Memories of Waiting

As our time of "waiting for Joseph" comes to an end, I decided to make a slide show of his photos. This will be my last post before traveling and the last photos of our precious son without his family. All of the details of the trip are falling into place. We are blessed beyond measure by so many friends and family members encouraging and helping to make this trip happen on such short notice. Also, our wonderful Tami with Dillon is completely priceless. Seriously DO NOT know what we would do without her! I am so glad we decided to do the trip this way. It is crazy, hectic, a little stressful, BUT at least it is only crazy, hectic stressful for 3 days instead of 2 weeks! It works for us! We will not be taking a computer with us, but I will be calling home and my dad may post prayer requests and updates as I pass those along. Please pray for our precious boys we are leaving in Missouri. They are asking morbid questions and expressing some fear. All I can tell them is that God is in control and will take care of our family. I wish I could promise them that we will come home. I tell them that we will be safe, we will pray, and that we plan to come home with their baby brother next Saturday! We appreciate your prayers for them. Thank you all my Bloggy Friends!

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Off We Go!!

We have had a whirlwind kind of a day!!! We thought that we were going to have to wait until Wed or Thursday to make travel plans because we had to wait for the orphanage to get Joseph's passport. Well, we got an email this morning saying that they have it!!! SOOOO, we contacted a travel agent and found out that for just a LITTLE BIT more money, we could land in Kolkata on his Birthday!!! OH MY!! THEN, we will be HOME the day before Mother's day. That means we will be in Missouri with ALL of our children for Mother's Day! No cooler gift than that! We could have waited another week and had one less layover, but have I mentioned that I WANT MY BABY??!! Needless to say... Paris sounds great for a layover! We are leaving THIS THURSDAY!!!!!! Please pray for all of the last minute details. We are packed and the boys are ecstatic. They just want their baby, too. We are to the point that we want this whole thing done and are ready to start our lives as a family of 5!

PASSPORT!!!

We received wonderful news yesterday! Joseph's passport was issued in India!!!!! I was at work all day and didn't even check our e-mails. I figured we wouldn't hear anything because it was the weekend. Then, I called Bill from work and asked him to read a message from the church regarding Sunday School. He paged me a few minutes later to ask if I had checked messages. I said, "no, why?". Then, he shared the news--- Joseph has a passport!! I guess Tami must have talked to the orphanage yesterday morning and then notified us. Now, we must wait until the orphanage has the physical passport in their hands to buy the tickets, but we are looking at the first week of May for travel!!!! Less than 2 weeks away and we will be holding our Joseph!! We get to call and check with a travel agent Monday for flight availability, but are not allowed to "pull the trigger" and purchase anything until we get the green light from Dillon. Our family is elated and ready to hop a jet plane! Right now, I'm off to worship my Lord! Happy Lord's Day, everyone!

Hardest Wait!

Okay, so we have been in this adoption for 2 years now and this last step might be the hardest one. He is ours. We know it in our hearts, minds, house,and even LEGALLY.... BBUUUUUTTTTT.... we can't go scoop him up and bring him home yet!!!!!!! We are still waiting on his passport to be completed. UGH! It hasn't even been that long, but each minute is dragging on as I JUST WANT MY BABY!! Enough whining for now. I got a new picture that is DEFINITELY my new fav. He's changing so fast... will I recognize him? Hurry up, passport, before there is no baby left and he is all "big boy":)

Surprising Thoughts

The "legals" for our Joseph have arrived!!! They are in my/our hands (well, Bill is still at work) and it feels so wonderful, yet sad at the same time. I want to adopt his birth-mother,too!! Somehow, seeing her name and reading the circumstances in print makes me want to bring both of them home... I wonder if anyone ever does that? Am I strange to want to scoop them both out of there together? My reactions were surprising. Yes, I am joyful and anticipatory regarding my sweet Joseph, but how my heart yearns to show her Christ's love as well. Adoption can feel bitter-sweet when you know the reality of why your child became yours. I think I will always feel connected to this young woman through our precious, soulful-eyed Joseph. I will continue to pray for her.

Legals and Packing!!

Well, tonight was a milestone!!! I actually got out the suitcases and started putting things in them!!! I was amazed by how many long, "flowy" cotton skirts were in my closet. My mother-in-law loaned some things to me and then I had a few. Before I knew it, I had about 9 outfits!!! God works these things out as I didn't want to have to go buy anything if I didn't have to. They may not be the "trendiest", but I'm not a trend-setter, anyway. They look cute, I think, and my husband said I was pretty, so what else matters??!! THEN, I found out our "legals" are in transit from the Tulsa office!!! It is SOOO COOOLLLL to see all of it in writing... very official. Much fun tonight!

Little Man!

Liberty just sent these pictures!! They are a little fuzzy, but you can tell just how much he has grown. She said that he has NO TEETH yet which I am thrilled with! She said just 4 big bumps on his gums. Bill said we'd better pack Motrin. He looks like such a little man!

Movin' and Groovin'

Well, well, well... things are MOVING in India!!! The judge signed our court order and it will be on it's way!!!! We also got word that a temporary license is being issued to the babie's home meaning REFERRALS WILL FINALLY GO OUT to families waiting! Maybe some referrals will be accepted in the next few weeks and I will be able to take some pictures of their new little babies for them when we go!!

Keep praying, dear friends. This last leg of the adoption journey has really made me examine prayer life and let me tell you... God is listening to his children. PLEASE PRAY FOR LIBERTY. She is in India right now and overwhelmed by what she is seeing. The poverty is so difficult to take in, she said. They also had some baggage lost. The baggage included their donations to the orphanage which upset her. She doesn't need to be fretting about that as I know of another family traveling soon who could help them out:)She did get her son, BEN (Joseph's cribmate) and had one comment, "beautiful". Adoption is a beautiful thing.

Great Is Thy Faithfulness

I was asked by a friend to write a post to share about God's financial provision throughout our adoption process in an effort to encourage others. So many people say things like, "I would love to do it, but we can't afford it". If that is you, keep reading!

We felt called to adoption, but we weren't sure how we were going to pay for it! Like so many adoptive families, we have made some choices which do not make sense to financial advisors. After having children, I slowly cut back my hours at work until we could arrange our schedules so that one of us (either Bill or myself) could be home with the children. This means that I now work 6 days per month as a PRN Speech Therapist at the hospital. My husband works for the State of Missouri as a probation officer. We have a mortgage, but no other debt. We are not high rollers by any American standard. My idea when we started this was that we would just take out a loan and pay it off. People borrow money for "less worthy" causes, I thought. A friend almost knocked me off my feet one day when she said that she was going to pray that we would get through this debt-free. I thanked her and wondered if she had seen our bank account!! Silly girl! WELL---- we are on the brink of travel and have had the money each time to pay the fees... with money for our trip already saved!

It has been nothing short of miraculous. I could outline specifics, but our adoption expenses have quite literally arrived in our mailbox or at our front door! Here are a few examples: My husband was awarded a raise that Missouri said he should have gotten years before. We had no idea that was coming! They gave him the raise and the BACKPAY in a lump sum providentially just before a huge program fee. A family member handed him an envelope once with $1,000 cash inside. This is not a wealthy family member-- totally unexpected and NOT requested. A woman showed up at our front door with an envelope containing $300 with a Bible verse written across the envelope-- I still don't know who did that! I had the opportunity to work some extra hours at work and I helped at a nursing home last summer for a gal on maternity leave a few days per week. My mom offered babysitting to allow me to do that. Will we have nest-egg when we are done?..ummm...no... BUT what a nest!!

My point is this--- If you are called, GOD will equip you! I have not met an adoptive family YET who would tell you otherwise. People ask me ALL THE TIME, "Isn't that expensive?" My husband told me to give them the perfect response. Now, I say..."It costs EXACTLY as much as GOD has provided". Enough said.