Friday, September 30, 2011
Sunday, September 25, 2011
A mile long...
boy I am ready for our approval to travel from Immigrations...at the same time, I know once we get that and we mail our dossier to the Ukraine, things could move quick. I am not sure I am ready to move that quick. We have seen families who mailed their dossier to the Ukraine and then traveled 3 weeks later...I have a list a mile long..need to get busy...and leaving my kids is starting to sink in more and more everyday and I am already having a hard time, especially not knowing when I will be back. I will have to keep my chin up and positive for the kids, I am sure I will break down into a big melt down when we pull out of Sarah's drive way to the airport. Speaking of Sarah :)...pray for her, she is due with her 4th child in the next couple weeks and her and her husband are so kindly watching our 4 kids! We will drive to Texas, drop the kids off with Sarah and will more than likely fly out of Dallas. Pray for the strength and grace she will need...this is a huge task and we are very greatful !
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Waiting...
Praying that in the mail this week we get U.S. Immigrations approval to travel for an adoption. Once that paper comes in, we can send all our documents to the Ukrai** and request an appointment there. Once our documents get mailed off...we can finally start preparing our house for our new son and start gathering some things for packing, since typically when they give you an appt. it is only 3 -4 weeks out since we are being expedited for little "D". Much to do, but we cannot wait! I would like to think we would be leaving in Nov., but yet again you never know when you will get held up. We will travel in God's perfect timing and I cannot wait! Leaving my kids on the other hand will be something I am sure I am not prepared for.
Friday, September 23, 2011
A long but great day!
Today we went to the capitol in Pierre to have our documents apostilled. So thankful all our documents cleared :)!
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Bright and Early..
tomorrow we will all load up and take the 2 1/2 hour drive to Pierre. We have to go to the Sec. of States office to have all our documents Apostilled....please pray that the take all our documents and they find no problems with any of them. I must have checked each document a hundred times :)
Here are all our documents..some of these have many pages under them. We have already mailed off 5 documents to the Ukrai** and when our Immigrations Travel approval paper comes then we will mail this final group to the **raine.
Praise the Lord!
I just got an e mail from our officer at Immigrations...I had wrote a letter asking that our case be expedited and she is going to honor our request...good news!!! Lord willing we will have approval to travel very soon! So happy!!
Today
we mailed off our paperwork to immigrations for little "D" the 5 year old. We realize the odds are against us that this adoption will be approved but we also realize the Lord is not bound to the odds. If "D" is to be our son, the Lord will work in the hearts of those at his facility. If he is not to be ours then we take the risk, trusting the Lord and will then go back to the capitol for another appointment to find our son. The Lord in His kindness has used much scriprure to point us in this direction,and after much prayer we are confident we are in the Lord's will with this decision and because the Lord gave His life for us, we are willing to give all we can give so that little "D" might have the opportunity to live. Please pray the Lord would deal in the hearts of this institution director and the doctor at the institution, that they might be pleased to approve of this adoption. Pray that if little "D" is not to be our son, that the Lord would direct us to our son quickly and that we could get in and our of country and back together as a family as soon as possible. Thank you for praying.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
The Lord...
does not always call us to walk the smooth easy paths...but He does say he will walk with us. So thankful Mike and I can rest in that.
9 Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away . 10Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed ; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.11 Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded : they shall be as nothing; and they that strive with thee shall perish . 12 Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended with thee: they that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought.13 For I the LORD thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.
Isaiah 41
9 Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away . 10Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed ; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.11 Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded : they shall be as nothing; and they that strive with thee shall perish . 12 Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended with thee: they that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought.13 For I the LORD thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.
Isaiah 41
Monday, September 19, 2011
SOO ready
to see who our son will be. The Lord's will, will come to pass and His will, will be the best for everyone involved. I keep say that to myself!
Sunday, September 18, 2011
To explain things....
if we continue in our plans to go to the Ukraine to try to adopt "D", we are taking a great risk. Is he worth it? Absolutely! However, we have to take many things into account with this risk. The main thing we have to take into account is that if we get denied his adoption, we could be in country for 2 months total. Considering the fact we have 4 small children and I home school them and considering the fact Mike does not have 2 months worth of days to be in the Ukra*** ....we are rethinking our decision about "D". If Mike and I had no other children then absolutely we would risk it!! However that is not the case and whatever risk we take in this life does not only involve Mike and I but also involves our 4 prized possessions. We are still praying but believe the Lord will honor us putting the children we have here first. Is the Lord able to do a miracle and the adoption for "D" be successful, of course He is! However back to the thought...what is the risk worth to us? As much as we badly love "D" and would love to be used of the Lord to save his life....we just feel we need to put the needs of our kids first. So...a decision has to be made this week and LORD willing we should very soon be mailing our dossier (documents...big stash of them that took us 5 months to complete) will be mailed off the U*rain*.......Maybe we will be coming home with "A" or maybe some other little boy...the ***aine is full of uncertainty when it comes to adoptions. I am SO thankful the Lord left us with His word to find comfort and direction in.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Immigrations
Mike and I went this morning for fingerprints #4 and Lord willing the final before we leave. We dotting our i's and crossing our t's making sure each document is just right. We are waiting on our "golden ticket" as they call it...our approval from immigrations. We are praying we get this by Oct 1st..we shall see. Once we get that, we send all our documents (our dossier) to our facilitator in the Ukraine who will do the final translations on the documents and then submit them to the State Department there in Kiev. Once they get our dossier they will issue us an appt. date which is usually 3-4 weeks out. Thank you for your prayers!
Ready...
to go ransome my son, so thankful the Lord choose to ransome me 11 years ago, despite myself!
"Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransome for many." Matthew 20:28
Glory! What an example!
"Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransome for many." Matthew 20:28
Glory! What an example!
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
John 9
1And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.
2And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?
3Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.
4I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.
5As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
6When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay,
7And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.
8The neighbours therefore, and they which before had seen him that he was blind, said, Is not this he that sat and begged?
9Some said, This is he: others said, He is like him: but he said, I am he.
10Therefore said they unto him, How were thine eyes opened?
11He answered and said, A man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash: and I went and washed, and I received sight.
12Then said they unto him, Where is he? He said, I know not.
13They brought to the Pharisees him that aforetime was blind.
14And it was the sabbath day when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes.
15Then again the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. He said unto them, He put clay upon mine eyes, and I washed, and do see.
16Therefore said some of the Pharisees, This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the sabbath day. Others said, How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? And there was a division among them.
17They say unto the blind man again, What sayest thou of him, that he hath opened thine eyes? He said, He is a prophet.
18But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind, and received his sight, until they called the parents of him that had received his sight.
19And they asked them, saying, Is this your son, who ye say was born blind? how then doth he now see?
20His parents answered them and said, We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind:
21But by what means he now seeth, we know not; or who hath opened his eyes, we know not: he is of age; ask him: he shall speak for himself.
22These words spake his parents, because they feared the Jews: for the Jews had agreed already, that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue.
23Therefore said his parents, He is of age; ask him.
24Then again called they the man that was blind, and said unto him, Give God the praise: we know that this man is a sinner.
25He answered and said, Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.
26Then said they to him again, What did he to thee? how opened he thine eyes?
27He answered them, I have told you already, and ye did not hear: wherefore would ye hear it again? will ye also be his disciples?
28Then they reviled him, and said, Thou art his disciple; but we are Moses' disciples.
29We know that God spake unto Moses: as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is.
30The man answered and said unto them, Why herein is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes.
31Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth.
32Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind.
33If this man were not of God, he could do nothing.
34They answered and said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out.
35Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God?
36He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?
37And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee.
38And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him.
39And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
40And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?
41Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.
2And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?
3Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.
4I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.
5As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
6When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay,
7And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.
8The neighbours therefore, and they which before had seen him that he was blind, said, Is not this he that sat and begged?
9Some said, This is he: others said, He is like him: but he said, I am he.
10Therefore said they unto him, How were thine eyes opened?
11He answered and said, A man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash: and I went and washed, and I received sight.
12Then said they unto him, Where is he? He said, I know not.
13They brought to the Pharisees him that aforetime was blind.
14And it was the sabbath day when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes.
15Then again the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. He said unto them, He put clay upon mine eyes, and I washed, and do see.
16Therefore said some of the Pharisees, This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the sabbath day. Others said, How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? And there was a division among them.
17They say unto the blind man again, What sayest thou of him, that he hath opened thine eyes? He said, He is a prophet.
18But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind, and received his sight, until they called the parents of him that had received his sight.
19And they asked them, saying, Is this your son, who ye say was born blind? how then doth he now see?
20His parents answered them and said, We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind:
21But by what means he now seeth, we know not; or who hath opened his eyes, we know not: he is of age; ask him: he shall speak for himself.
22These words spake his parents, because they feared the Jews: for the Jews had agreed already, that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue.
23Therefore said his parents, He is of age; ask him.
24Then again called they the man that was blind, and said unto him, Give God the praise: we know that this man is a sinner.
25He answered and said, Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.
26Then said they to him again, What did he to thee? how opened he thine eyes?
27He answered them, I have told you already, and ye did not hear: wherefore would ye hear it again? will ye also be his disciples?
28Then they reviled him, and said, Thou art his disciple; but we are Moses' disciples.
29We know that God spake unto Moses: as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is.
30The man answered and said unto them, Why herein is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes.
31Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth.
32Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind.
33If this man were not of God, he could do nothing.
34They answered and said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out.
35Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God?
36He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?
37And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee.
38And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him.
39And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
40And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?
41Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.
For our faithful praying friends and loved ones....
An update on how you can pray for us.
1. As you see, little boy "D" is back in the picture. Mike and I have had limited time to talk about the next step since he is in D.C. When he gets back tomorrow we will have plenty of time to talk and pray. We are at the very end of this process and for many many months have been split between the boys. Just when we decided to pursue little boy "A", we found a picture of little boy "D" that crushed our hearts...we must make this decision this week so we can make the necessary changes with our paperwork if needed. Pray that when we make a decision, we will feel no turning back, that we would be 100% peaceful in our decision.
2. Pray all goes well on Thursday when we go for Biometrics at the Immigrations Center. Pray the would process us quickly and we would get our approval quickly.
3. Pray once we get Immigrations approval, we can submit quickly and that they quickly offer us a date for travel. This is of great importance especially if we are seeking for "D". We learned yesterday that a child in his facility that we had followed for sometime, quickly regressed and passed away last week safe into the arms of Jesus. Pray the Lord would sustain "D".
4. Pray that the Lord would be preparing our son's heart for us. Pray for us as we will need Grace, Grace, Grace for the days ahead and the new challenges each day will bring.
5. We are doing this all for the Lord, pray He receives all the Glory. Pray the love of Jesus Christ shines for through us for a testimony to the people of *krain*, to the facility director and the staff.
6. Pray we obtain favor in the sight of the Judge there. Pray also that the director of the facility would be in favor of the adoption.... Especially with "D" if we go in that direction.
7. Pray the Lord would continue in His faithfulness with financing our adoption.
8. Pray for Mike and I and our children as our time approaches for us to travel. Pray especially for our children and for those who will be caring for them, that the Lord would help and provide the necessary Grace needed to care for 4 children.
1. As you see, little boy "D" is back in the picture. Mike and I have had limited time to talk about the next step since he is in D.C. When he gets back tomorrow we will have plenty of time to talk and pray. We are at the very end of this process and for many many months have been split between the boys. Just when we decided to pursue little boy "A", we found a picture of little boy "D" that crushed our hearts...we must make this decision this week so we can make the necessary changes with our paperwork if needed. Pray that when we make a decision, we will feel no turning back, that we would be 100% peaceful in our decision.
2. Pray all goes well on Thursday when we go for Biometrics at the Immigrations Center. Pray the would process us quickly and we would get our approval quickly.
3. Pray once we get Immigrations approval, we can submit quickly and that they quickly offer us a date for travel. This is of great importance especially if we are seeking for "D". We learned yesterday that a child in his facility that we had followed for sometime, quickly regressed and passed away last week safe into the arms of Jesus. Pray the Lord would sustain "D".
4. Pray that the Lord would be preparing our son's heart for us. Pray for us as we will need Grace, Grace, Grace for the days ahead and the new challenges each day will bring.
5. We are doing this all for the Lord, pray He receives all the Glory. Pray the love of Jesus Christ shines for through us for a testimony to the people of *krain*, to the facility director and the staff.
6. Pray we obtain favor in the sight of the Judge there. Pray also that the director of the facility would be in favor of the adoption.... Especially with "D" if we go in that direction.
7. Pray the Lord would continue in His faithfulness with financing our adoption.
8. Pray for Mike and I and our children as our time approaches for us to travel. Pray especially for our children and for those who will be caring for them, that the Lord would help and provide the necessary Grace needed to care for 4 children.
A Poem I like...
WELCOME TO HOLLAND
by
Emily Perl Kingsley.
Emily Perl Kingsley.
c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved
I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......
When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.
After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."
"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."
But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.
The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.
So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.
It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."
And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.
But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.
I found this poem sometime back and liked it. I often think of this when I think of where we are today with the direction the Lord has sent us in. We have 4 healthy children and the thought of going to "Holland" was never in our plans, however the Lord's ways are not always our ways. We are thankful that the Lord is sovereign and that we can rest knowing our steps are ordered by Him, is the Lord in both "Holland" and in "Italy" ? Ofcourse He is :) I believe that going to "Holland" will require us to die daily to ourselves which can only be for our own good and to lean completely upon the Lord for His Grace and strength day to day. We know we cannot go to "Holland" in our own power and not drowned, we are thankful the Lord is going with us to "Holland"!
Well..
we got news this morning from the U**aine that little boy "D" is still available for adoption. The clock is ticking as we wait for this one piece of paper so we need to make a prayerful quick decision.
Monday, September 12, 2011
Just thinking....
"Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it." Proverbs 3:27
I often think of this verse especially when I think of little "D" these days. I just do not quite understand it....we desire him, we are open to him, we would love him....yes, he has many many medical conditions...he is blind in his only eye, he has both cleft hard and soft palate, they say he has microcephaly and abnormalities of his central nervous system and facial bones. We are however aware that they sometimes over diagnoise these children. We should be prepared that he has all he is listed with yet be hopeful he does not....GOD KNOWS! Did God not form him in his mother womb? Is he not fearfully and wonderfully made? Is he not worthy of a home? OFCOURSE he is! Mike and I talked alot about this the other day, the reality of getting "D" would mean many many possible surgeries and doctors visits and would greatly take much of me especially..it would be hard but I am confident that the Lord would supply grace in abudence. Then ofcourse I think of little boy "A" and my heart melts over him too. I truely cannot wait until this has come to pass and I can look back on our way home from the U**aine and see how the Lord had directed each step to our son.
I often think of this verse especially when I think of little "D" these days. I just do not quite understand it....we desire him, we are open to him, we would love him....yes, he has many many medical conditions...he is blind in his only eye, he has both cleft hard and soft palate, they say he has microcephaly and abnormalities of his central nervous system and facial bones. We are however aware that they sometimes over diagnoise these children. We should be prepared that he has all he is listed with yet be hopeful he does not....GOD KNOWS! Did God not form him in his mother womb? Is he not fearfully and wonderfully made? Is he not worthy of a home? OFCOURSE he is! Mike and I talked alot about this the other day, the reality of getting "D" would mean many many possible surgeries and doctors visits and would greatly take much of me especially..it would be hard but I am confident that the Lord would supply grace in abudence. Then ofcourse I think of little boy "A" and my heart melts over him too. I truely cannot wait until this has come to pass and I can look back on our way home from the U**aine and see how the Lord had directed each step to our son.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Happy Birthday
Last week little "A" turned a great big 10 years old! Happy Birthday beautiful boy, if the Lord allows it, I cannot wait to wrap my arms around you and bring you home. You have no idea the preperations being made and how, Lord willing, you life is about to change forever...an orphan no more! Happy Birthday !
On behalf of my mom and Philip...
we are having a fundraiser. My mom and Philip are very kindly doing a fundraiser for us. If you are interested you can see their blog at... http://gatheringourpieces.blogspot.com/ . Thanks!
Keep Praying, we need it....
We are getting so close! Please pray, we are still loving and burdened for this little guy, boy "D" below. We filed an orphan inquiry on him about 3 weeks ago and the report is back. We are waiting on our facilitator in the Ukrai** to go pick it up at the SDA there. The report will be pretty basic. It will tell us first wether he is still living and it will tell us that he is in fact still available for international adoption. With little boy "D" we feel an urgency in getting him out of his facility, there is so much that could be offered to him here in America to save his life. Please pray this report gets to us soon and that the Lord would use that to either close that door or to give us great peace that we should change our plans up and get little boy "D" home.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
A good day!
I am so thankful I made it to Atlanta safely. My sister will be having surgery on Thursday so I am here until Saturday. I am thankful for my husband for taking off to watch the kids back home. Today we got a letter in the mail from immigrations, the only thing the need to appove us is fingerprints, yes again...this is the 4th and last time :) They have scheduled us an appointment on the 15th for those prints...this is a big blessing, we are praying for approval by Oct. 1st. Today we also have someone very interested in buying our van, a necessity for bringing up our adoption funds...please pray it sells.
I am exhausted tonight, thank you for following our journey and for praying!
I am exhausted tonight, thank you for following our journey and for praying!
Friday, September 2, 2011
Today was a good family day.
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