They're here, they're here!

Here she is!!! Our precious Mia! Sorry for the delay....Friday proved to be a little busier than I anticipated with the garage sale prep! Having said that we praise our Father in heaven for a success we could not pulled off with out His help! We raised $1600 on Saturday, despite the cold rain at times! Thanks to all the amazing families who donated goods to the sale, to Starbucks for the 2.5 gallons of coffee they donated to sell and to help keep us all warm and awake, and to all those who came out and took part helping and buying. I had a wonderful time telling our story and just watching all that was unfolding in front of me. So many times I have been near tears just watching the faithfulness of our Father to help bring this little baby girl (his little girl) home and into our family. When I got tired and cold, I would see her face and smile and get a little of what I needed to keep going. My emotional cup is full and we have a lot of processing to do, but for now, our gaze shifts to the next event coming up on Saturday and that is the benefit concert and silent auction. Please help by spreading the word to those of you here in Indy (not that out of staters aren't welcome :-) We would love for there to be many people who come to hear our story and be encouraged not to mention become a little more aware of the needs that are out there and that it IS possible for each of us to make a difference in the life of the fatherless and rejected.

Pictures coming very soon!!!

Just wanted everyone to know that we will have pictures up for you to see hopefully by tomorrow evening! We just got some updated pictures today, thanks to traveling families who were there. We have to get the official paperwork to the adoption agency before we can post anything. So check tomorrow evening....you can catch a glimpse then!

We have a baby...

Brian and I are now the new hopeful parents of a precious baby girl in India.....she is five months old and was born on December 2nd. I cannot wait to share her picture and updates with everyone!! For her sake, we need to wait until we sign some papers that make our intent official and those are received by our adoption agency. I can tell you she just a little pipsqueak but is absolutely precious! As far as we know, the expected travel time is around six months, so we have a while until we will travel to Calcutta and pick her up, however, we will receive updates and pictures which we will post here on our blog and then when we do go to get her, we plan posting while we are there so those of you who so desire can track the journey.
Something interesting that I read from scripture yesterday has really stuck out in my mind during these last few days, and that is that in Joshua, chapter three, when God is getting ready to lead the people into the promised land after 40 years of being in the desert preceded by 400 years of slavery by the Egyptians, the priests were going through the camp instructing the people to follow the ark of the covenant, which is in essence the presence of God among the people. They were told by the Lord to do this because they had never gone this way before. I totally feel like that is us. This whole journey is contingent upon us following the Lord because we have never gone this way before. I literally wake up in the morning and ask the Lord what we are going to do today to continue to make steps to bring Mia home, because without Him driving this thing, I don't know what I am doing :-) In addition to that, further on in chapter three, the priests who are leading the people into the land were instructed once they reached the Jordan River to step into it and after they did, the water would part for them and the people would cross on dry land. What struck me about this was how it was different than when they crossed the Red Sea. God told the people that day, to stand still and watch Him part the waters, this time, they had to have the faith to start into it before they would see the Lord work. I also feel like this is for us in that so much of this journey is about trusting His heart, hearing his voice and walking blindly in faith into impossible things in which He promises to show up. For those of you who don't know, we have to have a large sum of money ready next week to continue on with bringing Mia home. We are stepping into the water, fully needing and expecting God to work. I don't know what that will look like but I know He alway is faithful to bring into completion the work He has started. We are here listening for instructions, and we need your prayers. The final thing I wanted to share with you from Joshua is this, that when Joshua and Moses surveyed the land prior to entering it, they saw it was occupied by their enemies. Many strong armies were there waiting for them. The enemy was setting his traps of fear and discouragement and destruction. Please pray as we have faced this as well. Here we are with the "promised land" in site so to speak, and know that the enemy waits for us with discouragement and fear. We have faced this recently and I am sure will continue as he is ruthless and not easily deterred. But, scripture says if we resist him, he will flee. He cannot stand against the word and be successful. Thanks so much for the encouragement and prayer!!

The call...

This past Friday, we received a call from our adoption agency saying they had a referral for a little girl for us to consider for adoption. Brian and I are so excited to be praying for this baby and seeking to hear from God to see if this is indeed the sweet baby he planted in our hearts so many years ago. As soon as we are sure, we will be able to post her picture and information. Then the journey really gets exciting....Pray for wisdom and peace for us, please! And pray for this precious baby girl.

Fundraising....the new frontier

Well, for most of you who know me, it will come as no surprise that putting on any sort of fundraisers and all the details that go into that are somewhat of a challenge for me. For those of you who don't know me, know that sitting down to make a grocery list has taken me close to two hours before and I am not exaggerating! Needless to say that this is a huge undertaking for me and any promotion of these two events that anyone wants to do and any help you want to give would be enormously appreciated. The events are as follows: a garage and bake sale at my house here in Zionsville on Saturday May 16th, followed by a benefit concert/silent auction, the next Saturday (may 23rd) with music by Connersvine and John David Webster and of course Brian will be playing with John David. The location of the concert is not set in stone quite yet so I will wait until I hear back in the next day or two to post that. In addition to this, we are currently designing a t-shirt to sell that will of course raise funds but will also raise awareness for orphans and the need that there is to help them. Currently the ways we need help are: 1. Donations of things to sell at the garage sell. Everyone knows that furniture and bigger things like that are the biggest moneymakers, but we will take anything you might think people would want to buy. Baked goods to sell at the garage sale are another way people can help. I will need help organizing the stuff a couple days before and help running the sale. 2. For the auction/concert, we could use donations of things that would be good for the silent auction, whether goods or services. For example, I have started making pillow case dresses for little girls babies to six years old out of vintage pillow cases. I currently find the pillow cases on my own, but wouldn't mind if anyone wanted to donate some they had, or if you find some at Goodwill and want to pick them up and donate those that would also be great. So, if you make things or have a business and would like to donate to this event that would be awesome. We will also need volunteers to help run the concert i.e. people to man tables and what not. We would like to sell drinks and snack food as well, and as much of these things that can be donated to that we can keep our out of pocket expenses to a minimum would be great. Let's see. Outside of these two events, just helping to get the word out and of course a ton of prayer, would be amazing help to us. I am hoping to get a link posted to our blogsite soon for people to be able to buy a T-shirt through paypal on line. I don't know how to do this either but hope I can get it done soon. Thanks to everyone who has encouraged us on this journey so far. I am getting really excited. We are still at the top of the list and waiting for a call. We are pretty sure that the baby has been born so really we are just waiting for a picture. Oh, her name is Mia. Middle name is yet to be determined as we would like to use something indigenous or maybe part of her current name. The name of the concert event Is Mia's Hope. There is story behind this name and I will get around to sharing it soon, but this is enough infor for now. Thanks again!

Another brick laid...

We finally got our fingerprint date and the official word our paperwork was in, so as far as I know, we are considered active to receive a referral! We go for the prints next week and then once those process we will be cleared for travel. Yay! I find myself jumping a little when the phone rings now, as it could be "the call" saying they have a child for us. It still feels a little surreal to me at this point. Beginning to wonder if it will hit me before I find myself on a 20 something hour plane ride half way across the world.....

We're up....we're down, oh where to next on the ride?

Well, good news! Our paperwork and money we sent to immigration recently was officially processed. We know this because our check was cashed. However, we still haven't received the letter stating it has been begun to be processed and issuing us a fingerprinting date. When this piece does come, we will officially be able to receive a referral. Currently I think we are the next family on the list to receive a referral. Yay! This news came on the heels of what we were afraid was a huge set back. We learned that we sent the paperwork initially to the wrong office and then were told by immigration to send it to another office which turned out to also be the wrong office. And on top of that, I learned that I made the cashiers check out to the wrong department and that no one could locate the paperwork, but the check had been cashed. We called several people to pray and in less than 24 hours, we heard back from our agency that as far as they could tell, all was well. So, I will feel 100% better when we have our approval in our hands. Please keep praying, and for those of you who read this before March 23 or so, please also pray for my brother, sister-in-law, niece and nephew, and others in Uganda. Visit their blog found at kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com. Read Katie's blog while you are at it. It will ignite a passion for the fatherless, and I pray will spark you into action on their (the orphans) behalf. Not everyone is called to take and orphan in, but many of you are. All of us are called to care for the fatherless in some capacity. It is a wild ride, but let me say, I wouldn't miss it for the world. Thanks for reading and praying!