How's the adoption thing going?

This is what happens when we go to the AIM Mail Center!

I love this question. Here is your answer!!!! We just visited the AIM Mail Center in Lake Wylie to finish making copies of our dossier! Then we sent the packet to our adoption agency, All God's Children, to begin translation into Bulgarian. We are still waiting on one document--the I-800a--from Citizenship and Immigration (USCIS), but translation takes a while and so does getting the I-800a back from immigration! When we get the I800a form, we will just forward it to our adoption agency so it can be included in the translated dossier. We are so excited to have this huge chunk of paperwork out of our hands!

We raised a little over $2,000 with the Pirate Dash! That is a HUGE blessing! Beyond that, God has blessed us with many people that want to join us and contribute. We are so so grateful. It's amazing the stories I hear of how God has spoken to people and given them a desire to support this process. It's a constant reminder of His faithfulness--when He gives you a seemingly impossible task, He will provide a way. He is being glorified daily through this process.

Thank goodness for the help of my parents this month! They are such a blessing. They helped with the girls during the Pirate Dash and then took care of the girls last weekend during a student conference at our church. Then my parents watched the girls while Kevin and I did a day trip to Columbia, SC on Monday to have some documents apostilled by the Secretary of State for our dossier. We couldn't have made this past week happen without their help!

Original dossier and two additional copies are in the mail!

We are now applying for grants and setting up some more fundraisers. I was filling out a grant application last night, and the question asked was "What is God teaching you through this process?"  Here is my answer:

"God is big. He is in full control. He provides. Our children, biological and adopted, belong to Him before they belong to us. He is their Father. We have had to trust God financially because an international adoption is not "in the budget." We have learned that when God tells you to move, you move, while trusting that He will provide a way. This has been a learning experience for our children. Their eyes have been opened to the idea that not everyone lives like they do. They have learned love and compassion for a brother or sister they do not even know yet."

I feel pretty blessed to be able to say all those things. They were not easily learned and sadly, they are not fully learned. I will forget, I will ignore those attributes of God and I will decide I can do things better than God and try to take control. I say this not because I'm setting myself up for failure but because I am a sinful human and I know I am not perfect. But, I know God IS perfect and He will continue to gently remind me of how amazing He is. This process is being used not only to give a child a forever family, but also for God to bring glory to Himself and we are so grateful to be a part of it!