Still Here

I have not kept up with the blog this summer as was my intention, but we are still here. :) Let me start by saying that there is nothing new to share right now with the adoption.  We are still waiting for a referral but know that in His time, it will come.

A brief "catch you up"....

Hurricane Arthur blew through our area on July 3rd (with very little damage, mostly lots of rain and wind), and we were so glad it was gone by the 4th.  We spent a good portion of Independence Day at home before heading to the home of friends for dinner.  We did go see some local fireworks - this is the first year that we actually went to the park where they are shot off.  We normally watch them from our backyard (a pretty good view), but the kiddos wanted to see them up closer this year, so off we went. We did enjoy the time there but were definitely ready for bed that night.

On July 15th, we began our school year again.  We did start earlier than we normally do but plan to take several days off later this month when we would usually be in school.  The ability to take time off when it works the best for our family is definitely a homeschool perk! :D We will be out of town next week and have family scheduled to come for several days at various times throughout the latter part of August.  Having already been in school for almost a month, we are ready for some time out and look forward to time spent with family.

                                     

                                           Flag being blown around during the wind and rain of Hurricane Arthur 

We have seen a lot of rain like this in the last few weeks.  June was mostly sunny, but July made up for it with days in a row of wet weather.  We have finally seen the sun for a while today - the first time in the last five days.  Here are a few recent photos.

Happy Birthday America!

Fireworks

Orphan Advocate - Lifesong

Several months ago, I signed up to be a  Lifesong Blogger.  This means that once a month, I receive an email with an adoption related post (HTML format) that I can post on the blog to share ideas, resources, and information regarding orphans around the world with you.  It is left up to me to decide if I want to share the post they send me or not and until now, I have not done anything with the posts I have received. From time to time, I will share one of these with you though probably not every month - we'll see. :D  Anyway, I will title and tag each of these posts "Orphan Advocate".  Each time you see that title, you will know that the information given is not an update about our adoption but is information about how you can pray for or be involved in orphan care around the world.  Following is this month's orphan advocate post.

Adoption is a journey. 

Like any journey, it's appropriate to think ahead, to plan and to prepare for what is come. Along the way we'll realize that it isn't all what we may have thought or expected. There are unplanned events and struggles, along with unexpected joys and surprises.

Join us as we walk down a few different paths of the adoption journey and discuss some key resources as you look ahead in preparation of bringing a child into your forever family.

Many of you may have already walked this journey. Some of seen friends or close family struggle through the path. Maybe you are just starting to "pack your bag" for your first adoption. No matter the traveler or the progress, here are a few helpful tidbits for anyone who is considering adoption (for the first, second or third time!).

3 Ways to Prepare for the Journey...

1. Pray. Fast. Read. Most importantly, seek God's direction and plan for your family. Spend significant time praying, fasting and reading His Word together for guidance, wisdom and peace. God does not call everyone to adopt, but He may be calling your family to be involved in caring for the orphan in some way. Sit and listen to the Father, He will prepare your feet for the path He has for you (Psalm 18:33).
2. Educate Yourself (With Trusted Materials). With some of the best Christian material on adoption, Empowered to Connect provides books, videos, trainings and other resources to help foster and adoptive families parent children from hard places. Prepare and receive realistic expectations ahead of time by reading books like The Connected Child or attending an Empowered to Connect Conference.  See resources & upcoming Empowered to Connect Conferences >>
3. Take a Pre-Adoption Assessment. Striving to make the adoption process less complicated and overwhelming, our friends at Loving Shepherd Ministries have helped guide over 6,000 couples in their early stages of adoption. Through their Adoption Assessment Form, their staff gives your family adoption options you are eligible to pursue, along with lists of agencies, home study providers in your area and more! Best yet, they offer this as a free service to prospective adoptive families. Learn more & fill out their Adoption Assessment Form today >>

There is wisdom in preparation, but don't forget to keep in mind that we have a Father who knows the beginning and the end. An Almighty God who is writing and arranging your family's story behind the scenes. When things don't make sense, wait on Him. His way is always best!

Summer

Summer is in full swing! We are loving being out of school, enjoying the warmer weather, spending more time outside, planting and tending our little garden, and did I mention being out of school?!  As I type, you can hear the typical (for our area) summer sound of thunder in the distance.  It is common for us to get a thunderstorm or two at least once a week.

A few weeks ago, I spoke with our social worker just to touch base.  We have been asked if the unrest in Ukraine has caused a problem with adoptions in other parts of Europe and have been assured that things are still moving forward in Hungary.  The Hungarian program is still going strong and there are not any causes for concern regarding that program at this point.  There are families recieving referrals and traveling to get their child(ren), and we look forward to our turn. 

 Though I may have mentioned it before, many countries keep a "waiting child" list, meaning that the children on that list are available for adoption and can be matched with families looking to adopt from their country.  Hungary does not keep a waiting child list: instead, we have a facilitaor whose job it is to search through the files of adoptable children in that country, keep up with new children who become available for adoption, and match them with families.  Please continue to pray for God's timing for our referral, for safety and protection for our child during this time, wisdom for George, our overseas facilitator, as he works on behalf of the children, our family, and other families seeking to adopt from the country of Hungary, and the coming transition (whenever that is) time for our family.

Mark and I are actively working on our Crossings training which helps us to prepare for the coming changes in our family.  If you are thinking about adoption or are currently in the adoption process, I encourage you to look into it.

Tomorrow is  Flag Day. Though this day has not ever been a big celebration for us, I do love our flag and the nation it represents. We look forward to teaching our new child about it. You can read some poetry about our flag here. (Disclaimer:  Linking to these sites does not mean that I endorse everything on these sites. )  

Spring

It is hard to believe that tomorrow begins the month of May!  We only have eight more school days!!!! We are all excited and ready for the longer summer break.  

We are still waiting for a referral.  Though we knew it would be unusual, we really hoped to already have a referral by now.  As much as we wanted to be ready to go shortly after school is out, we have learned some patience and are ok with knowing that it will be mid to late summer or later before it happens.

We will be taking the last of our required (adoption) training in the next few weeks.  This is does not have to be done until 'sometime' before travel, but we are going to complete it soon-one less thing to worry about when we are actively making travel plans. We are also using this waiting time to get helpful information from others who have already completed their adoptions. We very much appreciate the willingness of the families who have been open with us about their adoptions, freely answering the many questions we have asked, and giving us suggestions and advice that will be needed in the months ahead. 

Spring is has sprung out in full force here.  Here are a few photos from our area.  Enjoy!

Spring Break!

It has been several weeks since we posted an update.  Our laptop kicked the bucket a few weeks ago, so finding a way to post an update with photos on a mobile device has been a challenge. :)

 We are praying, working, and saving towards the day when we get the phone call to tell us that we have been matched with our daughter and begin our travel preparations.  Three of us have passports and we have sent in the applications for the other two, so we hope to have everyone's passport in hand very soon.  You can read about our current prayer requests here.

This past week has been Spring Break for us, so we took a short trip to Kentucky and went to the  Creation Museum.  (For those who don't know, admission for children, ages 12 and under is free in 2014! Tickets are also good for two consecutive days.) It was a fun visit, and we had a great time with the dinosaurs! Can't you tell? :D

While We Wait

The last month or so has been seemingly slow progress on the adoption.  I say "seemingly" because once our dossier was sent overseas, we were back to the waiting game.  There are others working overseas on our paperwork so we can get a referral and be matched with a child.

While we wait, we have enjoyed the snow our area has seen.  Snow is not an every year occurrence here (this was the second snow we have seen this year), so we have had great fun with it.  I say snow...really in the following photos, it is about two inches of ice and a dusting of snow that shut everything down for three days, but we made a "sled" from an old wheelbarrow and pulled it with a mountain bike.  The kiddos had a wonderful time, but daddy was worn out: it is a lot of work to pull them like that!

 We saw snow for a third time this year a couple nights ago, but it melted by the end of the day.  The winter isn't over yet, so maybe there will be more to come!

While we wait, will you pray with us about some things?  I know that many of you have been/are praying about the financial aspect of this, but here are three additional specific requests that we have at this time:

1)  Please pray that God will prepare us and our child(ren) for the transition time that is coming for us and the child(ren) who will be joining our family - a family she has never met before now. She is will be leaving all 

that is familiar and asked to embrace everything that is unfamiliar.  Please pray for protection for our child while she waits for us to come and get her.

2)  Please pray that we will know when we are matched with the child(ren) that is to be a part of our family. We do have the ability to say "no" if we feel that a proposed referral will not work, but we do not want to have to say no to anyone: please pray specifically that the first child(ren) that are brought to our attention will be the ones we are to add to our family.

3)  Please pray for God's timing regarding our travel dates.  For several reasons, it is our desire to have travel dates (leave for our six week stay in Hungary) between May 1st and June 9th.  Will you pray with us that God will allow us to travel in that time frame?  

Thanks for walking with us while we wait.

Final Puzzle Update

We have completed our puzzle!!! Thanks to Becky, Dell and Tara, and Families Outreach, we were able to put the rest of the pieces together.  :)  A $500 grant from Families Outreach this week allowed us to meet and even exceed our goal.  Thank you, thank you , thank you again to everyone who donated funds in the last two months to help Cole and became a piece of our adoption puzzle.  We will get some puzzle saver in the next few days so we can hang it up!