-When I woke up this morning it was a beautiful 57 degrees outside! I ran around like a crazy lady frantically opening every single window in the house and then made coffee, because chilly weather is best when drinking coffee with it.
-My three big girls are in New York with my parents for two weeks. To any normal parent this would probably be too long- to a mama who has lived in Uganda for triple that amount of time away from her kids, we will all be OK for two weeks. But they should prepare to be smothered when they return!
-So I have my boys. Boys are so different than girls. So entirely crazily wildly different. Did I say wild already? They played outside for hours this morning, came in covered with dirt. Not just dirty hands and knees, nope. Dirty nostrils. Dirty ears. Dirt in between toes even though they had on sneakers. Straight to the bath, then into super hero costumes where they jump off the coffee table and land on the couch, with sound effects, because that is what super heroes do. To eating a massive amount of food (I know, wait until they are teens!) and then finally the ring leader crashes on the couch with goldfish still in his mouth and the other two call it quits but decide on their beds over the couch or floor. Tomorrow more grand adventures await!
-I started T25 Beta this week and so far it is one of my favorites- I actually enjoyed it and then ruined it all with peanut butter! Of all things- peanut butter is my hardest. I can easily eat a days worth of calories in peanut butter- and is so fattening! I gained a little over 20 pounds the last time we adopted- just during the process and its not happening again. Nope. Just no. Paperwork is just as fun with water as it is with cookies....right?!
-So much is happening with our adoption process! The Lord is providing in big ways through an obedient and generous community of friends, family and strangers. Again, when we said "YES" to adopting, we had no money saved for it. In three weeks we raised enough for our application fee ($350), our home study ($1500), DSS to review the home study ($225), immigration fee and fingerprinting ($890), and $500 put towards our first agency fee (bringing the fee from $5250 to $4750).
That is $3,465 in three weeks! Only God.
I try to keep the thermometer up to date on here- it may be a little confusing because we've had different amounts on there. At first I put the total amount of the entire adoption, then decided to take it one fee at a time. So right now because all of the other stuff is paid for and out of the way, the ONLY thing any donations are going towards is the agency fee. Whereas some of the donations went to the home study, some went to the dss fee, some to the immigration fee (whatever was due at the time)- now its all going to the big chunk we need to give our agency.
Our agency really rocks and they are not harping us or calling us like bill collectors to pay them and they do not set a date that a fee is due on, but there will come a point where they won't be able to move anything forward until we do. I am praying and believing that our first partial payment of $5,250 will be paid for by
November 1st. We are already down to owing just $4,750 of that, and we JUST watched the Lord provide $3,500 in three weeks. Will you believe and pray with us that $4,750 will be provided for by the first of November?
I dislike greatly that money is such a huge part of adoption and seems to be the only thing we talk about when we talk about it lately- it is the biggest hurdle to overcome for most families walking this path. But it also gives the Lord a huge platform to show his heart and goodness. I caught myself washing dishes a few weeks ago thinking about this very thing. I thought to myself..."what would this process be like if we were not literally dependent on the Lord to do this?" Would it even be the same if we could just cut the agency a check for the full amount and move on? Just swipe a credit card and not have to worry about it or ask or wait on the Lord to provide? I think we would miss out greatly. (don't get me wrong- if you have the money and don't need to fundraise, that just means the Lord has provided in advance for you, and that is not a bad thing!).
So- for an adoption update outside of money...we are waiting. Our home study is complete, we reviewed it this week for corrections and are now waiting on the final copy. Once we have the final copy we can apply for immigration. Then we wait for a fingerprint date, then we send in our dossier once those clear, and wait for a court date! It's a hurry up and wait game. So right now we are praying that our completed home study will come in quickly.
**update!**
Social worker says next week she is sending it to DSS. So we should have it SOON!
-We finalize the boys adoption on October 15th! Only 2.5 years later :-)
-I'm drinking coffee regularly now to keep up with the kids, school, and paperwork, and I am so ready for FALL!
