Extra! Extra! Read All About It!

We got our court date!  Our case will be heard on April 9, at 3pm.  Thank you all for your prayers, we are in awe of God's timing in all of this.  Hopefully we will be home with Colton by mother's day!  What an amazing gift that will be.

The judge did request some paperwork from the orphanage, so please pray it arrives in time.

Thank you for continuing to pray!

adios Stage 2 documents!

I am THRILLED to announce that our Stage 2 documents are on the way to Danny's country!!!  They will be in our attorney's hands on Wednesday, and then will be translated while she waits for our Article 5 appointment the the US Embassy.  Hey!  I just realized we will get to visit the Embassy when we go back to pick him up.  So it probably makes me a total dork, but that's sort of fun!

Beyond getting the paperwork out the door there is not a single other thing we can do to speed up this process....except to PRAY.  So please pray that the final stages of this (MOJ & Court) happen quickly and without issue and that we get to go pick up our son soon!  We haven't heard any more updates on time-frame, so I am still assuming that it's 4-5 months from our first visit, which was one month ago!

Thank you for praying!

travel news!

For most of you who follow on facebook you know I am completely incapable of keeping a secret....so the cat is out of the bag.  We have dates to meet Danny!!!!  We were originally offered to travel over Christmas, but after some discussion about our jobs, airfare, and the holiday, we requested to move back our date by one week. {Honestly, I really hope our in-country facilitator will use it as a week off with her family.  The break is much deserved by someone who works without ceasing for families like us.} So we will be leaving on New Year's Eve to travel to Eastern Europe to meet him.  We. Can. Not. Wait.

Other good news: our airfare is at least $600 less than what I was seeing online a few weeks ago.  Don't get me wrong, it's still over $2,000, but that's better than $2,600+!  Are you beginning to understand why so many families have to fundraise for adoptions?  I love the saying "God doesn't call the prepared, He prepares those He calls."  It's so true.  This year has been amazing for us, and we clearly see the relationship to our willingness to follow the path He has put us on, and are so thankful for all the support from our family and friends.

We will get to visit with Danny for four days.  Since our travel does fall over a holiday we are going to lose a small amount of time, but don't worry, we plan to soak up as much as we can with him while we are there. Had we chosen to travel on the original dates we could have celebrated his 4th birthday with him on the actual day, but I think we may just celebrate it when we get there anyway!

So that's it!  Our big news!  As impatient as I have been the past two weeks waiting to hear something I am incredibly thankful that we found out when Wes was at home.  It has made it so much easier to discuss what needed to be discussed and make decisions without misunderstanding each other.  God's timing is always perfect.

Thank you in advance for continuing to pray for us.  We have a lot of work, and two holidays to get through before we get to see him.  Pretty sure "I want to spend January in Eastern Europe" was something that never crossed my mind until now!  So....where is my giant suitcase? :)

five star day!

Today didn't start out so great.  I got home late last night from visiting Wes and was very keyed up.  Caught up on my blogs, read some emails....didn't fall asleep until after midnight.  Very unusual for me. Then this morning I was AWAKE (I mean wide awake) before 5am.  Really thought it was going to be a long day....and then I went to put the dogs in their kennels and heard it. Drip. Drip. Drip.  The bathroom vent was leaking!  Called Wes.  No answer.  Called Dad....he's coming later.  As of right now (2:30pm) it isn't dripping, but there is a new quarter sized hole in the ceiling where it soaked through. Fantastic!

Here is where it gets GREAT!  I drove to Austin, no major hiccups! Got to talk to a sweet friend who I have been playing phone tag with.  I found a parking place, and had just enough change in my car to pay for an hour and 15 minutes on the meter.  Walked right in, no waiting!  The lady who does the apostilles for Texas is so sweet.  She wants to see pictures, ask questions, hear about what the next steps are.  So we are talking and another couple come in.  They hear our story, and are congratulatory.  Then!  Another group comes in.  The lady is familiar.  It's Shelley Burman!  Carrington's mom!  The Burman's have adopted twice now, multiple kids each time.  I admire the Burman's faith and courage in continuing to follow God's directions....they are adopting again!  A sweet little guy from the same country Danny is in!  Please keep them in your prayers.

Next great thing: I got a text message from Stephanie Barnett....they have scheduled their flights home, with all 3 kids!  The Barnett 7 will be together for the first time at 9:15 Wednesday night.  I promise to take as many pictures as I can and share them next week!

Final absolutely fantastic thing!  Remember Vilis and Juris?  Rumor has it they will both be making their way to the "New Commitments" page on Reece's Rainbow very very soon!  The best part of this story is that we understand that they are best friends in their orphanage....and their new home is big enough and full of enough love for BOTH of them!

So, needless to say, while today may not have started out so great it is truly a day God made for rejoicing!

I always seem to have a prayer request, so here it is: when we sent our USCIS application in we invited friends over and prayed over it.  It made a world of difference, since our approval came in 1/2 the time we expected it to take!  The next few days are super crazy, and we want to get it there so translation can begin...so we are asking for our dossier to be surrounded in prayers for the next two weeks.  I am going to create a facebook event and send reminders and specific requests that way.  Will you please join us?

Thank you so much for your support and prayers and dedicated reading so far!  As far as I can tell we are officially at the half way point in our adoption of our son.  It's been an amazing ride, and I know we have only been on the uphill climb....now the roller coaster really begins twisting and turning!

best news ever! (ok, so far)

Our FBI back ground checks showed up TODAY!!!! I thought it would be another week or so, but God is good and they were there today.  That means we are only waiting for one more item and our home-study will be done.  After that we will be submitting our USCIS application, which is somewhere between a 45 and 90 day process.  Next prayer request: USCIS gets back as soon as possible.

Thanks for continuing to pray friends!

Step 1: Submit Application

Great News!  We have submitted our application to an adoption agency!  And it seems it's been processed.  Tomorrow I have to call the agency and go through about a 10 minute introduction where they will ask me a bunch of questions, and I get to do the same.  Then we find out what the initial fee will be and we get to set up our home study.  Wow! That's a lot of progress in a small amount of time.

In other Great News everyone we have told so far that we are planning an adoption of a DS child has been super supportive.  I can't begin to explain how much better that makes me feel.  There is something about having crazy ideas validated by family and friends that makes it seem like it's not a big deal at all! We are planning on telling the rest of the family next weekend, because this is something we want to do in person. Stinks we couldn't do it all at once, but geography gets in the way sometimes.

So, please keep us in your prayers, we are beginning what is sure to be a long and emotional process.