Look at her!

We have a few other pictures of our girl besides the picture from her button. Isn't she beautiful? We just cannot wait to meet her, just three more weeks!

I know many of you are praying for her, so I thought I would share her pictures.

Travel Date!

We have a travel date. Our appointment is November 18th! Woo Hoo! Nina we are coming!

This blog will be going private in about 2 weeks so let me know if you want to be invited!

No Hope or Future

There are countries in Eastern Europe where children with special needs are transferred from orphanages to institutions when the reach the age of 4. This is also the case for Nina's country. The fact that she is already 3 1/2 constantly reminds me of what her future would have been like in a few short months if we were not coming to get her.

We know that in this journey some people might think that we rushed to a decision, that we should have waited to have the money before committing to adopt a child. After you watch this video, you will understand, we cannot wait, we had to act. Money is such an insignificant part of the equation when it comes to saving a child. Yes, I won't lie, it is the most stressful part, but we have no reservations of taking a loan regardless of interest.

I hope after you watch this video your hearts are touched. Reeces Rainbow seeks to save as many of these children as possible. You can donate towards this children, or allow the reality of their fates to move you into action.

If your kids are with you at the computer, do not let them watch this, it is very real. But I believe people need to know, the world needs to know. We can do something about this!

The good news is that this institution has now had some help after being in the spotlight, so change can happen. Yet, many children still face places similar to these.

Encouragement

And right when we feel low, God shows up and smiles at us through other people.

This is a journey of faith, and all in all it has been a sweet ride. We have seen God work and we have experienced His love in very special and meaningful ways.

Adoption: A Journey of Faith

“God doesn't call us to be comfortable. He calls us to trust Him so completely that we are unafraid to put ourselves in situations where we will be in trouble if He doesn't come through.” Francis Chan

I recently came across this quote, as I read it, the tears started to flow, this is where we are at, this is our life.

Andy and I have really been battling discouragement the last couple of weeks. Adoption is an emotional roller coaster. We find ourselves in a situation where we will be in trouble if God does not come through, and while we wait, it is hard not to start questioning the outcome.

I sat across the desk from our County Assessor dealing with adoption documents and couldn't stop crying. Not only was it embarrassing, but it made me look inside and realize I had to deal with all the feelings inside of me. It was later that day that I first read the quote from Francis Chan. God was sending me a message.

When we decided to commit to adopt Nina, we knew from the beginning that this would be a journey of Faith. The eyes of the world might look at us and think that we are crazy. The sacrifices are many, and the timing might seem wrong. But this is what Faith means, this is what stepping out in obedience looks like. We will not question, but we will obey.

I would lie if I said that we don’t have questions, because we do.

“Can we really do this financially?”

“Am I willing to be gone from my girls for seven weeks?”

“Will it be a lonely Christmas with only Nina and myself?”

“Will Andy be okay playing “single parent” for a month?”

“Will our girls cope okay when we are both gone?”

“Will Nina fit into our family?”

“Will Ellie feel resentful having two sisters with Special Needs?”

“How will I handle being on my own in a foreign country where I don’t speak the language for so long.”

“Are we alone in this?”

Please know, many of these thoughts are not from God, we know that, but when emotions are raw, it is easy to entertain those thoughts and take comments or conversations negatively, even though they never were. It is more of a reflection of our lack of trust as we are so close to the goal, and so much in this process is out of our hands. As a matter of fact, it is because we are so close that our emotions run high as all the knots and bolts seem to still be scattered around us and we are not sure where they fit yet.

We knew from the beginning that there would be sacrifices, and we accepted them. We took our cue from Jesus and His sacrifice for us. He adopted us into His family, we are His beloved children and there was no price or time constrictions that would stop Him from getting us. And so we will do the same, trusting that He will provide.

Where God leads, He provides, and so we trust. This is our journey of Faith.

Dossier Submitted!

Our dossier was submitted today. Now we wait on our travel date! This is so exciting! We really are getting closer!

It Arrived!

Our dossier has arrived and our facilitator has it!

Now it just needs to be submitted and once they approve it we will get our travel date! If all goes well we will have our travel date sometime in November!

Financially we can use all the help we can get! Remember that donations through Reece's Rainbow are tax deductible and we are praying for $16,000 by the end of October!

Dossier in Paris!

Well our dossier is in Paris, keeps getting closer. I don't think I ever cared so much about our mail before! LOL

We keep getting closer.

The Starfish Story

One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed a boy picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean.

Approaching the boy, he asked, “What are you doing?”

The youth replied, “Throwing starfish back into the ocean.The surf is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die.”

“Son,” the man said, “don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish?You can’t make a difference!”

After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish,and threw it back into the surf. Then, smiling at the man, he said…”I made a difference for that one."

Original Story by: Loren Eisley

Our dossier is on its way!

Our dossier is safely tucked into a FedEx box and on it's way!

This is our official documentation, and once our facilitator receives it and has it translated he can submit it to the SDA office.

Once the officials review our documentation they will give us a travel date.

Once we have a travel date we go get our girl!

We are so excited!

Now we wait wait wait.

Keep us in your prayers during this time :)

Prayer Request

Will you pray with us that we receive our Immigration approval soon?

We re not sure what is holding our fingerprint approval, and this is the only thing keeping us from submitting our dossier. We had hoped to send our dossier a week ago, we keep waiting...

Please pray.