Off We Go!

A day that felt like it would never come has finally arrived!  Tomorrow we will board a plane that will begin our journey to a beautiful little African country where we will meet a beautiful little African girl.  There have been moments on this crazy journey that I didn't think I would make it.  I didn't believe that I could do the things God had asked me to do.  I didn't think I could say "yes" to some of the things God has called us to say "yes" to.  But God has called us all to do big things...not by our own strength but 100% through His strength.  We know that on this journey to our daughter and when we bring her home, we will still face challenges that call us to rely solely on our God.  And that's a good thing.  How will I ever know the power of His might and the strength of His arms and His peace that passes all understanding if I never do anything in this life that requires me to lean on Him? Whatever we face, we face with His strength because our daughter deserves to be with her family, no matter the cost.  She is worth it.  Saying "yes" to God's call is worth it.

I am so excited to embark on this journey tomorrow.  I am so excited to get to know my daughter and build a relationship with her.  I am excited to experience her country...the sights, sounds, flavors, and culture.  I am excited that in just a few short days, I will see in person the reason we have gone on this journey.  She is worth it.  Her Father in heaven believes that and so do I.  And He will continue to go before us and prepare the way.

So how can you help?  Pray, pray, pray!

• Pray that our daughter's heart will be prepared and that God will bind our hearts together as we begin the bonding process in Uganda
• Pray for health and safe travels
• Pray that the officials in Uganda will be positive towards our case and that the various documents will move quickly and efficiently through the system
• Pray that God's strength and peace will be with our family every moment of this journey.  Pray that when troubles arise and fear and anxiety weigh on us, that our Father will carry us through

We are absolutely so grateful for the outpouring of love and support we have received!  We are thankful for each and every one of you who have encouraged us on this journey.  We need you now more than every!

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Hope

Romans 8:24-25 

²⁴ For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? ²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

So, this will be my one and only post in the year 2014.  I haven't even logged in to this page in what seems like ages.  Upon logging in, I realized that my last post was in April of 2013.  I would say that I have been slack, or that there wasn't anything to blog about, but the truth is...it hurt to much to put my feeling about our adoption into words.  When you wait for so many, many months just to be let down time and time again, it gets hard to write about the emotional roller coaster of adoption.  Praise God things have changed.

On New Year's Day, January 1st 2014, God gave me a word.  He gave the word hope.  I felt it like a whisper at first and then it became stronger and stronger.  He spoke to me, and I felt Him say, "This is the year to renew your hope in My promises.  I have not abandoned you or others who are waiting for my promises to be fulfilled."  As the year went on, again and again, I would read verses  confirming hope in my heart.  This verse in particular sticks in my mind to this very day:

Romans 5:5 ^" Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us."

Hope does not disappoint.  God is faithful.  

These words continued to ring through my soul, even on the hardest days, when I thought disappointment might be the only feeling we would ever feel.  You see, walking around, trying to live a normal life when your heart is in another country half way around the world is not an easy task.  But we kept waiting....and waiting.

Then, everything changed.

On Friday, October 24th, we got a phone call that would change our lives forever.  "She's a little girl.  She's 2 and a half.   I'm getting ready to e-mail you a picture".  Oh. my. goodness.

Tyler rushed to pick me up from school.  I had stayed late to work in my room.  We sat in the car together and anxiously waited for the e-mail to pop up on our phones.  Then it came!  We could not hold back the flood of emotions over seeing our daughter for the first time!  We scanned every image, every detail of her sweet self.  The little bits of curly hair.  The big, round brown eyes.  The smooth, chunky cheeks.  The day had finally come and it was better than I could have imagined it!

It took about a week for the shock to wear off.  What fun we have had showing off her pictures and celebrating with friends and family who have walked this journey with us and who will continue to support us on the next leg of this adventure!

Friends, I know that this journey is not over.  Really, it is only the beginning.  But whatever we face, we will face it as a family.  We will face it because SHE is worth it.  And most of all, we will face it with the strength of God, knowing that He is faithful and will not disappoint. 

I am not the same person I was when we began this journey.  God has stretched me and brought me to new places that I never thought possible.  And I know He's not anywhere NEAR done with me.  I have seen a glimpse, a small taste of what is means to pursue someone in order to redeem their life and bring them into the loving arms of a family.  God has allowed me to dip my toe in the vast ocean that is His love is for me and all mankind.  How he pursues us, loves us, perseveres, not willing that any should perish.  He longs for us to be a part of His family.  HIS child.  Redeemed from death to life.

The miraculous thing is that it is really God in it all.  He chose our daughter before she was born.  He loves her, cherishes her, so much more than we ever could.  And we are simply His instruments.  We are just saying yes, and He does the rest.  He has asked us to say yes to things that are scary, out of our control, but oh so worth it.  It is worth it.  She is worth it.

I leave you with the words to a song that God has used more than once to break our hearts for what breaks His.  Whatever He call you to...it's worth it. 

The Cost - Rend Collective

 

I'm saying yes to You
And no to my desires
I'll leave myself behind
And follow You

I'll walk the narrow road
'cause it leads me to You
I'll fall but grace
Will pick me up again

I've counted up the cost
Oh I've counted up the cost
Yes I've counted up the cost
And You are worth it

I do not need safety
As much as I need You
You're dangerous
But Lord You're beautiful

I'll chase You through the pain
I'll carry my cross
'cause real love
Is not afraid to bleed

Jesus
Take my all
Take my everything

I've counted up the cost
And You're worth everything

 

 

Photo Fundraiser

     So....we are still playing the waiting game....waiting to be matched with our precious Ugandan angel!  We don't really have much of an update on that other than that we have moved a few spots up on the waiting list, and our agency is looking to make a few more referrals soon, which will mean we will move up some more on the list!  We do have an exciting event coming up....a photography fundraiser!  When we get matched with our child, we will immediately owe our next fees, so this is an important fundraiser for us.  The awesome thing about this fundraiser is that we will get 100% of the proceeds for the adoption AND those that participate are getting an AWESOME deal on a quality photo session! 
     The fundraiser will be held in downtown Lexington, NC with photographer Lisa Prevatte (my sweet sister-in-law!)  We are praying for good weather, as we are planning on the photos being outside, near Perfect Blend Coffee Shop.  When you sign up for a session, you will get 20 minutes have your photos snapped by Lisa, and then you will receive a disc of all your photos.  This is a BIG deal because you can then take your disc of photos to the print shop of your choice and have as many prints made as you want.  If you want just the raw photos, we are asking for a minimum donation of $40 and if you would like a disc of edited images, we are asking for a minimun $60 donation towards the adoption. 
     This is a great opportunity to have pictures made for Mother's Day gifts, engagements, senior pictures, family portraits, or just for fun!   Below is some info about the day, as well as some samples of Lisa's beautiful work!  Click here to visit/join the Facebook event for this fundraiser.

When:  Saturday, April 13, 2013
Where:  Downtown Lexington (Meet at Perfect Blend Coffee Shop, 1 N. Main Street)
How to Sign Up:  Join our Facebook event or e-mail Madison at mprevatte113@gmail.com to schedule your time slot

Exciting News!

Well....we are OFFICIALLY on the waiting list for a referral for our sweet baby!!!!  We sent off our mountain of paperwork (dossier) to our agency last week.  They received it and have been going over it for the past few days.  The e-mail came this afternoon that we have officially been put down on the waiting list today!  SO EXCITING!!!!  The timing is in God's hands, and we know that when the time is right, we will receive a picture of our precious little one that God created us to be a family for.  Please pray for us as we go through this time of waiting and unknowns.  Please pray that our son or daughter is protected and comforted as they are also going through a time of waiting and unknown which far surpasses anything we are going through on this end of the wait.  I can't tell you how much we appreciate all the prayers, love, and support that have been poured out on us.  We will continue to celebrate each step of the way with all of you!    

More

     Once again, I have been a slacker as far as the blog is conernced...but I have been working on our dossier, and it's almost done!  As mentioned in the last blog post, we were given the go-ahead to start working on our dossier paperwork right after we had filed for our U.S. Immigration approval.  So the paper chase began in early December!  As we were furiously collecting documents to go into the dossier, we received notification that we had a fingerprinting appointment scheduled for Jan. 2 in Charlotte with the immigration department. After our fingerprinting appointment, we waited (yes, again!) to hear back for final approval.  And as of yesterday, we are officially approved!!!!!  And with the exception of a few loose ends, we are ready to send our dossier off within the next few days!!!!  Next, out dossier will go to our agency for final inspection, and they will then send it to Uganda!  Please be praying for this step....we are praying that all our paperwork is done properly with no errors or discrepancies.  If our agency finds any errors, we will have to redo those portions of the dossier, and that will delay its arrival in Uganda.
     Once the dossier is complete, I feel like I have done what I need to do, and we wait on God's perfect timing for our baby.  From this point, we will be waiting for a referral, which is when we are matched with a child!  I am so so so so so excited!!! 
     Our pastor has been doing a sermon series entitled More*, which comes from the verses in Ephesians 3:
²⁰ Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
   He challenged us at the beginning of this new year to expect more and be open to all the abundantly awesome things that God wants to do in our lives.  I love these verses because I see how very true they are in my own life.  Sometimes I expect little things when God has SO MUCH MORE in store then I could ever ask or imagine.  I'm praying that this year God unleashes so much more than I could ask or imagine in our lives and in our family!

Dossier Time!

       Wow!  I've been a bum blogger as of late...but I have a good excuse....I promise!  A few weeks ago, we finally got everything in order to send off to USCIS.  We had to have our completed home study, copies of birth certificates, and marriage certificate all packaged up and sent to U.S. Immigration.  This is actually a BIG deal because once sending of this application, we were told that we could begin working on our dossier paperwork!  Soooooo, for the last couple of weeks, I have been furiously gathering paperwork and getting this thing ready!  The reason we are so excited to be at this stage is that the dossier is the last major thing we do before waiting for a referral of a child!  Now, this does not mean that we send off the dossier and...POOF!....we have a baby.  But, it is the last major step until the wait begins to be matched with our baby.  Basically, for the dossier, we compile this chunk of papers that consists of lots and lots of notarized papers.  (multiple copies of original birth certificates, marriage certificates, references, power of attorney, ...........)  Then, our agency sends this to the courts in Uganda.  After it has been processed, we will go on a waiting list to be matched with a child.  The wait could be a few months or many months, but we know that it is in God's hands. 
       So, as of this moment, we are trying to get all the dossier paperwork together so that we can have it ready when we get our USCIS (Immigration) paperwork back.  Hopefully we will have it ready and can go ahead and send it to our agency and get this thing sent to UGANDA!  I'm so ready to get this baby home!  So for now, I will leave you with this lovely verse that speaks from my heart (found on Etsy).  Although my child is physically in another country,  I have been carrying them in my heart for a very long time.  I'm ready to have them in my arms!

HomeStudy 100% Complete!

Hurray!  Our home study is finally complete!  I feel like this has been a long process for us, and I'm so glad that it is DONE!  We've been finished with the majority of it for awhile, but we just heard word this week that our placing agency has approved everything and will be sending us copies.  Now its time to apply with U.S. immigration and start working on some grants.  I feel like we've been in a "stand still" stage for a few months, and now I'm ready to start moving and doing things again!  As I've mentioned here many times, God is teaching me SO much about myself through this adoption.  And I must admit, patience is not my forte.  But God is teaching me that I can't always make things happen.  Sometimes I just have to be still and wait on His timing and His plan.  Now I'm excited to start the next leg of the journey of this excited path God is leading us on!!!