Progress, Prayers & Moving Mountains

We found out this morning that the next step in our process, our Article 5 interview at the Embassy in country is scheduled for this Friday!! We are so thankful every time we make another step towards bringing our boy home forever!

After the Article 5 interview our 2nd stage dossier is submitted again for a signature and then we will be assigned a judge! Depending on the judge's docket we will receive a court date (which our attorney in country attends on our behalf). Once we pass court, Ian will officially, legally, and FOREVER be our son! After court our agency applies for a new birth certificate and once they receive it we receive travel dates to go get our boy! All of these steps will take a few more months, but we are so close now to the end of our journey, and will begin a new chapter in our family as a family of four!

We covet your prayers. Prayers that the rest of our process goes quickly and smoothly, that we don't hit any snags or delays to hold us up. Prayers for our son across the ocean who is still adjusting (like any 8 year old would be) to the idea of having a family and going to live in a new country. Prayers for the son we have here who is so excited to have a brother but will probably go through an adjustment period once this all becomes a reality. 

We thank all of you again for every thing you have done to support our family during these last 14 months. Thank you for your prayers ~ to those who have given of their time and energy to help us put on fundraiser after fundraiser & those who have shown up for some or all of them ~ for everyone who has sewn into our adoption financially even when it was a sacrifice for you to do so ~ for every thing, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

_____________________________________________

MOVING MOUNTAINS

And, of course, speaking of fundraising ~ we're still at it! If we travel before the end of June (and that is our hope and prayer if you'd like to join us in praying) then we estimate that we still need around $6,000 to be fully funded. I know that still seems like a lot of money, but considering we jumped into this process with almost nothing saved and needing nearly $30,000 we're thankful for how God has worked to move the financial mountain between us and our son.

It hasn't been easy, there were times that I wondered if we could really do this. But, we're close to the summit now and the reward waiting for us on the other side is definitely worth the pain of the climb!

First, I need to clarify something that a few people have asked me about. Our FSP on Reece's Rainbow currently shows that we have $5,730.73 in our account. When we withdraw money from that account to pay fees or for travel, the total doesn't go down. Before first trip we withdrew every thing in the account at the time, $5,246.60 to pay towards our 2nd set of agency fees. So, our total in our FSP right now is actually just $484.13

If you feel led and want to make a tax deductible donation to our grant you can do so here

We also have a (hopefully) large, multi family yardsale coming up, as soon as the weather allows that will benefit our family and two other adopting families. If you are local and are doing any Spring cleaning in the next couple of weeks we'd be happy to pick up any donations! We will be presaling donuts and selling them the day of the yardsale as well.

Towards the end of May (or possibly sooner if it warms up enough) My Dad and the Riders Club of our local AMVETS are putting on a Poker Run for us! If you ride, or know anyone who does I will have more information coming soon!

We also have a multi-family auction that will go live on March 30th that we are doing with several other families adopting children from the same country as our boy! If you are on fb and want to check it out (There are over 250 items so far with more being added!) You can do so HERE

Finally our latest tshirt campaign is now live!

We are selling these shirts inspired by James 2:17 and the belief that faith without action is dead!
*I promise when I came up with the idea for these tshirts I had no idea I was using the title of another Matthew West song! I was inspired by a conversation after our Quarter Auction with a group of like minded friends*
Anyway, there is a widget now on the top right hand side of our blog but I have a blogpost coming up in a few minutes with more details on the tshirts AND the coordinating bracelets we will be selling!

UPDATE: TShirt Blog is Now Up!! Just Click HERE

As always, thank you for following along on our journey!