Drama!

I have been somewhat silent on here, but that only reflects the chaos of my life right now. I have been putting in many 8-12 hour days painting, cleaning, painting, and cleaning with trips to Home Depot in between. Thank God it's right across the street. And now I know pretty much everybody who works there. Two of our neighbors work there too and say hi to me. I really miss my kids who I barely get to see, but am so grateful that my sister has been here for the last month (She's been putting up with a LOT of drama- mostly involving a 2 year old). My first baby turned 9 on Friday. It was also our 11th wedding anniversary. Yes, she decided to be born on our anniversary!  My sister says the 9 year old now is acting like a teenager (yes, more drama).  We had a low key birthday celebration- went to a restaurant for dinner, came home and ate cake and ice cream, opened presents and played Mexican Train. We got Reyna an American Girl Beauty Salon kit for her doll and it came with an instructional DVD. The next day she was already doing braids and hairdo's. She is so talented and learns new things very easily. We love you Reyna!

As far as our adoption process goes, I made a little booboo and we now have a couple of weeks setback.  I forgot to recheck our last couple of docs when I sent them to the Secretary of State and my notary forgot to stamp two of them. Darn! Luckily, they will refund to me the $40! So I went back over to her house and then she signed one of the docs in black ink (big no-no). So we were going to print out a fresh doc and her printer wouldn't work (of course!). I had to drive home and back and we finally got it right. The next day we fed-exed them to Sec. of State. That was one week ago and they haven't yet completed the request, so we keep checking the tracking number on the website to see if they're on their way yet. As soon as my agency receives these last two docs, we can be registered in Maria's country to adopt.

As anxious as I am for this to happen, I am SO confident that as long as I'm doing everything in my power to get to Maria, God in His infinite power is laying out our path to her. I rest in the assurance that His timing is always perfect and no amount of fretting or anxiety will get us to her any sooner. So we wait and pray and work hard to get our house ready to move in and welcome our newest member of the family.

God provided the $500 we needed to send to our agency in order to process our dossier. Thank you to our friends who have given and supported us. Thank you for your continued prayers for our family. We still need to raise A LOT more and we know God will keep His promise to Maria, so pray we will have faith and rest in Him.

We have some fundraising ideas swirling around in our heads, but with the move, we have no extra energy or time left. We would love for someone to help us with that! One very cool idea someone shared with me was to have a 5K/10K. I really want to do this, but will need lots of helpers and don't exactly know where to start (and don't have the time!)

Oh, and please pray we can move in soon. The water pipe under the kitchen sink starting spraying this afternoon (mini crisis) and we hope fixing it won't set us back. Thankfully we were there when it happened and were able to shut off the water quickly. But, that means we didn't have water for cleaning or washing out our paint rollers and brushes and maybe no water tomorrow.  Today was a bit of a rough day, but I did spend the morning at the zoo with my kids and sister. Gigi's favorite part of the zoo are the "ephanants", Diego's are the giraffes, Reyna's are the snakes and my sister and I liked the otters.

World Down Syndrome Day 3-21-11

Here are some great videos that help bring awareness about people with Down syndrome.

The first features many Reece's Rainbow kids:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDY60RqpaMY&feature=channel_video_title
The second is a "video journey through 45 countries promoting the inclusion of people with Down syndrome:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLx0rl2sCzM&feature=related

Read my friend, Jamie's perspective in this post about having a child with Down syndrome (she is also in the process of adopting a child with Down syndrome.)

Enjoy!

Caring for God's Children

I've been trying to blog more regularly. I think it takes some practice.  Although my very straightforward sister very gently mentioned that I'm not that great of a blogger. Yes, I know- I'm not a writer and it's hard for me to get text to display emotion like my eyes and voice can. So I apologize for my very matter-of-fact posts, but I'm doing my best!

We spent the day at a local Orphan Care Seminar. It is such a great gathering of friends and such an encouraging day for us as we continue to hear God's heart for the orphan. I cried a couple of times today, which was better than last year (all day). We actually attended the seminar last year, looking for answers to how to get started in adoption. God really used that day to grab our hearts and test us to see if we were hearing Him.

We had a table set up with info on Reece's Rainbow and were able to share with several people about waiting children with Down syndrome and our journey to Maria. We also sold drinks at lunch and made about $100- thank you to all who donated!

There was a great speaker with some practical help for encouraging attachment with adopted or foster children. She spoke about the balance between nurture and structure.  The funny thing, in her descriptions of "children from difficult backgrounds", it sounds exactly like some of my kids (I won't say which).  My children have been with me since birth, breastfed and all and yet why do they display similar behaviors to children who come from homes of neglect and abandonment?  Anyway, we got some valuable skills from her session and will be practicing and preparing for when Maria joins our family.

The last thing that stands out to me from the seminar was something the pastor pointed out. We all know James 1:27 "Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world."

But the pastor reminded us to also read the context of this verse. Just five verses earlier, James writes: "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves."

Oh, how I pray the church will get this!  Why is adoption and foster care not a priority for the church? Why aren't we "doing" what God's Word is telling us to do? Why do we continue to ignore James 1:27? Why do we continue to ignore the orphan's cry?  Why does it have to come to this?

We are all called to care for orphans.  Please pray and ask God how He wants to use you to provide for an orphan.

The enemy attacks

Yesterday my husband called me at 5:30 pm and told me his car had just broke down- and I laughed. He didn't think it was funny and I had to explain to him that I wasn't laughing at him being stranded, but at the fact that of course our car breaks down now because Satan has no other way of attacking us. In fact, my husband told me it was as if it was demon-possessed, the radio turning off and on on its' own, the speedometer going up and down and the car jerking.

And of course this is the worst time for the car to break down. We have been trying to come up with $500 to send into our agency so they can submit our application to Maria's country. We had just raised about $400 and was planning on this weekend's fundraiser to come up with the rest. Our new house had a big time mouse/rat problem and we'e been sanitizing, painting and repairing.  There have been many unexpected costs and we're trying not to go into debt.

Well, it turned out it was the alternator and it cost just under $400. I'm not too panicked, because I know God has provided and will continue to fulfill His promises, but it is a little stressful.

Then I found out that one of the families adopting from Maria's country (but different region) was denied. The judge thought it would be better for little Kirill to spend his life in an institution with no education, not enough food and no family. What?  This same scenario could play out for any of us, but it is unfathomable. Please pray for the Davis family and Kirill. Please continue to pray for us and Maria too and for the judge that will hear our case, that he/she may find favor with us and have a heart that would seek the best for Maria. Please pray that God will provide for our needs and we would have the means to get to her as soon as possible. And if you are able, would you donate to our adoption fund via our PayPal chip-in box on the right? We can't use the Reece's Rainbow tax-deductible funds until after we submit our application to Maria's country.

This is the verse that the Lord gave to me today: 1 Peter 5:8 "Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour."

I need this reminder to not get comfortable and drop my guard-let's be vigilant and keep PRAYING!

Look to God

I received a little adoption devotional study and was so encouraged by what one adoptive family wrote that I had to share it with all of you.  (I'm not sure about internet copyright but I will give them credit for this).  By Eric and Mitzie Tibbets- adopted from Russia and are in the process for Guatemala

During your adoption journey you are ikely to become child-focused instead of God-focused.  Let me challenge you that if you are longing more for the child instead of the Savior, you may want to pause and take inventory of your relationship with God.  I'd like to share a few truths we learned as we journeyed with God:

• You aren't waiting on man, you are waiting on God. (Wow- this is a hard one!)
• God isn't going to send you where He is absent.
• God is not bound by geography, timelines, politics or finances. (Did you hear that?)
• God hasn't asked you to walk this path alone. Not only will He remain with you each step of the way, He has prepared many warriors to go into battle with you. You'll be amazed at who He uses to meet your needs.
• Don't put serving the King on hold. Waiting doesn't equate to idleness. Invest in the wait; don't waste it.
• God's gifts to us are never late (MARIA is a gift); they are always on time and far beyond what we could ever imagine.

Adoption is about stewardship. Your child and everything you possess belongs to God. (Another hard one!) During the wait, surrender it all to God, for His glory.

Lord, help me to daily surrender all, and to deny myself and follow You, for Your glory.

Whistle while you work

I'm laying in my my bed right now and my whole body is aching. I've been cleaning for a week so we can move into our new house the first weekend of April.  My Dad has been helping me while my Mom and sister watch the kids. It's been hard to be away from my kids all day and it's been really hard work, but it will be worth it in the end.  Tomorrow is painting day-can't wait!

We finally were able to get our last six documents mailed out today. Our notary had been out of town and then her kids were sick, so we ended up waiting a couple of weeks to get them done. They are off to the Secretary of State and then to our agency who will send the big ol' dossier to Maria's country where we will officially be registered to adopt there. Then they will send us an invitation to come to be matched with a child (a formality since we have already requested to be matched with Maria).

There have been a couple of new developments since I last blogged. It looks like we will more than likely have to take three trips instead of two because of processing delays for Maria's visa and passport.  I received our travel packet and there is still a lot of paperwork to prepare and probably notarize to get ready before our court appointment (second trip). 

I was emotionally up and down last week when realizing that we are getting so close, yet don't have the funds to actually make it happen. We are walking by faith and trusting, but it is hard and the doubt constantly slips in and we have to keep going back to God's promises. Well, we then received great news about an interest free loan that we are probably going to get that we can pay back when we get our adoption tax refund next year! 

We constantly see God providing what we need when we need it.  But it's so hard not to glance over and go "Yeah, but where's the other $15,000 going to come from?" Yes, $15,000.  But it's not my plan, it's His and it's not something I'm going to worry about right now.

In fact, I'm going to bed. I'm exhausted and there's more to do tomorrow.

Thank you for your prayers, may God bless you for your faithfulness.