Dossier Complete

Our Dossier is officially complete and heading to the partner agency in Thailand! Yippee!
It feels sooooo incredibly good to be 'officially' done with this step!
(we had it to the agency a few weeks ago, but now it is 'official')


In the meantime we have been busy visiting family, celebrating Christmas and applying for grants. We have applied for 2 thus far. If any of you know of any other grants out there you would recommend, please pass the info on this way!

Till next time!

Merry Christmas!

Rejoice!
For unto you is born this day a Savior who is Christ the Lord!

Fingerprints

After filing our I-800a, we received a letter in the mail with an appointment to go get our fingerprints.
We had to travel about 1 hour away to get these done and it fell on the day of Ben's preschool Christmas Party/Watch Me Swim. We were so sad to miss this, but knew we had to go. If we missed our appointment, our application would be considered void.

So, we arranged for some friends to watch Hannah, and another to be Ben's 'mom' in class and off we went!

We arrived 1 hour early (after forgetting about the time change!) This turned out to be highly beneficial because we had quite the time trying to locate the facility! The address was not coming up in our GPS or in the Yellow Pages. After quite a bit of wandering driving, we pull up into an almost abandoned shopping center.
In the very back corner, with the sign mostly ripped off, was what we hoped was the right location.

See? It's a bit odd.

We grabbed our stuff, locked the van and headed inside. We were greeted by a security guard (who took his job very seriously!). After filling out a short form, we were taken over to a machine where they proceed to scan each and every one of our fingers (twice!). Each time the screen read, 'scanning' and then 'clear'. Thankfully! :)

So now we continue to wait.
Our dossier is submitted.
Our I-800a is submitted.
Our fingerprints are scanned.

So we wait. And we pray.

Till next time!

But God...

This post was taken from another blog I follow. 
I thought it was well worth sharing. 
___________________________________________________________
But God...it's too darn hard.

"Follow me."  Matthew 9:9

But God...what if I fail miserably?

"Follow me."  Matthew 8:22

But God...what if what I'm feeling you call me to do is too painful--too challenging?

"Follow me."  Matthew 4:19

But God...I have everything I need right here and things are good in my life.  

"Follow me."  Matthew 10:38

But God...how can I possibly step out of my comfort zone?  What if........"

"Follow me."  Matthew 16:24

But God...it will cost money and so many sacrifices will have to be made."

"Follow me."  Matthew 19:21

But God...I am weak, tired, weary, lacking faith, and discouraged."

"Follow me."  Mark 1:17

But God...There is so much at risk.  What if my friends and family don't support me?  Goodness, what it they disown me?

"Follow me."  Mark 2:14

But God...what about my own family and their comforts?

"Follow me."  Mark 8:34

But God...my faith is smaller than a mustard seed.

"Follow me."  Mark 10:21

But God...I just don't know if I can do this.  I don't have what it takes.

"Follow me."  Luke 5:27

But God...can I trust you in this?  Really?  Can I?

"Follow me."  Luke 9:23

But God...I don't want to walk on the water right now--I like it here where things are calm.

"Follow me."  Luke 9:59

But God...can you see that my family is happy with the way things are right now?

"Follow me."  Luke 9:61

But God...how can I know for sure that I have heard your still small voice?

"Follow me."  Luke 14:27

But God...you listening?  How will this ever come together?

"Follow me."  Luke 18:22

But God...do you think you could give this little assignment to somebody else?  Please?

"Follow me."  John 1:43

But God...what if things fall apart and my world comes crashing down?

"Follow me."  John 8:12

But God...I'm afraid of failure.

"Follow me."  John 10:27

But God...give it all up?  Seriously?

"Follow me."  John 12:26

But God...{insert a great reason not to do something}

"Follow me."  John 21:19

But God...{insert just one more great excuse}

"Follow me."  John 21:22

Sound familiar?

Excuses.  Excuses.  Excuses.  All very valid, of course.

Yikes!  

Okay. Okay.  Okay.  I think I get it, Lord.  

I'm out of excuses.  Completely.  There are none.  

I will follow you with reckless abandon...come what may.  

God, you are trustworthy, dependable, good, kind, loving, patient, abounding in grace and mercy.  Faithful and True is your name--how can I possibly not trust you with everything I have?

"Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me."  

Luke 9:23

Even when the road is hard, and things make absolutely no sense...I WILL FOLLOW YOU!

Simply because you said so.

Exceedingly

Ever have a moment that takes your breath away?

That leaves you shaking your head in awe?

Saying "Thank you Lord" "Forgive me for not having enough faith"


We know with confidence that God is leading us towards adoption.
We know we are to be faithful to His call.

Yet, I don't think that deep down I really truly believed that He would provide the funds.
Shameful isn't it?
We have to raise a lot of money.
A lot. 

And that intimidates me. It scares me even.

But God.

But finances don't intimidate God. They don't scare Him.
Not in the least.

We mailed off our Dossier to our agency yesterday
(yippee!)


Along with which was supposed to go a Big Fat check. 
(which I conveniently forgot! really an accident!)


Last night, my husband gets a phone call.
The person on the other end wants to donate $$ to our adoption.
They called completely out of the blue.
And the amount they wanted to give us caused our jaws to drop
(in a good way!)


The amount they were sending was
3/4 of the amount I was to write the check for!!!
(it was a sizable donation folks!)


Amazed. We were amazed.
And ever so thankful!

But God.

Today, I pulled out the invoice to write the check and stopped.
in shock.
and stared.
I had the amount wrong.

It couldn't be.
Not a chance.

The amount on the invoice was an exact match of the amount being mailed to us.
The exact amount.
To. the. penny.

Only God.

Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. – Ephesians 3:20