update with regard to our first trip.

I wanted to update with regard to our first trip.  We expect it to be in September or October. the orphanage where Josiah lives is closed for the summer till September,and many officials  including orphanage Directors and Chief Physicians go on vacation in summer months. We are ok with this .it gives us a time to look at and know that at least by Oct we will get to see Josiah and hold him and we can stop thinking about when. It helps to sorta have a date .and now we don't need to rush things, we can also work on the funds for the trip.we know that this is all in Gods hands and it will work out how ever long it takes. we still would love to have him home by his 3rd birthday November 3rd but if not we sure will be thinking of him on that day.and maybe we will just have a big BIRTHDAY BASH in his name. thank you to all of you who have been praying for us please do not stop.

A bump

A bump, we hit a bump, ugg! don't you just hate it, you are going along fine and it looks like things are moving on and bump. well our social worker that did our homestudy didn't do 4 different documents that our agency asks for. not sure why she must not have understood that she needed to do them because she is good at her job. anyways now we have to wait for her to get them done notarized and sent to us. then we have to send them to be aposilled and it is going to cost us another $100 ugg and its going to put us at least a week behind uggg! maybe this is Gods way of giving us more time to get the money we need. what ever it is I know it is his timing and at some point I will be holding my baby in my arms.

25 apostilled documents

25 apostilled documents were delivered to our door yesterday 25 shiny authentic beautiful gold seals on each one. Then they were shipped priority mail to our agency. Now we wait to find out what the next step is. so exciting!

why

As things are moving forward and the time is getting close to get to go see Josiah I hear from the Lord "trust me" I have thought how are we going to do this, I have been asked by people why? or have been given looks that say why, or you are crazy, or you have gotten yourself into something you can't get out of. yes I can see that in a look or can feel it by the silence of people not saying anything at all. and to this all I can say is He is our son, even though we have never met him God has put a love in our hearts for him, and he is ours.God did not lead us to him just so we could have a 7th child if he wanted that or if we wanted another baby I could have easily gotten pregnant. and I tell you it would have been a lot less work. no God had this child already picked out for us and us for him and how can we not do what ever it takes for our child?

please go to this link and see what could happen to Josiah on his 4th birthday if we were to give up on him now because it seems too hard

http://gardenofeagan.blogspot.com/2007/11/imagine-different-life.html

or watch this this is not from his country but I have been told that when her turns 4 years old he will most likely be put into a mental institution and left in his crib other then to be fed and changed once a day. as far as the orphanage he is in now it is wonderful they take great care of the children they love them and the children are happy but the directors of the orphanage have no say as to what happens to the special needs children after their 4th birthday. please don't watch this if you have children watching with you as it is sad and disturbing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1kbayAdlgg

and maybe you will see why we have to do what ever it takes to get our baby home. we can't save them all, we can't change the lives of all the children that are in this situation. but we can change the world for one, we can give this one child loving parents, a loving family, a home. we can give this one child a life.so please before you ask us why or look at us with those looks think about and look at Josiah's little face, his sweet fuzzy head, his darling little hands and cute little ears, his smile. and think about him on his 4th birthday celebrating with a family and people who love him, a birthday cake, gifts, a happy birthday song .and then think about what his 4th birthday will be like if we give up and say this is too hard, we don't have the money, this is too much. we can't give up we won't give up! could you?

T-shirts are done

T-shirts are done look how cute they are I will be shipping them out on Tuesday, so if you have not paid yet please do and email me your address. I just love how they turned out, they are going to be so cute on the little ones. I hope that all of you that got one will take a picture for me once you get your baby home, I would love to see how they look in the shirts.

First Dossier was sent to be apostilled last night!

First Dossier was sent to be apostilled last night!

HOMESTUDY,USCIS,APOSTILLING AND AN UPDATE

Our notarized home study (7copies of it) arrived yesterday.,

we sent our USCIS I-600A application & packet of supporting documents to Texas.The I-600A is the "Application for Advance Processing of Orphan Petition". Getting an approval means that our government is giving permission for us to adopt a child they will send us a fingerprint appointment yes our 3rd set of fingerprints taken.then if  they see us fit they will send us the I-171A letter that goes into our court Dossier.
we are working on our application dossier and have hit a couple snags 4 of our documents have to be notarized again because something was forgotten or needs to be worded differently. we are taking this in stride and will just do it. we are waiting for 2 more things from our social worker that need to go in this part of the Dossier. as soon as we have these things notarized we will send them to Salem to the secretary of state to be apistilled. (A special sign established in 1961 for certifying foreign documents. Under the Hague Convention, signatory countries have agreed to recognize public documents issued by other signatory countries if those public documents are authenticated by the attachment of an internationally recognized form of authentication known as an "apostille." The apostille ensures that public documents issued in one signatory country will be recognized as valid in another signatory country. [) what they do is check that each document is notarized in the correct legal way by a legal notary and that the notary's license is not suspended or expired. then if it looks good they put a seal on the document, sorta like a sticker I think and I'm not sure yet if its gold or silver. but it is very official looking.(this first set has 24 documents in it at $10 each so it is costing us $240. the next set has 35 so that will be $350. so in all we will be spending $590 in apostilling documents. so when we say every penny helps us we are not kidding!) when we get all of the documents back and they have all been apostilled we can then send our application part of the dossier to our agency. they will look it over to make sure its all there and then send it to our facilitator, who will also look it over and translate it then take it to committee for approval. they then send us a date to receive our official referral for Josiah's SDA appointment. and then we'll know when we are going to travel for our first trip. before we travel we have to get our court part of our dossier done and mailed so the judge can look it over and send us a date for court after we get back from our first trip. there are many things we still need to get done for the court dossier one big thing is getting all 6 kids into the DR. for check ups. the Dr. has to sign a letter for each one saying they are healthy, and we have to get 6 copies of her license all notarized of course.we hope insurance will pay for this but we do have a $20 copy for each kid so it will cost at least $120 there are other things still to be done but I hope to have them done at least by the end of this month. my best guess is still that we go see him the end of July first of August. please pray everything goes smoothly and that we get the funds we need to go.

3 months today

3 months wow we are thru the first trimester so to speak. when I was pregnant all 6 times, I remember being so excited to get past the 3rd month, to be in the 2nd trimester. so much more exciting things happened in the 2nd trimester, you start feeling the baby kick, you are not sick anymore with morning sickness, you get to see the baby on ultrasound, you get to hear its heart beat at each dr visit, your tummy starts showing so people can tell you are pregnant. so I was thinking maybe the 2nd trimester of adoption will be like that. maybe now that we are almost done with the paperwork, maybe its time to experience some fun. it leaves me to wonder what the fun could be. I'm sure the Lord has some fun up his sleeve for us. I do expect that in this next 3 months during this 2nd trimester we will get to meet Josiah, hold him, kiss him, get to know him for a week. it will give us the kick we need to get thru and make it to the 3rd trimester. sorta like when you go in for that big ultra sound, you know the one where you really get to see the baby and see if its a boy or a girl. I just pray that we will take time to take in and remember all of the special things that are about to happen in our lives thru this adoption, thru this special little boy. we will do what ever it takes to get him home, give him a new birth so to speak.thank you Lord for putting this little boy in our hearts, for giving us love for this little boy we have never met, we are trusting for the finances and everything else to work out.Both Mike and I know that the Lord would not lead us to do this if it was not his will and we just need to trust! and do as God wants us to. we don't want to miss the blessings he has for us by not being obedient. when he says go you go! no matter if he's telling you to go to China on a missions trip , to Africa to open up a orphanage, to Ecuador to start children's ministries, to your friend down the street to tell him about Jesus, or in our case to go get Josiah. you do what he puts on your heart no matter how much work it is, no matter how much money it takes, you do it in faith or you may just miss the biggest blessing you could ever imagine.

Trusting God completely

I wanted to post this it was from a new friend on the Reeces rainbow yahoo group. Thank you Lori
Katrina, I felt compelled to share this... It's from The Purpose Driven Life.
"Trusting God completely means having faith that he knows what is best for your life. You expect him to keep his promises, help you with problems, and do the impossible when necessary.... Notice that Noah obeyed completely (no instruction was overlooked), and he obeyed exactly (in the way and time God wanted it done). That is wholeheartedness.... If God asked you to build a giant boat, don't you think you might have a few questions, objections, or reservations? Noah didn't. He obeyed God wholeheartedly. That means doing whatever God asks without reservation or hesitation. You don't procrastinate and say, "I'll pray about it." You do it without delay. Every parent knows that delayed obedience is really disobedience... Understanding can wait, but obedience can't."

we think we will be going to see Josiah July or Aug and we need at least $8,000 to go, this is just our first trip we hope to get a grant or a loan for the 2nd and 3rd trips about $12,000.But we need the $8,000 first and that is what we are praying for we trust that God has led us this far and... he will provide, we don't know how but we are trusting. please pray for us.

Order your I was worth the wait T-shirt

Because I had a lot of people telling me they like the t-shirt we found at the resale shop that says "I was worth the wait". I have decided to have a friend of mine who owns logo works make some up for me. to sell to those of you that wanted one. please leave your order in the comments or email me I will confirm your order and then you can pay using the chip in for PayPal or you can send me a check the shirts will be $15 including shipping.

the sizes are
infant 6/9 months 12/18 months,
toddler 2T, 3T,4T,
Youth: XS (2-4), S (6-8), M (10-12), L (14/16)
and the color will be a sherbert orange with white writing.

Homestudy draft

We have our homestudy draft!!! so what that means is our social worker has emailed the draft to our agency and they will email it to our facilitator and they will each look over it and write our social worker back what needs to be added or changed. please pray that nothing will need to be done to it and that it is perfect!

So as I read thru the homestudy I finally understand why she our social worker needed so much info from us. She did not use every bit of it in the homestudy but bits and pieces of it, Basically she wrote our life story out, and its sorta neat to read your lifes story, it will be nice for the kids to have when they are old. Wish I had something like that from my parents. Ok so don't get me wrong it was a lot of overwhelming work but I find myself looking back on it with a smile. Like "oh it wasn't so bad," sorta like when you are pregnant and get thru the first 3 months of morning sickness and stuff, but you look back and it wasn't so bad. As I do look back I think about all the things Mike and I did together and I can find fun in everything we did. It was nice doing things together getting fingerprints,passports,shrink visit,Dr visit,getting our marriage certificate and all of our birth certificates, going to the SS office to get our SS cards, going to the bank to get things notarized and even getting blood taken together. I can honestly say I look back at each one with a smile. I didn't think that Mike and I could love eachother anymore then we already did. But all of this we have done for the adoption has given me new eyes for my husband, I see how strong he is and how he will do what ever it takes to bring our 7th child home and into our arms. I am so very proud of my husband when I hear him talk about the adoption to others or when he talks about Josiah. I can say that I have found a new love for my husband thru this, and I know we will have many more adventures together before and after Josiah is home, but I know we will get thru them and look back on each one with a smile as long as we do them together and as long as we let the Lord guide our steps.

worth the wait!

We went to a children's resale shop this weekend and Madison found this t-shirt (I WAS WORTH THE WAIT) for Josiah it is just so perfect! can't wait to put it on him and take pictures. I know he is worth the wait and worth all this stress, all the paperwork, paper chasing, people chasing and money. He is worth every bit can't wait to hold him in my arms.

social worker home from vacation

sighhhh......... our social worker is home from vacation today and can get our homestudy done.It feels so good to have her home and to know the homestudy will be done soon.and to know she is there if I need her, funny how I sorta felt lost while she was gone this lady I had never met before two months ago plays such a big part in our lives now. so nice to have her home!

Scentsy Fundraiser

My sweet friend Angie is doing a Scentsy fundraiser for Josiah 20% of all sales go to help bring Josiah home. If you have never tried scentsy you are missing out, it is the best!
click the link and go to  the website then go to "buy from party" next to "Bring Josiah home Fundraiser" on the left side of screen. 20% of each sale goes to Bring Josiah home..


click here to order scentsy to help bring Josiah home.