Wow! What a roller-coaster ride this has been this whole experience has been. I will just start with the latest news and then fill you in on the details. We are in the process of adopting a beautiful 15 month old girl from Russia and we are hoping to go meet her in TWO WEEKS!
Just a few weeks we were certain our adoption was done. We were ready to give up, but once again, God encouraged us to continue on. That quiet voice kept telling us to keep going and then last Friday I found a little boy on a waiting kids list. I decided to call the agency to get more info, but quickly learned that he is in Ukraine which does not work for us. But the social worker asked if we would be willing to adopt a little girl that had just been referred to one of their families. The family lost their job days prior so they could not accept her and they needed to find a new home for her asap. Umm, YES! What a miracle! Truly, this is unheard of, especially with baby girls. The problem was we needed to be ready to move quickly before Russia sent her referral to a different agency and this meant our home study had to be done. Well, our home study was still two weeks away from complete and they found another family who had a complete home study.. This was no good she said and told us we would have to find a way to finish it in a week if we would have any hope of adopting her. We prayed that weekend and asked God to either open the door by giving us favor with our home study agency or to clearly close it. Well, He could not have opened the door wider! Our amazing home study agency (Holt International) dropped everything and got it done in 4 days! I cry every time I think about how wonderful they are and how God completely moved mountains this week. And for some reason, the other family took too long filling out the paperwork so they are giving her to us!
Now our home study is in Wisconsin waiting for some official documents from the licensed agency. I wish I could explain this better but I don't really understand it myself. I do know that we need this very quickly but am told the WI does not move very quickly. Fortunately God is bigger than a state government so we pray for a speedy processor. Once we have this ready our agency is hoping our travel visas will be ready for us so we can hop on an airplane and fly it to Russia. Completely Crazy! We could be in Russia, meeting our baby girl in 2 weeks! This is such a miracle because it seemed impossible that we would receive a referral and get all three trips in before tax season. Generally it takes awhile after the first trip to get a court date, but this region that she is in moves quickly so it is very likely we will have her home before Christmas! I was reminded in today's sermon of the song, "God will make a way when there seems to be no way". It was such a perfect reminder because this is the song God gave me almost two years ago when He asked us to adopt from Russia and it seemed so impossible.
What happened to other agency?
We have been working with Dillon/Buckner Int. for the past year and a half. It has been a really bad experience for us, partly because they have made mistakes and have been dishonest, but also partly because Russian adoption has changed a lot in the last year and unfortunately they work in regions that just don't have children we qualify for or they aren't referring them. It was simply a dead end for us and God has been trying to tell us for awhile to find a new agency, but honestly, we were ignoring Him. Why? Mostly because there is a lot more money needed to move to a new agency and that is a really scary thought when we still have so much to raise. But God has really shown us this week that He is the provider and that He clearly wants us to go this direction.
There are so many things we could use prayer for! First though I would like to humbly thank all of you for every single prayer, word of encouragement and financial gift. So many times we have been discouraged and wanted to quit and just when we needed it most we would get an email or a text with words that lifted our spirits or a hug. So many times we have needed money to pay for something and we get a donation for just the right amount. While its been a difficult journey, these are the things that have encouraged us and have shown us that God has been with us every step of the way. Thank you for being His hands when we needed a hug and His voice when we needed the motivation to keep going. We would not be here if it weren't for each of you.
Prayer Requests:
1. We have a few more documents we need before we can apply for travel visas and buy plane tickets. They are papers that need to be completed by other groups and governments and we have no say in when they get done.
2. We are going to be buying plane tickets last minute and as our budget is extremely tight we are hoping for a good deal and available seating
3. Wisdom with packing and preparing for such a big trip in such little time
Just a few weeks we were certain our adoption was done. We were ready to give up, but once again, God encouraged us to continue on. That quiet voice kept telling us to keep going and then last Friday I found a little boy on a waiting kids list. I decided to call the agency to get more info, but quickly learned that he is in Ukraine which does not work for us. But the social worker asked if we would be willing to adopt a little girl that had just been referred to one of their families. The family lost their job days prior so they could not accept her and they needed to find a new home for her asap. Umm, YES! What a miracle! Truly, this is unheard of, especially with baby girls. The problem was we needed to be ready to move quickly before Russia sent her referral to a different agency and this meant our home study had to be done. Well, our home study was still two weeks away from complete and they found another family who had a complete home study.. This was no good she said and told us we would have to find a way to finish it in a week if we would have any hope of adopting her. We prayed that weekend and asked God to either open the door by giving us favor with our home study agency or to clearly close it. Well, He could not have opened the door wider! Our amazing home study agency (Holt International) dropped everything and got it done in 4 days! I cry every time I think about how wonderful they are and how God completely moved mountains this week. And for some reason, the other family took too long filling out the paperwork so they are giving her to us!
Now our home study is in Wisconsin waiting for some official documents from the licensed agency. I wish I could explain this better but I don't really understand it myself. I do know that we need this very quickly but am told the WI does not move very quickly. Fortunately God is bigger than a state government so we pray for a speedy processor. Once we have this ready our agency is hoping our travel visas will be ready for us so we can hop on an airplane and fly it to Russia. Completely Crazy! We could be in Russia, meeting our baby girl in 2 weeks! This is such a miracle because it seemed impossible that we would receive a referral and get all three trips in before tax season. Generally it takes awhile after the first trip to get a court date, but this region that she is in moves quickly so it is very likely we will have her home before Christmas! I was reminded in today's sermon of the song, "God will make a way when there seems to be no way". It was such a perfect reminder because this is the song God gave me almost two years ago when He asked us to adopt from Russia and it seemed so impossible.
What happened to other agency?
We have been working with Dillon/Buckner Int. for the past year and a half. It has been a really bad experience for us, partly because they have made mistakes and have been dishonest, but also partly because Russian adoption has changed a lot in the last year and unfortunately they work in regions that just don't have children we qualify for or they aren't referring them. It was simply a dead end for us and God has been trying to tell us for awhile to find a new agency, but honestly, we were ignoring Him. Why? Mostly because there is a lot more money needed to move to a new agency and that is a really scary thought when we still have so much to raise. But God has really shown us this week that He is the provider and that He clearly wants us to go this direction.
There are so many things we could use prayer for! First though I would like to humbly thank all of you for every single prayer, word of encouragement and financial gift. So many times we have been discouraged and wanted to quit and just when we needed it most we would get an email or a text with words that lifted our spirits or a hug. So many times we have needed money to pay for something and we get a donation for just the right amount. While its been a difficult journey, these are the things that have encouraged us and have shown us that God has been with us every step of the way. Thank you for being His hands when we needed a hug and His voice when we needed the motivation to keep going. We would not be here if it weren't for each of you.
Prayer Requests:
1. We have a few more documents we need before we can apply for travel visas and buy plane tickets. They are papers that need to be completed by other groups and governments and we have no say in when they get done.
2. We are going to be buying plane tickets last minute and as our budget is extremely tight we are hoping for a good deal and available seating
3. Wisdom with packing and preparing for such a big trip in such little time
4. For Justin's employers to be understanding of the time off he will be needing
5. For Braden while we are gone. I know he will be safe and well cared for, but he has never been away from us. For my parents also who will be watching him. Also a praise on this matter. I was a bit stressed this last week because my parents were going to be on a cruise when we are supposed to be in Russia. I wasn't sure what to do with Braden so I prayed about it and decided to stop stressing. Well, it turns out something happened with the cruise and they aren't going now. Sorry mom and dad about the cruise, but selfishly I am thanking God for this.
6. For our baby girl! And for God to prepare us for her needs...
7. Money! This is definitely a little scary, but God has given us just enough to pay for this first step so we are trusting that He will continue to provide just as He has all along. We now need to come up with another $24,000 in a very short amount of time. Thank you to those who have asked about donating. We are so humbled by your generosity. I definitely recommend donating to our Lifesong account either online or by check.
Please write Vail/Justin #2146 in the preference box/memo line.
Mail to:
Lifesong for Orphans
PO Box 40
Gridley, IL 61744
or online at:
http://www.lifesongfororphans.org/donation.html
I am going to get our blog going again this week. I will be posting most updates, especially while we are traveling on ourrussianmiracle.blogspot.com
5. For Braden while we are gone. I know he will be safe and well cared for, but he has never been away from us. For my parents also who will be watching him. Also a praise on this matter. I was a bit stressed this last week because my parents were going to be on a cruise when we are supposed to be in Russia. I wasn't sure what to do with Braden so I prayed about it and decided to stop stressing. Well, it turns out something happened with the cruise and they aren't going now. Sorry mom and dad about the cruise, but selfishly I am thanking God for this.
6. For our baby girl! And for God to prepare us for her needs...
7. Money! This is definitely a little scary, but God has given us just enough to pay for this first step so we are trusting that He will continue to provide just as He has all along. We now need to come up with another $24,000 in a very short amount of time. Thank you to those who have asked about donating. We are so humbled by your generosity. I definitely recommend donating to our Lifesong account either online or by check.
Please write Vail/Justin #2146 in the preference box/memo line.
Mail to:
Lifesong for Orphans
PO Box 40
Gridley, IL 61744
or online at:
http://www.lifesongfororphans.org/donation.html
I am going to get our blog going again this week. I will be posting most updates, especially while we are traveling on ourrussianmiracle.blogspot.com
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