Thank Yous and an Update!

Adoption has refined me more than I ever knew I needed to be refined. I never knew the amount of pride in my heart or how hard it is for me to accept gifts. God has opened my eyes to these things in the wildest ways.

We have been SO blessed. I could list every single person or family who has given to us financially over the last 43 months. Y'all. I have tears in my eyes typing this. It's overwhelming. When we began this journey, I knew without a doubt that God had lead us to adopt. And more specifically internationally. In the beginning, I will admit, my husband definitely had loads more faith that God would provide financially than I did. Adoption is expensive. Too expensive. (but that's another day's conversation) With that said, we should never have been able to afford it without saving for many many more years. But I'm here to tell you today that God has funded every single dollar we've had to pay through His people. We've sold hundreds and hundreds of t-shirts. We've done a yardsale. We've done a dinner fundraiser. We've done many many fundraisers. We've had many families write us checks that were truly sacrificial. Like.. BIG checks. The kind of checks that don't come from anyone but God. Not only have these blessings been provided to us, but time after time they've been provided before the next payment is due. I wish I could tell you each and every God story. You'd be blown away.

I don't think we could ever say thank you enough. But.. here goes. To every family that has donated to us, has prayed for us, and has helped us get our girl home, you are a gift from the Lord. You have shown us humility and sacrifice. You have empowered us to be able to bring a daughter home that God led us to. You have given us hope on many days when the pains that come along with adoption have had us down. You have been an example to us in sacrificial giving and thinking of other's higher than yourself. You have shown us how to listen to God when His Spirit prompts you to give more than your flesh desires. You have been an answered prayer and a true blessing. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Now for the update...

Here's the most important part of our update: When we received our referral for Jannie Rose, we got her medical report and knew we had some challenges to face. We still do, but we were open to that. One of the things we weren't sure about was if she was sitting up. Even with "healthy" children, milestones are expected to be delayed due to being institutionalized. We were expecting several months of therapy to address these needs along with her other care. Y'all...God is GOOD... we got an update about 2 weeks ago. OUR GIRL IS WALKING!!! Looking at those tiny little feet standing did this mommy SO much good!! After seeing a HUGE decline with Matsy Grace's update, to see Jannie Rose progressing so well was a blessing from the Lord to my soul.

I promised on the last post to try my hardest to keep you more up to date on the actual process of our adoption. If you follow either of us on social media, you've probably seen our posts this week about getting loads of paperwork sent off! If you know anyone in the international adoption community, you've heard the term dossier. Well... the process in Ethiopia is much different than the adoption process in India. In Ethiopia, you send your dossier off prior to receiving a referral. In India, you send it off after your referral. I say that to say... this is the SECOND dossier we have put together.

Ok..... I have come to hate paperwork. There's a huge reason I chose the medical field.... sitting behind a desk all day + paperwork=the most miserable thing. Some people love it. I don't. Please avoid saying the words notarized, county certified and apostilled around me for the next few weeks.

I may be over-exaggerating a wee bit, but seriously, I rejoiced big time when I left the FedEx store this week.

I have put together a little flow chart so you can know where we are in the process and pray along with us. Before you look at the chart, you should know what we are praying for.

We are a praying for a miracle.

Our prayer that each "next step" will be completed in miraculous timing. God has answered this prayer twice in BIG WAYS, so if you want to pray along with us, we are praying BIG to get Jannie Rose home in miraculously speedy timing!! 16 months in an orphanage or hospital is too long. We are ready for her to know her family!!

So here's the flow chart (the India heart shows where we are!):

There are things going on in the U.S. and things going on in India that have to be done before we travel. So... I know the chart can be confusing, but just know that we basically have 3 steps to be completed in India and 3 steps in the U.S. before we can travel! We have a general timeline of each step, but from everyone we know in the process, those timelines don't mean much of anything.

So... there's the update.

Pray BIG to bring our girl home as God continues writing her story!!

"God places the lonely in families; he sets the prisoners free and gives them joy..." Psalm 68:6