Sunday, November 30, 2008

God is in charge...His power reigns.  

I love this quote by C.H. Spurgeon...

"God’s power is like Himself, self-existent, self-sustained. The mightiest of men cannot add so much as a shadow of increased power to the Omnipotent One. He sits on no buttressed throne and leans on no assisting arm. His court is not maintained by His courtiers (a person who attends a royal court as a companion or adviser to the king or queen. a person who fawns and flatters in order to gain favor or advantage.) nor does it borrow its splendor from His creatures. He is Himself the great central source and Originator of all power (C. H. Spurgeon).

I get so caught up in the enormity of what God is doing in our lives right now that I can sometimes hardly breathe.  This is all so much bigger than me, my wife, and my family.  The task ahead seems like Mt. Everest.  I can't imagine why God chose us to do this.  I can't fathom how He has been making it happen.  I can look back over the last 3 months and I get overwhelmed by God's goodness and power. 

God's power has overtaken us and has left us speechless, humbled, energized, awestruck, amazed, flabbergasted.  We have seen God do things we never dreamed could have happened when He first asked us to do this. 

He has given me dreams of the future that seem just as incredibly impossible, yet I know that in Him and through Him, nothing is impossible.  Mary and I felt His call a couple of years ago in this area and even though we knew that it was God who would bring it about, we scarcely believed it could really happen.  Yet, here we stand.   Just below the summit.  We can see it, but stand in disbelief.  We can feel the change coming, but feel like we're in a dream.

God has brought us here.  We trust Him.  We love Him.  We surrender to Him.

Peace and grace.

Where we are now...  

Right now we are waiting...

We received word from our facilitator in Eastern Europe late Monday night (November 24) that our dossier had been submitted despite the fight to submit.  It was also the deadline to submit dossiers for adoptions of young and "normal," healthy children.  Since we are adopting older (5 years old) and broken children (Down syndrome), our facilitator made it clear that it was God's hand that allowed this to happen.  We are so happy that God allowed us to beat the deadline.  

We have communicated that we are willing to travel with little notice so we don't know what to expect.  Our hope and desire is to go and get the kids as soon as possible.  We don't know what God's plan is or what His timing will hold, but we have a belief that it will be sooner, rather than later.  He has moved everything along so fast and without problem that we can't help but believe that it will be soon.   We may be totally wrong, but that's the impression we have.  We are watching and waiting.  

While we are waiting, we will worship.  While we are waiting, we will trust Him.  While we are waiting, we will continue to chase after Him.

We thank you for your prayers.  

Our daughter Hannah has been knitting like a mad women!  She is creating hats and scarves and selling them to help with fundraising.  In the next couple of days, we'll have an online shop where you can see the items and order your own custom knitted hat or scarf...infants to adults.  She does great work and it's amazing that she has stepped up and is filling her free time to make the adoption a reality.  We'll post a link to the store when it's set up.

John & Tracie Loux were submitted the same day we were and they are in the waiting process too.  Pray for them as they continue to fundraise and as they wait on the Lord.   You can visit their blog at tracieloux.wordpress.com .  They have some great fundraisers going that you'll want to check out!

Until later...peace and grace.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

The Latest...  

We heard from our facilitator in Eastern Europe today. There's really
no new info today. He let us know that he will contact us again as
soon as we have an "invitation" (court date). Or If there is a
problem with any of our papers.

He said we were very fortunate that we were able to get our papers in
because it was a fight to get them in due to the high volume of young,
"normal" children people are trying to adopt. Since ours are older
and with down syndrome they are often shuffled to the bottom. So
praise the Lord!!!

We'll update as soon as we know more. Thanks for your continued
prayers for is and for our boys in Europe.

Monday, November 24, 2008

We're Submitted!!  

Our paperwork was submitted today in Eastern Europe!  We don't have details yet.  Our facilitator sent a simple message that just said "You're submitted! Details tomorrow."  YIPPEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!


Praise the Lord!!!!!

No News Today...  

Well, there was no news today. But in this case, no news is just no
news. Maybe tomorrow.

God is faithful. Period.  

The waiting is what gets me. My mind thinks of all the things that
can go wrong. Not all the things that have gone right. It's about 3pm
easetern Europe time and no word.

The one thing I do know is this...
God is God and He is faithful no matter what happens today. End of
story. I'm not worried. Just anxious. It's that feeling you get as a
child waiting for Christmas. It's almost time to open presents and
you can't waitto see if you got the one thing you really wanted.

Till we hear something, peace and grace.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

The Bake Sale  

If you're looking for the EXCITING NEWS post, skip down a couple to the post titled "Everything is Set..."

Well...hardly anyone showed up for the Craft Show so we didn't have many buyers.  We sold some of our baked good but not too much.  Our 13 year old daughter, Hannah, sold several hats that she's been knitting, though!  Go Hannah!!

She's got some orders to fill that she took today and will do those this weekend.  She's going to take orders tomorrow at church too and try to get some more done over the Thanksgiving holidays...



<---Hannah knitting at the Craft Fair Today                  



The events of today...  

IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR THE EXCITING NEWS...it's the next post down called "Everything is Set"

Today is our final fundraiser...we hope.  There is a craft show here in Moore, OK called Holiday Happenings.  We have been allowed/asked to set up a table as a Bake Sale.  So yesterday I baked and baked and baked!  It can't believe how much stuff I baked.  Hopefully we will have a great bake sale.  We still need some funds to make the trip and I DON'T WANT TO BRING HOME ALL THAT STUFF!!  :-)

It will be kind of nice to be able to relax a bit today and talk to people and tell them about what God is doing in our lives.  We'll be busy enough today and tomorrow (tomorrow will be a killer!) that we won't have time to fret about whether our Dossier will be submitted on Monday.  Hopefully, by the time we wake up Monday morning, we'll have our answer!  That would be SPLENDID.

Jon & Matty... Daddy and Mommy love you and we're on our way to get you soon.  Jesus is there with you.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Everything is set...  

Whoo-hoo...


We heard from our facilitator today that our documents have been "legalized" and will be submitted on Monday!

The speed at which this has all happened so far has been amazing to us.  If you would have told us at the end of August that in less than 5 months we would be bringing 2 more boys into our family, I would have told you that there was no way.  Yet...IF things get submitted Monday and things move along (even at the normal adoption pace) that's the reality.

We bless God for letting us do this...making it possible and providing the multitude of needs to accomplish it.  We're almost there financially, but we are far enough along that we could travel tomorrow if we were given the date.  We'd be able to find a way to make it happen.  We're confident that by the time we travel, God will have met those needs and more.

Praise the Lord!

Our Facilitator Has Everything.  

The Lord gave our package wings and it arrived yesterday in Ukraine. By 8:00 p.m. Ukraine time, our facilitator had it. Oh me of little faith. I was worried about it getting there before Monday morning. Instead, it got there Thursday morning. It's funny how our minds work. The God who parted the Red Sea, provided food from the sky for 40 years, raised dead people to life, fed thousands with just a few morsels, caused blind people to see...that's the One I had a hard time believing would be able to get a package (just a couple of pieces of paper) to the right place at the right time. Silly.

We are now just praying and hoping and waiting and BELIEVING. Knowing that God's plans are not our and that His timing is just exactly perfect, we are watching to see what He will do next. We'll follow Him. He knows the desire of our hearts (after all, He put it there), so whatever He does with that as it relates to timing, is His business.

This journey has been fantastic. I need to chronicle the whole thing so I don't forget any of it. The speed at which He has provided most of the money has been blinding. The way He has given us such a huge base of spiritual and emotional support is astounding. From word God, He's been doing fantastic things that only He can do!

Thursday, November 20, 2008

IT'S THERE!  

Our final paper arrived tonight (Kiev time).  Our facilitator is going to UPS to pick it up...hopefully first thing in the morning (Friday).   Hmmmm....maybe he can submit tomorrow...  that'd be cool!

Project: "Get the I171 there in time!"  

The I171 is in Kiev!!  It's in customs right now.  Hopefully they will release it TODAY and it can be put on the delivery truck.  Lord...give our envelope favor with customs!

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

The I171 is on the plane...  

The I171H is on the plane from Cologne, Denmark to Eastern Europe.  In the air.  Hopefully they'll be able to deliver it to our facilitator tomorrow or Friday at the latest.  We really want to get all this submitted on Monday...the deadline day.

It's been only a little over 2 1/2 months since we began this journey.  Some people spend years in the process.  It may seem unrealistic that we could possible get the boys home by the end of the year, but that's what we're praying for...

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

I171 Ready...Thank you Congressman Tom Cole!!!  

Yesterday, a wonderful suggestion was made through a comment on our blog from a reader.  They had called their congressman when they couldn't get a response from USCIS.  I thought, "What have we got to lose?  The worst they could do it laugh and tell me to be patient!"


So I called Representative Tom Cole's office in D.C. and they said that of course they would help us and gave me another number to call.  I called the regional office and they contacted USCIS.  Within 30 minutes, I had heard back from Rep. Cole's office and we had been approved and they were to process the paperwork immediately.  Within a couple of minutes after that, we got an email from USCIS telling us basically the same thing.  WOW!

Well...they didn't mail the document out yesterday as promised so all night I tossed and turned and worried and so on...  But good actually came out of it (don't you love it when God does stuff like that?).  Since they hadn't mailed it, it enabled me to go pick it up this morning at 8:00 a.m. and get it notarized, apostilled and shipped via UPS before 10:30 this morning!  If they had mailed it yesterday afternoon, even with my next day envelope, we wouldn't have had it in our hands til this afternoon, then I would have had the 2 hours of work still to do with it and get it mailed before 6 p.m.  So for all my worrying...God had a much better plan in the works. Hmmmm....so what should I worry about now that it's mailed?  Well...it needs to get to Ukraine in time to be submitted!  But I'll leave that up to God.  It's His deal anyway.  He loves Jonathan & Matthew so much more than we do.  He created them, He sings them to sleep, I suspect He's even held them.  Way more than we've been able to do yet.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Growing Weary.  

Mary and I are so ready to get Jonahtan and Matthew home.  We have our whole dossier in the hands of our facilitator except our I171H.  We were told back on November 3 that we were next in line and they would get to it that same week.  Well, it's November 15 and no word.  No answers to emails.  No document.  We are getting close to when we must mail it for our facilitator to get it, translate it and get it submitted before the country to we are adopting from closes for the rest of the year.  In fact, we are just a couple of days away from that. We can't bear the thought of Jonathan and Matthew being there over another winter.  

God is in control!

Saturday, November 8, 2008


Yesterday, November 7 was Jonahtan's 5th birthday!  We sure wish we could have been there with you buddy!  We had a cake for you.  It was yellow cake, with white icing and SPRINKLES!  Did you celebrate too?  Did someone kiss you and tell you they love you?  Did someone tell you they are so glad you are alive?  We love you!  We are so happy that you will be our son! Just wait...we'll have a big celebration next year!  We hope to celebrate Christmas with you! Happy Birthday!


Today is our daughter, Bethany's, 9th birthday!!

Friday, November 7, 2008

Documents emailed to facilitator!  

Yesterday, our documents were emailer to our facilitator in easten Europe. Today we were able to physically mail our apostilled dossier via ups and it will be received on Monday! We can hardly believe it. Boys, we're coming to get you! And happy birthday to Jonathan D Malone! He's five today! We love you already!!!

Monday, November 3, 2008

Fingerprints APPROVED!  

Our fingerprints have been accepted and we're next in line to get our case reviewed and approved.  This is a short process once it starts...  They tell us they will do it this week.  We are up against a deadline (we think) with the SDA in the country we are adopting from so we are trying to get everything done as quickly as possible.  If we miss what we think is our deadline (November 24 or 27), we will have to wait until February to submit the paperwork.  Our boys are already passed the age they should have been moved out of the orphanage and into a mental institution so we are praying we DON'T MISS THIS DEADLINE.  Please pray with us! It's kind of hard and frustrating to wait...but our future and the future of our boys is in God's hands.  Not man's.  So we rest in that.  He is able to do whatever He wants!