A baby update...

We received a very rare update on Treva today.  We knew from the start that she was small and petite, but from the picture we were not exactly sure just how small.  We received word today that she (at close to 14months) is the size of a newborn.  It is guessed that her weight is less then 10 lbs! It's making this all seem that much more urgent to get her home as fast as humanly possible! We don't know if she is small from neglect or due to medical issues or both.  We likely won't find out those answers until we arrive in country and visit her.  Please be praying that she will stay healthy until we can bring her home!

Early this week I "met" another adoptive mom on Facebook.  She shared a few pictures of her son.  With permission, I am passing this on to you!

When her son was brought to the orphanage

When they finally had their son 2 1/2 years later

Six months being home and loved!

Please stop by her blog and read all the amazing stories from their journey and pass on some love and encouragement to her!

Our sense of urgency is real and needed.  These children need out as fast as possible.  I want more than anything to jump on a plane tomorrow and go get her.  I know that's just not possible.  I will continue to do the next right thing and work as fast as possible on my end.  I will trust that the Lord will do the same for all other parties involved! Today, as I sit here worrying about my little girl, I am so thankful I have a BIG God who knows all the details! It's Him my heart is resting upon!

Prayer Requests:
-Please pray for Treva's health and growth
-Pray we can miraculously complete all the home study documents tonight to get that rolling!
-Pray we can receive the quickest approval ever seen! :)
-Pray people will be lead to donate financially as this is happening quickly! (I will blog more about costs soon so you have an idea what it goes for!)

The Process...

Our sweet angel we are working so hard to hold!

We have been truly amazed at the support we are receiving from those around us! We need you all to keep rallying around us! This is going to be a long and chaotic process.  But, take a look at that sweet face - it will be worth EVERY SECOND!!

Many of you have asked what the process is like so I am going to do my best to explain.  Now, keep in mind this is still new to me and there are a lot of unknowns for us.  So, please forgive me if I misspeak about a process! We are definitely learning as we go!

After finding our angel, our first step was to officially commit to her.  We had a series of forms we needed to fill out and submit quickly.  During this process we needed to keep our plans relatively quiet.  The country we are adopting from is unique among most countries.  Most countries allow adoptive parents to place a "hold" on a child they are intending to adopt.  Meaning, they will no longer be available for other families to adopt.  Our country does NOT allow this.  What happens is a letter of intent is sent notifying them that they've identified an adoptive family, but this by no means is a 100% guarantee.  Now, it is very, very unlikely that another family would be identified and get their paperwork finalized faster than we can, but it could happen.  She could also, at any time, enter their local foster care system or be adopted by someone locally.  Again, these scenarios are very unlikely, but they're still there.  So, to put it mildly, adopting from this country is a HUGE leap of faith.  One we have complete confidence in making! 

Now, if absolute worst case scenario were to occur and we lost our babe, we would still proceed with an adoption from this country.  We would complete what is called a blind referral.  Basically, when we arrive in country they would present us with 3 kids who we would qualify to adopt and we can choose from those.  Now, the chance of this actually happening are so slim, but we wanted to be upfront with everyone. If you have already donated to our adoption or are considering it, please know that any money you give WILL be applied to the adoption! If we tragically are unable to adopt Treva it would transfer to a new child.  But, like I said, the chances are very slim this will happen.  We are certainly not dwelling on the "what ifs" but daily thinking about what we know is truth at this moment! I've been clinging to this passage:

   Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true...think about such things. (Philippians 4:6-8 NIV)

Now, our next step is to complete our home study by a local agency.  I just spoke with the social worker today and we should have the paperwork in hand by tomorrow afternoon!  I am so afraid of this process.  I just feel like they are coming into my home to judge me as a wife and a mother.  I'm not sure why I'm so scared.  I've done foster care home studies twice and it wasn't a big deal, but I am so anxious this time.  I basically feel like if they don't like me or how I mother they can put a complete stop to our adoption.  I've talked to the social worker about my fears and she has been so understanding, but boy will I be glad when this process is over and all has been approved!

We are also applying for our passports to get those on the way to us.  After that, your guess is about as good as mine as to what we will need to do.  I'm so thankful we have amazing support from our Reece's Rainbow facilitation team and they will walk us through each and every step from here on out!

Once everything is submitted and approved we will get a travel date from the country.  We may have a week's notice to plan or a month's.  There is no way of knowing.  Dave and I will then travel to country for about 2 1/2 weeks.  I'm not exactly sure what will happen at that time.  I do know we will get to spend time with our baby.  We will then come back to the US for about 10-14 days.  I will then head back to the country for another 1-2 weeks to finalize the adoption and bring our sweet girl home! Dave really, really wants to come the second leg of the journey too, but we felt it was more important for him to be home with our other 4 kids and he will need to get back to work.  I'm hoping my mom will be able to join me on the second trip so I won't have to be completely alone!  While both Dave and I are gone we will be relying so heavily on our family to take care of our other kiddos.  It is going to be tough on all of them, but I am so thankfully to have such a supportive and encouraging family to help us out!

Please, if you have any questions or what clarification on the process don't hesitate to ask! We want to be an open book through this journey and will do our best to answer questions! Thanks again for all your early support and encouragement.  Keep rallying with us!

Prayer Requests:

-Pray our home study can be completed in record time.  They typically take 6-8 weeks and even up to 12 weeks.  We are praying for 4 weeks until completion!

-Pray that my heart will settle about the home study process

-Pray for fundraising ideas and opportunities to present themself.

Stacy

Our journey to adopt...

I don't even know where to start with this blog post.  I've attempted to start blogging several times but always came up short.  Well, the journey we are on now needs to be told.  Our daughter needs her story told!  Let me back it up for a bit...

Before I met Dave, I was in the process of adopting a very special little girl.  After we met and quickly were married we had hoped to adopt her together.  Unfortunately that people who made the big bucks and the big decisions didn't think we wanted to adopt such a special child right at the beginning of our marriage.  Now, that is months of heartache in a couple sentences, but in the end, we lost our sweet girl! 

From that point on, we knew we would one day adopt.  It wasn't something we dwelled on or even talked much about.  We went on with our daily lives and waited on the Lord's leading.  We decided to become foster parents and for 4 years had a number of kids ranging from newborn to 17 come through the doors of our home.  Some stayed for weeks and others stayed for 12+ months.  There were a couple we wanted to adopt as our own, but for a variety of reasons those didn't come to fruition either.  We never grew bitter.  Each disappointment only solidified our hearts desire to adopt.  

This spring that Lord really started to move in my heart about adoption again.  Specifically in regards to adopting a child with special needs.  I would search the internet occasionally to learn more about the process.  During one of those times, I came upon a website called Reece's Rainbow.  It is an organization that specializes in placing orphans with special needs.  I looked through the pages and pages of kids and kept coming back to a sweet little girl.  After a few days of not being able to get her out of my mind I talked to Dave about it.  I showed him the picture and we discussed it briefly and then went on about the day.  The next day I mentioned to him that I couldn't get her out of my mind.  I told him that she was the first thing I thought of in the morning and the last thing before bed.  He said he was right there with me.  We went ahead to gathered some more information and asked a lot of questions to the New Family Liaison.  It was a Thursday evening and we had been talking and praying about it a lot.  We decided to wait the weekend and really pray hard and make a final decision on Monday.  Well, Friday morning came.  Dave's alarm went off and he turned to me and woke me up and said "we can't wait until Monday, submit the papers TODAY! Do it this morning!" Now, my husband is an amazing leader and is very strong in his convictions, but it is completely out of character for him to speak with such certainty and with such seriousness.  I said ok (but secretly I was still doubting his conviction and was terrified myself).  I wrote the email that I needed to write to get the official commitment started, but before I pushed send I called him one more time at work.  His convictions were even stronger than early in the morning.  I sent that email and we official committed to our daughter!

Please continue to pray for us and our family!  Over the next little bit I will share more about the process, our hearts in it, and just our day to day lives.  I'm not exactly sure where this blog will go or what it will look like on a day to day basis.  I'm sure it will be ever evolving, just like me! But, I will end each post with a few specific prayer requests.  We just as that as you finish reading please offer up a quick prayer for our family!

Prayer Requests:

-Pray for Treva's safety and health until we can get her home

-Pray our home study can be completed quickly and without issues

-Pray for people who are willing to join our team to bring Treva home to a family and out of a life destined to be lived in institutions!