.  I think this is incredible because of how God has spoken to us through my prayer journal this year.   We pray that this baby will always be a reminder to us and to all who he touches in life, that our God has done great things!