Please say a prayer...

Hey! This isn't an adoption update, but I know a lot of people read my blog, so I have a special prayer request. My closest friend is a 17 year old girl named Jessica. She is in our youth group, but God has brought us together as FRIENDS. Jessica started her senior year of high school on Monday, and on Wednesday she found out that her mom has cancer. Things don't look very good right now. Please lift up Jessica and her family in your prayers (she has 5 siblings..ages 14 to 30) and pray for her mom Gloria. Thanks!

Name them one by one...

Wow. When it rains, it pours, and right now the Lord is raining down blessings!! This week, I started to have a lot of doubts, mainly because of the financial side of things. I wondered if perhaps this was NOT the best time in our lives to adopt, and maybe we should hold off, at least until Blu graduates from seminary. I prayed for God to help me to trust Him more, and for Him to give us some confirmation as to what we should do!

On Monday, we received a $250 check in the mail for our adoption. On Monday night, we received an email from a person who does not want to be named informing us that God has laid on his heart to PAY for our adoption. (yes, you read that right!!!!!!!!!) Today, a check for $200 came in the mail as an adoption donation. And also in the mail came notification of a totally unexpected $500 scholarship for Blu's seminary this Fall.

God is so good. I am so grateful for the financial help and even more grateful for God's confirmation and gentle "nudging" that "yes, this is really what I called you to do. Now do it!"

Please continue to pray for us as we pray about a special needs child and whether or not he is to be our son. We are DYING to hear more information about him (I have a feeling he could already be referred or close to being referred to someone else...) but currently the entire staff of our agency is in Liberia so we can't find out anything for awhile!!

50s Bash

Ok so tonight was our 50s Back to School Bash for our youth group at the church (Blu is the youth pastor). It was so fun dressing up! My normally blonde husband dyed his hair black--I hope it washes out!! Anyway, the highlight of the evening was when me and Blu were jitterbugging (yes..we danced in our Southern Baptist church!) and his arm didn't quite clear my wig...I think you see what's coming...YEP! The wig flew off my head and across the room! (slight exaggeration) The crowd went wild!! It was good to do something that got my mind off of the adoption for awhile. Although a little sweetheart named Samuel sure has been on my mind a lot lately.. :)

Hanging out!

Immigration update

Well, Immigration updated their website and they are now processing I-600a's that they received May 11, 2007. They received ours on June 26, 2007, so they're getting there!! Probably another month or two before we will hear anything from them..*sigh*

We did hear today from an adoption loan agency that we were denied funds at this time. BUT they are going to profile our family on www.legacychild.org in hopes that a family who has created a memorial fund will choose us to receive their funds (as an interest-free loan). I think the lady who called was surprised by my upbeat attitude even when she told me that we didn't get the loan right now. God will provide for us!!

A Call!

Donna, from our agency Acres of Hope, called today! She let me know that they received our dossier (big file of all our important info)! One thing that might be a problem is our income. Because Blu is in the ministry, he qualifies for a lot of tax exemptions. So our ACTUAL income is not reflected on our IRS form and W-2s. Donna said she is hoping that the Embassy will go by the church's employment letter that states exactly what we are paid for the year. If not, though, we just have to have a co-sponsor, which is basically like a cosigner on a loan. But we are praying for grace and understanding from the Embassy and that they will be able to figure all that financial mess out!

Things seem to be happening this week--I like it when things happen!!

An Update...

Wow...we sent out fundraiser letters 7 days ago... in those 7 days, we have raised $1,007. God is so good. We have received nothing but positive comments--lots of curiousity and questions, but nothing negative thus far!

I have really become a bit obsessed with checking the mail. I probably checked it 15 times on Friday, and it NEVER came! I was so upset, because I just KNEW there were orders that had come!! I couldn't figure out why it hadn't come!! The next day, the mail came and our Friday's mail was all marked "mailbox blocked, couldn't deliver on Friday.." Oops.. :)

Fundraiser!!

Well, I got our fundraiser letters sent out last weekend! I've been kinda nervous about it..I mean it's always kinda awkward to just ask people for money, right?! Plus, this was kinda how we announced to our church about our adoption. So I'm kinda nervous about church tonight to see what people have to say! I just don't want any discouragement!! BUT, so far we have received $600...God is so good :)

A little progress...

Well, we got our dossier mailed off to our agency yesterday! Amazingly, our former unnamed agency actually sent us back all of our originals!! So we loaded up another notebook and mailed it off to Acres of Hope! Pretty exciting! I have no idea how long it will be before we hear back.

We also got a letter in the mail from our former agency today. I was so excited, because I thought "maybe they decided to return our original $250 deposit since we feel we were misled about the adoption details/process!" I held my breath as I opened it, but instead I found a letter stating, "Thank you for your charitable contribution of $250 to our organization." Lol oh well.. :)