"War May Break Out At Any Moment"

Read about it here: Huffington Post Article 

Donation (3/24/13 - A.M.) & What's Happening Now

This morning we received a $100 check from good friends of ours at Antioch Christian Church.  It's such a blessing to have prayer and emotional support from friends let alone financial support... and they have done all these things for us. We've now jumped to over $14,000 on our thermometer! Praise God for stirring people's hearts to give so that we can be a family for a waiting child. It is our deep desire that the people who've sacrificed financially for us would feel blessed in doing so; knowing that whatever they did for the least of these, they did for God himself (Matthew 25:40).

***

There's a few things happening:
- Jeremy and I wrote out our $2,500 check for our Adoption Study last night to be mailed off first thing on Monday!
- We started preparing for our "Parents In Process" classes. The PIP classes are a required 10 hours of classroom time (plus homework) regarding becoming adoptive parents.
- We will also be working on part 1 of our immigration application
- We will be updating our passports
- We will be getting our Medical Exams (plus HIV & TB testing) the first two weeks of April and getting those mailed out
- We are also working on plans for a fundraiser (details to come)

...lots to do but we're making progress!

Online Donation (11:49pm - 3/22/13)

I woke up this morning to find an online donation of $100 (and note) from yet another friend from High School (Green Bay Preble High School) and her Fiancé.  We are so grateful that these friends (and others) are responding to the prompting placed on their hearts to give.  It's truly amazing.  Big "thanks" to the future Mr. and Mrs. Underwood.

***

I often think about the innocents of childhood and how dependent we have all been on our family to take care of us.  Most of us have had nurturing, loving homes and realize it's incredible impact on forming who we are today.... and still others have had very poor, abusive family dynamics and I believe they may know even better what a tender touch, hugs & kisses, encouragement and consistency would have done for them.  The world's most innocent, most deserving population is reaching out to us to notice them and realize their basic need to belong to a family and be loved.  We can't change the whole of humanity and it's brokeness but we can do something... and that something can mean everything to a child who is waiting.

I missed 2 more donations!

So I somehow didn't notice, the first time I checked the mailbox, that I also had 2 more donations! These ones come from my 2 youngest sisters... Both $100.  As I mentioned in the post just before this, both of my sisters were adopted in their early teens in 2008 from Russia. It was a 2 year adoption process. U.S. adoptions from Russia have recently closed.

Tatyana Joy is on the left and Anya Grace is on the right.

They are not biological sisters but were in the same children's home when my parents first learned of them. This photo was taken when they appeared before the Russian court to resign their Russian citizenship and testify of their desire to be adopted by my parents.

Tatyana now 18 years old and is our spunky, hard working, fun-loving youngest sister.

Anya is now 19 and is our social and calm sister.

Both girls are amazingly talented in the artistic arena and have excelled in school. Most importantly, both have accepted Jesus as their salvation and anchor in life!

I share this with you all to hopefully edify you all and bring joy to your heart. Adoption makes a difference. My sisters both vocalize their advocacy for adoption and openly speak about their joy in realizing that God orchestrated their journeys, even before they knew Him.  I love them dearly and their financial support  is a huge testimony. It's amazing to see God using their adoption to make another possible.

Snail-mail Donation (3/21/13)

Opened my mailbox this morning to find a really great surprise... A $100 donation from my "little" brother. There's something particularly sweet and humbling about your younger sibling financially supporting your ministry of adoption. We have experienced 1st hand the impact that adoption has through our parents adopting our 2 younger sisters (from Russia). My precious sisters were always ment to be a part of our family even though it ment not joining us until they were young teenagers... not babies or even children. God has built my family in a unique and beautiful way and I look forward to Him growing it further; this time as "mommy" instead of "sister". I love my family! God is good!

Waiting

Right now we're waiting for our FBI criminal history (the one that takes 9 weeks to process) to be completed along with waiting for our Medical Physicals (which will take place in a couple of weeks).  We received invoice requesting we send in $2,500 for our Adoption Study between now and when our FBI criminal history clears. We will be sending that in shortly.

Please continue to pray for continued guidance and wisdom for us. We're getting closer to either being matched with a child or picking a child heading to the Waiting Child program (children with greater needs).

Donation (3/13/13 - 10:48AM)

We received another $100 online donation yesterday morning from an old Green Bay Preble high school friend and her husband. Can't tell you how much it touches our heart when we know someone's intentionally gone out of their way for us and our child-to-be. Thanks so much for getting us that much closer to holding our baby.

You grew in my heart...

A photo that, believe it or not, my (almost 4 year old) son took... he said, "my baby is going to come from there".  <3

Why Adopt?

This trailer is 2 min... please, please watch and get a small picture into what many of these orphans go through. Most of us are blissfully unaware and that needs to change. These children are just as precious as the ones born to us and yet there's far too little action taken on their behalf... little to no inconvenience made in our comfy lives because, to most of us, they are "out of sight and out if mind".

(See the full documentary at Stuck for $12.99)

Online Donation (3/11/13 - 6:25pm)

We recieved another anonymous $100 donation this evening. We so appreciate the sacrifice others choose to make to (God willing) bring us that much closer to being a "forever family" to a precious, waiting, and vulnerable child. Thank you.

Audio Adrenaline - Kings & Queens

Good Things Happening

A few new things I'm happy to report:

(1) We received our second donation. A $100 online donation was made today by a wonderful young couple from our church! I pray they feel even more blessed in giving than we do in receiving... And we feel very blessed (and thankful)!

(2) We mailed back a massive packet of documents to our branch office. It's both a relief to have them completed and sent, while a little nerve racking knowing such important documents are now in the hands of unknown mail carriers.  But mostly it's a great feeling knowing we're that much closer!

(3) I'm prohibited from discussing the details of the conference call we had last fri but I can say that we're still on track.  It was very comforting to hear Holt workers speak of all their prior success and their confidence regarding future adoptions. We have no cause to worry. After all, "Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?" (Matthew 6:26-27)

Fingerprints & Background Checks

Today we went to the Cedar Rapids Police Department to get two sheets (each) of fingerprints taken down. We've filled out our clearance papers to be background checked for child abuse, State Criminal History, and FBI Criminal history. We finished our individual 30 page "Personal Data Information Forms"  which is approximately 90 short paragraph answers to various personal questions (such as how we parent/discipline, how we interact with those of a different race, etc...). We still need our medical reports. Our FBI criminal history will take about 9 weeks to process but after that we will be setting up an appointment with our social worker to get our first home study done. Things are moving along!

We will be on a 9:00am conference call tomorrow morning to talk with Holt Korea's staff along with many other adoptive patents in process with South Korea to get updates on various specifics related to our program/country. Please keep us in your prayers and that we receive either good news or news we can "work with". Thanks!

The Distance That Separates Us

6,468.4 miles