Leap Day! Gotcha Day!

Wow Eli it has been four years.

Four Years ago today that we brought you home. Four years ago we Gotcha!

It has been four years of learning to love in a way I never knew possible. Four years of snuggles and cuddles.

You have scared mamma to death on a regular basis and I know it is only by the grace of God you are still with us.

I am sure many of those times you saw the gates of heaven and wonder why we won't just let you go. It's just cause you make us smile, your smile and laugh are contagious. Your lovin so sweet.

We are so happy to have you Eli and we pray as long as God allows you to be with us that you will feel loved.

Happy Gotcha Day Eli!

Overcome

We just received an email and there is one problem with our homestudy. 


Our dossier was to be submitted today, but due to inconsistency in the homestudy and the update we may have to do some fixing. 


We replied with an explanation,  it is really simple actually.  
We have 5 bedrooms, but we are using one as a school room and one as a TV room.  
One paper says we have 5 bedrooms and one says we have 3.  




I as usual got sick and stressed and called Jeromy.


Amazingly, I went to the Word and then called my mom to pray.


As I got off the phone with her I thought man I should turn on the radio and listen to some Jesus music.... then the song that has been stuck in my head the last three mornings popped into my head. 


Please pray with us, that the Blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony (our explanation) will see us through this with no further delays.

"We have overcome by the BLOOD OF THE LAMB and the words of our testimony, everyone overcome. "


Here it is ... I don't think there needs to be anymore words. :)  





 

Adoption Updates

Why "Our Girl"?  Where are all the great pictures???


I would love nothing more than to show off our super sweet girl in pictures and share everything about her country, but due to her country's regulations we are not supposed to. Once she is home we can share a lot more. We have had such an amazing opportunity to have tons of pictures of her growing up as well as some video of her.  We have had a couple of emails from people in country that have met her and every single one has said, "she is sweet".  



In the last 2 second video clip she seemed a little lost and lonely, very curious about the American Visitor and she said, goodbye in English.  It sounds like she is trying to learn English.  :)  Praise God.  Every little bit will help. 

 Dossier


Our Dossier is in country! It arrived on Thursday.


Garage Sale


We had a great turn out for the garage sale today.  Thank you to all who donated.  It looks like we will do one more day of it in the spring.  




Raffle  

Our Raffle Winner was The Cameron Family!  Congrat!  
Crystal Beck Photography also threw in a surprise 2nd place winner.  A free mini session- the winner was Miss Smith. 


Quilt

Misty is wrapping up The Quilt.  We have had a wonderful response and we are so glad that we will have something so special to give to "Our Girl".


Fees and God's provision

When we arrive in country we will give our facilitators the program fee of $9,000.
I was very a little bit stressed about this huge number.  I tried to believe that God would provide for us.
I really could not see where that much money would come from.  
I dreamed of a huge check falling from the sky, but I have felt God is teaching us in a very real way that we need to be faithful in the "little things". Being more conscientious about spending money and finding little ways to add to our account. God has also squished my pride a little bit more and allowed us to be BLESSED by our friends.  I don't know about you all, but asking for or receiving money is hard for us.  It is a huge blessing and very much appreciated, I think it is just pride that makes getting money a little on the strange side. 
We also love tax returns. :)

All this to say WE ARE ALMOST THERE!






I

Making Lemonade

So the Boise trip started off exciting ~

Got a bit stressful and felt like a waste of time ~

  Kali and I sang along to a fun little song called "This is the Stuff" by Francesca Battistelli 

and tried to NOT SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF

Then Jeromy worked it out to come down and save the day!!!

My Hero!

Then the trip got really fun. 

We had a great time with my friend's mom. 

Bummer the friend and her kids weren't able to come. 

Her littles were a bit confused about why Kaly and Stacy were at grammy's house.

We went out to dinner, took all day to shop around at some craft stores.

Slept in late and took a beautiful walk by the river.

God knew I needed a little R & R

Jeromy arrived with Ayla and Gavin on Sat. eve.

love the look on Gav's face

Sunday morning we met some other dear friends for church.

Then while they went to a b-day party and work 

we took a couple of hours to enjoy the sun at the coolest park ever. 

Then we headed to the State Capital building.

While everyone else watched Super Bowl we checked out what was behind every open door.

We had a great time.  Kaly and Ayla love exploring and every floor held a surprise.

Our only fam. photo and Gav. is "hiding"- little stinker :)

Then back to hang with our friends for the night. 

Up till 2 am talking about everything I love (and hate).

Adoption, special needs, our kids, home schooling, blogging, photography, and the need to act and help stop human trafficking.

It is such a blessing that even though we have not spent time with these friends for a long time that God continues to touch our hearts in such similar ways.  

 They love the Lord and desire to serve him and love on people and they are just plain fun to hang with.

Our kids had a blast and it was all we could do to tear them apart.  

Thank You God for seeing our need for a time of refreshment and providing it!

And to top it all off....

Our completed Dossier is in the air on its way to Eastern Europe

It should be there on the 10th!  Woo Hoo!

So now we wait for a date (as long as they accept our paperwork- I am prepared for the worst just in case)  and in the mean time we are prepping for a garage sale and planning for travel. 

I am so excited!  I cannot wait to travel.

I am nervous and I know I will get sick on the plane or be passed out from my half of a non-drowsy Dramamine, but I love to travel and I love that Jeromy and I get to go together.  

Talk about a date. :)

 

Boise or Bust!

Wednesday Night we realized

2 of our documents needed for our adoption were dated wrong 

and our tax form needed to be updated.

The paperwork we sent to get the apostille was due back on Thursday or Friday and we did not want anything slowing down this process, SO Kaly and I drove to Boise.

The plan was to get the apostille on the two last docs. 

My dear friend's mom lives near Boise and graciously allowed us to stay at her home.

Thursday night after arriving Jeromy called with the bad news.

Our I 171H came back with no apostille!

I emailed our facilitator in Ukraine and she said we had to copy it and notarize the copy, then The State would apostille the notarized copy.  

I cried!!! Our sweet hostess offered her home if we needed to stay.

Jeromy, Ayla and Gavin  are on their way with the form.

On Monday we will get it notarized here in Boise, 

go to the Secretary of State to apostille it 

then we will Fed Ex all of our dossier to Eastern Europe.

Kaly and I are enjoying some very relaxing time here with our best friends' grandma/mom.

Then tomorrow we get to spend the day with some very dear friends we haven't seen in years.

If we have time on Monday we hope to take the kids to the Capital Building.

Then we will caravan home and hope to be ready to get back into real life on Tuesday morning. 

Thank You all for your prayers!

All things work together for the good of those that Love the Lord. 

We Love Him and Trust this is All in His Hands.