Happy 6 Months!

Our daughter in Uganda just celebrated her 6-month birthday last week.  We wish we could be there to celebrate with her!  So, I decided to make a sign for her (of course, I am not showing you her name yet).

I also got her a strawberry cake.  I hope she likes strawberry!  Mark was still on his "long vacation" so he celebrated over Skype with me.

Then I went to have dinner with some friends, and they helped me celebrate her 6 months as well.

Hopefully she will be able to see these pictures years from now and now that we loved her and thought of her when she was only 6 months old.  We are looking forward to celebrating the big 1 year birthday!  It may not be in our arms, but we will hopefully soon after get to hold her.  And hopefully, by this time next year, she will be enjoying her new family!  We are thankful for all those who are praying for her to come home quickly!

God Answers!

Wow!  Thank you guys for praying!  I got our FBI Clearance in the mail today!!!!  So, now the paperwork phase for our homestudy is complete!

Everything needs to be mailed in, and assembled, verified, copied, etc. still, but we are on our way there!

What happens next?
-Our homestudy agency should provide us several copies of our homestudy.
-One copy will be included in a Dossier that will be sent to Uganda, and also one for the Dossier sent to the DRC.
-Our paperwork for the Dossiers is almost done.  Prior to submitting it we will need to include the approval from the USCIS (US Citizen and Immigration Services).  So please pray that it arrives in a timely manner!
-Once Dossiers are submitted we start the waiting game again.

Timelines (Estimated):
For Uganda- agency information says that we should expect to travel within 6-9 months after Dossier submission and Child Referral (We already have the referral).  This is only their basic estimate and may happen faster or slower.

For the Democratic Republic of Congo- agency information says that the average wait time for a referral of a child is 0-12 months once the Dossier is submitted.  We hope zero, but we'll see.  After the referral it will be another 6-9 months until we would expect to travel.  This is only their basic estimate and may happen faster or slower.

I am getting excited that this is all coming together!!

Getting the Nursery Ready

Sneak Peak:  

So, excitement is building for these little ones to arrive.  Of course, that means we have to have a place ready for them to stay!  So, I had my eye on a particular nursery bedding set online that was set at a good price.  Can you tell I am practical?  In fact it was so good that I felt like it was easy enough to go ahead a purchase so we could get started on decorating.  Can you tell I am a super planner?

This is the set I picked.....

Please excuse the cheesy cloud walls and bees floating behind.  We are not going to do that!  It is a neutral yellow, so it would work for a baby boy as well as a baby girl.  It even has colored polka dots on the reverse.

It comes with a nice quilt.  It has pink it it that could be brought out with girl accessories, and it has blue that could be highlighted with boy accessories.

Then, I got this super cute wall art to go with it:

You can arrange it how you want to.  It's a stick-on decor, so it is not harming our "rental" walls.  Plus, it can be taken down and moved to our next destination.

Our nursery walls are currently a yellow-tan color, but we could paint the walls in our next home any color to match with this wall art.

Finally, this is a picture of the crib I really like so far.  I haven't purchased it, since I have had an offer for purchasing it.  But it is a 4-in-1 crib:

It turns into a toddler bed.

And also a headboard for a full size bed.

This way the furniture can grow with the child!  (By the way, all the pics of the bedding are with a whilte crib.  White seems to be the popular color now.  But I think we will stick with a dark wood color, like the one I picked out above).

I just thought I would share with you the fun news, and so you can see what our children's room is somewhat going to look like.

I can't wait to start organizing and decorating the room!

Get Organized!

So, I have been collecting a lot of paperwork!  I have Three adoptions worth of paperwork, from Three different countries, with Three different agencies!  My tiny little file folder was bursting at the seams!

And I had more paperwork that wouldn't fit into this, waiting to be filed!

So I went to the local store and bought a pretty, and Large, file folder.  I wanted it to be able to hold the A4 size paper that the UK uses.

Then I decided on categories for my 19 files, 

and found that they looked best labeled with a label maker.

Then came the sorting of paperwork (This is near the beginning, the pile ended up getting bigger!)

And Voila!  It was all complete.

In case you are wondering what categories I used, here are some of them:

-Supplies

-To Do

-Homestudy

-Dossier

-Referral

-Travel

-Background Checks

-Birth Certificates and Marriage License

-Adoption Education

-Post Placement

-Fundraising

It feels much better to have everything in one place now!

He is a Great Provider

It is amazing how God provides!  He is a gracious and loving Father who is faithful to provide what is needed to accomplish His tasks.  I saw some answers to prayer during my several week vacation I just took.  I get tempted to worry about things coming together, and I was started to worry more how we would be able to afford all the costs involved in these two adoptions.  We had felt we were doing Ok when we had started this journey, but things changed and now we are in a whole different circumstance.  Here is what is big for me....

I think God put us in this place of need ON PURPOSE.  

We needed to depend on Him to provide.  We cannot exist apart from Him, how could we think we could accomplish this process of adoptions on our own?  As I wondered and asked God how this was all going to work out, He gave me peace.  He reminded me that He was the one accomplishing His desire for these children to have a family.  And He will provide for it to happen!

And then here's what happened....

I received a large check from family that was much more than I expected!  I was told by more family that they wanted to help sponsor our trip to Uganda!  I arrived home and found another check that came in the mail from some dear Christian friends for an amazing amount!  Not only that, I also had a message on my answering machine asking me to come in for a job interview!  I was so blessed it made me cry and thank God that He was showing me that it will be OK.

Can God provide for us through me getting a job?  Yes, He can.  However, I did not end up getting the job that I interviewed for.  I was so willing for God to do what He wanted, that it didn't upset me.  Finding that I did not have the job reminded me of the work that God has for me right now.  I had lots of adoption paperwork to follow up on.  So God got me moving and working on what is needed to bring these children home.

Update on paperwork:

   I have checked on our background files, and it seems that all we are lacking now for our homestudy paperwork to be complete is our FBI clearance.  So, please pray that it comes quickly!  This is a huge blessing, because I thought we were a lot further behind than we are.  God showed me that things were moving, and paperwork was getting done while I was on my vacation (in fact several pieces of paperwork came in the mail in the meantime).

   

    I was able to submit our applications to the US immigration to bring foreign-born children into the US.  Pray they will approve the applications, which are lacking the homestudy at the moment, and be returned quickly.

Update on our Daughter:

    I do not have any big new update on our daughter right now.  I have asked for an update, but information is moving slowly in Uganda.  But, Good News, our agency sent someone to Uganda this past week!  They will be gathering medical information on some children, including our daughter, and hopefully we will receive news on how she is doing and pictures too!  The only other new information that I learned is that she is learning both English and Luganda in her baby home.  I can't wait to communicate with her!  Hopefully I will learn some Luganda before I travel, because I will need it when I am staying there!

As we prayerfully rest in God's assurance that He will provide, I still hope to bring news to you about ways to you can be involved in this process.  I am working on some fundraisers.  In the meantime, don't forget that you can order some coffee from our JUST LOVE COFFEE store, and $5 for every bag gets donated towards our adoption!  (in fact, I just got a check in the mail from them for what has been raised so far!  Thank you for buying coffee!)  It's really yummy, by the way!