The dossier is nearly complete. I merely have to take a trip to Springfield to get two documents state certified (poor me, I guess I'll have to go to Target while I'm there). I'll be doing that around the 15th of this month, after all this snow and ice goes away!! Rabbit trail: I keep having the tune from Muppets Treasure Island in my head "We've got cabin fever! We've got cabin fever!". I will attempt to leave "the hill" for a staff photo at work tomorrow afternoon....I will take the Jeep, not the Pruis. ;) Back on the path.
Although the dossier is almost finished (and could have been finished a month ago), we still need a big chunk of change to send with it. We have applied to one ministry for a grant and I have an application in front of me that I will be filling out after I'm done typing for an interest free loan. We have to wait until the 15th to file our taxes (stupid IRS weren't ready with the new form) so I don't know how much we'll be getting back. I can't imagine we'll be getting too much back really. We do have a decent amount of deductions but nothing major. On a random note, the sunset is quite beautiful right now, hues of purple, orange and pink, a perfect winter sunset. :) Anyways, I told you I would ramble!! You know I'm random, tangents are my friend, hehe.
Chris left just over two weeks ago for Afghanistan and yes, for a year...and no, we're not putting the adoption on hold. I already told you we wouldn't remember? The next time we see each other will be in Ethiopia. When we meet our children for the first time. When we first start to see what our family could be. It's quite poetic really.
In my first post I told you that there are no guarantees in this adoption process, that we could only get one child, it could be either gender, any age five or under. Well our pastor gave a sermon right after Christmas that was a little convicting for me. He said some things that made me realize that too often I leave things up to chance and just expect it to be God's will, forgetting that God tells us "ask and you shall receive". Our pastor said that too often we pray "Lord, if it's your will....", and we say that as if to cover our butts (paraphrasing) in case what we're praying for doesn't happen. It takes away from our faith. I realized that I wasn't praying with faith anymore, I was simply praying "God, you know what's best, just take care of it". I had become afraid to ask anymore. After asking for years to get pregnant only for it to never happen. Would you believe that now I would pray that I wouldn't get pregnant? (agency policy that if I were to get pregnant the adoption is canceled)
So now with my refreshed faith, here are some things we are praying for and ask you to pray for them as well. For Chris and I to not only survive through this deployment as a couple but to thrive. For us to get all of the money we need for the adoption and quickly...I don't want to hear anything about "in His timing", we're praying in faith here, we need this money now! For us to be matched with two children, a boy and a girl. For Chris to get a five day pass to come to the court date for the first trip to Ethiopia so that he can use his R&R for the second trip. For happy children that will adjust easily and bond well with both Chris and I. I think that's all for now, I'll let you know if I think of more.
I was looking at the Holt website today, at the profiles of some of the Waiting children they have. There are some that are perfectly healthy that they have had since infants for eight years. The only reason why they are not adopted now is because they are so much older. Holt wants them to go to families that already have children older than these Waiting children. I know I focus a lot on money sometimes but really, we made our decision to adopt from Ethiopia a long time ago and if it weren't for the money, we would have been matched with children by now. I know that God has the perfect children waiting for us, I just don't want them to wait any longer. Again, please pray with us.
This is us on our last hot date three days before he left.
