Jethro

Before I left for Uganda I told my friend that I did not feel like God was leading us to adopt from Uganda. Though I loved the idea.

But then I got there and held these adorable mommyless little children and thought surely God was calling us to adopt. :)

Well the little guy that got my heart the most was Jethro.

He was recovering from a major burn on his stomach and needed extra holding.
As I held him the nurse came to give him his medicine.
She forced it in him as I held him, realizing he was beginning to choke, I tried to sit him up and let him catch his breath, she kept pushing in the meds.

I got pretty emotional and had to step away for a bit.
A little later I asked her what his medicine was for....
her answer... for his cough.

All I could think was maybe his cough was from aspirating his meds.

I don't know the whole story and I do not mean to criticize, at least he had opportunity to have medicine. It just seemed this little guy was not favored in this place. It seemed he was one of the least of the least. It seemed that many of the mamas didn't like him much.

As I went back each time I tried to hold him and he seemed to remember me. One afternoon as he was being fed by a volunteer he saw me and threw his hands up for me to hold him.

What fun it was to hold him. He absolutely loved my paper bead necklace and would pull on it and suck on it.

After arriving home and as I tried to process our trip I would wear my necklace and think of Jethro. I prayed for him all the time and he is the one we contacted the orphanage about adopting. Our answer was "check back in 3 months", but in my heart I knew it was "no".

It didn't really make sense to me until we heard about our girl, but even then I felt like God had to have a plan for Jethro. As my little mind works I tried to scheme up a plan like ....
bring our girl home and then start adopting Jethro.

I knew it was my plan and not God's, but I just couldn't believe that God would leave him an orphan. I felt very passionate to pray for him and I have learned that God does this in my heart so I will pray and He always has a plan.

So I prayed, and just this week I heard wonderful news!

Jethro is being adopted. A wonderful couple that loves the Lord.
A couple that has been to Uganda and met Jethro has heard the call and not only are they adopting him they are going to live in Uganda at least for a time.

I know God had this plan and He would have worked it out even without my prayers, but it is so wonderful to know a little guy and pray for a little guy and be moved by God to intercede and then get to sit back and watch a beautiful family come together.

Jethro couldn't have a better family because I know that they are the family God chose for him.

~Jethro~

God has big plans for you little guy, and like the Jethro that gave wisdom to Moses, I pray God will give you wisdom to share with those God places in your life.

You are a treasure and a joy and I pray you will be blessed all the days of your life with the love that only God can give.

My Sweet Sister!

My Sweet Sister is doing a Scentsy Fundraiser
to help us bring Our Girl home.

Thank You Katie!

Here is how it works...

Go to Scentsy and click on buy from party on the right hand side. It is the Bringing Our Girl home party. This will take you to a place you can shop and find your favorite products and order on line and they can be shipped directly to you.

If you have questions or would like to check out samples Katie's contact info is 208-660-3458 or you can email her at kcorey2003@yahoo.com

Scentsy - We Make Perfect Scents!

warminghearts.scentsy.us

Hosting a Scentsy party is a fun, easy way to earn Scentsy products. Whether it’s a casual home party or a simple basket party, you’ll enjoy sharing Scentsy with friends and family, or co-workers.

These make beautiful Christmas, birthday, wedding, and even baby gifts.
Or just get one for yourself. :)

The party closes Nov. 29th so you will have time to get your gifts before Christmas.

We are so thankful for you Katie and your willingness to help us cover the costs of the adoption. We thank God for how he continues to provide all we need.

Discouragement turned to Hope!

It Came! It Came! It Came!

After 5 long weeks of waiting,
our Biometric Fingerprinting Approval
arrived. We go to Spokane on Nov. 21st to get
fingerprinted.

We are almost completely finished with doing all 30 documents
for the 3rd time and we are ready to send paperwork to be apostilled, some for the second time.

Our next huge milestone will be the day we mail our dossier to U.

Please pray that we can do this with no further complications.

I have to be very honest here and say this has been a long 5 weeks.

We had no idea if we would receive another letter requesting more information from USCIS or if we would receive a denial letter or if we would get the coveted Fingerprinting appointment.

As we have been waiting we have been working on the dossier.
I have heard it was a lot of paperwork and that it had to be perfect.
Well perfect is an understatement!

As our facilitator states in her emails back to us.

"No Any corrections"

After much back and forth and multiple visits to our notary we finally got our first set of papers to Boise to get Apostilled.
We were shocked and very disappointed to find that they were returned with stamps on every page and white out on every page.

"No Any corrections"

So we started over and they are ready to mail again.

3 trips each to our doctors offices to get it all perfect.
3 visits to the assessors office to get the right person to help us and get it done.
3 sets of fingerprints because .... oh that is a long story.


We are so thrilled to be almost done with this step.

We had a lady we work with on the adoption ask us if all these complications make us think this is not what we are supposed to be doing.

We have considered it, and prayed for God's will since the day we heard about Our Girl.

My answer to her was, we are in it for the long haul. We are committed and unless God puts an immovable wall in front of us we will keep moving forward.

Our Girl is waiting for us. She has asked what is taking so long.
She has asked friends to "tell her new family Hello"
She has a family now and we will do everything we can to bring her home.

We feel that God has big plans for Our Girl and that we are part of that plan.
We feel satan is doing everything he can to discourage us, and I fall for it a lot.
He wouldn't care if God wasn't going to use this to Glorify Himself.

So we have HOPE!
Hope that we are moving forward.
Hope that we will see Our Girl soon and bring her home.
Hope that God is going to do mighty things through this adoption.
And Hope that He will be Glorified.

November

November is National Adoption Awareness Month!

This month is a time to increase awareness of the needs of foster children.

This is near and dear to my heart.

Our two precious boys came to us through foster care.
We have done respite for many other amazing kids, some of which we still have contact with.

We were so blessed to work with great social workers
and have amazing support through out the entire process.

In-case you are wondering :)
There are babies, toddlers, 6 year olds, tweeners, teenagers, special needs, healthy, sweet, lovable, scared, broken, hopeful, responsible, waiting kids going to sleep tonight praying for a forever family.

Pray for these kids, pray that God will work through what seems to be irredeemable circumstances. Pray that God will move His people to stand up and fight for these precious kids.
Pray that God himself will comfort their fears and ignite their hope.

Pray that God will strengthen those He has called.
It gets hard sometimes and fears creep in.
It is easy to put it off until tomorrow, it is easy to feel like it is just too risky.

Pray for the state workers. They are people with big hearts.
They have a very hard job!
They are not perfect, but I am thankful that they do what they do so I can do what I do.

Pray for our judges.
They carry a heavy load-deciding if a child should or should not be removed from a home.
Deciding if a child should be reunited or placed for adoption.
WOW! I cannot imagine being in that seat.

Let's not allow November to pass by without remembering the kids that would love to sit at a table this Thanksgiving and truly give thanks for THEIR FAMILY.