2 Hours Past My Bedtime...

I can't sleep. I keep praying, thinking, praying, worried, numbers, and praying.

Will tomorrow bring numbers or a list of what needs to be corrected?

I finally stopped, turned on my bedside light and opened my book of Hope.

I really should have started here before all the minutes/hours of thinking and praying.

I was lead to Ephesians 1:3-6 (God gives us our identity)

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with eery spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved."

Philippians 4:19

"And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus."

Psalm 37:3

"Trust in the Lord, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness."

THAT'S IT!!! I NEED A MIDNIGHT SNACK ON HIS FAITHFULNESS!!!

John 14:18

"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you."

PLEASE pray along with us this evening and tomorrow morning as our Dossier is being reviewed.

xoxo

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DELIVERED

Our special delivery arrived safely in Portland, Oregon at All God's Children International!

Please pray that our Dossier and copies pass inspection so we can receive waiting family numbers on Friday.

 Ok, really, please just pray God's will. That's really what we want. 

Bye! Bye!

I just got home from where we've been doing all our shipping for our little bub. 

I always lug in my bag that I keep all our notebooks, binders, folders, note pads etc. YES...I'm a "little" OCD about keeping organized and checking everything over about 20 times. Ha! Ha! Ha!

Today was a special day. 

I walked in with a heavier load to send. Three very full mailers stuffed with 6 months and 3 days worth of prayer, errands, fingerprints, photos, dreams and hope.

ALL of that neatly packaged in the expandable mailer. As it sat on the scale, while my Goin Postal friend keyed up the label and cost (OUCH!), I said another prayer. Those dear papers hold the key to our child....our child halfway ACROSS THE WORLD. 

Mom and Dad are here in Orlando, ready and waiting. 

I prayed God keep this mailer safe over the next 24 hours as it flies to Portland, Oregon and into our dear Case Manager's hands. Toni has been a kind blessing to us. She has been celebrating each milestone we hit. She called yesterday yelling, "Congrats!" and "Yay's!". 

I left the store feeling overjoyed, nervous, EXCITED and hopeful. 

I sat in my car, shed a few happy tears and called my hubs. 

He's beside himself too. Once again, this is all out of our control and in God's hands. What better place to be? He's seen us through this journey thus far and I doubt He is about to stop. 

We can't wait to see what's next!

Fingers crossed...we won't have to re-do or correct too many documents so we can get on THE WAITING FAMILY LIST!

XOXO

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The Ink Is In Overdrive!!!

So you may have heard a little rumor about us........

Yes, we received our FDL today!!!

A little background on that piece....I took this photo above to journal the copying process. We hadn't received our FDL, but figured, why not start the copies process so that when we DO get the letter all we have to do is notarize, copy and slip it in! 

Little glitch in my plan......

I ran out of ink and paper

With the top folder contents....MUCH INK AND PAPER was needed! I've had this binder to keep all our adoption papers and points of process organized.

I knew Tim was on his way home so I called him and he said he'd stop on his way to home to get what we needed.

After hanging up the phone I saw that our mail had just arrived so I scurried out to the mailbox to find WHAT????????

Oh yes, OUR FAVORABLE DETERMINATION LETTER!!!

Gist of the letter...Department of Homeland Security determines we're good enough to potentially bring a child into America. I guess after three sets of finger prints they figure we're all right. LOL

God's timing is really all I have to explain today. 

See the top sheet of paper? It's the "little" list of documents to include in each copy of our dossier. Some of those line items have as many as 12 pages (i.e. Home Study). 

This evening we completed all our copies of our original Dossier. 

Ohhhh...the paper chase.

It's done.

We have touched this stack in awe. We will pray over this stack of papers tonight and send them off to our agency, All God's Children International. 

Out of Orlando and direct to Portland, Oregon!

Thank you to all of you who have prayed along with us on this journey. 

Looking forward to finally posting some waiting family numbers. Though that still does not give us a better idea of timeline, it's another step closer to......

Our One Less

I'm not a "mom" yet, but this sure is a GREAT "soon-to-be" mother's day gift! Can't take my eyes off THE STACK.

XOXO

IT CAME TODAY!!!!!

WE RECEIVED OUR FAVORABLE DETERMINATION LETTER TODAY!!!!

OK...overdrive!!!

Ironically, I was just starting to make our Dossier copies when the mail arrived!!!

EEEKKK...so excited!

Even More......

Oh how I love this photo!

This weekend Tim and I talked about this very day; 

9-14-2008.

Almost 3 years ago I married an amazing man. Now, on that day I knew I had married a wonderful man, but TODAY??? 

He's more wonderful than I could have ever understood then.

This weekend I found several more reasons to add to my list of "Why I love you's"...

Yesterday Tim came home with fresh corn, asparagus and cherry tomatoes. He wanted to make us "a little something special". We had grilled corn on the cob...HELLO HEAVEN! He grilled up asparagus and cherry tomatoes lightly drizzled with olive oil and garlic. When the asparagus was done he sprinkled feta cheese and a balsamic glaze on them...EAT YOUR HEART OUT!!! Tim threw a couple Morningstar Grillers on and VOILA, an amazing meal!!! We also had some left over homemade mashed potatoes and gravy he had made the day before. 

I just love him so deeply and could NOT BE more thankful to God for giving me the opportunity and privilege to be his wife!

XOXO

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Whatcha Readin???

Time to share a new batch of books!!!

Spring means evenings on the patio. It's not too humid and the breeze is refreshing. We have a lot of cardinals, blue jays, hawks, squirrels and butterflies playing around our yard. I love sitting out there with a book or magazine just taking it all in.

So what's in my hands???

1. Of Thee I Sing:

 This book is soooo precious! Political parties aside, this book is simply a father writing to his daughters sharing a few significant stories of people who shaped our American country. This book is FANTASTIC! Though we don't have little bubs running around yet, this will most definitely be a family favorite when we do!

2. Bossypants:

My guilty pleasure....HILARIOUS!!! This is a good biography. Tina really does have some good advice for women in today's world of business. Oh, she cracks me up. I think of my friend Steph when she talks about acting school. Tina talks about different acting styles and which one she prefers. I wonder what Steph's answer would be? What do those different styles really mean? What style do some of my fav actors/actresses use?

3. Architectural Digest:

I LOVE this mag!!! I have gotten behind on my subscription and recently have gotten caught up. Ohhh....the things I would love to do to our home if the $$$ was limitless!!! Fun ideas which I think we can do on a budget and a good sewing machine! haha! 

4. Love Wins

Tim just surprised me with this new book. I'll keep you posted. 

Have a wonderful week! We're hoping to get our Favorable Determination Letter this week so I am going to start making photocopies of our Dossier!!!

XOXO

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